Game 60: Los Angeles Lakers (29-30) @ Memphis Grizzlies (23-38)- 5PM PT

[TyCobb]

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Blame it on Luke though.

[RamonSessions7]

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Blame it on Luke though.

Not My King

[zimpy27]

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Blame it on Luke though.

3 plays there, the middle one was bad defense by LeBron. The rest were fine, 1st he was keeping position to close out on the two perimeter scorers closest to camera, last one he was moving around defensively and was moving the wrong way when the drive was made and had no chance to do anything to contest other than foul.

So yes, 1 bad defensive possession.

Can you not see that you're nit-picking your teams best player who's deconditioned coming back from the biggest injury of his career. Meanwhile coddling poor Luke and the poor young players. At least be even-handed.

The environment is miserable in here and there are 3 seasons to go. At what point do you make the decision to get behind the guy and enjoy the team again?

[Revived]

Seriously what FA in their right mind would want to come to a team with Lebron that can't make the playoffs? Magic cannot sell any top tier FA that Lakers are headed in right direction.

Anthony Davis? Magic doesn’t need to sell him on anything, LeBron already has him sold on joining the Lakers in the summer of 2020.

[TyCobb]

Can you not see that you're nit-picking your teams best player who's deconditioned coming back from the biggest injury of his career. Meanwhile coddling poor Luke and the poor young players. At least be even-handed.

The environment is miserable in here and there are 3 seasons to go. At what point do you make the decision to get behind the guy and enjoy the team again?

Can you not see you are dismissing hard evidence of piss poor effort? The smartest guy in the building can't afford to be the laziest.

[zimpy27]

Can you not see that you're nit-picking your teams best player who's deconditioned coming back from the biggest injury of his career. Meanwhile coddling poor Luke and the poor young players. At least be even-handed.

The environment is miserable in here and there are 3 seasons to go. At what point do you make the decision to get behind the guy and enjoy the team again?

Can you not see you are dismissing hard evidence of piss poor effort? The smartest guy in the building can't afford to be the laziest.

Only Kuzma (2.59 miles per game), Ingram (2.58 miles per game) and Bullock (2.38 miles per game) cover more distance per game than LeBron (2.37 miles per game) and he's the heaviest on the team, if you want measure pure work output i'm confident he'd be the top. Meanwhile, he looks like he's deconditioned and piled on pounds after this recent groin injury. LeBron is 53rd in the league for distance covered per game.

one video clip vs reams of recorded data from the entire year, I know what hard evidence is.

The smartest guy in the building will try to do the most with the energy he has. He was smartly conserving energy those 3 plays while still maintaining defensive position except in the middle play which I agree with you.

I still feel like this is a witch hunt than an actual considered fan approach.

[Father Time]

LeBron fans making their presence felt. Try to be objective at least.

[TyCobb]

Wow! If only he didn't walk that distance on defense, the worst on the team at 3.32.

[zimpy27]

Wow! If only he didn't walk that distance on defense, the worst on the team at 3.32.

He's 4th or 5th on team for defense miles travelled. You're looking at speed on defense.

[Michael Lucky]

Lebron plays the most minutes so he theoretically should be in a position to be at the top in miles travelled. Him being 4th or 5th isnt a good thing at all.

[zimpy27]

Lebron plays the most minutes so he theoretically should be in a position to be at the top in miles travelled. Him being 4th or 5th isnt a good thing at all.

The point is energy output. Would it be better if he played 15 minutes off the bench, would he be considered to be expending more energy that way?

[Michael Lucky]

Lebron plays the most minutes so he theoretically should be in a position to be at the top in miles travelled. Him being 4th or 5th isnt a good thing at all.

The point is energy output. Would it be better if he played 15 minutes off the bench, would he be considered to be expending more energy that way?

I feel like none of us are watching the same games you are because his lackluster energy output is quite apparent to all of us.

[zimpy27]

Lebron plays the most minutes so he theoretically should be in a position to be at the top in miles travelled. Him being 4th or 5th isnt a good thing at all.

The point is energy output. Would it be better if he played 15 minutes off the bench, would he be considered to be expending more energy that way?

I feel like none of us are watching the same games you are because his lackluster energy output is quite apparent to all of us.

I feel like people are just hyper focused on James. I doesn't seem like people are watching the other players or the defensive and offensive schemes. I don't think people even realise they were running 3-2 zone and trying to play positional defense.

LeBron obviously looks tired since he got back from injury but it's not like that is the main problem. It might be a reason for the positional defense strategy but it hasn't worked.

The main problem is that the bench team has been on a horror stretch. Lance and rondo should never be in the same building as eachother. The lack of a C option has them running small ball action. The overall gameplan is overly simplistic and repetitive, the only non-repititive part are the random/inconsistent rotations and that is the only thing most fans seem to notice about the poor job Luke is doing (which is more of a symptom of the lacklustre gameplan).

[Landsberger]

The point is energy output. Would it be better if he played 15 minutes off the bench, would he be considered to be expending more energy that way?

I feel like none of us are watching the same games you are because his lackluster energy output is quite apparent to all of us.

I feel like people are just hyper focused on James. I doesn't seem like people are watching the other players or the defensive and offensive schemes. I don't think people even realise they were running 3-2 zone and trying to play positional defense.

LeBron obviously looks tired since he got back from injury but it's not like that is the main problem. It might be a reason for the positional defense strategy but it hasn't worked.

The main problem is that the bench team has been on a horror stretch. Lance and rondo should never be in the same building as eachother. The lack of a C option has them running small ball action. The overall gameplan is overly simplistic and repetitive, the only non-repititive part are the random/inconsistent rotations and that is the only thing most fans seem to notice about the poor job Luke is doing (which is more of a symptom of the lacklustre gameplan).

We can call out the bench but last night we played the last 7:24 with the starters and couldn't close a 5 point gap against a team that has very limited time playing together after the TD gutted their team. While agree it's not all Bron it's also Luke and the offensive scheme to finish the game. In that stretch we played good enough defense to win.... we had 2 guys slow the pace down to a crawl and dominate (and I mean dominate) the ball. Our second leading scorer only got 2 shots in the 4th and KCP got 2 as well. All the rest were Bron or Ingram on Isolation plays where everyone stood and watched. This has been the case since Bron came back and over that time we've not been good down the stretch in any of those games. Yes, I'll chalk some of this up to Bron's messing with the chemistry but Luke was here to be the "new era" coach and we're seeing some really crappy offensive schemes to close games.

[dAdo dA dEvil]

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Blame it on Luke though.

Wow! This is James Harden like defense. Actually, we could call him now LeBron James Harden when it comes to playing D.

[BB_Fan]

The more I see the game I am beginning to think NBA is making regular season competitive by fixing games. Explain how can spurs lose to knicks, celtics lose to bulls and raptors lose to Magic .

Instead of few teams winning and other losing NBA is making regular season competitive and media can create stories. They want to increase attendance to bring more money. It is all a script

[Sedale Threatt]

Go on ...

[dockingsched]

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**** this dude.

If anyone’s interested, LakersFilmRoom asked Luke about this play and got some good context as to what defensive scheme they were playing and how that was the shot the defense was designed to give up, though not that wide open.

Good explanation of what Lebron’s responsibility was as far as ensuring he rotated to the big, Jonas or Noah. Unfortunately Kuz stayed on the big, which LeBron was suppose to pick up my design, and the wide open shot ensued.

Long story short, the shot was the one the defense was designed to give up, but it ended up being so wide open cause Kuz missed his assignment and stayed on the big, which was designed to be Lebron’s responsibility.

[TwoStarz]

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**** this dude.

If anyone’s interested, LakersFilmRoom asked Luke about this play and got some good context as to what defensive scheme they were playing and how that was the shot the defense was designed to give up, though not that wide open.

Good explanation of what Lebron’s responsibility was as far as ensuring he rotated to the big, Jonas or Noah. Unfortunately Kuz stayed on the big, which LeBron was suppose to pick up my design, and the wide open shot ensued.

Long story short, the shot was the one the defense was designed to give up, but it ended up being so wide open cause Kuz missed his assignment and stayed on the big, which was designed to be Lebron’s responsibility.

Well asking Kuzma to be a defensive stopper probably isn't the right idea. Seriously for as bad as James has been on defense, Kuzma has been equally or actually worse. The sad part is that it looks like Kuzma is actually trying to play defense.