Game 29: Los Angeles Lakers (24-4) @ Milwaukee Bucks (24-4) - 8:00 PM ET

[SweetTouch]

Not worried

LBJ jumper wasn’t going , at Milwaukee

Settle down chicken littles

[NippySudz]

Not worried

LBJ jumper wasn’t going , at Milwaukee

Settle down chicken littles

I think the bucks had something to do with that

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[NippySudz]

Based on my observations so far, the Lakers are built for playoff basketball when the games slow down and become a grit/grind on both ends of the floor. Teams like Houston and Bucks are all flash and run, shooting threes and making faces. Good for entertainment during the regular season but comes playoff time, when defense tighten up, they faltered and get bounced. Teams like the Clippers, Sixers, and Boston are built similar to the Lakers and should be there in the end fighting it out. Bucks can be beat just by following the blueprint of the Raptors in last year Eastern Conf Finals.

The bucks are literally copying the LeBron James blueprint. It's unlike moreyball. They got shooters, rebounders, defenders. They got a good team.

That being said we'll see if it as effective in the PO season.



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[kblo247]

Lebron had his taken to the woodshed by Freak moment that Kobe gave Wizards Jordan today.

[SweetTouch]

Not worried

LBJ jumper wasn’t going , at Milwaukee

Settle down chicken littles

I think the bucks had something to do with that

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using Tapatalk

LBJ had wide open jumpers all game, he didn’t make them

Make or miss league

Bucks defended him no different than any team, denied the paint and gave him the J, and LBJ had no jumper to keep the defense honest

[Ball so hard]

Nah, AD was incredible. Would have been even more incredible if he hit one or two of those open 3PT looks, but he's not going to do that every night.

Give Giannis credit. If you would have told me before the game that Giannis would have hit 5 threes AND 2 baseline, fadeaway jumpers, I woulda said Lakers lose by 15+, it was on track to be that before LeBron and AD battled back.

Takeaways and it's easy to forget when we've won as much as we've won:

- We can't have Rondo/Bradley minutes with Dwight Howard or McGee in the game. We can get away with that if Davis is at C and Kuzma is on the floor, but having Dwight/Rondo/Bradley in the game is a complete no no. Just not enough spacing. That combination was awful tonight and I honestly don't blame either of them. That's on Vogel. He's a smart coach, I'm sure he'll see that on film and adjust.

- If Bradley is going to shoot this bad, I'm just not sure we can have him in the game. What he brings from a defensive standpoint is awesome, but he has to get back into a rhythm shooting the basketball. Where's the Avery Bradley from a couple years ago? The one who shot almost 40% from 3 on 5 attempts a game? We NEED that Bradley. And most of the times, he's not even looking to shoot unless it's a midrange jumper.

- Kuzma is so important in big time games like this. His shooting ability, his ability to cut off ball and get in transition, etc. And if we decide to trade Kuzma, which I think is a possibility at this point, we need to have a shooter in his place. Example- Bogdanovic, Covington, etc.

Not sure if you watched the game... AD was far from incredible. It would've been slightly less inaccurate if you said AD did fine. 11-25 fgs and 0-6 from your big is definitely not incredible. He was slightly less underwhelming from a box score standpoint than he was from an actual real time standpoint. Obviously not everything is picked up in box score stats. I'm just not a fan of AD launching a bunch of 3s, long 2s and difficult fadeaway jumpshots. Who would've guessed AD would be tied for a career low in fg% playing next to Lebron.

For a while I pushed back against the notion that AD's stats are "empty" and that he doesn't impact winning significantly. I now understand why people feel this way and i'm now starting to think there's a lot of truth to said claim. He's an incredible number 2 guy and a huge part of why we are as successful as we are thus far. I'm fan of AD's defense and not his offense.

We need a creator like Rose/Dragic far more than we need another shooter. We need a better version of Rondo to run that second unit. Caruso is almost useless on offense... Rondo is marginally better on offense. We simply can't continue to have 95% of our offense run through Lebron; this is a recipe for burnout later in the season.

[Ball so hard]

bench is too inconsistent. We rely on our two superstars way too much.

This is exactly it. 95% of our offense runs through a 35 years old Lebron. Lebron sits and everyone goes out of their way to feed AD. We can win in the regular season playing this way, but there's no way this strategy is winning a championship.

[evilpimp972]

Nah, AD was incredible. Would have been even more incredible if he hit one or two of those open 3PT looks, but he's not going to do that every night.

Give Giannis credit. If you would have told me before the game that Giannis would have hit 5 threes AND 2 baseline, fadeaway jumpers, I woulda said Lakers lose by 15+, it was on track to be that before LeBron and AD battled back.

Takeaways and it's easy to forget when we've won as much as we've won:

- We can't have Rondo/Bradley minutes with Dwight Howard or McGee in the game. We can get away with that if Davis is at C and Kuzma is on the floor, but having Dwight/Rondo/Bradley in the game is a complete no no. Just not enough spacing. That combination was awful tonight and I honestly don't blame either of them. That's on Vogel. He's a smart coach, I'm sure he'll see that on film and adjust.

- If Bradley is going to shoot this bad, I'm just not sure we can have him in the game. What he brings from a defensive standpoint is awesome, but he has to get back into a rhythm shooting the basketball. Where's the Avery Bradley from a couple years ago? The one who shot almost 40% from 3 on 5 attempts a game? We NEED that Bradley. And most of the times, he's not even looking to shoot unless it's a midrange jumper.

- Kuzma is so important in big time games like this. His shooting ability, his ability to cut off ball and get in transition, etc. And if we decide to trade Kuzma, which I think is a possibility at this point, we need to have a shooter in his place. Example- Bogdanovic, Covington, etc.

Not sure if you watched the game... AD was far from incredible. It would've been slightly less inaccurate if you said AD did fine. 11-25 fgs and 0-6 from your big is definitely not incredible. He was slightly less underwhelming from a box score standpoint than he was from an actual real time standpoint. Obviously not everything is picked up in box score stats. I'm just not a fan of AD launching a bunch of 3s, long 2s and difficult fadeaway jumpshots. Who would've guessed AD would be tied for a career low in fg% playing next to Lebron.

For a while I pushed back against the notion that AD's stats are "empty" and that he doesn't impact winning significantly. I now understand why people feel this way and i'm now starting to think there's a lot of truth to said claim. He's an incredible number 2 guy and a huge part of why we are as successful as we are thus far. I'm fan of AD's defense and not his offense.

We need a creator like Rose/Dragic far more than we need another shooter. We need a better version of Rondo to run that second unit. Caruso is almost useless on offense... Rondo is marginally better on offense. We simply can't continue to have 95% of our offense run through Lebron; this is a recipe for burnout later in the season.

His impact was tremendous and it looks like he had a +6 last night. I'm not sure what game you watched though, in the second half he did everything, shooting floaters after floaters. Last night was not an evidence for AD's lack of impact as Lebron was simply terrible and the run in the 2nd quarter who killed the game, AD was on the bench.

[Jimmmycrackcorn]

F*** these refs!

Giannis in foul trouble all night long, and AD shooting 17 free throws....but yeah, the refs were the problem

[tamaraw08]

Nah, AD was incredible. Would have been even more incredible if he hit one or two of those open 3PT looks, but he's not going to do that every night.

Give Giannis credit. If you would have told me before the game that Giannis would have hit 5 threes AND 2 baseline, fadeaway jumpers, I woulda said Lakers lose by 15+, it was on track to be that before LeBron and AD battled back.

Takeaways and it's easy to forget when we've won as much as we've won:

- We can't have Rondo/Bradley minutes with Dwight Howard or McGee in the game. We can get away with that if Davis is at C and Kuzma is on the floor, but having Dwight/Rondo/Bradley in the game is a complete no no. Just not enough spacing. That combination was awful tonight and I honestly don't blame either of them. That's on Vogel. He's a smart coach, I'm sure he'll see that on film and adjust.

- If Bradley is going to shoot this bad, I'm just not sure we can have him in the game. What he brings from a defensive standpoint is awesome, but he has to get back into a rhythm shooting the basketball. Where's the Avery Bradley from a couple years ago? The one who shot almost 40% from 3 on 5 attempts a game? We NEED that Bradley. And most of the times, he's not even looking to shoot unless it's a midrange jumper.

- Kuzma is so important in big time games like this. His shooting ability, his ability to cut off ball and get in transition, etc. And if we decide to trade Kuzma, which I think is a possibility at this point, we need to have a shooter in his place. Example- Bogdanovic, Covington, etc.

Not sure if you watched the game... AD was far from incredible. It would've been slightly less inaccurate if you said AD did fine. 11-25 fgs and 0-6 from your big is definitely not incredible. He was slightly less underwhelming from a box score standpoint than he was from an actual real time standpoint. Obviously not everything is picked up in box score stats. I'm just not a fan of AD launching a bunch of 3s, long 2s and difficult fadeaway jumpshots. Who would've guessed AD would be tied for a career low in fg% playing next to Lebron.

For a while I pushed back against the notion that AD's stats are "empty" and that he doesn't impact winning significantly. I now understand why people feel this way and i'm now starting to think there's a lot of truth to said claim. He's an incredible number 2 guy and a huge part of why we are as successful as we are thus far. I'm fan of AD's defense and not his offense.

We need a creator like Rose/Dragic far more than we need another shooter. We need a better version of Rondo to run that second unit. Caruso is almost useless on offense... Rondo is marginally better on offense. We simply can't continue to have 95% of our offense run through Lebron; this is a recipe for burnout later in the season.

Vogel a smart coach? I am not saying he is dumb but if he is so smart, how come he along with the most expensive assistants can't come up with a better system for the bench to use when Lebron sits?
Having a creator surely helps but who are the "creators" for the Bucks, Celtics,Raptors, Heat,Rockets etc etc.
Lakers still have a great record but Vogel has been OVER UTILIZING his 35 yr old and his young superstar who has a history of missing games due to injuries.

[Ball so hard]

Nah, AD was incredible. Would have been even more incredible if he hit one or two of those open 3PT looks, but he's not going to do that every night.

Give Giannis credit. If you would have told me before the game that Giannis would have hit 5 threes AND 2 baseline, fadeaway jumpers, I woulda said Lakers lose by 15+, it was on track to be that before LeBron and AD battled back.

Takeaways and it's easy to forget when we've won as much as we've won:

- We can't have Rondo/Bradley minutes with Dwight Howard or McGee in the game. We can get away with that if Davis is at C and Kuzma is on the floor, but having Dwight/Rondo/Bradley in the game is a complete no no. Just not enough spacing. That combination was awful tonight and I honestly don't blame either of them. That's on Vogel. He's a smart coach, I'm sure he'll see that on film and adjust.

- If Bradley is going to shoot this bad, I'm just not sure we can have him in the game. What he brings from a defensive standpoint is awesome, but he has to get back into a rhythm shooting the basketball. Where's the Avery Bradley from a couple years ago? The one who shot almost 40% from 3 on 5 attempts a game? We NEED that Bradley. And most of the times, he's not even looking to shoot unless it's a midrange jumper.

- Kuzma is so important in big time games like this. His shooting ability, his ability to cut off ball and get in transition, etc. And if we decide to trade Kuzma, which I think is a possibility at this point, we need to have a shooter in his place. Example- Bogdanovic, Covington, etc.

Not sure if you watched the game... AD was far from incredible. It would've been slightly less inaccurate if you said AD did fine. 11-25 fgs and 0-6 from your big is definitely not incredible. He was slightly less underwhelming from a box score standpoint than he was from an actual real time standpoint. Obviously not everything is picked up in box score stats. I'm just not a fan of AD launching a bunch of 3s, long 2s and difficult fadeaway jumpshots. Who would've guessed AD would be tied for a career low in fg% playing next to Lebron.

For a while I pushed back against the notion that AD's stats are "empty" and that he doesn't impact winning significantly. I now understand why people feel this way and i'm now starting to think there's a lot of truth to said claim. He's an incredible number 2 guy and a huge part of why we are as successful as we are thus far. I'm fan of AD's defense and not his offense.

We need a creator like Rose/Dragic far more than we need another shooter. We need a better version of Rondo to run that second unit. Caruso is almost useless on offense... Rondo is marginally better on offense. We simply can't continue to have 95% of our offense run through Lebron; this is a recipe for burnout later in the season.

Vogel a smart coach? I am not saying he is dumb but if he is so smart, how come he along with the most expensive assistants can't come up with a better system for the bench to use when Lebron sits?
Having a creator surely helps but who are the "creators" for the Bucks, Celtics,Raptors, Heat,Rockets etc etc.
Lakers still have a great record but Vogel has been OVER UTILIZING his 35 yr old and his young superstar who has a history of missing games due to injuries.

Not going to pretend as if I know the Bucks roster well... but Bledsoe and Hill come to mind. Obviously Giannis and Middleton. When I say creator i'm referring to someone who can create for themselves and others. We have Lebron and a very flawed Rondo... that's about it. The Rockets have several. The other teams have at least two. We have 1.5 lol at best.

[bb22]

bench is too inconsistent. We rely on our two superstars way too much.

This is exactly it. 95% of our offense runs through a 35 years old Lebron. Lebron sits and everyone goes out of their way to feed AD. We can win in the regular season playing this way, but there's no way this strategy is winning a championship.

I think it’s the opposite. If Lebron is still playing at a superstar level (which he has been thus far this season) then it is a recipe for success in the playoffs. However, during the season when you play a different team every other day and want to rest your stars, having a solid secondary playmaker is necessary for success. Whoever the Lakers pick up, I’m guessing that individual won’t have a significant impact in terms of playmaking once the playoffs start.

[Ball so hard]

bench is too inconsistent. We rely on our two superstars way too much.

This is exactly it. 95% of our offense runs through a 35 years old Lebron. Lebron sits and everyone goes out of their way to feed AD. We can win in the regular season playing this way, but there's no way this strategy is winning a championship.

I think it’s the opposite. If Lebron is still playing at a superstar level (which he has been thus far this season) then it is a recipe for success in the playoffs. However, during the season when you play a different team every other day and want to rest your stars, having a solid secondary playmaker is necessary for success. Whoever the Lakers pick up, I’m guessing that individual won’t have a significant impact in terms of playmaking once the playoffs start.

So you think it's realistic to have your 35 year old superstar carry a heavy load during the regular season and have similar success in the playoffs? I'm sorry but this is simply wishful thinking. Lebron is currently averaging more touches than any other season going all the way back to the 2013-2014 season. I've watched several game in which Lebron looks dead tired... this partially explains why he's at a career high in 3PAr.

[Landsberger]

No need for all the handwringing guys.... We lost after a long road trip on a top 3 team's floor after a very slow start. We're dealing with some injuries and we're about 4 months into a complete ground up rebuild.

We beat them in the second half and we made very good adjustments on Giannis in the second half. Some of our more inexperienced players were very "tight" during the game (Caruso especially so) and we didn't shoot well early even though we created open looks.

I think if we play them 7 times our 2 superstars outshine their 1 and deeper supporting cast.

That said, we do need to figure out how to get better production off the bench. Missing a functioning Kuzma is an issue as is the up and down play of a few of the other supporting group.

I had us at 10-4 in the December thread... so my prediction is trending well. Don't come back at me with "we lost to the best teams stuff" because that mean someone thought we'd lose to lesser competition then. When two top teams play the home team typically has an advantage... when it's after the road trips we've been on I'd say that ups the advantage even more.

The only things I saw that gave me pause was Caruso and Howard's play. Caruso looked like a freshman in a varsity game out there. He was flat out scared to shoot and the Bucks sagged off of him repeatedly into the lane to stop Bron. They were not even following him when he cut off the ball. Even if he keep missing shots he has to take them. He held the ball last night for the absolute minimum to pass it off again it seemed. Howard looked old out there to me. Maybe we was feeling the effects of being on the road too but he looked over matched by Robin Lopez. We also saw the Howard of old pop up on that stupid forearm shiver to the chest "screen" just over half court to get "even" with Matthews. I hope the team reigns that in.

[Beethoven]

No need for all the handwringing guys.... We lost after a long road trip on a top 3 team's floor after a very slow start. We're dealing with some injuries and we're about 4 months into a complete ground up rebuild.

We beat them in the second half and we made very good adjustments on Giannis in the second half. Some of our more inexperienced players were very "tight" during the game (Caruso especially so) and we didn't shoot well early even though we created open looks.

I think if we play them 7 times our 2 superstars outshine their 1 and deeper supporting cast.

That said, we do need to figure out how to get better production off the bench. Missing a functioning Kuzma is an issue as is the up and down play of a few of the other supporting group.

I had us at 10-4 in the December thread... so my prediction is trending well. Don't come back at me with "we lost to the best teams stuff" because that mean someone thought we'd lose to lesser competition then. When two top teams play the home team typically has an advantage... when it's after the road trips we've been on I'd say that ups the advantage even more.

The only things I saw that gave me pause was Caruso and Howard's play. Caruso looked like a freshman in a varsity game out there. He was flat out scared to shoot and the Bucks sagged off of him repeatedly into the lane to stop Bron. They were not even following him when he cut off the ball. Even if he keep missing shots he has to take them. He held the ball last night for the absolute minimum to pass it off again it seemed. Howard looked old out there to me. Maybe we was feeling the effects of being on the road too but he looked over matched by Robin Lopez. We also saw the Howard of old pop up on that stupid forearm shiver to the chest "screen" just over half court to get "even" with Matthews. I hope the team reigns that in.

One sober outlook.

[Kilroy]

Giannis and the Bucks seem to think they won the Championship already... I hope the team is paying attention... I hope LeBron is watching.

[bb22]

This is exactly it. 95% of our offense runs through a 35 years old Lebron. Lebron sits and everyone goes out of their way to feed AD. We can win in the regular season playing this way, but there's no way this strategy is winning a championship.

I think it’s the opposite. If Lebron is still playing at a superstar level (which he has been thus far this season) then it is a recipe for success in the playoffs. However, during the season when you play a different team every other day and want to rest your stars, having a solid secondary playmaker is necessary for success. Whoever the Lakers pick up, I’m guessing that individual won’t have a significant impact in terms of playmaking once the playoffs start.

So you think it's realistic to have your 35 year old superstar carry a heavy load during the regular season and have similar success in the playoffs? I'm sorry but this is simply wishful thinking. Lebron is currently averaging more touches than any other season going all the way back to the 2013-2014 season. I've watched several game in which Lebron looks dead tired... this partially explains why he's at a career high in 3PAr.

No, I'm actually saying that success will be even greater in the playoffs with high usage. Which has been the case in the past. I think being tired has a lot to do with motivation, no matter what he says pre/post-game. The only question is whether he is still at that superstar level. If he is, once the playoffs hit and things become more routine, more dependent on star players and details/adjustments, we should see a more dominant Lebron.

Despite the team priding themselves on D, I think Bron should focus more on the offense. I know it doesn't work well in terms of comradery, but I just think that this team needs Bron scoring much more and finding ways to rest on D (if possible). Bron has struggled to score in every game that the Lakers lost this season. I'm chalking that up to more effort on D.