Game 8 : Houston Rockets (1-5) @ Los Angeles Lakers (4-3) - 10:30 PM

[TJM217]

Jesus Green!! Great shot.

[LAKESHOW]

We tryin to hang on

[Kilroy]

Why are we so dumb this season...

[NoseBleedLakers]

My goodness. Escaped with this one.

[tamaraw08]

Mission accomplished for the big 3, they got their great stats.
On the outside they’re not happy but deep inside, esp Westbrook....he’s really.....?

[LAKESHOW]

Its not on him, but it is. Vogel has a nightmare on his hands figuring lineups and what's going to work night in night out

[Mamba Mentality]

27, 27, and 30 points from our big 3 but we barely win a game against a g league rockets team that had 24 turnovers. I don’t know if this defense can be saved.

[Pythagoras]

27, 27, and 30 points from our big 3 but we barely win a game against a g league rockets team that had 24 turnovers. I don’t know if this defense can be saved.

They just need one of Nunn or THT back and I think that’ll massively help defensively. They need another wing who can play competent defense badly.

Bradley played 29 minutes tonight. That tells us right there how badly they need more wing depth.

[ROballer]

Nunn defensively? What are you smoking, he's one of the worst defensive guards in the league.

Listen, enough with all this defense horsecrap. We were a good defensive team last year but scored 90ish pts a night on most nights and in all of our matchups against the Suns. How that worked out in the end?

The offense is starting to get going and is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than last year.
We traded offense for defense and I'm ok with that.

And if we had to go down, I'd rather go down in a good ole fashion shootout. What we experienced against Pheonix still haunts me, all those **** bricks.

[Hans1984]

Very poor performance but the win is all that matters in the end.

[zuju]

The 15th spot of the roster was supposed to be used post all star weekend. We signed Bradley at the end of preseason speaks for itself how desperate the lakers / Vogel was to upgrade the team defensively.

Nunn was and never will be an answer for the team defensively. We are already more than OK on the offensive end with all the guards we have in WB, Ellington, Monk, Bradley and Rondo. We are already small enough in the backcourt.

I bet we will trade DJ and Nunn around the all star weekend for a or a wing/decent center and sign a decent center / wing to help defensively. Nunn is actually the only player with meaningful salary and value to be traded.

Reaves really played himself into the rotation. Love his performance. What a pitty we cannot make the best white duo in the NBA with Caruso and Reaves as our bench mob.

[Pythagoras]

Nunn defensively? What are you smoking, he's one of the worst defensive guards in the league.

Listen, enough with all this defense horsecrap. We were a good defensive team last year but scored 90ish pts a night on most nights and in all of our matchups against the Suns. How that worked out in the end?

The offense is starting to get going and is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than last year.
We traded offense for defense and I'm ok with that.

And if we had to go down, I'd rather go down in a good ole fashion shootout. What we experienced against Pheonix still haunts me, all those **** bricks.

Kendrick Nunn is not even close to one of the worst defensive guards in the league. He’s way better than defensively than Monk, Westbrook, and probably Bradley too at this point. I’m not even saying Nunn is great on defense, he’s just competent, which is all the team needs. Getting him or THT back will be huge for the defense. Getting them both back will be massive.

For the record, I’m not even worried about the defense anyways. And yes, the offense is starting to come around, which is my bigger early season concern.

[ROballer]

Kendrick Nunn is terrible defensively.

That's why he was benched on numerous occasions on the Heat when they had all their bodies.
He basically made a name for himself when other guys were out. When they had all their able bodies, he was never in the rotation(see the playoffs run in which they played in the Finals against us). That's why they didn't bother to keep him and we got to sign him for a below market value considering his scoring stats

He's a microwave type of scoring guard off the bench like all of the other teams have. Think Clarkson, Lou Williams, Eric Gordon, etc.
He's not adding anything noteworthy defensively. See the preseason.

[Pythagoras]

Kendrick Nunn is terrible defensively.

That's why he was benched on numerous occasions on the Heat when they had all their bodies.
He basically made a name for himself when other guys were out. When they had all their able bodies, he was never in the rotation(see the playoffs run in which they played in the Finals against us). That's why they didn't bother to keep him and we got to sign him for a below market value considering his scoring stats

He's a microwave type of scoring guard off the bench like all of the other teams have. Think Clarkson, Lou Williams, Eric Gordon, etc.
He's not adding anything noteworthy defensively. See the preseason.

He’s actually really not terrible.

Westbrook is terrible defensively.
Rondo is terrible defensively.
Monk is terrible defensively.
Bradley is mediocre defensively.

Nunn is definitely here for his offense more than his defense, but he’s not a traffic cone out there. That’s why he’ll help the defense. He’ll push guys like Bradley and Rondo much further down the depth chart, replacing their terrible defense with passable defense.

[zuju]

Kendrick Nunn is terrible defensively.

That's why he was benched on numerous occasions on the Heat when they had all their bodies.
He basically made a name for himself when other guys were out. When they had all their able bodies, he was never in the rotation(see the playoffs run in which they played in the Finals against us). That's why they didn't bother to keep him and we got to sign him for a below market value considering his scoring stats

He's a microwave type of scoring guard off the bench like all of the other teams have. Think Clarkson, Lou Williams, Eric Gordon, etc.
He's not adding anything noteworthy defensively. See the preseason.

He’s actually really not terrible.

Westbrook is terrible defensively.
Rondo is terrible defensively.
Monk is terrible defensively.
Bradley is mediocre defensively.

Nunn is definitely here for his offense more than his defense, but he’s not a traffic cone out there. That’s why he’ll help the defense. He’ll push guys like Bradley and Rondo much further down the depth chart, replacing their terrible defense with passable defense.

Bradley doesn't have great instinct on the team defense aspect. He does is a good man defender.
Nunn is neither good on both team defense and man defense.

[tamaraw08]

Lakers started and used their main players almost exactly from the Sunday and Tues game so what is the main difference again?
PACE.
Sunday game Houston for the first half, 40 attempts and 16 FTA's for 35 points.
Tuesday game, houston first half, 50 shots plus 10 Freethrows, for 70 points. Yes, Houston shot better from3, but they had 10 MORE ATTEMPTS where they got into their shooting rhythm.
4th Quarter shots are not indicative bec the losing team usually plays AND SHOOTS faster to catch up and yet Houston only attempted 22 times with zero Freethows.
So the biggest difference for me.... PACE. James esp Westbrook love to play fast

[Kilroy]

Kendrick Nunn is terrible defensively.

That's why he was benched on numerous occasions on the Heat when they had all their bodies.
He basically made a name for himself when other guys were out. When they had all their able bodies, he was never in the rotation(see the playoffs run in which they played in the Finals against us). That's why they didn't bother to keep him and we got to sign him for a below market value considering his scoring stats

He's a microwave type of scoring guard off the bench like all of the other teams have. Think Clarkson, Lou Williams, Eric Gordon, etc.
He's not adding anything noteworthy defensively. See the preseason.

He’s actually really not terrible.

Westbrook is terrible defensively.
Rondo is terrible defensively.
Monk is terrible defensively.
Bradley is mediocre defensively.

Nunn is definitely here for his offense more than his defense, but he’s not a traffic cone out there. That’s why he’ll help the defense. He’ll push guys like Bradley and Rondo much further down the depth chart, replacing their terrible defense with passable defense.

It's relative... Nunn is still bad, but not as bad as Monk, Rondo, or Westbrook... Bradley puts on a show of playing D, but still gets torched...
THT can't come back soon enough... He wasn't on Caruso's level yet, but he was infinitely better than anyone we have at the 1 or 2 now.

[tamaraw08]

Kendrick Nunn is terrible defensively.

That's why he was benched on numerous occasions on the Heat when they had all their bodies.
He basically made a name for himself when other guys were out. When they had all their able bodies, he was never in the rotation(see the playoffs run in which they played in the Finals against us). That's why they didn't bother to keep him and we got to sign him for a below market value considering his scoring stats

He's a microwave type of scoring guard off the bench like all of the other teams have. Think Clarkson, Lou Williams, Eric Gordon, etc.
He's not adding anything noteworthy defensively. See the preseason.

He’s actually really not terrible.

Westbrook is terrible defensively.
Rondo is terrible defensively.
Monk is terrible defensively.
Bradley is mediocre defensively.

Nunn is definitely here for his offense more than his defense, but he’s not a traffic cone out there. That’s why he’ll help the defense. He’ll push guys like Bradley and Rondo much further down the depth chart, replacing their terrible defense with passable defense.

It's relative... Nunn is still bad, but not as bad as Monk, Rondo, or Westbrook... Bradley puts on a show of playing D, but still gets torched...
THT can't come back soon enough... He wasn't on Caruso's level yet, but he was infinitely better than anyone we have at the 1 or 2 now.

Miami ranked 7th on DRTG last year with Monk playing 29.5 mins/game, 5th highest. I don't think Spoelstra would play him that many minutes if he is that bad on defense. I don't think he's good but he's adequate enough.
But Bradley getting "torched"? Most of Green's made FGs last night came from screens and quick transition IMO. Sometimes we see a player from another team going off and we look whose assigned to them.... but we tend to miss that those players like Steph get so many picks from teammates to get open looks.

[stan francisco]

Assume you’re the coach and need video material for teaching purposes. Wouldn’t you, before benching Westbrook due to lack of defense, or before deciding never to play Russ and Melo at the same time ever again etc, want some pre-emptive proof?

I would want fire power.

If Frank’s rotations seemed strange yesterday, I’d guess it’s because he wanted to expose weaknesses in need of improvement; film room material. To do that while winning is pretty much only possible against the Rockets.

[tamaraw08]

He’s actually really not terrible.

Westbrook is terrible defensively.
Rondo is terrible defensively.
Monk is terrible defensively.
Bradley is mediocre defensively.

Nunn is definitely here for his offense more than his defense, but he’s not a traffic cone out there. That’s why he’ll help the defense. He’ll push guys like Bradley and Rondo much further down the depth chart, replacing their terrible defense with passable defense.

It's relative... Nunn is still bad, but not as bad as Monk, Rondo, or Westbrook... Bradley puts on a show of playing D, but still gets torched...
THT can't come back soon enough... He wasn't on Caruso's level yet, but he was infinitely better than anyone we have at the 1 or 2 now.

Miami ranked 7th on DRTG last year with Monk playing 29.5 mins/game, 5th highest. I don't think Spoelstra would play him that many minutes if he is that bad on defense. I don't think he's good but he's adequate enough.
But Bradley getting "torched"? Most of Green's made FGs last night came from screens and quick transition IMO. Sometimes we see a player from another team going off and we look whose assigned to them.... but we tend to miss that those players like Steph get so many picks from teammates to get open looks.

Monk... I meant Nunn. these religious figures who shoot well and questionable defensive abilities are so confusing the heck out of me.