Game 4, 4/27: Lakers at Timberwolves, 2:30 p.m.

[Klomp]

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[FrenchMinnyFan]

Rudy is great in defense, no doubt. but i would like to see him at his usual level at rebounding. Go Wolves!

[KGdaBom]

The Wild had a 2-1 lead in their playoff series and the lead going into the 3rd period, but the Minnesota malaise got to them and they lost in OT. It's time for the Wolves to break the curse.

[Rookie-Mistake]

It's time for the wolves fans to make it uncomfortable for the lakers again.

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[Note30]

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Too bad he's polishing turds on the other end of the court and gets smoked on key plays. Stats by themselves are pointless.

[thinktank]

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Too bad he's polishing turds on the other end of the court and gets smoked on key plays. Stats by themselves are pointless.

You cannot be serious.

Rudy wins his minutes going away. That’s all that matters. Do not miss the forest of defensive greatness for the trees of “RuDy’S oN sKaTeS”.

Rudy is a one-way freak, and his freak is so extreme that it completely overshadows any offensive or cherry-picked roller-skate weakness.

[Note30]

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Too bad he's polishing turds on the other end of the court and gets smoked on key plays. Stats by themselves are pointless.

You cannot be serious.

Rudy wins his minutes going away. That’s all that matters. Do not miss the forest of defensive greatness for the trees of “RuDy’S oN sKaTeS”.

Rudy is a one-way freak, and his freak is so extreme that it completely overshadows any offensive or cherry-picked roller-skate weakness.

So extreme? Dude got handled by a rookie and a journeyman last year. If the Lakers had one decent lob threat we'd be **** rn.

He is unequivocally is not even good at man on man defense. His help and interior defense is truly amazing, but that's literally the only part of basketball he is good at.

The one game he played like he usually does in the season Luka nearly dropped a triple double.

Completely unplayable in the fourth.

**** terrible take.

To clarify, were most likely gonna win this series. But he will have next to nothing to do with it. He's just baggage from a bad trade we won't recover from until the end of the decade.

[TimberKat]

Too bad he's polishing turds on the other end of the court and gets smoked on key plays. Stats by themselves are pointless.

You cannot be serious.

Rudy wins his minutes going away. That’s all that matters. Do not miss the forest of defensive greatness for the trees of “RuDy’S oN sKaTeS”.

Rudy is a one-way freak, and his freak is so extreme that it completely overshadows any offensive or cherry-picked roller-skate weakness.

So extreme? Dude got handled by a rookie and a journeyman last year. If the Lakers had one decent lob threat we'd be **** rn.

He is unequivocally is not even good at man on man defense. His help and interior defense is truly amazing, but that's literally the only part of basketball he is good at.

The one game he played like he usually does in the season Luka nearly dropped a triple double.

Completely unplayable in the fourth.

**** (Please Use More Appropriate Word) take.

Didn't the original post said his man on man defense was limiting opponents to 35% shooting? Compare that with one year where Andrew Wiggins allowed like 40% 3pt shooting when he was the primary defender, that seems pretty good. Of course what is important is the 35% of the time he got cooked and consider his contract and numbers of picks we paid for him. He should only allow 10% shooting.

[Note30]

You cannot be serious.

Rudy wins his minutes going away. That’s all that matters. Do not miss the forest of defensive greatness for the trees of “RuDy’S oN sKaTeS”.

Rudy is a one-way freak, and his freak is so extreme that it completely overshadows any offensive or cherry-picked roller-skate weakness.

So extreme? Dude got handled by a rookie and a journeyman last year. If the Lakers had one decent lob threat we'd be **** rn.

He is unequivocally is not even good at man on man defense. His help and interior defense is truly amazing, but that's literally the only part of basketball he is good at.

The one game he played like he usually does in the season Luka nearly dropped a triple double.

Completely unplayable in the fourth.

**** (Please Use More Appropriate Word) take.

Didn't the original post said his man on man defense was limiting opponents to 35% shooting? Compare that with one year where Andrew Wiggins allowed like 40% 3pt shooting when he was the primary defender, that seems pretty good. Of course what is important is the 35% of the time he got cooked and consider his contract and numbers of picks we paid for him. He should only allow 10% shooting.

If you have to straw man Andrew Wiggins to make a case for Rudy, he's not the player you think he is.

Also, pretty sure Kawhi is leading in that category. Seeing multiple conflicting stats.

As for what he "let's" in? Dude has gotten cooked on crucial bucket after crucial bucket. Any time we're about to pull away his ass gets cooked.

If he's such a good defender why is it he can't guard any player 1 on 1.

Why is it that our defense is bipolar?

Keep glazing him though. Make sure you zip up when you're done.

[TimberKat]

So extreme? Dude got handled by a rookie and a journeyman last year. If the Lakers had one decent lob threat we'd be **** rn.

He is unequivocally is not even good at man on man defense. His help and interior defense is truly amazing, but that's literally the only part of basketball he is good at.

The one game he played like he usually does in the season Luka nearly dropped a triple double.

Completely unplayable in the fourth.

**** (Please Use More Appropriate Word) take.

Didn't the original post said his man on man defense was limiting opponents to 35% shooting? Compare that with one year where Andrew Wiggins allowed like 40% 3pt shooting when he was the primary defender, that seems pretty good. Of course what is important is the 35% of the time he got cooked and consider his contract and numbers of picks we paid for him. He should only allow 10% shooting.

If you have to straw man Andrew Wiggins to make a case for Rudy, he's not the player you think he is.

Also, pretty sure Kawhi is leading in that category. Seeing multiple conflicting stats.

As for what he "let's" in? Dude has gotten cooked on crucial bucket after crucial bucket. Any time we're about to pull away his ass gets cooked.

If he's such a good defender why is it he can't guard any player 1 on 1.

Why is it that our defense is bipolar?

Keep glazing him though. Make sure you zip up when you're done.

How many times we have to repeat that: Didn't the original post said his man on man defense was limiting opponents to 35% shooting without resolve to personal insult to make a point that you can't win?

[Note30]

Didn't the original post said his man on man defense was limiting opponents to 35% shooting? Compare that with one year where Andrew Wiggins allowed like 40% 3pt shooting when he was the primary defender, that seems pretty good. Of course what is important is the 35% of the time he got cooked and consider his contract and numbers of picks we paid for him. He should only allow 10% shooting.

If you have to straw man Andrew Wiggins to make a case for Rudy, he's not the player you think he is.

Also, pretty sure Kawhi is leading in that category. Seeing multiple conflicting stats.

As for what he "let's" in? Dude has gotten cooked on crucial bucket after crucial bucket. Any time we're about to pull away his ass gets cooked.

If he's such a good defender why is it he can't guard any player 1 on 1.

Why is it that our defense is bipolar?

Keep glazing him though. Make sure you zip up when you're done.

How many times we have to repeat that: Didn't the original post said his man on man defense was limiting opponents to 35% shooting without resolve to personal insult to make a point that you can't win?

Yeah and I'm saying that stat is false. I've seen multiple others with him 4th or 5th on the list.

[thinktank]

How would you like to root for a team and not even be able to appreciate what the team and its players do well?

Yikes.

To be clear, this team doesn’t get where it does without Rudy. And it definitely doesn’t get there with the crap we traded for him either.

People should be thanking Rudy and Connelly.

[Calinks]

This isn't a must win but its really important. This is pretty much a must win for the Lakers. Going down 3-1 would be a death sentence. I hope we come prepared to play, if we bring immense energy and some decent BBIQ, we can take this. If our role players step up like NAW, Naz, or Donte have a big shooting game, we will likely win. Win tonight and we can start to feel more comfortable.

[Note30]

How would you like to root for a team and not even be able to appreciate what the team and its players do well?

Yikes.

To be clear, this team doesn’t get where it does without Rudy. And it definitely doesn’t get there with the crap we traded for him either.

People should be thanking Rudy and Connelly.

This team has succeeded in spite of Connelly.

I like all of our players. I don't have any personal malice towards Rudy himself. His story of how he got to where he is in that one article was pretty heart warming.

I really just dont like how much other people here (like you) act like he's the next coming of Jesus when he has a ton of major flaws.

I also really don't like how his contract situation has affected the team and the move and potential we took away from this team that was required to get him. I don't like how it affected our timeline and speedrunned development for our young players and their deals.

The only person I truly hate with a passion is TC. The day he leaves or gets fired will make me feel a similar level of joy to when Thibs and Kahn got the boot to the curb.

[younggunsmn]

Rudy has not been very good this series mostly because of his terrible hands and how unplayable he has been on offense.

But he was better in game 3 because he actually followed the defensive game plan to keep Luka out of the middle of the floor instead of constantly switching onto him and getting cooked like in the first 2 games.

When Rudy follows the game plan and trusts his teammates we are very good defensively.
But the DDV/Ant/Jaden/Julius/NAZ lineup has also been good defensively and much more potent offensively.

[younggunsmn]

If we win the turnover and offensive rebounding battles again I really like our chances.

But the Lakers are going to be desperate.
And the league is going to be desperate to prolong the series so I expect the same heavily tilted whistle.

I will be watching how well Naz and DDV play.
How many FGA Jaden McDaniels gets will be a good barometer of how well we are moving the ball.
If he can get 15 quality FGAs and we play quality defense I think we win pretty easily.

We also need to keep Luka Doncic out of the middle of the floor like we did in game 3.
You can't always stop a great player from making crazy shots but you can somewhat control where you are going to allow those shots to come from.
We did a great job of that in game 3 and a very poor job of that in game 1 and 2.

[TimberKat]

My key things to watch for besides someone gets sick or injured:
1. Could LBJ hit his jump shots and 3s like game 3?
2. Could JMcD continue to play like Game 1 and 4 to provide the offense?
3. If Lakers go big, do we see a more impactful Gobert? I don't think Lakers will go smaller. If they stick to the same lineup, Randle/Naz seems to work.
4. Could we order more of that rat poison?

[LSWF]

This would be a good time for DDV and/or NAW to snap out of shooting slumps.

[LSWF]

My key things to watch for besides someone gets sick or injured:
1. Could LBJ hit his jump shots and 3s like game 3?
2. Could JMcD continue to play like Game 1 and 4 to provide the offense?
3. If Lakers go big, do we see a more impactful Gobert? I don't think Lakers will go smaller. If they stick to the same lineup, Randle/Naz seems to work.
4. Could we order more of that rat poison?

Since when have we changed Jadens nickname to rat poison?

[KGdaBom]

This isn't a must win but its really important. This is pretty much a must win for the Lakers. Going down 3-1 would be a death sentence. I hope we come prepared to play, if we bring immense energy and some decent BBIQ, we can take this. If our role players step up like NAW, Naz, or Donte have a big shooting game, we will likely win. Win tonight and we can start to feel more comfortable.

Not a MUST win, but if we lose we become underdogs in the series. If we win it's almost locked up. It's very important to us.