Lakers series- expectations from Stotts? What would you do?

Village Idiot · Post #1 » by **Village Idiot** » Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:51 am

We have a tough series upcoming against two of the best players in the NBA. We have no one who can guard LeBron or Davis and they have no one who can guard Lillard and/or McCollum.

One thing that irritates me about Terry Stotts is the fact that he is a horrible game day tactician. He'll go with the same starting line-up, same offensive and defensive sets regardless of personnel and opponent. He must be a dream to game plan against since there is never anything unexpected.

If I were coaching against this Lakers team I would do a couple of things.

Defense:

1. Start Trent at SF instead of Melo and full court press LeBron James. When Trent starts picking up fouls put Gabriel on him. Use Little or Collins on him if need be but press him every single possession. If he doesn't have it deny, deny, deny. Employ a trap at half court. Wear him out, frustrate him. Get him pointing fingers at teammates. He's an old foagy and built for bursts of speed and power and not sustained running. He's in amazing shape but it's worth a try. Letting him bring it up and do whatever he wants is foolish in my mind. Force some other Laker to bring it up and let Dame or CJ press them. As Lebron is being pressed front Davis and force LeBron to heave it over the entire defense if he wants to get it to his buddy.

2. Stop switching so damned much. We need to become a lot smarter about how and when we switch.

Watch on YouTube

Coach Daniel does a fine job of describing how we should be doing it (Celtics and Raptors) and how we shouldn't be doing it (Sixers)

Offense:

1. Our offense is pretty good. We need to involve Nurkic more in high post action. Together with starting Melo at PF (and giving all back-up C/PF minutes to Collins) to draw Davis, McGee or Howard away from the basket so Lillard and McCollum can drive and score or kick at will.

2. Target Lebron in the pick and roll. Their bigs tend to drop in their coverage. Try to get him expending more energy than he wants and hopefully in foul trouble.

3. Push the tempo. Again, Lebron is old and if we can force him to sprint we can hopefully tire his legs.

What are your ideas for having a chance against the Lakers?

PDXKnight · Post #2 » by **PDXKnight** » Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:36 am

I don’t think we win this series and highly doubt the nba would let that happen not to mention la is the better team with hca. That being said I think it could be a 6 or 7 game series pretty easily. And with the state of the west right now I think we’ve got as much of a shot as an 8 seed has had in recent memory considering that our team is much different than it was a couple months ago for the bettet

bigzy · Post #3 » by **bigzy** » Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:56 pm

Home court advantage means nothing this year.... maybe more virtual fans.

Village Idiot · Post #4 » by **Village Idiot** » Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:21 pm

Oden2 wrote:I don’t think we win this series and highly doubt the nba would let that happen not to mention la is the better team with hca. That being said I think it could be a 6 or 7 game series pretty easily. And with the state of the west right now I think we’ve got as much of a shot as an 8 seed has had in recent memory considering that our team is much different than it was a couple months ago for the bettet

The NBA officials would never favor one team or player over another :roll:

PDXKnight · Post #5 » by **PDXKnight** » Mon Aug 17, 2020 4:39 pm

Village Idiot wrote:
Oden2 wrote:I don’t think we win this series and highly doubt the nba would let that happen not to mention la is the better team with hca. That being said I think it could be a 6 or 7 game series pretty easily. And with the state of the west right now I think we’ve got as much of a shot as an 8 seed has had in recent memory considering that our team is much different than it was a couple months ago for the bettet
The NBA officials would never favor one team or player over another

Hah!

Now that I think on it la has no hca so that makes things interesting to say the least

PDXKnight · Post #6 » by **PDXKnight** » Mon Aug 17, 2020 4:40 pm

bigzy wrote:Home court advantage means nothing this year.... maybe more virtual fans.

Yeah realized that after I said it hah. Still hard to imagine the nba not really really favoring the lakers with biased calls

d-train · Post #7 » by **d-train** » Mon Aug 17, 2020 5:09 pm

bigzy wrote:Home court advantage means nothing this year.... maybe more virtual fans.

That's right, Blazers have no home court to hold NBA officials accountable. So, Lakers have 7 home games and Blazers have 7 road games.

GEE · Post #8 » by **GEE** » Tue Aug 18, 2020 2:31 am

Sadly, the officiating is what worries me most when considering our chances of winning, with Stotts an easy lock for 2nd place.