The Lebron '20 Thread (Pt. 5)

[Heej]

Dame Time doesn't exist without ref help tbh. This is the second time he's gotten locked up in the 4th once Lakers started stepping up on screens. Dude has no recourse to redirect his game off-ball like Steph does. That Lakers defense is tufff tho. They're wearing down the Blazers mentally and physically.

I think that 3 block possession where CJ burgered the layup was the series, cuz now the Lakers are gonna be in their heads. This was the Blazers most confident haymaker they had left. They're gonna be mentally shaken once the first wave of stops and run-outs happen. Both teams revved their engines tonight for the first time this series and the Lakers showed them which team has the higher gear. It'll be a competitive cruise to the finish line for the next 2 games.

[toodles23]

That's the series, the Blazers look completely spent after how hard they've had to play to get to this point. Nurkic practically looked like he was about to collapse to the floor at points. They also just flat out do not have the defensive chops to truly compete with the Lakers, those three straight Caruso/AD PnR buckets were awful - why in the **** were they sending both guys at Caruso just to leave AD WIDE open?

A good game from Lebron overall, looked much more spry than he has so far in the bubble, though his defensive effort in the 4th was lacking and the 8 TOs was not good. Very good to see his jumper working.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Lakers going small was a game changer too

[yoyoboy]

Yeah I expect LA to win the next 2. They're playing with a lot of confidence now.

Houston is going to be a bitch to play. Vogel needs a hell of a game plan to counter the Harden issue because KCP or Green alone on an island with him is going to be barbecue chicken.

[Run DLC]

Great bounce back game by, LeBron! He came out with guns-blazing right out of the gate. It looks like Playoffs LeAggressive has finally arrived. Good luck to the rest of the teams in the bubble!

[MyUniBroDavis]

Davis at the 5 looks pretty good so far too, he hasnt been playing better than he usually does but hes more impactful that usual (and hes d has been crazy)

[MisterHibachi]

Bron only played 34 minutes tonight?? Wow

[MyUniBroDavis]

Yeah I expect LA to win the next 2. They're playing with a lot of confidence now.

Houston is going to be a bitch to play. Vogel needs a hell of a game plan to counter the Harden issue because KCP or Green alone on an island with him is going to be barbecue chicken.

Tbf green and kcp being the guys they can attack is alot better than almost every other team

Greens still solid on D imo altho I know synergy disagrees and hes def more of a team defense guy, KCP i feel struggles more in post D

Having the best switchable defensive center in the league definately helps us alot here

[MyUniBroDavis]

Also lebron and ADs defense looked amazing lately, they were missing shots when lebron left but he disrupted so many plays, and AD was just crazy in general on that end

[yoyoboy]

Davis catch and shoot jumpers out of the PnR are so much better than Davis ISO jumpers.

[yoyoboy]

Yeah I expect LA to win the next 2. They're playing with a lot of confidence now.

Houston is going to be a bitch to play. Vogel needs a hell of a game plan to counter the Harden issue because KCP or Green alone on an island with him is going to be barbecue chicken.

Tbf green and kcp being the guys they can attack is alot better than almost every other team

Greens still solid on D imo altho I know synergy disagrees and hes def more of a team defense guy, KCP i feel struggles more in post D

Having the best switchable defensive center in the league definately helps us alot here

Honestly imo Caruso has the best chance of actually keeping Harden in front of him. Green is way too slow laterally and KCP is prone to losing guys on fakes and crossovers.

[Heej]

Interesting to see Caruso influence Dame to the right when you'd expect them to 'weak' him and send him left; especially with that bum finger. It coincides with my theory on defending star players. You have to choose to live with a stepback driving to their offhand or a pull up to the strong hand. Lillard doesn't have a pull up to his right hand the way Melo does, nor does he have a sidestep 3 like McCollum. Whenever Dame gets to the rim it's usually him going left

[JordansBulls]

Thoughts on Rondo returning to guard Westbrook or CP3?

[MisterHibachi]

Yeah I expect LA to win the next 2. They're playing with a lot of confidence now.

Houston is going to be a bitch to play. Vogel needs a hell of a game plan to counter the Harden issue because KCP or Green alone on an island with him is going to be barbecue chicken.

Tbf green and kcp being the guys they can attack is alot better than almost every other team

Greens still solid on D imo altho I know synergy disagrees and hes def more of a team defense guy, KCP i feel struggles more in post D

Having the best switchable defensive center in the league definately helps us alot here

Honestly imo Caruso has the best chance of actually keeping Harden in front of him. Green is way too slow laterally and KCP is prone to losing guys on fakes and crossovers.

AC is not nearly strong enough. Not sure anyone on the team is other than LeBron. I think Kuz might be the best non LeBron option because of length.

[MisterHibachi]

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[Heej]

Tbf green and kcp being the guys they can attack is alot better than almost every other team

Greens still solid on D imo altho I know synergy disagrees and hes def more of a team defense guy, KCP i feel struggles more in post D

Having the best switchable defensive center in the league definately helps us alot here

Honestly imo Caruso has the best chance of actually keeping Harden in front of him. Green is way too slow laterally and KCP is prone to losing guys on fakes and crossovers.

AC is not nearly strong enough. Not sure anyone on the team is other than LeBron. I think Kuz might be the best non LeBron option because of length.

Kuz is getting good practice vs a similar archetypal scorer in CJ just in terms of footwork, although CJ is more of a pull-up shooter while Hardens a stepback guy. I'm interested to see how Kuz does cuz you might be right, he could be the best dude to stick on Harden

[yoyoboy]

Tbf green and kcp being the guys they can attack is alot better than almost every other team

Greens still solid on D imo altho I know synergy disagrees and hes def more of a team defense guy, KCP i feel struggles more in post D

Having the best switchable defensive center in the league definately helps us alot here

Honestly imo Caruso has the best chance of actually keeping Harden in front of him. Green is way too slow laterally and KCP is prone to losing guys on fakes and crossovers.

AC is not nearly strong enough. Not sure anyone on the team is other than LeBron. I think Kuz might be the best non LeBron option because of length.

I'm worried about Kuz guarding him just because he has a tendency to be jumpy and over aggressive on defense which is a death sentence when defending the master of drawing fouls.

[kayess]

The lack of a wire-to-wire win in which LeBron plays well worries the hell out of me.

But anything's possible if LeBron's jumper is on and AD continues to play well

[yoyoboy]

To be honest I actually feel better about the Clippers matchup than I do the Rockets matchup. For the most part I like how the team matches up against LAC especially when LeBron takes on defending Kawhi. Harden presents major issues, they take and make a lot more threes, and their 5 out lineup gets Davis away from the rim on defense, not to mention if Vogel is stubborn and keeps starting McGee they'll take advantage of that. Westbrook destroyed the Lakers during the season as well en route to 38 ppg on 65% TS across 2 games.

[Dupp]

This Lakers team really makes me appreciate how good those cavs teams were offensively and how bad they were defensively... also how bad loves finishing was.