Game 2 ... Lakers vs Clippers now playing - Game Thread

[tamaraw08]

Lebron spent so much energy, while AD played with pain trying to win, and some here wants to just stay put and let the team lose many games so they can keep the 2 picks, ok

And yet they combined for 45/18/6 and a net -4... That's 1 top 10 player not 2... That's not worth leveraging our future to build around... There isn't a deal that's been rumored for us that turns that into a championship contender, no matter how many picks we throw at them.
If there was, I'd be all over it, but there just isn't...

Bottom line, LeBron/AD isn't that great... Time to move on.

If it's time to move on then why they extend Lebron then? If both were not good, then fine, attempt to trade AD and don't offer an extension to Lebron, just move on, fine. But you don't sign this guy and not do anything let the team stink because there is NO advantage of doing that because New Orleans owns the pick swap next summer.

[tamaraw08]

Lebron spent so much energy, while AD played with pain trying to win, and some here wants to just stay put and let the team lose many games so they can keep the 2 picks, ok

And yet they combined for 45/18/6 and a net -4... That's 1 top 10 player not 2... That's not worth leveraging our future to build around... There isn't a deal that's been rumored for us that turns that into a championship contender, no matter how many picks we throw at them.
If there was, I'd be all over it, but there just isn't...

Exactly. Hield will make us a tad better. Ok...so now there's 1 shooter you have to sorta stick to. If he was half the hype going on around here.....how come nobody else is offering?

Lakers might get something worthwhile once the season rolls on, and teams realize they aren't so good, and want to offload/reboot. Maybe there will be something worth it. For now.....we just need to suffer through this year. But at least bench Russ, and let's give the minutes to young guys. I mean....who cares if they stink it up? 0-11 pretty much set the bar for them.

I for one is not hyping Hield, but their weakness on 3pt shooting is GLARING. You don't use your 15th spot on a G-leaguer if you are not desperate for a shooter. Why would other teams not offer assets to get Buddy? Well there are like 6 teams who are tanking. The 20+ other teams have shooters already and therefore do NOT need him, that includes Indiana who already has Haliburton and they are also trying to tank.
Lakers lost by 6 pts to a deep stacked team shooting 20% from 3. If they hit 3 more shots or shot just 33%, they would have made 14 3's instead of 9, would have opened the lanes to Lebron and AD too to operate inside. Lebron's 2 turnovers were because he was trying to force the issue against the wall that the Clippers established inside. So Buddy with a career 39.8% from 3 hopefully helps but not just him. Myles Turner is an excellent shot blocker who can play with AD or provide relief if Davis is on the bench.
For you it's ok to suffer and you don't care if they stink it up. As a Laker fan, I do suffer with every loss, I also spend my hard earned money to watch them live, you may not care but I do. Now will they become instant contenders if they do the trade? Probably not, but they will have puncher's chance to compete. Suns got to the Finals and were 2 wins away, beating injured teams like the Lakers, Nuggets etc. Bucks beat the Nets in OT with Brooklyn missing Kyrie.

[Kilroy]

Lebron spent so much energy, while AD played with pain trying to win, and some here wants to just stay put and let the team lose many games so they can keep the 2 picks, ok

And yet they combined for 45/18/6 and a net -4... That's 1 top 10 player not 2... That's not worth leveraging our future to build around... There isn't a deal that's been rumored for us that turns that into a championship contender, no matter how many picks we throw at them.
If there was, I'd be all over it, but there just isn't...

Bottom line, LeBron/AD isn't that great... Time to move on.

If it's time to move on then why they extend Lebron then? If both were not good, then fine, attempt to trade AD and don't offer an extension to Lebron, just move on, fine. But you don't sign this guy and not do anything let the team stink because there is NO advantage of doing that because New Orleans owns the pick swap next summer.

Rhetorical question?

They **** up....

The FO clearly doesn't want to work too hard... They want to milk LeBron for whatever they can get...

The plan was to bring in LeBron, and then land AD as the future face of the franchise, to takeover after LeBron was done...

The plan turned to **** after AD got his ring and lost his desire to be great. They should have seen the writing on the wall in the first season after the bubble, and traded his ass... If they had, they could have let LeBron walk and used whatever pieces they got from the AD trade to start the rebuild...
But they didn't... And they can't admit to themselves that the plan went to crap... AD isn't a star, he's a 3rd option on a championship team now... Maybe they'll trade him, maybe they'll try to keep LeBron happy and keep him... But as long as we have either of those 2 guys on the team, we're not smelling a championship.

Right now, they either decide they need to think about the Lakers legacy and it's future first, and get comfortable with pissing off LeBron and Klutch... Or they take the easy way out, and sit back and let Klutch run the show... Either start the rebuild now, or limp along for a few more years and get progressively worse until they have no choice but to rebuild...

They've pretty clearly chosen the latter so far... And maybe they have no choice at this point... Because every team in the league now sees Klutch coming a mile away and are no longer going to cave to trade demands from their clients, especially those that enrich the Lakers... So I'm not expecting any big, beneficial trades until we sever that relationship...

[zuju]

In both GSW and Clippers game, Ham should have played Gabriel more. They should have played bigger. You play small against the best small ball team in the NBA in GSW and play small against the best wing duo in the league in Clippers.

Jones should see more minutes too to put AD at the 4 and James at the 3 more. Gabriel coming in can act as a big wing and up the defense and rebound of the team.

I don't see playing AD at the 5 solve the shooting problem in both games

[Hans1984]

Westbrick needs to go asap. He robbed us of any chances to win this game at the end.

The team showed effort in both games but we can't hit any threes.

[Hank7]

Westbrook's game is infectious.

... and it's permeating like a cancer through the play and confidence of the team.

After the Clipper's game a reporter asked him "How do you think you played tonight?"

Russ ... "Solid."

[zuju]

Don't know why, but it seems most players who can shoot lose their shooting touch once they joined the Lakers.

Westbrook is infectious? How about all those shooters before he came? Think its more about the training and game plan/tactics kind of stuff more so than Westbrook.

You have to get shooters involved in the game and shoot instead of running up and down the court watching Bron and AD do their work. When a shooter gets hot and he is benched for some 10 mins, expect him to become ice cold. Westbrook can't shoot. We all know that. Nunn and Pat can, They can eventually hit those 3s. Don't panic after just 2 games.

What I love is their effort. What I hate is their size.

[SlimShady83]

Don't know why, but it seems most players who can shoot lose their shooting touch once they joined the Lakers.

I think it's knowing that it's the Lakers and being in the spot light all eyes will be on you compared to a small market teams, every shot you miss/take and action you do will be scrutinize - not many people can handle it, many think they can, but until It happens to you it's a whole new ball game

[SlimShady83]

You have to get shooters involved in the game and shoot instead of running up and down the court watching Bron and AD do their work. What I love is their effort. What I hate is their size.

Another thing I noticed a lot as well, Is especially this game in general, Lakers were playing better when Bron was off the floor, the ball was moving and everyone seemed to have more energy - just from what I was seeing, not to give Bron crap - this also happened a lot when Kobe was sitting at end of his career, the team was playing better in the periods when he was on the bench - not great, but better the ball movement, defense etc was there.

[tamaraw08]

Don't know why, but it seems most players who can shoot lose their shooting touch once they joined the Lakers.

I think it's knowing that it's the Lakers and being in the spot light all eyes will be on you compared to a small market teams, every shot you miss/take and action you do will be scrutinize - not many people can handle it, many think they can, but until It happens to you it's a whole new ball game

I don’t think it’s just the spotlight though, last season Monk, Ellington, Augustine and even Bradley shot above 38% from 3, even Melo shot 37% . What brought the team average down was the combined volume of shots taken by terrible shooters like Russ, THT and AD-18%.

[zuju]

Don't know why, but it seems most players who can shoot lose their shooting touch once they joined the Lakers.

I think it's knowing that it's the Lakers and being in the spot light all eyes will be on you compared to a small market teams, every shot you miss/take and action you do will be scrutinize - not many people can handle it, many think they can, but until It happens to you it's a whole new ball game

I don’t think it’s just the spotlight though, last season Monk, Ellington, Augustine and even Bradley shot above 38% from 3, even Melo shot 37% . What brought the team average down was the combined volume of shots taken by terrible shooters like Russ, THT and AD-18%.

All of these mentioned shooters played crappy defense. Bradley was apparently better defender, not that good anymore. If you do not set them up to shoot more, even a player with 100% 3 pt shooting % is useless.

[tamaraw08]

I think it's knowing that it's the Lakers and being in the spot light all eyes will be on you compared to a small market teams, every shot you miss/take and action you do will be scrutinize - not many people can handle it, many think they can, but until It happens to you it's a whole new ball game

I don’t think it’s just the spotlight though, last season Monk, Ellington, Augustine and even Bradley shot above 38% from 3, even Melo shot 37% . What brought the team average down was the combined volume of shots taken by terrible shooters like Russ, THT and AD-18%.

All of these mentioned shooters played crappy defense. Bradley was apparently better defender, not that good anymore. If you do not set them up to shoot more, even a player with 100% 3 pt shooting % is useless.

What does their defense got to do with issue of shooting? I am responding to the notion that most good shooters go cold once they play for the Lakers.

[zuju]

I don’t think it’s just the spotlight though, last season Monk, Ellington, Augustine and even Bradley shot above 38% from 3, even Melo shot 37% . What brought the team average down was the combined volume of shots taken by terrible shooters like Russ, THT and AD-18%.

All of these mentioned shooters played crappy defense. Bradley was apparently better defender, not that good anymore. If you do not set them up to shoot more, even a player with 100% 3 pt shooting % is useless.

What does their defense got to do with issue of shooting? I am responding to the notion that most good shooters go cold once they play for the Lakers.

Some of them see little playing time, for example Ellington & Augustine, due to their inability to stay in front of their man defensively. If they were not on the court, how well they shoot is not a matter anymore.

Monk and Melo saw the floor consistently and got their shots. I do agree that the coach should have drawn more plays to set them up for open looks.

[Kilroy]

Ok, this game was a while ago... Let's start some new threads fellas...