Game 21: Los Angeles Lakers (11-9) vs. Indiana Pacers (13-8) WIN - 12-9

[Sedale Threatt]

There’s just no way to minimize it: Ingram is having a sh*t season. He’d have to be playing at a DPOY level — he’s not — to offset what he’s doing on offense, or not doing as it were, and even then it would be close to a wash. I’ll cut the sophomores a bit more slack because they’re younger, but they’re not covering themselves in glory either.

[Kilroy]

There’s just no way to minimize it: Ingram is having a sh*t season. He’d have to be playing at a DPOY level — he’s not — to offset what he’s doing on offense, or not doing as it were, and even then it would be close to a wash. I’ll cut the sophomores a bit more slack because they’re younger, but they’re not covering themselves in glory either.

He's having a shaky year... But just wanted to point out, Ingram is a month older than Ball... He's even younger than Zu... Only Bonga and Ball are younger than him... So most of the Sophs are a couple years older than him...
He's still fighting the physical immaturity issues guys like Ball and Zu are fighting... Despite his longer time in the NBA.

Playing next to LeBron has thrown him off like it has Ball, but maybe to a larger degree...

Still say give it time... I think after Christmas he'll start coming on strong again.

[Sedale Threatt]

There’s just no way to minimize it: Ingram is having a sh*t season. He’d have to be playing at a DPOY level — he’s not — to offset what he’s doing on offense, or not doing as it were, and even then it would be close to a wash. I’ll cut the sophomores a bit more slack because they’re younger, but they’re not covering themselves in glory either.

He's having a shaky year... But just wanted to point out, Ingram is a month older than Ball... He's even younger than Zu... Only Bonga and Ball are younger than him... So most of the Sophs are a couple years older than him...
He's still fighting the physical immaturity issues guys like Ball and Zu are fighting... Despite his longer time in the NBA.

Playing next to LeBron has thrown him off like it has Ball, but maybe to a larger degree...

Still say give it time... I think after Christmas he'll start coming on strong again.

I meant in terms of experience. I wasn't expecting him to be an All-Star this year, by any means. But to be taking a step back in his third season is a huge disappointment. We simply cannot have that.

[TylersLakers]

There’s just no way to minimize it: Ingram is having a sh*t season. He’d have to be playing at a DPOY level — he’s not — to offset what he’s doing on offense, or not doing as it were, and even then it would be close to a wash. I’ll cut the sophomores a bit more slack because they’re younger, but they’re not covering themselves in glory either.

He's having a shaky year... But just wanted to point out, Ingram is a month older than Ball... He's even younger than Zu... Only Bonga and Ball are younger than him... So most of the Sophs are a couple years older than him...
He's still fighting the physical immaturity issues guys like Ball and Zu are fighting... Despite his longer time in the NBA.

Playing next to LeBron has thrown him off like it has Ball, but maybe to a larger degree...

Still say give it time... I think after Christmas he'll start coming on strong again.

I meant in terms of experience. I wasn't expecting him to be an All-Star this year, by any means. But to be taking a step back in his third season is a huge disappointment. We simply cannot have that.

Yeah, and I expected improvement from Game 1 - Game 20. Hasn't happened.

I missed the first quarter last night, but I actually like how they finally ran some plays for him with Iverson cuts across the key and even a play where he got an alley-oop. The second I got home, they were right back to him at PG. I re-watched the first quarter this morning before work and I said to myself, "where the hell was this?"

[Sedale Threatt]

He's having a shaky year... But just wanted to point out, Ingram is a month older than Ball... He's even younger than Zu... Only Bonga and Ball are younger than him... So most of the Sophs are a couple years older than him...
He's still fighting the physical immaturity issues guys like Ball and Zu are fighting... Despite his longer time in the NBA.

Playing next to LeBron has thrown him off like it has Ball, but maybe to a larger degree...

Still say give it time... I think after Christmas he'll start coming on strong again.

I meant in terms of experience. I wasn't expecting him to be an All-Star this year, by any means. But to be taking a step back in his third season is a huge disappointment. We simply cannot have that.

Yeah, and I expected improvement from Game 1 - Game 20. Hasn't happened.

I missed the first quarter last night, but I actually like how they finally ran some plays for him with Iverson cuts across the key and even a play where he got an alley-oop. The second I got home, they were right back to him at PG. I re-watched the first quarter this morning before work and I said to myself, "where the hell was this?"

Nobody can argue that he's being frozen out or whatever.

I get that LeBron tends to monopolize the ball, and we can argue about that sh*t until the cows come home. But Ingram's usage pct is actually a tiny tick up from last season. He's averaging one more shot per 36 minutes. He's gotten plenty of opportunity, at least lately, to be the top dog on the second unit, against ostensibly inferior players. And he's failed to take advantage of it.

Still a long way to go, and he showed marked improvement over the second half of his rookie season, so there's at least a precedent there that he can turn things around.

But for me, this is the biggest disappointment of our season so far, by a huge margin. And again, I wasn't expecting anything close to All-Star level. Just be a plus player at this point, even marginally. But he's not even close to that.

[TylersLakers]

Some quick facts:

Lakers shot 57% from FT, simply pathetic. Have we seen a worse team than us at shooting free throws? not me.
They shot 43% from 3, again bad perimeter defense, the interior was pretty good though.

The reason why I'm frustrated about the 3PT shooting numbers, the free throw numbers, etc is because it was anticipated by any person who had any sort of basketball knowledge before the season that these would be issues. We knew this team was going to be inconsistent from 3. We knew they were going to suck at the free throw line. How was a roster put together like that?

Watching Brook Lopez (91% FT) bomb threes and Milwaukee being the best rebounding team in the league makes sense. Lopez was so good at boxing out and initiating our fast break game by allowing our skilled players (Ball, Randle, Ingram) get rebounds and push the pace. Watching him do all this for less money than we paid Michael Beasley makes zero sense.

Watching Randle (73% FT) just feast on second units, averaging 18 PPG & 9 RPG and show an improved jump shot from distance is frustrating.

Watching guys like Wayne Ellington (100% FT) shooting 39% from 3PT range is frustrating.

Other notable guys we could have had: JJ Reddick (he admitted on a podcast the Lakers showed heavy interest at the start of free agency and that would have been something he was interested in), Ed Davis (4.4m), Seth Curry, Anthony Tolliver, etc.

Those were all guys we could have had/kept. Instead we got, what? Lance Stephenson? Rondo? Beasley? Doesn't make much sense.

[Landsberger]

Some quick facts:

Lakers shot 57% from FT, simply pathetic. Have we seen a worse team than us at shooting free throws? not me.
They shot 43% from 3, again bad perimeter defense, the interior was pretty good though.

The reason why I'm frustrated about the 3PT shooting numbers, the free throw numbers, etc is because it was anticipated by any person who had any sort of basketball knowledge before the season that these would be issues. We knew this team was going to be inconsistent from 3. We knew they were going to suck at the free throw line. How was a roster put together like that?

Watching Brook Lopez (91% FT) bomb threes and Milwaukee being the best rebounding team in the league makes sense. Lopez was so good at boxing out and initiating our fast break game by allowing our skilled players (Ball, Randle, Ingram) get rebounds and push the pace. Watching him do all this for less money than we paid Michael Beasley makes zero sense.

Watching Randle (73% FT) just feast on second units, averaging 18 PPG & 9 RPG and show an improved jump shot from distance is frustrating.

Watching guys like Wayne Ellington (100% FT) shooting 39% from 3PT range is frustrating.

Other notable guys we could have had: JJ Reddick (he admitted on a podcast the Lakers showed heavy interest at the start of free agency and that would have been something he was interested in), Ed Davis (4.4m), Seth Curry, Anthony Tolliver, etc.

Those were all guys we could have had/kept. Instead we got, what? Lance Stephenson? Rondo? Beasley? Doesn't make much sense.

I think we had other plans for the roster in the offseason. When they didn't happen we were left with an imbalanced team in many ways. First PG then Leonard. I think we were expecting one of them. Had that happened we would have gone all in on this year. As it is, we've kept our powder dry and are forging ahead with a team that has it's issues and a coach that is not right for this type of roster.

All of that said, we're not playing great but we're winning more than we're losing.