Game 42: Los Angeles Lakers (33-8) @ Houston Rockets (26-14) - 8:30 PM ET

[kblo247]

We won that game when Vogel put Kuzma on Westbrook. He was torturing our guys on the block, not so much in the 2nd half. If we have a serie vs Houston I expect AD to guard WB, give him a lot of space so he can roam in the paint, and watch the world burn.
Rockets are not scary at all.

I expect to see Kuz on him, Javale/Dwight on Capella charmin ass denying his lob, and then let Bron trap and AD make the rotations out the others

Kuz will guard him no doubt. But I don't see AD guarding Tucker at the 3pt line, anyway, how sweet it is to beat them

Of the two I think LEBron takes House and AD takes Tucker. AD is more likely to rotate out to the line and recover than Bron is to chase them off or contest them all series. I could be wrong, but I think Tucker is going to get his ass worked as I see them sticking him on AD over Bron in a series and lord Bron should cook their ass like Kobe did PHX in 10.

[Freighttrain]

I'm so bipolar in my opinion of Kuz. Anyone else having mental issues about Kuz?

[Spanish_Laker]

Amazing win without AD against a top team in the West on the road. What a special season after these 7 tanking years. Keep it up fellas.

[SweetTouch]

Prime Anthony Davis load managing like a ****

Got to rely on the king in his 15th season to show up

Things never change

Hell of a win for our lake show, the collective group of guys are willing to die out there for wins

[bb22]

I think Kuz also did a good job positioning in the paint and putting a body on their bigs (particular Capela a couple times). Seems like he can be an OK defender when in a role that requires less lateral quickness and more positioning to take advantage of his length.

[stan francisco]

I'm so bipolar in my opinion of Kuz. Anyone else having mental issues about Kuz?

Kuz himself.

Given his team USA tear and massive improvement since last year, that injury messed with him.

Also, it took half of our roster until just recently to start playing well as a unit. Shots haven’t really been falling for anyone until recently.

I think this is due to Vogel’s defense-first approach. Now the defense looks pretty damn good, most players are starting to score more comfortably and within the system.

Until the last three games or so, he’s been playing for himself. As if he wanted to prove where he was pre injury, that he could play Kobe solo ball. It seems he’s back to playing team ball now (last three games), that he finally caught up to rest of team.

Missing preseason messed his progress up. His performance will only be going up from here. Soon, he’ll have a 40 pt game or two and he’ll be back to playing more chill and relaxed within the system.

[Freighttrain]

I'm so bipolar in my opinion of Kuz. Anyone else having mental issues about Kuz?

Kuz himself.

Given his team USA tear and massive improvement since last year, that injury messed with him.

Also, it took half of our roster until just recently to start playing well as a unit. Shots haven’t really been falling for anyone until recently.

I think this is due to Vogel’s defense-first approach. Now the defense looks pretty damn good, most players are starting to score more comfortably and within the system.

Until the last three games or so, he’s been playing for himself. As if he wanted to prove where he was pre injury. It seems he’s back to playing team ball now (last three games), that he finally caught up to rest of team.

Missing preseason messed his progress up.

I still see him disappearing for halfs, like last night. He was great the second half, first half just meh. All he needs to have is consistency. He should establish himself as that third guy in the second half of the season. That would be hugely beneficial.

[Landsberger]

This is the wrong game to go in on Green... He was as effective as just about any defender I've seen on Harden and Westbrook when switching. His shots may not have been falling but that might be because he was expending all his energy on D.

Not "going in" on him. I was just looking to see how many games he's given this amount of effort in this year. I've never really watched the guy. His game is fairly limited and after digging into his game logs over the last several years his inconsistency makes Kuzma look like a steady contributor.

I agree he was able to slow down the larger/stronger guards. Bradley and especially Caruso struggled with them.

Green was active off the ball offensively. I'd like to see what he did last night every night but not so sure we will.

[LAKESHOW]

How about Mr. Troy passing up wide open layups, im jackin this 3 Daniels!

[Landsberger]

I'm so bipolar in my opinion of Kuz. Anyone else having mental issues about Kuz?

Kuz needs a more fluid and open offense to be his most effective. When the pace is up he does his best. He's isn't as comfortable when it's a pick and roll with 3 guys in the corners.... which is 2/3 of the offense when LeBron is on the court.

Vogel needs to introduce different sets for him and we need to push the pace more to see him get more comfortable.

As for bipolar... I'm only seeing that offensively. His defense and effort on that end has been flat-line consistent this year.

[dockingsched]

KCP has become such a consistent and good role player it’s insane. Never would’ve imagined he’d turn things around like this after his lousy start. He deserves so much credit.

[bb22]

Lakers remain undefeated when Lebron scores 30+
His level of aggressiveness always correlated well with his point total. This is reassuring, as come playoff time, I think we see him get to his high percentage shots more often.

[snaquille oatmeal]

Westbrook was 2-13 in the second half and got a tech for arguing with the bench,


Also Kyle Kuzma's 3PT shooting

Corner 3's = 57.1% (20-35)
All other 3's = 28.1% (36-128)


Get his ass in that damn corner. But Kuz has half court, 3/4 court, 30 foot and other threes because he has no problem chucking up the quarter Enders

It’s actually not a fair assessment to look at Kuzmas overall numbers for the entire season. I think it was doc who pointed out shortly after he came back from injury that his numbers were so bad when he first came back that he wouldn’t be able to catch up and make them look respectable at the end of the season.

[Landsberger]

Kuzma seems to be the guy to bail out possessions more than anyone else with the clock at less than 3 seconds. When he's in the rhythm of the offense his efficiency is good. All I want from him is consistency offensively around the mean. That is part on the system and part on him. Defensively he's been good to very good. No more Luke putting him at the 5 on an island.... that do wonders for your confidence.

[stan francisco]

I'm so bipolar in my opinion of Kuz. Anyone else having mental issues about Kuz?

Kuz himself.

Given his team USA tear and massive improvement since last year, that injury messed with him.

Also, it took half of our roster until just recently to start playing well as a unit. Shots haven’t really been falling for anyone until recently.

I think this is due to Vogel’s defense-first approach. Now the defense looks pretty damn good, most players are starting to score more comfortably and within the system.

Until the last three games or so, he’s been playing for himself. As if he wanted to prove where he was pre injury. It seems he’s back to playing team ball now (last three games), that he finally caught up to rest of team.

Missing preseason messed his progress up.

I still see him disappearing for halfs, like last night. He was great the second half, first half just meh. All he needs to have is consistency. He should establish himself as that third guy in the second half of the season. That would be hugely beneficial.

I’ve placed my bet that that’s exactly what will happen around ASB. Kuz and consistency. It’s not until recently that we’ve seen full game consistency from anyone not named LBJ and AD on our team.

Kuz missed pre-season and a bunch of weeks more. Vogels defense is complex and deep to learn and exhausting to play. By ASB, he’ll take off and never look back. He’s still very young, has had nine new team mates to get used and earn minutes over who are all vets etc...

[kblo247]

KCP has become such a consistent and good role player it’s insane. Never would’ve imagined he’d turn things around like this after his lousy start. He deserves so much credit.

The most consistent thing for everyone on this team has been others taking up for them.

When fans got on KCP, Dwight took up for him, and he excelled.

When rumors and people are on Kuz now, you have a Bron, Dwight, Rondo backing him in public.

When Dwight came here he was welcome. Boogie had his troubles they stuck with him. Vogel had his coaching questioned and the assistants had their intentions questioned, they shut it down in public. Quinn, Daniels, and Dudley all get praised for staying ready and Caruso support from the team. And Rondo has had his leadership praised outright and when the media tried to say but he was a negative, Vogel responded Rondos value is in swag and not that box score.

This probably has been the best group of guys for Bron since he went to Miami in terms of praising one another, not complaining, and not saying why does he get away this. Likewise it’s a locker room very different from what AD was in last year where he’s looking like how do I lead them. Chemistry is easily the best since Kobe 09 team imo

[lazybatman]

I just thought Danny Green's defense on Harden was perfect. Contesting shots without fouling.. getting a couple of steals to disrupt his rhythm did the trick. Still got 34, and but that's reasonable considering how they tend to freeze out their role players from the game.

[danfantastk32]

Not "going in" on him. I was just looking to see how many games he's given this amount of effort in this year. I've never really watched the guy. His game is fairly limited and after digging into his game logs over the last several years his inconsistency makes Kuzma look like a steady contributor.

Green reminds me of Horry. People who tuned into the playoffs thought Horry was a stud. But those people who watched every game throughout the season knew there were two Horry's. For instance, the year we beat Sac-Town (despite their attempts to poison our player - I never understood why a criminal investigation was never opened) where Horry had his most Iconic moment, he averaged 6.8 points, and 5.9 rebounds a game. In almost 30 mpg.

I think most Laker fans (guilty) know the playoff Green. The good news is that we will most likely see an uptick in his production once the games start 'counting'. Green is a vet....who knows how to run the race.

[danfantastk32]

I just thought Danny Green's defense on Harden was perfect. Contesting shots without fouling.. getting a couple of steals to disrupt his rhythm did the trick. Still got 34, and but that's reasonable considering how they tend to freeze out their role players from the game.

Not trying to dis Green....but I thought it was the double-teams that did the trick. Most of the time, Harden deferred. That was great. It says something about our defense, that we were able to pull that off so well.

[tamaraw08]

Worry about Green like you have to worry about Rick Fox. He will show up. Vogle has been careful with his minutes all year, but any big game, he's shown up and played. Any extended run, like he used to get in SA and Tor he plays well.

The fact is so many guys are eating minutes that no one but really AD and Bron are playing true starter mins or true 10-15 mins a night bench minutes in the top 10. JAvale is playing 18 a night, Caruso 19, Rondo and the others 20 and up which is why some people like Kuz or Green can't get a rhythm

Playoff minutes are going to be very interesting for this group as everyone is so used to getting time and some are going to see that cut

A quick check of last year. He had 20 games over 15 in the regular season..... and one in the playoffs. He also shot 32% in the playoffs from 3.

Like Kuzma's defense.... the legends don't die.... even if they aren't the case. His playoff numbers last year offensively were not that good. His big playoff years were in SA... 5 years ago.

He also took Middleton and Reddick out the series vs them which out them in a great position. Note what I said, I don't worry about him, just like I didn't about Rick Fox. He will do his job, step up when needed, do dirty work, and keep it moving

Thank God I was not the Laker GM bec I would have given him a 4 year 100 mil contract. I felt he was the perfect guy next to Lebron bec of his defense and his high accuracy from the 3pt line.
I expected more but looking at his career pts/game it's a a freaking identical 9 pts/game but I again if you project Lebron spotting him at the corners where he is most deadly, I felt that's an extra 5 pts/game at least.
But looking at his splits, he actually shot better in losses, 3pt shooting (42%) and TS% (59%) wise so he shouldn't be blamed for those losses. His away and home % are almost the same.
The Rick Fox analogy was spot on. I too was very frustrated with Rick but like most fans here, we seem to focus too much on pts/game and not on their defense with BTW Green is still really solid.