PLAYOFFS: Lakers v Blazers game 1 thread

[Spanish_Laker]

The season will be over when we lose Game 2 on double digits, another great performance by our guards shooting a 22% from 3.

PD: only chance to come back in the series is to make huge changes in the rotation, first one Rondo in.

[kobe808lak]

Danny Green sucks, he has 1 game out of 8 where he shows up. KCP is in October form. Caruso is a nice player but is no threat on offense. AD needs to stop chucking lazy threes and play down low.

Bradley out has been huge. We don't look like the same team at all.

Lebron still can't shoot FTs after all these years.

[Hans1984]

Davis was abysmal. Does he realize that the playoffs have started or is this all he got in him ?

[Mamba Mentality]

I knew free throw shooting would bite us in the ass at some point in the playoffs. Didn't think it would be the first game though. 11 misses in a 7 point loss...that hurts.

[stan francisco]

I’m a team first kind of Lakers fan. Was never on Kobe’s nuts and I’m not a LeBron fan.

The game LeBron played yesterday was beastly. One of the better games I’ve seen him play. If Danny Green would’ve made some of the open corner three shots he usually never misses, LeBron might have posted 20 assists.

What he did yesterday was Herculean in my book. And at his age ... Man, if our other players’ shots start falling it’s over.

[Ball so hard]

Just finished watching the game on DVR. There are several reasons why we lost this game. Our starting backcourt was atrocious. It's only one game, but there's no way we should start KCP and Green next game. I really don't care who we put in. I'm tempted to say start Waiters, mostly because I think he'll actually make either Dame or CJ do some work on the defensive end.

AD - Unbelievable talent. However, his game is far too perimeter oriented for my liking. He is what he is at this point. I truly miss players that can play on the block such as Pau, Shaq, Kobe, etc. A player with AD's talent taking a bunch of low percentage perimeter shots is a gift to opposing teams. Earlier this year when Vogel said he wants AD taking 5 3s a game I almost pulled my hair out.

Our game plan MUST change for next game. I would like to see Bron on the block more. Have Waiters run some point.

I'd like to see the below starting lineup:
Mcgee
AD
Green
Waiters
Bron

[stan francisco]

Davis was abysmal. Does he realize that the playoffs have started or is this all he got in him ?

I respectfully disagree. Yes, his shooting was abysmal, but I think his game plan was clean. He got hacked quite a bit, too.

He is such a load to handle when he attacks, they simply need to foul him to stop him. For long stretches AD dominated the game from the line, Kobe style. Hit or miss on the shots, getting to the line completely took Portland out of their rhythm, made them reactive to our game. That’s what we want. Turnovers mean Portland runs the break. The flow of most playoffs series are often dictated by what happens at the line. AD and the Lakers will win this series at the line because of AD, LBJ, Kuzma attacking the hoop aggressively and getting to the stripe.

LBJ needs to get back to using his legs shooting FTs. Right now he’s flicking it with his wrist again, flying his elbow, not using his legs to help his shot in a good way.

[TwoStarz]

I’m a team first kind of Lakers fan. Was never on Kobe’s nuts and I’m not a LeBron fan.

The game LeBron played yesterday was beastly. One of the better games I’ve seen him play. If Danny Green would’ve made some of the open corner three shots he usually never misses, LeBron might have posted 20 assists.

What he did yesterday was Herculean in my book. And at his age ... Man, if our other players’ shots start falling it’s over.

What is so beastly about expecting your lesser teammates to make shots and score points for you. I don't care how open or how good those looks are, if they are constantly bricking and you're expecting different results...you are insane. A true beast would have taken the game over with his own scoring...not expect scrubs like KCP and Green to hit timely shots for him. There was nothing beastly about that game, if anything, as the moment got bigger our two stars tightened up, and it was evident with them gagging all over the FT line. Stats mean **** all.

Blazers saw that our stars are no "closers" and immediately lit us up for three straight threes LOL.

Basketball is a confidence sport and there eyes lit up once they saw how vulnerable and weak really their prey was.

[Ball so hard]

LeBron and AD really came up weak down the stretch... Green looks like his father out there now. Kuz and Caruso were solid, we had solid minutes from Dwight, and Morris... But other than that... We're not playing like we really want it.

This was our game to lose and we lost it.

I really don't like this team that much. Even when we win it feels like we stumbled into it. I don't enjoy the style of play when we play through LeBron heavily, but that's how we win.

Agree with everything you said. It's somewhat confounding. We had a great regular season record and Bron puts up great numbers, yet I do not enjoy our style of play. I guess there's something about how one dimensional our offense seems... Bron walks the ball up and then dribble for another 15 seconds while he surveys the floor.

[Spanish_Laker]

And by the way, this is not the Lakers we have been watching in the 2019-2020 season pre Coronavirus. The chemistry is gone, the excellent physical condition gone, our once average 3pt shooting gone, everything is gone, except our defense.

[stan francisco]

LeBron and AD really came up weak down the stretch... Green looks like his father out there now. Kuz and Caruso were solid, we had solid minutes from Dwight, and Morris... But other than that... We're not playing like we really want it.

This was our game to lose and we lost it.

I really don't like this team that much. Even when we win it feels like we stumbled into it. I don't enjoy the style of play when we play through LeBron heavily, but that's how we win.

Agree with everything you said. It's somewhat confounding. We had a great regular season record and Bron puts up great numbers, yet I do not enjoy our style of play. I guess there's something about how one dimensional our offense seems... Bron walks the ball up and then dribble for another 15 seconds while he surveys the floor.

I can’t stand watching Bron bounce the ball for 20 seconds at the top of the key either. It wasn’t too bad on that front yesterday I thought.

Portland’s defense was adjusted toward the end. They shrunk the space very effectively for both of our stars. The chess game has begun. Stotts 1, Vogel 0.

[Ball so hard]

Davis was abysmal. Does he realize that the playoffs have started or is this all he got in him ?

I respectfully disagree. Yes, his shooting was abysmal, but I think his game plan was clean. He got hacked quite a bit, too.

He is such a load to handle when he attacks, they simply need to foul him to stop him. For long stretches AD dominated the game from the line, Kobe style. Hit or miss on the shots, getting to the line completely took Portland out of their rhythm, made them reactive to our game. That’s what we want. Turnovers mean Portland runs the break. The flow of most playoffs series are often dictated by what happens at the line. AD and the Lakers will win this series at the line because of AD, LBJ, Kuzma attacking the hoop aggressively and getting to the stripe.

LBJ needs to get back to using his legs shooting FTs. Right now he’s flicking it with his wrist again, flying his elbow, not using his legs to help his shot in a good way.

I wouldn't go as far as calling his performance abysmal, though it certainly wasn't good. The bolded part is true and is the reason why I hate seeing him launch so many low percentage shots from the outside. It's very misleading to say he dominated the game from the line. One of our best stretches (AD was on the bench) came in the first half when we came back from something like 14 down. Incidentally I thought he was sitting for too long during that stretch. AD wasn't dominant on either end of the floor. I remember arguing with another poster on the General Board a while back about how dominant AD is on the defensive end... he argued AD is not a great defender in spite of his great block numbers. Having had some time to reflect on his arguments, I beginning to think he may actually have a point.

[Hans1984]

Davis was abysmal. Does he realize that the playoffs have started or is this all he got in him ?

I respectfully disagree. Yes, his shooting was abysmal, but I think his game plan was clean. He got hacked quite a bit, too.

He is such a load to handle when he attacks, they simply need to foul him to stop him. For long stretches AD dominated the game from the line, Kobe style. Hit or miss on the shots, getting to the line completely took Portland out of their rhythm, made them reactive to our game. That’s what we want. Turnovers mean Portland runs the break. The flow of most playoffs series are often dictated by what happens at the line. AD and the Lakers will win this series at the line because of AD, LBJ, Kuzma attacking the hoop aggressively and getting to the stripe.

LBJ needs to get back to using his legs shooting FTs. Right now he’s flicking it with his wrist again, flying his elbow, not using his legs to help his shot in a good way.

I wouldn't go as far as calling his performance abysmal, though it certainly wasn't good. The bolded part is true and is the reason why I hate seeing him launch so many low percentage shots from the outside. It's very misleading to say he dominated the game from the line. One of our best stretches (AD was on the bench) came in the first half when we came back from something like 14 down. Incidentally I thought he was sitting for too long during that stretch. AD wasn't dominant on either end of the floor. I remember arguing with another poster on the General Board a while back about how dominant AD is on the defensive end... he argued AD is not a great defender in spite of his great block numbers. Having had some time to reflect on his arguments, I beginning to think he may actually have a point.

Alright abysmal was a little bit too harsh but it certainly wasn't the performance I was expecting from him.

[lazybatman]

There's no arguing with someone who thinks Prime Rose is a tougher assignment than either Kobe or MJ ever took on...

LeBron **** the bed tonight... Came up small in the 4th... Missed key freethrows and inexplicably tried to sink a near half court 3 when we'd just started building some momentum. Not to mention missing some key defensive assignments and being barely able to win a jump ball against freaking CJ Mccallum. He always gets stats, but he routinely has games like this, especially later in his career, where they mean basically nothing.

We have a team that's essentially built around him and cannot succeed without him. So I feel like it's fair to call out when the effort or intensity isn't there. Being the King is good, but it's always the Kings fault when it's bad.

LeBron's focus hasn't really been there all Bubble to be honest. We need him to find it and fast. Hopefully tonight will help.

I'll give you Lebron and AD's missed FTs, which really did seem to knock the wind out of that little run. He should've / could've been more assertive towards the end too. But, Dwight's limited range, ergo the top shot blocker in the league happily clogging the paint waiting for our drivers & our terrible night from the 3(next best option for him) made Lebron's drives a far worse option than they usually are. I thought he looked a little gassed at the end of the first half anyway, cos of what he was having to do just to keep us within throwing distance. Oh and thanks, that jump ball still counts in the + column against a considerably younger athletic guard. He's shot 35% (7/20) from 30 ft+ distance this season, which is 21% better than the what the team was shooting yesterday. That's only worse than Dame, who shoots a ridiculous 41.5% from there. So, I'd say more power to them, whenever they decide to launch it. But, I'm sure it's a different story in your slide to oblivion, just as it was for Paul George not so long back.

Your post, outside of the two FTs, is the usual biased factless ignorant hate piece you lot always come up with out of insecurity for Kobe / MJ legacy. Their legacies are etched in stone, and don't need any help.

Here''s a fun challenge for you dude -
- Name a faster, more dynamic and athletic PG that MJ/Kobe guarded and shut down over a series than MVP Rose(2011). We talking a very small club of A.I., Russ(considerably inferior scoring threat) and D Rose. Can add Kobe & Mike to that list, but they never shut each down, aside from grandpa Wizards Mike, which doesn't count.

- Why do you believe a considerably slower vet could / would even attempt to shut down the hottest PG in the game at his tender age of 35? I don't think much of Vogel, but clearly, he's in better shape than some of us out here.

- Substantiate the argument that this team is constructed around Lebron? A bunch of rag tag vet minimums with injury / attitude fit history, out of which the 3rd best and most important player decided to sit out the playoffs. Is Lebron getting Magic / Pelinka's salary? Yeah, he may have had a hand in bringing AD here, but he's still the only net positive player aside from Lebron on this team, as far as I can see. But he traded away the youth... He did that!! Our future, our dreams...
Was Kobe responsible for the state of the team, when he handed in a transfer request? Was Mike responsible for breaking up the Bulls in '98? But, their twitter handle wasn't 'KingJames', was it?

- Substantiate your "Lebron shat the bed" argument on a 23-16-17 stat line, when the rest of the team was shooting 32%FG, 14% 3FG and

Read on Twitter

Btw, AD didn't help with 33% FG and 12/17 FTs, but I get how 28 pts > 23 pts in the simple world you live in.

- In what world would someone with an impartial outlook think a multiple team(including the Lakers) failure or reject(mostly cos of attitude issues), on a non guaranteed contract, and a moron on steroids like Dwight 4 pts(40% shooting mostly on putbacks) - 5 rbs - 5 daft fouls stat line while being schooled by Whiteside, had A BETTER MENTALITY than most NBA players, let alone a top 3 all time player.

Don't spam your cynical opinions in long paragraphs now and make it so easy for me yet again. Be grateful he chose the worse franchise over the last 5 years, over other tailor made alternatives like Clippers, Nets, Bucks, Blazers, 76ers, etc to come because he's a businessman, and enjoy the next game.

[Mamba Mentality]

-35% fg, 15% 3pt, and 64% ft

-27 of the 35 threes last night were classified as either open or wide open. Only converted 2 out of 16 wide open chances.

-7 of 26 in transition (19 misses are the most since SS started tracking that data in 2013-14)

Still hard to believe that we were in the game up until the last minute. Heck it wasn't for Dame's heroics we could have probably won the game. We're gonna be just fine.

[tamaraw08]

LeBron and AD really came up weak down the stretch... Green looks like his father out there now. Kuz and Caruso were solid, we had solid minutes from Dwight, and Morris... But other than that... We're not playing like we really want it.

This was our game to lose and we lost it.

I really don't like this team that much. Even when we win it feels like we stumbled into it. I don't enjoy the style of play when we play through LeBron heavily, but that's how we win.

Agree with everything you said. It's somewhat confounding. We had a great regular season record and Bron puts up great numbers, yet I do not enjoy our style of play. I guess there's something about how one dimensional our offense seems... Bron walks the ball up and then dribble for another 15 seconds while he surveys the floor.

Yes, James during 4th quarter crunch times would do this and I also hate it but according to NBA advanced stats, James' ave seconds per touch is 4.85 which is like 50th in the league. https://stats.nba.com/players/touches/?Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&sort=AVG_SEC_PER_TOUCH&dir=1
Main culprits of holding the ball for too long are Young, Harden, Rose, Lillard all above 5.85 seconds.
Lebron James' dribble an average of 3.85 per touch and there's like 25 players who dribbles longer than 5 seconds.
I guess most of us look at things differently. Yes, GSW when they were healthy is a thing of beauty, I even enjoy Portland's screen rolls etc but then again some would rather see Kobe take 22 shots, 4.9 assists while shooting 45%FG.

[slifersd]

-35% fg, 15% 3pt, and 64% ft

-27 of the 35 threes last night were classified as either open or wide open. Only converted 2 out of 16 wide open chances.

-7 of 26 in transition (19 misses are the most since SS started tracking that data in 2013-14)

Still hard to believe that we were in the game up until the last minute. Heck it wasn't for Dame's heroics we could have probably won the game. We're gonna be just fine.

Problem is, those numbers are basically the kind of numbers we have been putting up as a team since the restart. At this point, it is arguable that is indeed who we are, a team that is absolutely atrocious on offense. Can we beat Portland? Yes. Will we beat them? Only if this team dramatically improve their offensive output, which they have not done one time in the bubble.

What I really hated, was that I did not see the urgency on the players' faces last night. In a playoff game where we were playing so poorly, these guys were still smiling and acting like it's preseason. I remember seeing Kobe in a few games like this, and the determination on his face could be seen from space. Danny Green, Lebron and AD, on the other hand, looked like they were playing a pick up. Portland was out looking for blood, and we looked like we were going to a party.

[lazybatman]

Davis was abysmal. Does he realize that the playoffs have started or is this all he got in him ?

I respectfully disagree. Yes, his shooting was abysmal, but I think his game plan was clean. He got hacked quite a bit, too.

He is such a load to handle when he attacks, they simply need to foul him to stop him. For long stretches AD dominated the game from the line, Kobe style. Hit or miss on the shots, getting to the line completely took Portland out of their rhythm, made them reactive to our game. That’s what we want. Turnovers mean Portland runs the break. The flow of most playoffs series are often dictated by what happens at the line. AD and the Lakers will win this series at the line because of AD, LBJ, Kuzma attacking the hoop aggressively and getting to the stripe.

LBJ needs to get back to using his legs shooting FTs. Right now he’s flicking it with his wrist again, flying his elbow, not using his legs to help his shot in a good way.

I wouldn't go as far as calling his performance abysmal, though it certainly wasn't good. The bolded part is true and is the reason why I hate seeing him launch so many low percentage shots from the outside. It's very misleading to say he dominated the game from the line. One of our best stretches (AD was on the bench) came in the first half when we came back from something like 14 down. Incidentally I thought he was sitting for too long during that stretch. AD wasn't dominant on either end of the floor. I remember arguing with another poster on the General Board a while back about how dominant AD is on the defensive end... he argued AD is not a great defender in spite of his great block numbers. Having had some time to reflect on his arguments, I beginning to think he may actually have a point.

Agree with both your points in totality, Ballsohard and Stan, about AD's game.

I thought the Blazers ability to collapse in the lane for AD, Lebron and our cutters was again down to our shooting woes and Centers who are zero threat, even from mid range, allowing Whiteside to camp in the lane and have his way with Dwight and AD, while getting 5 blocks in the process. Whiteside is not the monster he became yesterday, and we're not gonna shoot as bad again in the playoffs hopefully. He is bigger, stronger than both of them, and fairly mobile. He's winning the battle inside 8 out of 10 times on our guys.

I loved his demeanor, the desperation and fight for every possession, and can't really complain about it from any of the other guys either, but the one thing I don't agree about is 12/17 FT shooting. That's a poor night. Man, don't let that Lebron bug from the line catch you. You gotta make 85% FTs and make them pay. If you're using 32 offensive possessions(24 + approx 8 possessions when he was hacked / sent to the line), you better get 45, or stick to 30 in 18 shots or less.

[lazybatman]

Just finished watching the game on DVR. There are several reasons why we lost this game. Our starting backcourt was atrocious. It's only one game, but there's no way we should start KCP and Green next game. I really don't care who we put in. I'm tempted to say start Waiters, mostly because I think he'll actually make either Dame or CJ do some work on the defensive end.

AD - Unbelievable talent. However, his game is far too perimeter oriented for my liking. He is what he is at this point. I truly miss players that can play on the block such as Pau, Shaq, Kobe, etc. A player with AD's talent taking a bunch of low percentage perimeter shots is a gift to opposing teams. Earlier this year when Vogel said he wants AD taking 5 3s a game I almost pulled my hair out.

Our game plan MUST change for next game. I would like to see Bron on the block more. Have Waiters run some point.

I'd like to see the below starting lineup:
Mcgee
AD
Green
Waiters
Bron

Yeah.. Vogel seemed to have no faith in Waiters, JR, etc. Figured we din't have much to lose rolling the dice with the sorta night KCP and Danny Green were having.

I wish Morris was a wee bit more athletic to where he could be a Draymond-like Center and poof our spacing problems and the clutter in the lane go away. Had brilliant game last night. Total pro's pro. Loved it.

[NippySudz]

Kobe would have loved and accepted the challenge.

At 35?

Come on dude.

Not saying impossible. LeBron has shown it this year but in spurts. Lakers didn't do a bad job defending Lillard for the most part. He hit some bombs. AB is not there to be inside his jersey full court. That's the only thing

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Well maybe not 35 year old Kobe, But Kobe would have accepted the challenge. Especially once you guys clawed back to tie the game. I think LeBron defers a little too much when he should be imposing his will against this portland team. They have no one at SF that can check him.

In year 17, Kobe wasn't even playing. I think his achilles was shot that year or the year before. IIRC. Kobe was on the way out. People need to stop saying kobe would have done this or that. LeBron is 35. He can handle it in spurts. I don't think he could pick up dame all game long and still have energy to score. Hell, even Kawhi (my favorite player) doesn't get that type of assignment. Kawhi is only 28.

Kawhi guarded giannis in stretches, it was marc gasol and siakam that kept him busy too.

Kawhi wasn't guarded Curry all game long last year either.