Game 9: vs. Nets, 112-124 (W)

Ice in yo face!

Lakers Highlights

1. Overview

D'angelo is back! And we can see it from the play of Lonzo Ball. He was all over him defensively and tried some awkward shots himself. It was a very up and down first quarter, if teams executed better, this could be a 40 point quarter for both teams. It got really sloppy sometimes on the offensive and and neither Lakers nor Nets showed any defensive effort. Lakers had a 7 point lead for like 10 seconds and seemed like a foundation for a bigger lead but bad mistakes led to a 7-0 run by Nets and we are only up by one heading to the 2nd quarter.

Much more under control and a lot better effort defensively. Too much fouling and turnovers prevented us to take the lead in the first quarter, but in the second we did a better job in both departments. Great scoring from Clarkson continued with the scoring of Kuzma here in the second and all of a sudden we took a 13 lead, thanks to some mistakes by the Nets. From this point forward tempo got a bit faster and that led us to make some mistakes. A game where we could easily be up 20+, we were up by 9 at the end of the 2nd.

A very fast start out of the gates. 2 triples from Brook and a monster dunk from BI and we are up 15 again. But silly fouling came back, we let Nets back to the game with an 8-0 run, caused by our careless plays on both ends. Lopez on the other hand was very good showing off in front of his teammates, making 2 more triples to consolidated the lead. As our offense flowed, we intesified the defense and did not let Nets closer than 10 points. Take no prisoners! I like the mentality. The freethrows from Nets let them stay at 10 point range as we go into the fourth.

We were not poised enough in this game. This may be caused because we played good and made our shots. Surprisingly, we were almost perfect defensively for the first 6 minutes. But we relaxed too much on offense, did not utilize their weaknesses and just play up and down. Lopez was guarded by midgets for as long as 5 minutes and we did not feed him enough. A 16 point lead was on it's way to 25 but we prevented it and they got the lead to single digit. The Nets suddenly started attacking and we kept fouling, led to 5 and-1 plays and a 3 which cut the lead to 4. After this we realized their weaknesses and started feeding Lopez. He feasted, hit 3 after 3 and had a great ending to a great performance. After Lopez put on his foot, we did not let them any closer than 10 points and managed to bounce back from a heart breaking loss!

2. The Team

Positives

• Led all the way from the start, never let opponent gain any momentum
• Very hard defense
• Making defense our team's strong suit
• Very high scoring game, also very efficient
• 9/21 from 3 point range (i am more than ok with this much)
• Used different lineups, reacted quickly almost everytime
• Again simple sets and efficient PnR
• Good decisive coaching again
• Dominated the rebounds
• Bench being THE BENCH!

Negatives

• Turnovers
• Missed free throws
• We have only 8 players we really use after Nance's injury
• Not knowing to slow down sometimes
• Too much fouling

3. The Players

*Lonzo Ball (C):  Still on that shooting slump. In the first half he was like trying to prove that it was good for us to trade Russel. He forced some very bad shots and very ineffective. He continued this way the whole game. Still played hard defense, had 7 assists and 5 rebounds and a whopping +22 to lead all players in -/+ category. Good to see him being productive even though he struggled with his shot. He has to find a way to score efficiently though.

*Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (C): Played a very similar game to Lonzo stats-wise, but did not force too many shots. His veteran presence is felt when he is on the floor and sometimes does some magic on the offensive end which is good to see. Overall average game from him. 

*Brandon Ingram (A-): One of his best performances if not the best of this season. Almost without any mistake, he score 18 and grabbed 10 rebounds, knew when to attack and shoot, hustled on defense and was really confident. He is starting to develop a killer mentality. I like it!

*Brook Lopez (A+): When he was coming here, expectations were very high. He was coming out of arguably his best season ever and was in great shape. He was the first true big we had since Pau. So when he did not fulfill the expectations (for me he was not that bad though, just inconsistent), fans bashed him real hard. This game he showed his true value. He is still one of the best scoring bigs in the league, easily capable of 20ppg season and our best offensive weapon. Against his former team, he erupted for 34 points, including 6/9 threes. And his shots were all different variety. Whether it's a post up, a fadeaway 2 or a contested 3, Brook made it look easy. He had 3 blocks too, which people tend to undermine, but i think doing a great job defensively this season. Let's hope for some consistency now!

Fire in the hole fire in the hole!

*Jordan Clarkson (A): Instructions: Plug and just let him score. The 3 game no turnover streak is over now; but he played his best game so far this season. He played anytime he likes, from anywhere he wants. He distributed the ball, had 5 assists, to go along with 4 rebounds. He is effected from the collective effort on the defensive end too. Lakers fans are just harsh about him, but he is playing maybe his best ever.

*Kyle Kuzma (A+): If a player is consistently surprising you, things he does won't be a surprise for too long. When i say "things he does", i mean everything and everything to perfection. I am just very thankful that we took him. As Nance will be out for 4-6 weeks, expect him to score more 20+ games and more double-doubles. And take my word on this: He is an all-star in this third year. Will you be surprised if he does that in his second?

*Julius Randle (B): He has some bad habits. Like commiting very silly fouls, not taking wide open mid range shots and trying to bully whoever he faces. But the thing that he became our reliable defensive stopper is like miraculous! If he did not have foul problem, he could have had a monster game on offensive end. He was solid anyway. But thanks to his defensive play, i am more than pleased with his game, no matter what he does on offense.

*Tyler Ennis (C): Well look who is back, the Summer League version of Ennis! And he is most welcome. He looked like a steady backup for Lonzo but was just trash and lost all his playing time. Lonzo's shooting struggles helped him net some minutes and he took advantage. 10 points in 10 minutes? Not too bad!

*Coach Walton (B+): Finally Luke showing some open-mindedness with his plays and rotations. I am not talking solely based on this game; but this game too was a good game in the righ direction. He was not stubborn with his lineups and used any player anytime the team needed. No more finishing quarters with the same lineups! He mixed matched and tried to find a solution when the team had problems. He was not very quick to react sometimes but better late than never. Hope he continues to improve.

We are a feared team! We are very capable of upsets as we have shown before and we take care of the business against the teams that are lesser than us. Now, we are eyeing .500 for the first time in 10.000 years, so let's go to video room and study hard! 

All gifs are from giphy.com