If Brunson is out, Mikal needs to step up and become a 20ppg scorer for us. It could be a good opportunity for him to get his confidence back. Mikal/OG/KAT is still a play-in caliber team, we should be able to stay afloat to a reasonable degree.
ToddTT wrote:BigDaddyG wrote:Luka is so fat that he blocks his teammates line of sight when they shoot threes.
Luka’s so fat he banged your mom. 
No, my mom isn't a chocolate eclair.
Up there as one of the most frustrating and annoying losses of the season. Hate losing to LeBum, hate seeing the Captain get hurt and hate going to bed so late!
Fingers crossed JB is OK. He's a warrior and tough so he'll do whatever it takes to get back. I don't really care about seeding or even homecourt advantage since we honestly have none. All I care about is being as healthy as possible come playoffs.
Game further exposed our weaknesses. We cannot guard the 3 to save our lives. Vincent killed us. That kept the Lakers in the game and ultimately it was what won it for them along with those gazzilion offensive rebounds. KAT didn't have a good game at all and I'm giving him a pass with everything that is going on personally with him. Was a step slow and got beat for rebounds and didn't seem interested in scoring the ball at all. Bridges was also too shy in this game. 6 shots in 43 minutes is unacceptable. Without JB for a few games and possibly weeks we need both of these guys to be more aggressive!
JB was great as always but did miss a couple of big shots that would've pulled the game away. Can't him them all! Hart was alright. Hit that big corner 3 but it annoys the hell out of me when he hesitates an open look! Just let it fly man! If you brick it, you brick it! OG was great once again. Played hardnosed defense on that crybaby Luka. Jesus Christ he cries worse than Randle used to! Every freaking call!
SergioNYK wrote:Up there as one of the most frustrating and annoying losses of the season. Hate losing to LeBum, hate seeing the Captain get hurt and hate going to bed so late! Fingers crossed JB is OK. He's a warrior and tough so he'll do whatever it takes to get back. I don't really care about seeding or even homecourt advantage since we honestly have none. All I care about is being as healthy as possible come playoffs.
Game further exposed our weaknesses. We cannot guard the 3 to save our lives. Vincent killed us. That kept the Lakers in the game and ultimately it was what won it for them along with those gazzilion offensive rebounds. KAT didn't have a good game at all and I'm giving him a pass with everything that is going on personally with him. Was a step slow and got beat for rebounds and didn't seem interested in scoring the ball at all. Bridges was also too shy in this game. 6 shots in 43 minutes is unacceptable. Without JB for a few games and possibly weeks we need both of these guys to be more aggressive!
JB was great as always but did miss a couple of big shots that would've pulled the game away. Can't him them all! Hart was alright. Hit that big corner 3 but it annoys the hell out of me when he hesitates an open look! Just let it fly man! If you brick it, you brick it! OG was great once again. Played hardnosed defense on that crybaby Luka. Jesus Christ he cries worse than Randle used to! Every freaking call!
Hart literally won a playoff series for us with his 3 point shooting. He was shooting 40% to start the year. He's gotta sack up and let it fly.
Brunson hurt should mean Kolek time!
Got to focus on the positives
Hey guys, I think if we had one we'd be talking about how this one of the better defensive games of the year. KAT was awful on O, but he actually held up well defensively on multiple occasions. Lakers were 38/89 (42%) and 14/42 from 3 (33%) and were held to 99 in regulation. This was the hottest team in the NBA right now with 2 of the best offensive players on the planet and in this history of the game. I thought what OG did one on one vs. Luka was masterful.
Fucking Gabe Vincent beat us with a bunch of 3s, but quite honestly the game was lost because we scored 15 freaking points in the 4th quarter. KAT and Mikal had invisible offensive games, and Hart actually scored well, but still hesitated too much on open shots. There wasn't any support for Jalen. And Jalen couldn't bail us out with a big pull up 3. He missed 3-4 down the stretch that were the exact shots that pulled us out 3 wins the week before. I'm not blaming him, but the luck kinda evened out there.
You don't get cookies for not winning but this makes sense
I will put this out there as a hot take, but the Lakers are gonna come out of the West. The Thunder are good, but I think when faced off in a series with Luka and Lebron they don't have the edge yet to take them down. The Lakers are playing great defense - JJ is budding basketball genius. And Lebron is locked in again because he sees another ring. At 40 yrs old he is still the most physically explosive athlete in the NBA.
VDesai wrote:I will put this out there as a hot take, but the Lakers are gonna come out of the West. The Thunder are good, but I think when faced off in a series with Luka and Lebron they don't have the edge yet to take them down. The Lakers are playing great defense - JJ is budding basketball genius. And Lebron is locked in again because he sees another ring. At 40 yrs old he is still the most physically explosive athlete in the NBA.
Lakers will not come out of west. Once playoffs start teams will focus on isolating Luka on pick and rolls and torch him. Boston set blueprint last season. He is still a big liability on defense.
knickslions wrote:VDesai wrote:I will put this out there as a hot take, but the Lakers are gonna come out of the West. The Thunder are good, but I think when faced off in a series with Luka and Lebron they don't have the edge yet to take them down. The Lakers are playing great defense - JJ is budding basketball genius. And Lebron is locked in again because he sees another ring. At 40 yrs old he is still the most physically explosive athlete in the NBA.
Lakers will not come out of west. Once playoffs start teams will focus on isolating Luka on pick and rolls and torch him. Boston set blueprint last season. He is still a big liability on defense.
Boston's offense can seemingly exploit anyone. I don't think OKC quite has the shooting to consistently kill them and JJ is covering Luka well schematically. They are actually putting Luka in places where he is generating turnovers for them defensively.
Not for nothing but Brunson missing games should be a blessing in disguise.
Brunson rests up for a couple of weeks. Hopefully it is not months.
Mikal, Deuce, Kolek should all get more burn and responsibility.
martin wrote:Not for nothing but Brunson missing game should be a blessing in disguise. Brunson rests up for a couple of weeks.
Mikal, Deuce, Kolek should all get more burn and responsibility.
I agree with that. We weren't catching Boston at 2 and we're not super likely to drop to no.4 (and it may not be that consequential if we do), so we might take some lumps, but there's an opportunity to learn here. Can Deuce run a legit PG? Can Mikal take the reigns and create offensive given given more lead responsibility? I think there's a lot to learn about the team here.
Honestly I really think we need to see Mikal step up. Needs to find some confidence as a secondary shot creator.
Tough loss.
JB is a gamer. Hope he is okay.
OG another offensive appearance. Good to see.
Our $50 Million dollar man was invisible.
Would have been a good road win against a hot team. Focus on next game.
I predict our defensive rotations and all around defense gets better without JB and KAT.
