WMC 12/13: Mercy kill. (0-4)

biz wrote:then we don't go to him at all in the 2nd half.

What game were you watching? the Lakers went to Howard plenty of times in the 4th but it resulted in turnovers......

I seriously cannot watch another game of Jamison and MWP.... trade them while they still have value.

Eh, I guess I shouldn't have expected a win was even possible in the first place. Oh well, would have still been an acceptable road trip had we not blown that game to Phoenix, would have been 5-2, 4-3 is not acceptable, sorry. MWP sucks a**, I wish he could be bought out. We're still not playing together, way too many Kobe iso's that went nowhere, no flow or movement, so many guys standing around not involved, Kobe and Dwight have zero 2 man game going on. They could be Kobe-Shaq-light if Kobe broke down the D and fed him, or he set screens up top for Nash on the pick n roll, but none of that happens, none of it. The rebounding was a joke, that was all effort and there was none of it, from almost everyone, Howard wasn't getting the ball so he decided not to try hard overall, love banking the future on a guy like that. On to the next one, the quest to just make the playoffs and get bounced in the first round to AVOID embarrassment continues.

You aren't going to win with one dependable scorer and a completely unimaginative offense. The whole offense was Kobe in the post. 4th QTR Miami just doubled that and since no one else on the Lakers was doing anything...this is what D'antoni gets paid for? He just passed backup QB as the easiest job in sports.

The 3rd quarter rebounding was awful. To give a team like Miami 2nd, 3rd, attempts at the basket killed us. We were playing good initial defense but couldn't finish it off by rebounding the basketball. Even then we were still in the game and the 4th quarter we self-imploded turning the ball over. That completely changed the game. They were given easy buckets, got the crowd involved and was our ultimate demise.

How does a team with Chris Bosh starting at center out rebound us

valiant effort till the 4th, Kobe to many ISO's and TO's, Nash couldn't even out play Chalmers by much sad and out bench wasn't there

not surprised, but still disappointing

MWP is definitely the weak link here. With no production from that spot team is at a disadvantage. At this point in his career he should be the backup SF but the team has no one else and clearly Ebanks eithers sucks or is so far in D'antoni's doghouse we'll never find out.

Nothing to WMC about with this loss. MIA is just a much better team.

Oh wait....there is something to WMC about:

RON ARTEST. God this guy has been putrid since Jan 1 2013.

Well, we completely blew that one. Dwight was rolling and we were building up a decent lead. We went away from him and the game was never the same. Just don't get it.

4-3 isn't bad enough to bury this team but it didn't do us any favors. Now even if we win our next 2 home games going to ASB we'll still be 2 games under .500. If we won today we would have been .500 with two victories at home. Really big blow losing that PHX game.

Biz wrote:Dwight had an amazing first half....then we don't go to him at all in the 2nd half. I think he had 1 shot that wasn't an offensive rebound in the second half other than his And1 with a minute to go when the game was over. That 4th quarter was horrendous...Kobe iso is just not going to cut it.

True, but I think midway through the 4th, we tried to throw it into him twice and they both resulted in TOs, so then we just went away.

Also tough to pass over a fronting defender when the refs are calling push off on Howard.

Right now every loss is taking a step back to reach the POs.

We have to win 4 in a row (Suns, Clipps,Celts and JailBlazers)!

Why can't we close games anymore? Bah. We had it until the 4th Q. I don't know what happened then.

ElginTheGreat wrote:Well, we completely blew that one. Dwight was rolling and we were building up a decent lead. We went away from him and the game was never the same. Just don't get it.

We tried going back to it in the 4th, but it led to a couple TOs. Then when he finally got the ball once, he tried to pass it out but got triple teamed, and his pass was intercepted. So not much choice other than giving Kobe his ISO ball.

Every player on this roster not named Kobe , Nash and Clark either suck at playing B-Ball or has the wrong mentality ...

We will probably 7-8 more wins with a decent starting SF ... Piece of Crap is beyond pathetic

- We lack a decent wing with size coming off the bench

The Dwight diva situation is getting worse and worse

Biz wrote:Dwight had an amazing first half....then we don't go to him at all in the 2nd half. I think he had 1 shot that wasn't an offensive rebound in the second half other than his And1 with a minute to go when the game was over. That 4th quarter was horrendous...Kobe iso is just not going to cut it.

Many of our 4th quarter turnovers happened trying to get the ball inside. Miami trapped us and either we made a bad pass because of the pressure or a decent one that just got stolen by a rotating miami player.
They played awesome pressure D and we weren't prepared for it, but it did look like we we're trying to go to Dwight in the 4th.

Armani wrote:Why can't we close games anymore? Bah. We had it until the 4th Q. I don't know what happened then.

Miami is just a great veteran team. They aren't champions for nothing. That and they still get whistles on almost every layup. Despite all that, the game was still winnable if only a few rebounds went our way or if Metta could hit a couple shots (wth happened to him? plantar fascitis??)

Our rebounding!!!!
Miami is the 4th worst rebounding team in the league, we have the league's leading rebounder, and they outrebounded us big They were ahead like 33-19 and had 10 offensive rebounds after 3 quarters.
Their 5 point lead to enter the 4th was all on our defensive rebounding (or lack thereof).

Turnovers in the 4th

MWP still doesn't get it, and seemingly neither do our other players that keep getting him the ball.
He also played mediocre D against LeBron all game long

Injuries (yes, still, we had Clark and Jamison as our "bigs" against effing LeBron!)

We have almost as many losses as Minnesota now.

Finwë wrote:He also played mediocre D against LeBron all game long

I would say terrible D all game long. LeBron got whatever he wanted unless he lazily wanted to jack up a 20-footer.

rebounding was big but honestly the ball just landed right into the heat's hands. they didnt even work for their offensive boards it literally rolled into their laps. so im not gunna fault the lakers too much on that bc i'd say 7 out of the 10 miami offensive boards were just pure luck.

i am pissed at our execution in the 4th. it was beyond terrible. kobe iso on the block EVERY time. even i could defend that and the heat did which caused a TON of turnovers. idk if thats dantoni or kobe but Dwight was doing really well offensively tonight and didnt touch the ball once until that dunk when the game was over. its pathetic....get him the ball! he looked good and was making his FT's. unacceptable to get that close to beating them and end up running the same play where they throw a dangerous lob to go down low which is SO easy to steal. i called it every time which means so could the heat who LOVE to play the passing lanes and can gamble bc their rotations are fast.

good 3 quarters. bad 4th. turnovers which were so stupid and easily avoidable but they continued to kobe iso. not getting the ball to dwight was dumb too. man id be pissed if i was him. all that talk about how "we gotta get dwight going" "he has the advantage" was apparently bs. its common basketball iq to get dwight going and not just run kobe iso EVERY time down the floor when youre down at the same spot on the floor with the same lob everytime. anyone can read that and they did which led to them scoring EVERY time.

WTF is metta doing.

dj vitus wrote:

Finwë wrote:He also played mediocre D against LeBron all game long

I would say terrible D all game long. LeBron got whatever he wanted unless he lazily wanted to jack up a 20-footer.

Prime Pippen, Rodman, or Bowen would have issues trying to slow Lebron right now. I don't blame him for that. The issue Ron is having is shot selection. He's reverted to his Houston play when he was a ball stopper and a black hole on offense. It's hurting our team right now.