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

therealdeal wrote:It's not that we aren't doing it, it's that we're not being consistent. That run we had when we came back in the last 18 minutes, we had no trouble covering for his man.

It's just about effort, not really about coaching or anything like that. We showed we can do it, it just has to be consistent.

Effort is a big pb ... but the lack of clear defensive schemes and knowledge of whom has to rotate and help is nearly as important as effort imo ... defense is a team thing , playing D on the "fly" doesn't work ... unless you've got players with high B-Ball IQ AND good athleticism on your team

Our players don't seem to have a clear idea on what spot they have to be , from where the help has to come ect ... that's why we've seen players pointing fingers at each other numerous times ...

easyguy wrote:

karacha wrote:Why is that so hard to do? I mean, help defense? They have to be aware of the problem, right?

Maybe we are really Old and Slow. I remembered once I played with these college basketball players at school and I knew my assignment was to watch my man, but it was difficult to stay in front of these faster players, no matter how hard I tried. Sound simple enough, but maybe our guys are just too slow for these faster younger guards. Or maybe that we are lazy...who knows.

That's a big factor too ... Kobe and Metta can't keep up with the ball and players movement ... only Meeks is doing a good job at it

wcsoldier81 wrote:

therealdeal wrote:It's not that we aren't doing it, it's that we're not being consistent. That run we had when we came back in the last 18 minutes, we had no trouble covering for his man.

It's just about effort, not really about coaching or anything like that. We showed we can do it, it just has to be consistent.

Effort is a big pb ... but the lack of clear defensive schemes and knowledge of whom has to rotate and help is nearly as important as effort imo ... defense is a team thing , playing D on the "fly" doesn't work ... unless you've got players with high B-Ball IQ AND good athleticism on your team

Our players don't seem to have a clear idea on what spot they have to be , from where the help has to come ect ... that's why we've seen players pointing fingers at each other numerous times ...

I get all that and that's true, but the most basic basketball principles are ROUTINELY snubbed by our guys; namely:
1. Never leave the ball.
2. Always rotate to the ball if the ball isn't covered.

If either of those means leaving a guy open, oh well. That guy doesn't have the ball this one does it's more important to stop that guy.

As for the team thing, yeah I agree. But in this last game Dwight cited the talking on defense and the way I watched them play... It's not that hard to get the scheme. A) pressure the ball handler B) play the passing lanes C) if the ball gets around, the nearest guy moves to it D) Dwight is always going to rotate, so the weakside help needs to be there EVERY time. E) Help the man who helps on Dwight's guy. That's it and that'll pretty much take up the whole 24 every single possession. The rest is about the effort.

Will anyone actually rotate out? Will anyone actually rotate to Dwight's man?

Holy crap anybody take a look at our schedule? 16 of the next 18 games are going to be against playoff bound teams / above .500 ball clubs. I'd say this 18 game stretch is literally make or break for this team if they're going to turn their season around....

Too much standing around on offense and "ball watching" on defense. Other teams move around more, set screens, rotate quickly, etc. At least, I just notice it more. Sometimes I'm surprised we actually have 12 wins so far.

FabFourLakers wrote:Holy crap anybody take a look at our schedule? 16 of the next 18 games are going to be against playoff bound teams / above .500 ball clubs. I'd say this 18 game stretch is literally make or break for this team if they're going to turn their season around....

Good. This team blew their chances to create some breathing room with an easy schedule so now they have to kick it into high gear if they want to even make the playoffs.

Must win tonight, we have to beat these Warriors, Nash or no Nash. We're only 2.5 games behind the SIXTH seed. Time to make our march up the standings right now. We're coming off 3 days rest and Warriors played last night

WMC:

1. First the officials not giving our guys any calls in the paint.
2. Defense and rebounding still not what it should be but It is looking better.
3. Kobe had some "ugly"shots but did like his agression (No don't care about the 41 shots)

They fought back and won and Nash helped out in such a big way. This was a rad game and I hope it really gets better from this point on. They have to start winning, we have to prove that the beginning of the season was just a fluke.

We woulda won comfortably if it werent for hte refs. FU how can you give Kobe only 1 free throw?

Probably the best and most entertained game of the season thus far

WMC :-

Kobe Bryant 1 free throw attempt the entire game (He is not Lebron or Durant according to the refs).

That was just a bizarre game of basketball. Seemed like the refs were absolutely going out of their way to not award any free throws to Dwight or Kobe, but then they weren't giving out too many free shots to any Warriors players either. Felt like the refs were trying to influence the game overall too much, but just the same, there were several sequences where a scrum developed and they let them play through it.

Kobe shot 'too much', but he also hit some huge shots. The maddening thing about how much he shot was that even though his % was pretty bad most of the night, a lot of his shots really weren't bad looks. Out of 41 attempts(lol) maybe 8 or 9 were completely bad shots.

Lakers had a great fourth quarter ,playing solid defense and hitting their shots. It is amazing that the Lakers wound up shooting a higher clip than the Warriors(just) but so often throughout the game their defense was flat horrible.

This team isn't going to turn any corner any time soon, but I am starting to develop confidence that they'll continue to crawl their way towards being a 'good' team. I still just can't really wrap my head around how our team is as bad as they are at times. Dwight looks like a D-leaguer on offense sometimes then other times he reminds you why he's the consensus 'best center in the league'. Pau falls asleep defensively, but then he connects on some brilliant sets. It really doesn't make any sense and I'm kind of tired trying to analyze it. At this point, I'm just happy they're getting some wins and hope that through grit and determination they can scrawl some more Ws on the board and get back into the standings.


But, at the end of the night. For as much as I can WMC, that was one of the most fun games of the year, no, it *was* the most fun game of the year, and I'm wholly satisfied by it in the big picture.

Kobe and Dwight were getting hammered with no foul called and then would get whistled for touch fouls
Other than that it was a great game

WMC: Bigs seemingly couldn't get a rebound without getting mugged, yet a forearm keeps our big on the bench most of the game. Other than that, awesome game. Can't remember the last one that was that fun to watch win or loose.

kobe was going a bit ballistic for a while there. 41 shots...goodness.

Refs, sorry they were terrible. There is 'letting them play' and then there is not calling ANYTHING. They weren't calling a lot of fouls either way, but our guys were getting mugged with no calls and their guys were getting touch fouls on our star players. Come on, that's ridiculous.

glad the real starting 5 ended this game. this team can clearly play defense, it's just a matter of focus and communication. something that's been lacking for 1.5 months.

noobiew wrote:WMC :-

Kobe Bryant 1 free throw attempt the entire game (He is not Lebron or Durant according to the refs).

Has a player ever taken 40 shots and 1 or fewer FTs?

Yes...Hakeem in 1997.

0 FTs

I used to loathe this shot when he was in PHX

But now I freaken love it!

http://youtu.be/Pz82_wDg0Us

trodgers wrote:

noobiew wrote:WMC :-

Kobe Bryant 1 free throw attempt the entire game (He is not Lebron or Durant according to the refs).

Has a player ever taken 40 shots and 1 or fewer FTs?

Yes...Hakeem in 1997.

0 FTs

Technically Kobe got 0 FT in the game from the refs, technical foul FT don't count.

Yup. I was thinking there's no way someone could take that many shots without drawing a foul. How the heck could Hakeem do it?

What I don't like and don't get :

We looked terrific when involving and running plays with our stars players ( D12 bounce pass to Kobe for the dunk with Nash setting a screen, then using Kobe as a decoy for the D12 dunk ... the Metta 3 ect) so why in the hell we went back to the Kobe iso on the last play and for most of the OT .

We can become nearly unstoppable on O if we calm down with the Kobe iso ... a lot

kobe wouldve shot around 50% from the field and have 40+ if they actually called a foul when they were supposed to