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

I know. They look like an 8th or 9th seed in the West.

And we're under .500 again.

To live & die by the 3...

Yep playoff basketball, here we come
We're all fans, but in all honesty, we don't deserve a playoff bid playing this style and relying on as Vlade eloquently put it, "lacky shots"!

Have we beat a good team this year?

Balance&Options24 wrote:Have we beat a good team this year?

if you have to ask this question then you haven't been watching or you got some serious short term memory problem

Vasashi17 wrote:To live & die by the 3...

Yep playoff basketball, here we come
We're all fans, but in all honesty, we don't deserve a playoff bid playing this style and relying on as Vlade eloquently put it, "lacky shots"!

Don't let some users that I like to call the "real" fans read this or you just might be called a troll or not a real fan for saying such an outrageous statement about such a great and unstoppable team.

Have we beat a good team this year?

Not when it matters... It'd be great to get a quality win to start a good run but it would require an actual good team to do it which we don't have

Balance&Options24 wrote:Have we beat a good team this year?

Yes.

Is my box score app correct? 2 turnovers forced?? That has to be a record, no?

Living by low percentage shots is not really living. Great shooting teams shoot 36% from 3..... that's not a way to win anything other regular season games.

We didn't score the final 6 and change..... Kobe didn't score in the 4th I believe.

Defense was beyond bad for almost all night. Our runs were more of OKC missing open shots than us changing the game.

Tough to win a game where your second best player stays on the bus....

I am not mad at lost, but the way we lost is pissing me off.
But hey, they have almost PERFECT game and we still could catch them, so it's not all that black.

Doc Brown wrote:

Mike BresnahanVerified account ‏@Mike_Bresnahan
The Lakers forced only two turnovers. It's the fewest they've ever forced. Ever.
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Eric PincusVerified account
‏@EricPincus
@Mike_Bresnahan fewest anyone has forced ever
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This isn't fully understood until you factor in that it's OKC..... who is 27th in the league in taking care of the ball.

Not showing up in the 1st half.

Punk-101 wrote:Is my box score app correct? 2 turnovers forced?? That has to be a record, no?

they tied it, was @ 1 then Westbrook came through for us

MDA is a pathetic coach & once again mitch & Jimmy did not address the lack of athleticism on the perimeter. you go out and get sessions and when he leaves you don't replace him with speed and athleticism. every pg we have is slow as [Swearing is not permitted at Clublakers. You must edit this post prior to submitting.] except morris who is a train wreck and worthless.

Now I'm starting to lean towards the fact that we have some players that need to go. This team can be good, but I feel like even if we showed up as expected, there are ways we could be in the same boat as the Spurs in that, we are good but the young cats would beat us when it counts and we don't have enough.

I hope no matter what, we keep Dwight and then trade people and get younger now. Artest has been good, but I think getting the one ring was all he wanted and his skill isn't what it was 3 years ago. Gasol I'd be ok with keeping, but if he has value, I could live with getting younger with him. Jamison could be nice to keep but I don't care either way. Blake, I think he did the best he could.

I hope we can improve our roster this off-season and make this season a fluke. I hope we get JVG or Nate Mac also to come be a defensive assistant because we need some serious defense to go with our current offense. After all that, we should be ok.

Lets keep going for the playoffs since we can still make it, but lets plan for the future too.

Rooscooter wrote:

Doc Brown wrote:

Mike BresnahanVerified account ‏@Mike_Bresnahan
The Lakers forced only two turnovers. It's the fewest they've ever forced. Ever.
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Following

Eric PincusVerified account
‏@EricPincus
@Mike_Bresnahan fewest anyone has forced ever
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This isn't fully understood until you factor in that it's OKC..... who is 27th in the league in taking care of the ball.

Exactly...but as expected, we did our part cause we're either ranked dead last or close to the bottom in forcing turnovers.

As for being a horrific transition defensive team, here's an idea, lets do our part by not taking every available 3 igniting the opposition to break the other way.

Meanwhile, a healthy Kobe was not utilized properly at all this season and its about time that 34 year old will be facing some wear and tear...just get into the offseason healthy and get ready for next season, cause this brand of basketball has no match against a number 1 seed with HCA.

The truly depressing thing is that this season was a self-inflicted wound. We did this to ourselves!

I missed the game, I didnt think we'd win but I hate the part that MWP and Kobe are hurt thats the last frigging thing we need

Dwight and Nash were 1/7 each at halftime and Dwight never got on track apparently...6 points? WTF...im starting to lose faith on his offensive capabilities on the road, he was shooting 52% on the road this year its gonna dip down and his scoring average too from 13.9

How can you let Reggie Jackson and Fisher score double digits on your off the bench

But ugh hope Kobe and MWP are ok we cant afford injuries

OKC is just the better team and a terrible matchup for us for the latest two seasons ... hopefully we won't play them in the 1st round if we make it to the postseason ...

The constant losses against the Thunder show how much we are desperate for some youth, quickness and athleticism on the perimeter too

We havent won in OKC since Perkins arrived I hate losing to that mofo

theyre just too athletic. only teams that can really beat them (not just a fluke game) is heat, clippers, and spurs (coaching more than players i think).

anyone else, including us, is just luck

Rooscooter wrote:Living by low percentage shots is not really living. Great shooting teams shoot 36% from 3..... that's not a way to win anything other regular season games.

We didn't score the final 6 and change..... Kobe didn't score in the 4th I believe.

Defense was beyond bad for almost all night. Our runs were more of OKC missing open shots than us changing the game.

Tough to win a game where your second best player stays on the bus....

x100

That's the truly deflating aspect of this team's "defense", whenever they do go on runs it is almost invariably a result of the opposing team simply missing shots than anything to do with pressuring the ball. Hell, even _stopping the ball in transition_, you know, defense 101, seems like a worse than 50/50 chance with this squad.

You just get this sense, every time OKC(or pretty much any other offensively talented team) has the ball that they will score unless they miss. I mean, we all knew D'antoni wasn't a great defensive coach, we all know Steve Nash isn't a great defensive player, but it's still just stupefying how _fundamentally_ awful our defense is. Like, we used to always talk about how Fisher was one of the biggest defensive liabilities in the game, but at least he played smart and fundamental defense within his ability. This current Lakers squad just... doesn't? There's like no describing it, they just don't. Dwight doesn't. Kobe doesn't. Metta doesn't. I mean, sure maybe in flashes, but overall they really don't play fundamentally strong on the defensive end and it gets even worse when talking about team defense and communication and rotating and help.

and then it is just so maddening because even bad defensive teams can still be effective, they just need to be able to create a stop at the very least and they need to be offensively consistent. The Lakers can't create stops and they are offensively inconsistent.

But I've harped on this so much, what really gets me, more than anything else I think, is that the complete lack of defense almost makes you feel like opposing teams are scoring faster than they even should be able to. Teams get so many opportunistic buckets against LA that they feast on without even having to get into their offense. Lakers give up 8-10 point runs faster than should be possible to score that many points. Every time Dwight splits a pair at the line it seems like the opposition simply gets an opportunity to score 2 in less time than they'd otherwise be able to if the clock hadn't stopped.

There's bad defense and then there is "Our defense is so bad, it actually makes opposing teams _better_", the Lakers veer into the latter.

I would not be at all upset if the entire team was blown up at this point. This team is a complete failure.

Yeah... too young, too athletic, too talented that OKC team really is. The Lakers need a talented young BALLER to aid their roster.

The inability of our team D to keep Westbrook as the not very efficient player he usually is , is the main reason we can't compete with OKC ...

He shot the ball at a good % and doesn't turn the ball over against us ... whereas he should stay around the low 40 shooting wise and TO the rock 3-4 times a game ...

The lack of both clear defensive schemes and players who are capable to make multiple efforts/rotations on the defensive end is a huge pb

Its really pretty pathetic that we get CREAMED on the road against any good team.

Looking at the big picture

The Lakers right now stand at 1-12 against playoff teams in the west on the road. Even though they have finally figured out to beat lottery teams...they still royally blow against quality teams. What a nightmare season. It really is the most spectacular flop I have witnessed in the last 10 years. Championship contention was the bare minimum and now we have to sweat for Cleveland to beat the Jazz to stay "in the hunt" for the 8th spot. Dr. Buss probably couldn't take this anymore and I don't blame him.

lol, it was a pasting, but it was a pasting on the road against the second best team in the league. one for which they were obviously highly motivated. everyone had this game chalked up as a loss. the only reason to fly off the handle is if you were one of the deluded few who still thought this year's team was playing for a title. they haven't been since december. they're trying to make the playoffs. teams in that position get spanked by the top seed in their arena.