Sun. 4/15 - Lakers vs Mavs - Predictions & Comments

Dirk flops.

Tough shot by Terry.

Blake what was that?

we hit 40% guys

we are playing no defense at all and shooting 15% less than Dallas and its still a 6 point game...

a little more offense and a little more defense would completely change this game.

Uncle_Meat wrote:Metta World War!!!

Lousy finish ... this is not going to be an easy game.

KeepBynum wrote:Dirk flops.

next possession he fumbles the ball...maybe next time they'll relize what a fowl is vs loose handles. smh @ the refs. cmon

KB24 wrote:we are playing no defense at all and shooting 15% less than Dallas and its still a 6 point game...

a little more offense and a little more defense would completely change this game.

And their last few shots were kind of insane - the shot by Terry and that bank by Dirk from like 18 feet out. Both well contested.

Terrible half , Drew and Pau are garbage ...

Lakerjones wrote:

KB/WA/RW wrote:it's not just one play, it's EVERY play. Don't tell me you haven't noticed his very poor pick & roll D.

I just think the guy's getting over maligned here. He goes under the screens because the coach tells him to and we rip on him. He goes over the screens on the play you refer to and you rip on him. It seems like some people here don't play basketball. Sessions teammates need to tell him there is a screen coming when it happens and they need to cover for him when their guy picks.

Pick and roll defense is TEAM defense. It's not one guy only.

First of all, I play a lot of basketball, im a starter in my college team, I practice every single day and have been a fan of the game and watched every game I can for as long as I can remember, so you implying that I don't know what I'm talking about because I don't play isn't accurate.

Second, I know it's a team thing, and I know it's a coaching issue as well.
Of course other players should be blamed as well, and of course it's on Brown too, but there are several things Sessions doesn't do well on that type of defensive plays. The most glaring one is his agressiveness and strength towards screens. He either gets crushed on screens or he goes too far around them and can't close out on the shot or help on the drive. Maybe it's partly due to that shoulder injury he's got, hopefully when that heals it'll change. He needs to be more agressive, use his athleticism to try and keep up with the opposing PGs. If he doesn't, all the teams that have penetrating / shooting PGs will kill us with the P&R.

Well, we're still in this one, but the vibe you get from this game is that the refs want to cut Dallas every break, and the Lakers are going to have to make their own luck.

I don't know why you bring in a PnR point guard like Sessions and then have him stand in the corner while Blake throws a post entry to Drew.

They run maybe 3 PnR/PnP plays so far.

We're shooting 33%. That has to change.

Lakerjones wrote:

KB24 wrote:we are playing no defense at all and shooting 15% less than Dallas and its still a 6 point game...

a little more offense and a little more defense would completely change this game.

And their last few shots were kind of insane - the shot by Terry and that bank by Dirk from like 18 feet out. Both well contested.

That's how the Mavs won the championship...

Pretty winnable game. We just need a slightly better effort on D (wtf @ Kidd driving on us lol), Dirk is playing like ish, Bynum is starting to heat up. Gotta win it

Very winnable game....and the Lakers can choose to win it, just by trying on D.

But if Drew is at the three pt line on D and Haywood is under the hoop all alone....we're gonna lose.

I just found out the game was going on...... I'm in Concepcion Chile and can't find any coverage down here....

Looking at the stats and shot charts ....... it looks like it's long ranger jumpers or Bynum misses from point blank range again..... We're close but Dirk isn't shooting well yet..... that doesn't bode well for our chances....

Looks like the perimeter defense is sucking again..... West and Kidd leading them and it looks like West is lighting up Sessions/Blake....

wcsoldier81 wrote:Terrible half , Drew and Pau are garbage ...

They aren't garbage, they're very good players that cannot lead the team. They need real help from the perimeter to do well.

Lakers need to start hitting their shots. That's what carried them thru the earlier wins w/o Kobe. They were throwing up anything in those games and they were going in. What's responsible for that? It's beyond physical and they need to get into that zone or this will be a blowout...

KB/WA/RW wrote:

Lakerjones wrote:

KB/WA/RW wrote:it's not just one play, it's EVERY play. Don't tell me you haven't noticed his very poor pick & roll D.

I just think the guy's getting over maligned here. He goes under the screens because the coach tells him to and we rip on him. He goes over the screens on the play you refer to and you rip on him. It seems like some people here don't play basketball. Sessions teammates need to tell him there is a screen coming when it happens and they need to cover for him when their guy picks.

Pick and roll defense is TEAM defense. It's not one guy only.

First of all, I play a lot of basketball, im a starter in my college team, I practice every single day and have been a fan of the game and watched every game I can for as long as I can remember, so you implying that I don't know what I'm talking about because I don't play isn't accurate.

Second, I know it's a team thing, and I know it's a coaching issue as well.
Of course other players should be blamed as well, and of course it's on Brown too, but there are several things Sessions doesn't do well on that type of defensive plays. The most glaring one is his agressiveness and strength towards screens. He either gets crushed on screens or he goes too far around them and can't close out on the shot or help on the drive. Maybe it's partly due to that shoulder injury he's got, hopefully when that heals it'll change. He needs to be more agressive, use his athleticism to try and keep up with the opposing PGs. If he doesn't, all the teams that have penetrating / shooting PGs will kill us with the P&R.

^^ Great post and clarification KB/WA/RW. I appreciate that and I think my post was out of frustration because it seems to be flavor of the month here at CL for guys just in a blanket way condemn Sessions defense. It was clear that he was going under screens but it was also pretty clear that it was part of the coaches' game plan.

My bad being too general with that statement about playing ball - obviously you aren't one of those posters, but it seems like a lot of posters here don't play and they don't' get the fact that if you get picked by guys who have 5 inches and 60 pounds on you, chances aren't high that you'll magically get AROUND that screen in a way that you can recover on your own man. The player who's guy that is needs to figure out if he needs to step out on the other guy or not, and needs to do it quickly. It's also his responsibility to alert Sessions. You get this, I've got that now and again, no problem at all with you setting me straight on that. I appreciate it. But some of these other cats aren't being realistic.

Pick and roll is a standard offensive play for good reason. Generally, it works. Stockton and Malone made a living out of it for 15 plus years.

Mavs are packing the paint and we keep forcing in crowd with Bynum and MWP down there ... Blake has to shoot the ball and playing GLock would be a good idea ... on the other end Sessions and Bynum are playing no D

Uncle_Meat wrote:Lakers need to start hitting their shots. That's what carried them thru the earlier wins w/o Kobe. They were throwing up anything in those games and they were going in. What's responsible for that? It's beyond physical and they need to get into that zone or this will be a blowout...

All the extra attention the bigs are drawing are leaving the perimeter players open.

They either decline to shoot and repost, or they brick. If it goes to Drew, it's not coming back out usually anyway. He thinks he can score on the double.

Take your pick. With Blake out there playing hot potato with the rock the team just looks rudderless at times. Sessions can't seem to figure out what to do either.

Take command...make it your team. The players telling Sessions to slow it down should STFU by the way.

kray28 wrote:

wcsoldier81 wrote:Terrible half , Drew and Pau are garbage ...

They aren't garbage, they're very good players that cannot lead the team. They need real help from the perimeter to do well.

they are garbage in this game ... Pau needs to be reminded he's a post player and Drew needs to kick the ball out and repost ... and Drew is having a terrible defensive game when it comes to help D and his position on the floor

Blake is afraid of shooting the 3, what's wrong with the guy? I prefer seeing him miss than passing all the open looks away ...