The Los Angeles Lakers may have the best NBA record at 11-4, but the defending champions are far from perfect. After unlocking a massive lead against the Golden State Warriors at home on Monday night, the Lakers fell at the end of 115-113. Despite having scored a perfect road 7-0, the Lakers are now only 0.500 at home with a 4-4 mark.
It was an unforgettable performance from almost the entire team. LeBron James And Anthony Davis deployed 6 identical fire lines out of 16, while the team as a whole committed 16 turns. The Warriors were far from perfect, but they were able to capitalize on the Lakers’ mistakes for a victory that surpassed them 0.500 after recently sliding to 6-6. Here are four quick treats from the Monday night action movie.
1. Do not take your foot off the accelerator pedal
If you are looking for one play that contains a The LakersLoss, that was the moment with less than a minute left in the second quarter. The Lakers were forced into a spin, giving LeBron a 4 on 1 chance in the transition. Instead of attacking the basket, kick it Denise Schroeder In the corner to the indicator 3.
The result was harmless enough. Schroeder missed, but Davis grabbed the rebound and made two free throws after being fouled. It is the season of the Lakers in short. They are so talented that a wrong operation can lead to the correct result. The Lakers should have walked out of that quick interval with the throw of the ball. They got lazy and got out of playing with two points anyway.
But this approach did not last. The Lakers led this match with up to 19 points in the first quarter alone. Take eight and four minutes to play. But they lost out in large part due to a laissez-faire approach to protecting potential clients. Lakers lift their foot off the throttle. Their opponents weren’t good enough to punish them for that yet. The the Warriors It was, and hopefully, the Lakers remember games are 48 minutes long.
2. Old reliable
The faces around them may have changed, however Stephen Curry And the Diamond Green They still run the exact same late-stage dagger that they have misused since 2015. Curry-Green’s Pick-and-Roll cannot be stopped, and as it proved Monday, this remains true even without Kevin Durant And the Clay Thompson Floor spacing for that.
The logic is simple. There are only so many ways in which you can defend pick-and-roll. Double screen curry and Green gets 4-on-3. He will either make the right pass out of it or score an easy corner kick, as he did here.
Switch the action and Carrie will have a mismatch with a big guy. Yes even Anthony Davis It qualifies in this handover, and is the traditional bak’n roll cousin.
There is no answer here. Defend it traditionally and walk Carrie in 3 draws. You can’t strike and you can’t switch. Most of the time this play will result in a clean shot. All you can do defensively is hope they pass up. The warriors did not do on Monday. Even without Durant and Thompson, warriors have the same ending movement as always.
3. Time is running out for the positive contrast of the Lakers
The Lakers are an excellent defensive team, but they had some good luck early in the season. Opponents were shooting just 35 per cent on wide-open three-pointers entering Monday’s fifth-lowest mark in the league, just 33.9 per cent in 3 seconds overall, the fourth lowest in the NBA. In general, defenses don’t have much control over whether or not opponents deliver their three-pointers, especially open ones, but so far this season, the Lakers have benefited from the fact that they weren’t.
This hasn’t completely flipped yet. The Warriors fired 12 out of 37 depths overall. But eight of those bombs came in the second half, which the Lakers lost by 18 points. Factor in a 9 out of 29 performance from behind the arc, and losing the Lakers seems fairly minor. The Warriors paid their shots in the second half and did not do so to preach. Had the Lakers played to their full potential, they could muster the three points needed to win the game in organization. The Lakers have beaten the odds so far this season, but they can’t do it when they beat themselves up too.
4. Golden State beginners stumble again
The Warriors who were late at age 19 were another page in a story that Steve Kerr refuses to rewrite. Golden State starts five from Cary Green, Andrew WigginsAnd the James Wiseman Kelly Uber Junior had crossed 45 points in 126 minutes to enter Monday’s match. Suffice it to say, those numbers don’t look any better now. Meanwhile, all six Warrior reserves who took the word had a positive score. In essence, it’s all lineup Except The Five Starter is working for the Warriors now.
There is a simple solution here. Just replace Oubre with Damion Lee In the starting lineup, with the top five given the distances they need for scoring and the sport seats a bit more. Yes, it might cut the massive amount of work those backups do, but the Golden State can’t expect to overcome a 19-point deficit every night. The best teams don’t count on a massive comeback, they avoid needing it in the first place. So far, Kerr appears not to agree, and Monday likely strengthened his decision to stay with the opening group itself.
