akajae
formerly akajaedeuce
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Wrong thread.
Lakers in 8
Lakers in 8
**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by licensed to ball,
- Start date
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A little consolation - Boston getting a beat down.
MVP
Supporter
- 83,006
- 85,580
Makes it even worse cause this was the chance to finally break the tie
- 57,830
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Show in selm!! Book it.
- 23,388
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could be worse, like getting swept by an 8 seed....
- 44,833
- 66,536
Gotta believe they can get at least one game. D'lo gotta wake up
- 22,563
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Still think lakers in 6.
- 18,745
- 13,091
Damn. We could’ve beat Miami. But with how they’re rolling, we might’ve lost to them too
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3 - 1 then 4 - 1
lol
lol
- 25,077
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every game has been close.
Just extend the season 1 more game.
Just extend the season 1 more game.
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This was the year for bron’s #5 and Lakers’ 18. Miami is not more a threat than Denver is. We gave away our chances smh
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- 22,895
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Word all I ask is that they show up with some type of heart, series been too close to get swept
- 92,516
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Would be nice to get a win at home.
- 11,438
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Get a win tonight. That’s all you can ask for. The Lakers had the lead in the 4th quarter of games 2 and 3, and they also had the ball with a chance to tie late in game 1 so it’s not like they’ve been getting blown out.
Even if it just delays the inevitable until Wednesday, get the W tonight.
Even if it just delays the inevitable until Wednesday, get the W tonight.
- 18,745
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Can’t get swept at home with a full squad. This isn’t the Kobe Achilles sweep….
- 92,516
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How Darvin Ham is dealing with the Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell dilemma and making adjustments
For nearly 20 minutes after Lakers practice on Sunday, first-year coach Darvin Ham had made it clear to the assembled reporters that these West finals weren’t done just yet.
Not in his mind, anyways, and perhaps even theirs — the Nuggets’ 3-0 series lead be damned. They had beaten long odds before, making this unlikely run after the 2-10 start to the regular season and all those months of uncomfortableness with Russell Westbrook, and it was time to summon that collective spirit again. They’d only lost these three games by a combined 21 points, after all, so maybe they were closer than it seemed.
But when the latest question about possible adjustments came his way, with Ham surely aware of how he has been heavily criticized for continuing to start struggling Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell in all three games of this series, his answer spoke volumes about what is likely to come in Game 4 on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“Sometimes the greatest adjustment is just to play better,” Ham said. “Play harder. Play better. Sometimes that’s the most key adjustment. It’s funny, (how) it’s almost becoming cliché. (People say), ‘What’s your adjustments, adjustments, adjustments?’ Sometimes you go in there, and you take a long, hard look at the film to clean up what you need to clean up, and you try to do what you’re doing better. You know, there’s a difference between strategy and individual performance. Sometimes you can have the right strategy but poor individual performance. You have to be able to navigate through all of that, and recognize and pinpoint what exactly is causing us to fall short. And once you do that, reveal it to the team in simple form, and you go out and execute.”
What happened next may have been revealing. After Ham made his way across multiple courts at the team’s practice facility, he pulled up a chair alongside Russell for a discussion that, regardless of the specifics of what was said, is of utmost importance to their present and possible future.
There’s a strong argument to be made that Russell should have lost his starting job early on in this series, as it was quickly evident the Nuggets’ plan of attacking him on the defensive end was sparking their historically good offense. Add in the fact that Russell has been unable to provide the scoring punch that made him such a good fit in these past few months, and it’s been the kind of unmitigated disaster that will likely make free-agency discussions with the Lakers far more complicated than most had expected just a few weeks ago.
Lest anyone forgets, it was just two weeks before when Russell was making a significant impact against the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the second round and — as evidenced in our interview at the time — oozing with confidence about what it all meant. But this series is a brutal matchup for Russell, whose minus-53 mark thus far is by far the worst of the 40 players who had played conference finals minutes entering Sunday (Miami’s Kyle Lowry has the second-worst at minus-32, and the Lakers’ Anthony Davis has the third-worst mark at minus-30).
Russell — who played 26 minutes in Game 1, 32 minutes in Game 2 and 20 minutes in Game 3 — is averaging just seven points against the Nuggets while shooting 29.6 percent overall (8 of 27) and 14.3 percent from 3-point range (2 of 14). He’s also averaging four assists and two rebounds.
It’s a drastic drop-off from his prior Lakers production, to be sure. To wit…
Russell in 17 regular-season games after the trade with Minnesota in early February: 17.4 points per game on 48.4 percent shooting overall and 41.4 percent from 3; 6.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds per.
Russell in the first two rounds of the playoffs against Memphis and the Warriors (12 games): 15.7 points on 44.5 percent shooting overall and 34.7 percent from 3; five assists and 3.3 rebounds per.
As ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported after Game 1, it’s clear there is a reluctance to bring Russell off the bench for fear of how he might view the move in a larger sense. There were occasional signs of his discontent during the first two games in Denver, among them the sight of Russell showing his frustration when he was taken out late in the second quarter of Game 2. (He threw his arms up when he saw that he was being taken out, then walked very slowly back to the bench before banging the top of a nearby Gatorade bucket. As Ham shared, Russell will simply need to play better if he’s going to salvage his part in this series.)
“We know he can make those shots,” Ham said of Russell’s 3-point struggles. “So the biggest thing is not to get depressed, not to get down, continue to be aggressive, continue to be assertive, and eventually that ball will go in.”
Judging by the body language between the two in their interaction on Sunday, Russell was still in a good place after Game 3. They shook hands affectionately before sitting, then prepared to take on this basketball fight that looks virtually impossible to win.
“I think (Russell’s offense and defense go) hand in hand, man,” Ham said. “We need him to be great in his (defensive) coverages. (But) also, no one man is on an island when it comes to offense or defense. The whole unit, they have to give support to whoever is in whatever situation or scenario. So I think it goes hand in hand — both sides of the ball. And we definitely need him to make 3s.
“We need to make more 3s, so him being able to do both and being solid within our defensive structure and him being aggressive, again — make your next shot your best shot. That has to be his mentality.”
For nearly 20 minutes after Lakers practice on Sunday, first-year coach Darvin Ham had made it clear to the assembled reporters that these West finals weren’t done just yet.
Not in his mind, anyways, and perhaps even theirs — the Nuggets’ 3-0 series lead be damned. They had beaten long odds before, making this unlikely run after the 2-10 start to the regular season and all those months of uncomfortableness with Russell Westbrook, and it was time to summon that collective spirit again. They’d only lost these three games by a combined 21 points, after all, so maybe they were closer than it seemed.
But when the latest question about possible adjustments came his way, with Ham surely aware of how he has been heavily criticized for continuing to start struggling Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell in all three games of this series, his answer spoke volumes about what is likely to come in Game 4 on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“Sometimes the greatest adjustment is just to play better,” Ham said. “Play harder. Play better. Sometimes that’s the most key adjustment. It’s funny, (how) it’s almost becoming cliché. (People say), ‘What’s your adjustments, adjustments, adjustments?’ Sometimes you go in there, and you take a long, hard look at the film to clean up what you need to clean up, and you try to do what you’re doing better. You know, there’s a difference between strategy and individual performance. Sometimes you can have the right strategy but poor individual performance. You have to be able to navigate through all of that, and recognize and pinpoint what exactly is causing us to fall short. And once you do that, reveal it to the team in simple form, and you go out and execute.”
What happened next may have been revealing. After Ham made his way across multiple courts at the team’s practice facility, he pulled up a chair alongside Russell for a discussion that, regardless of the specifics of what was said, is of utmost importance to their present and possible future.
There’s a strong argument to be made that Russell should have lost his starting job early on in this series, as it was quickly evident the Nuggets’ plan of attacking him on the defensive end was sparking their historically good offense. Add in the fact that Russell has been unable to provide the scoring punch that made him such a good fit in these past few months, and it’s been the kind of unmitigated disaster that will likely make free-agency discussions with the Lakers far more complicated than most had expected just a few weeks ago.
Lest anyone forgets, it was just two weeks before when Russell was making a significant impact against the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the second round and — as evidenced in our interview at the time — oozing with confidence about what it all meant. But this series is a brutal matchup for Russell, whose minus-53 mark thus far is by far the worst of the 40 players who had played conference finals minutes entering Sunday (Miami’s Kyle Lowry has the second-worst at minus-32, and the Lakers’ Anthony Davis has the third-worst mark at minus-30).
Russell — who played 26 minutes in Game 1, 32 minutes in Game 2 and 20 minutes in Game 3 — is averaging just seven points against the Nuggets while shooting 29.6 percent overall (8 of 27) and 14.3 percent from 3-point range (2 of 14). He’s also averaging four assists and two rebounds.
It’s a drastic drop-off from his prior Lakers production, to be sure. To wit…
Russell in 17 regular-season games after the trade with Minnesota in early February: 17.4 points per game on 48.4 percent shooting overall and 41.4 percent from 3; 6.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds per.
Russell in the first two rounds of the playoffs against Memphis and the Warriors (12 games): 15.7 points on 44.5 percent shooting overall and 34.7 percent from 3; five assists and 3.3 rebounds per.
As ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported after Game 1, it’s clear there is a reluctance to bring Russell off the bench for fear of how he might view the move in a larger sense. There were occasional signs of his discontent during the first two games in Denver, among them the sight of Russell showing his frustration when he was taken out late in the second quarter of Game 2. (He threw his arms up when he saw that he was being taken out, then walked very slowly back to the bench before banging the top of a nearby Gatorade bucket. As Ham shared, Russell will simply need to play better if he’s going to salvage his part in this series.)
“We know he can make those shots,” Ham said of Russell’s 3-point struggles. “So the biggest thing is not to get depressed, not to get down, continue to be aggressive, continue to be assertive, and eventually that ball will go in.”
Judging by the body language between the two in their interaction on Sunday, Russell was still in a good place after Game 3. They shook hands affectionately before sitting, then prepared to take on this basketball fight that looks virtually impossible to win.
“I think (Russell’s offense and defense go) hand in hand, man,” Ham said. “We need him to be great in his (defensive) coverages. (But) also, no one man is on an island when it comes to offense or defense. The whole unit, they have to give support to whoever is in whatever situation or scenario. So I think it goes hand in hand — both sides of the ball. And we definitely need him to make 3s.
“We need to make more 3s, so him being able to do both and being solid within our defensive structure and him being aggressive, again — make your next shot your best shot. That has to be his mentality.”
- 6,564
- 1,084
At least we can stop hearing people keep saying the NBA is Rigged to get a Lakers Vs Celtics finals
- 25,077
- 23,825
I’m not asking for much, but please don’t start Dlo & Vando AGAIN.
- 20,616
- 10,222
Yeah in China
- 57,830
- 61,545
How Darvin Ham is dealing with the Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell dilemma and making adjustments
For nearly 20 minutes after Lakers practice on Sunday, first-year coach Darvin Ham had made it clear to the assembled reporters that these West finals weren’t done just yet.
Not in his mind, anyways, and perhaps even theirs — the Nuggets’ 3-0 series lead be damned. They had beaten long odds before, making this unlikely run after the 2-10 start to the regular season and all those months of uncomfortableness with Russell Westbrook, and it was time to summon that collective spirit again. They’d only lost these three games by a combined 21 points, after all, so maybe they were closer than it seemed.
But when the latest question about possible adjustments came his way, with Ham surely aware of how he has been heavily criticized for continuing to start struggling Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell in all three games of this series, his answer spoke volumes about what is likely to come in Game 4 on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“Sometimes the greatest adjustment is just to play better,” Ham said. “Play harder. Play better. Sometimes that’s the most key adjustment. It’s funny, (how) it’s almost becoming cliché. (People say), ‘What’s your adjustments, adjustments, adjustments?’ Sometimes you go in there, and you take a long, hard look at the film to clean up what you need to clean up, and you try to do what you’re doing better. You know, there’s a difference between strategy and individual performance. Sometimes you can have the right strategy but poor individual performance. You have to be able to navigate through all of that, and recognize and pinpoint what exactly is causing us to fall short. And once you do that, reveal it to the team in simple form, and you go out and execute.”
What happened next may have been revealing. After Ham made his way across multiple courts at the team’s practice facility, he pulled up a chair alongside Russell for a discussion that, regardless of the specifics of what was said, is of utmost importance to their present and possible future.
There’s a strong argument to be made that Russell should have lost his starting job early on in this series, as it was quickly evident the Nuggets’ plan of attacking him on the defensive end was sparking their historically good offense. Add in the fact that Russell has been unable to provide the scoring punch that made him such a good fit in these past few months, and it’s been the kind of unmitigated disaster that will likely make free-agency discussions with the Lakers far more complicated than most had expected just a few weeks ago.
Lest anyone forgets, it was just two weeks before when Russell was making a significant impact against the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the second round and — as evidenced in our interview at the time — oozing with confidence about what it all meant. But this series is a brutal matchup for Russell, whose minus-53 mark thus far is by far the worst of the 40 players who had played conference finals minutes entering Sunday (Miami’s Kyle Lowry has the second-worst at minus-32, and the Lakers’ Anthony Davis has the third-worst mark at minus-30).
Russell — who played 26 minutes in Game 1, 32 minutes in Game 2 and 20 minutes in Game 3 — is averaging just seven points against the Nuggets while shooting 29.6 percent overall (8 of 27) and 14.3 percent from 3-point range (2 of 14). He’s also averaging four assists and two rebounds.
It’s a drastic drop-off from his prior Lakers production, to be sure. To wit…
Russell in 17 regular-season games after the trade with Minnesota in early February: 17.4 points per game on 48.4 percent shooting overall and 41.4 percent from 3; 6.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds per.
Russell in the first two rounds of the playoffs against Memphis and the Warriors (12 games): 15.7 points on 44.5 percent shooting overall and 34.7 percent from 3; five assists and 3.3 rebounds per.
As ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported after Game 1, it’s clear there is a reluctance to bring Russell off the bench for fear of how he might view the move in a larger sense. There were occasional signs of his discontent during the first two games in Denver, among them the sight of Russell showing his frustration when he was taken out late in the second quarter of Game 2. (He threw his arms up when he saw that he was being taken out, then walked very slowly back to the bench before banging the top of a nearby Gatorade bucket. As Ham shared, Russell will simply need to play better if he’s going to salvage his part in this series.)
“We know he can make those shots,” Ham said of Russell’s 3-point struggles. “So the biggest thing is not to get depressed, not to get down, continue to be aggressive, continue to be assertive, and eventually that ball will go in.”
Judging by the body language between the two in their interaction on Sunday, Russell was still in a good place after Game 3. They shook hands affectionately before sitting, then prepared to take on this basketball fight that looks virtually impossible to win.
“I think (Russell’s offense and defense go) hand in hand, man,” Ham said. “We need him to be great in his (defensive) coverages. (But) also, no one man is on an island when it comes to offense or defense. The whole unit, they have to give support to whoever is in whatever situation or scenario. So I think it goes hand in hand — both sides of the ball. And we definitely need him to make 3s.
“We need to make more 3s, so him being able to do both and being solid within our defensive structure and him being aggressive, again — make your next shot your best shot. That has to be his mentality.”
Recognizing the problem and not fixing it is insane. Coaching doesn't matter though.
)
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Off court reasons for this insistence on playing Dlo
darthska
Staff member
- 46,927
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Facts!! We're getting thrashed as a 7 seed. Boston getting curbstomped as the #2 seed.
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So Ham gonna keep DLo and Vando in the starting line up huh? Looks like we getting swept.
