Flotsam and Jetsam Around the League 2019-2020

TJ

The Lakers have two flaws that have become obvious.  They lack balance.  They have two great players and a bunch of rotation guys.  They are too top heavy.  

Second they shoot 72% from the charity stripe. They need to work on making their free throws.  

They need to get more distribution instead of letting James and Davis take most of the shots.

dboss,

TJ's team may have way bigger problems. Paging Dr. Worcester. Paging Dr. Worcester. Please define a thoracic muscle strain, its prognosis and projected time away from physical activity or the sport that caused it if any. Thank you.

db

Who has a thoracic muscle strain? I assume it is of the back. Could be anywhere from 3 days to three weeks. Lots of factors

Lebron.  Probably out for today's game vs. DEN @ home.  Came about in IND game, played through it vs. MIL.

db

P.S. Yes on Back

dboss,

LAL just has another way of skinning the cat to get to the finals.  This is the route teams like this are taking by abandoning the Big 3 for the Bigger 2.  

The Celtics aren't very traditional here either.  They still have a lot of talent across the board.  4 solid guys that can put up 20/game plus MS who is a 15 plus defense which I'd give him "perceived" 20/game.  I'm pretty sure there are no other teams that have that or are even close.  We have experienced than when an Old GH is hurt.   But we are nowhere near falling off when a Kawhi, Harden, etc. go down and decide to load manage or take a break.  They wisely do it against the bottom dwelling teams so the impact is minimal.  But an injury is an injury whenever it comes.  The Old School Parish, Bird, McHale Big 3 plus role players has taken a back seat for the next couple of years.  

What the league has discovered is the air is very thin all around when you are trying to get 2 Top 10 players on your roster.  Three have succeeded so far though.  Both LA's and HOU per NBCSports.  

Plus the risk is huge.  Higher ranked players equal higher risks for putting all your eggs in 2 baskets vs. 3.  These guys typically do the BAM work of 2 players, maybe more.  So when they go down for any length of time, it's a short scramble followed by the inevitable curtains.

I personally like the Celtics method.  Any one of those guys can go for 40 if needed.  One of those guys can be injured.
And we have 4 3/4 of those.  Nice work, Danny. I'll go as far as "brilliant".

db

The doofus is gonna have to go under load management. As the season goes on, the odd injuries (thoracic muscle strain now, what's next?) will add up to where he will have to decide to take a game off now and then, in a back to back or very busy week situation.

If he sits out a regular season game and says he would play if it was a playoff game, it could be argued that that is a case of load management.

https://sports.yahoo.com/le-bron-james-doubtful-against-nuggets-with-thoracic-muscle-strain-223255852.html

Lakers knew what they were getting with a player of that age, hope he gets a good deep tissue massage and some acupuncture, but no one beats Father Time. He’s been a workhorse forever, at his age if I was the Lakers you have to do the load management thing to have a chance at having him good to go for the playoffs when the games really matter. I can’t remember a season where more franchise level stars of league have been dealing with the injury bug, many in the primes of their career....

Cow, Larry and Kevin were seriously bit by the injury bug at key times in their careers but played through the pain to stay on the court. This no doubt cost years off their careers, but that was the way they played the game then.

worcester wrote:Cow, Larry and Kevin were seriously bit by the injury bug at key times in their careers but played through the pain to stay on the court. This no doubt cost years off their careers, but that was the way they played the game then.

I know, those guys were such warriors, I still remember McHale playing thru the 87 playoffs on a broken foot, you could see he was in pain, but still sucked it up and gave us what he had, 20-10 that was crucial. Bird during an interview being questioned on playing 42-44 minutes during that series said, I want to play the whole game.

The problem with this is, and with anything in life, you don't know when the end is coming.  Shaq didn't think the end was coming in Boston running down the court.  

Now if I'm Laker management, I'd be somewhat alarmed with LeBron in that he had a good chunk of last season and all of the playoffs off to recoup from a pretty serious injury (34 games I think)  but comes out looking very good and in a more managed, facilitating role.  Now this.  Still putting up 3-D numbers but does it now almost like Kemba scores 40.

It's the combination of hot potato and the proverbial unpinned hand grenade that management plays with the new Bigger 2.  Then you have to ask a group of hodgepodge, well underpaid role players (since there isn't much left after you pay the top 2) not only to step up but to basically double their numbers overnight to keep up the torrid pace and fill the A-bomb-sized hole left.  And BTW, they have pretty much been watching as we did with Kyrie the 2-man game every night  We'll see.  Starts off tonight.  ESPN has two stories ready after tonight.  "Lakers dismantle Nuggets even without LeBron to seal championship fate," or my personal favorite, "Lakers vow never to lose 3-in-a-row the rest of the season."  

db

Lebron is having an amazing 17th season.

Load management makes good sense.  This however is where things get sticky.  His statistical impact on the Lakers is profound.  A 3rd guy has to move up to being the #2  guy and then another guy needs to become the third guy, etc.  This is difficult because this team is loaded with good players but the gap from top to bottom is a canyon.

They are off to a fantastic start but may have to ease off the accelerator a bit to make it to the finish line before running out of petro.

The Clippers (and Raptors before them) decided to utilize load management for Kawhi to prolong his career, which is smart. He has chronic injuries and this is the only way to mitigate their impact on his play.

I suspect the only reason why LeBron came out against load management is because his legacy is being compared to the other greats in previous eras; in these eras, load management wasn't a thing and would've been viewed rather negatively. He doesn't want to be seen as soft; I get it. But he's also played a lot since 2003, which includes many deep playoff runs. Load management would be good for him at this point in his career.


KJ

Raptors getting destroyed, IN TORONTO, by Dallas. It's 86-63 after 3, a 23 point deficit heading into the final frame.

Gasol and Siakem are out for Toronto. Luka is still out for Dallas.

Indicative? Not sure with those two out for Toronto, but I'll take them falling 1/2 game back from us, 1 whole game back if we win tonight, however we get it. Nobody has been crying for us with all our injuries.


bob



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bobheckler wrote:Raptors getting destroyed, IN TORONTO, by Dallas.  It's 86-63 after 3, a 23 point deficit heading into the final frame.

Gasol and Siakem are out for Toronto.  Luka is still out for Dallas.

Indicative?  Not sure with those two out for Toronto, but I'll take them falling 1/2 game back from us, 1 whole game back if we win tonight, however we get it.  Nobody has been crying for us with all our injuries.


bob



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Wow. A 47-21 4th by Toronto and Toronto squeaks out a win at 110-107. An absolutely epic implosion by Dallas in the 4th .



bob


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DAL has WAY more to lose with their one-trick pony. Add about 1/2-3/4 for Porzingis. TOR has much more balance and can beat us Wed if we're not careful and try to dial it in. This was hopefully a Buster Douglas game for TOR. They will look a lot like DAL soon and the losses will start piling up. Hopefully we can win both of these games with TOR over the next week and get out unscathed.

BobH, you are correct in that no one else is crying over our split milk. Law of Large Numbers coming into effect. Feel sorry for both teams, but that's about it. When they catch up to us in time lost to injuries, we'll talk.

db

Not sure either LAC or LAL can afford to lose Wednesday.  If the Clips lose, that will give them 11 losses in the loss column.  Other things equal, they won't make that gap up this season unless LeBron, AD or both go down for extended time.  Lakers too talented otherwise. If Lakers lose, ESPN LA beat writers, which is all of ESPN, are going to start jumping out of windows like during the depression.  

That was a complete meltdown by the Lakers sans Lebron.  It only took 2 quarters but it was resounding and made a whistling sound on the way down.  Clearly they can't afford for him to be out any games at any time this season.  Period.  Every other team that has had the significant injury bug has managed to minimize the damage and stem the tide if even over a couple of games, but that was instantaneous and devastating to watch.  No one on that team is capable of creating anything but LeBron via himself or assisting others.  Maybe Kuzma but that's about it.  Danny Green has to be set up.  Rondo was pretty much no help at all bricking 3's.  

Now you have to look at AD and what's going on with him.  Tweaked his knee.  Should be a very interesting game Wednesday.  

db

LAL were destroyed at home last night.

The Pundits may want to rethink passing the title to them.

That team is poorly configured.  Add that to the fact that AD hates playing the 5 even though it would open up minutes for Kuzma.  

Teams want to jump to the front of the line but their popcorn runs out before the movie starts.

Something is seriously wrong when you get beat down at home.  Basically, they had their way with you.

Oh Lakers fans.

Hearing Siakum and Gasol not playing Wed and Norman Powell likely out for Toronto.

GH may play but Marcus will not.

Well we almost got 2 out of two last night. MIA won but TOR lost. What the Celtics need to do tomorrow at 12pm is take care of business. TOR will start (and maybe already has started) to look like LAL without LeBron and just as quickly.

It looks like each team that is gingerly modeled via the Bigger 2 is starting to show how pedestrian they look once those guys go down. They have a Buster Douglas-like game the first game after the player goes down but then reality sets in. Some take a few games to realize things are really bad, other more immediate. Reminding me of the childhood story and the 3 Little Pigs.

Kemba needs to wipe the I'm just happy to finally be playing on Christmas Day grin off his face and go for 60 tomorrow or at least look like it. And bring 4 other 20 ppgamers with him. There is absolutely no reason BOS should not win that game but we need to play TOR like they still have Kawhi. I will be po'ed if we don't win this one. Should win it going away.

db

I disagree, Kemba has to just keep playing the same way he has all season and everything will work itself out. He can hit his big shots and have a talent for letting the other big dogs get their games off, by all sharing the ball and making it easy for each other.

You know what I meant cowens/oldschool!! A QUIET 60!!! haha

db

With the top Teams in the East and West getting punched in the mouth, reality sets in.  The Bucks can be beat when you take the freak out of the game by double teaming him when he touches the ball.  The Lakers are missing a guy that makes big time 50/50 plays.  That is the big difference between LAL and LAC.

Kyle Kuzma was the best player on the floor last night for the Lakers.  With the groin issue for Lebron, Kuzma may get the minutes that he deserves.

Kuzma should be starting for the Lakers with or without James playing but as long as Vogel lets Davis dictate what position he will play the Lakers will remain a top heavy team that lacks the quickness to put 5 complimentary guys on the floor together.  

Meanwhile the Bucks are a well coached team however once teams realize that the freak can be contained,  that team does not look so dominant.

Brad knows how to beat the Freak.  He did it for one game in last year's playoffs and then did it again this year.  Get's back to my question.  Are we 3 games better than MIL this year?  If we are, we're in the Finals this year.  If not, it's back to the drawing board.  We are Giant Killers.  We have to be to get out of the East.

The other Elephant in the room is PHI. They are in our heads now. Yes we can play with them but can we beat them 4 times as well? Haven't shown we can beat their team this season yet. Currently doesn't bode well.

db