Bubble Talk

The Clippers are getting little from anyone other than Kawhi and PG13.
Yesterday Zubac, Morris and Beverly made a total of 3 FG's and had 13 fouls.
Harrell and Lou Williams have not played well in the playoffs.
Montrezl Harrell is normally a rebounding machine.
In 12 playoff games he has had more than 3 rebounds in a game only one time.
If anyone thinks PG13 is a superstar, he is not.
Yes, he scored 33 points yesterday but the Clippers were a -23 when he was on the court.
Also, Paul George is 38th in PER in this years playoffs.

I agree there. George was supposed to be the glue to finish off this team and make them unbeatable. He has been a disappointment, he is soft

LAL can win playing big or small or some where in between.  RR still best pure passing PG in the League.

Rondo has been killing it, he doesn’t have to score, he’s got so many guys he can feed the ball to. He takes on the big guards now too. Rondo’s +/- must be crazy, he controls the pace, he can still run the break. With Rondo at this level playing with AD and Bron, making it easier for them, they look pretty unbeatable.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Rondo has been killing it, he doesn’t have to score, he’s got so many guys he can feed the ball to. He takes on the big guards now too. Rondo’s +/- must be crazy, he controls the pace, he can still run the break. With Rondo at this level playing with AD and Bron, making it easier for them, they look pretty unbeatable.

They do look really good. The Nuggets have managed to come back and win every series but this one just looks different. The Lakers seem to have a lot of different ways to win. Last series they had to play small and this series they are going big because of Jokic.

The NBA has really changed.

dboss wrote:LAL can win playing big or small or some where in between.  RR still best pure passing PG in the League.

The Lakers are almost doing Denver a favor by not starting AD at center.
Jokic can’t guard AD. He’s too slow and undisciplined defensively.

Rondo has been great for the Lakers.
He takes so much pressure off of LeBron.
LeBron has not had to work that hard in this years playoffs.

The big difference between the Lakers and the other remaining teams is that they get so many easy buckets.
With the amount of layups and dunks they get every game, when they are hitting 3’s near 40%, they are hard to beat.
I think Denver will start to wilt this series.
They had a great playoffs already and won’t be disappointed if they lose to LA.
Denver is a dangerous and talented team but I’m still picking the Lakers to win in 5.
Denver is young and will have many long term benefits from this experience.

Denver has no shot blockers, they have to play Bol Bol with Jokic even if he might not be ready, his shooting touch is legendary and they need a shotblocker like we need Gordon Hayward, especially against this match up.

tjmakz wrote:

dboss wrote:LAL can win playing big or small or some where in between.  RR still best pure passing PG in the League.

The Lakers are almost doing Denver a favor by not starting AD at center.
Jokic can’t guard AD. He’s too slow and undisciplined defensively.

Rondo has been great for the Lakers.
He takes so much pressure off of LeBron.
LeBron has not had to work that hard in this years playoffs.

The big difference between the Lakers and the other remaining teams is that they get so many easy buckets.
With the amount of layups and dunks they get every game, when they are hitting 3’s near 40%, they are hard to beat.
I think Denver will start to wilt this series.
They had a great playoffs already and won’t be disappointed if they lose to LA.
Denver is a dangerous and talented team but I’m still picking the Lakers to win in 5.
Denver is young and will have many long term benefits from this experience.

TJ

Almost but not quite.

LAL went 3-1 against them during the regular season all with their big boy lineup.  So I guess if it ain't broke don't fix it. The physicality and size has limited Jokic. I do not know how many games this thing will go because that kid Murray is capable of going off and single handedly winning a game, but this is a real bad matchup for the Nuggets. They do look like a really good young team that has already shocked the NBA world.

Lakers dodge a bullet.

If LAL cleans up on the turnovers they should get the series over with pretty quickly. Jokic is an amazing big man. But AD pretty much neutralizes what he does because he too is amazing.

I still think Denver can steal a game if they can do a better job on the glass and 3 point shooting. They only took 74 shots. Hard to win with so few shot attempts.

This series doesn't start until LAL is up 3-1. Check back with me then! Already, LAL has messed things up by winning G1. That's the only thing different so far.

db

dboss wrote:Lakers dodge a bullet.

If LAL cleans up on the turnovers they should get the series over with pretty quickly.  Jokic is an amazing big man.  But AD pretty much neutralizes what he does because he too is amazing.

I still think Denver can steal a game if they can do a better job on the glass and 3 point shooting.  They only took 74 shots.  Hard to win with so few shot attempts.

You are right on all of your points.
The Lakers had a 16 point lead, an 8 point lead with 3 minutes left and were lucky to get the win.
They pretty much didn't deserve the win after that collapse and their sloppiness.
I do think the Lakers will have better focus and execution in game 3.

Lakers would be a tough matchup for the Celtics, much tougher than the Heat. To win #18, we are going to have to play stellar team basketball, but we can do it. How is it LeBron doesn't have 6 MVP's by now?

I just want to get to game 4 right now, no sense looking that far ahead.

I really felt bad for the Nuggets last night, they worked their butts off to catch up to the lakers and go aheads by one.. What a shame, awful defense on Davis. Just make them work their butts off Denver, you never know when you could slip in a couple of wins. Jocic and Murray were good but the guy who got them back into it was PJ Dozier, remember him??? We had him here for a minute, liked him and then he was gone. (He was the kid who was Reggie Lewis's cousin, even though was not born when Reggie was alive_

RosalieTCeltics wrote:I just want to get to game 4 right now, no sense looking that far ahead.  

I really felt bad for the Nuggets last night, they worked their butts off to catch up to the lakers and go aheads by one..  What a shame, awful defense on Davis.  Just make them work their butts off Denver, you never know when you could slip in a couple of wins.  Jocic and Murray were good but the guy who got them back into it was PJ Dozier, remember him???  We had him here for a minute, liked him and then he was gone. (He was the kid who was Reggie Lewis's cousin, even though was not born when Reggie was alive_

Rosalie, I thought the defense was pretty good on Davis. If you look at the shot you can see it was challenged to the max. It was a step back 3, a near impossible shot to defend. Davis said that the play was designed for Lebron. The Nuggets took that away and of course Rondo made the nice bounce pass to Davis because that is what Rondo does. He finds open guys and can make perfect passes that allows guys to shoot in rhythm.

Denver is a surprise team but both Murray and Jokic have to play really well for them to win.

Mason Plumlee miffed his assignment to cover Davis. Simple as that.

worcester wrote:Mason Plumlee miffed his assignment to cover Davis. Simple as that.

Exactly, he should have followed him, and been ON him when he received the ball.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

worcester wrote:Mason Plumlee miffed his assignment to cover Davis. Simple as that.

Exactly, he should have followed him, and been ON him when he received the ball.

It was a brain fart play by Plumlee. The Lakers were lucky to win this game but they have a 6 game streak going on and it takes some luck to do that even if that luck manifests itself in a Miles Plumlee.

Play looked VERY familiar.  One question.  Why is ANYONE covering the person inbounding the ball in that situation? Are they required to?

db

Looks like the Lakers are wanting to tempt fate and enter the dreaded 3 games to 1 Zone with the Nuggets. I tried to tell ya!

Unless Denver decides to throw a wrench in the whole works and tie it up at 2-2 tomorrow.

But in the meantime, no panic in Lakerville.

db

dbrown4 wrote:Looks like the Lakers are wanting to tempt fate and enter the dreaded 3 games to 1 Zone with the Nuggets.  I tried to tell ya!

Unless Denver decides to throw a wrench in the whole works and tie it up at 2-2 tomorrow.

But in the meantime, no panic in Lakerville.    

db  

That was a very poor effort last night by the Lakers.
They played like their talent alone would get them through that game with a win.
Denver is too good and dangerous to not give 100% effort against.
Lebron was good in stretches.
AD was good in stretches.
AD cannot have 2 rebounds in an important game.
Murray is turning into a superstar before our eyes in this playoffs.
This game was similar to game 1 against Portland.
When you make only 5 or 6 3-pointers in a game, you aren't going to win the game.
The Lakers could have tied it in the 4th but missed an open 3.

Charles Barkley has been saying it for quite some time. For the Lakers to win, both LeBron and Davis have to have great games. They both did not have great games by their or anyone else's standards.

Supporting cast didn't look to hot either. They'll stomp them in G4 and then the series can begin! (If you're a Nuggets fan, that is.)

db

AD will probably go for 15 rebounds in game 4.

Lebron with a 30/11/10 triple double that was only marred by 6 turnovers. He looks a bit tired at the end of games. He needs to take much better care of the basketball as he is averaging 5 turnovers in this series.

Unsung hero in game 3 was Grant.

Denver probably feels encouraged after winning game 3. The fact is they should have also won game 2 that was lost because of a head scratching play by Plumlee.

The Lakers should not overlook this team. Jamal Murray is the most dangerous scorer on the floor and can turn white hot in a flash.

Denver is pretty much baked.

The physical toll on Jokic has reached critical mass.

The Lakers veteran depth and star power is the what separates these teams.

Hats off to my all-time favorite PG, Rajon Rondo.

Cooz was my favorite, RR #2.

worcester wrote:Cooz was my favorite, RR #2.

no votes for ShermanDouglas?