Pre game LA Lakers

So just read that Jaylen is questionable for tomorrow and Romeo and Al will be back. Ime even said we want him back at 100% not 85-90%. Good finally a voice of reason. Team seems to be jelling without Jaylen, putting up 130 and 145 in b2b, this seems to be the perfect stretch to give some of the youngins more PT in a big game environment. Imagine if Romeo, PP and Nesmith can all respond and hit say 2 3’s each, hey anything is possible!!! Golden State has a plethora of young guys making major contributions, why couldn’t ours? Anyway hoping for the best and the team keeps jelling, all 3 of our 5’s have been contributing, Smart is taking and making good shots now and Tatum and the Menace can get their shot off on anybody once they are in their zone. Now we need more efficient 3 point shooting, GWill has stepped up, hope more to follow. If GWill can do it, why couldn’t PP and Nesmith do it? And as the team jells will have the great problem of fitting in a healthy all star all NBA type in Jaylen at some point.

Ime said that Jaylen is "questionable moving forward".  I do not know what that means but it doesn't sound good because there's no timeline given for a hammy.  I know that hammys are notoriously slow to fully heal, and the best way to heal them is the same as the way to heal plantar fasciitis and that is to just stay off them, but...Anybody who has ever played sports with a will to win has probably pulled a hamstring at one time or another.  We know what's reasonable and what isn't.

Back to Cowens' post, I agree about our young'uns.  It's their chance to shine.  Nesmith and Pritchard had good games vs Portland.  Time to show that wasn't a fluke.

The Lakers are 3rd in the league in ftas.  We don't want them to win at the line.  They are, however, 21st in 3pt fgas and 14th in 3pt fg%.  I say "make them make some".  Pressure early to disrupt their rhythm and then expect them to pound us inside with Davis, Howard and Jordan.

On offense, attack LeBron.  I never thought I'd ever say that but his lateral movement is not what it used to be and he can't just compensate by jumping from the frito line.

Lakers, in order of most mpg down:

Player.........................mpg...........total mins (rank).....age
Lebron James-----------36.9---------443 (6)--------------37 (38 on 12/30)
Russell Westbrook------36.2---------869 (1)--------------33
Anthony Davis----------35.7---------822 (2)--------------28
Talen Horton-Tucker----28.6---------315 (9)__________21
Carmelo Anthony-------28.5---------684 (3)--------------37
Malik Monk--------------24.5---------587 (4)--------------23
Avery Bradley-----------22.2---------467 (5)--------------31
Wayne Ellington--------20.8----------332 (8th)-----------34
Kent Bazemore---------20.4----------347 (7)-------------32

So there are the Lakers' top 9 players in terms of mpg and total minutes.  Out of their total combined 4866 minutes, 3142 (64.5%) are from minutes > 30 years old.  2328 (47.8%) of those minutes are from players 33 years old and up.  Ime's been preaching 'pace'.  This would be an excellent game to play with 'pace'.  Run those old legs off.  If we get easy shots in transition we won't have weak first quarters.  Make them work in the 1st half and it'll get easier in the 2nd half.


Bob


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Well, the next two nights should give us a couple more puzzle pieces.  This B2B LA stop should be very interesting and revealing.  All three teams are about equal to date.  We're showing some signs of stepping away from Mediocre-ville but still doubts linger,  Any quick relapse or flashback to days gone by could ruin any progress we've made to date and blow us back to the Stone Age of professional basketball.  Very tenuous spot we sit in because we've been here before and have been burned hoping for the best.  Fool my once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  All that has all resulted in where we are today.  

I'm sure the Lakers remember their last humiliating contest against us.  LAL(-2.5) is the line.  I would have drawn it a little closer and maybe called it even, but they will be at home, revenge, etc.  The Lakers need to win just to keep from going under in the West.  

Strange as it may seem, we are win away from being in a tie for 4th in the East!  

Who wants it more?  Who needs it more?  The Lakers need it more.  I call this one even.  May come down to the last shot and who has the ball.  I'd like to see us provide LAL (and LAC for that matter) with another mind-numbing blowout on their own floor.  (-2.5) is on the border line but it implies LAL have this one if they just show up.  If everyone shows up for us like they have the last couple of games and don't need to check back into the Betty Ford Clinic for a relapse or flashbacks, we could come out of this looking really good.

We have every right to be suspicious of our team at this point.  We want to believe they can storm through this whole West coast road trip and even take out the Suns, but we just can't forget the past couple of years that easily.  They are starting to look scary good, because if the offense continues to climb and matches the defensive intensity to this point and we run this out for the rest of the season...LOOK OUT!  We're not ready to take on BKN again yet, but we have moved way up the charts in most categories.

I believe Ime has done it the right way.  Defense first, offense will follow.  That's exactly how it has gone to this point.  Should be a very interesting two nights.  Let's see what happens!

Go Celtics!!

db

P.S.  Not that it matters much but ESPN jumped us from 17th to 11th in one week on the Power Rankings.  That's a very big jump for just one week.  Somebody there sees something.  If we win out the rest of this road trip I'm going to guess this would put is about 7th, maybe 6th in those rankings, IMHBAO.

I always get into with Laker fans and others who refer to this as a rivalry. Yeah it would be if the NBA Inaugural season started in 1982. It didn’t. We have played the Lakers 12 times in the finals and have one 9! I don’t call that a rivalry. I call it domination!!!

I didn’t think it was possible but I hate them worse than I hate the Klan! Yuck!!

PS.  I won’t be watching or listening but yes dboss we will win the game tonight.

Lakers are now saying  guard Kendrick Nunn is unlikely to return this year.

And, ktron, if you hate anybody more than the Klan you need to reassess your priorities.  I file all race-based supremacists under the Nazi umbrella.  KKK, Nation of Islam, Aryan Brotherhood, all of them.


Bob


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bobheckler wrote:Lakers are now saying  guard Kendrick Nunn is unlikely to return this year.

And, ktron, if you hate anybody more than the Klan you need to reassess your priorities.  I file all race-based supremacists under the Nazi umbrella.  KKK, Nation of Islam, Aryan Brotherhood, all of them.


Bob


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I’m only serious. Of course not! Same cept Nation of Islam. We can discuss that off line. But no, I don’t hate the Lakers quite that much but they’re not far behind.

dboss wrote:

Ktron wrote:I always get into with Laker fans and others who refer to this as a rivalry. Yeah it would be if the NBA Inaugural season started in 1982. It didn’t. We have played the Lakers 12 times in the finals and have one 9! I don’t call that a rivalry. I call it domination!!!

I didn’t think it was possible but I hate them worse than I hate the Klan! Yuck!!

PS.  I won’t be watching or listening but yes dboss we will win the game tonight.

Not watching?

I’ve boycotted the watching the Lakers ever since Bron got there. (I must confess that i did watch the replay of our stomp down last month) Tonight? I’ll check the score periodically. If we’re killing them again, I’ll officially end my boycott and tune in.

i watched the last half of the game till with about 5 minutes left where i took a page out of the celtics book and just fell asleep.

Matty, it appears that that is what most of this board has done recently. I am getting to the point where turning on my computer for a game is useless, so I may start sitting and watching without comments. This is a sad state here on the board. Not only are we losing games I feel we could have won but we are losing the attention of our members.

Sad, sad state of affairs here guys. I can remember an 18 game losing streak that still had people rooting the team on.

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Matty, it appears that that is what most of this board has done recently.  I am getting to the point where turning on my computer for a game is useless, so I may start sitting and watching without comments.  This is a sad state here on the board.  Not only are we losing games I feel we could have won but we are losing the attention of our members.

Sad, sad state of affairs here guys.  I can remember an 18 game losing streak that still had people rooting the team on.  

I've been a part of the gang whose been on less the last few yrs, but this season i'd promised myself i was gonna be on like i used to be. well a bit of cancer (dealth with and all clear now) my ongoing back issues and having a baby on the way has left me pretty whipped at the end of each day. last night i got the game on t..v. got my computer out and a few shots of whiskey.

woke up at 2 a.m and had not even touched the whiskey!

i'm gonna keep trying to get back more often though.  I do miss the old days and the gang.

Wait until the baby comes, you will be up at all times of the night, forget the whiskeys !!! This will be the best part of your life my friend. With all the health issues I have had over the last few years, they have been the joy of our lives, and right there taking over when need be.

I just am disappointed that this place that Sam developed with the guys has become so silent at times. The guys have worked hard to keep this place a Celtic place, where we die hards can come and talk about this team we love so much. Okay, I have said enough, just an old lady yapping. Keep the faith my friend, I cannot wait for this baby to enter your life and turn you upside down!!!!!!!

Rosalie,

 Trust me the child has already done that. 

 Though I'm sure in a few months i;ll look back at things now and think, yeah, that was nuttin.