PLAY IN: Timberwolves @ Lakers, Tues. 04/11, 7:00 PST

[Danny Darko]

Had to miss the game, I’m not young enough stay up until 4am to watch the Lakers anymore.

How did we look?

Good to see you.

We looked like we lacked urgency and effort.
DLo was aggressively not good
Shroder powered through a fairly dramatic ankle roll off of Dlo's foot
AD hurt a few things including his shoulder but hung in while not looking at all dominant
Reeves was good and our Defensive unit down the end of the game was pretty lock down and dialed in to make up for the double digit lead late. Defensive effort Bron was there in the 4th

When we play D like that we look promising but I'm skeptical on the next series considering that team was hamstrung with injuries and suspensions.

[dAdo dA dEvil]

Even though Reaves didn't play well this game, I'd still give both Schroder/Dlo's money to Reaves

Than go and find someone else to fit the role LOL...

Dennis and Dlo are too streaky on both ends of the floor, you never know what you gonna get any given night

This should have been Dlo's game, but was a no show

It seems that Reaves is hesitant to shoot the ball today. He usually attacks the basket and look for contact then shoot but today it seems that he just attacks and then pass it out.

True but this is basically Reaves first real play off experience though ?? even though It's not really playoffs, he'll be even more nervous come first game of play offs for sure.

I think Reaves will be fine. He seems to be a high BBIQ player and knows how to make the right play most of the time. If he will have the ball on his hand more and be more aggressive then I think we have a better chance of winning.

[zuju]

What we have learnt after this game this season is that AD sucks in clutch time. Missing Free Throws and tends to commit shooting fouls on the perimeter.

Luckily we won it this game.

[Ball so hard]

Had to miss the game, I’m not young enough stay up until 4am to watch the Lakers anymore.

How did we look?

I’m in the same boat lol. Was able to watch the first half live then called it a night. We didn’t look like a good team IMO. Way too many turnovers. Dlo was awful. I’d be hesitant to pay him any real money. This his not just a one game thing either… throughout his career he hasn’t been a player that has looked particularly good when it mattered.

[stan francisco]

Our high sense of entitlement is our Achilles heal. We have to play like we want to earn every bit of it. These teams aren’t going to lie down.

Our defense in the second half was good. Fourth quarter borderlined great defense but against a crippled opponent.

AD plays defense for two big men. I don’t mind him not being a scoring machine if it’s due to that. He’s clutch. 2020.

LBJ needs to avoid reverting to Bron-Bouncy-Ball hogging and instead swing the ball around. Ball movement is everything for our motion offense.

Defensively, Vanderbilt, Reaves, Brown, Schroeder are all doing a good job helping AD. LBJ is doing well coaching our defense on the floor and chasing down and away opponents.

If Harrison is useable at all, let’s use his defense-only over any available offense-only. If TT is serviceable, we can use a big body down low.

If we get through the Grizzlies, we might just be facing the Celtics in the Finals again.

[SweetTouch]

This lakers team has so many dumbasses but they got it done

Got to continue letting LBJ rest during games cause I know he will be playing 35+ every night

He goes to the bench, these guys turn into full blown stupid

[kobe808lak]

Starting to wonder if Dlo can even play playoff type basketball.. Seems too slow offensively, and just plain horrible on defense.. If his 3 isn't falling - completely useless player.

[SweetTouch]

In the 4th quarter, I wonder why D Lo didn’t get to play at all, besides the very last offensive possession. I really wonder why.

Where are all the D Lo boys? Watching replays of defensive sets, I know.

Youngstas are learning that important games are some else

He needs to produce next series

[LAKESHOW]

I agree with many of you here, The Intensity needs to show up from the Get! If this was playoff game, massive failure. But as a play in, great experience for our young guys. They gotta match the opponents intensity and hustle right from the jump, then we ain't down so big early playing catch-up.
I wasn't worried in overtime, because we were rollin hot at that time. But we need to be rolling much sooner than that.
Sidenote? Rui Hatchman had a good showing. These dudes who aint been in big moments before, im happy they are showing some toughness in these moments

[stan francisco]

I agree with many of you here, The Intensity needs to show up from the Get! If this was playoff game, massive failure. But as a play in, great experience for our young guys. They gotta match the opponents intensity and hustle right from the jump, then we ain't down so big early playing catch-up.
I wasn't worried in overtime, because we were rollin hot at that time. But we need to be rolling much sooner than that.
Sidenote? Rui Hatchman had a good showing. These dudes who aint been in big moments before, im happy they are showing some toughness in these moments

This.

I was almost thinking it might have been good to have to go through NOP/OKC just to get our kids up to playoffs speed and tighten up the defense before we face the Nuggets/Suns/Clippers.

It’s good to see that coach Ham has good instincts and makes good rotation decisions. Regular season is practice season, and I’m glad to know he sees it that way, too. He tightened it up yesterday.

It’s sad that we’ll see D Lo sit a lot. Fighting through screens and being physical isn’t his game. That’s the playoffs, it’s physical. Hence he’s not to be counted on other than knocking down an occasional three. I really wish it weren’t that way.

Rui is like a taller and slower Rick Fox type. Perfect for the playoffs. I really like what he brings on both ends.

[chefy]

In the 4th quarter, I wonder why D Lo didn’t get to play at all, besides the very last offensive possession. I really wonder why.

Where are all the D Lo boys? Watching replays of defensive sets, I know.

I can’t help but wonder if Rob got the right guard at the trade deadline.
When the chips are down, Conley drop 24 on 11 shots, shot 45% from 3 the last 10 crucial games. Btw Hasn’t missed a game since…. I can’t remember. I know he’s old and expensive but he seems a lot more stable and reliable.

Yep low key wanted Conley.

[Kilroy]

Why does this team pass the ball like they don't care if it gets to the person they're passing to? All passes are cute...
Team needs to go watch some Magic clips... His passes were things of wonder not because they were cute, but because he fired them to people...

LeBron came into the game like he seemed to think he already won it... He just didn't seem to be up for this game... Lazy passes and defense, trying to 'take over' too early and not being able to deliver down the stretch...

I thought AD was fine... He was battling inside with Towns all night and I think if we had someone who could make some authoritative passes, we could and should have fed him more. If we would have, Towns would have fouled out... When bigs are playing physical all night, they miss free throws... It's just hard to switch muscle feel from banging, dunks and short jump shots, to free throws... He also had some clutch shots as well as some clutch defensive stops which probably prevented a loss in regulation.

Schroder was awesome. Dlo trash... Reaves has heart, but I'm wondering if he might be exposed in the playoffs when things tighten up and get more physical.

We're going to need more urgency from LeBron, DLo is going to have to find a way to contribute more on both ends of the court, Vanderbilt is going to have to find a way to stay on the court and defend... And we're going to need to keep AD as the focus of our offense all night. Playing inside out in the playoffs just opens up the floor for our shooters.

[danfantastk32]

Schroder was awesome. Dlo trash... Reaves has heart, but I'm wondering if he might be exposed in the playoffs when things tighten up and get more physical.

Things are going to tighten up, and teams have several days to focus on your weakness. Exploit you, double-team schemes, traps, all that good stuff. I don't know how much playoff experience the Griz have, so perhaps it will be a two-way street.

Look for most (if not all) of our young players to be massively inconsistent. And when they do contribute, they will see new schemes against them the following gamw. The nature of youth, and inexperience. Although my opinion of DLo has never been high, it was especially disappointing to see one of our "vet" players completely disappear once the lights got bright. If we aren't gonna get anything outa him, i don't think we're gonna go far, as the rest of our squad is gonna struggle with this very different environment. I think Schroeder will hold his own (for what that's worth) but AD & Lebron need some help. If DLo can actually step up and just be a decent offensive weapon, it will go a long way in helping to shoulder the load.

Also gonna be hard to get much for DLo if he whimpers, and packs it in this series. We need to get a decent 1st round pick's worth of value for him, after all.

[danfantastk32]

But in saying all that...............WE MADE THE PLAYOFFS!!!!!!!

Well done to the team. Certainly wouldnt have dreamt of this a few months back. Would be great to win a series....get a good 8-10 games of experience under the belt for our young guys, and move forward next year with some real positives to work from. Id like DLo to play well enough to get real interest from other teams....and perhaps we can sorta "cash in" on a nice S&T.

We do these couple things, and I'd consider the season a complete massive success.

[tamaraw08]

In the 4th quarter, I wonder why D Lo didn’t get to play at all, besides the very last offensive possession. I really wonder why.

Where are all the D Lo boys? Watching replays of defensive sets, I know.

I can’t help but wonder if Rob got the right guard at the trade deadline.
When the chips are down, Conley drop 24 on 11 shots, shot 45% from 3 the last 10 crucial games. Btw Hasn’t missed a game since…. I can’t remember. I know he’s old and expensive but he seems a lot more stable and reliable.

Yep low key wanted Conley.

The irony was I have concerns about getting a 35 year old expensive guy like Conley. He missed a ton of games his first 2 seasons at Utah which is disturbing to me. But man, when this guy is healthy, 130 ORTG, 63TS%, at Minnesota, 5 assists is not much but just 1.2 turnovers. This guy is smart and doesn't make a ton of dumb mistakes.
Look, I am just so down at D'Lo right now, he literally picked the worst time to have his worst night shooting the ball.
Never this season has he shot 11.1% from the field, not even last year or so.
My other problem with him aside from not playing good enough defense and not doing the extra things like dive for loose balls etc is his very low FT rate. Even the best shooting guards like Steph, Dame attack the basket and get FT's, last night D'Lo settled again and had ZERO FT'S.

[stan francisco]

I just watched Shaq Harrison highlight reels from the d league. I know…

He’ll make life hurt a bit for guys like Ja and Steph. He’s a strong pitbull defender who runs through brick wall screens and bull rushes the break.

Good signing. Physicality is needed. Good tool for coach Ham to use against Morant over seven games.