To me make them work on offense contest every shot on D. I thought Trent last night made LeBron work for what he got. We must rebound on our defense boards a lot better. On offense hit our open shots and I think Trent will shoot a lot better after hitting that big 3. Make them work on D.
Game 2: Hah. No. 8-29 from three point range, including 5-20 from our starters. We can't win shooting like that. Maybe not? Dame's finger hopefully won't be a thing that impacts him. No. Giving up 15 offensive boards is not good. We had 31 defensive boards, which means that the Lakers came down with every third thot they missed. It's ridiculous. We didn't do this, but never came close to having the chance to. We played like crap, and the whole team was no good, but Carmelo Anthony shooting 1-6, getting three turnovers and NO REBOUNDS in 27 minutes is a killer.
1. Play with Effort and Energy - Game 2 effort was awful. We lost the game before it even tipped off with the effort. 2. Pick up the tempo - We have 2 small quick guards and we are struggling to score consistently in the half court. Push the pace. Lebron and AD are obv good in transition but we are the better shooting team and need to get easier buckets whether that is layups of 3s by pushing the pace. Think about what Draymond Green did to us last year in the playoffs just by picking up and pushing the pace. If they score a bucket get it out of the net and advance the ball quickly. 3. Finish the defensive possession - Even when they miss a shot we are giving up too many offensive rebounds that is resulting in fouls or second chance points. If we continue to not rebound the ball we will continue having to take it out of the net and their full court token pressure Is leading to us getting into our sets too late. 4. Move Dame off the ball more (especially with the dislocated finger) and use pin downs to get him open. While he is great in the pick and roll, this team needs him to get going and he is seeing a steady dose of full court pressure and double teams on the pick and roll action. 5. Scramble and contest open shooters - too many times in game 2 the lakers got open shooters with no contest.
If you want to watch your team beat the Fakers, there is only one key: root for a team other than the Blazers.
Game 3 Nope. 12-35 isn't gonna cut it, and we didn't generate as many open 3's as we should be. We settled for too many mid-range jumpers from Anthony, for some reason. Yes? Hopefully? Better but not good. 12 offensive boards for the Lakers. And that's after starting two seven footers. Ugh. Not a BIG lead, but we were up by 9 early. Frustrating game.
