Everything can go quickly in the playoffs, in one direction or the other. After teasing the reigning champion in Game 2, finding themselves on the verge of regaining home court advantage, the Lakers are now at 0-3, after taking on water in the third quarter of Game 3 on Thursday evening at home, only to lose again (105-112).
Like last year, the Californians are not very far off the mark, but there is still a little something missing to tip the scales in the right direction. This is also the role of the coach, Darvin Ham in this case, to make the right adjustments during a series to try to reshuffle the cards.
What about D’Angelo Russell?
Whistled during the presentation of the teams by his own audience, Ham plans to modify his major five, while D'Angelo Russell is in turmoil after his zero points in Game 3, at 0/7 shooting ? A priori no, and he even expects a reaction of pride from his leader, and does not plan to “shoot” him by making him come off the bench.
“I’m not changing my starting five”, he announced on the sidelines of training. “We want to give the players a chance to redeem themselves. There were questions about it after Game 1, and you saw what we did in Game 2. He went back to the gym, like he always did, and worked on his And he brought a lot to the table in Game 2. Even though we narrowly missed, it was one of the reasons we were able to stay in the game.”
Darvin Ham, however, has two correct alternatives at post 1 to try to create an electric shock, between Spencer Dinwiddie and Gabe Vincent. They are also two potential starters, and we remember that Gabe Vincent spent the entire “post-season” in the major five of Erik Spoelstra’s Heat last season.
The effort will have to come from the whole group anyway to try to overthrow this Denver steamroller. The objective is simple: avoid a second “sweep” in a row to stay alive.
“The guys are annoyed, frustrated, tired, ready to evolve and no longer continue on this path”continued Darvin Ham. “The general theme of the day was our state of mind. We can focus on the problems and what got us here, or we can focus on how we can stay alive. We played good basketball against Denver, it's just that we didn't manage to get any victories. So let’s hope tomorrow is different.”
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| LeBron James | 71 | 35.3 | 54.0 | 41.0 | 75.0 | 0.9 | 6.4 | 7.3 | 8.3 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 25.7 |
| Anthony Davis | 76 | 35.5 | 55.6 | 27.1 | 81.6 | 3.1 | 9.5 | 12.6 | 3.5 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 24.7 |
| Angelo Russell | 76 | 32.7 | 45.6 | 41.5 | 82.8 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 6.3 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 18.0 |
| Austin Reaves | 82 | 32.1 | 48.6 | 36.7 | 85.3 | 0.7 | 3.6 | 4.3 | 5.5 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 15.9 |
| Rui Hachimura | 68 | 26.8 | 53.7 | 42.2 | 73.9 | 0.9 | 3.5 | 4.3 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 13.6 |
| Taurean Prince | 78 | 27.0 | 44.2 | 39.6 | 73.5 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 8.9 |
| Christian Wood | 50 | 17.4 | 46.6 | 30.7 | 70.2 | 0.8 | 4.3 | 5.1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 6.9 |
| Spencer Dinwiddie | 28 | 24.2 | 39.7 | 38.9 | 88.0 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 6.8 |
| Cam Reddish | 48 | 20.5 | 38.9 | 33.6 | 75.9 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 5.4 |
| Jared Vanderbilt | 29 | 20.0 | 51.8 | 29.6 | 66.7 | 1.4 | 3.3 | 4.8 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 5.2 |
| Jaxson Hayes | 70 | 12.5 | 72.0 | 0.0 | 62.2 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 4.3 |
| Max Christie | 67 | 14.1 | 42.7 | 35.6 | 78.3 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 4.2 |
| Gabe Vincent | 11 | 19.8 | 30.6 | 10.7 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 3.1 |
| From me Hodge | 7 | 5.9 | 33.3 | 25.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 2.0 |
| Jalen Hood-schifino | 21 | 5.2 | 22.2 | 13.3 | 60.0 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 1.6 |
| Colin Castleton | 16 | 3.7 | 56.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 1.5 |
| Dylan Windler | 8 | 3.5 | 44.4 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.5 |
| Skylar Mays | 17 | 4.5 | 47.6 | 40.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.3 |
| Alex Fudge | 4 | 3.6 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 |
| Maxwell Lewis | 34 | 3.0 | 19.0 | 11.1 | 66.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| Harry Giles | 7 | 2.7 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
