How could the Lakers lose to the Celtics? While they had just inflicted an incredible 32-5 on Boston straddling the third and fourth quarters, and they had the “momentum” at +13 (106-93) in the last five minutes, the Darvin Ham players will still let slip a match in the “money-time”.
After this meeting, Los Angeles is the worst team in the league in decisive moments. During these possessions (42 minutes in total) where there is less than five points difference in the last five minutes, LeBron James and company thus mark only 86.9 points on 100 possessions, and collect on the other hand 122.1 points on 100 possessions. A mind-blowing “Net Rating” of -35.2, even worse than the Pistons (-31.0) or the Hornets (-29.2)…
A “Big Three” exhausted at the end of the match
All Lakers fans remember the incredible collapse against the Pacers at the end of November. Bis repeated last night. At 106-93, Los Angeles thus left Grant Williams completely open at 3-point on the defensive withdrawal, then LeBron James completely missed a throw-in for Russell Westbrook. Marcus Smart took advantage of it and here is a 5-0 for Boston which revived the Celtics who seemed to be in agony.
The rest, as too often this season for Los Angeles in the “money-time”, is an attack without rhythm, which relies only on the accelerations of Russell Westbrook or the shots without lag of LeBron James, while the two men had a hard time finding Anthony Davis…or even serving him.
In the comments, Reggie Miller repeated that the Lakers were “burnt”, with a LeBron James who made problematic impasses in defense, which offered decisive open 3-point shots in Boston.
It must be said that Darvin Ham needed to make his stars play a lot to turn the game around…
Fatigue was therefore undoubtedly an important factor for LeBron James (and his soon to be 38 years old) and company at the end of the game, the “King” and Russell Westbrook trying to make the difference with shots without rhythm at the very end of the game, or in extension. After the match, Darvin Ham admitted poor management of time-outs.
Do not have to chase after the score
“We have to think about how to use our time-outs intelligently, to take breaks in this way. But it’s complicated because there’s a group that’s in a good collective rhythm and we don’t want to disturb that and on the other hand, we don’t want to put a player in danger because he’s on the been benched for a long time and has to match the level of intensity and speed of the match, and that you can easily get hurt in those situations. I could have done better in the use of time-outs, to use them more quickly. It’s my fault and I have to do better on this point. But I’m proud of my players. Disappointed by the loss but proud of my players. »
For the coach, the problem does not come from the failures of “money-time”, such as new free throws missed by Anthony Davis at +2 (110-108) in the last 30 seconds.
“Everyone can talk about free throws and this and that, but what we really can’t do is let the opponent lead by 15, 17 or 20 points, and collect more than 30 points per quarter. -time in the first half”complained Darvin Ham. “We have to do better, from the kick-off, to impose our will. »
The obvious exhaustion of the Lakers in the “money-time” is indeed the consequence of the effort made to come back to the score, but also of the very tight rotation used by Darvin Ham, while the coach quickly decided to do without of Dennis Schröder and Patrick Beverley, his two holders on the “backcourt”. But this does not fully explain the weakness of Los Angeles in the decisive moments this season, marked by an absence of offensive systems and options on which it would also be necessary to work, while the Los Angeles coach nevertheless repeats each time. that he has no complaints about the shots taken by his players, especially LeBron James, in these situations.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Anthony Davis | 23 | 33.6 | 59.6 | 31.0 | 83.2 | 3.2 | 9.2 | 12.4 | 2.7 | 1.9 | 1.3 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 27.7 |
| lebron james | 19 | 35.9 | 47.0 | 31.9 | 71.4 | 1.5 | 7.1 | 8.6 | 6.3 | 3.3 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 1.9 | 26.2 |
| lonnie walker | 23 | 30.7 | 47.8 | 39.0 | 86.5 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 16.0 |
| Russell Westbrook | 25 | 28.0 | 40.5 | 29.2 | 69.0 | 1.1 | 4.4 | 5.6 | 7.6 | 3.6 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 14.4 |
| Austin Reaves | 26 | 29.1 | 51.4 | 38.6 | 90.8 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 10.8 |
| Thomas Bryant | 12 | 15.1 | 69.0 | 30.0 | 70.6 | 1.2 | 3.2 | 4.3 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 8.9 |
| Dennis Schroder | 12 | 26.3 | 41.4 | 26.7 | 92.9 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 3.8 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 8.8 |
| Troy Brown, Jr. | 23 | 24.1 | 43.1 | 31.9 | 100.0 | 0.9 | 3.5 | 4.4 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 7.1 |
| Kendrick Nunn | 22 | 12.9 | 35.7 | 26.6 | 90.9 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 5.4 |
| Wenyen Gabriel | 20 | 13.6 | 59.7 | 30.8 | 81.8 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 3.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 5.1 |
| Patrick Beverly | 20 | 26.9 | 29.8 | 23.4 | 76.0 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 3.8 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 3.0 | 4.5 |
| matt ryan | 12 | 10.8 | 30.6 | 37.1 | 80.0 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 3.9 |
| Damian Jones | 13 | 9.1 | 53.8 | 0.0 | 78.6 | 1.2 | 1.9 | 3.1 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 3.0 |
| Max Christie | 11 | 11.4 | 39.3 | 42.1 | 75.0 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 3.0 |
| Juan Toscano Anderson | 14 | 10.4 | 42.9 | 18.2 | 71.4 | 0.1 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 2.2 |
| Scotty Pippen, Jr. | 2 | 4.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 |
| cole swider | 1 | 1.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
