Pandemic game- Lakers GDT

[kekgeek]

27-19 in the Dlo/Kat era when they play 4 Qs

[kekgeek]

Also why have teams guarded Kat with a Center these last 3 games (Nurkic/ Jokic/ Davis) Kat eats centers alive

[jake_elwood [enjin:6673175]]

Also why have teams guarded Kat with a Center these last 3 games (Nurkic/ Jokic/ Davis) Kat eats centers alive

I like to lurk other teams' subreddits when we play them, and one (Denver's, I believe) was screaming that, lol.

[Lipoli390]

Also why have teams guarded Kat with a Center these last 3 games (Nurkic/ Jokic/ Davis) Kat eats centers alive

KAT's really hard to guard, period. As many on this board have noted, KAT seems to have had the hardest time against really big defenders. I think that explains why teams are guarding him with their centers. Of course, KAT is quicker and more skills than almost all of them. And our current coaching staff has been much smarter than prior regimes - bringing KAT out away from the basket more where KAT can either shoot the 3 or drive by them. Putting smaller players on KAT allows him to use his size and strength to dominate in the paint. KAT's three-point shooting prowess sometimes makes us forget that he's one of the best low scorers in the game. KAT is the 2nd-best offensive big in the game after Jokic and one of the best to ever play the game. If KAT would look to score more and attack much faster before the double team as Edwards was saying the other day, he'd average more than 30 per night.

[DNatagal]

Teams had been guarding KAT with non-centers for weeks with great success. KAT wasn't getting any calls and they were getting under his skin so much he was flailing and getting offensive fouls called on him at a ridiculous rate. Wondering why teams would do anything but?

[davemang]

I think against smaller players towns needs to get deep first before getting the pass since he seems more likely to draw a foul when jostling for position off the ball and get called for one trying to back down a smaller player (admittedly the post entry pass becomes more difficult, but any wing playing with towns should have those drilled into their skulls). Then he can just turn and shoot over or immediately pass out if the double team comes quickly. Against actual bigs they don't seem to call the offensive foul as much though, so he's able to back them down 5-10 feet without an issue.

Before DLOs time with the wolves I always thought he was a score-in-bunches combo guard and a little bit of a chucker/mediocre playmaker. But boy it seems the opposite, he'd play making first and generally has a good shot selection, only trying to really light it up when the team is struggling to score. Also way craftier then I would have thought. He's turning into the perfect pg that we've never had in the "modern" years (love Rubio and he's having an amazing year, but I think this dlo is a much more impactful starting pg right now than Rubio ever was for us). Hopefully his defense holds up and he can stay relatively healthy!

Injecting ANT into some of those lulls on the second unit would have been a nice luxury. I'm sure there is no way he does a sixth man role and his playmaking isn't quite good enough to run a second unit, but it'd be fun to watch I think. At least until he becomes a more consistently efficient player. I'd be frustrated being KAT on some of those ANT ISO sets that start from the top of the three point line and seemingly always end up with kat screening and Edwards having no vision at all for what is happening with the roll/pop, tunneling his way into a tough layup miss or a tough stepback 3.

[Lipoli390]

Teams had been guarding KAT with non-centers for weeks with great success. KAT wasn't getting any calls and they were getting under his skin so much he was flailing and getting offensive fouls called on him at a ridiculous rate. Wondering why teams would do anything but?

Historically, Towns has had more difficulty against big strong centers. As for this season, he's been flailing and getting offensive fouls all season no matter who guards him. KAT needs to keep his emotions in check and work on his offensive technique regardless of what type of players are guarding him. KAT's been guarded by bigs and smaller players all season. The good news is that he's averaging over 24 points a game and doing so with extraordinary efficiency. I agree with Davemang that a key for KAT against smaller players is to turn and shoot over them immediately. Attacking more quickly before the double team remains a key to KAT being even more effective offensively no matter who's guarding him.

[Lipoli390]

Watched the game on ESPN, which is very rare for me.

- The ESPN cast and crew, both at the game and in the studio, were desperately trying to pretend that the Lakers actually have a shot this year at contending. Jalen Rose was the only realist among them. Needless to say, it was fun watching the Wolves humiliate them in the second half on national TV.

- ESPN continued...."there is so much talent on this team (i.e. the Lakers), they will get it together soon". Yeah, but they are freakin' OLD as Cam kept reminding us in the game thread. And the one starter they have that isn't very old, Anthony Davis, actually plays like he's old. He looked terrible even before he got nicked up.

- Most of the first half was some of the ugliest basketball I've seen in a long time. Just clank after clank after clank. Luckily we have one of the most reliably efficient scorers in the NBA with KAT. He was the only one that didn't look like a YMCA'er out there in the first half.

- It was nice to see Nowell come alive in the 2nd half. Beasley needs to be pushed, because he continues to struggle. Nowell is theoretically a more well-rounded version of Beasley, but he's never been able to string together multiple good shooting nights. May be that will finally change this year??

- While it was nice to see some solid bench play in the second half, they were awful in the first half. Finchy is trying everything he can to see if someone - anyone - can earn a permanent spot being that 8th and 9th man.

- Vando continues to impress. He is the epitome of a "do shit" player. Impacts the game in so many ways without needing to score. He still has unreliable hands which might limit him even more than his lack of an outside shot. Seriously, if he could catch, he'd be a much more dangerous roll man and cutter given the personnel around him. Regardless, all the other things he does well outweighs the bad by a ton.

We are still early in the tough part of our schedule. But its a war of attrition and we seem to continue to run up against teams that are also fighting injury and illness. That certainly helps.

Q - I'm not sure I agree that Vando has unreliable hands. I've been watching for signs of bad hands all season so far and haven't seen it. Actually, it would be tough to put up the rebounding numbers we're seeing from him if he had bad hands. Now that he's settled in to a major defined role with the team and gotten a lot of PT, I think he's settled down and lost the jitters that probably caused him to fumble some balls last season. I like the way Vando has been catching the ball and scoring in the paint. He seems very solid with the ball. He's also a pretty good ballhandler and a good passer. The only thing holding him back is his perimeter shooting, which right now seems nonexistent. But as we all know, he's still a huge positive even without any perimeter shot to speak of.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I'd rather Vando figure out how to finish around the rim and in the paint more. He needs to get better with his right and left-handed layups in traffic as well as add a floater/runner that he can go to in the paint. Right now he's primarily a dunker who can occasionally finish if he has room to maneuver. There are far too many times where he'll rebound the ball under the basket and blow the layup or he'll receive a pass in position to score in the paint and his discomfort in doing so forces him to pass the ball back to the perimeter.

With all of that said, he's still incredibly valuable to this team. That's just what I'd hope to see him improve on.