This play took Crowder out of the game.
CP3 obviously would've been a huge difference.
And we still weren't that far away from winning. Less turnovers and more Bridges next game please!
It should have been a Flagrant 2 (ejection), and we would be up 2-0. But it's the Lakers so they wouldn't call it. If it was the Suns, they would have ejected our player.
Relax. It didn't "take him out of the game" and AD shouldn't have been ejected. It played out exactly like it should've.
How is that not "unnecessary and excessive contact"?
Because it was clearly unintentional.
Do you really believe AD went up for that shot and thought, "Yeah, now's the time I'm gonna try to kick Crowder in the nuts."?
That is by no means a normal shooting motion.
"I'm a Deandre Ayton guy."--Al McCoy, September 21, 2022.
It should have been a Flagrant 2 (ejection), and we would be up 2-0. But it's the Lakers so they wouldn't call it. If it was the Suns, they would have ejected our player.
Relax. It didn't "take him out of the game" and AD shouldn't have been ejected. It played out exactly like it should've.
How is that not "unnecessary and excessive contact"?
Because it was clearly unintentional.
Do you really believe AD went up for that shot and thought, "Yeah, now's the time I'm gonna try to kick Crowder in the nuts."?
That is by no means a normal shooting motion.
OK, coach.
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I still think we would have been better off with Paul in the game the last 3 minutes. He may have been able to will us to victory. If he's gonna play at the beginning of the 4th quarter, why not play him at the end, when he's your leader?
"I'm a Deandre Ayton guy."--Al McCoy, September 21, 2022.
Craig needs minutes over Saric at this point. Let them go out gunning. If they have to, let Frank play several minutes. It is what it is. Saric and Paul can sit. Let Moore play backup next game. Even if they go up 2-1 on us, CP3 will be better able to contribute something by Sunday.
I still think we would have been better off with Paul in the game the last 3 minutes. He may have been able to will us to victory. If he's gonna play at the beginning of the 4th quarter, why not play him at the end, when he's your leader?
I think that's an easy thing to say in retrospect and a lot of people, including myself, would've been asking why Monty didn't play Payne when he basically brought the team back in Paul's absence.
Cam Payne deserved the chance to close out this game.
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Craig needs minutes over Saric at this point. Let them go out gunning. If they have to, let Frank play several minutes. It is what it is. Saric and Paul can sit. Let Moore play backup next game. Even if they go up 2-1 on us, CP3 will be better able to contribute something by Sunday.
Yeah, I think this is the direction Monty will go. It seems like he's playing Saric because he's a thicc boi and that's a better matchup against the Lakers beef, but at some point they gotta play the guy who's performed the best and that's been Craig for a while now.
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Do we sit Paul on Thursday? That would give him 5 days to get right...I guess it depends on how he feels, but if he’s going to play like tonight, just sit him. Make a game plan for Payne starting. Maybe just maybe, LA will relax just a bit and we can steal the game without CP3. We could really use one of those Crowder 7/7 from 3 games.
Split T wrote:Do we sit Paul on Thursday? That would give him 5 days to get right...I guess it depends on how he feels, but if he’s going to play like tonight, just sit him. Make a game plan for Payne starting. Maybe just maybe, LA will relax just a bit and we can steal the game without CP3. We could really use one of those Crowder 7/7 from 3 games.
I think this is right - make cam the starter for the next couple of games and work Paul back in around that, hoping he’s fit for game 5.
This play took Crowder out of the game.
CP3 obviously would've been a huge difference.
And we still weren't that far away from winning. Less turnovers and more Bridges next game please!
It should have been a Flagrant 2 (ejection), and we would be up 2-0. But it's the Lakers so they wouldn't call it. If it was the Suns, they would have ejected our player.
Relax. It didn't "take him out of the game" and AD shouldn't have been ejected. It played out exactly like it should've.
How is that not "unnecessary and excessive contact"?
This needs a 'headline this photo' contest...for me, it would be..."And the arena then echoed with his scream, 'Oh,, my balls...!"
Sorry, tough loss...and shows where we are with Paul hurt... unfortunately...
It should have been a Flagrant 2 (ejection), and we would be up 2-0. But it's the Lakers so they wouldn't call it. If it was the Suns, they would have ejected our player.
Relax. It didn't "take him out of the game" and AD shouldn't have been ejected. It played out exactly like it should've.
How is that not "unnecessary and excessive contact"?
Because it was clearly unintentional.
Do you really believe AD went up for that shot and thought, "Yeah, now's the time I'm gonna try to kick Crowder in the nuts."?
That is by no means a normal shooting motion.
I think we should start kicking their players in the nuts and see how they do.
We may be the only team in the playoffs without a forward capable of getting us 10 points a night and count on it.
We all love these guys right (Bridges, Crowder,Johnson and Craig)
Which one of them would you bet $100 on to get us 10 points in LA on Thursday? I would not bet on any of them.
This is a problem with this roster.
Who do you want to spell Ayton - Sario or Frank ?
This is another problem with this roster.
I say sit Paul and give minutes to Moore. At least he is a willing and capable shooter with the ability to share the ball as well. This circumstance was one of the reasons we signed him.
I wanted Monty as our coach since D'Antoni left town. Nice choice James Jones.
It was obvious as it was happening. He wanted to take on Caruso but he didn't really have a move to put on him, just tried to bully in for a close shot.
I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen him make a counter move near the basket all season. I hope he spends more time there than extending his shooting range this off season.
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Tough game but we battled through despite Paul's injury. I don't know when he gets healthy but stingers can affect you for a while. His arm could be weaker, he could still not have feeling in some places, he may not have full range of motion or be able to really get his arm over his head. You could see him favoring the arm, using his left to dribble a lot of the time, not getting his right arm up on defense. I don't know if sitting him Game 3 will help with recovery; maybe it helps the team mentally just knowing he's not available and can focus on getting the job done with Payne and Book (and maybe Moore off the bench).
I thought the Lakers were trapping Book effectively and cut off passing lanes with their length, but really, not having CP as a threat makes defending Book that much easier. We need to find other scorers. As well as Bridges is defending LBJ, he's been taken out of the games on offense, which was always a fear. Cam Johnson hit a few 3s and was looking good but didn't get any other good looks. He also did a good job on LBJ I thought. But we need more aggressive looks from them. Crowder, same thing - defending well but the Lakers are bothering the 3pt shot. We're just not getting them the rhythm shot they're used to.
Saric is overmatched but we don't have a lot of other options. He's tough and physical, but his offense is negated against their bigs unless he's going to hit his 3s. I don't know if Frank offers more in terms of a little more size and spacing or Craig gives us more defensively and athletically but we can't give up so many offensive rebounds and putbacks to Drum.
Payne was the MVP of the game. If he's going to see an increased role, we're doing to need him to repeat that kind of performance. I think there were some issues later in the game as to whether he or Book were running things or what they were running which needs to get ironed out.
DA had another strong game but I think only had 2 boards in the 1st half so he's gotta be more active to start games unless he's afraid of fouls, which is fair. Fumbled a few passes again and couldn't take advantage of Caruso in the post on a key play but I'm not sure that's even really his fault.
Monty and the coaches have to figure out a few things - they need to find more ways to shake Book loose, they gotta work on getting Jae, Cam and Mikal better scoring opportunities and we need to contain Schroder who was getting into the lane too easily.
Everything ties to CP3, that's just the awful truth
How many "learning/teaching moments" we saw when he would let Book initiate the late game offense and we bogged down some but more often than not got better looks when he initiated
That's the domino effect right now. Payne was awesome doing what the team encourages, "be a spark getting to the basket" and hitting his 3s. Payne high assist games have been when we are getting out and run, getting quality looks for everyone in half court is still where Payne needs to grow
So that leads to the fact that yes we don't have ISO forwards, the looks are generated from Book but mainly CP3 then it's on them to make their 3s or make a play off the bounce against "a defender rotating".
Basically the last 6mins of the game each of them got the ball with no air space, Jae probably got 1 or 2 good looks which he really needed to hit and that's that. We were just unable to get the Lakers having to help and recover.
So no timely CP3 pull-ups in that high PnR, no easy look for DA on a dish or swing passes for 3s if they overreacted or over helped. Lakers D scheme changed a little also as they weren't really leaving the corner 3 as much. EJ basically said it in every game, that Ok I will look for my shot now phase of the game by CP3 has been instrumental all season.