Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Great game by the Old Man- he completely controlled the game by dishing out all those assists in the first.
Luke was hitting from everywhere!
Ayton was great and was dependable on both ends.
Hachi hit a bunch of jumpers.
Defense was pretty good, even though we didn’t box out enough.

 

Team just came out and took care of business. Everyone stepped up. We looked good from beginning to the end.

definitely gave me hope for the series.

 

played great defensively. i think durant negates that, but you still have to go out and do it against who they have, and we did.

outstanding game from lebron on both ends; not surprised.

was semi-surprised by kennard, but only because it was a gaudy 5-5. he's not a guy who's afraid of the spotlights, and that's great.

houston did well on the offensive boards, as expected, but i think a lot of that is just stuff we'll have to deal with--they're more athletic, and several of them weren't about us being in bad position or anything.

the only real room for improvement was the turnovers (that stretch in the late second was bad and unnecessary) and the missed FTs (c'mon...).

anyway, great to get a game 1!

 

That first offensive series to start the game had me thinking, "oh nooooo". We definitely had problems controlling the ball, hope we can improve that. I see a glimmer of hope here, see how I feel after Durant comes back.

 

A couple days ago I saw that HOU had listed KD as questionable with a knee strain; I thought it was gamesmanship. I expected KD to play. That he didn't probably got us Game 1, but hey: all our guys played their azzes off on defense. It was a gutsy game by, like, everyone, and Lebron and Kennard stood out, but wow: I really didn't think we'd get a playoff win after AR and Luka went down.

Pretty thrilling game, all-around. I kept expecting us to let down and see HOU go up 10, but it never happened. Ayton and Jaxson played Sengun tough.

We probably won't get out of the 1st round, but if we play like this every game you never know.

 

First Game 1 win at home since Bynum 10 blocks against the Thuggets .. It was a while ago

 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48519533/warriors-kerr-mull-future-knows-jobs-expiration-dates

 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...says-clippers-long-term-aim-remains-win-kawhi

 

https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/teams/Golden-State-Warriors/9/Playoff-History

 

https://x.com/JakeLFischer/status/2045283227418382481
Yes, hire Darvin

 

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiret...ge-As-Steve-Kerr-Leads-$175M-Annual-Pay-Scale

 

Really? Wow. Too lazy to fact-check, which I'd only want to do so because this sounds extraordinary. But I will assume this is accurate, and so: weird, etc. If only because Bynum seems so long ago...what a strange bit of Laker lore: don't win that first game at home in the playoffs, but come back and win...a lot, given our record.

Speaking of Bynum, who I consider a "haunting" player in Laker history: remember when he went off against the Clips in 2008-2009 for 42? A lot of us thought this young guy would be that guy - he had the size and physical gifts,was developing killer post moves, very physical player down low and just a massive kid, but he turned out to be a teenager forever - he couldn't really advance because he was too stuck in terminal adolescence. I had visions of Bynum, hanging with Shaq, Kareem, maybe Hakeem, learning from them, wanting to be great...he didn't really care. Zero Mamba Mentality. He wasted it and then his knees went. I will never get over how effed up that situation was for him, us, everyone.

The history of the NBA is littered with couldda shouldda wouldda guys: guys who burned up the world in high school, college, early in their NBA careers, testimonies that this guy torched us we couldn't stop him this guy was on another level, we were in awe... then...something happened and they never flowered to their full potential. I think it was John Lennon who said life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. Jit happens. Sometimes it's mostly your doing, but other times it's "bad luck." The guys we watch who make amazing careers should be seen as not only great but also: lucky.

Ben Simmons is now playing in the Australian League. What was the cause of this?

"Just goes to show he really wasn't good enough," someone can easily say. Yes, but why? If we saw Simmons - just to take example among hundreds - we saw a guy who could perform magic on an NBA court. WTF happened to this guy?

 

So nice to get a win in game 1

We didn't live at the 3 line but we were 10-19 for 53%

40-66 from the field 61%

DA came to play and it was nice to see him with the effort

Smart and LK were running the offense

LBJ looked like he was having fun

DA 19 pts 11 reb 2 ast 1 blk

Smart 15 pts 2 reb 8 ast 1 stl 2 blk

LK 27 pts 4 reb 3 ast

 

you point to the mental aspect--and that is often the issue and was certainly a factor in both bynum and simmons not fulfilling promise. but i'd also remind people that both guys had career-spanning injury issues, too. sort of like how greg oden having a drinking problem was a huge issue, but an equally limiting factor was having one leg shorter than the other. when you have huge failures, it's usually multiple factors.

brandon roy had all the right mentality and approach and a ton of talent, and his knees just gave out early. grant hill played when he shouldn't have (due to a mamba mentality, ironically), and went from being a potential all-time great to being remembered largely as a glue-guy. penny hardaway, ron harper, etc. there are probably even more of these than there are michael ray richardsons or roy tarpleys.

another way of thinking about all this is how much has to go right to fulfill the potential.

 

Condemned to like …. Hell?

Clippers Signal They Want To Keep Kawhi Leonard

Ty Lue To Remain Head Coach Of Clippers 'For A Long, Long Time'

 

Even photo memory @KareemtheGreat33 is impressed with THAT get!

 

Didn’t help that on top of “terminal adolescence” he had the big 2 S*** happens type knee injuries.

 

KD, no KD, doesn't matter, we are winning this. We can play better and LeBron guided the ship masterfully. He is healthy and can bust out a mega game if needed. He knows how important this game two is. Smart will cut his t/o down. My only real concern is JJ doing something stupid, but for the most part, he looked good in game one. We didn't even have to bust out our secret weapons off the bench.

 

To be fair , this is only the 2nd time we have HCA since the 12 Nuggets series .

12 against OKC : no HCA
13 against SAS : no HCA
2020 : Bubble , definetely would have won some
2021 against Suns : no HCA
2023 : no HCA in all 3 series but won 2 Game 1 away
2025 ; loss against Sota