It's a lot like playing an arcade video game.
If you surround Steph Curry, he passes the ball to Klay Thompson somewhere on the border. If you somehow get to him, he throws it to Draymond Green running towards the basket.
All in under 24 seconds.
It's like the Lakers are playing Whack-a-Warrior in their second-round series.
The Lakers viewed it all unfold as the Golden State Warriors intended in Games 1 and 2 in
San Francisco. That the Lakers managed to split the two video games at Chase Center spoke to their strength, their ability to change their defense appropriately and Anthony Davis' beast game in Game 1.
Reality smacked the Lakers upside the head in Game 2, a 127-100 loss that evened the second-round playoff series and cast doubts on their capability to safeguard the indefensible. Because, let's face it, the Lakers need to tighten up defensively for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday and Monday at Crypto.com Arena.
What's more, the Lakers should discover a way to get more consistent production from Davis, who led them to a 117-112 triumph in Game 1 with 30 points, 23 rebounds, five assists and 4 obstructed shots but then had just 11 points, seven rebounds, four assists and 3 blocks in Game 2.
Exploitation of the opponent's weak points are what it's all about in the playoffs.
So, after Golden State coach Steve Kerr made modifications for Game 2, it's over to you, Lakers coach Darvin Ham, for some Game 3 tweaks. The Lakers didn't practice Friday upon returning house from
San Francisco, however said they would hold a movie session to dissect everything from Game 2.
" I mean, I just believe being all set from the ball leaving our shooters' hands, running back in shift, getting compared, communicating," Ham stated when asked late Thursday night what the Lakers need to improve defensively. "You make one slip, you miss out on one assignment, they're going to make you pay.
" They're most likely most unsafe once they provide the ball up. That's when the race starts. I imply, those people' ability to run around on the floor, their bigs, their facilitator guys, they can blindly throw a pass and that pass is going to be connecting to Klay, Steph, Jordan (Poole), right in their area."
Ham anticipated a strong pushback from the Warriors in Game 2 and he got it.
After Game 1, we totally expected them to come out and throw some haymakers, which they did. You do not get to this point in the season by it being simple. You have to buckle down, do your research, look at the Ls and ws-- wisdoms and wessons-- look at methods you can get better from it, try not to make the exact same mistakes two times."
At the other end of the court, and the other end of the spectrum, Davis remains an issue for the Warriors. They handled to obstruct the paint and make it more difficult for the Lakers to feed him passes in Game 2 that they did nearly easily in Game 1. Davis missed a couple of makeable shots, too.
Davis pledged to be much better in Game 3, no matter if the Warriors utilize Green or Looney or somebody else to examine him. He also stated he and his teammates would find ways to protect the Warriors much better and more effectively than they did in Game 2, when they appeared to be scrambling at times.
Getting more points, rebounds and helps from Davis is crucial.
" I believe they were a bit more active in the pocket," Davis said of the Warriors' collapsing defense versus him. "They type of clogged the paint in our pocket passes that were pretty open in Game 1. It didn't help that we didn't actually shoot the ball well from 3(- point variety). If we start making those shots, making those threes, it'll be tough for them to draw in, to sort of remove those pocket passes, us playing in the paint.
" That's all I think it was. They made a focus on making certain they searched for the people on the border, on the 3-point line and clog the paint up a little bit."
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