NBA Season 2024-25

[Who]

Cool graphic = Lebron vs Minny

Playoff wins = 183 to 181
Series wins = 41 to 33

[Who]

Awesome spin move in transition by Luka.

Got a friendly whistle on the drive. That should have been a play-on. Incidental contact.

[Goldstar88]

Trent Jr went off for the Bucks. 37pts on 11-16 shooting. 9-12 from 3pt. If he can be the 3rd scoring option, say 15-20pts a game, they should win the series.

[Who]

Mike Breen cannot stop drooling over ex-Knick J Randle.

[Phantom255x]

Is this just a bad matchup for Gobert? He's been invisible all series

[Who]

Gobert had A Reaves sealed inside there. Nobody got him the ball. He was lucky to get away a 3 sec violation because he was camped out in there. Right in front of the rim.

Minny are terrible of taking advantage of his rolls to the rim.

[Who]

Good half of basketball. Lot of quality from both sides.

[Who]

Oh my god. A Reaves with the long 3!

[Who]

Oh my god. A Reaves with the long 3!

Oh my god Luka!!! He tops Reaves with a ridiculous turnaround 3 going away from the basket on the left side of the court. Bang! Wow what a shot.

[Who]

Lakers should be delighted to see A Reaves have a big game. He struggled in Gm 1 and was okay in Gm 2 but nowhere near the level of play he showed during the regular season. Tonight he is coming up big for LAL.

Actually, Reaves is outplaying Ant so far.

That is a huge plus for LAL.

[Who]

Jaden McDaniels' first half explosion is keeping Minny in this. LAL are red hot making 22-42 FGA and 9-21 3PTA. Ant has been mediocre by his standards. Randle very good. Naz and DiVincenzo more on the quiet side. It is McDaniels that is stepping up and keeping their offense competitive with LAL.

[Who]

Is this just a bad matchup for Gobert? He's been invisible all series

I don't think this is a series where Gobert can perform near the top of his game. So in that respect, yes a bad a matchup. He is forced to spend too much time out on the perimeter defending LAL's 3 point shooting forwards and switching onto their dominant shot-creators.

That limits the value of Gobert's interior defense and defensive rebounding because he is spending all his time out at the three point line. Those are his best strengths and they are being curtailed. So yes, bad matchup.

On the positive side, Gobert is still playing good defense on the perimeter. It is a lie that he is a bad switch defender. He is a good switch defender. LeBron doesn't like attacking any of Minnesota's bigs one on one off the bounce. Luka gets some joy but it is more of a mixed bag.

Minny's defensive numbers with Gobert on the floor show he is still having a positive impact which is what you would expect given his track record of being a good switch defender / good perimeter defender.

It is just not as large of an impact as he can have defensively when he is allowed roam around the paint and muck up the other team's offense. It is a positive impact but smaller.

So look for good play rather than great play from Gobert in this series. And he is delivering that.

-------------------------------------------------------

Most of his low scoring totals are failures of his teammates to find him when he is open or has an advanageous matchup inside. This has been issue for Minny for 2 seasons now. The only guy on their team who finds Gobert consistently is Mike Conley and Conley is now a shadow of himself. Without Conley feeding him, Gobert gets fewer attempts at the rim. On a different team, with proper playmakers, Gobert would be scoring 10-14ppg in this series. It is a teammate problem. Not a Gobert problem. It would be the same with any other rim runner / rim finisher like Lively or Capela if they were put on this Minnesota team. It is their lack of passing that is the issue.

[Phantom255x]

Is this just a bad matchup for Gobert? He's been invisible all series

I don't think this is a series where Gobert can perform near the top of his game. So in that respect, yes a bad a matchup. He is forced to spend too much time out on the perimeter defending LAL's 3 point shooting forwards and switching onto their dominant shot-creators.

That limits the value of Gobert's interior defense and defensive rebounding because he is spending all his time out at the three point line. Those are his best strengths and they are being curtailed. So yes, bad matchup.

On the positive side, Gobert is still playing good defense on the perimeter. It is a lie that he is a bad switch defender. He is a good switch defender. LeBron doesn't like attacking any of Minnesota's bigs one on one off the bounce. Luka gets some joy but it is more of a mixed bag.

Minny's defensive numbers with Gobert on the floor show he is still having a positive impact which is what you would expect given his track record of being a good switch defender / good perimeter defender.

It is just not as large of an impact as he can have defensively when he is allowed roam around the paint and muck up the other team's offense. It is a positive impact but smaller.

So look for good play rather than great play from Gobert in this series. And he is delivering that.

-------------------------------------------------------

Most of his low scoring totals are failures of his teammates to find him when he is open or has an advanageous matchup inside. This has been issue for Minny for 2 seasons now. The only guy on their team who finds Gobert consistently is Mike Conley and Conley is now a shadow of himself. Without Conley feeding him, Gobert gets fewer attempts at the rim. On a different team, with proper playmakers, Gobert would be scoring 10-14ppg in this series. It is a teammate problem. Not a Gobert problem. It would be the same with any other rim runner / rim finisher like Lively or Capela if they were put on this Minnesota team. It is their lack of passing that is the issue.

TP

Also some nice plays by Gobert just now, maybe I woke him up lol

[Who]

I think this is Minny's best offensive lineup here to end Q3

G: NAW
G: Ant
F: DiVincenzo
F: Randle
C: Naz Reid

5 out. Shooters all over the floor. Three ball-handlers on the perimeter. All big guards. Then Randle a 4th ball-handler. Two main shot creators. Their 4 best scorers. NAW the glue guy. A more consistent glue guy than Conley at PG.

You could also switch out NAW for Jaden McDaniels. You lose some ball-handling and perimeter shooting but you upgrade your perimeter defense & rebounding.

[Who]

Great block by DiVincenzo to end Q3. It looked like A Reaves was wide open close the basket when he caught that. All of sudden the space was gone and DiVincenzo wiped away his easy hoop.