Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 807. (Read 918509 times)

It's too early to judge still, but I'd like to compare Bamba with Thomas Bryant.
Let's see how Bamba will have an impact in the Lakers. Bryant is successful being the 2nd option big for the Lakers, but quite unfortunate and I'm a bit surprised that they've traded him despite his good performance all throughout the season. Bamba used to be the starting center for the Magic, but slowly went out to the rotation of the team and ended up being traded. As for the whole Lakers team, good and convincing win for them against the short-handed Pelicans.

The Nuggets have the best home record now in the NBA with 27-4, and the Nuggets are still undefeated (21-0 I guess) when Jokic gets a triple double stats.
A convincing win for them as well against the short-handed Mavericks. The Nuggets are just incredible on their home, and that's without Murray at all, but it seems like it doesn't matter because they are performing very well still. Overall, a good win before the all-star break.

Brooklyn Bridges is enjoying playing with the Nets.

I don't know if there is somebody in the league now that's more efficient than him. He can be a scorer of the team, he is also an elite defender and at the same time, isn't injury prone. As for Brooklyn, I don't know what they will do with Simmons right now. It seems like they are building a new team without him already. We don't hear about him anymore. The Nets aren't giving him much minutes to play. Quite unfortunate for him that his career will end up to this. I don't know if there's any team that will get him after his contract especially in this era where offense is just at its highest. He can't shoot, he's afraid to shoot outside and even in the paint. He only knows passing and with our current NBA, no team wants that only (unless he will be put to a team where there's many shooters). Overall, the Nets must move on with him.

They tried playing with Luka alone, but they still lost that game. They are currently on a 3-game winning streak, if I recall correctly. I think I'll have to support them until they start winning consistently. This is a playoff team, and it would be a shame if they miss the playoffs this season because of their decision to trade their role players for Kyrie Irving.

Mavs needs to win games, they are still not safe moving to the next round, west side are composed of good teams who are capable of
win games, after acquiring Kyrie they are now 2-3 win-loss.

Looking to see good plays to come once both Kyrie and Luka play together with a healthy squad.
Let's see if how they will adjust after losing 3 consecutive. Adjustments really needed to everyone.

Yes, it's really more of a win base on the trade, Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges could be the new franchise look for the Nets + Nic that will be great.

And it just solidify Jokic and Luka as forefront for the MVP race with this kind of performance. Luka though might have the advantage since the Nuggets are on the top of the standing. And we also have Tatum and Giannis and Joel Embiid for the MVP race that could be very close.

Big win by the Lakers as well against the Pelicans.

Though they lose this one, they're not far from getting to the NBA playoff spot and they will just need to be consistent and continue to win more games than lose.
As for Luka performance without Kyrie, it's still one of the best and though he is short and didn't win it, he still gonna be good when Kyrie comes back to play. Hope this will be the long losing streak they will have after getting Kyrie from trade because if they struggle from here, they will gonna suffer more after the end of All-star weekend because that's when real games start.

I'm glad Lebron is back. Although not a perfect performance, he made a good contribution to the team as a score. Davis played very well and was very instrumental in winning the game. We know the Lakers can play better than this, but I don't think they're controlling the game the way they want. However, this match was important to them and they managed to get a win that was enjoyable for everyone

Yeah, regardless of the shooting percentage, it's good to see the Lakers winning tonight, with Lebron James back in action and most of the players they acquired in the trade played and contributed somewhat to their winnings.

But still a lot for the Lakers to turn their season, they need to win a bunch in order to at least be in the play-in. Lebron and AD needs to be healthy throughout + D'Lo Russell.

Amazing the Lakers pulled out a win the way they shot the ball from the arch. The Pelicans didn’t do much better though with both teams shooting under 30%. Anthony Davis from the field was the one bright spot. We also got to see Mo Bamba in action for the first time. Him and LeBron shot a combined 0 for 10 from 3 point range. Not exactly the long range addition they were hoping for.

but the person does not need to run the risk of placing a bet early to have high odds when they can also have high odds hours or minutes before the game, for example there are games in which we have the following situation:

day 15

Team A has odds of @2.40
Team B has odds of @3.00

but on the 16th in the news they say that team A will be missing 3 of its main players, because they are sick

then the odd will look like this:

day 16

Team A has odds of @3.40
Team B has odds of @2.00

but because you know that team B is a team with bad performance, in the last games it didn't win anything, it doesn't have good players and it loses with weak teams so you can bet on team A to win the game, you will be betting with safer information, or even because you know that the main players of team A will not be playing and team B has no quality, you can bet that the game will not have many points


if Lebron James and Anthony Davis didn't play, the Lakers would have already lost the game before it even started, they are important players, with the changes they made (the departure of Russell Westbrook), maybe the team plays consistently, the most important thing is that we won the game against the Pelicans

Another triple-double for Nikola Jokic 14 points 13 rebounds 10 assists. That's the 97th triple-double in his career in a victory against the Dallas Mavericks. Big help from Jeff Green dominating the paint with 24 points, it's his night, and the player of the game.
That's it for them, finishing strong before the long All-Star break.
Luka Doncic 37 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds. They are shorthanded without Kyrie Irving and Tim Hardaway. Also their last game and a long rest.

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Finally, the Nets got their win after the big trade that happened. This is the first win for both Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges being Nets. It surely didn't take long and they had an explosive night. Johnson with 18 points and Bridges with a freaking 45 points! A monster game and a career-high for him to snatch a win against the Miami Heat.

Let's wait now maybe they can blame D'Lo or whoever just to point figner with losses that they will be committing, it's nothing that
viewers and fans can do but to wait if how things will work now with the team.

Chemistry and the willingness of each players to play together and try winning the game together,
not just to hype the legacy of someone but to bring the team back to the finals and maybe win
a tittle again.

Clippers & Heat. Just watched a video regarding Russ. LINK

Why media are very mean to Westbrook? Why the media are saying very harsh words to him? "A beginning of an end", "A vampire", all of these articles being spread online etc. I mean the media are talking like Russ didn't do anything right in his whole basketball career to the point that they are saying these words. Now another one has been posted.

I don't think that no other team wants to pursue Westbrook. It's just that, his contract is way to high compare to his performance. It's unbalanced that's why, no one wants him. If the Jazz will buyout him, maybe teams who are interested with his services will pop up. For the Clippers, PG13 already said in an interview that he wants Russ to be his teammate again, and I believe he's a good addition to the team. They traded John Wall and Reggie Jackson already. Who is their point guard right now? I believe Clippers can benefit with Westbrook's ability to pass the ball. Forget the three point shooting because he's awful at it, but bottom line is his passing ability is still there, and he can play off the bench and get at least 5 APG or even more. As for the Heat, Lowry is always injured, and they already put him in the trading blocks. Westbrook can be a good fit for the Heat as well, but Clippers would be a better place for him.

Not all fans though, there are also haters who thought Westbrook was the problem.
I always thought, it's gonna be the head coach that's really hurting the Lakers since the beginning of the season. Ham is too stubborn to change his rotation whenever his experiment doesn't work. If he has managed to correct those, plus those game winning missed calls against them, the Lakers could've been easily sitting at the top 8 seed right now. 
However, also believe what Pat Bev said after he departed ways with the Lakers. The vibe in LA is inconsistent, sometimes the team chemistry is great and sometimes there ain't none at all.

A rumor was said by Shams that no team wants to pursue Russel Westbrook.
(https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10065773-shams-russell-westbrook-buyout-market-slow-moving-no-traction-with-clippers)
(https://hoopshype.com/2023/02/15/shams-charania-when-you-look-around-nba-theres-no-spot-for-russell-westbrook/)

Only the fans of Lakers blaming Westbrook on their losses while the fact is their organization is really need to organize since it seems they are in focus to solidify the legacy of lebron and second priority is to win. There chemistry really sucks so maybe they need focus on things and find ways to work together as a team. Now Westbrook is departed for sure they don't have reason about anything especially blaming a player when they lose.

That's what Rob Pelinka says when he was interviewed after they traded Westbrook, he didn't mentioned that he is just one part of the problem, he just says that its his job to make the them work and so he has to replace them to make the them work.

Yeah, in another interview on Paul George, he says that they need a traditional point guard and that's why the team is interested on getting the services of Westbrook. Not sure how he will be a 'traditional' point guard for them though.

That shot of Hauser though, you don't expect some Hail Mary to be taken by him, but in the last couple of games, he had shown that he can be a good backup for the Celtics.

Yes, scary, how deep the Celtics are without 4 of their 5 starters and still give the Bucks a good fight and almost steal a win from them in the Fiserv and snap their winning streak.

I think they are not just looking for this season, the players that they acquire are for long term goals of the Lakers. So if they didn't make it to the finals, then they have a full season to get this players align.

It's over now, WB is no longer with them, they should have move on as for us fans as well. And I heard that teams like Chicago and even LA Clippers are interested with Russ.

Lakers are now 1-5 without westbrook. I coitized them a lot for getting him, and I thought it was a good idea to trade him, but turns out it wasn't really that much of a good idea. I mean it looks like they got some "decent" players in return, but these days decent players do not matter, look at what Mavs and Suns got, so Lakers do not have that much of a good team just yet.

Lebron missed some games so that plays a role in this, but it is clear to me that they are going to miss playoffs this year, and next year they won't have a good team because AD is constantly injured and even though Lebron is a great player, he is getting to almost 40, they just can't win with this team.

The Lakers' performance was really inconsistent before the deadline, and it even seemed they were hopeless at that time. However, now they have some new players who can help them get a little better, and I am more than sure that the Lakers will improve their place in the standings by the end of the regular season. As for the upcoming game, my guess is that the Lakers will be able to beat the Pelicans even if Davis and LeBron don't play.