In this episode of the Laker Film Room Podcast Pete and I talked about the Lakers opening night loss to the Clippers.
We started out discussing the LeBron James/Anthony Davis pick and roll — how the Clippers defended it, the resulting ways the Lakers tried to play out of that action, and how successful they were at it. We talked extensively on the Lakers pivot to working through the post after their P&R sets broke down and what the costs and benefits were of that approach.
This led us to a discussion about LeBron’s overall play and what we thought some of the issues were.
We then talked a fair amount about Frank Vogel and the job he did vs. Doc Rivers. We talked adjustments, the matchups Vogel went with, and an interesting wrinkle he threw out down the stretch that might influence future battles with the Clippers.
Towards the end of the pod I made a statement that I’m not here to bury Vogel and I’ll repeat that sentiment now. I do not think Vogel coached a particularly good game on opening night. I also think he deserves a fair amount of leeway this early in the season, but especially after a single game vs. a really good team. I agree with something Pete said — that some of the things we saw are definitely worth monitoring, but it’s way too early to get panicky.
Anyways, the entire pod is below. It was a really good talk and heavy on some X’s and O’s and strategic stuff we saw from the team’s first game.
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