How LeBron Dominated Steph In Game 3 | Lakers Warriors 2023 NBA Playoffs

let's face it this is a weird series both teams have had massive blowouts and that's what happens when you have two diametrically opposing styles of play clashing every other day of the week at times it looks like the Warriors three-point shooting will completely overwhelm this Lakers team who don't have the Personnel to defend well enough and in other times the Lakers so thoroughly dominate The Warriors that you wonder if Golden State should just stop shooting shots near the basket altogether to make matters even weirder LeBron James did not even shoot the ball in the first quarter and went 13 minutes of playing time without looking at the basket as the Warriors built an 11 point lead it turns out you can point a finger at one of his teammates to explain why Jared Vanderbilt is offensively challenged and as a result his Defender will often ignore him to Shadow LeBron let's look at what LeBron sees as he begins his attack a chance to attack curry in the pick and roll but there's to Michael Green ignoring Vanderbilt to hover in the lane in until the Bronze close enough to rotate fully this leaves clay splitting the difference between the wing and the corner but look how hard LeBron throws this pass clay never had a chance as D'Angelo Russell benefited the most they try cutting Vanderbilt out of the strong side corner but it just lets to Michael Green stay there to Shadow the brawn while he works the mismatch with curry I don't understand why he's not heart doubling and we see Vanderbilt trying to initiate contact with Draymond and doesn't get the benefit of the doubt as the Lakers come up empty here is Draymond ignoring Vanderbilt who wanders down to the Baseline I'm sure LeBron would love to go up over Klay Thompson but with the long arms of green waiting for him he finds A.D who helps generate free throws when Green's foot contacts Vanderbilt's foot causing him to lose balance in transition pool is forced to pick up LeBron which would be a light snack for him normally but Looney decides to Shadow off of Anthony Davis again LeBron isn't going to force that shot and sees that Curry had rotated over to A.D the better play for the defense would have been for Wiggins to come over on this help and let Curry split the difference on the weak side as a result LeBron can just lock it up for an easy catch and finish and early in the second with LeBron bearing down on Wiggins Draymond figures he can ignore Lonnie Walker and double LeBron but Walker was a very good player for the Lakers in regular season and reminded us all he should be getting minutes D'Angelo Russell hadn't shot well from three in the playoffs until last night so I get why Draymond would be willing to help on A.D one pass away the problem is once you let a struggling shooter get a good look it can unlock a lot more and sure enough as LeBron is presented with two defenders in transition he fires another strike to a barely open Delo in the corner and now you've got a hot shooter on your hands who can feed off the home crowd's energy he was feeling it so much he just torches a good defender in Klay Thompson with a behind the back dribble to reject the screen then the sidesteps shot fake nice spin for added spice and little fade from 12 feet and I'm sure Rain Man wanted to ask what medication he was taking in the last video we discussed how poorly the Warriors defended this pin down screen for A.D coming out of the left corner and last night Draymond decided to top lock Davis this is the kind of positioning you use for a guy like Steph Curry who can fly off that pick and nail threes all day why on Earth would you willfully give a cut to the biggest guy on the court straight to the basket of course there was a file on the screen but this is much more a terrible defensive decision that led to a layup green does it again so they tilt the angle of the screen to make it a slice cut Wiggins must stay at the lane line to prevent another layup and we don't properly appreciate these lasers LeBron can throw 30 feet on a rope directly enabling Russell to attack the long closeout and open up a little fade away and the Warriors should feel fortunate it wasn't an and one one reason why it feels like this is a terrible matchup for the Lakers is the way they want to defend handoffs and pick and rolls when Anthony Davis is involved he continued to sink way low into the paint against the perceived non-threat in loony but it leads the defense with no contest of the three-point shot I think what they're telling him to do is conserve energy earlier in the game by not stepping up and then later in the game use his Mobility to meet the ball once it comes around the screen it's just a little concerning if the Warriors take a huge lead early on all these open jumpers and have to expend a lot more energy later to come back notice how gassed both LeBron and ADR in this up and down sequence at the end of the third quarter darpenham needs to be concerned if they have to play a ton of minutes in a long series but this game was a godsend as it allowed them to get an extra five or six minutes of rest but even as the warriors were building their 11 point lead in the second there was plenty of evidence to prove that as a team they were disjointed emotionally uncentered and so mistake prone that coaches everywhere were collectively asking if you could hear them shaking their head let's start with Steph Curry who continues to try and challenge Anthony Davis in the lane even though we keep seeing these shots get blocked maybe Vanderbilt hits him in the head here but it's a decision to shoot a finger roll floater that's the real issue he tries to do the same thing by challenging LeBron in the lame about an advantage and he's got to know that these four Rays toward the basket rarely end up going well for him even something subtle like this caught my eye on their vaunted lopo split Curry collapses the defense but then decides to float this pass to Wiggins it takes almost two seconds to get there eliminating the only shot he could have had compare this to the LeBron fastballs and you have to wonder why he did it same thing here as he's wide open but Curry just fires the pass out of bounds normally when you're on the fast break it's a good idea to always watch the ball why is Clay not looking back but then for curry to not realize this and try and throw a lefty bounce pass across the court from 25 feet away is all sorts of head scratching and just a symbol for the beginning of the end if those were the only mistakes then maybe the Warriors survive and maintain their lead but no the hits kept coming Draymond wants to Michael the lift earlier and maybe that would have helped since he just steps out of bounds the Warriors turned a Surefire Advantage into a turnover as clay feels pressure from behind and throws this pass more to Anthony Davis than the kibon Looney Dante de Vincenzo has to do something with it as a clock winds down and while trying to initiate contact with the defender ends up getting stripped by a guy who wasn't even facing him Jordan Poole has been borderline unplayable for much of the series and if you look at the direction Monty Walker's arm was moving then compare that to where the ball goes I really think he just loses it on his own and this one was enough to get me to walk away from the screen for a few seconds as he just tries to go too fast on the delay move and doesn't remember to bring the ball with him into a terrible turnover covered up because they had a bit of a lead Moses Moody gets frustrated that he didn't get a call by jumping into 80's vertical space and ends up foolishly grabbing his foot for an automatic flagrant foul here's the moment the game completely changed down one the Lakers get LeBron down low against Clay you can see coach Kerr wanting Wiggins to go double out the red hot Russell but clay gets a strip and it feels like Golden State would get this back under control now LeBron doesn't actually block this but he closes so fast on Wiggins that he just blows the layup on the way back down LeBron is feeling it calling for the ball early but then cuts to the corner where Draymond picks him up but not before he can take the lead back for good finishing this incredible sequence and kick-starting a total devastation as the Lakers go on to outscore the Warriors 85-57 the rest of the way what this Lakers team lacks in three-point shooting in defense of the three-point shot they make up for in defense of the paint scoring around the basket and most importantly mental toughness and resilience they've continued their dominance and free throw attempts but what would you expect from a matchup between one team that simply gets the line a lot versus a team that not only doesn't get a ton of free throws but is also extremely foul prone the warriors on the other hand have a hard time letting things go and we'll compound the issue with silly technical files I understand it's near impossible to guard Anthony Davis in the paint so green feels he needs to try and draw charges but I'd much rather see him not try to take away a pass to this cutter and just focus on Davis and Draymond is clearly not in his path when the Collision occurs Not only was this correctly overturned but green makes it worse by getting a technical foul the Warriors became completely unglued the rest of the second quarter and never recovered nice pass from Curry to Looney who just bounces it once to Austin Reeves Klay Thompson gets Happy Feet by splitting both of them before releasing the ball into a dribble easy traveling call defensively they screw up a switch on a screening action that they themselves practically pioneered as Wiggins get screened Curry doesn't switch with him and nobody goes with filo who gets another wide open look from downtown when clay realizes his shot is going to be short he decides that holding his bottle through and moving towards the basket might help instead of getting back on defense allowing a free run for Russell to hit curry with a beautiful inside hand layup he then gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar while this is no longer a shooting foul it's a clear-cut foul they're already in the bonus so Reeves will shoot two free throws and I have to imagine Clay is angry at himself with this reaction did Vincenzo clearly switches on to Schroeder with the ball screen but look how confused he gets when they throw it right back to his man allowing a wide open three next their offense is facing completely falls apart the high post split should never happen right in front of the post player for this very reason then clay gets caught with a very unnecessary forearm push which almost never gets called on a move like this but you can see there is quite a bit of Leverage gained with that off arm even though it never extends into a straight arm then to Michael Green sitting on the bench starts yelling at the Baseline referee who decides he's had enough and gives him a technical foul now you've got two angry Greens in the bench together negatively affecting the game while not even being on the floor divincenzo continues his dizziness and it was obvious in real time that he never got his feet completely out of the lane within three seconds which is what the rule calls for and everyone knows this this isn't even an issue of paying attention to detail he just cut some corners and got caught so that means they went from potentially stopping a LeBron post up as the clock was about to wind down to allowing a good Lakers inbound play that gets 80 the ball at the elbow right where he wants it and Looney can't keep up with him as he gets a nice layup at the buzzer the unforced errors kept going early in the third Curry stops his Drive sees there's no angle to get it to Green but throws the bad pass out of bounds anyway instead of making the Easy Pass to an open Wiggins with LeBron three steps behind Draymond throws a blind no look pass to the corner that A.D reads perfectly and deflects then he almost throws away this ill-advised back door pass credit to Curry for corralling it and fighting to Michael Green open for the dunk who probably blows it and Clay can't even make a simple guard to Wing pass without A.D again there for a nice deflection this all culminated in another attempt to take a charge from Draymond and this type of charge has different rules because A.D is a cutter receiving the pass versus dribbling to the basket in this scenario Draymond never gives A.D an opportunity to avoid him as he catches his pass outside the area of the lane I don't want to take anything away from what the Lakers are doing they deserve to win this game primarily because they didn't make mistakes didn't let the referees bother them and continue to ruthlessly focus on their strengths but this is a long series and the question is will the Warriors continue to shoot themselves in the foot we all remember what happened after their game 6 debacle against the kings in the last round similar bone-headed plays led to a massive blowout loss and then they rebounded in game seven to look like a well-coached team that destroyed the Kings will the game two Warriors show up for game 4 and Beyond it just feels to me like the Lakers are not built to beat the Warriors but the Warriors are built to beat the Warriors Wanna Know again [Music]

Channel: BBALLBREAKDOWN

Views: 141,569

Keywords: NBA, Basketball, NBA Scores, NBA News, Basketball Scores, Basketball (Invention), Basketball Coach (Profession), National Basketball Association (Organization)

Id: 3x9wiUC30NQ

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Mon May 08 2023