Bickerstaff needs to take blame and yet he continues to deflect criticism towards the players on a consistent basis like he is Neo.
Yep. The PLAYERS didn’t execute HIS game plan.
To my eye. They executed his game plan just fine. They overhelped and one of the best passers of all time carved them up.
Bickerstaff is obsessed with help defense. He is stuck on the idea that even if we double, as long as the next 3 guys make the right rotation…we’ll be fine.
Well, the fact of the matter is LeBron has been slicing up even the best “on a string” defenses in the world for almost 2 full decades now.
The best game plan against LeBron is what Popovich subscribes to:
You guard LeBron straight up. You go under or switch every screen. You stay at home, TIGHT on all shooters and you shut the water off on baseline backdoor screens. Nothing easy or open for anyone else. LeBron has come a long way as a consistent shooter so this is a little more painful than it was in 2011 but still is the best way to do. He still scored 40 but had a triple double to go along with it and his teammates were loving it and useful for once.
The Lakers proved they can’t defend for shit. We scored even with ur bench not producing, out shooting being off and foul trouble for LeVert and Mobley (fuck the refs for that btw..we probably win without that constant foul trouble that the refs were eager to gift to Bron)
They also scored off of turnovers almost every time. The Cavs transition defense was insanely porous and the turnovers were often unforced errors. Yet the game was easily winnable until Bickerstaff just absolutely shit the bed when we were up 1 point and he came out with a stupid as lineup that the Lakers just scored on and beat like a drum. Mobley or Moses Brown in there would have potentially stopped almost every bucket they got in that stretch. I would have even considered putting them in together for a couple minutes. Garland was in his bag and would have gotten us offense but we just needed two minutes of stops and rebounding.
If LeBron scores 65 points on mostly jumpers and you lose; you tip your cap and your lack offense is probably to blame.
But instead JBB was obsessed with trying to throw these weird delayed doubles at LeBron after he already got his shoulder past the initial defender…he literally ate us alive. Wide open dunks and layups for Johnson and Gabriel. Wide open threes for Johnson with nobody within 10 feet and Love not even caring to try and close out. Easy hook/push shot in the middle of the court 8 feet from the basket for Johnson.
JBBs “strategy” got us torn apart by Stanley Johnson and DJ Augustin. We get torn apart by journeymen bench guys, and not 6th men…we’re getting killed by 10th men…10 day contract guys..because they’re just NOT GUARDING PEOPLE.
I fully expect Boucher and Bitch to combine for like 45/20 against us on Thursday. Well swarm and double and trap and help on Siakim all night and get carved up. I’m just hoping Mobley and Garland can rise above it all and get the W.
Getting DG some much needed rest for the next two days thankfully.
