Tuesday, February 10, 2015

LAKERS vs. Nuggets Halftime Post

Score: DEN 45 LAL 48

Alright welcome in to the halftime post of the Lakers' matchup with the Denver Nuggets where the Lakers hang on to a three point lead, leading 45-48 at the half.

The Positives

Wayne Ellington, 13 points, 6-7 shooting. A great first half for Ellington, he's making it "Wayne" against the Nuggets' lackluster defense. I like the fact that Ellington is playing fundamental basketball out there, faking a defender, taking one more dribble and shooting the jump shot and he's constantly finding the high percentage shot this game.

Rebounding. The overall rebounding numbers may sound close as the Lakers out-rebound the Nuggets 19-26 because both teams are tied in the defensive rebounding category, but the Lakers are just killing Denver right now in the offensive rebounding. 11 offensive rebounds to 3 rebounds and the Nuggets have a high energy guy in Kenneth Faried and they're just getting pummeled right now on the offensive boards.

The Negatives

Nick Young, 2 points, 1-5 shooting. We can put the bench shooting as another negative too because aside from Jeremy Lin on a perfect 3-3 shooting, the shooting performance from the bench is lackluster overall. However, the one person I'm looking at is this guy. Swaggy P has been loafing on his shot selection and scoring off the bench to the point Lin and Boozer and sometimes Davis has to pick up his slack. He's gotta get back to that 20+ point performance off the bench and it starts with him making his shots.

Bottom Line

Great game so far. I'm just joking right there. All kidding aside, the Lakers gotta start turning up the defense against a Nuggets team that are just playing lazy and uninspired right now. The offense has gotta get back up and perform like it did in the first quarter. This game should not be close as it should considering the way the Lakers have started early on. Let's see what happens in the 2nd half.

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