The stats don’t quite show it but I thought Jordan Miller played a very nice game as an anchor of the offense. I think the team got away from letting him have the ball in his hands for long stretches, and when that happened the squad struggled. 11 FTAs (too bad he missed 4), 8 rebs, 6 assists, 1 steal and 11 pts. He took 3 3PAs. Most importantly, Miller felt like a natural anchor for the team. He was the ball handler, connector and scorer that I felt most comfortable with. This game was an important learning experience for him and the team. You can anchor your offense around him as the fulcrum.

IJax is very solid and is a hustler. His defense is very sound.

Nice to see Bogi back. I’ve long thought he should be in the rotation.

Cam Christie had good energy but had a rough time finishing plays

Kobe Sanders also showed great energy but not quite the shooting efficiency needed to win a game like this.

Lopez – he’s worn down. It showed.

DJJ – Nice bounce back game for him. Had we not missed so many FTs as a team, I think he could’ve won it for us in crunch time.

Collins – really liked how he looked and he got better as the game went on. 8 3PAs was exactly what we needed. He gave us a real shot to win but that minutes restriction was a killer.

Dunn – was a +3 tonight, and his stat line is ok to decent, but made some errors over helping on D and wasn’t quite as impactful as one might expect against this opponent.

It’s a tough game to lose, but I think LAC helped themselves for the stretch run of the season. They can now reset with Kawhi/Garland/Mathurin getting rest, Collins getting more rhythm, Miller looking like our 2nd or 3rd best overall player (yeah, I think Miller is better in the half court than Garland, but Garland is a better outside shooter). We know Bogi has a pulse and can help Garland quite a bit. Getting Garland at the #2 for some stretches could help blow some games open b/c Garland is very difficult to guard on the wing. We should be better over the next 5 games before we play Portland.

My hope for the remainder of this season is that the team really focuses on speeding the game up because we don’t have legit half court threats apart from Kawhi in a slow down half court set absent Harden and Zu. Pace gets Garland to do exciting things on the floor and ignites Mathurin. Kawhi also gets more shots up and is more effective with less wear and tear.

I also want to see Lue get more minutes for both Sanders and Christie. I think both have shown they can play different styles and have broad skill sets, plus NBA size and energy that provide a level of competence that we need on the floor.

With such a brutal schedule this month, Ty should have expanded the rotation and leaned into some of the other guys (Kobe, Cam & Bogi) at the beginning of the month to mitigate the fatigue factor. He didn’t and now our main rotation is spent.

If give Ty credit for keeping this team focused and navigating them out of the 6-21 hole but he now seems to have reverted back to digging us back into that hole.