Quick notes on Lakers-Jazz, which was a Luka Doncic MVP statement and a comeback Los Angeles victory 132-123. -I mean, Luka just absolutely dominated that game and was the reason the Lakers won. 52/8/10. Made some of the most ridiculous shots you'll see all season. The hilarious thing is that I felt like he was frustrated and pressing early on in the game. But I think when Sensabaugh got hit with that foul for maybe hitting him in the back, he locked in. Just totally looked inevitable from that point forward and Redick knew it. He just spammed double-drags for Luka the rest of the game until the end, when he started to ask for flares to get an empty side of the court to himself. Truly obscene basketball game. He's been the best player in the world this week, in my opinion. -Reaves was absurd, too. Had 29 and took over in the second quarter when the Lakers needed to start a comeback after they decided not to guard anyone for the first 14 minutes of the game. Just consistently got to his spots in the midrange, used slow steps to draw fouls, superb performance out of ball-screens. Again, the Jazz guards on defense are struggling right now, especially when I don't think they have a great big to trust in drop coverage. -Thybulle was a killer for the Lakers. He's hitting no-dip 3s now? Made two in this game. Then also had a ton of deflections plus three steals. He'll make some rough overaggressive plays, but the positives way outweighed the negatives tonight, great game. -Thought that was one of the better defensive games I've ever seen Sandro play, too. Was really good walling up in the paint, dealt well with some of the Jazz forwards' drives. Did a nice job, plus had a few run out buckets. -I will at least note that the Lakers gave up points on 24 of the Jazz' first 33 trips down the court. About 15 minutes in, the Jazz were averaging 1.7 PPP on trips down the court on offense. That was horrific and bad. The Jazz were playing great on offense and were just absolutely burying shots, but a ton of their points also came on second chances and shots in the paint because the point of attack defense wasn't good enough. They did a nice job cleaning up the latter, but the rebounding was an issue all night. The Jazz outscored the Lakers on second chance points 34-11. They outscored them in the paint 58-30. They lost purely because Luka went god mode and because their own point of attack defense needs some work. But honestly, so many of Luka's points were just really tough shots over contests. -For the Jazz, Ace Bailey has been terrific in these three games. He was a killer in the first quarter tonight with 13 points. He only ended up with 17 for the game, but I loved the way he got them. He just used his athleticism and a high motor to go get points. He had six offensive rebounds and had direct putbacks on at least four of them, plus had six defensive rebounds. Good double-double tonight, but honestly the part of his game that I was most impressed with given where he came into the league at with this skillset was his passing. Bailey did a really nice job attacking closeouts, driving and kicking, including a sweet cross-wing kickout to Markkanen for a 3 in the second quarter. He also took the Luka assignment, and even if Luka caught him, I thought he made him work at times. He's been good on defense so far this year. I still don't love Bailey when he dribbles, and he had a really bad moment in the second half where he tried to iso Luka and got ripped at the rim. But he can be a great NBA player keeping his game simple. He has the tools to do that. Great game and start to the year for Ace. -Great Keyonte George game again. 24/9/10 for him, even if the turnovers were an issue. He's just an expert at getting to his spots at this point, and does a fantastic job of drawing fouls as well as making plays for his teammates after he draws attention. I will also at least note that I think he's working harder on defense. I think he's doing a better job of staying in front of guys at the point of attack. Again, he struggles to wall up with his chest and arrest momentum, but I don't think George is one of the worst defenders in the league at this point. He's not a positive one, but he's getting better. -It's definitely gonna take some time for Darryn Peterson. I don't think he's a particularly positive player right now. I'm also a little confused about why it feels like they aren't making even more of a concerted effort to get him some clean looks from 3 off of screens and off-ball actions given his shooting. But right now, he struggles to get all the way to the rim (he does have a nice floater game to counter act that on some level, which is good), and the defense is definitely a problem. It takes a lot of time for guards, and a big value add for Peterson will be the typical strength and conditioning work that happens with guards as they go from Year 1 to Year 2 to Year (see: George, Keyonte). It doesn't make me think particularly lesser of his future, but this year might be have some tough moments until he adds that strength. -Idea: I would leave Peterson in the starting lineup, but I might consider staggering him a bit more with the bench units. Maybe take him out early in the 1st, put in someone like Okogie or Green for defense, then bring Peterson back when they take out George and put him with Collier, where Collier's drive and kick game against second units might work to get him some easier shots, then also you get the added benefit of better defenders playing more minutes with the starters?