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Frank Vogel earned a heap of praise for the play he drew up to get Danny Green open for the game-tying shot.
There are a handful of people on the Los Angeles Lakers that deserve credit for the team’s overtime win against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday.
There’s LeBron James, who found Danny Green wide-open in the left corner for the buzzer beating 3-pointers. Then, there’s Dwight Howard, who literally held Seth Curry back from closing out on Green’s 3-point attempt in time. And finally, of course, there’s Green, who pump faked to get Curry in the air and calmly drained the shot (Maxi Klieber also deserves an honorable mention for helping on the drive with three seconds left).
However, after the game, all of the praise was set aside for Lakers head coach Frank Vogel, who Green said made sure he was in the best position to make the game-tying shot (via SpectrumSportsNet):
“I don’t think it was that tough. My teammates set a good screen, coach drew up a great play. Teammates set a good screen, ‘Bron made an amazing pass and read, found me in the corner, decided to catch, take my time and then I had pretty good look.”
Anthony Davis was complimentary of both Vogel and Green in his walk-off interview with Spectrum SportsNet sideline reporter Mike Trudell:
“DG hit a hell of a shot — big time shot. Coach Vogel drew a hell of a play.”
There were doubts as to whether or not Vogel was the right man to lead the Lakers initially, especially after the team failed to reach an agreement with Tyronn Lue, who won a championship with James in 2016. While it’s still early in the season, Vogel has lived up to his reputation as a defensive-minded coach, seeing as the Lakers have the No. 3 ranked defense in the NBA. Offensively, they’re ranked No. 11, but it looks like he has a few tricks up his sleeve.
If Vogel can continue to make the right adjustments and draw smart plays to get the Lakers out of tight situations, the noise surrounding his job security should cool to a whimper. He could be a lot worse than a 4-1 start, too.
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