Help with winning games, please!

[iceinmyveins]

So, last night, I played three games with my Lakers (9 minute quarters, so basically 3 hours of my life, lol) and I lost all three of them.

The first one I played on All-Star difficulty (vs Pelicans), and Solomon Hill (lol) torched me for 35 points. Mind you, I'm not playing like crap in all three of these games. It was close in all three games, with me even having a 10 point lead at one point in the third game versus the Jazz. I had Randle with 35 points against the Pelicans, but I keep seeing problems.

HOPELESS CORNER 3PT SHOT BY CPU IN TRANSITION (or basically 9/10 possessions after a rebound)
Sometimes I can reach them in time to contest it, but even then, maybe 2/5 times the ball goes in. Solomon Hill made 7 of these.

Sefolosha made plenty as well with the Jazz. Rubio was out there dazzling like Stockton. Lost a real close game to the Raptors, as DeRozan made a 360* dunk over two of my Lakers, and also pulled up from Curry range to give the Raptors a 3PT lead. I made a 3PTer with Lonzo, but despite it being all ball, somehow Kyle Lowry got fouled on the buzzer beater attempt and made all three free throws.



SMART PLAYS BY THE CPU, VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GUARD
-This is me with the game speed up, helps my guys react more quickly, still useless

MEANWHILE I CANNOT DRIVE OR GET SPACE EFFECTIVELY
-And when I do, I narrowly miss the green area on a 3PTer or a jumper. (See: Lopez, Brook).

I CAN'T MAKE SHOTS, EVEN GOOD ONES
-I missed countless mid-range and 3PTers with Kuzma, Ingram, etc, with virtually no explanation, ball just smacks the rim

I CAN'T MAKE LAYUPS
-This (and the shooting) happens even when I turn up the shooting sliders

CPU MAKING CONTESTED LAYUPS OVER TWO DEFENDERS, OR EASY POST SHOTS AFTER ONE PASS

I tried all of this on both all-star and even pro difficulty. I still lost. Kinda ruined my night, honestly. Defense gets back to contest way too quickly (I even turned down "contest shots" effect for the CPU, seemed to help at first but again, missing shots from everywhere). I went from being right in the game to being down by 25. THE CPU keeps going on runs, playing Kawhi-level defense, intercepting the ball, making 3PTers that I *cannot* make.

I've changed sliders twice now, and I just really need some advice. It's very frustrating. Should I go down to Rookie difficulty? I mean, I used to be great at LIVE, but OMG. I can't be wasting hours being frustrated when I wind up losing a game after it seems to be winnable at first. Once I'm down 20+ it's like, really? I mean, I've come back from a 20 point lead before on NBA LIVE 10 and on the 2K games, but this game...something with my sliders?...is just really, really off.

It's ruining it for me. I don't know what it is, but "PLAY NOW" plays completely different and so does "The One" mode. I can actually play well in those modes, so I'm just very confused. I've tried to find slider sets on here, on other sites, on YouTube, but I just can't find a good set. And I need to!

Default sliders on Pro got me my only win with the Lakers so far, but even then I shot like crap. I know I'm getting better, too, so it's even more frustrating.

[ThaLiveKing]

you can check my sliders on my website thaliveking.wordpress.com people seem to like how the game plays with them. But you have to play basketball, meaning move the ball and run plays. The majority of people that play live just want to bully their way into the paint and dunk, won't work with these.

[[Q]]

HOPELESS CORNER 3PT SHOT BY CPU IN TRANSITION
This is weird, this doesn't really happen to me at all. Are you setting your offensive rebounding to "crash boards"? This is the only reason I can think of that would cause this. you should set it to "get back"

SMART PLAYS BY THE CPU, VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GUARD
This has always been part of the game, but what do you mean by "smart plays"? Sure they run plays and occasionally get wide open shots off of screens and stuff. You have to recognize a the target of the play and switch to his defender or the closest one to defend it or prevent the pass to him.

MEANWHILE I CANNOT DRIVE OR GET SPACE EFFECTIVELY -And when I do, I narrowly miss the green area on a 3PTer or a jumper. (See: Lopez, Brook).
It's definitely hard to get past your man driving on all star or superstar difficulty, so they gotta be way out of position for you to get past or your player has to be rated way higher in speed. And your problem is that you're shooting 3s with Brook Lopez. I don't know what his current rating is, but it wasn't very high before. In this game, if you're not rated like 78 or higher in 3s, you just shouldn't be taking them. iirc there's no one on the Lakers rated that high in 3s unless they updated that. If you are showing green on your bar, you have enough space you just gotta practice on getting it in the green and you'll get a guaranteed make.

I CAN'T MAKE SHOTS, EVEN GOOD ONES -I missed countless mid-range and 3PTers with Kuzma, Ingram, etc, with virtually no explanation, ball just smacks the rim
Your shot selection probably isn't the greatest and it's very difficult to get open shots in the mid range. Plus ratings for those guys probably aren't very high either.

I CAN'T MAKE LAYUPS
They were nerfed on the last patch. Tough luck. Still makeable with highly rated players.

CPU MAKING CONTESTED LAYUPS OVER TWO DEFENDERS, OR EASY POST SHOTS AFTER ONE PASS
This is how the game is, there's nothing you can do about this. Especially if Brook Lopez is your center, he ain't blocking anything or affecting anyone's shots.

intercepting the ball
you need to watch who you are passing to. Never use directional pass. No cross court passes.

But you have to play basketball, meaning move the ball and run plays. The majority of people that play live just want to bully their way into the paint and dunk, won't work with these.

agree 100%

Overall, sounds like a combination of you just needing to practice and getting better at the game and better at shooting along with playing with a poorly rated Lakers team. I'm actually kinda curious to see if it's really that hard and might try it myself.

[[Q]]

So I played a quick game 5 min quarters on all star Lakers vs Jazz. It was actually a pretty close game throughout until the end when I pulled away and I won by 8. I think it was like 32-24 thanks to some intentional fouls at the end

After looking at the ratings and seeing what worked in game... Lopez surprisingly has a high block rating at 81. Not bad. He did snatch the ball off the backboard once. Kuz is an 80 in 3s, which is a change from when I play with him in LUT as he is a 90 on my team. Thomas is high too at 83 and Frye at 86. Thomas also has a high shot off dribble and layup ratings so you should be doing a lot of your offense with him. I was getting to the free throw line often with him and Ingram. Ingram has a high layup rating so you should be driving with him or Thomas. I did score in the post a couple times with randle but it was tough with gobert in there.

Didn't have much trouble defensively outside of Mitchell who got open for 2 threes and a couple dunks.

Sadly, this would have been a lot tougher without the Clarkson trade as Thomas is rated pretty high in the game.

[Andrew]

Brook Lopez has a career average of 1.7 bpg, so a rating of 81 probably isn't too high for him. Per 36 minutes, he's getting 2.2 per game this year.

[iceinmyveins]

So I played a quick game 5 min quarters on all star Lakers vs Jazz. It was actually a pretty close game throughout until the end when I pulled away and I won by 8. I think it was like 32-24 thanks to some intentional fouls at the end

After looking at the ratings and seeing what worked in game... Lopez surprisingly has a high block rating at 81. Not bad. He did snatch the ball off the backboard once. Kuz is an 80 in 3s, which is a change from when I play with him in LUT as he is a 90 on my team. Thomas is high too at 83 and Frye at 86. Thomas also has a high shot off dribble and layup ratings so you should be doing a lot of your offense with him. I was getting to the free throw line often with him and Ingram. Ingram has a high layup rating so you should be driving with him or Thomas. I did score in the post a couple times with randle but it was tough with gobert in there.

Didn't have much trouble defensively outside of Mitchell who got open for 2 threes and a couple dunks.

Sadly, this would have been a lot tougher without the Clarkson trade as Thomas is rated pretty high in the game.

Thanks for the advice! What sliders are you using? I guess I'm just confused, seeing as with my first Lakers team (can't recall what slider set, if any, I was using) I was carving out a .500 record or better. It was working well for me, but I quit playing it because it was before EA allowed roster editing. Wonder if it uploaded to my online PS Plus storage. If my rookie+default sliders idea doesn't work, I may try to retrieve that save and re-enter those sliders.

[iceinmyveins]

Update: I beat the Clippers!

I retrieved the online storage file of my save when I had a .500 record (5-4) and looked at the box scores, finding realistic numbers for Lonzo, etc. Turns out I was using a version of ThaLiveKing's sliders, and ever since then, it's gone downhill! So I adjusted my sliders to those same ones, and the game played nicely. Mind you, I was on "ROOKIE" and the Clippers even got within 9 points in the 3rd quarter. I'm tentatively going to raise it back up to PRO, but unlike those three horrible game experiences, I made threes and played well. Even the Clippers seemed to play pretty alright, just didn't recover after I went on a huge run.

ANOMALIES:
-High steal rate. I'm not sure what caused this, but I had way too many steals. I might raise my reach-in foul slider, but I know if it goes too high, even trying to steal the ball results in a foul. I also shot a lot more free throws than the Clippers, but they took quality shots, just not much inside other than put-back dunks by DeAndre

-PUTBACK DUNKS
Any way to stop this with a slider? I've learned to control my guy on the final free throw and jump *before* the ball goes up (press triangle) and that usually means I get the rebound, no offensive put-back dunk crap. ThaLiveKing has offensive rebounds way down, but it still happened a lot in this game.

I've also learned from 2K to not over-contest on a 3PTer or mid range because that usually leads to the offense getting the ball back. If I stay by the rim and box out, much better results. I got tired of being burned on second chance 3PTers and whatnot pretty quick!

Stats:

Lonzo: 18 points/12 assists/9 steals (lol); FG%: 8/16 | 3PT: 1-3
Randle: 23 points/5 rebounds
KCP: 7 points/9 rebounds
Ingram: 23 points/5 rebounds/5 steals; FG%: 10/13 (3-3 3PT)
Zubac: 8 points
Lopez: 11 points/8 rebounds
Kuzma: 11 points/5 rebounds; 3-7 3PT
Thomas: 16 points

I actually broke DeAndre Jordan's ankles, it was just the best! He fell down at the rim and fouled me, lol. I saved that!

Team Stats

Score 79-124
1st: 20-30, Lakers
2nd: 25-29, Lakers
3rd: 18-36, Lakers
4th: 16-29, Lakers

Field Goals
Clippers: 36%
Lakers: 48%

I shot 10-26 from 3PT, Clippers were 6-26.

16 offensive rebounds by Clippers. Total was 61 to my 45. 24 steals, though, to just one by the Clippers! (23 turnovers)

[[Q]]

I'm using pretty close to default sliders. They've changed the game quite a bit since the release so no amount of sliders can fix that.

Your high steal rate is probably because of the rookie difficulty level. Best way to prevent an offensive rebound on a free throw miss is to control one of the two players by the basket and hold L2 for box out when the shot goes up

If you want to post video of your gameplay I can watch and critique what you're doing

[iceinmyveins]

I'm using pretty close to default sliders. They've changed the game quite a bit since the release so no amount of sliders can fix that.

Your high steal rate is probably because of the rookie difficulty level. Best way to prevent an offensive rebound on a free throw miss is to control one of the two players by the basket and hold L2 for box out when the shot goes up

If you want to post video of your gameplay I can watch and critique what you're doing

Thanks, bro! Gonna do the L2 trick. I'm anxious about PRO. Just so disappointing when I get smashed. Hopefully not! I will try and save a clip next time. Didn't save much from Game 1 other than me breaking Jordan's ankles with I.T. I might revert to default sliders, but that first game felt good. We'll see...

[iceinmyveins]

Well, the Suns game went very well! Real feel-good time after I got off work today. 2-0, even got a triple-double with Lonzo (I upped his rebounding rating a bit, working out nicely since he does grab boards). The Suns played well. Recorded some gameplay, gonna try to upload somehow for you, Q. But yeah, it was a good game. Close at first, then a big run and Suns never recovered. I upped "reach-in fouls" to 15 but I nearly fouled out at times. I might dial it back a bit or just not reach as much. I also raised all foul levels for CPU and USER. Will show y'all the box score soon. Also, it was on PRO!

[iceinmyveins]

Update: Had a solid fun outing versus the Pelicans. Got Davis & Cousins into foul trouble with Randle driving at them. I've been using Lonzo as my focus player and using Thomas to drive into the paint. Got double-digit assists twice straight now, and this game was close until the 3rd quarter when I went on a run. The Pelicans took a small lead prior to that moment, and they never got back into the game. I like the unpredictable nature of this game, as I had a rough start to this one.

Changes I Made: Lowered reach in fouls to 10 instead of 15 but still had a lot of trouble. Might lower it to 5. Both teams had 35 free throw attempts, so I may need to lower the sliders just a bit. But at least it's balanced in that regard. Pelicans just missed a bunch, lol.

I'm also getting better at getting GREEN on the shot meter. I tried no shot meter, but I like the challenge. It seems if I hold on a moment longer it goes green, unlike when I try to hit green and let go too early. I'm also trying to get the controls down more.

Nice being able to play on PRO.

Thanks for the sliders, ThaLiveKing! I'm finally enjoying this game to the fullest. Trying to get my Spurs franchise going but not sure which players to pursue yet.

[ThaLiveKing]

Update: Had a solid fun outing versus the Pelicans. Got Davis & Cousins into foul trouble with Randle driving at them. I've been using Lonzo as my focus player and using Thomas to drive into the paint. Got double-digit assists twice straight now, and this game was close until the 3rd quarter when I went on a run. The Pelicans took a small lead prior to that moment, and they never got back into the game. I like the unpredictable nature of this game, as I had a rough start to this one.

Changes I Made: Lowered reach in fouls to 10 instead of 15 but still had a lot of trouble. Might lower it to 5. Both teams had 35 free throw attempts, so I may need to lower the sliders just a bit. But at least it's balanced in that regard. Pelicans just missed a bunch, lol.

I'm also getting better at getting GREEN on the shot meter. I tried no shot meter, but I like the challenge. It seems if I hold on a moment longer it goes green, unlike when I try to hit green and let go too early. I'm also trying to get the controls down more.

Nice being able to play on PRO.

Thanks for the sliders, ThaLiveKing! I'm finally enjoying this game to the fullest. Trying to get my Spurs franchise going but not sure which players to pursue yet.

No problem!!!