LSU Pushes to Final Third of SEC Play With Georgia Next In Line

Will Wade knows that the most important part of a movie is the final third and as the Tigers get ready to start the final third of their schedule, there's plenty the team wants to get right.

LSU (18-7, 6-6) has an even balance of three home games and three road games left on its schedule and still very much in control of where it can potentially finish in the SEC standings. It's no secret that prior to this recent two game win streak there were some real struggles with this group, led in large part with its injury bug. But Wade said Tuesday the Tigers are full steam ahead and ready for this final push.

"We just gotta get wins," Wade said. "If one of the blue bloods in our league had the injuries we did it would be 'give them a break.' We're not gonna get that, that's part of it. We've gotta keep clicking off wins. People come for the ending of the movie so we gotta finish it off strong."

It all starts with Georgia, a team that's dead last in the SEC with just one win in conference play. LSU faced the Bulldogs twice last season, surrendering 91 and 92 points in the two matchups and while both rosters are very different than last year, Wade says it's the concepts that gave LSU issues a season ago.

"They do a lot of the same concepts, they cut, they sink the defense, they get their shooters to the corner for three," Wade said. "We've gotta do a much better job guarding them than we did at any point last year."

This is a team that uses its athleticism and its constantly moving offense to create open looks, which is something that gave the Tigers fits last year. While this Georgia team certainly hasn't had the results it was hoping for, the Bulldogs have really stuck around with some of the top tier teams in the country over the last month.

Georgia took Auburn to the final seconds in a narrow defeat and played well against Florida over the weekend. The Bulldogs are 13th in the country in free throw attempt rate and 11th in the country in drawing fouls, something Wade and the Tigers simply must stay away from as much as possible.

"They go through some offensive slumps when they don't shoot it great but they play extremely hard and are a lot better than their record would show," Wade said. "They do a really good job of living at the free throw line on the offensive end and part of the reason their offense is very good."

While the strength of their team does lie in their offense, the Bulldogs really put strain on teams by getting out in transition, which is why LSU will need to continue to value the ball. After coughing it up 22 times last week against Texas A&M, LSU was able to drop that number to 14 against Mississippi State and played a much crisper game as a whole because of it.

"We're going to need to shore up our defense, value the ball better. We need to be much better against Georgia, their transition offense is tremendous, their conversion offense is very good," Wade said. "We're gonna need to do a good job not giving them extra possessions in transition."

LSU has proven to be a different team when healthy this season and in a position with its back against the wall. Getting that top four seed in the conference is an attainable goal with Arkansas currently two games ahead of the purple and gold in the standings with six games to go.

Taking care of business at home on Wednesday would be a good start to the stretch run.