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Speaker 1: You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody, If all of

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Speaker 1: you guys are having an incredible week. Well, we got

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Speaker 1: what looks like a complete dud of a game between

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Speaker 1: the Lakers and the Clippers before Lebron James decided to

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Speaker 1: single handly turn it into a very interesting basketball game.

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Speaker 1: Single handedly outscored the Clippers in the fourth quarter, single

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Speaker 1: handedly broke down their switching defense, and then got the

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Speaker 1: biggest play of the game at the end, stopping Kawhi

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Speaker 1: Leonard when he had a chance to tie the game.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna break that game down from the perspective of

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Speaker 1: both teams. You guys are there before we get started.

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Speaker 1: show announcements, and then also keep dropping mailbag questions in

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Speaker 1: the YouTube comments. We're gonna do a mailbag in Friday's

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Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So you know, it's funny. I

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Speaker 1: was thinking as I was getting ready for the show,

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Speaker 1: this game tonight just kind of felt like a microcosm

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Speaker 1: of the last few years, or I should say this

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Speaker 1: entire you know, half decade that Lebron has been with

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Speaker 1: the Lakers, because it's been just a whole lot of

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Speaker 1: mediocrity and incompetence that Lebron has been covering for. I'm

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Speaker 1: watching a team that doesn't have any two way athletes

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Speaker 1: on the perimeter, Guys that can defend and rebound at

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Speaker 1: a high level while also being a plus offensive player

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Speaker 1: that aren't Lebron James and Anthony Davis. That was a

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Speaker 1: problem we knew of after the Denver Nugget series, and

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Speaker 1: the front office was unable to solve that problem over

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Speaker 1: the offseason and chose to not solve that problem over

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Speaker 1: this deadline. I'm watching a team that tactically doesn't seem

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Speaker 1: to have any idea how to deal with the switching defense,

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Speaker 1: which we'll talk about in a little bit when we

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Speaker 1: get more into the x's and o's, and Lebron just

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Speaker 1: single handedly saves them from themselves they're down the stretch

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Speaker 1: of that fourth quarter. And it's so interesting to me

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Speaker 1: over the years, whether it's Lebron bringing Anthony Davis to

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Speaker 1: town obviously, what he brings to the table as a

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Speaker 1: basketball player and as a basketball mind in his ability

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Speaker 1: to solve the chess match that's taking place on the

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Speaker 1: court time and time again. It's incompetence that Lebron turns

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Speaker 1: into results, and it's just crazy. It's honestly a bummer

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Speaker 1: to me that he's in this type of situation where

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Speaker 1: it requires him doing absurd stuff like this to win,

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Speaker 1: while many of his peers at the top of the

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Speaker 1: league are playing on teams and for organizations that just

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Speaker 1: do a better job setting their star players up to succeed.

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Speaker 1: It's a little discouraging, but at the same time, it's

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Speaker 1: a testament to Lebron's greatness. And I just thought tonight

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Speaker 1: that game was just a microcosm of everything that we

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Speaker 1: saw from the Lakers over the course of this last

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Speaker 1: half decade. Now, this game had a really interesting tactical

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Speaker 1: dynamic that was taking place. The Lakers really struggled for

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Speaker 1: the first three quarters and change as they went down

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Speaker 1: by I think twenty plus there in the early part

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Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter. Now, the question is why why

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Speaker 1: were the Lakers struggling so much early? There were three

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Speaker 1: things that I want to kind of draw attention to.

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Speaker 1: First of all, the Lakers roster, because they don't have

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Speaker 1: athletes on the perimeter, and they're one guy who really

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Speaker 1: they are two guys that really can create an advantage

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Speaker 1: in terms of like individual greatness as athletes are Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis and Lebron James right, and Anthony Davis was being

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Speaker 1: schemed out of this game by the Clippers in a

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Speaker 1: lot of ways, which we'll talk about. And then Lebron

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Speaker 1: on because he's older, you know, he doesn't want to

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Speaker 1: have to try to hit the gas all the damn

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Speaker 1: time to try to inflict his physical will on the game.

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Speaker 1: All of the other guys, even though they're young, they're

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Speaker 1: all skill oriented players that primarily rely on advantage situations.

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Speaker 1: Guys like Osa Reeves, Dangel Russell, even Spencer didn't witty

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Speaker 1: to a certain extent. Ruey has got a little bit

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Speaker 1: of physical, overwhelming stuff that he brings to the table.

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Speaker 1: But obviously he's a player that has some limitations. But

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Speaker 1: they've got a lot of guys that require advantage situations

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Speaker 1: to succeed. So against traditional NBA coverages, there are a

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Speaker 1: lot of baked in advantage situations. So if you run

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Speaker 1: a ball screen and a team has a scheme set

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Speaker 1: up where their guard is chasing over the top and

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Speaker 1: they have a big man sitting in a drop coverage,

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Speaker 1: there is a baked in driving lane. Dangel Russell knows

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna turn the corner here because the guy who's

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Speaker 1: guarding me is his scheme is to go over the

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Speaker 1: top of the screen. Same thing goes for Austin Reeve, right,

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Speaker 1: and that's where you see D'anngela Russell be the pick

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Speaker 1: and roll maestro that we know he can be. That's

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Speaker 1: where we've seen Austin Reeves take leaps as a pick

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Speaker 1: and roll playmaker over the course of this season compared

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Speaker 1: to where he was early in the season. But when

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Speaker 1: you face a team like the Clippers and they switch

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Speaker 1: as much as they do, all of a sudden, those

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Speaker 1: baked in openings aren't there anymore. Instead of Austin Reeves

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Speaker 1: d'angela Russell coming off of a ball screen into a

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Speaker 1: like a schemed in driving lane, instead, he's meeting another

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Speaker 1: defender right away, and that defender is another athlete on

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Speaker 1: the perimeter that can guard. That's one of the strengths

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Speaker 1: of the Clippers roster, right, which is why they switch

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Speaker 1: as much as they do. And so what ends up

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Speaker 1: happening so often for the Lakers in these environments as

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Speaker 1: they run into a team that does a lot of switching,

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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, there's just a lot of

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Speaker 1: dribbling around on the perimeter, and no one's able to

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Speaker 1: get the ball into the paint. No one's able to

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Speaker 1: draw a second defender to get the ball into rotation

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Speaker 1: so that those guys can work with an advantage. Again,

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Speaker 1: there's multiple ways to work with an advantage. We talked

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Speaker 1: about the baked in ones in the coverage, but the

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Speaker 1: other big one is if you can bring two guys

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Speaker 1: to the basketball in some way, shape or former. That's

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Speaker 1: a double team in the post, a double team on

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Speaker 1: the perimeter, or even driving and engaging a help defender.

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Speaker 1: Then when you start swinging the ball around like in

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Speaker 1: a driving kick situation. Now Austin Reez or Daniel Russell

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Speaker 1: or Torrian Prince or whatever is catching the ball on

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Speaker 1: the perimeter with a guy sprinting at him, Now he

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Speaker 1: has an advantage because if he doesn't sprint out at him,

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Speaker 1: he can shoot the three. If he does sprint out

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Speaker 1: at him, he can pick an angle, beat him off

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Speaker 1: the dribble, and make the next play from there, whether

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Speaker 1: that's finishing the play or making that next pass to

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Speaker 1: the next closeout guy. Right. So like literally when they're

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Speaker 1: in rotation, they can look really skilled. And the Laker

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Speaker 1: offense has looked awesome over the course of the last

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Speaker 1: month or so in large part because they have so

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Speaker 1: much offensive skill on the floor. But what they don't

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Speaker 1: have are offensive players that are like root force athletes

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Speaker 1: that can beat matchups consistently in a one on one setting.

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Speaker 1: Except for Lebron James and Anthony Davis, and so early

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Speaker 1: in the game, it was a lot of passivity. Lebron

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Speaker 1: himself was kind of pass I thought in that second

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Speaker 1: quarter run when Anthony Davis was in foul trouble, he

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Speaker 1: was kind of in chill mode a little bit, totally

200
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Speaker 1: get it, thirty nine years old. He's waiting to see

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Speaker 1: when he needs to hit the gas. Right, Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: was in foul trouble. In addition to that, he picked

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Speaker 1: up his second foul being physically aggressive with a rip

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Speaker 1: through to the left on Mason Plumley. Mason Plumley did

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Speaker 1: a nice job sliding his feet, taking the contact in

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Speaker 1: the chest and taking a charge. So now even Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis is being a little physically passive. And then on

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Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, the Clippers were getting

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Speaker 1: awesome stuff because early in the game, Lebron wasn't guarding Kawhi,

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Speaker 1: so he was taking advantage of Ruiya Chimura, taking advantage

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Speaker 1: of Torrean Prince, just killing those guys in individual like

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Speaker 1: individual basketball. And then in that second quarter run when

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Speaker 1: the Clippers took their lead, it was a combination of

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Speaker 1: James Harden picking on Jackson Hayes in pick and roll

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Speaker 1: and week on ball defense. Right, So as James Harden's

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Speaker 1: coming downhill, Jackson Hayes is in this deep drop coverage

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Speaker 1: and Harden's just killing him with the classic like low

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Speaker 1: gather where he just kind of dribbles the ball and

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Speaker 1: kind of exposes his arms out and he tries to

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Speaker 1: bait the big man into raking across his arms so

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Speaker 1: that he can go up and finish. And he was

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Speaker 1: killing Jackson Hayes. So as the Clippers were pulling away,

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Speaker 1: it was like James Harden and pick and roll generating

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Speaker 1: all these quality shots and then on the other end

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Speaker 1: of the floor the clipper switching, just stagnating the Lakers

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Speaker 1: and causing all of these problems. But that dynamic flipped

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Speaker 1: there in that fourth quarter, and there were two major

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Speaker 1: factors that I thought led to that dynamic flipping. First,

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Speaker 1: what was, in my opinion, a smart adjustment from Darvin hand.

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Speaker 1: He brings Jackson Hayes into that lineup to start the

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter, and he starts blitzing hardened pick and rolls

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Speaker 1: instead of dropping. Now again pick and roll drop guards

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Speaker 1: chasing over the top. Big man's waiting in the lane.

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Speaker 1: So there's the baked in driving lane like we talked

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Speaker 1: about earlier. Harden's really good at working with that. Right

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Speaker 1: a blitz, the guard's still chasing over the top, but

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Speaker 1: Jackson Hayes is meeting Harden at the other side of

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Speaker 1: the screen, and they are trapping him and trying to

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Speaker 1: make that over the top past difficult. Now, offensively, what

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Speaker 1: do you do to be a blitz? You've got to

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Speaker 1: get the ball over the top to the big man

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Speaker 1: rolling to the basket in that short roll situation, and

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Speaker 1: he's got to make reads four on three and pick

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Speaker 1: the team apart. This was smart by the Lakers because

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Speaker 1: it was Mason Plumbley, who is by far the best

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Speaker 1: athlete among all of the Clippers centers that they have.

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Speaker 1: So Plumbley immediately just just has a complete meltdown against

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Speaker 1: the Lakers blitz and has no idea how to handle

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Speaker 1: those four on threes. The Lakers start turning the Clippers over,

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Speaker 1: getting out in transition, they start having all this success.

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Speaker 1: As a result, the Clippers had to Tyloo, had to

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Speaker 1: take Mason Plumley out of the game and bring in

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Speaker 1: Daniel Tye, who's a much better offensive player than Mason Plumbley,

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Speaker 1: but is nowhere near the athlete and defender that Mason

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Speaker 1: Plumbley is. From there, Lebron started picking on Daniel Tye

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Speaker 1: and switches, and again when it comes to when it

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Speaker 1: comes to this switching defense, there's a bunch of different

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Speaker 1: ways that you can attack it tactically, and we're not

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Speaker 1: gonna get into that tonight just for time's sake, but

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Speaker 1: one of the best ways to do it is just

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Speaker 1: pick on matchups. And if you can pick on matchups,

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Speaker 1: you can either score one on one or start to

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Speaker 1: draw multiple defenders into the equation. Lebron starts picking on

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Speaker 1: daniel Tyson switches and is hitting his step back three

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Speaker 1: as he's cooking daniel Tyson switches. That's not only scoring points,

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Speaker 1: but that's putting Tylu in a predicament where now he's like, Ah,

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Speaker 1: what are we gonna do. We gotta do something. Okay,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna start just openly doubling Lebron thirty feet from

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Speaker 1: the basket. So now they're doubling Lebron. What do the

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Speaker 1: Lakers have on the other side of that? A four

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Speaker 1: on three? Except for who's operating that four on three?

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Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reeves, Ruya Tamura, Anthony Davis, a bunch

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Speaker 1: of really skilled offensive players and they all are in

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Speaker 1: advantage situations. Now. One of the things that was really

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Speaker 1: smart that Dlo was doing. We talked about the short role,

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Speaker 1: right so you set the ball screen, you're all right

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Speaker 1: there to the top of the key. What Dlo was doing,

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Speaker 1: he was making himself available in the middle of the floor,

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Speaker 1: so instead of just standing out on the perimeter, as

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Speaker 1: soon as Lebron got doubled, he would flash to the

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Speaker 1: middle of the floor and then he was making the

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Speaker 1: kickout pass from there. He made the kickout pass to Ruy. Right,

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Speaker 1: Ruey has a wide open three. He misses it, but

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Speaker 1: there's another mismatch because Lebron switched or because the ball

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Speaker 1: screen switched Tice onto Lebron. Now Anthony Davis has Kawhi

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Speaker 1: on him and as a result, he's by far the

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Speaker 1: biggest player around the rim. He had multiple offensive rebounds

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Speaker 1: down the stretch, gets a big offensive rebound, he gets

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Speaker 1: worked back around Ruey. Hachi Mura makes the next three.

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Speaker 1: Another double team of Lebron at the top of the

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Speaker 1: key to D'Angelo Russell to Ruey in the corner, hard

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Speaker 1: close out. Ruey rips baseline and gets that up and

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Speaker 1: under and finishes on the other side of the rim.

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Speaker 1: Again an advantage situation. He's working with the player closing

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Speaker 1: out at him. He was able to get that because

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Speaker 1: Lebron was torching Tice in switches, which was bringing the

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Speaker 1: double teams. You could guys can kind of get the drift.

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Speaker 1: And then one of the biggest plays of the game

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Speaker 1: was that skip pass to Lebron or from Lebron to

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Speaker 1: d Lo when he had another double team, and Delo

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Speaker 1: hit what's called a no dip jumper. So a lot

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Speaker 1: of guys that catch, you know, regardless of where you

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Speaker 1: throw the ball, they have like a muscle memory for

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Speaker 1: their jump shot, and their muscle memory starts from like

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Speaker 1: down in their shooting pocket, like down here, So if

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Speaker 1: the pass doesn't get like right into the shooting pocket,

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Speaker 1: they can have some issues. And even some guys even

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Speaker 1: on the catch, they need to like set their rhythm,

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Speaker 1: so they'll like take a step and like kind of

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Speaker 1: like reset their shooting pocket and then they'll go up.

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Speaker 1: But the best shooters in the world, their shooting release

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Speaker 1: starts from up here, so no matter where they catch,

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Speaker 1: they can catch from up here and go right into

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Speaker 1: the pocket. They can catch down here, go right up

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Speaker 1: into the pocket. They catch out here go right up

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Speaker 1: into the pocket. Or hell, that pass from Lebron literally

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Speaker 1: hit him up here and he just caught it and

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Speaker 1: shot it. That's what the best shooters in the world

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Speaker 1: can do. And D'Angelo Russell, again when he has an advantage,

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Speaker 1: is one of the more skilled offensive players in the

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Speaker 1: league that can make plays out of that. And so

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Speaker 1: all of it fundamentally came down to the Lakers blitzing

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Speaker 1: Mason Plumbley off the floor, and then Lebron just absolutely

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Speaker 1: flam banging Daniel Tye and forcing double teams so that

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Speaker 1: they can get the defense into rotation. I thought it was.

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Speaker 1: It was one of one of the craziest, the craziest

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Speaker 1: like single handed, you know, superstar efforts to turn around

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Speaker 1: a basketball game that I've ever seen. The Lakers looked

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Speaker 1: completely lifeless. They looked like they didn't believe they can win.

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Speaker 1: They looked like they were on the verge of falling

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Speaker 1: apart completely, and Lebron pulled them back from the brink.

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Speaker 1: It was unbelievable. And then the other thing on the

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Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, the Lakers continued solid blitzing

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Speaker 1: even after Tyson came into the game, solid blitzing and

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Speaker 1: rotating on the back end. Just again, once belief is

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Speaker 1: a huge part of this. You gotta believe in what

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Speaker 1: you're doing. If you believe in what you're doing, you'll

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Speaker 1: play hard. If you don't believe in what you're doing,

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Speaker 1: you won't play hard. And that was what was happening

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Speaker 1: to the Lakers early. They weren't scoring, they couldn't get it, like,

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Speaker 1: it all just fell apart for them in the effort

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Speaker 1: and energy parts in the game down the stretch, all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, Lebron just injected like a giant shot

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Speaker 1: of belief into the team. Now, all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: they're giving a defensive effort and intensity that they just

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Speaker 1: didn't give earlier in the game. So they were blitzing

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Speaker 1: and rotating the hard and pick and rolls really well.

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Speaker 1: And then Lebron James, you know, it's funny at this

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Speaker 1: phase of his career, because of his age, he's not

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Speaker 1: quick enough to deal with the super super fast players

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Speaker 1: in the league. But Kawhi Leonard is another power player,

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Speaker 1: and Lebron can do a lot to disrupt Kawhi's power

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Speaker 1: related game. And one of the things they were doing,

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Speaker 1: Kawhi was bringing up, you know, like other Clipper guards

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Speaker 1: into the screening action to try to attack to Angela Russell.

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Speaker 1: The Lakers were just hedging and recovering, right, so Lebron

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Speaker 1: would step back, dl would hedge, Delo would recover, Lebron

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Speaker 1: would sprint back up to Kawhi and he'd get there

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Speaker 1: before he could load up into his shot, and Kawi

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Speaker 1: broke forre you a couple of times out of set

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Speaker 1: actions for the Clippers down the stretch, but Lebron did

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Speaker 1: a really really good job on him, including some off

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Speaker 1: ball deny and then on the biggest play of the

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Speaker 1: game when the Lakers are up to why he is

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Speaker 1: not going to go to the bully ball on Lebron.

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Speaker 1: He knows that's not going to work on Lebron, so

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Speaker 1: he goes to a really tough left shoulder fade along

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Speaker 1: the baseline. Lebron gets a great contest, it's way short,

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Speaker 1: and the Lakers come out with the win. Just unbelievable

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Speaker 1: stuff from Lebron. James. I continue to be completely amazed

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Speaker 1: by what he's able to do at this phase of

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Speaker 1: his career. He is flat out better than he was

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Speaker 1: last year. Just flat out better than he was last year.

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Speaker 1: In year twenty one, it doesn't even make any sense.

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Speaker 1: One last Laker I wanted to shout out. I thought

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Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, even through the dregs of the game when

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Speaker 1: things were really not going well, he was one of

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Speaker 1: the big elements to keeping the Lakers involved in this game.

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Speaker 1: He was really active at the point of attack, active

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Speaker 1: with his hands, forcing deflections, forcing turnovers, and then he

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Speaker 1: was consistently the guy that was beating the Clippers down

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Speaker 1: the floor in transition. I feel like he had four

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Speaker 1: or five runouts in this game. Austin reeves defensive playmaking

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Speaker 1: was a big part of why this was in a

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Speaker 1: twenty five to thirty point game. During some of the

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Speaker 1: middle portions of the game. You know, he missed a

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Speaker 1: couple shots late, and he wasn't one of the guys

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Speaker 1: who was super active on the offensive end during that

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Speaker 1: late game comeback, but he was a huge reason why

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Speaker 1: that comeback comeback was even possible with some of the

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Speaker 1: playmaking that he had during the middle of the game,

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Speaker 1: particularly on the defensive end of the floor. And then lastly,

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Speaker 1: just a big picture with the Lakers, Lebron's jump shot

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Speaker 1: was always something that I was super encouraged about with

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Speaker 1: this Lakers team. This year, he just trusts it and

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Speaker 1: is so much more confident with it than he was

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Speaker 1: last year. Last year, who was like one of the

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Speaker 1: worst seasons of this phase of his career as a

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Speaker 1: jump shooter, this season is like one of the best

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Speaker 1: seasons of his entire career as a jump shooter. That

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Speaker 1: was something that gave me a lot of optimism about

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Speaker 1: this team. That was why I wanted the Lakers to

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Speaker 1: make some sort of trade at the deadline to bring

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Speaker 1: in a two way athlete. It was because of the

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Speaker 1: fact that I believed that this was worth investing in.

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Speaker 1: And now here's the thing. If Jared Vanderbilt can't come back,

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Speaker 1: this Laker team, in my opinion, has only a very,

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Speaker 1: very very minuscule chance of winning the title. I just

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Speaker 1: do not think they are good enough in terms of

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Speaker 1: two way talent on the perimeter. But that's your case.

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Speaker 1: The case is Lebron is still insane. Anthony Davis brings

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Speaker 1: you incredible two way play. You have this skill guard corps,

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Speaker 1: and then Jared Vanderbilt brings basically that do everything Swiss

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Speaker 1: army knife athlete on the perimeter. I can guard the

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00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:30,160
Speaker 1: other team's best player, help you clean up the defensive glass.

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Speaker 1: They even figured out a bunch of stuff over the

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Speaker 1: course of January, the end of January, in early February,

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Speaker 1: to like find a way to get Jared Aderbilt, Jared

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Speaker 1: Vanderbilt involved more offensively without having to just spot him

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Speaker 1: up at the three point line, more cutting and screening

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Speaker 1: and moving and getting him around the basket. They had

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Speaker 1: a bunch of double figure scoring games that they got

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Speaker 1: out of him. That's the case. Lebron brings you, you know,

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Speaker 1: top five to six player in the world type of play.

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis does the same. You get Jared Vanderbilt back healthy,

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Speaker 1: bringing you that do everything for and then Austin Reeves

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Speaker 1: and Dandela Russell bring the skill the skill core. There's

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Speaker 1: just a tiny, tiny, tiny light there at the end

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00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:09,800
Speaker 1: of the tunnel. That's what the light looks like. And

430
00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:11,399
Speaker 1: it's just a question of whether or not they can

431
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:13,920
Speaker 1: stay locked in long enough and believe in it long

432
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:17,840
Speaker 1: enough to have a chance when they actually get to

433
00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:20,239
Speaker 1: that point. And we'll see, we'll see what they can

434
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:22,320
Speaker 1: do over the course of the next couple of weeks.

435
00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:23,800
Speaker 1: But they have a game the tail end of a

436
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 1: back to back tomorrow against Washington. That win tonight is

437
00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:30,960
Speaker 1: gigantic on that front because it goes from splitting a

438
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,520
Speaker 1: back to back to turning it into a two and

439
00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:35,919
Speaker 1: oh stretch. And you're about to have a bunch of

440
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:38,760
Speaker 1: home games against good teams, but a bunch of home games.

441
00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:40,320
Speaker 1: And one of the things with these home games for

442
00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:43,280
Speaker 1: the Lakers is they do tend to bring the effort eventually,

443
00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:45,680
Speaker 1: even if it's not early in the game. Something about

444
00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:49,359
Speaker 1: that Laker home crowd just just gets them to fight

445
00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,639
Speaker 1: in a way that at least down the stretch, in

446
00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:54,720
Speaker 1: a way that sometimes they struggle with on the road.

447
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:57,080
Speaker 1: And so again, tiny little light at the end of

448
00:21:57,119 --> 00:21:58,480
Speaker 1: the tunnel, there's gonna be a question of whether or

449
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:01,639
Speaker 1: not the Lakers can get there. On the Clippers front,

450
00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:06,320
Speaker 1: being down Paul George obviously is a severe lack takes

451
00:22:06,359 --> 00:22:09,680
Speaker 1: away from your playmaking versatility, right, Like it's one of

452
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:11,600
Speaker 1: those things where you kind of run out of bodies, right,

453
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:14,560
Speaker 1: So like, if you're blitzing James Harden picking rolls and

454
00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,879
Speaker 1: you have the personnel to do so, and Lebron's doing

455
00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:20,479
Speaker 1: a good job on Kawhi Leonard, but Paul George is

456
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 1: drawing a lesser defender. That's where or if Paul George

457
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:27,320
Speaker 1: brings the better defender that's on Harden over to Paul George.

458
00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:29,720
Speaker 1: Now Harden's got a better, a weaker defender on him.

459
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:32,359
Speaker 1: That's where you have just an additional option to go

460
00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:36,040
Speaker 1: to offensively in a quarter where you only scored sixteen points. Also,

461
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:39,200
Speaker 1: Avika Zubats is your best combination of like size and

462
00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:43,000
Speaker 1: length and offensive skill. Not quite then, obviously not the

463
00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:45,840
Speaker 1: athlete that Mason Plumbley is, but he's bigger and longer

464
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:49,680
Speaker 1: than Daniel Tice's and he's a much better player that

465
00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:51,760
Speaker 1: can operate in the short role and do more damage

466
00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:53,880
Speaker 1: on the offensive glass and those blitz because like again,

467
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:56,480
Speaker 1: if you blitz Anthony Davis or the big man has

468
00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:59,080
Speaker 1: to come further out from the basket. Right in that situation,

469
00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:01,680
Speaker 1: that's where you can have rebounding issues on the back line.

470
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,240
Speaker 1: That's where Zubach could have some success. Right, the Lakers

471
00:23:04,359 --> 00:23:07,000
Speaker 1: got more of the contested rebounds down the stretch by

472
00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,240
Speaker 1: virtue of Zubatch not being out there. And then lastly

473
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: on the Clippers front, a Clippers front, sometimes you just

474
00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:16,200
Speaker 1: get Lebron like he's at worst the second best player

475
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 1: of all time, the best player, depending on who you ask.

476
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,400
Speaker 1: I think it's razor thin margin between him and MJ.

477
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:25,280
Speaker 1: Sometimes Lebron James just does Lebron James things and you lose.

478
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:28,000
Speaker 1: And so I don't really take too much away from

479
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:31,280
Speaker 1: the Clippers on this front. They're going through a little

480
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:33,560
Speaker 1: bit of a lull right now. Their defense isn't as

481
00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:36,120
Speaker 1: good as it typically is, they're dealing with some injuries,

482
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:39,119
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't overthink it. But it just goes to

483
00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:40,840
Speaker 1: show you just like all these contenders, they need to

484
00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:44,920
Speaker 1: be healthy in order to reach their individual ceiling. All right, guys,

485
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,520
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. We're going to

486
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:50,919
Speaker 1: be back tomorrow night after the final buzzer of Nick's

487
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,800
Speaker 1: Warriors live on YouTube, so I'll see you guys. Then

488
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:56,800
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys. Then we also have a video

489
00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 1: coming out tomorrow morning going over some Champ ancient betting

490
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 1: odds stuff opportunities as well as MVP stuff, and we're

491
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:06,680
Speaker 1: gonna talk about the Philadelphia seventy six ers for a

492
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:08,639
Speaker 1: little bit, so that'll be in tomorrow's video. As always,

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00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:10,320
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you guys, and I'll see you that

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00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 1: the volume