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Speaker 1: I hope if you guys are having a great week.
Speaker 1: I'm coming to you guys from North Star in California
Speaker 1: by Lake Tahoe for one of my favorite ski trips
Speaker 1: every single year. But we had some really entertaining basketball
Speaker 1: last night. So before I hit the slopes today, we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about some hoops. Just gonna hit Grizzlies, Warriors, Lakers, Spurs,
Speaker 1: and Sixers nets. You guys know the drill before we
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Speaker 1: can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under hoops tonight.
Speaker 1: So the Warriors beat the GRIZZLIESE twenty, super weird game.
Speaker 1: The Warriors were out playing the Grizzlies in a bunch
Speaker 1: of different phases of the game. Uh. The Grizzlies usually
Speaker 1: physically dominate teams, that's their m O. They defended an
Speaker 1: extremely high level. They grabbed a ship ton of rebounds,
Speaker 1: but the Warriors out rebounded them thirty six. They grabbed
Speaker 1: fourteen offensive rebounds, a bunch of key offensive rebounds late
Speaker 1: in the game. So big dry ever of their uh
Speaker 1: come back there in that fourth quarter. They shot better
Speaker 1: from the field, they shot better from three, they shot
Speaker 1: better from the line. But a story that you Warriors
Speaker 1: fans probably remember many times over the years, they just
Speaker 1: couldn't take care of the basketball. They had twenty two turnovers.
Speaker 1: The Grizzlies scored twenty nine of their twenty points off
Speaker 1: of Warriors turnovers. Like I've always said with the Grizzlies
Speaker 1: in particular, they're constantly trying to run. They're constantly trying
Speaker 1: to force turnovers and get out in the open floor
Speaker 1: because that's their best chance to score. This is not
Speaker 1: a good half court offense team. And then things slowed
Speaker 1: down there at the end of the game and it
Speaker 1: became time to execute, and the Warriors are a better
Speaker 1: execution team and they came back to win. Um. They
Speaker 1: were down ten midway through the fourth quarter, Classics flash
Speaker 1: Brothers from their Clay comes flying off the screen on
Speaker 1: the left side to hit the three. Then he has
Speaker 1: a really nice bat cut off a feed from Draymond
Speaker 1: for reverse layup. Uh. Then Steph Curry comes flying off
Speaker 1: the screen. Steph had ten points out of twelve for
Speaker 1: the Warriors over a two minute and thirty second stretch
Speaker 1: to put the Warriors up three. But then we got
Speaker 1: to the bizarre ejection and this was a really weird sequence,
Speaker 1: so UM, I believe it was Clay Thompson. This is
Speaker 1: like a short, little like floater in the lane and
Speaker 1: Dante DiVincenzo comes flying in and taps it out. And
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on that in particular, because Dante
Speaker 1: all game long was crashing the offensive glass with guys
Speaker 1: like Tius Jones and John Morant on him, guys that
Speaker 1: he has a big physical advantage over, and he was
Speaker 1: capable of tapping the ball out and saving some possessions.
Speaker 1: He only registered too offensive rebounds, but he got a
Speaker 1: bunch of contested like taps that effectively amounted to offensive
Speaker 1: rebounds even though it wasn't him. But the ball gets
Speaker 1: tapped out, ends up in Jordan Pool's hands. Shot clock
Speaker 1: resets to fourteen. Um, Jordan's kind of open right like,
Speaker 1: It's not like he was um smothered or anything, but
Speaker 1: it's a thirty foot shot about a little over a
Speaker 1: minute left. You have an opportun need to run some
Speaker 1: more time off the clock. And he puts it up
Speaker 1: and misses it, and Steph just loses his mind and
Speaker 1: chucks the the mouthpiece out of bounds. And I mean,
Speaker 1: it really is this simple. I get. I understand where
Speaker 1: Steff is coming from. You've lost a bunch of games
Speaker 1: this year in late game decision making. Jordan's Pool in particular,
Speaker 1: especially in the last month, has had some bad late
Speaker 1: game moments where he's made some poor decisions. So I
Speaker 1: understand the frustration. But Steph's You're the best shot creator
Speaker 1: on the team. You just scored ten points in two
Speaker 1: and a half minutes to get the Warriors in position
Speaker 1: to win. They need you down the stretch. Gotta keep
Speaker 1: your emotions and check that said, like, I'm not worried
Speaker 1: about that, particularly with Steph. That's getting himself kicked out
Speaker 1: of games has not been an issue for him over
Speaker 1: the years. But it was just kind of a bizarre
Speaker 1: sequence and in the moment as I was watching it
Speaker 1: last night, it's definitely like, what one of the things
Speaker 1: you probably did not have on your bingo card last
Speaker 1: night as a Warriors fan was Steph gets ejected for
Speaker 1: yelling at Jordan Pool and chucking a mouthpiece. But the
Speaker 1: encouraging part is the way Golden State responded, because John
Speaker 1: Murant really sees the momentum. After that play had a
Speaker 1: really nice driving scoop shot and pick and roll. Then
Speaker 1: he had another play where he drove and drew a
Speaker 1: foul and Draymond Green and he actually put the Grizzlies
Speaker 1: up one of what was it, one eighteen to one seventeen.
Speaker 1: But then the Warriors ran that like variation of Spain
Speaker 1: pick and roll that they've run a bunch of times
Speaker 1: this year. I've talked about Spain pick and roll is
Speaker 1: usually where you have a shooter relocate from under the
Speaker 1: basket to the top of the key. But the Warriors
Speaker 1: have a variation of that that's kind of like a
Speaker 1: five outset where they'll have uh Steph start on the
Speaker 1: left wing. In this case it was Jordan Pool, but
Speaker 1: they'll have Draymond Green set the first screen, then they'll
Speaker 1: have Clay set the second screen, and then they'll have
Speaker 1: the other two guys spotting in the opposite winging corner,
Speaker 1: and so the whole side is cleared on the left side,
Speaker 1: and as Jordan Pool comes over the screen, Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: just relocates across the top. It's like a hybrid of
Speaker 1: Spain pick and roll where instead of your relocating relocating
Speaker 1: from the basket to the top, he's relocating from the
Speaker 1: wing to the opposite wing. And essentially what you're trying
Speaker 1: to do there is in that screening action, you're trying
Speaker 1: to get Clay's defender to lag a little bit to
Speaker 1: help on that screen and roll action so that Clay
Speaker 1: can find an opening on the weak side. And what
Speaker 1: was really smart about this particular play was Draymond re
Speaker 1: screened so Clay had Clay comes off the screen and
Speaker 1: he's not entirely open, but Jordan takes his retreat dribble
Speaker 1: and looks back that way, and Draymond reverses the screen
Speaker 1: and screens back for Clay coming back towards the top
Speaker 1: of the key and gets tons of separation, gets a
Speaker 1: good look at three and knocks it down. Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: was unbelievable in the fourth quarter of this game. But
Speaker 1: you go down the other end and John Moran, who
Speaker 1: I said, like the Grizzlies half court offense issues are
Speaker 1: not because of John Moran, It's because they don't have
Speaker 1: nearly enough ball handling and shooting. After John Morand and
Speaker 1: John makes really nice isolation move, draws the help from
Speaker 1: Draymond Green makes a really nice wrap around past to
Speaker 1: Brandon Clark and we're tied. We called time out. Go
Speaker 1: down the other end and on the baseline, uh uh,
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson shoots a quick little fifteen foot or he
Speaker 1: misses it once again. Dante DiVincenzo with a little bit
Speaker 1: of help of him Anthony Lamb. They go after that
Speaker 1: contested rebound, trying to tap at it. John Morand hits
Speaker 1: it out of bounce. Warrior stick with the ball, and
Speaker 1: this is where it gets really interesting because where they're
Speaker 1: gonna run a baseline out of balance play and John
Speaker 1: Murant is guarding the inbounder. Now, uh, everybody who has
Speaker 1: a coaching doctor and I coach a little bit high
Speaker 1: school basketball here in Tucson. You have a specific ideology
Speaker 1: when it comes to certain situations. Whether that's like, oh,
Speaker 1: like I like to foul when we're down or up three,
Speaker 1: or no, I like to play defense when we're up three,
Speaker 1: or whatever, it is your specific ideology. My audio ideology
Speaker 1: for guarding baseline out of bounds is I always take
Speaker 1: the guy who's guarding the inbounder and I put him
Speaker 1: directly under the basket, no matter what, and his one
Speaker 1: job is to prevent any sort of pass, an entry
Speaker 1: pass underneath the basket. And the main reason why is because,
Speaker 1: especially in a situation like that, like, yes, the inbounder
Speaker 1: relocating out is a threat, but you can switch that.
Speaker 1: So for instance, if the inbounder throws the pass and
Speaker 1: then flares out to the three point line, the guy
Speaker 1: he's throwing the past two to get the ball back,
Speaker 1: his defender can jump out there. But no matter what,
Speaker 1: I need to protect the basket at all costs if
Speaker 1: I'm going to lose in a situation like that, I
Speaker 1: want to lose on a jump shot. I don't want
Speaker 1: to lose on an easy layup under the basket. And
Speaker 1: even more strange than that was so John rand Instead
Speaker 1: of guarding the basket, John around John morand lunges out
Speaker 1: and guards the three point line. So no one's protecting
Speaker 1: the rim. Zaire Williams is guarding Jordan Pool and in
Speaker 1: all of the chaos, he's shading onto Jordan Pool's right
Speaker 1: hand as if he's gonna run out to the sideline
Speaker 1: to get a jump shot. And to Jordan's credit for
Speaker 1: the poor decision he made on that three, he made
Speaker 1: a really smart read. He saw that Iyer Williams was
Speaker 1: overplaying him and he just bat cuts him to the rim.
Speaker 1: Now that doesn't work if John Morant is protecting the rim,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't. So he saw the read. He saw
Speaker 1: John Morant lunge out, he saw Zaire Williams shading on
Speaker 1: his right hand towards the sideline, and everything was wide
Speaker 1: open under the basket. Jordan went quick. He didn't try
Speaker 1: to get cute with the layup. He just went right
Speaker 1: to the front of the rim. He caught Zayre Williams
Speaker 1: sleeping and he won the game. And you know, once again,
Speaker 1: here we go late game situation. It's close. Execution is
Speaker 1: what wins games. It's one of the biggest reasons why
Speaker 1: I have the Warriors as my championship favorite. Two plays
Speaker 1: at the end of the game, that hybrid Spain pick
Speaker 1: and roll for Clay Thompson and then that baseline out
Speaker 1: of bounds. They executed it properly, got wide open looks
Speaker 1: and won the game. I've just seen way too many
Speaker 1: basketball games over the years be decided by execution. That's
Speaker 1: why I value that the most, and that's why I
Speaker 1: trust Golden State the most, even though they've had so
Speaker 1: many issues this year um in other areas of the game,
Speaker 1: so kind of zooming out a little bit. The Warriors
Speaker 1: have alternated between wins and losses since Steph returned. But
Speaker 1: they have the Raptors at home on Friday to break
Speaker 1: that trend. But the Rattors just wanted to sacramental last
Speaker 1: night kind of main handled them. So they're playing some
Speaker 1: decent basketball right now, and they present a bunch of
Speaker 1: specific physical issues, uh at that, especially with perimeter size,
Speaker 1: that might give the Warriors some issues. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a tough challenge on Friday, but that's a good chance
Speaker 1: to break that trend. Memphis followed up their eleven game
Speaker 1: winning streak with a four game losing streak. In addition
Speaker 1: to the general lack of ball handling and shooting that
Speaker 1: causes their half court issues, I also excuse me. I
Speaker 1: also just don't think they're disciplined enough to win a
Speaker 1: seven game series against a great team, so I still
Speaker 1: have them a level below Denver and Golden State out West. Alright,
Speaker 1: net Sixers, this was a really fun game. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: move pretty quickly here. Wife's actually waiting on me. We
Speaker 1: got we gotta get up to the slopes here soon. Um.
Speaker 1: Really valiant effort from Kyrie and Seth Curry, particularly in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter to keep this game close. Seth Curry
Speaker 1: had a little heater in the middle of the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter and then and then Kyrie had a heater towards
Speaker 1: the end. But James Harden was just unbelievable in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. He hit back to back step back threes
Speaker 1: to undo the damage from Seth's big fourth quarter push,
Speaker 1: and then he had a really nice driving lay up
Speaker 1: to his left. He had U I want to say,
Speaker 1: all five of his makes before that shot were threes,
Speaker 1: and then he finally got all the way to the
Speaker 1: room and made a layup that effectively ice to the game.
Speaker 1: After Kyrie kept his a little heater. What I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about was Philly's late game offense for a minute.
Speaker 1: So the Sixers of now won six games in a row,
Speaker 1: which was a uh something I predicted back in December,
Speaker 1: and I didn't think it was that ballsy of a prediction. Literally,
Speaker 1: all I was thinking was, this is one of the
Speaker 1: most talented teams in the league. They're starting to get healthy.
Speaker 1: You know, James Harden is playing really good basketball, joe
Speaker 1: lymbeats playing like an m v P tyvers, maxis starting
Speaker 1: to get his rhythm back. Uh. They were already having
Speaker 1: a ton of success in half court defense. I had
Speaker 1: a feeling that when their offense started to because they
Speaker 1: were kind That was the weird thing with the Sixers
Speaker 1: throughout that first half of the season, as their offense
Speaker 1: was kind of hovering in that round fifteen in the
Speaker 1: league range. They're all the way up to fifth in
Speaker 1: offense now because how much they've been cooking on that
Speaker 1: end of the floor and they have an offensive rating
Speaker 1: of one hundred and twenty five and fourth quarters during
Speaker 1: the six game win streak. And it really is this simple.
Speaker 1: There's just no easy way to guard them. If you
Speaker 1: have if you leave James Harden in an ice so
Speaker 1: he's well over a point per possession and pick and roll,
Speaker 1: you've got a bracket James Harden, which is getting Joel
Speaker 1: embiid all these super high quality touches right at the
Speaker 1: foul line that he's converting at a high rate. Joel
Speaker 1: Embi post ups are present their whole set of problems.
Speaker 1: And then it's like Tyree s Maxie and Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: on the week side with either you know, Georges kneeang
Speaker 1: or Shake Milton as that like knockdown shooter in that
Speaker 1: fifth spot. There's just there's just a high quality shot
Speaker 1: every time down the floor. And you know, basketball is
Speaker 1: a maker mislead to a certain extent, but at the
Speaker 1: same time, like chances are if your shot quality is
Speaker 1: better than the other team, it's more likely that you're
Speaker 1: gonna make the shots, and that's gonna be the difference
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. Um I I think
Speaker 1: that like this again, everything comes down to hardening and
Speaker 1: beat in the playoffs and whether or not they're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to maintain their level of play. But they
Speaker 1: they they're gonna get high quality shots in late game situations,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna have an outstanding half court defense. They're
Speaker 1: gonna be tough to beat. And the same goes for
Speaker 1: the nets. I mean, look no k D last night,
Speaker 1: and you saw on display from Seth and Kyrie just
Speaker 1: the absurd level of offensive skill that those two guys have.
Speaker 1: And again, their biggest weakness is gonna be physicality, and
Speaker 1: that's why I'm worried about them specifically in a Celtics matchup.
Speaker 1: But if they can hold up in the physicality better
Speaker 1: than they did last year, they're gonna be really tough
Speaker 1: to beat as well. The the n B a uh
Speaker 1: top tier of teams this year is so much better
Speaker 1: than last year. It's gonna be this year is going
Speaker 1: to be so much fun when we get to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. I'm so excited. Tip off the new
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Speaker 1: from the money line to point scores too. Three's drained.
Speaker 1: My favorite bet for this week is Tuesday Night the
Speaker 1: l A Clippers in crypto against the Lakers minus four.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are gonna probably be integrating Ruey Hatchemura in
Speaker 1: that game, and it's gonna dramatically shift the Lakers rotation around,
Speaker 1: which I think is gonna make it a very weird game,
Speaker 1: and a lot of guys are gonna be out of rhythm.
Speaker 1: So I like the Clippers in that game. Plus fand
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Speaker 1: the NBA Alright Spurs Lakers. I'm not gonna spend two
Speaker 1: long on this game. I just have four quick thoughts.
Speaker 1: So first of all, Ruey had to Murray's debut. He
Speaker 1: makes the Lakers look big. He bothered a half dozen
Speaker 1: shots just by having his hands up. Again, He's six
Speaker 1: ft eight with a seven two wingspan. Um. He grabbed
Speaker 1: six rebounds in twenty two minutes, which is great, several
Speaker 1: contested rebounds. It's like seeing a real big forward fly
Speaker 1: in to grab a rebound for the Lakers not named
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis. Is kind of bizarre to watch
Speaker 1: because we just haven't seen that in a few years. Um.
Speaker 1: He gives them a legit NBA front court with Lebron
Speaker 1: on the bench, and that's vitally important for a couple
Speaker 1: of reasons we're gonna talk about here in a second.
Speaker 1: They ran twenty three possessions last night with a d
Speaker 1: and Ruey had to Murray at the four with no Lebron,
Speaker 1: and they were plus nineteen net rating. And those twenty
Speaker 1: three possessions, again very small sample size against a bad team,
Speaker 1: but it allows them to stagger Lebron and Anthony Davis effectively,
Speaker 1: which is immensely important if they do decide to trade
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, because Russ is on a like and he
Speaker 1: was really good in the previous ten games. I want
Speaker 1: to be clear, but he's been nightmariagely bad in his
Speaker 1: last three games. The Lakers are minus thirty four in
Speaker 1: the last three games when Russ plays uh and even
Speaker 1: when he's off the floor. Last night he was minus
Speaker 1: ten and a nine point win. But it goes even
Speaker 1: beyond the box score to just one. He can't make
Speaker 1: it three to save his life. I think he's like
Speaker 1: one for his last thirteen or something like that. Um
Speaker 1: in his body language is weird, and his decision making
Speaker 1: has fallen off after being really good in the previous
Speaker 1: ten games. So I wonder if he's hearing things from
Speaker 1: his agent or just in general from Rob if they're
Speaker 1: hinting at him that it's likely that he gets moved
Speaker 1: or something, because the shift in his body language has
Speaker 1: been really strange in the last couple of of games.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. If they do trade Russ, you
Speaker 1: need to be effective with Lebron off the floor, because
Speaker 1: that's one of the ways Russ has been great this
Speaker 1: year's running those bench units. So I wonder if he's
Speaker 1: hearing something um because but then again, but but again,
Speaker 1: with Russ off the floor and Lebron off the floor,
Speaker 1: having Ruey Hot tomorrow with Anthony Davis gives you a
Speaker 1: real traditional NBA front court to build a defensive foundation on,
Speaker 1: and Ruby flash some of the high level shot creation
Speaker 1: last night which helps you score in the half court
Speaker 1: in those situations. Um offensively, Ruey showed a little bit
Speaker 1: of everything. He had two buckets in transition to transition
Speaker 1: run out in the first half. Then he had a
Speaker 1: trailing three in the second half that he made. Remember
Speaker 1: what I was saying in my deep dive with Ruey
Speaker 1: the other day, He's actually shooting the three much much
Speaker 1: better in transition than he is in the half court.
Speaker 1: And I think a big part of that is his
Speaker 1: momentum is already heading towards the rim. He's got a
Speaker 1: little bit of a hitch in his shot, and so
Speaker 1: because his footing and balance is better in transition, because
Speaker 1: his forward momentum, I think he's hitting those shots at
Speaker 1: a higher clip as a result. But he had a
Speaker 1: little transition three that's gonna be big when the Lakers
Speaker 1: are running. Then he had two buckets in the half court.
Speaker 1: There was a broken possession in the first half. Nothing
Speaker 1: was really open. Max Christie swings in the ball on
Speaker 1: the right wing and he just breaks his man down
Speaker 1: off the dribble and hits a pull up fifteen foot
Speaker 1: or that's gonna be big time, especially when they get
Speaker 1: into the playoffs. Uh, those you guys who listen to
Speaker 1: the dray On Green Show. He specifically talked about that
Speaker 1: a little bit in his last episode. Um and then
Speaker 1: the second bucket was a post up play. A d
Speaker 1: actually joked after the game that they called one of
Speaker 1: a d s plays for Ruey. Um and then he
Speaker 1: and then he said he went up to Ruey and
Speaker 1: was like, hey, if they don't double team that shot,
Speaker 1: better go up. And he took a post up fade
Speaker 1: away over his right shoulder. Great footwork, knocked that thing down.
Speaker 1: And uh, again that's super encouraging. It's bad team, small
Speaker 1: sample size, need to see a lot more, but having
Speaker 1: that functional, real NBA forward next to Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis just adds a dimension to this team that
Speaker 1: they haven't had since they won the title. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: was a little out of rhythm, which is to be expected,
Speaker 1: but he blocked four shots. It's it's truly amazing how
Speaker 1: much he changes the physical profile of the Lakers. When
Speaker 1: a D was out almost every single game. The Lakers
Speaker 1: were physically outmatched. Um, they were fast, Like I said,
Speaker 1: their advantage was their speed as they went small, and
Speaker 1: they had some really good downhill players that were difficult
Speaker 1: to deal with, like Dennis, Lebron and Russ. But in
Speaker 1: the aggregate, if you factored all of the physical elements
Speaker 1: of the game, the Lakers were outmatched every single night.
Speaker 1: And they basically just made up for that with Lebron's greatness,
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys in the on the bench playing
Speaker 1: well in relentless effort. They've been a team that just
Speaker 1: doesn't quit over the course of the last couple of months. Um.
Speaker 1: But when you watch them last night with a D
Speaker 1: back and especially with Ruby out there, they're huge. They're
Speaker 1: a huge NBA team now. When they play Ruey and
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D together, they're gonna be bigger than
Speaker 1: just about every single team they play. That's three seven
Speaker 1: foot wingspans in the front court. That's Orlando Magic stuff,
Speaker 1: that's Cleveland Cavaliers stuff. That is high level defensive length
Speaker 1: on the front court. And you saw some sequences last
Speaker 1: night where the Lakers were swarming on defense and it
Speaker 1: was kind of frightening to see the long arms everywhere
Speaker 1: as they were making defensive plays. You probably remember that
Speaker 1: play there, uh in late fourth quarter for Dennis Schroder
Speaker 1: flies over and blocks the three point shot on the wing,
Speaker 1: which gets saved in bounds. And then uh, they drive
Speaker 1: on Ruey and Ruey swallows up the drive and and
Speaker 1: it gets swung too. Uh. I think it was Zach
Speaker 1: Collins in the middle of the lane and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: comes over and blocks it like that type of frightening
Speaker 1: defensive rotation. Those are the physical advantages that were missing
Speaker 1: before this trade and before Anthony Davis came back from
Speaker 1: the injury. You want to have multiple advantages so that
Speaker 1: you can win multiple ways. The Lakers have shown that
Speaker 1: they can win with speed, but now they have the
Speaker 1: ability to win with size, and that last missing piece
Speaker 1: is the ability to win with skill. And there's a
Speaker 1: couple of specific ways that will help their one Lebron
Speaker 1: getting his jump shot back to where it was the
Speaker 1: last few years, he has been shooting better, and really
Speaker 1: what they need to do is make a trade for
Speaker 1: a real shooter, a professional jump shooter, because as you
Speaker 1: can imagine, if you got to line up with lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis with Ruby Hotchmer and Dennis Schroeder and
Speaker 1: a real shooter, whether that's someone like a Gary Trent Jr.
Speaker 1: Buddy heeled or a like a boy On Bugdanovich, and
Speaker 1: I'd probably order them. I'd probably go boy On one,
Speaker 1: Gary Trent Jr. Two Buddy, He'll three. I prefer boy
Speaker 1: On as like a uh that that keeps Ruey is
Speaker 1: more of like a we can go big, but we
Speaker 1: can use them off the bench, or I can sco
Speaker 1: more skilled and go Dennis Austin Reeves boy and Baganovitch
Speaker 1: lebron A d or I can go huge with like
Speaker 1: Dennis boy On Ruey lebron A d do more switching
Speaker 1: and yeah, you give up a lot of foot speed
Speaker 1: and give up some driving lanes, but you have so
Speaker 1: much length and athleticism on the court you can recover it.
Speaker 1: You get a bunch of different looks there. I don't
Speaker 1: hate the idea of Gary Trent Jr. I think he
Speaker 1: fits really well as well. I just think Boyan is
Speaker 1: a better player, and and he so lights out as
Speaker 1: a spot up shooter that I think I think that
Speaker 1: he gives them real intimidating shooting off the ball in
Speaker 1: those late game situations to score in the half court.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, they need to
Speaker 1: be able to score in slow down half court games,
Speaker 1: and having a real shooter along those guys is that
Speaker 1: one missing piece. Lebron, he had eleven assists last night.
Speaker 1: Spear headed the biggest run of the game there in
Speaker 1: that early fourth quarter put the Lakers up ten. He
Speaker 1: did it by picking them apart with the pass. Uh.
Speaker 1: There was a sequence there were three straight assists. He
Speaker 1: had a transition play where dribbles up the floor and
Speaker 1: he fakes like he's gonna pull up at the top
Speaker 1: of the key, gets the man to jump at him,
Speaker 1: and swings it over to Dennis Shuder knocks down three.
Speaker 1: Next possession, they run a pick and roll from the
Speaker 1: right wing, Lebron works his way into the middle and
Speaker 1: makes an awesome back pass back to the week's or
Speaker 1: back to the corner he just came out of across
Speaker 1: his body that hits Max Christie in the shooting pocket
Speaker 1: for three and then sid know by the way, Max
Speaker 1: Christie has been awesome. He's already one of the lakers
Speaker 1: best defensive players and he's shooting on catching shoot threes
Speaker 1: this year. Again, like, there's this difference between the Lakers
Speaker 1: front office and their scouting department. The front office is
Speaker 1: dictating NBA players, whether that's you know, uh, this guy
Speaker 1: for this free agent that we're targeting, or this trade
Speaker 1: that we're trying to make. But their scouting department, which
Speaker 1: is actually made up of of members of the Bus family,
Speaker 1: they have a consistent track record of success and Max
Speaker 1: Christie appears to be another huge home run for them.
Speaker 1: That the work that the scouting department is done to
Speaker 1: cover for the weaknesses of the Lakers front office is
Speaker 1: not talked about enough um. But then finally, on the
Speaker 1: last possession in that sequence, Lebron in transition just patiently
Speaker 1: waited for Thomas Bryant to break open in the middle
Speaker 1: of the floor, hit him in stride for dunk, and
Speaker 1: the Lakers were up ten. Uh. You guys know, Lebron's
Speaker 1: my favorite player, But those kinds of sequences are my
Speaker 1: favorite Lebron sequences where they are locked in on defense
Speaker 1: and they're getting stops and Lebron is just attacking the
Speaker 1: other way in transition and making passes two guys. He's
Speaker 1: always been one of the best surgeons in basketball. It's
Speaker 1: always been one of the most underrated parts of his game.
Speaker 1: And uh, that like seeing that kind of vintage sequence
Speaker 1: last night was definitely a lot of fun, especially for
Speaker 1: me as a Lebron fan. Um one last note and
Speaker 1: then we'll be done for the day, Darvin Ham. Uh,
Speaker 1: he basically removed when you in Gabriel from the rotation
Speaker 1: last night. He only played one minute in garbage time.
Speaker 1: He was basically the only forward that was playing for
Speaker 1: the Lakers before the Ruby hatcha Mura trade. And so
Speaker 1: I get it, it's tough. It was a weird day.
Speaker 1: You bring it back a D and Ruey, you have
Speaker 1: weird rotations because a D and Ruey are coming off
Speaker 1: the bench. So I get that it was weird. But
Speaker 1: when Ian is too good to not play, he needs
Speaker 1: to be out there in some capacity. So I'd like
Speaker 1: to see them cut back a bit, maybe on Patrick
Speaker 1: Beverley's minutes and maybe a little bit on Russ's minutes,
Speaker 1: to try to find at least one shift each half
Speaker 1: for when you in to play. Because again, like especially
Speaker 1: with what the work he's been doing on the offensive glass,
Speaker 1: and he's actually one of their better defensive players. I
Speaker 1: think they need to find a way for him to play.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, That is all I have for today. Uh.
Speaker 1: Saturday night is when I get back from this trip,
Speaker 1: and we're going to be covering a bunch of games
Speaker 1: from Saturday night, including Lakers Celtics on Sunday morning, So
Speaker 1: keep an eye on it feeds on Sunday. As always,
Speaker 1: they sincerely appreciate your supports, your support. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: hit the slopes and I will see you guys in
Speaker 1: a couple of days. The volume