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Speaker 1: Mmmm, it's all right. Welcome to the State of the

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Speaker 1: Lakers post game show on DASH Radio. Thank you guys

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Speaker 1: so much for staying up late to hang out with

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Speaker 1: us after one of the more bizarre Laker wins that

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Speaker 1: I can remember. Um, it was kind of weird in

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Speaker 1: the sense that, like there was so much good, Like

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Speaker 1: they competed at a level that we haven't seen them

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Speaker 1: compete at in a few games, and there was so

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Speaker 1: much good happening on the court. But meanwhile we had

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Speaker 1: this kind of bizarre night from both Anthony Davis and

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Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook. Um, you know, the heroes of the game,

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Speaker 1: in my opinion, were the role players. And while you know,

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis made several huge defensive plays and a few

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Speaker 1: big baskets as well, I felt like he kind of

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Speaker 1: was working through some some stuff mentally that game. It

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Speaker 1: seemed like it was definitely a funky barn. What was

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Speaker 1: your you know, initial takeaway? Um, you know, just like

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Speaker 1: I say always from thirty feet up, what's your initial takeaway? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And again we do these right after the game, so

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Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to fly that high right away,

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Speaker 1: So just trying to look at it right away. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: the turnovers from Russ are probably the big story in

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Speaker 1: this UM. I'm not sure if I think you two

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Speaker 1: did the eight seem pretty frustrated at that. I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure if that was his direct frustration, but I guess

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Speaker 1: that was definitely part of it. Vocal again went with

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Speaker 1: the two big exiting the reasons that we've talked about

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Speaker 1: a lot, the idea that we don't have any wings.

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Speaker 1: I thought it worked in the first shift in the

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Speaker 1: starting lineup, like I thought they played pretty well. The

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Speaker 1: Hornets aren't really a team that have a lot of

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Speaker 1: like shot making off the dribble per se. And I

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Speaker 1: thought on the second half they kind of started going

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Speaker 1: to that. You saw Lamello be a little bit more

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Speaker 1: comfort rule and that's starting five just got pulled. So

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Speaker 1: that was I guess my first takeaway here is Vogel

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Speaker 1: with a very short leach in that second half. With

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Speaker 1: that with the two big lineup, and I thought we

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Speaker 1: found a few things. And again, those rust turnovers on

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Speaker 1: the fourth are really bizarre. You just I know his

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Speaker 1: decision making isn't always great, but usually just don't see

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Speaker 1: that from a guy that's been in the league as

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Speaker 1: long as him. I guess just the like you know,

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Speaker 1: nonchalant walking the ball up. He's getting picked up almost

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Speaker 1: at half core by Terry Rosier, and you know he

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Speaker 1: loses the ball out of bounds one play. One play

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Speaker 1: they knock it out that lob to a d lay.

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Speaker 1: Just that one didn't make sense some of the decision

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Speaker 1: making overall. I mean, it was a rust game. And

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Speaker 1: that's why I say lean into the rust ball, right

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Speaker 1: because I thought you saw some of the positives from that.

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Speaker 1: So that's like my main takeaway here. A lot of

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Speaker 1: strained stuff, a lot of the five free throws on

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Speaker 1: one possession, just weird stuff that happens like that that

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Speaker 1: they had the hornets back in the game, So we

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Speaker 1: are going to talk about Ross. I did think was

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Speaker 1: super interesting the way that Terry Rogier completely threw him

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Speaker 1: off of his game with ball pressure, which is which

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Speaker 1: is bizarre because that's supposed to be like the one

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Speaker 1: thing that every point guard has to be able to handle,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But we're gonna I think

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Speaker 1: I feel like, as you and I always do, we

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Speaker 1: should start with the positive because I have lots of

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Speaker 1: thoughts on Russ. What I'm gonna say, I'm gonna save him.

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Speaker 1: But the uh yeah, I'm very much going to need

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Speaker 1: you rush tonight to to talk me down from some

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Speaker 1: of some of my opinions on Russ. So so we'll

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Speaker 1: say that for a little bit. But to big guys

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Speaker 1: that I want to shout out tonight, Um, Austin reeves,

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Speaker 1: particularly in the first half, although he also made some

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Speaker 1: plays in the second half. You know, the one thing

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Speaker 1: that's starting to pop up with Austin a little bit

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Speaker 1: is his three point shooting is starting to be a

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Speaker 1: little bit of a lot. Not a liability, but he's

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Speaker 1: not knocking him down at as high of a clip

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Speaker 1: as you'd hope for from that position. Very very Alex

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Speaker 1: Crusoe esk in a lot of ways, Um, but just

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Speaker 1: in general, one of the better. I tweeted out it

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Speaker 1: was the best half he's played as a as a pro.

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Speaker 1: I think you could probably look at this game now

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Speaker 1: and say it was probably his best game as a pro.

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Speaker 1: Just incredible off ball defense, incredible on ball defense, this

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Speaker 1: level of energy that was contagious that went through the

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Speaker 1: whole team. He had two isolation scores tonight that I

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Speaker 1: counted one on Kelly Ubre Or he drove into his

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Speaker 1: chest and bounced him off and then shot like a

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Speaker 1: little ten foot fade away and knocked it down. And

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Speaker 1: then he had that huge one. I think it was

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Speaker 1: either in the fourth quarter over time, I can't remember,

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Speaker 1: but where he attacked out of the week side corner

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, the ball kind of stuck with

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Speaker 1: him and all of a sudden there was four seconds

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Speaker 1: left on the shot clock and he just drove to

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Speaker 1: the baseline and did you know one of my favorite

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Speaker 1: go to moves, Just hit the dude with your shoulder

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Speaker 1: in his chest and just spin off if you if

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Speaker 1: you do it and you initiate the contact and you

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Speaker 1: and you hit him a little bit like regardless of

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Speaker 1: height difference, you can get shot off and he and

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Speaker 1: he made it as a huge one just in general, like,

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Speaker 1: I think we've come to the point with Reeves where

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Speaker 1: he's been so good that you absolutely have to keep

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Speaker 1: him in the rotation and even as the team gets healthy,

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Speaker 1: he's that he's been that good. And I think he's

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Speaker 1: been that good enough for long enough that the guys

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Speaker 1: in the locker room would understand why he's getting minutes,

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Speaker 1: which may not have been the case earlier on and

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Speaker 1: then the other big guys. Belton Um Obviously we've talked

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Speaker 1: a lot about how his extreme high level spot up

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Speaker 1: shooting is such a huge deal. Um. Obviously it basically

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Speaker 1: won them the game tonight, but even looking forward for

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Speaker 1: the team and it's ceiling and what this team is

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Speaker 1: going to look at it look like in high leverage moments,

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Speaker 1: having a guy like that you cannot leave is going

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Speaker 1: to be such a huge asset. And then as we

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Speaker 1: saw tonight, I thought he had his best defense and

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Speaker 1: effort game of the year. Tons of multiple effort plays defensively,

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Speaker 1: getting his hands on on on balls that even used

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Speaker 1: to being active in passing Wayne's contesting shots that he

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Speaker 1: used to just let go. Just just an awesome, awesome,

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Speaker 1: awesome game from Carmelo Anthony. And so those are my

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Speaker 1: two stars of the night, the two huge, glaring positives

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Speaker 1: that I wanted to point out. Would you agree with that?

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Speaker 1: Was there anybody else that you wanted to shout out? No?

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Speaker 1: I would agree with that. Well, let's start with Reeves

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Speaker 1: because I thought, just this is just an incredible sentence

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Speaker 1: to say, like, well, I tweeted it too, But when

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Speaker 1: the overtime started, I said, we needed him out there

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Speaker 1: to guard LaMelo Ball, you know LaMelo Ball, the one

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Speaker 1: averaging twenty on from three and all that, and Volgo

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Speaker 1: put him in for defense. Frank Bogo put Austin Reeves

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Speaker 1: and every badly and for defense Land and the undrafted rookie,

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Speaker 1: and you're right, his defense was just incredible. We talked

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Speaker 1: about it all the time that Frank, you know, likes

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Speaker 1: to play this drop kind of coverage and you need

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Speaker 1: guards who can stick. And Austin Reeves was the best

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Speaker 1: at it tonight. He might have been the best at

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Speaker 1: it all year. He drew a few offensive fouls I

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Speaker 1: believe too on that where he was kind of chasing

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Speaker 1: on overs ear. But the work on LaMelo that last play,

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Speaker 1: he gart him one on one. If you watch closely,

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Speaker 1: they got he got him one on one. They had

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Speaker 1: a screen he switched and then shut off Gordon Hayward

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Speaker 1: at the rim, which allowed a d to come out

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Speaker 1: and contest, which I think was forgot who was in

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Speaker 1: the corner who took the three um But but yeah,

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Speaker 1: was able to contest that, and then they got offensive

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Speaker 1: rebound and got a tough one from Martin in the

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Speaker 1: other corner. But yet his defense was just incredible even

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Speaker 1: if his shots not going, He's just in the right

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Speaker 1: place way too many times for me to where you

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Speaker 1: don't play him. And I think in that second unit,

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Speaker 1: im i'd actually like, I think to start him right

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Speaker 1: now if you start a D at the five, I

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Speaker 1: think Reaves has just been that good defensively. But just

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Speaker 1: his defense was incredible even if he didn't make, you know,

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Speaker 1: his spot up three's teams don't leave him though, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, even if he's not making

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Speaker 1: his spot up three, he's a guy they respect as

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Speaker 1: a shooter already. Like they don't play off of, they

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Speaker 1: don't stack off him. Melo got a bunch of good

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Speaker 1: looks open three tonight. I think reeves on the floor

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Speaker 1: for a lot of them. He just helps the spacing,

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Speaker 1: he's in the right place, he's there, recharges, you know,

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Speaker 1: and his hustle energy that all just is needed on

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Speaker 1: this team where you can tell the lack of energy

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Speaker 1: just goes back and forth and then mellow. I don't

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Speaker 1: know what other I don't know if there's any like

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Speaker 1: superlatives left to talk about him. Some of these three

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Speaker 1: to night weren't even open. Uh. He was just feeling

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Speaker 1: it at Staple Center. I think he was shooting like

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Speaker 1: sixty eight percent on threes and that went that one man,

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Speaker 1: the wheels were coming off. It felt like the team

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Speaker 1: was about ready toe and that three hitting it overtime

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Speaker 1: completely changed the complexion of it. Yeah, and you could

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Speaker 1: see him to be like, let's go, let's keep it going.

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Speaker 1: If he's the camera kind of pan on him, but

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Speaker 1: he was while he was walking back on that. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: and he saved us. I don't know where this team

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Speaker 1: would be without Mellow. It's another twenty plus game from him.

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Speaker 1: I think it's like his fourth for the season or something.

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Speaker 1: But it's just he's been great, Like it's there's nothing

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Speaker 1: you could say. And his defense like if it's possible,

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Speaker 1: that's more than enough, And like you talked about tonight,

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Speaker 1: it was even better than that. He gets hands on

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Speaker 1: a lot of strips. He's never going to be perfect,

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Speaker 1: but he's kind of been in the right place A

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Speaker 1: few times. I thought the Mellow lineups were good enough

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Speaker 1: defensively to win, but as shooting, he has just been incredible.

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Speaker 1: So I did with with you. Those were kind of

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Speaker 1: the two stars from to name. You know, Mellow is

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Speaker 1: an interesting guy for Russ to watch as an example

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Speaker 1: of how to age gracefully as a star. That was,

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Speaker 1: you know, much more nuclear, you know, in his younger days. Now,

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Speaker 1: Mellow to his you know, to to Russ his defense,

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Speaker 1: Mellow it was it was a propless. He didn't accept

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Speaker 1: it right away. But if you look at what Mellow

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Speaker 1: is as a basketball player right now, like he's he's

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Speaker 1: the same level of skill that he's always had. It

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Speaker 1: just he was he had a certain amount of athleticism

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Speaker 1: in his prime that allowed him to have a physical

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Speaker 1: advantage to go with his skill, that allowed him to

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Speaker 1: be a guy who was, you know, one of the

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Speaker 1: best scorers in the league. Right So the core skill

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Speaker 1: set behind that is still there. But Carmelo Anthony has

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Speaker 1: understood that he's not the same player, and he has

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Speaker 1: transformed his game in a lot of ways. He understands like, hey, like,

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Speaker 1: I will not be able to play for a winner

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Speaker 1: unless I put in more effort on the defensive end

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Speaker 1: than I did when I was in my prime. Like,

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Speaker 1: and he gets that, Like he he knows that a

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Speaker 1: game like tonight, um Frank might go another direction if

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Speaker 1: he's getting just barbecued all over the floor. So he

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Speaker 1: over the course of this season has each successive game

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Speaker 1: gotten a little bit better on the defensive end, a

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Speaker 1: little bit better with his effort and focus. He's completely

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Speaker 1: changed his shot profile to uh to taking higher quality shots.

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Speaker 1: When he takes the tougher shots, they now take place

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Speaker 1: when he already has his rhythm, you know, even you know,

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Speaker 1: I've complained a lot about him posting up bigger wings, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, instead of posting up smaller guards. And there

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Speaker 1: was a play in the first half where he got

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Speaker 1: Kelly Ubrey on him and I remember sitting there thinking like,

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Speaker 1: I don't really like the snatch up, and but Mellow,

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Speaker 1: Mellow was hard about it. He's like he pumped, like

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Speaker 1: Mellow's like, I'm not gonna be able to just elevate

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Speaker 1: over the top of this guy anymore, so I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: try to Outsmarten and Kelly Bray is young and overaggressive,

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Speaker 1: and he jumped out of his shoes and Mellow got

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Speaker 1: two free throws out of it. Point being like, Mellow

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Speaker 1: is finding a way to age gracefully. And it's a

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Speaker 1: big thing that Russ has to pay attention to. And

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Speaker 1: this is something that I talked a lot about a

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Speaker 1: couple of nights ago when we did our last pot

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Speaker 1: after the Portland's game. You know, Russ has to kind

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Speaker 1: of accept the realities of who he is as a

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Speaker 1: basketball player now and and try to identify what he

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Speaker 1: can still do to impact the game and try to

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Speaker 1: focus on those areas and pull back in other areas.

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Speaker 1: That's the only way this is going to work. And

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Speaker 1: to his defense, as bad as he was tonight, which

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Speaker 1: we're gonna talk more about, like he's kind of in

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Speaker 1: a rocket between the rock and hard plates here like that,

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Speaker 1: the team needs him to to try to create something.

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Speaker 1: I mean, like, here's the reality, Like like Vogel probably

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Speaker 1: goes with Rondo for the first six, seven, eight minutes

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Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter if if, if he doesn't get ejected.

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Speaker 1: You know, he was forced to go back to Russ

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Speaker 1: early there, and and the you know, the team just

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Speaker 1: needs him to do this. But when Lebron comes back,

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Speaker 1: when th Hd comes back, when the team's whole, he's

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Speaker 1: got to find a way to tell some of his

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Speaker 1: back because what you saw tonight is something that I've

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Speaker 1: talked about a lot over the course at the beginning

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Speaker 1: of this season, the concept of hemorrhaging possessions. So, for instance,

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Speaker 1: who was the better basketball team tonight even without Lebron

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Speaker 1: The Lakers were. The Lakers were clearly the better basketball team.

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Speaker 1: They were roughly points better if you look at the

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Speaker 1: way that they played on both ends of the floor.

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Speaker 1: But Russ hemorrhage so many possessions as either a director's

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Speaker 1: old turnovers or the other big one that you saw

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Speaker 1: a lot, especially in the first three quarters, was I

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Speaker 1: had absolutely no advantage here, but I'm just gonna throw

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Speaker 1: it up at the rim anyway, you know, around the basket,

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Speaker 1: like just like getting into the lane, having no separation

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Speaker 1: and just jacking stuff up, like shots so crazy that

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Speaker 1: if you saw a dude shoot them at l a fitness,

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Speaker 1: you'd be like, what is this guy even doing in here?

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Speaker 1: Like that's how bad it was. And what you saw

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Speaker 1: was so many of those clustered in one game that

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Speaker 1: it damn near costs them. That's how bad that was.

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Speaker 1: And what scares me is the idea of him doing

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Speaker 1: that hemorrhaging possessions even in a smaller skill Let's say,

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Speaker 1: Hemorrhage is half as many. But it's Game five against

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Speaker 1: Phoenix on the road and the series is tied at two,

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Speaker 1: and he does two or three stupid things in the

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter that can literally cost you a playoff series.

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Speaker 1: It can't. And as I've pointed out so many times

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Speaker 1: over the years, like he's done it in the past,

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Speaker 1: there are Oklahoma City games, pivotal Oklahoma City playoff games

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Speaker 1: where his poor decision making arguably cost them serious and

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Speaker 1: so it's just it's it's one of those things where

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm having a really hard time trying to

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Speaker 1: keep a positive outlook with this because even if he

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Speaker 1: does temper back a lot of this stuff, just his

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Speaker 1: basketball i Q isn't what it needs to be for

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Speaker 1: what this team needs out of that position. And I'm

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Speaker 1: a little bit scared. So you can try to talk

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Speaker 1: me down. If you can try to talk me down,

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Speaker 1: that'd be great. Talk me down and said, well before

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Speaker 1: we get super deep into us, because I feel like

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Speaker 1: this is where this is going. Um, I just want

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Speaker 1: to keep shout out to a couple more players. First

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Speaker 1: of all, Rondo, you spoke a little bit about him.

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Speaker 1: That's the like playoff Rono you won't see every night.

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Speaker 1: But I think like this team right now that's hurt

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Speaker 1: needs him to be a little bit more right, just

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Speaker 1: again we can get into us. But I just thought

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Speaker 1: once he came in, I think he did come in

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Speaker 1: for us, just change the whole energy of that game him.

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Speaker 1: He was active on defense, calling out plays, He forces

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Speaker 1: a d to play in the air, which I really

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Speaker 1: like about him. He was throwing him lobs and stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna give him a quick shout out. And then

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Speaker 1: also I thought Wayne Ellington, you know, he didn't still

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Speaker 1: didn't shoot well, but I thought you saw kind of

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Speaker 1: what he could be. And then Malique Monk is well,

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Speaker 1: I thought they made impacts. Still not great defensively, but

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Speaker 1: I thought they had pretty good games for for what

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Speaker 1: they can what they did tonight to bring it on Russ.

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Speaker 1: Like watching this game, it kind of again is the

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Speaker 1: Russ experience. You're gonna get good stuff, you're gonna get bad.

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Speaker 1: The finishing isn't there. I know we talked about this

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Speaker 1: with Ruche as well last time, like this is kind

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Speaker 1: of what he is. And again I thought there's a

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Speaker 1: little bit still more finesse that was in his game,

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Speaker 1: like the left handed finishes that are just way off

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Speaker 1: those kind of stuff I'm hoping kind of gets cleaned up.

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Speaker 1: But I thought you did see some things like he

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Speaker 1: came in for Rondo and Ronald got ejected and the

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Speaker 1: lead actually increased. They went up to eleven, and then

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Speaker 1: I think it went to fourteen. Um, and then all

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Speaker 1: those bad plays kind of happened in that crunch time.

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Speaker 1: You know how they NBA games go when a team

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Speaker 1: tries to, I guess, play not to lose rather than win, right,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I felt a lot of

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Speaker 1: that energy with rus. It was a lot of this

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Speaker 1: walking the ball up really slowly, uh just zero pays,

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Speaker 1: taking like sevent eight seconds to get it off. And

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Speaker 1: again Terry Rosier give credit to them. And then I

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Speaker 1: thought the Hornets also went to a lot of zone

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Speaker 1: as well. Um, and I think that really mess the

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Speaker 1: Lakers up as well. And I guess my only like

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Speaker 1: you know, positive kind of spin is those are Lebron's

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Speaker 1: time though, right, that is the time where like the

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Speaker 1: ball is in Lebron's hands like you're not gonna see.

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Speaker 1: And I think it's been clear this season. And right,

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Speaker 1: you thought there's been like some talk that maybe would

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Speaker 1: be kind of a back and forth Layton games. No,

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Speaker 1: it's been pretty much Lebron has the ball, rush is off.

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Speaker 1: You know, maybe screening but maybe being in a dunker spot,

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Speaker 1: or you know, maybe screening for Lebron are doing these

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Speaker 1: off off ball screens. But Lebron is the one who's

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Speaker 1: gonna have the ball in his hands and making those decisions.

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Speaker 1: And I think it's clear that you know you don't

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Speaker 1: Russ in those positions. To to put it nicely, I

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Speaker 1: guess that's why I'm not too worried about it. This

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Speaker 1: is the time we talked about last time, to just

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Speaker 1: rack up wins. I know it was ugly, but they

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Speaker 1: did get the win as ugly as it did. Look,

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Speaker 1: they did hold them off and over time. So look,

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Speaker 1: this is what you're gonna get right now. Russ is

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Speaker 1: gonna have to be this thirty percent usage player like

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Speaker 1: he just is, especially if you're going to continue to

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Speaker 1: start two bigs, which maybe this is the game that

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Speaker 1: changes it. I wouldn't bet on it, you know, Vocal

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Speaker 1: use the word tempting tonight to start eighty at the

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Speaker 1: five h We'll see if that happens again. The wing

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Speaker 1: situation isn't gonna change. I don't believe that Taylor horn

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Speaker 1: Tucker is gonna play the next game. They're gonna want

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Speaker 1: him to get a few practices in. I'm sure. I

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Speaker 1: don't think none is close enough. So if the wing

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Speaker 1: csition position doesn't change, I think we're gonna still start this,

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Speaker 1: you know, phone booth starting lineup for us, and this

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Speaker 1: is what you're gonna see. Sometimes I thought he did

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Speaker 1: a better job of kind of not taking those threes,

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Speaker 1: even with Charlotte flying way under. Decision making is what

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Speaker 1: it is. The turnovers are what they are. But overall,

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Speaker 1: it was a better game from him. Uh then maybe

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Speaker 1: those if you take I know, you can't take away

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Speaker 1: those fourth quarter turnovers, but we take those away. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't a terrible you know rust game, you know what

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Speaker 1: I mean, Like like if you take good away, like

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Speaker 1: the point of the game where Lebron would have ball.

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Speaker 1: I know, this is a really big spin on it,

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Speaker 1: and you can't take those away, and that's part of

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Speaker 1: the experience. I'm just trying to pull you down from

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Speaker 1: the ledge here. I'm just saying but but but yes,

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Speaker 1: just watching it tonight, watching the full game, I thought

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Speaker 1: it was an okay game from him. We did leaning

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Speaker 1: lean into the rust ball a lot after that, first

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Speaker 1: few minutes of that starting lineup, I wrote in my

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Speaker 1: notes that like a I think it was Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: was a Russ Ellington, Monk, Mellow and Dwight combo, and

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Speaker 1: I thought that looked pretty good. Mellow started, Mellow was

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Speaker 1: on fire during that lineup. I thought the spacing was good.

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Speaker 1: It was a one center lineup. Russ was coming off

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Speaker 1: going downhill, Dwight was setting really awesome screens. Uh. Even

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Speaker 1: if Russ got the basket missed, Dwight was able to

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Speaker 1: pin his man pin and his pin Russ's mann and

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Speaker 1: get offensive rebounds. That's something they can build off of

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Speaker 1: this game. But you know, the turnovers are what they are,

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Speaker 1: so that that's kind of how we saw the rest

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Speaker 1: game to So I'm gonna do this one last time

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Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna make you hold me to this.

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Speaker 1: This is the very last time I'm going to call

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Speaker 1: into question why the hell they even did this to

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Speaker 1: begin with, because this is the last time. If I

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Speaker 1: ever try to do this again, you have the right

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Speaker 1: to tell me to shut up on on the on

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00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:23,679
Speaker 1: the live show. So yes, Russ with Lebron on the floor,

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Speaker 1: A lot of this gets mitigated, right, We've seen in

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Speaker 1: the few times that they've had crunch time with this group,

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00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:33,520
Speaker 1: Russ has been relegated off the ball and Lebron has

405
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Speaker 1: made all the decisions and it actually has looked great. Okay, uh,

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Speaker 1: not great because of Russ, but great because Lebron is

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Speaker 1: still the best closer and basketball in my opinion. So uh,

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Speaker 1: Setting that aside, the reason why you brought Russ in,

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Speaker 1: like everyone has talked about, is winning the Lebron off

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Speaker 1: minutes um, you know, helping you on the nights when

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Speaker 1: Lebron has to sit, you know, so on and so

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Speaker 1: on and so on. You we've all heard these talking

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Speaker 1: points a hundred times over. But what I have consistently

414
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Speaker 1: pushed back is that he is not capable of that anymore.

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Speaker 1: He is not capable of being the lead man in

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Speaker 1: a group um that has the amount of talent that

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Speaker 1: he's been playing with in this in this season, with

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Speaker 1: Lebron off the floor, is simply not capable. Why he

419
00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:27,960
Speaker 1: literally cannot make a perimeter jump shot, God forbid, he

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00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:30,320
Speaker 1: makes one, he will take two or three awful ones

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Speaker 1: immediately after. When he gets to the rim um. He

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Speaker 1: doesn't have the lift to finish in traffic anymore. And

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Speaker 1: what you saw tonight was a great example of that.

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Speaker 1: A ton of like situations where he would get into

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Speaker 1: the paint, but once he got there, there were bodies

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Speaker 1: around him and he just had no idea what to

427
00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:52,520
Speaker 1: do and had no ability to Like these misses at

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Speaker 1: the rim, I'm gonna clip some of them together probably tomorrow.

429
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Speaker 1: I've had some time. These misses were not even close.

430
00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:02,439
Speaker 1: The we're not like, oh, I got all the way

431
00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:06,320
Speaker 1: to the rim and uh, you know, like nine out

432
00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:08,359
Speaker 1: of ten times I'm making that this just happens to

433
00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:10,920
Speaker 1: be the one I missed. No, he's throwing up bullshit

434
00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:15,320
Speaker 1: at the rim and so between. So with all of that,

435
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,160
Speaker 1: and then and then we saw you know, the Rust

436
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:19,840
Speaker 1: experience as a passer is what you said, this is

437
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:22,560
Speaker 1: the Russ experience. What we saw that tonight the oh

438
00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:25,600
Speaker 1: my gosh, that was a fantastic read to hit a

439
00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:28,600
Speaker 1: D cutting on the backside there after after he got

440
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:30,080
Speaker 1: into the painting against his own that was a really

441
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:33,240
Speaker 1: nice play. Or oh you know that that play where

442
00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:34,680
Speaker 1: he's trying to get it into a D and then

443
00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,240
Speaker 1: Dwight's man comes over and helps and he hits dwhite

444
00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:40,560
Speaker 1: and it's a dunk like those all look great, but

445
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:45,040
Speaker 1: every last one of those is sandwiched with stupid ass

446
00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 1: passes that have absolutely no ability to lead to an

447
00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:52,800
Speaker 1: offensive advantage and either go directly to the other team

448
00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:55,560
Speaker 1: or go out of bounds, or, by the grace of

449
00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:58,920
Speaker 1: the basketball gods, happened to bounce back into a Laker's hand.

450
00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:01,919
Speaker 1: It happens at least twice, it seems like for me

451
00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:04,920
Speaker 1: every time that he makes a good read in those plays,

452
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 1: and so the so here's the thing. It's gonna be

453
00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:11,359
Speaker 1: okay because Lebron's coming back, and the truth of the

454
00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:15,480
Speaker 1: matter is is he will mostly only be attacking inferior

455
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:21,720
Speaker 1: defenders in in situations when defensive attention is directed elsewhere. However,

456
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,560
Speaker 1: if if that to me is his his ability to

457
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:29,840
Speaker 1: have success in those positions was never enough of a

458
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:32,840
Speaker 1: reason to get him. In my opinion, the only reason

459
00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:35,160
Speaker 1: it would have made sense is if he was capable

460
00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:40,920
Speaker 1: of being a lead, you know, star level player in

461
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:44,840
Speaker 1: these moments when Lebron is out, or the ability to

462
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,760
Speaker 1: in the pivotal playoff game go to him for a

463
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:52,200
Speaker 1: six minute stretch like do you think Russ in Game

464
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:55,399
Speaker 1: five against Phoenix in the Western Conference Finals is going

465
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:58,320
Speaker 1: to run good offense for six minutes against the Suns? Like,

466
00:22:58,359 --> 00:23:00,679
Speaker 1: do you really think that's going to happen? And so

467
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:03,080
Speaker 1: what what? What's what bothers me about this? And again

468
00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 1: this is the last time I'm saying this for the

469
00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:08,320
Speaker 1: rest of the season. I genuinely don't understand what the

470
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:13,960
Speaker 1: thought process was, because considering what the formula for winning

471
00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 1: for this team is and what Russ brings to the

472
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:22,520
Speaker 1: table in the calendar year in November, I I just

473
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:26,840
Speaker 1: don't I don't understand what the vision was because these

474
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:29,320
Speaker 1: people must have been watching way too many YouTube highlights

475
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 1: and not enough of what Russ has actually been doing,

476
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:34,320
Speaker 1: because this is what Russ has been for several years now,

477
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,800
Speaker 1: and so it's just confounding to me. And and I

478
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 1: find him to be one of the most frustrating players

479
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:43,280
Speaker 1: to watch in my time as a basketball fan, because

480
00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:47,280
Speaker 1: I've never seen a guard have this little regard for

481
00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 1: the possession of the basketball and this little care for

482
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:55,480
Speaker 1: the value of of limiting turnovers and and getting players

483
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:58,480
Speaker 1: into positions where they can actually attempt a shot. It's

484
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:01,040
Speaker 1: it's just it's been one hell been experienced. Rose. I

485
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:02,439
Speaker 1: don't I don't know what else to say that. I

486
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 1: swear I will never bring up the Russ trade ever again.

487
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,360
Speaker 1: I will only evaluate him in the scope of being

488
00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:10,560
Speaker 1: a current Laker. But I just I just had to,

489
00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 1: I had to say that one last time. Well, first

490
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,920
Speaker 1: of all, this is Game eleven, So you're definitely gonna

491
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:17,639
Speaker 1: bring up the Rush trade again. I mean, that's just

492
00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:22,359
Speaker 1: that's definitely what's gonna happen. Look, man, like, it's not

493
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:24,560
Speaker 1: just you, not just me. Like, we were all high

494
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 1: on this team, right, and most of the people, you know,

495
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,280
Speaker 1: national media were also pretty high on this team. Whether

496
00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,000
Speaker 1: they thought they were the championship favor not favored or not,

497
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:35,359
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter here. They were one of the people,

498
00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:38,640
Speaker 1: you know, in contention for the title. And look, Russell Westbrook,

499
00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:41,480
Speaker 1: he was never meant to be the sole usage player.

500
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 1: And I said over the summer that, like it's been

501
00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:47,399
Speaker 1: clear when Russ is the full usage guy, that's just

502
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,360
Speaker 1: not an equation that he equates to winning, Right, You're

503
00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:52,200
Speaker 1: just not going to win at a high enough level,

504
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:55,159
Speaker 1: even at his m v P form. Um, you know, Okay,

505
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:58,480
Speaker 1: See it has a ceiling on it, right, Like it

506
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:01,199
Speaker 1: raises your floor in a bit, especially when he was like,

507
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,320
Speaker 1: you know, at his peak athletic powers and you know, okay,

508
00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 1: see like it raises your floor, but your ceiling definitely

509
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:10,760
Speaker 1: has a You definitely have a ceiling to that. And

510
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:13,360
Speaker 1: I think that's what we're seeing here in the idea. Look,

511
00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:16,199
Speaker 1: you talked about Game five against Phoenix, could rust by himself, no,

512
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:19,600
Speaker 1: but to me, like a Russ Anthony Davis with you know,

513
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 1: enough shooting defense around it. Yeah, for six minutes, that

514
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 1: should be able to cover if Lebron is sitting still,

515
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:28,560
Speaker 1: even with the decision making as bad as it is.

516
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:30,919
Speaker 1: And I talked about it all the time, the season

517
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:33,880
Speaker 1: to me, has now become acquescing to Russ. And that's

518
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 1: not ideal. He's not even the he's not the first

519
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 1: or second best player on this team, but that's just

520
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:42,920
Speaker 1: what it has come to his You know, his skills

521
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:46,760
Speaker 1: are so specific. They can't shape shift, they can't form,

522
00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:49,320
Speaker 1: they are what they are. So when you play him

523
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 1: next to two bigs, when you play him next to nonshooters,

524
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 1: it's gonna look super ugly. And that compounds the turnover

525
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 1: these decisions. Right, He's a guy that's always been high turnover,

526
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 1: but now that his letticism has dropped a bit, it's

527
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:04,399
Speaker 1: gonna increases. He can't get to the basket like he

528
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 1: did tonight. You know, there was a lot of times

529
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,480
Speaker 1: where he'd get the switch against Mason Plumley or Miles Plumbly.

530
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:11,639
Speaker 1: I don't know which plumb Ly it is. I should

531
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:15,680
Speaker 1: know that, Yeah, one of the plum LEA sorry Miles

532
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: are Mason. Uh. You know, he'd get him on a

533
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:21,400
Speaker 1: switch and he'd like, oh no, clear, tell everyone clear out,

534
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:23,960
Speaker 1: and he just can't, you know, get by him the

535
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,000
Speaker 1: way he thought he could. Gordon Hayward as well. He's like,

536
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 1: you know, I got going Hayward on me, back up,

537
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:31,160
Speaker 1: let me attack. Like that's just not what he can

538
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:34,200
Speaker 1: he do anymore. But what he still can't do. And again,

539
00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 1: I think, like with players, you have to kind of

540
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 1: look at what they do. Take away the contract, take

541
00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:41,040
Speaker 1: away what we traded for him. The trade is done. Russ,

542
00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:42,840
Speaker 1: like we talked about all the time, Russ is here

543
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:45,520
Speaker 1: to stay. He's not coming off the bench, He's not

544
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,159
Speaker 1: getting traded like this is the guy we have. So

545
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 1: we have the accus to his skills what he does well,

546
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:53,320
Speaker 1: and what it is is is he's still a guy

547
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 1: that pushes the pace. He can still get to the

548
00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:58,240
Speaker 1: basket when the floor is spaced enough, and if you

549
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,720
Speaker 1: put shooters around, he can get them, can get them shots.

550
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:02,400
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what you have to do here

551
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,600
Speaker 1: and tonight, Like the Lakers don't have the bodies probably

552
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: for it for a forty eight minute game. They have

553
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 1: it in spurts when eighties at the five and with

554
00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:12,919
Speaker 1: Mellow and Reeves and you know, like that it can

555
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,480
Speaker 1: kind of work. And you just have to survive until

556
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:17,800
Speaker 1: Lebron gets back, until we get our wings back. It's

557
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:20,600
Speaker 1: gonna look ugly, like Russ's decision making you turn that

558
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:23,120
Speaker 1: usage up, Turnovers are gonna go high. I thought one

559
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: good thing he did tonight was get to the line.

560
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:26,760
Speaker 1: He took ten free throws, like I think that was

561
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,480
Speaker 1: a good thing, but five for fifteen, only two three

562
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:33,440
Speaker 1: point attempts he was over two, but twelve rebounds, fourteen assists. Again,

563
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: we always talked about you can qualm about the numbers.

564
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:37,359
Speaker 1: They are what they are. He was a minus twenty

565
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 1: one on the game, which that felt right, I guess

566
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,800
Speaker 1: watching it's one of the rare examples where a single

567
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:48,840
Speaker 1: game plus minus Yeah, was very accurate. It definitely felt right.

568
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: His defense, again, is is probably one of my bigger

569
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: issues that we don't talk about enough. We always go

570
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: on the offense, but to me, his defense, it's still

571
00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:00,000
Speaker 1: a really big issue. A lot of falling asleep. Hopefully

572
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:02,760
Speaker 1: clears up as the season goes maybe, but yeah, like

573
00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 1: this is what the rest experience is going to be.

574
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:08,359
Speaker 1: People kind of have to get used to this and

575
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 1: hopefully it leads into some wins here. But when you

576
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 1: have him as this high usage we've seen it in

577
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: the past, like that's it's just not conductive to high

578
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,200
Speaker 1: level winning. And again, those turnovers you have to clean up.

579
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:21,120
Speaker 1: That's just inexcusable no matter what. And he knows that

580
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,000
Speaker 1: he's been the lead too long not to know those

581
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,800
Speaker 1: turnovers aren't there. But that's the rest experience. Man. I asked, like,

582
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about this every single game because this

583
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:32,920
Speaker 1: is what's going to happen after every single game. Oh God,

584
00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: I hope not. Um So let's let's let's talk about

585
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis a little bit because I thought this was

586
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:41,680
Speaker 1: another interesting Anthony Davis game. In a lot of ways,

587
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:46,800
Speaker 1: he's just actually, uh, you know, second tier of superstar

588
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,720
Speaker 1: slash first tier superstar depending on who you ask. So

589
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 1: even his his weird bad games still come with a

590
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:56,840
Speaker 1: ton of good and and he had some awesome defensive

591
00:28:56,840 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 1: stretches to say, we don't need to really dig into

592
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 1: the minutia set is. However, I did think some of

593
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:06,320
Speaker 1: his body language was really interesting tonight. And I'm curious

594
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,560
Speaker 1: to your opinion. I have my two cents, but I

595
00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 1: want to go after you. So did you notice anything

596
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,520
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis's body rage which tonight? Do you think

597
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:16,480
Speaker 1: what do you think was causing it? And do you

598
00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 1: think it matters at all? Oh? Absolutely? I mean we talked.

599
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 1: We talked about this in the last one too. It

600
00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:25,640
Speaker 1: was gonna get uncomfortable once they start, you know, losing

601
00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 1: a lot. And I thought tonight was the most frustrated

602
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,600
Speaker 1: I've seen a d um I treated it tonight. He

603
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:33,480
Speaker 1: was walking to the huddle like shaking his head. I'm

604
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:36,160
Speaker 1: not sure what that was at uh. I think it

605
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,520
Speaker 1: was the ugly offense, to be honest, like it was

606
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:40,920
Speaker 1: a lot of this. Russ had the ball at the top,

607
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:43,200
Speaker 1: He's kind of getting shoved out where he has to

608
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 1: go get the ball at half court. And then try

609
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:47,360
Speaker 1: to run offense from there. It was a lot of

610
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 1: just ugly stuff, but his body language definitely he was frustrated.

611
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:53,360
Speaker 1: You could just tell, uh, he was frustrated. And I'm

612
00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 1: sure the spacing at the defense, um, the lack of

613
00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:59,960
Speaker 1: help rotations, like, but he was definitely frustrated tonight. And again,

614
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,480
Speaker 1: it's so weird because it felt like he was kind

615
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:04,719
Speaker 1: of walking through the game, but then you look up

616
00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 1: at the box score and it's like thirty points, twelve rebounds,

617
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 1: you know, five blocks, and that's just the kind of

618
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:13,440
Speaker 1: player he is. It just felt like he could have

619
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 1: Like it felt like some of the shots he got

620
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:18,480
Speaker 1: against late in the late in the clock, like he

621
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: could have got that whenever he wanted, like he had.

622
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 1: Gordon Hayward switched on him, Miles Bridges switched on him

623
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 1: a ton of times where I thought he could have

624
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: just been aggressive instead took some some questionable jump shots.

625
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:31,400
Speaker 1: But you know, you can't be mad at the line

626
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: forty four minutes I was reading on the timeline. He

627
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 1: threw up at halftime or in the third quarter or

628
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 1: something like that, so he was still feeling sick. But

629
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 1: you know, I thought he was incredible late in the fourth,

630
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:45,600
Speaker 1: especially in that lineup with the Rondo, him just running

631
00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:48,160
Speaker 1: the floor, they're controlling the defense. I thought, you know,

632
00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:50,200
Speaker 1: we're kind of seeing a d pick it up. His

633
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:53,800
Speaker 1: numbers have been great every his game to game effort

634
00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:55,840
Speaker 1: still kind of goes up and down on defense sometimes,

635
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 1: but it's not I thought he was incredible for in

636
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 1: his minutes. Yeah, So it was an interesting uh, you know,

637
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 1: in terms of the actual play on the court, it

638
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,200
Speaker 1: was very typical for him at this point in the

639
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:14,400
Speaker 1: season compared to his other performances, Like defensive effort was inconsistent.

640
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 1: When he was trying, it was like he was just

641
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 1: single handedly blowing up or in its place like like.

642
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 1: But then there would be, you know, places where he

643
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 1: would give up deep post position to Mason Plumley a

644
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 1: few times for no particular reason, just because he's not

645
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 1: fighting physically and then getting beaten that just like random

646
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 1: little things like that, like typical, like he's been all

647
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:39,520
Speaker 1: season long, like inconsistent, but when he tries, it's shatteringly good.

648
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 1: And then you know, So there were two plays where

649
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:47,360
Speaker 1: I noticed his body language, one where he appeared to

650
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:50,560
Speaker 1: be frustrated with Russ for not getting a post touch

651
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:53,680
Speaker 1: on a on a deep seal. And then and then

652
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:55,800
Speaker 1: there was another one in the second half. I think

653
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 1: it was, Yes, it wasn't the second half where Russ

654
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:02,760
Speaker 1: was chest chest with I think it was Gordon Hayward

655
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:07,040
Speaker 1: on the left elbow and and just got the rush

656
00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:10,640
Speaker 1: just like literally got cut through like tissue paper by

657
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:15,560
Speaker 1: uh By Hayward who finished a d had came over

658
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:18,240
Speaker 1: and actually blocked him but fouled him with the body

659
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: and and he had the same bad body language. And

660
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:23,000
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting to me because like this is

661
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:26,240
Speaker 1: something I'm very critical about with Lebron over the course

662
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 1: of his career. It's like it's fair weather leadership, right,

663
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:33,480
Speaker 1: like there are there are leaders that you know, keep

664
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 1: the same even keel type of personality regardless of circumstance.

665
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,720
Speaker 1: Like when when your team is playing extremely well, they

666
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:45,440
Speaker 1: kind of try to keep you tempered and they're still positive,

667
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 1: but they never let you get too high. And then

668
00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:51,800
Speaker 1: when things get really bad and really down, they stay encouraging,

669
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: they stay positive, they keep good bye. Like a great

670
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 1: example that is Steph Curry. I think Steph Curry is

671
00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:00,040
Speaker 1: the best like good times bad times leader that I

672
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:04,640
Speaker 1: seen in in this era. But you know, Lebron is

673
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:07,080
Speaker 1: like such a fantastic leader when things are going good.

674
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 1: And fortunately he's so good that things are almost always

675
00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 1: going good. So there's still a giant amount of value

676
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:16,320
Speaker 1: in his form of leadership. But like Lebron has a

677
00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:19,640
Speaker 1: tendency when things go south, to pout and to have

678
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 1: bad body language and to perpetuate the media storm around

679
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:26,960
Speaker 1: the drama. You know, Like Lebron is not that guy

680
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:29,560
Speaker 1: that shuts that down. He almost plays into it more

681
00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:32,200
Speaker 1: with like random little quotes and little tweets and and

682
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 1: little looks and and you know, weird stuff like that,

683
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:37,680
Speaker 1: you know, And so that was kind of like a

684
00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:40,880
Speaker 1: d you're frustrated. I get it, man, you're frustrated because

685
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:44,120
Speaker 1: Russ isn't getting you the ball in the spots that

686
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:47,080
Speaker 1: you normally like, or your team is not defending or

687
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: whatever that is. And you know, I'm gonna criticize him

688
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: the same way I criticize Lebron, Like, dude, that's not

689
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:56,280
Speaker 1: good leadership. You know. If anything, you have to be

690
00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:59,240
Speaker 1: thinking in the back of your mind, like Lebron's coming back,

691
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:03,719
Speaker 1: We're gonna get healthy. This team has a much bigger

692
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:07,480
Speaker 1: ultimate goal than just winning this game tonight. So even

693
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:09,520
Speaker 1: if you end up losing by fifteen in the second

694
00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:12,600
Speaker 1: half to Charlotte because you just don't have the horses

695
00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:14,840
Speaker 1: and the guys aren't doing their job, you have to

696
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,560
Speaker 1: stay encouraging. You have to stay you know, there's a

697
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:20,600
Speaker 1: way to be critical of your teammates and to demand

698
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 1: more out of them while also being a positive and

699
00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:25,880
Speaker 1: engaged leader. And you know, this is something this is

700
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:27,200
Speaker 1: the last thing I'll say about it. This is something

701
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:29,759
Speaker 1: Veneta pointed out. Our buddy Veneto has been on the

702
00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:34,280
Speaker 1: pod several times. He pointed out that, uh, he thought

703
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 1: that he was partially to blame for some of Russ's

704
00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 1: struggles for not aggressively diving to the rim enough. And

705
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,359
Speaker 1: you know what, I think, I think Venet's right. Like

706
00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:47,759
Speaker 1: I think that that there's a lot to be said

707
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:50,880
Speaker 1: about a d being too too quick to float around

708
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:54,440
Speaker 1: on the perimeter and to uh to try to be

709
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:57,400
Speaker 1: a pariter player instead of embracing these physical gifts and

710
00:34:57,440 --> 00:34:59,880
Speaker 1: diving to the rim, which not only is good for

711
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:01,799
Speaker 1: the team, but that's what Russ likes to play with.

712
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:05,759
Speaker 1: Russ likes to get into the paint and make these

713
00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 1: little crafty drop off passes two big that's where he's

714
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 1: most comfortable. And so, you know, there's a lot of

715
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:13,320
Speaker 1: people when I tweeted it out about his body language,

716
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: you said A D has to look in the mirror,

717
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:17,400
Speaker 1: and there's some truth to that like that, You like,

718
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:19,839
Speaker 1: that's part of why you have to be positive when

719
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:22,160
Speaker 1: things are down is because the reality is, dude, it's

720
00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:24,359
Speaker 1: like if you were out there being a world beater,

721
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:28,000
Speaker 1: they probably would be winning. You know, So you've got

722
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:31,319
Speaker 1: to acknowledge your own faults and and use that to

723
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:33,920
Speaker 1: prevent yourself from being too negative with your teammates. And

724
00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:36,319
Speaker 1: I think that that is something we have to be

725
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:38,760
Speaker 1: careful with both Lebron and a D in the stretch

726
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:41,040
Speaker 1: of the season, because even when Lebron comes back, they

727
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 1: still have a limit at the forward position. They need

728
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: to be better, they need to be good leaders, and

729
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:49,279
Speaker 1: we that's it goes from everything from their effort and

730
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:52,439
Speaker 1: consistency and professionalism all the way down to hey, dude,

731
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 1: you can't be like shaking your head at your teammate

732
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 1: when he gets be off the dribble again, because it

733
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:59,839
Speaker 1: looks bad. It looks bad on TV, it looks all

734
00:35:59,880 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 1: your teammates see it, and they think that you're checking

735
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:05,440
Speaker 1: out mentally, Like it's all there's It's just bad. It's

736
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:07,759
Speaker 1: just bad, and I relate to it. All of us

737
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:10,920
Speaker 1: should relate to it because losing sucks. It sucks so bad.

738
00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:14,200
Speaker 1: No one is happy when they're losing, so we like,

739
00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: I'm not. It's not an indictment of like his character.

740
00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:20,279
Speaker 1: It's just it's just, hey, dude, let's cut that ship

741
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 1: out moving forward, you know what I mean? Yeah, for sure,

742
00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:25,520
Speaker 1: and like you know, eighties a guy who I think

743
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 1: he's more of like a you know, leader that shows

744
00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 1: it rather than says it, you know what I mean.

745
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:32,279
Speaker 1: He's more of like a just follow my game. And

746
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 1: I think he has to be the defensive leader for

747
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:36,680
Speaker 1: this team more than like, even though we'd love for

748
00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:39,520
Speaker 1: I think during this strategy we needed scoring a bit more,

749
00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:41,520
Speaker 1: but just like on this team, he kind of has

750
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,560
Speaker 1: to be that defensive leader. I saw him frustrated, but

751
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:47,359
Speaker 1: I mean, like I can kind of live with those. Uh.

752
00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:49,880
Speaker 1: I'm not sure exactly. I wonder if he pointed out,

753
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:52,359
Speaker 1: you know, in the in the press press conference or something,

754
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:55,319
Speaker 1: but he was actually really frustrated about I'm sure all

755
00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:58,120
Speaker 1: that stuff was mixed in. I'm sure the losing isn't fun.

756
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:00,759
Speaker 1: I'm sure playing on a team where, you know, going

757
00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 1: from last year where you had all these defensive guards

758
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:05,960
Speaker 1: and all that to this team where you know he

759
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:08,680
Speaker 1: has to cover up for even more, I'm sure all

760
00:37:08,719 --> 00:37:10,920
Speaker 1: that's kind of baked in there, you know. But I

761
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:13,600
Speaker 1: mean his play was he picked it up with his play,

762
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:15,520
Speaker 1: and that's all you can kind of really ask ask

763
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,640
Speaker 1: for him. The shaking, the head stamp stuff, like I

764
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:20,960
Speaker 1: don't see it consistent enough from a d too where

765
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:23,960
Speaker 1: I think it's an issue yet. But I see your

766
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:25,680
Speaker 1: point there, Like I see that how it can kind

767
00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:28,080
Speaker 1: of affect the rest of the team. Like the rust

768
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:30,279
Speaker 1: stuff is frustrating, Like I don't blame him if that's

769
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:31,799
Speaker 1: what he was frustrated about, you know what I mean.

770
00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:35,520
Speaker 1: Like the turnovers are definitely frustrating, you know. I think

771
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:38,440
Speaker 1: even someone pointed out that late in the game, he

772
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 1: just asked for the ball. You know, he just asked

773
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:41,719
Speaker 1: you just asked for the guy. He just wanted to

774
00:37:41,719 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 1: be the one bring it up. He's like just giving

775
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: the ball at backcourt. I'll bring the ball up. But

776
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:48,840
Speaker 1: that was another big body language thing that I forgot.

777
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:51,879
Speaker 1: That was a weird play, like a because these guys

778
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:53,919
Speaker 1: are paying attention, they see the same things we see.

779
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 1: That's why it's so crazy when we're like, oh, don't

780
00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:58,200
Speaker 1: play Rondo, don't play d J. You want to be like, dude,

781
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:00,440
Speaker 1: how do you not see what we're seeing? But like

782
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:03,680
Speaker 1: in the bath court, he demanded the ball from Russell

783
00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:06,480
Speaker 1: Westbrook and then brought it up the floor, handled a

784
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:09,360
Speaker 1: little bit of all pressure from Miles Bridges up top,

785
00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 1: and then more ball pressure came and he almost was like,

786
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:13,600
Speaker 1: oh crap, never mind, I don't want to do this,

787
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:17,440
Speaker 1: whereas Russ right right, you know, like that's gonna happen. Man,

788
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,040
Speaker 1: And the Lakers needed to win tonight, like they really did.

789
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:23,399
Speaker 1: Tonight was important to me, like these lease losses can

790
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 1: really pile up if you let them. That's another game.

791
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:28,600
Speaker 1: I think the Hornets went up three or something super

792
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:31,520
Speaker 1: late like and Carmelo kind of hit a bunch of shots.

793
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:33,680
Speaker 1: But tonight, tonight was important that they got this win.

794
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,040
Speaker 1: I think they play in Miami next, but you have

795
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 1: four minutes thirty two points, like he did what he

796
00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:42,760
Speaker 1: was supposed to dominate this New Leans team when it mattered.

797
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:44,799
Speaker 1: You'd like to see it a little bit more consistently.

798
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:46,960
Speaker 1: You'd like them not to blow these leads when they

799
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:49,719
Speaker 1: have them. This is just survival mode right now until

800
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:52,160
Speaker 1: we get our wings back. Hopefully PhD comes back soon,

801
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:54,960
Speaker 1: Kendrick comes back to back soon. Give a little bit

802
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:57,840
Speaker 1: more ball handling so that Rest doesn't have to, you know,

803
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 1: control the ball as much as he did. But you know,

804
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:04,359
Speaker 1: at least they want tonight like that's that's a that's

805
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:07,200
Speaker 1: a positive to take from this. You don't want to

806
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:09,439
Speaker 1: learn all your lessons from losses, is what I would say.

807
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 1: So tonight's a good game for them to get depictable win.

808
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:16,200
Speaker 1: I agree. I that was something I intended to say

809
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:18,520
Speaker 1: at some point during the show. And even if it's

810
00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:20,719
Speaker 1: here towards the end, it's still good. This was a

811
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: huge win. Um, I didn't think they were going to

812
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 1: win tonight. I have some problems, the problems with the

813
00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 1: just not not problems. I have some I've come to

814
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 1: terms with some harsh realities about this team's capability of

815
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:38,279
Speaker 1: winning games with all their forwards gone. Um. And to

816
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:40,479
Speaker 1: be clear, I think I think if if Mellow doesn't

817
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:42,160
Speaker 1: shoot the ball as well as he does. You know,

818
00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:44,920
Speaker 1: we might be talking about a different type of result

819
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:47,839
Speaker 1: here tonight, but the point being, this is a huge

820
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:50,520
Speaker 1: win any of these games, especially with this tough stretch

821
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:52,920
Speaker 1: of the schedule here. They win any of these games

822
00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 1: without Lebron, that's that's a big deal. Now, hopefully Lebron

823
00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:00,359
Speaker 1: comes back soon. Um, I don't think you'll play against I, ami,

824
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:03,319
Speaker 1: but if he could come back this weekend for you know,

825
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:06,320
Speaker 1: that Spurs game or that that Timberwolves game, that'd be

826
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:09,439
Speaker 1: a big deal. Um, I think it's Chicago. Actually doesn't

827
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:12,040
Speaker 1: matter anyway. It was a big win. It's a big win,

828
00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:15,680
Speaker 1: and that's worth it. That's worth acknowledging. Um, it is

829
00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:19,520
Speaker 1: twelve o seven after midnight here in Tucson. But I

830
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:21,439
Speaker 1: did promise we'd take a couple of collars. So let's

831
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:24,279
Speaker 1: take two quick ones and then let's call it tonight.

832
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna playing. Sounds good, Let's see you we

833
00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 1: actually have a lot of requests. But yeah, loo kid,

834
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 1: two people and get some more people on. I think

835
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:34,520
Speaker 1: the next game was on Tuesday, so let me let

836
00:40:34,520 --> 00:40:37,200
Speaker 1: me see here. Yes, we and we will go Tuesday.

837
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:39,160
Speaker 1: I just have a long day tomorrow and it is late.

838
00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 1: I need to get some sleep at some point. Uh

839
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 1: your average one. What's going on? Man? All right? Going

840
00:40:54,760 --> 00:41:05,960
Speaker 1: once twice, also coming back and winning that in over

841
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:11,600
Speaker 1: and after the gigantic collapse that was largely fueled by

842
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:13,920
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook and the reps, well not the reps with

843
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 1: the players getting too into it. With the reps like

844
00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:19,520
Speaker 1: it was. It was a nice little show of responding

845
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:23,360
Speaker 1: to adversity. My guy, what's going on? What's up? So

846
00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:26,680
Speaker 1: I didn't thought you'll bring me here as as a

847
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:31,319
Speaker 1: dam music question, go ahead, go ahead. If you look

848
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:35,200
Speaker 1: at the end of game patients like like Rust passing

849
00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:37,319
Speaker 1: the ball to Ada and then cutting like to the

850
00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:41,880
Speaker 1: M and then drifting like there's no spacing there like

851
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:45,080
Speaker 1: glasses man is easy doubling a D so there's no

852
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:49,440
Speaker 1: like how do you space rust investituations so that like

853
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 1: you run into a little bit. But I think once

854
00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 1: last was wide open on the rim. Maydeve just missed

855
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:57,640
Speaker 1: the past, Like how do you space that better so

856
00:41:57,719 --> 00:42:00,600
Speaker 1: that like other people can get look sort of whatever,

857
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:05,799
Speaker 1: just like there's no use right now. So you're saying,

858
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:09,040
Speaker 1: like when Russ is the entry passer, right to post

859
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:12,319
Speaker 1: entry passers to and then like if you're post how

860
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:14,719
Speaker 1: do you post up a D and space Rus on

861
00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:18,880
Speaker 1: the post up? Like generally that's a Gordon move right,

862
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:23,080
Speaker 1: like like without Len that's the Gordon move right now. Yeah,

863
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 1: which is why I'm advocating for just straight screen and roll.

864
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:29,120
Speaker 1: Like when Russ is an entry pastor there's sometimes where

865
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:31,719
Speaker 1: the guy cheats and he backcuts off of it, um

866
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:34,680
Speaker 1: and he gets like a layup that way, or he

867
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:37,080
Speaker 1: just cuts through and then just sits at the dunker spot.

868
00:42:37,239 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's a little bit harder to help

869
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 1: from there. But there's no there's no like you know,

870
00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:46,000
Speaker 1: easy answer to that. Like Russ's spacing is what it is.

871
00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:49,480
Speaker 1: The guy who's guarding him is told probably five times

872
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:53,200
Speaker 1: before the game starts, Um, you know, to go to

873
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:56,080
Speaker 1: go cheat off Russ. That's why I mean this, Like

874
00:42:56,200 --> 00:42:58,680
Speaker 1: just go high, straight pick and roll Russ a D

875
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:01,400
Speaker 1: give him three shoot years or even if it's not

876
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:04,560
Speaker 1: a D. If you're playing these bench lineups, uh rush

877
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:08,240
Speaker 1: dwhy you know, straight screener role get Russ. Teams mostly

878
00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:10,399
Speaker 1: are going to go under that. Get Russ a head

879
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:13,200
Speaker 1: of steam going to the rim, try to chaos Craig

880
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:17,080
Speaker 1: chaos that way, What do you think, Jason, So you know,

881
00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:19,520
Speaker 1: it's interesting because I think a good percentage of this

882
00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:24,000
Speaker 1: lands on a d um. You mentioned to play Surron

883
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,799
Speaker 1: the where he missed Russ under the rim. There wasn't

884
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:30,640
Speaker 1: a single Laker fan in the entire world who didn't

885
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:33,320
Speaker 1: see Russ there, and the camera was right behind Anthony

886
00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:37,799
Speaker 1: Davis's head. He saw that too. So the harsh reality is,

887
00:43:37,920 --> 00:43:39,480
Speaker 1: and this is something that Roger and I have talked

888
00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:42,520
Speaker 1: about consistently over the last couple of years. A d

889
00:43:42,719 --> 00:43:45,799
Speaker 1: is not really good at reading double teams, um or

890
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:47,840
Speaker 1: or defensive attention and the half court. It's not a

891
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:52,560
Speaker 1: strength of his and right now teams are extremely good

892
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:55,279
Speaker 1: at forcing him to becoming a jump shooter in post

893
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:58,920
Speaker 1: up situations, and right now he can't really make jumpshots

894
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:01,399
Speaker 1: at a high clip. So uh, he made a few

895
00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:03,840
Speaker 1: mid range shots tonight, but just in general, his shot

896
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:08,080
Speaker 1: has been super uh sketchy over the basically since the bubble.

897
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:10,680
Speaker 1: So what makes it what becomes problematic is like I

898
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:12,640
Speaker 1: agree with Russ, you gotta run high, pick and roll

899
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:16,600
Speaker 1: because that gives you at least a better possibility of

900
00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:19,359
Speaker 1: of getting something closer to the rim. The problem is

901
00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:22,200
Speaker 1: is actually Charlotte did this on the key possessions of

902
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:24,480
Speaker 1: the game. They're just switching that pick and roll and

903
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:27,200
Speaker 1: so you almost have no choice but then to dump

904
00:44:27,239 --> 00:44:29,840
Speaker 1: it back into the post. And again, a d is

905
00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:34,320
Speaker 1: gonna because he doesn't really win those physical matchups, especially

906
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:36,960
Speaker 1: when he's fighting for position, Like he'll catch at seventeen

907
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:41,040
Speaker 1: eighteen ft turn and face, they'll double him and it's

908
00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:44,600
Speaker 1: not in Russell cut or somebody will cut. Somebody will

909
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:46,880
Speaker 1: be open, but he just won't see it. And so

910
00:44:47,280 --> 00:44:50,080
Speaker 1: this is just this is one of the shortcomings with

911
00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:53,400
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is like he just doesn't have that higher

912
00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:55,920
Speaker 1: end court vision, the ability to make teams pay for

913
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:58,799
Speaker 1: overloading on him. And if it wasn't Russ, it would

914
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:01,200
Speaker 1: be somebody else, you know how we no, because that's

915
00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:03,759
Speaker 1: what it was the last two years. But a post

916
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:06,120
Speaker 1: ups ending in double teams and him not finding the

917
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 1: open option. There are more options right now, right like

918
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:11,520
Speaker 1: you can I think Russ can beat this big man

919
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:13,680
Speaker 1: if you're switching the pick and roll. I think Russ

920
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:15,760
Speaker 1: can beat that guy off the dribble and just drive.

921
00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:23,160
Speaker 1: Are like if you're and one more option is like

922
00:45:23,719 --> 00:45:26,200
Speaker 1: set another screen for a D, like let him dribble

923
00:45:26,239 --> 00:45:28,080
Speaker 1: the ball, like he's pretty good at that, right, so

924
00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:31,960
Speaker 1: given more space, like like after the ball goes to

925
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:35,880
Speaker 1: him in the post, nothing happens, no one moves, nothing happens.

926
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:38,400
Speaker 1: But you can re screen, right, I don't think. I

927
00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:41,919
Speaker 1: think Adie can go through a screen dribble and get

928
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:45,600
Speaker 1: space or drive to the rim. But there's no creativity.

929
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 1: There's no ball movement, like there's no proper spacing even

930
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:53,640
Speaker 1: though they're shooters on the court. I I don't understand

931
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:56,200
Speaker 1: what's happening. Yeah, that I mean there's I mean, it's

932
00:45:56,239 --> 00:45:58,799
Speaker 1: kind of a vogal offense. There's some kind of lack

933
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:01,239
Speaker 1: of creativity. They're kind of pet thing with that. They

934
00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:04,360
Speaker 1: throw it into a D opposite cornered man kind of

935
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:07,239
Speaker 1: sets the pin screen to get the corner shooter opposite open.

936
00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:09,480
Speaker 1: That's like as far as they go, and they kind

937
00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:11,879
Speaker 1: of let a D draw double and kick out from there.

938
00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:16,240
Speaker 1: You're right, it's not too creative of an offense. But again, Russ,

939
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 1: but that's a single action, right, Like why are not

940
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:23,680
Speaker 1: multiple actions? That's just not what they do. It's never

941
00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:27,600
Speaker 1: been uh Voga is a very specific coach and that's

942
00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:31,040
Speaker 1: just kind of the actions that they run. So yeah,

943
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:33,000
Speaker 1: and this is something that like I think is one

944
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,400
Speaker 1: of the core parts of Lebron's belief system too. He's

945
00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:38,239
Speaker 1: kind of partially to blame here. Um. I think there's

946
00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:42,080
Speaker 1: a relationship with with Frank that he kind of has

947
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:44,200
Speaker 1: a good amount of saying and what they do here

948
00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:48,200
Speaker 1: and the the broadcast from the Portland Trail Blazers game

949
00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 1: the other day specifically mentioned this, the idea that the

950
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,400
Speaker 1: Lakers are kind of more of a brute force offense.

951
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:57,080
Speaker 1: It's like, here's the action we're running and because it's

952
00:46:57,120 --> 00:46:59,040
Speaker 1: Lebron and a d there's absolutely nothing you can do

953
00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 1: about it. And it doesn't matter that we don't complicated.

954
00:47:01,239 --> 00:47:03,160
Speaker 1: They'll do little things like when they when they were

955
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:05,600
Speaker 1: going against Cleveland, they would set a pinned down for

956
00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:07,719
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis's man as he was coming up to set

957
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:10,399
Speaker 1: the screen, so there was more separation when they ran

958
00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:12,200
Speaker 1: the pick and roll, which got them some good stuff

959
00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:14,160
Speaker 1: out of it. They do little things like that, But

960
00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:17,799
Speaker 1: I think the I think the reality is is when

961
00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:21,719
Speaker 1: you get into the postseason, um teams, these really high

962
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:25,360
Speaker 1: end defenses are too good at taking away the gimmicks

963
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:28,240
Speaker 1: and taking away some of the scheme related stuff with offense,

964
00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:34,520
Speaker 1: like running multiple actions against the goods. Switching defense just

965
00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:37,560
Speaker 1: is gonna end up with you on an island again anyway.

966
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:40,680
Speaker 1: And the way that I think the team sees their

967
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:43,480
Speaker 1: future potential with Frank and Lebron at the helm of

968
00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:49,280
Speaker 1: the offense is just like, who cares. You can't stop us,

969
00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:52,800
Speaker 1: Like you can't stop Lebron and maybe um, regardless of

970
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:55,680
Speaker 1: whether we're on an island or we're running, or you're

971
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:57,960
Speaker 1: sending multiple bodies, you just can't stop us. And so

972
00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:01,359
Speaker 1: that's kind of their approach. It's it's very archaic. I'm

973
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 1: with you, M. I agree with you, but I just don't.

974
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 1: I just don't. I don't see them changing that tactic

975
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:14,879
Speaker 1: at all. M. Thanks for having me up. Appreciate thanks.

976
00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:16,440
Speaker 1: It's good to hear from you, man. I hope to

977
00:48:16,480 --> 00:48:19,319
Speaker 1: hear you hear from me again sometime soon. Yeah. I'm

978
00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:23,719
Speaker 1: an Eastern time like it's hard for me, dude. I

979
00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:25,640
Speaker 1: hear you, Bro, I hear your brother. It's after midnight

980
00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:30,680
Speaker 1: over here and I'm struggling. Good night, you know what

981
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:33,920
Speaker 1: I mean. All right, let's get one more. Let's get

982
00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:38,560
Speaker 1: wrote right right off. Are you there? Yeah, I'm here.

983
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:41,560
Speaker 1: What's going on? Man, I'm good, I'm good. Thank you

984
00:48:41,680 --> 00:48:44,200
Speaker 1: very much guys for having me. Um. I just got

985
00:48:44,280 --> 00:48:48,200
Speaker 1: like one question, like, um, I know it's a vote

986
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:51,200
Speaker 1: Walt team. Um. And one of the most frustrating things

987
00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:54,640
Speaker 1: watching this team is just like every time they score,

988
00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:58,240
Speaker 1: they end up either giving like you know, two points

989
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:01,600
Speaker 1: or three points basically like right away. It's like there's

990
00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:05,759
Speaker 1: not like a string of like defense where they can

991
00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:10,120
Speaker 1: like consistently get separation from the team. And this is

992
00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:13,240
Speaker 1: like what the eleventh came and like of the season

993
00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:18,360
Speaker 1: and they've conceded like basically home points or more intent

994
00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:21,239
Speaker 1: of those games, if I'm not mistaken, So is this

995
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:24,560
Speaker 1: a reality that we're going to have to live with

996
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:27,919
Speaker 1: like until like I mean, even the guys that are out,

997
00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:30,760
Speaker 1: I still don't have like much faith that the defense

998
00:49:30,800 --> 00:49:32,959
Speaker 1: is gonna like you know, picked up with them coming

999
00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:36,080
Speaker 1: back like offensively, we're gonna be better you know, as

1000
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:38,719
Speaker 1: you stay as you get stated. But is this an

1001
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:42,319
Speaker 1: reality that we're gonna have to live with like or

1002
00:49:42,800 --> 00:49:48,279
Speaker 1: can things improve on that end throughout the season to

1003
00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:51,400
Speaker 1: certain extent? Yeah, I mean like we we. Roger and

1004
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:53,520
Speaker 1: I always talked about this team going on defensive runs.

1005
00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:55,200
Speaker 1: There was a defensive run tonight. It was in the

1006
00:49:55,280 --> 00:49:57,560
Speaker 1: end of the third quarter, beginning of four well, I

1007
00:49:57,600 --> 00:49:59,680
Speaker 1: think it was like a It was like a to

1008
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:02,400
Speaker 1: nine run or something like that, over the course of

1009
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:06,600
Speaker 1: roughly ten minutes of game clock. And the point is is,

1010
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:09,640
Speaker 1: like you you want those to be more frequent and

1011
00:50:09,760 --> 00:50:13,960
Speaker 1: longer rather rather than rarer and shorter. And so the

1012
00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:16,080
Speaker 1: thing is over the course of the season that will

1013
00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:19,080
Speaker 1: manifest in their defensive rating. That's why Roger and I

1014
00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:22,680
Speaker 1: um point to that metric often. But the bottom the

1015
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:27,440
Speaker 1: bottom line is, though, is like as a team, UM,

1016
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:29,360
Speaker 1: when they get to the point where they have the

1017
00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:33,440
Speaker 1: personnel to actually be able to cause teams problems with

1018
00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:37,399
Speaker 1: their length and athleticism, they're really not gonna be able

1019
00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:39,719
Speaker 1: to do too many of these long or have too

1020
00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:42,200
Speaker 1: many of these long, extended defensive runs. They just don't

1021
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:44,319
Speaker 1: have the personnel. But if you get a run like

1022
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:47,279
Speaker 1: you had tonight out of a line up the head

1023
00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:50,040
Speaker 1: of Malik Monk in Carmelo Anthony on the floor, you

1024
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:52,719
Speaker 1: praise the basketball gods, I promise you, man Like that

1025
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:56,160
Speaker 1: was that was striking. That was that was lightning striking

1026
00:50:56,200 --> 00:50:58,239
Speaker 1: in the same place twice. You take it and you

1027
00:50:58,600 --> 00:51:00,799
Speaker 1: get out of the casino before where they before they

1028
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:02,920
Speaker 1: come after you. So that's kind of that's kind of

1029
00:51:02,960 --> 00:51:04,680
Speaker 1: the way I see it. And by the way, you

1030
00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:07,960
Speaker 1: did accidentally hints at one other thing I wanted to

1031
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:11,400
Speaker 1: mention to to everybody about that I thought was interesting

1032
00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:14,120
Speaker 1: about this game. One of the big downsides of when

1033
00:51:14,120 --> 00:51:16,640
Speaker 1: they go big with Lebron or with Anthony Davis and

1034
00:51:16,680 --> 00:51:19,600
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan at the floor is big guys just naturally

1035
00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:23,600
Speaker 1: gravitate to the rim on offense, Like even Anthony Davis

1036
00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:25,800
Speaker 1: when he's floating around the perimeter, like when the shot

1037
00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:28,640
Speaker 1: goes up, he always kind of like floats into the

1038
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:32,440
Speaker 1: painted area and DeAndre Jordan's obviously down there. And almost

1039
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:34,319
Speaker 1: every single time, this is another thing that Vene has

1040
00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:36,359
Speaker 1: been pointing out a lot over the course of the year.

1041
00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:38,839
Speaker 1: As soon as that shot goes up, the other team

1042
00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:41,520
Speaker 1: secures the rebound and starts springting the other way, And

1043
00:51:41,680 --> 00:51:46,080
Speaker 1: almost every single time, DeAndre Jordan and Anthony Davis take

1044
00:51:46,160 --> 00:51:49,880
Speaker 1: these slow, lumbering steps to kind of get their speed

1045
00:51:49,960 --> 00:51:52,880
Speaker 1: to get back, and almost every one of those possessions

1046
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:55,920
Speaker 1: begins as a five on three and it's actually becoming

1047
00:51:55,920 --> 00:51:58,040
Speaker 1: a bit of a problem. And it's one of the

1048
00:51:58,080 --> 00:52:02,200
Speaker 1: many reasons why I say, like, just like taking something like, oh,

1049
00:52:02,239 --> 00:52:04,839
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is a help defender when he plays the four.

1050
00:52:05,320 --> 00:52:08,439
Speaker 1: Taking something like that is just being the reason why

1051
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:12,160
Speaker 1: you do something is so silly, because every action has consequences,

1052
00:52:12,600 --> 00:52:15,000
Speaker 1: and the consequence of having DeAndre Jordan on the floor

1053
00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:17,399
Speaker 1: it comes with all sorts of things like the slow

1054
00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:19,800
Speaker 1: pace I just talked about, or Russ getting off to

1055
00:52:19,840 --> 00:52:22,400
Speaker 1: a bad start not getting any good shots. Like DeAndre

1056
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:25,960
Speaker 1: Jordan was super active to start that game tonight. He

1057
00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:30,040
Speaker 1: was flying around, dunking everything, getting tons of offensive rebounds.

1058
00:52:30,440 --> 00:52:32,839
Speaker 1: It's very easy to look at that and go like, man,

1059
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:36,680
Speaker 1: look at DeAndre Jordan's helping the starters. But it's like, oh, actually,

1060
00:52:37,719 --> 00:52:41,239
Speaker 1: Russ and a d had like zero rim attempts in

1061
00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:44,160
Speaker 1: that first shift. It's like so it's like, it's like,

1062
00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:49,120
Speaker 1: I got to come from art. There's always a give

1063
00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:51,680
Speaker 1: and take with that stuff. And so I know, I

1064
00:52:51,680 --> 00:52:53,480
Speaker 1: know that wasn't exactly what you asked, but that was

1065
00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:55,440
Speaker 1: something that I thought was so interesting because there was

1066
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:57,400
Speaker 1: a play with Terry Rosier had a huge three to

1067
00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:00,080
Speaker 1: I think pushed their lead up to like six in

1068
00:53:00,080 --> 00:53:03,600
Speaker 1: the second half. And on the play a B and

1069
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:06,279
Speaker 1: and Dr George's jogging at the floor like you just

1070
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:08,080
Speaker 1: can't you can't do it with the foot speed is

1071
00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:10,799
Speaker 1: too slow when you have too giant human being. Yeah, exactly,

1072
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:13,200
Speaker 1: because like one thing, like you know, I've seen like

1073
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:16,160
Speaker 1: that's it's becoming a trend. Like this team is hard

1074
00:53:16,239 --> 00:53:20,040
Speaker 1: to get separation. And one of the main problems that

1075
00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:22,640
Speaker 1: they can you know, that pretty much like creeps up

1076
00:53:22,719 --> 00:53:25,600
Speaker 1: every time. It's like every time they score or make

1077
00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:28,000
Speaker 1: a run, they pretty much give up that same run

1078
00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:32,520
Speaker 1: on the other end, and that basically basically forces the

1079
00:53:32,560 --> 00:53:35,520
Speaker 1: Lakers to play a lot of close games and we

1080
00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:38,520
Speaker 1: get a lot of those nervous moments towards the end

1081
00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:40,480
Speaker 1: of the game where we can't really like, you know,

1082
00:53:40,560 --> 00:53:43,920
Speaker 1: we haven't really had a comfortable, feel good type of

1083
00:53:43,960 --> 00:53:46,680
Speaker 1: win where we can just say like, okay, like we

1084
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:51,520
Speaker 1: had a solid like especially like those third quarters where

1085
00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:54,480
Speaker 1: we basically get ran out basically out of the out

1086
00:53:54,480 --> 00:53:57,040
Speaker 1: of the court. So like I mean, like we can't

1087
00:53:57,040 --> 00:54:00,239
Speaker 1: really have the stretch where we just like our alid

1088
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:05,120
Speaker 1: defensively enough to be able to create a separation. That

1089
00:54:05,120 --> 00:54:06,799
Speaker 1: would be nice, huh, just to get it, just to

1090
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:14,359
Speaker 1: get a solid I'm right now, every night here like

1091
00:54:14,520 --> 00:54:17,520
Speaker 1: a defensive point look like it's not probably gonna happen

1092
00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:20,440
Speaker 1: during this church that there's just not enough good defenders

1093
00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:23,320
Speaker 1: out there on the floor. Like again I talked about it.

1094
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:26,760
Speaker 1: I like that Russ you know, Jason, you said, praise

1095
00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:28,879
Speaker 1: to God's you get you know, stops with Monk and

1096
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:31,360
Speaker 1: Carmelo on the floor. Wayne Ellington was on the floor

1097
00:54:31,400 --> 00:54:34,759
Speaker 1: too during that run. I'm pretty sure, so you got

1098
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:37,680
Speaker 1: you know, you've got stopped with that lineup. But that's

1099
00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:40,080
Speaker 1: probably gonna be the exception, not the rule, Which is

1100
00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:43,080
Speaker 1: why I'm saying lean into offense because I don't think

1101
00:54:43,120 --> 00:54:45,759
Speaker 1: this team right now, just as it's constructed, with all

1102
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:48,840
Speaker 1: the guys out, especially with Lebron out as well, I

1103
00:54:48,840 --> 00:54:51,400
Speaker 1: don't think we talked about how much Lebron actually impacts

1104
00:54:51,400 --> 00:54:54,480
Speaker 1: our defense. We think about it a lot of his

1105
00:54:54,520 --> 00:54:57,879
Speaker 1: ball ball handling and you know, shock creation, which is true,

1106
00:54:57,880 --> 00:55:00,560
Speaker 1: but also him being the like only powerful word that

1107
00:55:00,560 --> 00:55:02,200
Speaker 1: can defend at the high level, Like this team is

1108
00:55:02,239 --> 00:55:03,800
Speaker 1: not going to be able to get that many stocks,

1109
00:55:03,800 --> 00:55:06,000
Speaker 1: but they should be able to score, which is why

1110
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:08,160
Speaker 1: I want them to kind of lean into that. But yeah,

1111
00:55:08,200 --> 00:55:10,360
Speaker 1: well we'll see. Hopefully they can get one one of

1112
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:13,000
Speaker 1: these you know, wired and wired wins. I don't expect

1113
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:15,640
Speaker 1: it happening. I can believe we play Miami next, So

1114
00:55:15,680 --> 00:55:18,200
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the team that it happens with.

1115
00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:23,520
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe maybe something some of the teams after that

1116
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:26,080
Speaker 1: you might get your wish, but but for now, like

1117
00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:28,680
Speaker 1: this team is just gonna have to you know, sneak

1118
00:55:28,719 --> 00:55:31,359
Speaker 1: out wins and and tonight was the first step. Well,

1119
00:55:31,400 --> 00:55:34,520
Speaker 1: thank you very much for having me. Guys are man

1120
00:55:34,640 --> 00:55:36,759
Speaker 1: than you have a good night, man, and we're gonna

1121
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:39,160
Speaker 1: be back on Wednesday. So thank you very much, see

1122
00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:44,399
Speaker 1: you guys. Appreciate it. Man. You know what's funny, roj

1123
00:55:44,520 --> 00:55:46,640
Speaker 1: is the last thing I'm gonna say before we get

1124
00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:49,360
Speaker 1: out of here tonight. Uh, there's a weird thing that

1125
00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:51,920
Speaker 1: happens when you play the Miami Heat, Like you're probably

1126
00:55:51,960 --> 00:55:54,439
Speaker 1: gonna they're probably gonna lose. Someone say, would I would

1127
00:55:54,440 --> 00:55:57,600
Speaker 1: actually expect Vegas to have Miami as an half decent

1128
00:55:57,640 --> 00:56:01,440
Speaker 1: favor probably somewhere four or five points ish um, but

1129
00:56:02,840 --> 00:56:07,480
Speaker 1: they play so hard and they play so tough and

1130
00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:12,919
Speaker 1: and and fundamentally sound that it almost rubs off like

1131
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:15,239
Speaker 1: it would. It's kind of like it's kind of one

1132
00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:17,040
Speaker 1: of those games where at the Lakers lost by ten

1133
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:19,840
Speaker 1: fifteen points. It could be the kind of thing that

1134
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:22,400
Speaker 1: kicks them back on the right track. Like sometimes you

1135
00:56:22,440 --> 00:56:25,160
Speaker 1: need to see just how good someone else is at

1136
00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:28,280
Speaker 1: something for you to realize how bad you are at something.

1137
00:56:28,320 --> 00:56:31,279
Speaker 1: Like I I coached the high school hoops right now,

1138
00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:33,680
Speaker 1: and my coach told me, my head coach that I

1139
00:56:33,840 --> 00:56:36,120
Speaker 1: that I'm the assistant for, told me the story today

1140
00:56:36,160 --> 00:56:39,200
Speaker 1: that he had a group that was kind of cocky

1141
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:41,880
Speaker 1: and had bad attitudes, and so he took one of

1142
00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:47,200
Speaker 1: his former players who was a college athlete elsewhere and

1143
00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:49,560
Speaker 1: there used to be a former college athlete else where,

1144
00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:51,800
Speaker 1: brought him in and had all the kids get in

1145
00:56:51,840 --> 00:56:54,120
Speaker 1: a line, and he went one by one through the

1146
00:56:54,160 --> 00:56:56,839
Speaker 1: kids and beat them all one on one, and and

1147
00:56:57,080 --> 00:56:59,680
Speaker 1: he had them he had him do that to try

1148
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:02,600
Speaker 1: to teach them a lesson about how far they had

1149
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:05,480
Speaker 1: to go, that they were so far. Like, hey, like,

1150
00:57:05,680 --> 00:57:07,879
Speaker 1: before you guys start acting arrogant around me, you should

1151
00:57:07,920 --> 00:57:10,640
Speaker 1: realize just how small you are in the basketball world,

1152
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:12,080
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like that kind of thing.

1153
00:57:12,400 --> 00:57:14,600
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what I see this Miami matchup

1154
00:57:14,640 --> 00:57:17,560
Speaker 1: as is, like the Lakers have been an inconsistent group

1155
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:20,960
Speaker 1: that doesn't have an identity, that has struggled to be

1156
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:25,360
Speaker 1: bad teams, uh has lost the bad teams, and and

1157
00:57:25,560 --> 00:57:28,360
Speaker 1: is it just just is so far away from where

1158
00:57:28,400 --> 00:57:31,120
Speaker 1: they need to be. And sometimes it takes a team

1159
00:57:31,120 --> 00:57:35,120
Speaker 1: like Miami coming in and just whooping your ass in

1160
00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:38,640
Speaker 1: every facet of the game for you to finally walk

1161
00:57:38,680 --> 00:57:41,240
Speaker 1: into that locker room and be like, guys, we're not

1162
00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:44,600
Speaker 1: good enough and so and so that's what I wonder.

1163
00:57:44,640 --> 00:57:46,960
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's gonna be Wednesday. Obviously, I hope

1164
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:49,120
Speaker 1: the Lakers went. I hope they played great, but I

1165
00:57:49,160 --> 00:57:51,160
Speaker 1: just don't expect them to and I expect them to

1166
00:57:51,200 --> 00:57:54,720
Speaker 1: be shell shocked by just how much better Miami is,

1167
00:57:55,200 --> 00:57:58,360
Speaker 1: not with talent, but just doing all the things that

1168
00:57:58,400 --> 00:58:00,600
Speaker 1: you have to do to invest. And I'm pretty sure

1169
00:58:00,600 --> 00:58:03,520
Speaker 1: we'll get the effort on Wednesday. For some reason, I

1170
00:58:03,520 --> 00:58:05,600
Speaker 1: thought it was on Tuesday. It's actually on Wednesday, So

1171
00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:07,680
Speaker 1: they get if you, uh, they get a game off tomorrow.

1172
00:58:07,720 --> 00:58:10,000
Speaker 1: But Uh, yeah, I think you'll get the you'll get

1173
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:12,280
Speaker 1: the effort at least against a team like Miami. Right

1174
00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:14,720
Speaker 1: against these other teams you might not get that. But

1175
00:58:14,840 --> 00:58:17,080
Speaker 1: definitely against Heat, I expected even if they don't win,

1176
00:58:17,320 --> 00:58:19,640
Speaker 1: they could get blown out by thirty. Um, but I

1177
00:58:19,880 --> 00:58:22,720
Speaker 1: extract them to at least play hard during that game

1178
00:58:22,760 --> 00:58:25,320
Speaker 1: against against a good team like that. My last question though,

1179
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:27,360
Speaker 1: for you before we close this, were you able to

1180
00:58:27,360 --> 00:58:30,680
Speaker 1: see the Yoki kind of uh, you know, elbow to

1181
00:58:30,720 --> 00:58:33,840
Speaker 1: the back of or whatever that was to Mark? Even Mark,

1182
00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:37,560
Speaker 1: what's your prediction for because obviously it's gonna be suspensions? Um,

1183
00:58:37,600 --> 00:58:39,720
Speaker 1: I think I thought I said double digit. That's probably

1184
00:58:39,720 --> 00:58:43,080
Speaker 1: pretty high. That's at least like six seven games though, right?

1185
00:58:43,240 --> 00:58:46,000
Speaker 1: Am I crazy? I am? I thinking that's too much?

1186
00:58:46,040 --> 00:58:48,680
Speaker 1: Because I feel like that's what we're gonna see this dispension.

1187
00:58:48,760 --> 00:58:50,800
Speaker 1: That's all I guess. We'll close out on this, like,

1188
00:58:50,840 --> 00:58:54,560
Speaker 1: what's your prediction that? Uh? If I had to guess,

1189
00:58:54,560 --> 00:58:58,520
Speaker 1: I'd say five games or less. Um. The reason why

1190
00:58:58,600 --> 00:59:02,640
Speaker 1: is you're gonna have Yoki people insisting that that the

1191
00:59:02,680 --> 00:59:07,760
Speaker 1: Morris play was dirting Morris. Morris is gonna get like

1192
00:59:07,880 --> 00:59:11,080
Speaker 1: one or two games and Yokis is gonna get like

1193
00:59:11,120 --> 00:59:13,360
Speaker 1: four or five games, that's my guest. And to be clear,

1194
00:59:13,440 --> 00:59:16,120
Speaker 1: like this is you know, I I enjoyed rooting for

1195
00:59:16,160 --> 00:59:18,800
Speaker 1: Marquis Morris over the last two seasons. I thought he

1196
00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:22,720
Speaker 1: was a really good role player. But him and his

1197
00:59:22,840 --> 00:59:27,080
Speaker 1: brother are so notorious for this crap. It's the it's

1198
00:59:27,120 --> 00:59:29,680
Speaker 1: the Patrick Beverley thing. And you know what, if Patrick

1199
00:59:29,720 --> 00:59:33,520
Speaker 1: Beverley irritates the crap out of you with dirty little

1200
00:59:33,800 --> 00:59:36,880
Speaker 1: you know bs basketball plays all season long and then

1201
00:59:36,960 --> 00:59:40,440
Speaker 1: you shove him in the back and give him whiplash,

1202
00:59:40,680 --> 00:59:43,240
Speaker 1: you deserve to be suspended. Like that's that is a

1203
00:59:43,520 --> 00:59:46,160
Speaker 1: bad overreaction, that kind of thing. It really hurts somebody

1204
00:59:46,200 --> 00:59:48,880
Speaker 1: to like I have I have a huge problem with

1205
00:59:48,920 --> 00:59:54,040
Speaker 1: you what Yoki did. But but there is there is

1206
00:59:54,080 --> 00:59:56,960
Speaker 1: some truth to the fact. Now when someone is just

1207
00:59:57,040 --> 01:00:00,400
Speaker 1: sitting there, it's like those dudes that like are the

1208
01:00:01,200 --> 01:00:03,800
Speaker 1: Royal Palace and in Great Britain that they have to

1209
01:00:03,840 --> 01:00:05,520
Speaker 1: like stand there with a straight face all the people

1210
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:07,919
Speaker 1: are screwing with them. It's like at a certain point,

1211
01:00:08,520 --> 01:00:12,760
Speaker 1: if someone is just screwing with you NonStop, like like

1212
01:00:12,880 --> 01:00:16,120
Speaker 1: I relate to the fact that you might let your

1213
01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:19,560
Speaker 1: guard down and and end up flashing out a little bit.

1214
01:00:19,560 --> 01:00:21,760
Speaker 1: But to be clear, yokis crossed a huge line. He

1215
01:00:21,800 --> 01:00:24,720
Speaker 1: deserves to be suspended. I predict four or five games

1216
01:00:24,720 --> 01:00:28,000
Speaker 1: and more. Is not the one, right, He's not the

1217
01:00:28,040 --> 01:00:35,840
Speaker 1: guy exactly with exactly. Yeah, that was interesting around the

1218
01:00:35,880 --> 01:00:38,840
Speaker 1: league kind of thing. But yeah, we'll we'll be back

1219
01:00:39,240 --> 01:00:44,640
Speaker 1: again on on Wednesday to recap that one. Yes, thank

1220
01:00:44,640 --> 01:00:46,000
Speaker 1: you guys so much for coming hanging out. This will

1221
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:48,360
Speaker 1: be on a podcast feed here about twenty minutes or

1222
01:00:48,400 --> 01:00:51,080
Speaker 1: so and we'll aeron dash rdy on tomorrow morning at

1223
01:00:51,080 --> 01:00:52,800
Speaker 1: seven am. Think he was always for your support. We'll

1224
01:00:52,840 --> 01:01:08,720
Speaker 1: see you on Wednesday two