Speaker 1: Mmmm, it's all right. Welcome to the State of the
Speaker 1: Lakers post game show on DASH Radio. Thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much for staying up late to hang out with
Speaker 1: us after one of the more bizarre Laker wins that
Speaker 1: I can remember. Um, it was kind of weird in
Speaker 1: the sense that, like there was so much good, Like
Speaker 1: they competed at a level that we haven't seen them
Speaker 1: compete at in a few games, and there was so
Speaker 1: much good happening on the court. But meanwhile we had
Speaker 1: this kind of bizarre night from both Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook. Um, you know, the heroes of the game,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, were the role players. And while you know,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis made several huge defensive plays and a few
Speaker 1: big baskets as well, I felt like he kind of
Speaker 1: was working through some some stuff mentally that game. It
Speaker 1: seemed like it was definitely a funky barn. What was
Speaker 1: your you know, initial takeaway? Um, you know, just like
Speaker 1: I say always from thirty feet up, what's your initial takeaway? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And again we do these right after the game, so
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to fly that high right away,
Speaker 1: So just trying to look at it right away. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the turnovers from Russ are probably the big story in
Speaker 1: this UM. I'm not sure if I think you two
Speaker 1: did the eight seem pretty frustrated at that. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if that was his direct frustration, but I guess
Speaker 1: that was definitely part of it. Vocal again went with
Speaker 1: the two big exiting the reasons that we've talked about
Speaker 1: a lot, the idea that we don't have any wings.
Speaker 1: I thought it worked in the first shift in the
Speaker 1: starting lineup, like I thought they played pretty well. The
Speaker 1: Hornets aren't really a team that have a lot of
Speaker 1: like shot making off the dribble per se. And I
Speaker 1: thought on the second half they kind of started going
Speaker 1: to that. You saw Lamello be a little bit more
Speaker 1: comfort rule and that's starting five just got pulled. So
Speaker 1: that was I guess my first takeaway here is Vogel
Speaker 1: with a very short leach in that second half. With
Speaker 1: that with the two big lineup, and I thought we
Speaker 1: found a few things. And again, those rust turnovers on
Speaker 1: the fourth are really bizarre. You just I know his
Speaker 1: decision making isn't always great, but usually just don't see
Speaker 1: that from a guy that's been in the league as
Speaker 1: long as him. I guess just the like you know,
Speaker 1: nonchalant walking the ball up. He's getting picked up almost
Speaker 1: at half core by Terry Rosier, and you know he
Speaker 1: loses the ball out of bounds one play. One play
Speaker 1: they knock it out that lob to a d lay.
Speaker 1: Just that one didn't make sense some of the decision
Speaker 1: making overall. I mean, it was a rust game. And
Speaker 1: that's why I say lean into the rust ball, right
Speaker 1: because I thought you saw some of the positives from that.
Speaker 1: So that's like my main takeaway here. A lot of
Speaker 1: strained stuff, a lot of the five free throws on
Speaker 1: one possession, just weird stuff that happens like that that
Speaker 1: they had the hornets back in the game, So we
Speaker 1: are going to talk about Ross. I did think was
Speaker 1: super interesting the way that Terry Rogier completely threw him
Speaker 1: off of his game with ball pressure, which is which
Speaker 1: is bizarre because that's supposed to be like the one
Speaker 1: thing that every point guard has to be able to handle,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But we're gonna I think
Speaker 1: I feel like, as you and I always do, we
Speaker 1: should start with the positive because I have lots of
Speaker 1: thoughts on Russ. What I'm gonna say, I'm gonna save him.
Speaker 1: But the uh yeah, I'm very much going to need
Speaker 1: you rush tonight to to talk me down from some
Speaker 1: of some of my opinions on Russ. So so we'll
Speaker 1: say that for a little bit. But to big guys
Speaker 1: that I want to shout out tonight, Um, Austin reeves,
Speaker 1: particularly in the first half, although he also made some
Speaker 1: plays in the second half. You know, the one thing
Speaker 1: that's starting to pop up with Austin a little bit
Speaker 1: is his three point shooting is starting to be a
Speaker 1: little bit of a lot. Not a liability, but he's
Speaker 1: not knocking him down at as high of a clip
Speaker 1: as you'd hope for from that position. Very very Alex
Speaker 1: Crusoe esk in a lot of ways, Um, but just
Speaker 1: in general, one of the better. I tweeted out it
Speaker 1: was the best half he's played as a as a pro.
Speaker 1: I think you could probably look at this game now
Speaker 1: and say it was probably his best game as a pro.
Speaker 1: Just incredible off ball defense, incredible on ball defense, this
Speaker 1: level of energy that was contagious that went through the
Speaker 1: whole team. He had two isolation scores tonight that I
Speaker 1: counted one on Kelly Ubre Or he drove into his
Speaker 1: chest and bounced him off and then shot like a
Speaker 1: little ten foot fade away and knocked it down. And
Speaker 1: then he had that huge one. I think it was
Speaker 1: either in the fourth quarter over time, I can't remember,
Speaker 1: but where he attacked out of the week side corner
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, the ball kind of stuck with
Speaker 1: him and all of a sudden there was four seconds
Speaker 1: left on the shot clock and he just drove to
Speaker 1: the baseline and did you know one of my favorite
Speaker 1: go to moves, Just hit the dude with your shoulder
Speaker 1: in his chest and just spin off if you if
Speaker 1: you do it and you initiate the contact and you
Speaker 1: and you hit him a little bit like regardless of
Speaker 1: height difference, you can get shot off and he and
Speaker 1: he made it as a huge one just in general, like,
Speaker 1: I think we've come to the point with Reeves where
Speaker 1: he's been so good that you absolutely have to keep
Speaker 1: him in the rotation and even as the team gets healthy,
Speaker 1: he's that he's been that good. And I think he's
Speaker 1: been that good enough for long enough that the guys
Speaker 1: in the locker room would understand why he's getting minutes,
Speaker 1: which may not have been the case earlier on and
Speaker 1: then the other big guys. Belton Um Obviously we've talked
Speaker 1: a lot about how his extreme high level spot up
Speaker 1: shooting is such a huge deal. Um. Obviously it basically
Speaker 1: won them the game tonight, but even looking forward for
Speaker 1: the team and it's ceiling and what this team is
Speaker 1: going to look at it look like in high leverage moments,
Speaker 1: having a guy like that you cannot leave is going
Speaker 1: to be such a huge asset. And then as we
Speaker 1: saw tonight, I thought he had his best defense and
Speaker 1: effort game of the year. Tons of multiple effort plays defensively,
Speaker 1: getting his hands on on on balls that even used
Speaker 1: to being active in passing Wayne's contesting shots that he
Speaker 1: used to just let go. Just just an awesome, awesome,
Speaker 1: awesome game from Carmelo Anthony. And so those are my
Speaker 1: two stars of the night, the two huge, glaring positives
Speaker 1: that I wanted to point out. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 1: Was there anybody else that you wanted to shout out? No?
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. Well, let's start with Reeves
Speaker 1: because I thought, just this is just an incredible sentence
Speaker 1: to say, like, well, I tweeted it too, But when
Speaker 1: the overtime started, I said, we needed him out there
Speaker 1: to guard LaMelo Ball, you know LaMelo Ball, the one
Speaker 1: averaging twenty on from three and all that, and Volgo
Speaker 1: put him in for defense. Frank Bogo put Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: and every badly and for defense Land and the undrafted rookie,
Speaker 1: and you're right, his defense was just incredible. We talked
Speaker 1: about it all the time that Frank, you know, likes
Speaker 1: to play this drop kind of coverage and you need
Speaker 1: guards who can stick. And Austin Reeves was the best
Speaker 1: at it tonight. He might have been the best at
Speaker 1: it all year. He drew a few offensive fouls I
Speaker 1: believe too on that where he was kind of chasing
Speaker 1: on overs ear. But the work on LaMelo that last play,
Speaker 1: he gart him one on one. If you watch closely,
Speaker 1: they got he got him one on one. They had
Speaker 1: a screen he switched and then shut off Gordon Hayward
Speaker 1: at the rim, which allowed a d to come out
Speaker 1: and contest, which I think was forgot who was in
Speaker 1: the corner who took the three um But but yeah,
Speaker 1: was able to contest that, and then they got offensive
Speaker 1: rebound and got a tough one from Martin in the
Speaker 1: other corner. But yet his defense was just incredible even
Speaker 1: if his shots not going, He's just in the right
Speaker 1: place way too many times for me to where you
Speaker 1: don't play him. And I think in that second unit,
Speaker 1: im i'd actually like, I think to start him right
Speaker 1: now if you start a D at the five, I
Speaker 1: think Reaves has just been that good defensively. But just
Speaker 1: his defense was incredible even if he didn't make, you know,
Speaker 1: his spot up three's teams don't leave him though, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, even if he's not making
Speaker 1: his spot up three, he's a guy they respect as
Speaker 1: a shooter already. Like they don't play off of, they
Speaker 1: don't stack off him. Melo got a bunch of good
Speaker 1: looks open three tonight. I think reeves on the floor
Speaker 1: for a lot of them. He just helps the spacing,
Speaker 1: he's in the right place, he's there, recharges, you know,
Speaker 1: and his hustle energy that all just is needed on
Speaker 1: this team where you can tell the lack of energy
Speaker 1: just goes back and forth and then mellow. I don't
Speaker 1: know what other I don't know if there's any like
Speaker 1: superlatives left to talk about him. Some of these three
Speaker 1: to night weren't even open. Uh. He was just feeling
Speaker 1: it at Staple Center. I think he was shooting like
Speaker 1: sixty eight percent on threes and that went that one man,
Speaker 1: the wheels were coming off. It felt like the team
Speaker 1: was about ready toe and that three hitting it overtime
Speaker 1: completely changed the complexion of it. Yeah, and you could
Speaker 1: see him to be like, let's go, let's keep it going.
Speaker 1: If he's the camera kind of pan on him, but
Speaker 1: he was while he was walking back on that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: and he saved us. I don't know where this team
Speaker 1: would be without Mellow. It's another twenty plus game from him.
Speaker 1: I think it's like his fourth for the season or something.
Speaker 1: But it's just he's been great, Like it's there's nothing
Speaker 1: you could say. And his defense like if it's possible,
Speaker 1: that's more than enough, And like you talked about tonight,
Speaker 1: it was even better than that. He gets hands on
Speaker 1: a lot of strips. He's never going to be perfect,
Speaker 1: but he's kind of been in the right place A
Speaker 1: few times. I thought the Mellow lineups were good enough
Speaker 1: defensively to win, but as shooting, he has just been incredible.
Speaker 1: So I did with with you. Those were kind of
Speaker 1: the two stars from to name. You know, Mellow is
Speaker 1: an interesting guy for Russ to watch as an example
Speaker 1: of how to age gracefully as a star. That was,
Speaker 1: you know, much more nuclear, you know, in his younger days. Now,
Speaker 1: Mellow to his you know, to to Russ his defense,
Speaker 1: Mellow it was it was a propless. He didn't accept
Speaker 1: it right away. But if you look at what Mellow
Speaker 1: is as a basketball player right now, like he's he's
Speaker 1: the same level of skill that he's always had. It
Speaker 1: just he was he had a certain amount of athleticism
Speaker 1: in his prime that allowed him to have a physical
Speaker 1: advantage to go with his skill, that allowed him to
Speaker 1: be a guy who was, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: best scorers in the league. Right So the core skill
Speaker 1: set behind that is still there. But Carmelo Anthony has
Speaker 1: understood that he's not the same player, and he has
Speaker 1: transformed his game in a lot of ways. He understands like, hey, like,
Speaker 1: I will not be able to play for a winner
Speaker 1: unless I put in more effort on the defensive end
Speaker 1: than I did when I was in my prime. Like,
Speaker 1: and he gets that, Like he he knows that a
Speaker 1: game like tonight, um Frank might go another direction if
Speaker 1: he's getting just barbecued all over the floor. So he
Speaker 1: over the course of this season has each successive game
Speaker 1: gotten a little bit better on the defensive end, a
Speaker 1: little bit better with his effort and focus. He's completely
Speaker 1: changed his shot profile to uh to taking higher quality shots.
Speaker 1: When he takes the tougher shots, they now take place
Speaker 1: when he already has his rhythm, you know, even you know,
Speaker 1: I've complained a lot about him posting up bigger wings, um,
Speaker 1: you know, instead of posting up smaller guards. And there
Speaker 1: was a play in the first half where he got
Speaker 1: Kelly Ubrey on him and I remember sitting there thinking like,
Speaker 1: I don't really like the snatch up, and but Mellow,
Speaker 1: Mellow was hard about it. He's like he pumped, like
Speaker 1: Mellow's like, I'm not gonna be able to just elevate
Speaker 1: over the top of this guy anymore, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try to Outsmarten and Kelly Bray is young and overaggressive,
Speaker 1: and he jumped out of his shoes and Mellow got
Speaker 1: two free throws out of it. Point being like, Mellow
Speaker 1: is finding a way to age gracefully. And it's a
Speaker 1: big thing that Russ has to pay attention to. And
Speaker 1: this is something that I talked a lot about a
Speaker 1: couple of nights ago when we did our last pot
Speaker 1: after the Portland's game. You know, Russ has to kind
Speaker 1: of accept the realities of who he is as a
Speaker 1: basketball player now and and try to identify what he
Speaker 1: can still do to impact the game and try to
Speaker 1: focus on those areas and pull back in other areas.
Speaker 1: That's the only way this is going to work. And
Speaker 1: to his defense, as bad as he was tonight, which
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk more about, like he's kind of in
Speaker 1: a rocket between the rock and hard plates here like that,
Speaker 1: the team needs him to to try to create something.
Speaker 1: I mean, like, here's the reality, Like like Vogel probably
Speaker 1: goes with Rondo for the first six, seven, eight minutes
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter if if, if he doesn't get ejected.
Speaker 1: You know, he was forced to go back to Russ
Speaker 1: early there, and and the you know, the team just
Speaker 1: needs him to do this. But when Lebron comes back,
Speaker 1: when th Hd comes back, when the team's whole, he's
Speaker 1: got to find a way to tell some of his
Speaker 1: back because what you saw tonight is something that I've
Speaker 1: talked about a lot over the course at the beginning
Speaker 1: of this season, the concept of hemorrhaging possessions. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: who was the better basketball team tonight even without Lebron
Speaker 1: The Lakers were. The Lakers were clearly the better basketball team.
Speaker 1: They were roughly points better if you look at the
Speaker 1: way that they played on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: But Russ hemorrhage so many possessions as either a director's
Speaker 1: old turnovers or the other big one that you saw
Speaker 1: a lot, especially in the first three quarters, was I
Speaker 1: had absolutely no advantage here, but I'm just gonna throw
Speaker 1: it up at the rim anyway, you know, around the basket,
Speaker 1: like just like getting into the lane, having no separation
Speaker 1: and just jacking stuff up, like shots so crazy that
Speaker 1: if you saw a dude shoot them at l a fitness,
Speaker 1: you'd be like, what is this guy even doing in here?
Speaker 1: Like that's how bad it was. And what you saw
Speaker 1: was so many of those clustered in one game that
Speaker 1: it damn near costs them. That's how bad that was.
Speaker 1: And what scares me is the idea of him doing
Speaker 1: that hemorrhaging possessions even in a smaller skill Let's say,
Speaker 1: Hemorrhage is half as many. But it's Game five against
Speaker 1: Phoenix on the road and the series is tied at two,
Speaker 1: and he does two or three stupid things in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter that can literally cost you a playoff series.
Speaker 1: It can't. And as I've pointed out so many times
Speaker 1: over the years, like he's done it in the past,
Speaker 1: there are Oklahoma City games, pivotal Oklahoma City playoff games
Speaker 1: where his poor decision making arguably cost them serious and
Speaker 1: so it's just it's it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: you know, I'm having a really hard time trying to
Speaker 1: keep a positive outlook with this because even if he
Speaker 1: does temper back a lot of this stuff, just his
Speaker 1: basketball i Q isn't what it needs to be for
Speaker 1: what this team needs out of that position. And I'm
Speaker 1: a little bit scared. So you can try to talk
Speaker 1: me down. If you can try to talk me down,
Speaker 1: that'd be great. Talk me down and said, well before
Speaker 1: we get super deep into us, because I feel like
Speaker 1: this is where this is going. Um, I just want
Speaker 1: to keep shout out to a couple more players. First
Speaker 1: of all, Rondo, you spoke a little bit about him.
Speaker 1: That's the like playoff Rono you won't see every night.
Speaker 1: But I think like this team right now that's hurt
Speaker 1: needs him to be a little bit more right, just
Speaker 1: again we can get into us. But I just thought
Speaker 1: once he came in, I think he did come in
Speaker 1: for us, just change the whole energy of that game him.
Speaker 1: He was active on defense, calling out plays, He forces
Speaker 1: a d to play in the air, which I really
Speaker 1: like about him. He was throwing him lobs and stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give him a quick shout out. And then
Speaker 1: also I thought Wayne Ellington, you know, he didn't still
Speaker 1: didn't shoot well, but I thought you saw kind of
Speaker 1: what he could be. And then Malique Monk is well,
Speaker 1: I thought they made impacts. Still not great defensively, but
Speaker 1: I thought they had pretty good games for for what
Speaker 1: they can what they did tonight to bring it on Russ.
Speaker 1: Like watching this game, it kind of again is the
Speaker 1: Russ experience. You're gonna get good stuff, you're gonna get bad.
Speaker 1: The finishing isn't there. I know we talked about this
Speaker 1: with Ruche as well last time, like this is kind
Speaker 1: of what he is. And again I thought there's a
Speaker 1: little bit still more finesse that was in his game,
Speaker 1: like the left handed finishes that are just way off
Speaker 1: those kind of stuff I'm hoping kind of gets cleaned up.
Speaker 1: But I thought you did see some things like he
Speaker 1: came in for Rondo and Ronald got ejected and the
Speaker 1: lead actually increased. They went up to eleven, and then
Speaker 1: I think it went to fourteen. Um, and then all
Speaker 1: those bad plays kind of happened in that crunch time.
Speaker 1: You know how they NBA games go when a team
Speaker 1: tries to, I guess, play not to lose rather than win, right,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I felt a lot of
Speaker 1: that energy with rus. It was a lot of this
Speaker 1: walking the ball up really slowly, uh just zero pays,
Speaker 1: taking like sevent eight seconds to get it off. And
Speaker 1: again Terry Rosier give credit to them. And then I
Speaker 1: thought the Hornets also went to a lot of zone
Speaker 1: as well. Um, and I think that really mess the
Speaker 1: Lakers up as well. And I guess my only like
Speaker 1: you know, positive kind of spin is those are Lebron's
Speaker 1: time though, right, that is the time where like the
Speaker 1: ball is in Lebron's hands like you're not gonna see.
Speaker 1: And I think it's been clear this season. And right,
Speaker 1: you thought there's been like some talk that maybe would
Speaker 1: be kind of a back and forth Layton games. No,
Speaker 1: it's been pretty much Lebron has the ball, rush is off.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe screening but maybe being in a dunker spot,
Speaker 1: or you know, maybe screening for Lebron are doing these
Speaker 1: off off ball screens. But Lebron is the one who's
Speaker 1: gonna have the ball in his hands and making those decisions.
Speaker 1: And I think it's clear that you know you don't
Speaker 1: Russ in those positions. To to put it nicely, I
Speaker 1: guess that's why I'm not too worried about it. This
Speaker 1: is the time we talked about last time, to just
Speaker 1: rack up wins. I know it was ugly, but they
Speaker 1: did get the win as ugly as it did. Look,
Speaker 1: they did hold them off and over time. So look,
Speaker 1: this is what you're gonna get right now. Russ is
Speaker 1: gonna have to be this thirty percent usage player like
Speaker 1: he just is, especially if you're going to continue to
Speaker 1: start two bigs, which maybe this is the game that
Speaker 1: changes it. I wouldn't bet on it, you know, Vocal
Speaker 1: use the word tempting tonight to start eighty at the
Speaker 1: five h We'll see if that happens again. The wing
Speaker 1: situation isn't gonna change. I don't believe that Taylor horn
Speaker 1: Tucker is gonna play the next game. They're gonna want
Speaker 1: him to get a few practices in. I'm sure. I
Speaker 1: don't think none is close enough. So if the wing
Speaker 1: csition position doesn't change, I think we're gonna still start this,
Speaker 1: you know, phone booth starting lineup for us, and this
Speaker 1: is what you're gonna see. Sometimes I thought he did
Speaker 1: a better job of kind of not taking those threes,
Speaker 1: even with Charlotte flying way under. Decision making is what
Speaker 1: it is. The turnovers are what they are. But overall,
Speaker 1: it was a better game from him. Uh then maybe
Speaker 1: those if you take I know, you can't take away
Speaker 1: those fourth quarter turnovers, but we take those away. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a terrible you know rust game, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like like if you take good away, like
Speaker 1: the point of the game where Lebron would have ball.
Speaker 1: I know, this is a really big spin on it,
Speaker 1: and you can't take those away, and that's part of
Speaker 1: the experience. I'm just trying to pull you down from
Speaker 1: the ledge here. I'm just saying but but but yes,
Speaker 1: just watching it tonight, watching the full game, I thought
Speaker 1: it was an okay game from him. We did leaning
Speaker 1: lean into the rust ball a lot after that, first
Speaker 1: few minutes of that starting lineup, I wrote in my
Speaker 1: notes that like a I think it was Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a Russ Ellington, Monk, Mellow and Dwight combo, and
Speaker 1: I thought that looked pretty good. Mellow started, Mellow was
Speaker 1: on fire during that lineup. I thought the spacing was good.
Speaker 1: It was a one center lineup. Russ was coming off
Speaker 1: going downhill, Dwight was setting really awesome screens. Uh. Even
Speaker 1: if Russ got the basket missed, Dwight was able to
Speaker 1: pin his man pin and his pin Russ's mann and
Speaker 1: get offensive rebounds. That's something they can build off of
Speaker 1: this game. But you know, the turnovers are what they are,
Speaker 1: so that that's kind of how we saw the rest
Speaker 1: game to So I'm gonna do this one last time
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna make you hold me to this.
Speaker 1: This is the very last time I'm going to call
Speaker 1: into question why the hell they even did this to
Speaker 1: begin with, because this is the last time. If I
Speaker 1: ever try to do this again, you have the right
Speaker 1: to tell me to shut up on on the on
Speaker 1: the live show. So yes, Russ with Lebron on the floor,
Speaker 1: A lot of this gets mitigated, right, We've seen in
Speaker 1: the few times that they've had crunch time with this group,
Speaker 1: Russ has been relegated off the ball and Lebron has
Speaker 1: made all the decisions and it actually has looked great. Okay, uh,
Speaker 1: not great because of Russ, but great because Lebron is
Speaker 1: still the best closer and basketball in my opinion. So uh,
Speaker 1: Setting that aside, the reason why you brought Russ in,
Speaker 1: like everyone has talked about, is winning the Lebron off
Speaker 1: minutes um, you know, helping you on the nights when
Speaker 1: Lebron has to sit, you know, so on and so
Speaker 1: on and so on. You we've all heard these talking
Speaker 1: points a hundred times over. But what I have consistently
Speaker 1: pushed back is that he is not capable of that anymore.
Speaker 1: He is not capable of being the lead man in
Speaker 1: a group um that has the amount of talent that
Speaker 1: he's been playing with in this in this season, with
Speaker 1: Lebron off the floor, is simply not capable. Why he
Speaker 1: literally cannot make a perimeter jump shot, God forbid, he
Speaker 1: makes one, he will take two or three awful ones
Speaker 1: immediately after. When he gets to the rim um. He
Speaker 1: doesn't have the lift to finish in traffic anymore. And
Speaker 1: what you saw tonight was a great example of that.
Speaker 1: A ton of like situations where he would get into
Speaker 1: the paint, but once he got there, there were bodies
Speaker 1: around him and he just had no idea what to
Speaker 1: do and had no ability to Like these misses at
Speaker 1: the rim, I'm gonna clip some of them together probably tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I've had some time. These misses were not even close.
Speaker 1: The we're not like, oh, I got all the way
Speaker 1: to the rim and uh, you know, like nine out
Speaker 1: of ten times I'm making that this just happens to
Speaker 1: be the one I missed. No, he's throwing up bullshit
Speaker 1: at the rim and so between. So with all of that,
Speaker 1: and then and then we saw you know, the Rust
Speaker 1: experience as a passer is what you said, this is
Speaker 1: the Russ experience. What we saw that tonight the oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, that was a fantastic read to hit a
Speaker 1: D cutting on the backside there after after he got
Speaker 1: into the painting against his own that was a really
Speaker 1: nice play. Or oh you know that that play where
Speaker 1: he's trying to get it into a D and then
Speaker 1: Dwight's man comes over and helps and he hits dwhite
Speaker 1: and it's a dunk like those all look great, but
Speaker 1: every last one of those is sandwiched with stupid ass
Speaker 1: passes that have absolutely no ability to lead to an
Speaker 1: offensive advantage and either go directly to the other team
Speaker 1: or go out of bounds, or, by the grace of
Speaker 1: the basketball gods, happened to bounce back into a Laker's hand.
Speaker 1: It happens at least twice, it seems like for me
Speaker 1: every time that he makes a good read in those plays,
Speaker 1: and so the so here's the thing. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: okay because Lebron's coming back, and the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is is he will mostly only be attacking inferior
Speaker 1: defenders in in situations when defensive attention is directed elsewhere. However,
Speaker 1: if if that to me is his his ability to
Speaker 1: have success in those positions was never enough of a
Speaker 1: reason to get him. In my opinion, the only reason
Speaker 1: it would have made sense is if he was capable
Speaker 1: of being a lead, you know, star level player in
Speaker 1: these moments when Lebron is out, or the ability to
Speaker 1: in the pivotal playoff game go to him for a
Speaker 1: six minute stretch like do you think Russ in Game
Speaker 1: five against Phoenix in the Western Conference Finals is going
Speaker 1: to run good offense for six minutes against the Suns? Like,
Speaker 1: do you really think that's going to happen? And so
Speaker 1: what what? What's what bothers me about this? And again
Speaker 1: this is the last time I'm saying this for the
Speaker 1: rest of the season. I genuinely don't understand what the
Speaker 1: thought process was, because considering what the formula for winning
Speaker 1: for this team is and what Russ brings to the
Speaker 1: table in the calendar year in November, I I just
Speaker 1: don't I don't understand what the vision was because these
Speaker 1: people must have been watching way too many YouTube highlights
Speaker 1: and not enough of what Russ has actually been doing,
Speaker 1: because this is what Russ has been for several years now,
Speaker 1: and so it's just confounding to me. And and I
Speaker 1: find him to be one of the most frustrating players
Speaker 1: to watch in my time as a basketball fan, because
Speaker 1: I've never seen a guard have this little regard for
Speaker 1: the possession of the basketball and this little care for
Speaker 1: the value of of limiting turnovers and and getting players
Speaker 1: into positions where they can actually attempt a shot. It's
Speaker 1: it's just it's been one hell been experienced. Rose. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know what else to say that. I
Speaker 1: swear I will never bring up the Russ trade ever again.
Speaker 1: I will only evaluate him in the scope of being
Speaker 1: a current Laker. But I just I just had to,
Speaker 1: I had to say that one last time. Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, this is Game eleven, So you're definitely gonna
Speaker 1: bring up the Rush trade again. I mean, that's just
Speaker 1: that's definitely what's gonna happen. Look, man, like, it's not
Speaker 1: just you, not just me. Like, we were all high
Speaker 1: on this team, right, and most of the people, you know,
Speaker 1: national media were also pretty high on this team. Whether
Speaker 1: they thought they were the championship favor not favored or not,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter here. They were one of the people,
Speaker 1: you know, in contention for the title. And look, Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: he was never meant to be the sole usage player.
Speaker 1: And I said over the summer that, like it's been
Speaker 1: clear when Russ is the full usage guy, that's just
Speaker 1: not an equation that he equates to winning, Right, You're
Speaker 1: just not going to win at a high enough level,
Speaker 1: even at his m v P form. Um, you know, Okay,
Speaker 1: See it has a ceiling on it, right, Like it
Speaker 1: raises your floor in a bit, especially when he was like,
Speaker 1: you know, at his peak athletic powers and you know, okay,
Speaker 1: see like it raises your floor, but your ceiling definitely
Speaker 1: has a You definitely have a ceiling to that. And
Speaker 1: I think that's what we're seeing here in the idea. Look,
Speaker 1: you talked about Game five against Phoenix, could rust by himself, no,
Speaker 1: but to me, like a Russ Anthony Davis with you know,
Speaker 1: enough shooting defense around it. Yeah, for six minutes, that
Speaker 1: should be able to cover if Lebron is sitting still,
Speaker 1: even with the decision making as bad as it is.
Speaker 1: And I talked about it all the time, the season
Speaker 1: to me, has now become acquescing to Russ. And that's
Speaker 1: not ideal. He's not even the he's not the first
Speaker 1: or second best player on this team, but that's just
Speaker 1: what it has come to his You know, his skills
Speaker 1: are so specific. They can't shape shift, they can't form,
Speaker 1: they are what they are. So when you play him
Speaker 1: next to two bigs, when you play him next to nonshooters,
Speaker 1: it's gonna look super ugly. And that compounds the turnover
Speaker 1: these decisions. Right, He's a guy that's always been high turnover,
Speaker 1: but now that his letticism has dropped a bit, it's
Speaker 1: gonna increases. He can't get to the basket like he
Speaker 1: did tonight. You know, there was a lot of times
Speaker 1: where he'd get the switch against Mason Plumley or Miles Plumbly.
Speaker 1: I don't know which plumb Ly it is. I should
Speaker 1: know that, Yeah, one of the plum LEA sorry Miles
Speaker 1: are Mason. Uh. You know, he'd get him on a
Speaker 1: switch and he'd like, oh no, clear, tell everyone clear out,
Speaker 1: and he just can't, you know, get by him the
Speaker 1: way he thought he could. Gordon Hayward as well. He's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I got going Hayward on me, back up,
Speaker 1: let me attack. Like that's just not what he can
Speaker 1: he do anymore. But what he still can't do. And again,
Speaker 1: I think, like with players, you have to kind of
Speaker 1: look at what they do. Take away the contract, take
Speaker 1: away what we traded for him. The trade is done. Russ,
Speaker 1: like we talked about all the time, Russ is here
Speaker 1: to stay. He's not coming off the bench, He's not
Speaker 1: getting traded like this is the guy we have. So
Speaker 1: we have the accus to his skills what he does well,
Speaker 1: and what it is is is he's still a guy
Speaker 1: that pushes the pace. He can still get to the
Speaker 1: basket when the floor is spaced enough, and if you
Speaker 1: put shooters around, he can get them, can get them shots.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what you have to do here
Speaker 1: and tonight, Like the Lakers don't have the bodies probably
Speaker 1: for it for a forty eight minute game. They have
Speaker 1: it in spurts when eighties at the five and with
Speaker 1: Mellow and Reeves and you know, like that it can
Speaker 1: kind of work. And you just have to survive until
Speaker 1: Lebron gets back, until we get our wings back. It's
Speaker 1: gonna look ugly, like Russ's decision making you turn that
Speaker 1: usage up, Turnovers are gonna go high. I thought one
Speaker 1: good thing he did tonight was get to the line.
Speaker 1: He took ten free throws, like I think that was
Speaker 1: a good thing, but five for fifteen, only two three
Speaker 1: point attempts he was over two, but twelve rebounds, fourteen assists. Again,
Speaker 1: we always talked about you can qualm about the numbers.
Speaker 1: They are what they are. He was a minus twenty
Speaker 1: one on the game, which that felt right, I guess
Speaker 1: watching it's one of the rare examples where a single
Speaker 1: game plus minus Yeah, was very accurate. It definitely felt right.
Speaker 1: His defense, again, is is probably one of my bigger
Speaker 1: issues that we don't talk about enough. We always go
Speaker 1: on the offense, but to me, his defense, it's still
Speaker 1: a really big issue. A lot of falling asleep. Hopefully
Speaker 1: clears up as the season goes maybe, but yeah, like
Speaker 1: this is what the rest experience is going to be.
Speaker 1: People kind of have to get used to this and
Speaker 1: hopefully it leads into some wins here. But when you
Speaker 1: have him as this high usage we've seen it in
Speaker 1: the past, like that's it's just not conductive to high
Speaker 1: level winning. And again, those turnovers you have to clean up.
Speaker 1: That's just inexcusable no matter what. And he knows that
Speaker 1: he's been the lead too long not to know those
Speaker 1: turnovers aren't there. But that's the rest experience. Man. I asked, like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about this every single game because this
Speaker 1: is what's going to happen after every single game. Oh God,
Speaker 1: I hope not. Um So let's let's let's talk about
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis a little bit because I thought this was
Speaker 1: another interesting Anthony Davis game. In a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: he's just actually, uh, you know, second tier of superstar
Speaker 1: slash first tier superstar depending on who you ask. So
Speaker 1: even his his weird bad games still come with a
Speaker 1: ton of good and and he had some awesome defensive
Speaker 1: stretches to say, we don't need to really dig into
Speaker 1: the minutia set is. However, I did think some of
Speaker 1: his body language was really interesting tonight. And I'm curious
Speaker 1: to your opinion. I have my two cents, but I
Speaker 1: want to go after you. So did you notice anything
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis's body rage which tonight? Do you think
Speaker 1: what do you think was causing it? And do you
Speaker 1: think it matters at all? Oh? Absolutely? I mean we talked.
Speaker 1: We talked about this in the last one too. It
Speaker 1: was gonna get uncomfortable once they start, you know, losing
Speaker 1: a lot. And I thought tonight was the most frustrated
Speaker 1: I've seen a d um I treated it tonight. He
Speaker 1: was walking to the huddle like shaking his head. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what that was at uh. I think it
Speaker 1: was the ugly offense, to be honest, like it was
Speaker 1: a lot of this. Russ had the ball at the top,
Speaker 1: He's kind of getting shoved out where he has to
Speaker 1: go get the ball at half court. And then try
Speaker 1: to run offense from there. It was a lot of
Speaker 1: just ugly stuff, but his body language definitely he was frustrated.
Speaker 1: You could just tell, uh, he was frustrated. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure the spacing at the defense, um, the lack of
Speaker 1: help rotations, like, but he was definitely frustrated tonight. And again,
Speaker 1: it's so weird because it felt like he was kind
Speaker 1: of walking through the game, but then you look up
Speaker 1: at the box score and it's like thirty points, twelve rebounds,
Speaker 1: you know, five blocks, and that's just the kind of
Speaker 1: player he is. It just felt like he could have
Speaker 1: Like it felt like some of the shots he got
Speaker 1: against late in the late in the clock, like he
Speaker 1: could have got that whenever he wanted, like he had.
Speaker 1: Gordon Hayward switched on him, Miles Bridges switched on him
Speaker 1: a ton of times where I thought he could have
Speaker 1: just been aggressive instead took some some questionable jump shots.
Speaker 1: But you know, you can't be mad at the line
Speaker 1: forty four minutes I was reading on the timeline. He
Speaker 1: threw up at halftime or in the third quarter or
Speaker 1: something like that, so he was still feeling sick. But
Speaker 1: you know, I thought he was incredible late in the fourth,
Speaker 1: especially in that lineup with the Rondo, him just running
Speaker 1: the floor, they're controlling the defense. I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: we're kind of seeing a d pick it up. His
Speaker 1: numbers have been great every his game to game effort
Speaker 1: still kind of goes up and down on defense sometimes,
Speaker 1: but it's not I thought he was incredible for in
Speaker 1: his minutes. Yeah, So it was an interesting uh, you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of the actual play on the court, it
Speaker 1: was very typical for him at this point in the
Speaker 1: season compared to his other performances, Like defensive effort was inconsistent.
Speaker 1: When he was trying, it was like he was just
Speaker 1: single handedly blowing up or in its place like like.
Speaker 1: But then there would be, you know, places where he
Speaker 1: would give up deep post position to Mason Plumley a
Speaker 1: few times for no particular reason, just because he's not
Speaker 1: fighting physically and then getting beaten that just like random
Speaker 1: little things like that, like typical, like he's been all
Speaker 1: season long, like inconsistent, but when he tries, it's shatteringly good.
Speaker 1: And then you know, So there were two plays where
Speaker 1: I noticed his body language, one where he appeared to
Speaker 1: be frustrated with Russ for not getting a post touch
Speaker 1: on a on a deep seal. And then and then
Speaker 1: there was another one in the second half. I think
Speaker 1: it was, Yes, it wasn't the second half where Russ
Speaker 1: was chest chest with I think it was Gordon Hayward
Speaker 1: on the left elbow and and just got the rush
Speaker 1: just like literally got cut through like tissue paper by
Speaker 1: uh By Hayward who finished a d had came over
Speaker 1: and actually blocked him but fouled him with the body
Speaker 1: and and he had the same bad body language. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting to me because like this is
Speaker 1: something I'm very critical about with Lebron over the course
Speaker 1: of his career. It's like it's fair weather leadership, right,
Speaker 1: like there are there are leaders that you know, keep
Speaker 1: the same even keel type of personality regardless of circumstance.
Speaker 1: Like when when your team is playing extremely well, they
Speaker 1: kind of try to keep you tempered and they're still positive,
Speaker 1: but they never let you get too high. And then
Speaker 1: when things get really bad and really down, they stay encouraging,
Speaker 1: they stay positive, they keep good bye. Like a great
Speaker 1: example that is Steph Curry. I think Steph Curry is
Speaker 1: the best like good times bad times leader that I
Speaker 1: seen in in this era. But you know, Lebron is
Speaker 1: like such a fantastic leader when things are going good.
Speaker 1: And fortunately he's so good that things are almost always
Speaker 1: going good. So there's still a giant amount of value
Speaker 1: in his form of leadership. But like Lebron has a
Speaker 1: tendency when things go south, to pout and to have
Speaker 1: bad body language and to perpetuate the media storm around
Speaker 1: the drama. You know, Like Lebron is not that guy
Speaker 1: that shuts that down. He almost plays into it more
Speaker 1: with like random little quotes and little tweets and and
Speaker 1: little looks and and you know, weird stuff like that,
Speaker 1: you know, And so that was kind of like a
Speaker 1: d you're frustrated. I get it, man, you're frustrated because
Speaker 1: Russ isn't getting you the ball in the spots that
Speaker 1: you normally like, or your team is not defending or
Speaker 1: whatever that is. And you know, I'm gonna criticize him
Speaker 1: the same way I criticize Lebron, Like, dude, that's not
Speaker 1: good leadership. You know. If anything, you have to be
Speaker 1: thinking in the back of your mind, like Lebron's coming back,
Speaker 1: We're gonna get healthy. This team has a much bigger
Speaker 1: ultimate goal than just winning this game tonight. So even
Speaker 1: if you end up losing by fifteen in the second
Speaker 1: half to Charlotte because you just don't have the horses
Speaker 1: and the guys aren't doing their job, you have to
Speaker 1: stay encouraging. You have to stay you know, there's a
Speaker 1: way to be critical of your teammates and to demand
Speaker 1: more out of them while also being a positive and
Speaker 1: engaged leader. And you know, this is something this is
Speaker 1: the last thing I'll say about it. This is something
Speaker 1: Veneta pointed out. Our buddy Veneto has been on the
Speaker 1: pod several times. He pointed out that, uh, he thought
Speaker 1: that he was partially to blame for some of Russ's
Speaker 1: struggles for not aggressively diving to the rim enough. And
Speaker 1: you know what, I think, I think Venet's right. Like
Speaker 1: I think that that there's a lot to be said
Speaker 1: about a d being too too quick to float around
Speaker 1: on the perimeter and to uh to try to be
Speaker 1: a pariter player instead of embracing these physical gifts and
Speaker 1: diving to the rim, which not only is good for
Speaker 1: the team, but that's what Russ likes to play with.
Speaker 1: Russ likes to get into the paint and make these
Speaker 1: little crafty drop off passes two big that's where he's
Speaker 1: most comfortable. And so, you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people when I tweeted it out about his body language,
Speaker 1: you said A D has to look in the mirror,
Speaker 1: and there's some truth to that like that, You like,
Speaker 1: that's part of why you have to be positive when
Speaker 1: things are down is because the reality is, dude, it's
Speaker 1: like if you were out there being a world beater,
Speaker 1: they probably would be winning. You know, So you've got
Speaker 1: to acknowledge your own faults and and use that to
Speaker 1: prevent yourself from being too negative with your teammates. And
Speaker 1: I think that that is something we have to be
Speaker 1: careful with both Lebron and a D in the stretch
Speaker 1: of the season, because even when Lebron comes back, they
Speaker 1: still have a limit at the forward position. They need
Speaker 1: to be better, they need to be good leaders, and
Speaker 1: we that's it goes from everything from their effort and
Speaker 1: consistency and professionalism all the way down to hey, dude,
Speaker 1: you can't be like shaking your head at your teammate
Speaker 1: when he gets be off the dribble again, because it
Speaker 1: looks bad. It looks bad on TV, it looks all
Speaker 1: your teammates see it, and they think that you're checking
Speaker 1: out mentally, Like it's all there's It's just bad. It's
Speaker 1: just bad, and I relate to it. All of us
Speaker 1: should relate to it because losing sucks. It sucks so bad.
Speaker 1: No one is happy when they're losing, so we like,
Speaker 1: I'm not. It's not an indictment of like his character.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just, hey, dude, let's cut that ship
Speaker 1: out moving forward, you know what I mean? Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: and like you know, eighties a guy who I think
Speaker 1: he's more of like a you know, leader that shows
Speaker 1: it rather than says it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: He's more of like a just follow my game. And
Speaker 1: I think he has to be the defensive leader for
Speaker 1: this team more than like, even though we'd love for
Speaker 1: I think during this strategy we needed scoring a bit more,
Speaker 1: but just like on this team, he kind of has
Speaker 1: to be that defensive leader. I saw him frustrated, but
Speaker 1: I mean, like I can kind of live with those. Uh.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure exactly. I wonder if he pointed out,
Speaker 1: you know, in the in the press press conference or something,
Speaker 1: but he was actually really frustrated about I'm sure all
Speaker 1: that stuff was mixed in. I'm sure the losing isn't fun.
Speaker 1: I'm sure playing on a team where, you know, going
Speaker 1: from last year where you had all these defensive guards
Speaker 1: and all that to this team where you know he
Speaker 1: has to cover up for even more, I'm sure all
Speaker 1: that's kind of baked in there, you know. But I
Speaker 1: mean his play was he picked it up with his play,
Speaker 1: and that's all you can kind of really ask ask
Speaker 1: for him. The shaking, the head stamp stuff, like I
Speaker 1: don't see it consistent enough from a d too where
Speaker 1: I think it's an issue yet. But I see your
Speaker 1: point there, Like I see that how it can kind
Speaker 1: of affect the rest of the team. Like the rust
Speaker 1: stuff is frustrating, Like I don't blame him if that's
Speaker 1: what he was frustrated about, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like the turnovers are definitely frustrating, you know. I think
Speaker 1: even someone pointed out that late in the game, he
Speaker 1: just asked for the ball. You know, he just asked
Speaker 1: you just asked for the guy. He just wanted to
Speaker 1: be the one bring it up. He's like just giving
Speaker 1: the ball at backcourt. I'll bring the ball up. But
Speaker 1: that was another big body language thing that I forgot.
Speaker 1: That was a weird play, like a because these guys
Speaker 1: are paying attention, they see the same things we see.
Speaker 1: That's why it's so crazy when we're like, oh, don't
Speaker 1: play Rondo, don't play d J. You want to be like, dude,
Speaker 1: how do you not see what we're seeing? But like
Speaker 1: in the bath court, he demanded the ball from Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook and then brought it up the floor, handled a
Speaker 1: little bit of all pressure from Miles Bridges up top,
Speaker 1: and then more ball pressure came and he almost was like,
Speaker 1: oh crap, never mind, I don't want to do this,
Speaker 1: whereas Russ right right, you know, like that's gonna happen. Man,
Speaker 1: And the Lakers needed to win tonight, like they really did.
Speaker 1: Tonight was important to me, like these lease losses can
Speaker 1: really pile up if you let them. That's another game.
Speaker 1: I think the Hornets went up three or something super
Speaker 1: late like and Carmelo kind of hit a bunch of shots.
Speaker 1: But tonight, tonight was important that they got this win.
Speaker 1: I think they play in Miami next, but you have
Speaker 1: four minutes thirty two points, like he did what he
Speaker 1: was supposed to dominate this New Leans team when it mattered.
Speaker 1: You'd like to see it a little bit more consistently.
Speaker 1: You'd like them not to blow these leads when they
Speaker 1: have them. This is just survival mode right now until
Speaker 1: we get our wings back. Hopefully PhD comes back soon,
Speaker 1: Kendrick comes back to back soon. Give a little bit
Speaker 1: more ball handling so that Rest doesn't have to, you know,
Speaker 1: control the ball as much as he did. But you know,
Speaker 1: at least they want tonight like that's that's a that's
Speaker 1: a positive to take from this. You don't want to
Speaker 1: learn all your lessons from losses, is what I would say.
Speaker 1: So tonight's a good game for them to get depictable win.
Speaker 1: I agree. I that was something I intended to say
Speaker 1: at some point during the show. And even if it's
Speaker 1: here towards the end, it's still good. This was a
Speaker 1: huge win. Um, I didn't think they were going to
Speaker 1: win tonight. I have some problems, the problems with the
Speaker 1: just not not problems. I have some I've come to
Speaker 1: terms with some harsh realities about this team's capability of
Speaker 1: winning games with all their forwards gone. Um. And to
Speaker 1: be clear, I think I think if if Mellow doesn't
Speaker 1: shoot the ball as well as he does. You know,
Speaker 1: we might be talking about a different type of result
Speaker 1: here tonight, but the point being, this is a huge
Speaker 1: win any of these games, especially with this tough stretch
Speaker 1: of the schedule here. They win any of these games
Speaker 1: without Lebron, that's that's a big deal. Now, hopefully Lebron
Speaker 1: comes back soon. Um, I don't think you'll play against I, ami,
Speaker 1: but if he could come back this weekend for you know,
Speaker 1: that Spurs game or that that Timberwolves game, that'd be
Speaker 1: a big deal. Um, I think it's Chicago. Actually doesn't
Speaker 1: matter anyway. It was a big win. It's a big win,
Speaker 1: and that's worth it. That's worth acknowledging. Um, it is
Speaker 1: twelve o seven after midnight here in Tucson. But I
Speaker 1: did promise we'd take a couple of collars. So let's
Speaker 1: take two quick ones and then let's call it tonight.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna playing. Sounds good, Let's see you we
Speaker 1: actually have a lot of requests. But yeah, loo kid,
Speaker 1: two people and get some more people on. I think
Speaker 1: the next game was on Tuesday, so let me let
Speaker 1: me see here. Yes, we and we will go Tuesday.
Speaker 1: I just have a long day tomorrow and it is late.
Speaker 1: I need to get some sleep at some point. Uh
Speaker 1: your average one. What's going on? Man? All right? Going
Speaker 1: once twice, also coming back and winning that in over
Speaker 1: and after the gigantic collapse that was largely fueled by
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook and the reps, well not the reps with
Speaker 1: the players getting too into it. With the reps like
Speaker 1: it was. It was a nice little show of responding
Speaker 1: to adversity. My guy, what's going on? What's up? So
Speaker 1: I didn't thought you'll bring me here as as a
Speaker 1: dam music question, go ahead, go ahead. If you look
Speaker 1: at the end of game patients like like Rust passing
Speaker 1: the ball to Ada and then cutting like to the
Speaker 1: M and then drifting like there's no spacing there like
Speaker 1: glasses man is easy doubling a D so there's no
Speaker 1: like how do you space rust investituations so that like
Speaker 1: you run into a little bit. But I think once
Speaker 1: last was wide open on the rim. Maydeve just missed
Speaker 1: the past, Like how do you space that better so
Speaker 1: that like other people can get look sort of whatever,
Speaker 1: just like there's no use right now. So you're saying,
Speaker 1: like when Russ is the entry passer, right to post
Speaker 1: entry passers to and then like if you're post how
Speaker 1: do you post up a D and space Rus on
Speaker 1: the post up? Like generally that's a Gordon move right,
Speaker 1: like like without Len that's the Gordon move right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is why I'm advocating for just straight screen and roll.
Speaker 1: Like when Russ is an entry pastor there's sometimes where
Speaker 1: the guy cheats and he backcuts off of it, um
Speaker 1: and he gets like a layup that way, or he
Speaker 1: just cuts through and then just sits at the dunker spot.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's a little bit harder to help
Speaker 1: from there. But there's no there's no like you know,
Speaker 1: easy answer to that. Like Russ's spacing is what it is.
Speaker 1: The guy who's guarding him is told probably five times
Speaker 1: before the game starts, Um, you know, to go to
Speaker 1: go cheat off Russ. That's why I mean this, Like
Speaker 1: just go high, straight pick and roll Russ a D
Speaker 1: give him three shoot years or even if it's not
Speaker 1: a D. If you're playing these bench lineups, uh rush
Speaker 1: dwhy you know, straight screener role get Russ. Teams mostly
Speaker 1: are going to go under that. Get Russ a head
Speaker 1: of steam going to the rim, try to chaos Craig
Speaker 1: chaos that way, What do you think, Jason, So you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting because I think a good percentage of this
Speaker 1: lands on a d um. You mentioned to play Surron
Speaker 1: the where he missed Russ under the rim. There wasn't
Speaker 1: a single Laker fan in the entire world who didn't
Speaker 1: see Russ there, and the camera was right behind Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis's head. He saw that too. So the harsh reality is,
Speaker 1: and this is something that Roger and I have talked
Speaker 1: about consistently over the last couple of years. A d
Speaker 1: is not really good at reading double teams, um or
Speaker 1: or defensive attention and the half court. It's not a
Speaker 1: strength of his and right now teams are extremely good
Speaker 1: at forcing him to becoming a jump shooter in post
Speaker 1: up situations, and right now he can't really make jumpshots
Speaker 1: at a high clip. So uh, he made a few
Speaker 1: mid range shots tonight, but just in general, his shot
Speaker 1: has been super uh sketchy over the basically since the bubble.
Speaker 1: So what makes it what becomes problematic is like I
Speaker 1: agree with Russ, you gotta run high, pick and roll
Speaker 1: because that gives you at least a better possibility of
Speaker 1: of getting something closer to the rim. The problem is
Speaker 1: is actually Charlotte did this on the key possessions of
Speaker 1: the game. They're just switching that pick and roll and
Speaker 1: so you almost have no choice but then to dump
Speaker 1: it back into the post. And again, a d is
Speaker 1: gonna because he doesn't really win those physical matchups, especially
Speaker 1: when he's fighting for position, Like he'll catch at seventeen
Speaker 1: eighteen ft turn and face, they'll double him and it's
Speaker 1: not in Russell cut or somebody will cut. Somebody will
Speaker 1: be open, but he just won't see it. And so
Speaker 1: this is just this is one of the shortcomings with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is like he just doesn't have that higher
Speaker 1: end court vision, the ability to make teams pay for
Speaker 1: overloading on him. And if it wasn't Russ, it would
Speaker 1: be somebody else, you know how we no, because that's
Speaker 1: what it was the last two years. But a post
Speaker 1: ups ending in double teams and him not finding the
Speaker 1: open option. There are more options right now, right like
Speaker 1: you can I think Russ can beat this big man
Speaker 1: if you're switching the pick and roll. I think Russ
Speaker 1: can beat that guy off the dribble and just drive.
Speaker 1: Are like if you're and one more option is like
Speaker 1: set another screen for a D, like let him dribble
Speaker 1: the ball, like he's pretty good at that, right, so
Speaker 1: given more space, like like after the ball goes to
Speaker 1: him in the post, nothing happens, no one moves, nothing happens.
Speaker 1: But you can re screen, right, I don't think. I
Speaker 1: think Adie can go through a screen dribble and get
Speaker 1: space or drive to the rim. But there's no creativity.
Speaker 1: There's no ball movement, like there's no proper spacing even
Speaker 1: though they're shooters on the court. I I don't understand
Speaker 1: what's happening. Yeah, that I mean there's I mean, it's
Speaker 1: kind of a vogal offense. There's some kind of lack
Speaker 1: of creativity. They're kind of pet thing with that. They
Speaker 1: throw it into a D opposite cornered man kind of
Speaker 1: sets the pin screen to get the corner shooter opposite open.
Speaker 1: That's like as far as they go, and they kind
Speaker 1: of let a D draw double and kick out from there.
Speaker 1: You're right, it's not too creative of an offense. But again, Russ,
Speaker 1: but that's a single action, right, Like why are not
Speaker 1: multiple actions? That's just not what they do. It's never
Speaker 1: been uh Voga is a very specific coach and that's
Speaker 1: just kind of the actions that they run. So yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is something that like I think is one
Speaker 1: of the core parts of Lebron's belief system too. He's
Speaker 1: kind of partially to blame here. Um. I think there's
Speaker 1: a relationship with with Frank that he kind of has
Speaker 1: a good amount of saying and what they do here
Speaker 1: and the the broadcast from the Portland Trail Blazers game
Speaker 1: the other day specifically mentioned this, the idea that the
Speaker 1: Lakers are kind of more of a brute force offense.
Speaker 1: It's like, here's the action we're running and because it's
Speaker 1: Lebron and a d there's absolutely nothing you can do
Speaker 1: about it. And it doesn't matter that we don't complicated.
Speaker 1: They'll do little things like when they when they were
Speaker 1: going against Cleveland, they would set a pinned down for
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis's man as he was coming up to set
Speaker 1: the screen, so there was more separation when they ran
Speaker 1: the pick and roll, which got them some good stuff
Speaker 1: out of it. They do little things like that, But
Speaker 1: I think the I think the reality is is when
Speaker 1: you get into the postseason, um teams, these really high
Speaker 1: end defenses are too good at taking away the gimmicks
Speaker 1: and taking away some of the scheme related stuff with offense,
Speaker 1: like running multiple actions against the goods. Switching defense just
Speaker 1: is gonna end up with you on an island again anyway.
Speaker 1: And the way that I think the team sees their
Speaker 1: future potential with Frank and Lebron at the helm of
Speaker 1: the offense is just like, who cares. You can't stop us,
Speaker 1: Like you can't stop Lebron and maybe um, regardless of
Speaker 1: whether we're on an island or we're running, or you're
Speaker 1: sending multiple bodies, you just can't stop us. And so
Speaker 1: that's kind of their approach. It's it's very archaic. I'm
Speaker 1: with you, M. I agree with you, but I just don't.
Speaker 1: I just don't. I don't see them changing that tactic
Speaker 1: at all. M. Thanks for having me up. Appreciate thanks.
Speaker 1: It's good to hear from you, man. I hope to
Speaker 1: hear you hear from me again sometime soon. Yeah. I'm
Speaker 1: an Eastern time like it's hard for me, dude. I
Speaker 1: hear you, Bro, I hear your brother. It's after midnight
Speaker 1: over here and I'm struggling. Good night, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. All right, let's get one more. Let's get
Speaker 1: wrote right right off. Are you there? Yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 1: What's going on? Man, I'm good, I'm good. Thank you
Speaker 1: very much guys for having me. Um. I just got
Speaker 1: like one question, like, um, I know it's a vote
Speaker 1: Walt team. Um. And one of the most frustrating things
Speaker 1: watching this team is just like every time they score,
Speaker 1: they end up either giving like you know, two points
Speaker 1: or three points basically like right away. It's like there's
Speaker 1: not like a string of like defense where they can
Speaker 1: like consistently get separation from the team. And this is
Speaker 1: like what the eleventh came and like of the season
Speaker 1: and they've conceded like basically home points or more intent
Speaker 1: of those games, if I'm not mistaken, So is this
Speaker 1: a reality that we're going to have to live with
Speaker 1: like until like I mean, even the guys that are out,
Speaker 1: I still don't have like much faith that the defense
Speaker 1: is gonna like you know, picked up with them coming
Speaker 1: back like offensively, we're gonna be better you know, as
Speaker 1: you stay as you get stated. But is this an
Speaker 1: reality that we're gonna have to live with like or
Speaker 1: can things improve on that end throughout the season to
Speaker 1: certain extent? Yeah, I mean like we we. Roger and
Speaker 1: I always talked about this team going on defensive runs.
Speaker 1: There was a defensive run tonight. It was in the
Speaker 1: end of the third quarter, beginning of four well, I
Speaker 1: think it was like a It was like a to
Speaker 1: nine run or something like that, over the course of
Speaker 1: roughly ten minutes of game clock. And the point is is,
Speaker 1: like you you want those to be more frequent and
Speaker 1: longer rather rather than rarer and shorter. And so the
Speaker 1: thing is over the course of the season that will
Speaker 1: manifest in their defensive rating. That's why Roger and I
Speaker 1: um point to that metric often. But the bottom the
Speaker 1: bottom line is, though, is like as a team, UM,
Speaker 1: when they get to the point where they have the
Speaker 1: personnel to actually be able to cause teams problems with
Speaker 1: their length and athleticism, they're really not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to do too many of these long or have too
Speaker 1: many of these long, extended defensive runs. They just don't
Speaker 1: have the personnel. But if you get a run like
Speaker 1: you had tonight out of a line up the head
Speaker 1: of Malik Monk in Carmelo Anthony on the floor, you
Speaker 1: praise the basketball gods, I promise you, man Like that
Speaker 1: was that was striking. That was that was lightning striking
Speaker 1: in the same place twice. You take it and you
Speaker 1: get out of the casino before where they before they
Speaker 1: come after you. So that's kind of that's kind of
Speaker 1: the way I see it. And by the way, you
Speaker 1: did accidentally hints at one other thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: mention to to everybody about that I thought was interesting
Speaker 1: about this game. One of the big downsides of when
Speaker 1: they go big with Lebron or with Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan at the floor is big guys just naturally
Speaker 1: gravitate to the rim on offense, Like even Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: when he's floating around the perimeter, like when the shot
Speaker 1: goes up, he always kind of like floats into the
Speaker 1: painted area and DeAndre Jordan's obviously down there. And almost
Speaker 1: every single time, this is another thing that Vene has
Speaker 1: been pointing out a lot over the course of the year.
Speaker 1: As soon as that shot goes up, the other team
Speaker 1: secures the rebound and starts springting the other way, And
Speaker 1: almost every single time, DeAndre Jordan and Anthony Davis take
Speaker 1: these slow, lumbering steps to kind of get their speed
Speaker 1: to get back, and almost every one of those possessions
Speaker 1: begins as a five on three and it's actually becoming
Speaker 1: a bit of a problem. And it's one of the
Speaker 1: many reasons why I say, like, just like taking something like, oh,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is a help defender when he plays the four.
Speaker 1: Taking something like that is just being the reason why
Speaker 1: you do something is so silly, because every action has consequences,
Speaker 1: and the consequence of having DeAndre Jordan on the floor
Speaker 1: it comes with all sorts of things like the slow
Speaker 1: pace I just talked about, or Russ getting off to
Speaker 1: a bad start not getting any good shots. Like DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan was super active to start that game tonight. He
Speaker 1: was flying around, dunking everything, getting tons of offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: It's very easy to look at that and go like, man,
Speaker 1: look at DeAndre Jordan's helping the starters. But it's like, oh, actually,
Speaker 1: Russ and a d had like zero rim attempts in
Speaker 1: that first shift. It's like so it's like, it's like,
Speaker 1: I got to come from art. There's always a give
Speaker 1: and take with that stuff. And so I know, I
Speaker 1: know that wasn't exactly what you asked, but that was
Speaker 1: something that I thought was so interesting because there was
Speaker 1: a play with Terry Rosier had a huge three to
Speaker 1: I think pushed their lead up to like six in
Speaker 1: the second half. And on the play a B and
Speaker 1: and Dr George's jogging at the floor like you just
Speaker 1: can't you can't do it with the foot speed is
Speaker 1: too slow when you have too giant human being. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: because like one thing, like you know, I've seen like
Speaker 1: that's it's becoming a trend. Like this team is hard
Speaker 1: to get separation. And one of the main problems that
Speaker 1: they can you know, that pretty much like creeps up
Speaker 1: every time. It's like every time they score or make
Speaker 1: a run, they pretty much give up that same run
Speaker 1: on the other end, and that basically basically forces the
Speaker 1: Lakers to play a lot of close games and we
Speaker 1: get a lot of those nervous moments towards the end
Speaker 1: of the game where we can't really like, you know,
Speaker 1: we haven't really had a comfortable, feel good type of
Speaker 1: win where we can just say like, okay, like we
Speaker 1: had a solid like especially like those third quarters where
Speaker 1: we basically get ran out basically out of the out
Speaker 1: of the court. So like I mean, like we can't
Speaker 1: really have the stretch where we just like our alid
Speaker 1: defensively enough to be able to create a separation. That
Speaker 1: would be nice, huh, just to get it, just to
Speaker 1: get a solid I'm right now, every night here like
Speaker 1: a defensive point look like it's not probably gonna happen
Speaker 1: during this church that there's just not enough good defenders
Speaker 1: out there on the floor. Like again I talked about it.
Speaker 1: I like that Russ you know, Jason, you said, praise
Speaker 1: to God's you get you know, stops with Monk and
Speaker 1: Carmelo on the floor. Wayne Ellington was on the floor
Speaker 1: too during that run. I'm pretty sure, so you got
Speaker 1: you know, you've got stopped with that lineup. But that's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be the exception, not the rule, Which is
Speaker 1: why I'm saying lean into offense because I don't think
Speaker 1: this team right now, just as it's constructed, with all
Speaker 1: the guys out, especially with Lebron out as well, I
Speaker 1: don't think we talked about how much Lebron actually impacts
Speaker 1: our defense. We think about it a lot of his
Speaker 1: ball ball handling and you know, shock creation, which is true,
Speaker 1: but also him being the like only powerful word that
Speaker 1: can defend at the high level, Like this team is
Speaker 1: not going to be able to get that many stocks,
Speaker 1: but they should be able to score, which is why
Speaker 1: I want them to kind of lean into that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: well we'll see. Hopefully they can get one one of
Speaker 1: these you know, wired and wired wins. I don't expect
Speaker 1: it happening. I can believe we play Miami next, So
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the team that it happens with.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe maybe something some of the teams after that
Speaker 1: you might get your wish, but but for now, like
Speaker 1: this team is just gonna have to you know, sneak
Speaker 1: out wins and and tonight was the first step. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you very much for having me. Guys are man
Speaker 1: than you have a good night, man, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: be back on Wednesday. So thank you very much, see
Speaker 1: you guys. Appreciate it. Man. You know what's funny, roj
Speaker 1: is the last thing I'm gonna say before we get
Speaker 1: out of here tonight. Uh, there's a weird thing that
Speaker 1: happens when you play the Miami Heat, Like you're probably
Speaker 1: gonna they're probably gonna lose. Someone say, would I would
Speaker 1: actually expect Vegas to have Miami as an half decent
Speaker 1: favor probably somewhere four or five points ish um, but
Speaker 1: they play so hard and they play so tough and
Speaker 1: and and fundamentally sound that it almost rubs off like
Speaker 1: it would. It's kind of like it's kind of one
Speaker 1: of those games where at the Lakers lost by ten
Speaker 1: fifteen points. It could be the kind of thing that
Speaker 1: kicks them back on the right track. Like sometimes you
Speaker 1: need to see just how good someone else is at
Speaker 1: something for you to realize how bad you are at something.
Speaker 1: Like I I coached the high school hoops right now,
Speaker 1: and my coach told me, my head coach that I
Speaker 1: that I'm the assistant for, told me the story today
Speaker 1: that he had a group that was kind of cocky
Speaker 1: and had bad attitudes, and so he took one of
Speaker 1: his former players who was a college athlete elsewhere and
Speaker 1: there used to be a former college athlete else where,
Speaker 1: brought him in and had all the kids get in
Speaker 1: a line, and he went one by one through the
Speaker 1: kids and beat them all one on one, and and
Speaker 1: he had them he had him do that to try
Speaker 1: to teach them a lesson about how far they had
Speaker 1: to go, that they were so far. Like, hey, like,
Speaker 1: before you guys start acting arrogant around me, you should
Speaker 1: realize just how small you are in the basketball world,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what I see this Miami matchup
Speaker 1: as is, like the Lakers have been an inconsistent group
Speaker 1: that doesn't have an identity, that has struggled to be
Speaker 1: bad teams, uh has lost the bad teams, and and
Speaker 1: is it just just is so far away from where
Speaker 1: they need to be. And sometimes it takes a team
Speaker 1: like Miami coming in and just whooping your ass in
Speaker 1: every facet of the game for you to finally walk
Speaker 1: into that locker room and be like, guys, we're not
Speaker 1: good enough and so and so that's what I wonder.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's gonna be Wednesday. Obviously, I hope
Speaker 1: the Lakers went. I hope they played great, but I
Speaker 1: just don't expect them to and I expect them to
Speaker 1: be shell shocked by just how much better Miami is,
Speaker 1: not with talent, but just doing all the things that
Speaker 1: you have to do to invest. And I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: we'll get the effort on Wednesday. For some reason, I
Speaker 1: thought it was on Tuesday. It's actually on Wednesday, So
Speaker 1: they get if you, uh, they get a game off tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But Uh, yeah, I think you'll get the you'll get
Speaker 1: the effort at least against a team like Miami. Right
Speaker 1: against these other teams you might not get that. But
Speaker 1: definitely against Heat, I expected even if they don't win,
Speaker 1: they could get blown out by thirty. Um, but I
Speaker 1: extract them to at least play hard during that game
Speaker 1: against against a good team like that. My last question though,
Speaker 1: for you before we close this, were you able to
Speaker 1: see the Yoki kind of uh, you know, elbow to
Speaker 1: the back of or whatever that was to Mark? Even Mark,
Speaker 1: what's your prediction for because obviously it's gonna be suspensions? Um,
Speaker 1: I think I thought I said double digit. That's probably
Speaker 1: pretty high. That's at least like six seven games though, right?
Speaker 1: Am I crazy? I am? I thinking that's too much?
Speaker 1: Because I feel like that's what we're gonna see this dispension.
Speaker 1: That's all I guess. We'll close out on this, like,
Speaker 1: what's your prediction that? Uh? If I had to guess,
Speaker 1: I'd say five games or less. Um. The reason why
Speaker 1: is you're gonna have Yoki people insisting that that the
Speaker 1: Morris play was dirting Morris. Morris is gonna get like
Speaker 1: one or two games and Yokis is gonna get like
Speaker 1: four or five games, that's my guest. And to be clear,
Speaker 1: like this is you know, I I enjoyed rooting for
Speaker 1: Marquis Morris over the last two seasons. I thought he
Speaker 1: was a really good role player. But him and his
Speaker 1: brother are so notorious for this crap. It's the it's
Speaker 1: the Patrick Beverley thing. And you know what, if Patrick
Speaker 1: Beverley irritates the crap out of you with dirty little
Speaker 1: you know bs basketball plays all season long and then
Speaker 1: you shove him in the back and give him whiplash,
Speaker 1: you deserve to be suspended. Like that's that is a
Speaker 1: bad overreaction, that kind of thing. It really hurts somebody
Speaker 1: to like I have I have a huge problem with
Speaker 1: you what Yoki did. But but there is there is
Speaker 1: some truth to the fact. Now when someone is just
Speaker 1: sitting there, it's like those dudes that like are the
Speaker 1: Royal Palace and in Great Britain that they have to
Speaker 1: like stand there with a straight face all the people
Speaker 1: are screwing with them. It's like at a certain point,
Speaker 1: if someone is just screwing with you NonStop, like like
Speaker 1: I relate to the fact that you might let your
Speaker 1: guard down and and end up flashing out a little bit.
Speaker 1: But to be clear, yokis crossed a huge line. He
Speaker 1: deserves to be suspended. I predict four or five games
Speaker 1: and more. Is not the one, right, He's not the
Speaker 1: guy exactly with exactly. Yeah, that was interesting around the
Speaker 1: league kind of thing. But yeah, we'll we'll be back
Speaker 1: again on on Wednesday to recap that one. Yes, thank
Speaker 1: you guys so much for coming hanging out. This will
Speaker 1: be on a podcast feed here about twenty minutes or
Speaker 1: so and we'll aeron dash rdy on tomorrow morning at
Speaker 1: seven am. Think he was always for your support. We'll
Speaker 1: see you on Wednesday two