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Speaker 1: here at the volume. Have you Monday, everybody. Hope all
Speaker 1: of you guys are having an incredible start to your week.
Speaker 1: We did start our reaction to Lakers Nuggets on live
Speaker 1: on YouTube, but we had some sort of tech difficulty
Speaker 1: that arose, so we're just starting from scratch here. At
Speaker 1: the beginning of this one, the Denver Nuggets and the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Kers played yet another game that looked just
Speaker 1: like every other game they played, and the Denver Nuggets
Speaker 1: are advancing to the conference semi finals to play the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Timberwolves. We're gonna break it down from the perspective
Speaker 1: of both teams. You guys do the job before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to a brand of YouTube channel so
Speaker 1: you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys don't miss
Speaker 1: any show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever
Speaker 1: you guys get your podcasts under Hoops tonight, and then
Speaker 1: last but not at least, keep dropping mail back questions
Speaker 1: and those YouTube comments. We can keep hitting them throughout
Speaker 1: the rest of the playoff front. So in a weird way,
Speaker 1: that game, to me embodied why the Nuggets are as
Speaker 1: successful as they are, because I know we have this
Speaker 1: tendency to just want a team, the best team or
Speaker 1: the best player, to always be playing their best and
Speaker 1: for things to always be the perfect set of circumstances.
Speaker 1: And the reality that's not how it works. You go
Speaker 1: back in in the late nineteen nineties, those Bulls teams
Speaker 1: that won, it's like a lot of guys are injured.
Speaker 1: There's on court drama, off court drama. You're just kind
Speaker 1: of plugging away trying to get through. Even going back
Speaker 1: to those Miami Heat teams, it's like Wade's knee is
Speaker 1: giving him issues. Chris Bosh has gott an abdominal strain
Speaker 1: like it just it ends up being more complicated than
Speaker 1: you expect more often than not, and that's the beauty
Speaker 1: of hoisting the Lari O'Brien trophy. The one that the
Speaker 1: Nuggets got last year was unusual in the sense that
Speaker 1: it lacked adversity in a lot of different ways. You
Speaker 1: never actually felt like Denver was threatened in that playoff series.
Speaker 1: That's unusual and a testament to how dominant the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets can be when they are healthy. Right. But we
Speaker 1: saw in this first round series here the first time
Speaker 1: a couple things go against Denver, Jamal Murray strains a
Speaker 1: calf muscle, CACP, tweaks an ankle all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like the mobility of your backcourt fundamentally shifts. And we've
Speaker 1: talked about this with Denver. Their roster construct depends on
Speaker 1: all five starters. I've had that qualifier with my Denver
Speaker 1: optimism all year long. I think they're the best team
Speaker 1: in the league, is the clear championship favorite, provided that
Speaker 1: all five of their starters are healthy, and when one
Speaker 1: of them gets hurt, it shrinks the gap between them
Speaker 1: and a team like the Lakers and could potentially be
Speaker 1: an issue down the line, which is why this game
Speaker 1: was so important. Minnesota just beat the Phoenix last night.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards looked like it looks like he's on a
Speaker 1: mission to try to take over the NBA. So you
Speaker 1: have to win tonight because if you don't two days
Speaker 1: from now, on Thursday, three days from now, you're going
Speaker 1: back to LA to play the Lakers Incrypto dot Com
Speaker 1: Arena with all the momentum in front of their home crowd.
Speaker 1: A good chance that thing gets sent back to Denver
Speaker 1: in seven. And yeah, Denver is gonna be favored in
Speaker 1: that game, and they probably I'd pick them to win
Speaker 1: that game, right, But all of a sudden, now you're
Speaker 1: hobbling into a Minnesota Timberworld Series. You needed this one,
Speaker 1: and once again from the opening tip, a bunch of
Speaker 1: stuff's not going your way. Lakers still playing really good basketball.
Speaker 1: By the way, Hopefully after this series, you guys will
Speaker 1: understand why I had some optimisms around the Lakers. I'd
Speaker 1: sixth in my list of contenders. It's because Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis are a problem and when they get
Speaker 1: support from their role players, they can be really difficult
Speaker 1: to beat. And you saw they got, you know, thirty
Speaker 1: five point thirty three points from Austin Reeves and D'Angelo
Speaker 1: Russell tonight, and it was kind of a rougher reatch
Speaker 1: to Mura game, but they got some support and they
Speaker 1: were right there at the end of the games. That's
Speaker 1: the type of challenge that this was. Denver was turning
Speaker 1: the basketball over a lot early. Cacp tweaks his ankle
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, It's like survival mode. You just
Speaker 1: got to find a way to get out, and everyone
Speaker 1: just found a way to contribute. The two main guys
Speaker 1: were Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Junior. Their shot making
Speaker 1: just saved the Denver Nuggets tonight. I thought we're gonna
Speaker 1: focus on Jamal murray shot making at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, and it was amazing at another driving layup
Speaker 1: and pick and roll hit a three off of that
Speaker 1: major offensive rebound from Aaron Gordon. It that the game
Speaker 1: winner over Austin Reeves, which was like perfectly contested. Austin
Speaker 1: was this close. When I've watched it the first time,
Speaker 1: I actually thought Austin might have got a piece of it. No,
Speaker 1: he didn't. Jamal got just enough separation and knocked down
Speaker 1: the shot. We're gonna focus on the end, but the
Speaker 1: truth is is Jamal's shot making was saving Denver from
Speaker 1: the first quarter when the Lakers were coming out with
Speaker 1: their hair on fire trying to get this game. Jamal
Speaker 1: and Reggie Jackson too. Shout at to Reggie Jackson. They
Speaker 1: made shots in that first half and kept the game close.
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior as well, Michael Porter Junior and Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray combined to go ten for seventeen from three and
Speaker 1: not like unbelievable. I in my time covering the league,
Speaker 1: in my time being a basketball fan, I can't remember
Speaker 1: a player other than Steph Curry where it's like, if
Speaker 1: he gets a decent look, it's just gonna go in.
Speaker 1: It's like rooting against Michael Porter Junior. Horrible experience. Highly
Speaker 1: advise you don't do that. Like it honestly is just
Speaker 1: like it's terrifying every time he catches you just you
Speaker 1: just know it's going in. But MPJ pours in twenty six,
Speaker 1: Jamal pours in thirty two, just kept the game close,
Speaker 1: and then down the stretch, guys made key plays. Jokic
Speaker 1: kind of a bad night by his standards again, twenty
Speaker 1: five points, twenty rebounds in nine assist because he's the
Speaker 1: best player in the world and his bad games are
Speaker 1: better than the vast majority of players good games. Right,
Speaker 1: but Ady was taking it to him up until he
Speaker 1: hurt his shoulder. Right, but he had a few key
Speaker 1: plays down the stretch of this game, a big offensive rebound,
Speaker 1: put back transition play where he sprinted ahead of the
Speaker 1: field ahead of Anthony Davis and got Ruey Hachimura in
Speaker 1: a cross match and took him right to the front
Speaker 1: of the rim and made his little kind of signature
Speaker 1: hook shot across the lane. Again, just made big plays
Speaker 1: in the game. And then Aaron Gordon, I thought, by
Speaker 1: far the biggest play of the game. Lakers get a
Speaker 1: stop for some miss. Lebron is trying to box Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon out and he just goes right over the top
Speaker 1: of him and snatches the offensive rebound, kicks it out
Speaker 1: to Jamal Murray, knocks down the three that puts Denver
Speaker 1: up to now all of a sudden, it's a back
Speaker 1: and forth type of game. Lebron, to his credit, made
Speaker 1: a couple of plays at the end to keep him
Speaker 1: in it. But once again, when it comes down to it.
Speaker 1: The Lakers just never could get a stop on the
Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets. Austin Reeves did his best, the best he
Speaker 1: possibly could in that situation. But again, this is a
Speaker 1: player I love Austin. I thought he hit a massive
Speaker 1: three at the end of the game too. But he's
Speaker 1: being asked to do a job that he probably shouldn't
Speaker 1: be asked to do, and he's done as well doing
Speaker 1: it as you could ever ask a player with his
Speaker 1: physical tools to do. But he's you know, arms just
Speaker 1: aren't long enough, just not quite athletic enough to get
Speaker 1: enough of a contest on that Jamal Murray shot and
Speaker 1: it goes in. Game is over, and here we are
Speaker 1: once again with Denver out executing the Lakers down the
Speaker 1: stretch of a game. Just what an unbelievable basketball game.
Speaker 1: It's just again, like I think everyone wants to pretend
Speaker 1: like it's easy, and it's not. It's usually not. It's
Speaker 1: almost always a grind. The year before, the Warriors were
Speaker 1: down two one having to go into Boston, right like
Speaker 1: going back to twenty twenty one, that series that the
Speaker 1: Bucks had to deal with with the Brooklyn Nets down
Speaker 1: two oh to the Phoenix Suns, teams like the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty Lakers who kind of ran through everybody in Denver
Speaker 1: and twenty twenty three who kind of ran through everybody.
Speaker 1: That's somewhat uncommon in the NBA, right, Like, usually it's hard,
Speaker 1: and when it's hard, the championship teams just find a
Speaker 1: way to get it done, and Denver found a way
Speaker 1: to get it done tonight. Kind of a little quick
Speaker 1: breakdown of the game, Like the reason why the Lakers
Speaker 1: kind of kept it close over the course of this
Speaker 1: tail stretch of the series in large part had to
Speaker 1: do with them kind of figuring out how to guard
Speaker 1: and Kole Jokic. One. Anthony Davis is the best defensive
Speaker 1: player in the world. I think he demonstrated that in
Speaker 1: this series in a big way while he was healthy.
Speaker 1: Just actually dissuaded Jokic a lot in one on one situations,
Speaker 1: timely doubles, really smart rotations. One of the big things.
Speaker 1: Remember the Jamal Murray dunk on Lebron That was a
Speaker 1: really interesting counter to what the Lakers were doing in
Speaker 1: their windshield wiper rotation. So basically, Dade double Jokic from
Speaker 1: the first pass away and then immediately rotate up with
Speaker 1: the guy at the top of the key and then
Speaker 1: kind of shift everybody around and the advantage would be gone.
Speaker 1: There'd be a short close out on the weak side,
Speaker 1: usually at KCP, and then they close out and the
Speaker 1: advantage would be gone. But on the critical play at
Speaker 1: the end of the game, when Jamal Murray dunked on Lebron,
Speaker 1: what happened was is, if you watch it, Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: is the windshield wiper rotation. So Ruy throws the first double,
Speaker 1: Austin rotates up to MPJ, but instead of standing on
Speaker 1: the perimeter where Dlo could have easily rotated to, Jamal
Speaker 1: cut down the lane. And when he cut down the lane,
Speaker 1: Jokic hit him and as a result there was an opening.
Speaker 1: Lebron was a step slow to get over in rotation
Speaker 1: and he dunked on Lebron. Just a massive execution adjustment
Speaker 1: from Denver to get a big bucket out of those
Speaker 1: Jokic double teams. And then the other reason why it
Speaker 1: was close is, you know, I still think Yokis is
Speaker 1: the best player in the world. Not a good defensive
Speaker 1: series from him. The Lakers sliced and diced him all
Speaker 1: over the floor. They had nothing they could do, couldn't
Speaker 1: guard Anthony Davis one on one, couldn't guard in ball screen.
Speaker 1: That ended up being a major issue in this series.
Speaker 1: And for the record, I think Lebron and ad Are
Speaker 1: are a unique challenge in that regard. And so even
Speaker 1: though Anthony Edwards is a really good athlete that can
Speaker 1: get downhill in terms of the playmaking piece that the
Speaker 1: Lakers had, Minnesota doesn't quite have that type of like quick,
Speaker 1: you know, read and react type of a thing going
Speaker 1: down to get easy buckets on the back line. So
Speaker 1: it'll be an interesting kind of different series as we
Speaker 1: had to Minnesota, and I'll be curious to see if
Speaker 1: Minnesota can kind of capitalize in some of the stuff
Speaker 1: that the Lakers were doing. But again, that's kind of
Speaker 1: what makes the Lakers the Lakers. It's not many teams
Speaker 1: are going to have a power forward that is six ' nine,
Speaker 1: two sixty that can dribble, shoot and pass the way
Speaker 1: that Lebron can, and then Anthony Davis on the other
Speaker 1: side of that two man game, and that that gave
Speaker 1: the Nuggets a lot of issues. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: if we go back to last year, Denver's defense was
Speaker 1: better against all three opponents other than the Lakers. They
Speaker 1: did better against Miami, they did better against Minnesota, they
Speaker 1: did better against Phoenix. The Lakers actually had the most
Speaker 1: success scoring against Denver last year, particularly in the paint.
Speaker 1: This matchup is a little tough for Denver on that
Speaker 1: specific front, right, And so because they kind of had
Speaker 1: some success guarding Jokic and because they were slicing and
Speaker 1: dicing him in the paint, that was what kind of
Speaker 1: kept the series close, right, But again, they just had
Speaker 1: to find a way to linger around. They waited for
Speaker 1: the Lakers to laker right, Like in that late third
Speaker 1: quarter sequence, Anthony Davis gets hurt, he leaves the floor,
Speaker 1: Lebron gets tired, Lebron starts making bad decisions, Darvin Ham
Speaker 1: doesn't call a time out, and they turn a eight
Speaker 1: point deficit into a three point lead in a matter
Speaker 1: of minutes. That's the thing again with the Nuggets. It's
Speaker 1: just hang onto the rope, hang onto the rope. The
Speaker 1: Lakers will eventually let go, even if it's just for
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes, they'll let go. They did. They
Speaker 1: flipped the script of the game, turned it into a
Speaker 1: dog fight, and as soon as it was a dog fight.
Speaker 1: The Nuggets just have better half court execution, especially on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor, and they got the
Speaker 1: buckets and got one more than the Los Angeles Lakers did.
Speaker 1: Once again, I felt bad for Anthony Davis because he
Speaker 1: was really having just an unbelievable series and having a
Speaker 1: lot of success, Like he closed the gap on Jokich
Speaker 1: in a big way in this series, and then his
Speaker 1: body let him down, and I feel really bad for
Speaker 1: him because that's a tough way to get kind of
Speaker 1: like he was still out there, he was defending, but
Speaker 1: he couldn't do anything on the offensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: and you could tell that left arm was just limp.
Speaker 1: So I felt bad. I felt bad for Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, like this is
Speaker 1: where margin for error kind of plays a role, like
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray had a strained calf and casep sprained his ankle,
Speaker 1: But the Nuggets did the work early in the series
Speaker 1: and went up three to OHO. So like, even if
Speaker 1: they did happen to lose this game, they'd have two
Speaker 1: days off to get their shit together and try to
Speaker 1: close things out on Thursday. The Lakers by going down
Speaker 1: three to oh because Anthony Davis got hurt. They didn't
Speaker 1: have the luxury of another game to figure that out.
Speaker 1: They had to win this one. And so again, like
Speaker 1: as I kind of zoomed back out of the series,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are good. They're a good basketball team, and
Speaker 1: they showed that. But the Lakers always just made a
Speaker 1: few more mistakes than Denver, and that really was the
Speaker 1: difference in the series. I saw a lot of talk today, Oh,
Speaker 1: the Lakers led seventy three percent of the series, and
Speaker 1: I think after tonight's game they led sixty nine percent
Speaker 1: of the series. Right, So Lakers led the majority of
Speaker 1: the series, but they lost four games to one. And
Speaker 1: the reason why is it didn't matter how they played
Speaker 1: for stretch for the entirety of the series, because in
Speaker 1: key pivotal stretches they got out executed. Game one, middle
Speaker 1: of the second quarter and then or end of the
Speaker 1: second quarter and then middle of the third quarter, two
Speaker 1: crucial execution lapses from the Lakers. They go give up
Speaker 1: a thirteen oh run in that or a ten to
Speaker 1: oh run in that second quarter, and a thirteen oh
Speaker 1: run in the third quarter. Game is over, right. Game two,
Speaker 1: you're up twenty in the second half, there's a half
Speaker 1: dozen execution errors in that late third quarter run. After
Speaker 1: the Nuggets make their switch from a bunch of different players,
Speaker 1: the lead shrinks going into the fourth quarter, totally different game.
Speaker 1: Then you give up a bucket on eight out of
Speaker 1: nine tries down the floor at the end of the
Speaker 1: game Game three, you're up at halftime, and you just
Speaker 1: completely let go of the rope and give an incredibly
Speaker 1: poor effort in the third quarter. Those are the ones
Speaker 1: you have to look back at again. If you do
Speaker 1: better in those situations, in those situations, you give yourself
Speaker 1: a better chance to win the series in the long run. Again,
Speaker 1: like if I look back, the Lakers are good, but
Speaker 1: the difference between them and Denver is their ability to sustain,
Speaker 1: their ability to maintain their composure, to maintain their execution,
Speaker 1: to maintain their effort. Denver did, the Lakers didn't. That's
Speaker 1: why they're a championship team. That's why the Lakers are
Speaker 1: something less than that. It doesn't matter. You don't get
Speaker 1: bonus points for leading unless there are zeros on the clock,
Speaker 1: and Denver, more often than not eighty percent of the
Speaker 1: games in the series was leading when there were zeros
Speaker 1: on the clock. Looking for it looking forward to Nuggets Wolves,
Speaker 1: Obviously you need the Denver to rest up and get healthy.
Speaker 1: KCP is going to have his hands full with Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 1: I think that Denver will do a similar kind of
Speaker 1: thing to what Vogel did and bring Yokic up in
Speaker 1: a high drop and test ants playmaking. Mind you, the
Speaker 1: Timberwolves were handling that really well and had a great
Speaker 1: playmaking series. I have a feeling that that's something that
Speaker 1: Minnesota will have some success against. I think they'll do
Speaker 1: similar things to Mike Conley, kind of sagging off and
Speaker 1: seeing if he's willing to score big differences in the series.
Speaker 1: Compared to the Sun series, the Wolves got offensive rebounds
Speaker 1: on almost forty percent of their own misses against the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns. Denver, especially in their starting five, is just
Speaker 1: a much better defensive rebounding team, So I think that
Speaker 1: they'll just have a lot more success ending those defensive possessions.
Speaker 1: I think on the offensive end, it's going to be
Speaker 1: a big part of like Jokic is going to have
Speaker 1: to score. You know, this series, it was a totally
Speaker 1: different type of matchup. I think Anthony Davis is a
Speaker 1: better defensive player than Rudy Gobert personally, I know some
Speaker 1: people disagree. I think Ad is he has more kind
Speaker 1: of strength to him, so you can kind of hold
Speaker 1: up a little bit better under the Jokich bullyball. But
Speaker 1: like the reality is is Jade McDaniels is gonna be
Speaker 1: on Jamal Murray. Jade McDaniels is gonna be on Jamal Murray,
Speaker 1: and that's just an entirely different class of perimeter athlete
Speaker 1: than Austin Reeves. To put it simply, Jade McDaniels, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, is the best perimeter defender in basketball. And
Speaker 1: then they'll also put Anthony Edwards on him for stretches.
Speaker 1: So like that on ball defense piece is going to
Speaker 1: make it so that Jokic has to score more. He
Speaker 1: can't do what he did in this series where he
Speaker 1: just kind of gave up the basketball anytime he felt
Speaker 1: any resistance and just kind of cleaned up trash around
Speaker 1: the basket for offensive rebounds. Jokic is going to have
Speaker 1: to score. He's gonna have to score on kat He's
Speaker 1: gonna have to score on Rudy Gobert. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a huge element of the series. I think matchups are
Speaker 1: gonna be a big part of it too, Like in
Speaker 1: all likelihood they'll probably start with Ant on MPG and
Speaker 1: try to hide Conley on KCP right, and so getting
Speaker 1: into those situations where Michael Porter Junior is having some
Speaker 1: success on the offensive class with his height shooting over
Speaker 1: the top of Ant on the weak side is gonna
Speaker 1: be big obviously, like using KCP in actions to try
Speaker 1: to attack Mike Conley to get in rotation. There's gonna
Speaker 1: be a bunch of different things that Denver's gonna have
Speaker 1: to look at. I'm not gonna get into the specifics
Speaker 1: into too much more detail tonight because we're gonna do
Speaker 1: a full series preview over the course of the next
Speaker 1: couple of days here, but it's gonna be a really
Speaker 1: interesting series. I think if I was ranking teams at
Speaker 1: this point in the playoffs, especially in light of the
Speaker 1: chrisops Porzingis injury, Denver's won for me. Minnesota is now two,
Speaker 1: and I know I had Minnesota lower in my pre
Speaker 1: playoffs kind of like contender rankings, but at that point
Speaker 1: in time, Jamal Murray wasn't playing as well, or excuse
Speaker 1: me not, Jamal Murray. Anthonywards, I pulled these numbers earlier
Speaker 1: today when we were working with the nerds. But Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards in the regular season twenty six points per game
Speaker 1: on fifty eight percent through shooting, with five rebounds and
Speaker 1: five assists. In the playoffs thirty one points per game
Speaker 1: on sixty five percent through shooting, with eight rebounds per
Speaker 1: game and six assists per game. So he's just at
Speaker 1: a different level now than what he was in the
Speaker 1: regular season. Changes the calculus that entire team. I have
Speaker 1: them as the second best team and so on Boston
Speaker 1: just without Porzingis and with some of their execution errors,
Speaker 1: and they're just not a very serious team right now.
Speaker 1: They've been playing with their food a little bit with Miami.
Speaker 1: I think Minnesota is playing better basketball right now. And
Speaker 1: so that series, that Minnesota Denver series, could very well
Speaker 1: end up being the series that determines who wins the
Speaker 1: NBA Championship, although Boston, I know, will have something to
Speaker 1: say about that in the finals. Excited to break that
Speaker 1: one down and get a prediction to you guys in
Speaker 1: the next couple of days. On the Lakers front, moving forward,
Speaker 1: they're going to look back at this series as just
Speaker 1: a sea of missed opportunities, missed a bunch of free
Speaker 1: throws Tonight, Lebron misses a box out on Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: late in the game that very well would have sent
Speaker 1: this thing back to Los Angeles. The game two, late
Speaker 1: game execution errors as they as they blew that twenty
Speaker 1: point lead, the back to back massive runs that they
Speaker 1: gave up in the second and third quarter in Game one.
Speaker 1: A lot of missed opportunities for the Lakers in this series.
Speaker 1: Ruey hatch Mura basically no shows. The series d LO
Speaker 1: gives you three good games and two atrocious games. Austin
Speaker 1: kind of a really good defensive series, struggled to make
Speaker 1: shots for the most part, right like just a lot
Speaker 1: of meat left on the bone, and quite frankly like
Speaker 1: they need a new coach. This is something that they
Speaker 1: need to address in this offseason. I think that they're
Speaker 1: closer than people think, but at the same time, there's
Speaker 1: a very small window here. I think he got maybe
Speaker 1: one more year out of Lebron James where he's at
Speaker 1: a superstar level, and then there's probably going to be a
Speaker 1: substantial decline, and it's very likely that that decline starts
Speaker 1: next year at his age and so there's an opportunity
Speaker 1: here if they can make some moves on the margins.
Speaker 1: But they're close. But you cannot go into a series
Speaker 1: like this again at a massive execution disadvantage. You have
Speaker 1: to address that at the head coach, and you have
Speaker 1: to address that for eighty two games in the regular season.
Speaker 1: You need to establish habits of being an execution and
Speaker 1: decision making team throughout the entire regular season so that
Speaker 1: when you get into these situations, you don't make those
Speaker 1: kinds of mistakes. And I wanted to hit Lebron for
Speaker 1: a second because it was like, you guys own a
Speaker 1: Lebron fan, and Lebron fans hate me because I'm willing
Speaker 1: to say stuff like this. But Lebron's series was so
Speaker 1: weird to me. I felt like he had his hands
Speaker 1: in everything good, but also in everything bad. Those two
Speaker 1: runs in Game one, the second quarter run in the
Speaker 1: third quarter run, it was Lebron's decision making that was
Speaker 1: the problem, and he made several mistakes in both of
Speaker 1: those runs. He would get tired and then his decision
Speaker 1: making would slip. Moving forward to Game two, when they
Speaker 1: made the switch to put Gordon on Anthony Davis Lebron
Speaker 1: kind of froze eighty out of the game and started
Speaker 1: attacking with ruey and ball screens and wasn't really the
Speaker 1: right way to attack KCP as a perimeter player. Just
Speaker 1: wasn't the right way to do it. I thought it
Speaker 1: was a poor decision. Game four or Game three, it
Speaker 1: was him that was losing. Aaron Gordon constantly on the
Speaker 1: back line, as he was getting offensive rebound put back
Speaker 1: after offensive rebound put back after cut on the baseline
Speaker 1: for a dunk. And then tonight it was like he
Speaker 1: was awesome for most of it, but then it's like
Speaker 1: there's this weird third quarter stretch where he's clearly tired
Speaker 1: and he's settling for bad shots and turning the basketball over.
Speaker 1: And then in the fourth quarter makes so many big
Speaker 1: plays but then misses the biggest Like how could you
Speaker 1: miss that box out on Aaron Gordon just let him
Speaker 1: reach out. Literally all he had to do after he
Speaker 1: had him boxed out was go get the basketball. But
Speaker 1: he sat down in his stance and just let ad
Speaker 1: or ag go right over the top of him. It
Speaker 1: was like such a bizarre Lebron series because like, genuinely
Speaker 1: he was awesome, or like making mistakes, like big mistakes
Speaker 1: at critical points in the game, and it was just
Speaker 1: back and forth between that throughout the whole series. There's
Speaker 1: honestly one of the weirder series I've seen Lebron play,
Speaker 1: because like he's just usually not the guy that makes
Speaker 1: execution errors and it was part of you know, and honestly,
Speaker 1: this is where I go back to the eighty two
Speaker 1: games thing that was kind of part of the story
Speaker 1: of the Lakers this year, Like it was just from
Speaker 1: the top down that just execution slip lapses, and Lebron
Speaker 1: was also responsible for part of that. So again, I
Speaker 1: think he still got good basketball in him. I want
Speaker 1: to see him play in this environment again. I want
Speaker 1: to see him do it on a team that's got
Speaker 1: a little bit more talent. And I hope that they
Speaker 1: can do that in LA or that Lebron can find
Speaker 1: a different place for him to do that. But man,
Speaker 1: like this close, this close again to sending that thing
Speaker 1: back to LA and potentially extending this series. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. As always, as
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be back at for sure tomorrow. Night to cover the
Speaker 1: Game five between the Mavericks and the Clippers, But we
Speaker 1: actually know tomorrow's Game five Philly versus New York the
Speaker 1: Clippers MAVs game I think is on Wednesday, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna be back live on YouTube tomorrow night. Keep an
Speaker 1: eye on my Twitter feed. I'll let you guys know
Speaker 1: when I'm doing the series preview on Nuggets Timberwolves. Again.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys rocking with me and I will
Speaker 1: see you tomorrow. The volume