Speaker 1: Hmmm, it will be interesting to see what happens. But
Speaker 1: man like like that was that was you know, if
Speaker 1: you were thinking the Suns would fold under a real
Speaker 1: Laker punch, you're wrong, because they they they definitely do
Speaker 1: not think that they're an underdog. They play like someone
Speaker 1: who thinks they can win the series, which makes it
Speaker 1: a lot more interesting. No. Absolutely, I was upset that
Speaker 1: anyone who thought this was gonna be something super short series. Like,
Speaker 1: I think the Sons are really good. You don't win
Speaker 1: that many games in the regular season without being a
Speaker 1: legit team, and they have all the continuity, even with
Speaker 1: Chris Paul going out, which we'll talk about later, but
Speaker 1: they have all this continuity they've built us through the
Speaker 1: regular season and it shows. It shows in pressure moments
Speaker 1: their guys have confidence to take big shots. We'll go
Speaker 1: I guess we'll cover campaign as well, but just huge
Speaker 1: shots from those role players. Yeah, Like we're like you said,
Speaker 1: we're going to dive into the actual intricacies of it all,
Speaker 1: but the biggest Like if you're gonna add like a
Speaker 1: kind of like a story of this game, the story
Speaker 1: of this game was that the Sun's kind of came
Speaker 1: with you know, one of their best punches, so to speak,
Speaker 1: in an effort on both ends that included, you know,
Speaker 1: a huge run at the end of the game, and
Speaker 1: the Lakers punch was just a little better. And and
Speaker 1: we're going to dive into all that. Um, welcome everybody
Speaker 1: to the State of the Lakers postgame show. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for being patient with Rog and I
Speaker 1: as we were engaged in travels around the around the country.
Speaker 1: Rog came to my home state. I left my home
Speaker 1: state to go to my family's home state, and I've
Speaker 1: happened to catch the game one in a podunk, Texas
Speaker 1: sports bar in a town called Graham, which is that
Speaker 1: two hours outside of Dallas, at this ranch that we
Speaker 1: stopped by on the way out of town. And very
Speaker 1: fortunate to catch the game. Very unfortunate to be able
Speaker 1: to record anything because there was like no self service
Speaker 1: out there or anything like that. But I appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys being patient with us. We're gonna try to cover
Speaker 1: as much as we can from these first two games,
Speaker 1: and then depending on how long we go, we'll try
Speaker 1: to get some of you guys up here to hang out.
Speaker 1: But I guess, I guess my first question for you,
Speaker 1: Roj is just where are you standing? How do you
Speaker 1: feel after that game? Do you feel like the Lakers
Speaker 1: are in for an absolute fist fight here? Do you
Speaker 1: think the Lakers figured some stuff out? Do you think
Speaker 1: this is kind of flukey from Phoenix to be this competitive?
Speaker 1: Where what's where you at mentally right now with with
Speaker 1: this series? It's not glucky at all to me, like
Speaker 1: that you win that many games in the regular season,
Speaker 1: you're good team Phoenix is really well coached. They weren't
Speaker 1: going to go down easy, even with Chris Paul out.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are trying to pick the Lakers
Speaker 1: in foo. I think you picked him tie. Um. I
Speaker 1: always thought this was a little longest series six previous
Speaker 1: probably not seven, but at least the sixth game. I
Speaker 1: just think they're really good. Devin Booker is a tough cover.
Speaker 1: The Lakers definitely figure some things out. But I guess
Speaker 1: my main takeaway here is like we need Anthony David
Speaker 1: to show up to the playoffs. Um, he was not
Speaker 1: there for Game one. He was definitely here tonight. He
Speaker 1: was more aggressive. Um. I know there were still points
Speaker 1: of the game where he could have been a little
Speaker 1: bit more aggressive. But I thought he played a really
Speaker 1: good overall overall game. Um, he got to the foul
Speaker 1: line a lot and just Jumper didn't go down. But
Speaker 1: it was a good game from him, and that the
Speaker 1: Phoenix is just they're a tough team and they don't stop.
Speaker 1: They have guys off the bench who aren't scared of
Speaker 1: the moment. Cam Johnson campaign all this DeAndre Aden I thought,
Speaker 1: had another list strong game inside. Even the Lakers figures
Speaker 1: and things out. So but the Lakers, their job, hero
Speaker 1: is to steal one, right, Like, that's what your job is.
Speaker 1: When you have the road team in the playoffs. Your
Speaker 1: your job is to get a split. Everyone would like
Speaker 1: to get to but your job really is just get one,
Speaker 1: get at least one. And they did that. They still
Speaker 1: home courtback and they go back to State full is Um.
Speaker 1: I think, as we know in regular playoffs, the home
Speaker 1: the home team's role players shoot better. I think hopefully
Speaker 1: we get some of that. I want to go back.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that was a pretty solid game
Speaker 1: is what I expected. I didn't think we were just
Speaker 1: going to blow them out. Yeah. So one of the
Speaker 1: things that I talked about a lot last year, Um gosh,
Speaker 1: I can't even remember which series it was or which game,
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure I talked about it with you. Um.
Speaker 1: But essentially the reason why it's so dangerous to trick
Speaker 1: a game off, you know, to essentially let a game
Speaker 1: slip away to feel things out or whatever it is
Speaker 1: that you do, uh, whatever it is that the Lakers
Speaker 1: did in game one, whatever you want to call that effort,
Speaker 1: which we'll get into later. When you do that, and
Speaker 1: then you talk all the right stuff and you say like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, we you know, we're gonna come out and
Speaker 1: be more aggressive in game two, We're gonna make the adjustments.
Speaker 1: And Anthony Davis is like, that's on me. I'll come back,
Speaker 1: I'll be better. That's all well and good, but you're
Speaker 1: never guaranteed to win a basketball game even when you
Speaker 1: play your best. And I thought the Lakers put forth
Speaker 1: a considerably better defensive effort. I thought Anthony Davis was
Speaker 1: way better than he than he was in game one. Um,
Speaker 1: but here comes campaign with like the game of his life,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, you still you still can't
Speaker 1: guard DeAndre and in any screening role action with one
Speaker 1: of their guards, and Devin Booker goes on a run
Speaker 1: in the third quarter where he's surgical attacking you in
Speaker 1: the half court and so you almost lose. And don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, it worked out, um in this series,
Speaker 1: very well may work out for the Lakers. But that
Speaker 1: was what was frustrating to me about that game Game
Speaker 1: one in particulars It's like, yeah, you're feeling things out,
Speaker 1: Yeah it might all work out, but what if campaign
Speaker 1: makes one more of those shots, he misses a couple
Speaker 1: of those threes, and Lebron who is clearly a little
Speaker 1: bit hampered, I'm not concerned about it in the long run,
Speaker 1: but that's the reality of his situation right now. Um,
Speaker 1: it's clear that that if some of those shots don't
Speaker 1: go in, they could be heading back to l a
Speaker 1: down to oh um. And so that's one of those
Speaker 1: things where it was a little frustrating for me hearing,
Speaker 1: you know, Darius story on Our Friend from the Laker
Speaker 1: Film Room podcast. He said this, Uh, he said this
Speaker 1: on his post game show the other night. He goes,
Speaker 1: I'm a little sick and tired of hearing the same
Speaker 1: usual stuff from the Lakers after dropping a game one
Speaker 1: and and I and I kind of share that sentiment,
Speaker 1: but that's that. It is what it is. It all
Speaker 1: worked out in this particular game. As far as Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis in particular, you know what I was most impressed
Speaker 1: with is he made huge, huge plays in that game
Speaker 1: even though his off the dribble jump shooting game is
Speaker 1: still completely broken, including his last one being an absolute
Speaker 1: airball uh long over the rim, a shot over DeAndre Ayton.
Speaker 1: So for you know, for him to continue to be
Speaker 1: physically aggressive on both ends of the floor. He drew
Speaker 1: some fowls in the paint being aggressive, trying to drive
Speaker 1: to the basket, and then obviously the two huge threes
Speaker 1: he made in the second half. For him to do
Speaker 1: all that when his you know, mid range game, which
Speaker 1: was his bread and butter and last postseason. For him
Speaker 1: to do all that while his mid range game basically
Speaker 1: completely abandoned him, I thought was a pretty impressive game.
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, all you need
Speaker 1: is the wind who cares about all the details. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you brought up those late two threes. I think that
Speaker 1: was huge for him to just keep shooting them. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of players and some of my mentions
Speaker 1: hoing to just tell me that, like people are passing
Speaker 1: up shots. They definitely were. The Lakers shot thirty percent
Speaker 1: from three. They went out to him for thirty three.
Speaker 1: I thought they got a lot of open looks right,
Speaker 1: like a lot of them were good. K CP passed
Speaker 1: up a lot of them. I think he missed all
Speaker 1: his three. Um Kuzma missed his open threes. Just a
Speaker 1: lot of dudes who usually have been hitting him through
Speaker 1: the regular season, just we're not making the three. Phoenix
Speaker 1: also only shot. They only took twenty six three, which
Speaker 1: feels low for them, but that the Lakers really kind
Speaker 1: of closed them out. But yeah, think Davis Man, his
Speaker 1: his jumper wasn't going. Um. He was kind of adding
Speaker 1: to that, adding to all the players who weren't shooting
Speaker 1: at the end of the game. It looks like nobody
Speaker 1: wanted the ball. Um. Nobody wanted the ball at the end.
Speaker 1: And he was one of these passing up shots. But
Speaker 1: he hit those two big ones late and he saw
Speaker 1: him like delt how to stream Um and they have to.
Speaker 1: He has to keep shooting those that that midrange a
Speaker 1: little shot there, like he does settle sometimes, but it's
Speaker 1: part of their offense, like it's part of what makes
Speaker 1: them so tough. His isolation scoring, especially when they're playing
Speaker 1: with two bigs. They closed with him at the five,
Speaker 1: which I thought really read him up a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But if they're playing with two big that little that
Speaker 1: jumper has to be falling at some point, and I
Speaker 1: think it will, especially off picking roles. Um he was
Speaker 1: missing all of them, but it has to go that
Speaker 1: that that's part of his game. Um, So I think
Speaker 1: it will. I think some home games will help for
Speaker 1: him and the whole team. Just get the shooting right.
Speaker 1: Usually can't win shooting thirty percent from three, like usually
Speaker 1: just do not win. Um, the Lake has held next
Speaker 1: to like ninety four points before that. I don't know
Speaker 1: what that Devin Booker foul pest was at the end.
Speaker 1: That was kind of dude. But before that they had
Speaker 1: on like ninety four points in the first game. That's
Speaker 1: really good for the Son's team. That's that's a high
Speaker 1: powered offense. Again, there's no Chris Paul, but that's it's
Speaker 1: still a really good offensive team. And to hold him
Speaker 1: to that is is good. So I guess we can
Speaker 1: kind of keep moving here, Like what did what do
Speaker 1: you see from like their defense? Like what what change
Speaker 1: do you think in that in that first in that
Speaker 1: in that game before after Game one, so well, first
Speaker 1: of all, we saw a complete shift away from Montrez
Speaker 1: Harrold into Marcusol. There was there was a bunch of
Speaker 1: really interesting stuff with the rotation. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you noticed this, but in the first quarter they stayed
Speaker 1: with Lebron and sent a D to the bench and
Speaker 1: they brought in Marcusol. And then in the third quarter
Speaker 1: they took Lebron out early left a D in the
Speaker 1: game with marcusol. Um. But you know, for all the
Speaker 1: things that Marcusol did to help them on offense, I
Speaker 1: thought his lack of foot speed actually hurt them a
Speaker 1: bit and pick and roll, and you know, as far
Speaker 1: as the Laker defense goes, they this is the most
Speaker 1: fascinating part of of of an NBA playoff series is
Speaker 1: when when a really elite defense like the Lakers turns
Speaker 1: it up and brings the effort in a way they
Speaker 1: did not in Game one, and they shut down all
Speaker 1: of the easy stuff, and yet still the Phoenix Suns
Speaker 1: managed to generate a bunch of advantages and it obviously
Speaker 1: for them, it came through screen and roll with campaign
Speaker 1: and Chris paul A little bit of Devin Booker in
Speaker 1: the second half, although he wasn't as good as he
Speaker 1: was in Game one, but it was all the same
Speaker 1: exact thing. It was DeAndre Atan setting a really solid
Speaker 1: screen at the point of attack that got whoever it was,
Speaker 1: whether it was k C. P Cruso, Dennis Shrewder off
Speaker 1: the ball handler. So now the ball handler is craning
Speaker 1: into the paint and the Lakers are trying to corral
Speaker 1: him with the big man, but the foot speed is
Speaker 1: too quick with those guards and they're getting around the
Speaker 1: big man and when the help comes there, spraying it
Speaker 1: out around for threes and so it will be really
Speaker 1: interesting to see is even though the Lakers stepped up
Speaker 1: their defensive intensity and there's gonna be a lot fewer
Speaker 1: mistakes when we look at the film, they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to figure something out on how to slow down that
Speaker 1: pick and roll because they made the Sons made it
Speaker 1: look easy at a lot of stretches tonight. And Eton
Speaker 1: is so good after setting that screen, diving to the
Speaker 1: rim and just making himself available, and then when he
Speaker 1: catches the ball, he keeps it high above his head
Speaker 1: and he just dumps it into the basket and and
Speaker 1: and that pairing works extremely well. And so what I'm
Speaker 1: really really interested to see what what Frank Vogel wants
Speaker 1: to do. My personal opinion is that they need to
Speaker 1: drop the center's put a d in that screening action
Speaker 1: and start switching some of this stuff. Now. The problem
Speaker 1: is is that then Eton is doing a really good
Speaker 1: job of diving to the rim and then uh posting up.
Speaker 1: But that's where you know, the the overall foot speed
Speaker 1: of the Lakers. By dropping a center and going with
Speaker 1: another Wayne player or another guard will make it so
Speaker 1: that they can rotate and do a little bit better. Um,
Speaker 1: And then we can also talk actually, what's your opinion
Speaker 1: on the defense and then specifically what did you think
Speaker 1: about Dennis Shrewder defensively tonight? Yeah, so I thought defensively,
Speaker 1: like they really try to sell out on eight and
Speaker 1: he still had he still got a lot of good
Speaker 1: looks in the paint. But I thought they had like
Speaker 1: a dum and Drummond kind of step up a lot
Speaker 1: higher right on Devin Booker trying to not let him
Speaker 1: get that mid range pull up a little easier. And
Speaker 1: they have Lebron who got a bunch of steels early,
Speaker 1: right because he was just reading that past and I
Speaker 1: was going to eight, and I think he picked off
Speaker 1: like two or three eight. He got a few picks
Speaker 1: as well, and just having those dudes as a help defender,
Speaker 1: and you could just see there their engagement was so
Speaker 1: different right just to start this game. You could tell
Speaker 1: their engagement on defense a d lebron. Both of them
Speaker 1: were just ready for that play. And I think the
Speaker 1: son's kind of adjusted a little bit eight and still
Speaker 1: got good looks. He has some good passes out to
Speaker 1: like mckel bridges and other dudes to hit threes. But
Speaker 1: I thought they were really trying to sell out and
Speaker 1: eating and not let Devin Booker kind of get to
Speaker 1: that mid range jumper. That's what I thought they did,
Speaker 1: and I think it kind of worked out. You hold
Speaker 1: them to like ninety seven points, he should be able
Speaker 1: to win. Um, that's a winnable formula for them, and
Speaker 1: I think they'll still they go to it. They'll live
Speaker 1: with h Like I know you said, Mark up beat
Speaker 1: off the dribble a few times by campaign. I believe
Speaker 1: it was right campaign campaign. Oh man, he had some
Speaker 1: step back threes that were just like prayers and I
Speaker 1: was thinking that just might not be that, this might
Speaker 1: not be the game. But I think I think they'll
Speaker 1: live with like Campaign and like even book are kind
Speaker 1: of getting to the rim a little bit right instead
Speaker 1: of like hitting those those jumpers over them getting threes
Speaker 1: um creating shots for three. I think they'll live kind
Speaker 1: of with trapping him up top, and then if they switch,
Speaker 1: they switch and try to give help on eating and
Speaker 1: live with Campaign and those dudes hitting layoups at the rim.
Speaker 1: I just have to hit a few crazy layoups DeAndre
Speaker 1: and also had like a crazy backhanded lay up around
Speaker 1: Andre Drummond. But I think it looks like David Man.
Speaker 1: It looked looks special. I was like, well, I was
Speaker 1: not expecting that, but yeah, like that, I think they'll
Speaker 1: live with those shots. And if you can take away
Speaker 1: the open threes from mckel Bridges, Cam Johnson who got
Speaker 1: who got away a couple on a couple of threes
Speaker 1: to end the third, But like you can take away
Speaker 1: their three point shot, you'll live with that and then
Speaker 1: try to make it as tough as you can. Jevin Booker,
Speaker 1: m K c p who So we're really chasing him
Speaker 1: hard to kind of give him back pressure there. He
Speaker 1: got cooking a little bit in the third, but I
Speaker 1: thought they did a pretty nice job, like as they could.
Speaker 1: And Jannis schuder Man, what a what a playoff level
Speaker 1: form of game, right, what a huge game to step up.
Speaker 1: They needed every one of his points. I don't know
Speaker 1: what he finished with. There's like twenty something points, I think,
Speaker 1: but it was huge. He was the only really one
Speaker 1: going for a little while. He kind of kept them
Speaker 1: afloat up there while the Suns we're kind of trying
Speaker 1: to come back. His pressure at the ram I thought
Speaker 1: was huge. He got to the basket and got to
Speaker 1: the foul line, d a few threes, his majorines jumper
Speaker 1: as well. Um, he still got a little bit like
Speaker 1: score heavy, like he wasn't he wasn't passing his much,
Speaker 1: but they needed his points. What did you see from
Speaker 1: him so offensively? I thought he was fantastic And for
Speaker 1: all the reasons you said, like when things get staggered,
Speaker 1: because things get stagged in a couple of different ways
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. A lot of times when Lebron gets fatigued,
Speaker 1: he rests s Wally's on the four, so he gets
Speaker 1: like he just starts throwing swing passes across the top,
Speaker 1: like basically just begging for somebody else to make a
Speaker 1: place that he can rest, you know. And then and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis will get bullied off his position and won't
Speaker 1: even look at the rim or if he sees it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes when he sees the double, he doesn't even want
Speaker 1: to look at the rim. So there are times when
Speaker 1: things we get stagnant, and having Dennis be aggressive is
Speaker 1: a huge value. But I do think there's a trade
Speaker 1: off there, and it's an interesting trade off because Vogel
Speaker 1: throughout the season, you know, when push comes to shove,
Speaker 1: he tends to favor defense, and I thought that Dennis
Speaker 1: shrewder in his inability to uh to really do anything
Speaker 1: to fight through those screens at the point of attack. UM.
Speaker 1: I thought that that was part of the issue why
Speaker 1: the Lakers had so many defensive breakdowns in the second half.
Speaker 1: So it's an interesting conundrum because you need Dennis um
Speaker 1: on the floor to take some of the offensive pressure
Speaker 1: off of Lebron and a d but he's just not
Speaker 1: as good as a defensive player. Uh. Then when the
Speaker 1: Lakers go to like a Crusoe k CP type of backcourt,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and so, and again we
Speaker 1: don't we don't have the answers. And that's what's interesting
Speaker 1: to me is I'm interested to see what Frank does
Speaker 1: because there's so many different things he could do. And
Speaker 1: you know, maybe maybe it's not switching. Maybe it's putting
Speaker 1: a D in the screening action and having him do
Speaker 1: a traditional drop coverage. But just because he's faster and
Speaker 1: more mobile and just a better defensive player, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: it just works better. I don't know. I'm really interested
Speaker 1: to see what they do. But I thought I thought
Speaker 1: that was the interesting conundrum of the Dennis Shrewder experience,
Speaker 1: was he was kind of a lifeline for them and
Speaker 1: the defense on the offensive end in the second half,
Speaker 1: but I thought he was also the one of the
Speaker 1: primary culprits for them falling apart and pick and roll defense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a little small for Kevin Booker, right, like the
Speaker 1: match up with him, a little small Frand but he fights,
Speaker 1: but he gets hit on screens a lot too, and
Speaker 1: it really freed up Booker. Um in that third quarter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they needed his offense. They need another ball handler. Um.
Speaker 1: I think they ran a line up. I forgot what
Speaker 1: it was. They also had THHD out there, which I
Speaker 1: guess we don't really talk about, but that was that
Speaker 1: was weird. His minutes as well, but they had a
Speaker 1: line up out there. I think it was with a
Speaker 1: d um a d at the five and I forgot
Speaker 1: who else was out there, but there was no ball
Speaker 1: hammer out there. They had to kind of call a
Speaker 1: time out, and I thought he was huge with that,
Speaker 1: allowing them to not just have to have Lebron bring
Speaker 1: it up every time, and that's a huge we we
Speaker 1: talked about this all year, like that's gonna be used
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and it was tonight, like just having
Speaker 1: him to be able to create create his own shot.
Speaker 1: They needed every single point out of that. They only
Speaker 1: scored I think what like a hundred hundred nine nine
Speaker 1: to nine, so they needed his points. He had a
Speaker 1: see what he finished with, Yeah, and he finished with
Speaker 1: twenty four, So he was he was huge. Um. I
Speaker 1: guess the other guy, like we can really move on
Speaker 1: to was Andre Drummond, who seems to be the main,
Speaker 1: the main character every single night. Um. I thought he
Speaker 1: I thought he had a really good game. What do
Speaker 1: you what do you see from Andre Drummond? I thought
Speaker 1: he was fantastic. Um really throughout the game, you know
Speaker 1: his you know, we always say that Andre Drummond is
Speaker 1: a good play, bad play guy. Right, It's kind of
Speaker 1: the joke that we like to make. Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: truth is just tonight it was good play, good good play,
Speaker 1: good play, bad guy. You know, bad plays. Sorry, butchered that,
Speaker 1: but you get the point, Like he just he made
Speaker 1: a lot of good plays, and so the bad plays
Speaker 1: were a lot easier to stomach, Like when Andrew Drummond
Speaker 1: gets uh beat to his spot when he's trying to
Speaker 1: make a post move and then he turns to face
Speaker 1: the basket and he holds the ball at his waist
Speaker 1: and every single time and gets snatched away from him.
Speaker 1: That's frustrating. But those were the those plays were in
Speaker 1: the minority. Today. I thought he was excellent on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. I thought he grabbed a bunch of key
Speaker 1: rebounds on contested rebound type of plays where it could
Speaker 1: have gone either way. Um. I thought that offensively, he
Speaker 1: did a really nice job and a couple of like
Speaker 1: those you know, ducans and seals underneath the basket, and
Speaker 1: and he's starting to generate a little bit of chemistry
Speaker 1: with Lebron that all works. You know, if it were
Speaker 1: up to me, you know, it would be kind of
Speaker 1: staggering him with Anthony Davis. I'd play him, you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty minutes and basically have him be the
Speaker 1: five when eighties off the floor, and then I'd have
Speaker 1: a handful of minutes a game where you played both bigs,
Speaker 1: maybe in the minutes when Lebron's not out there where
Speaker 1: you're just hoping to physically dominate them because you know
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be able to score. I don't know
Speaker 1: what that looks like, but you know this today was
Speaker 1: a good, good Andre Drummond game. And uh and for
Speaker 1: the most part he was. He had his moments in
Speaker 1: game one where he was okay too. He's just a
Speaker 1: little bit less. That balance wasn't really there for him
Speaker 1: where where his productivity was high. But I thought Drummond
Speaker 1: was great. I'm sure you feel the same way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was. He was off his his physicality. I thought
Speaker 1: I was really important in this game. I'm really trying
Speaker 1: to match up with DeAndre and he got twelve rebounds.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of them are offensive offensive rebound
Speaker 1: and he was finishing down low. I know, we always
Speaker 1: talked about he has a lot of loudness, takes a
Speaker 1: lot of loudnesses. He had a few again tonight, a
Speaker 1: couple of like fox balls where you try to catch
Speaker 1: it and it just falls out of bounds. But I
Speaker 1: thought he was really good. He really finished down low,
Speaker 1: finished some passes from Lebron cut at the right time,
Speaker 1: pretty much like fell fell into the scheme that they
Speaker 1: were trying to run. I'd think to be a nice
Speaker 1: job kind of stepping up on book here and being
Speaker 1: in the right possessions where he was supposed to be
Speaker 1: on defense. Um, so yeah, I thought he had to
Speaker 1: get to get a really good game. Um, I guess
Speaker 1: like the other guy, I think that's really important. Here
Speaker 1: is Marcosol. We've been begging for Marcus all minutes, right
Speaker 1: and uh and we and we finally got him. And
Speaker 1: I thought it was nice to have both of them there.
Speaker 1: Tres kind of got cut out the rotation. But I think,
Speaker 1: what do you seem from Marcusol from tonight? Well, offensively,
Speaker 1: the the the impact was immediate. I mean I think
Speaker 1: it was their first I think it was their first possession,
Speaker 1: like late second quarter where or what late first quarter
Speaker 1: excuse me, where he immediately went to Lebron. James posted
Speaker 1: up and they put Marcusol one pass away, which is
Speaker 1: my favorite thing that they do with him, because if
Speaker 1: he doesn't take a three, he can make a quick
Speaker 1: decision up there, and he's such a good passer that
Speaker 1: he's like the ideal guy to be making that second
Speaker 1: read off of a Lebron double team. Um uh. And
Speaker 1: he made it three immediately and kind of free things up.
Speaker 1: There were a couple of moments where I thought he
Speaker 1: was overpassing. Uh. Specifically, there was one in the in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter where he caught the ball wide open
Speaker 1: at the top of the key with two seconds on
Speaker 1: the shot clock and should have taken the three and
Speaker 1: then swung it to Crusoe and he was shot clock violation. Um.
Speaker 1: Where that's like classic Marcusol, like being a little too passive. Uh.
Speaker 1: The he you know, Marcosol always unlocks this like back
Speaker 1: door cut part of the Laker offense. But you know,
Speaker 1: clearly Monty Williams has coached the hell out of those
Speaker 1: guys because they weren't giving up any of the back
Speaker 1: door stuff to the Lakers, and they were trying like
Speaker 1: they would they give the ball to Market at the
Speaker 1: top of the key or at the elbow, and Lebron
Speaker 1: would do a hard V cut or any of these
Speaker 1: other guys would do these hard cuts and just nothing
Speaker 1: was open. Uh, So credit to Monty Williams. Like that
Speaker 1: was again, I'm going to reiterate this the biggest takeaway
Speaker 1: I had from this game is like, the Suns are
Speaker 1: extremely well coached team that plays their ass off, has
Speaker 1: guys that can make plays, and they like, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to beat them. They're not just going to roll over.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a lot like the Denver Nuggets series
Speaker 1: last year in my opinion. But again, and we mentioned
Speaker 1: this earlier, the only downside with Mark was on the defensive,
Speaker 1: and I thought his lack of foot speed was a
Speaker 1: little bit of a problem. He made some defensive plays,
Speaker 1: but in general, like that, when you when you're doing
Speaker 1: some sort of catch head or drop coverage and you
Speaker 1: still get beat to the basket, it's like the mother
Speaker 1: of all defensive breakdowns because now you've got two guys
Speaker 1: on the guy who had the ball, but he no
Speaker 1: longer has the ball because he's kicking it out to somebody.
Speaker 1: So you're you're trying to cover too much ground in
Speaker 1: your rotations and you're just inevitably gonna give up an
Speaker 1: open shot. So again, I'm not sure if this is
Speaker 1: necessarily the series for him because of how much pick
Speaker 1: and roll he's gonna have to guard. Uh. I like
Speaker 1: him better if Denver advances and he's in the next round.
Speaker 1: But it's unquestionable what he does for them offensively, just
Speaker 1: by keeping the floor a little bit more spaced. And
Speaker 1: he had the biggest shot of the game in my opinion,
Speaker 1: And when Phoenix went up to I think on the
Speaker 1: it was and nobody wanted to shoot. It felt like
Speaker 1: nobody wanted to take a shot. The ball swung around,
Speaker 1: Sun swung around, and finally went to Mark and he
Speaker 1: he kind of set his feet for a few seconds
Speaker 1: and I hit that huge three to put him up one,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I hit the space thing he gives I
Speaker 1: thought was great. Again. He got beat up to dribble
Speaker 1: a few times on defense, but I think you live
Speaker 1: with that. Um his it's smart to his i Q
Speaker 1: next to Lebron, I think really showed off and he
Speaker 1: did a nice shot on defense as well. I don't
Speaker 1: think even though he just got beat a few times,
Speaker 1: I thought he was in the right place, um, and
Speaker 1: he was connected with the team. So yeah, I love
Speaker 1: that he played tonight. We'll see if it continues in
Speaker 1: game three. Right, you never know how the how the
Speaker 1: rotations go. But I feel like you proved that he
Speaker 1: should be out there. There's no way he should be
Speaker 1: collecting uh D m ps um and in playoff games
Speaker 1: like he shouldn't be them on playing. We touched on
Speaker 1: this a lot, like he should be the one out
Speaker 1: there if you want to take away minutes from someone
Speaker 1: his treads and drummond, but this all should be out there. Um,
Speaker 1: But what are you looking forward to? Uh? In game three?
Speaker 1: Of the most like what are you are you looking
Speaker 1: forward to? See? What adjustment? Maybe? Uh, it's the most
Speaker 1: most important thing. You want to see a couple of things.
Speaker 1: So first of all, like I would expect to see
Speaker 1: a lot of Chris Paul in game. In game three,
Speaker 1: I thought, uh, you know, I thought Reggie Miller was
Speaker 1: flapping off at the mouth without really knowing what he
Speaker 1: was talking about about the Chris Paul injury. And that
Speaker 1: kind of bothered me because like, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul has heard he's clearly having some stuff
Speaker 1: with range emotion with his shoulder. But I thought the
Speaker 1: primary reason why Chris Paul sat out a lot in
Speaker 1: the second half was because Campaign was literally going nuclear
Speaker 1: and Campaign is small, and you know, like as I
Speaker 1: was watching the game, there was a moment like I
Speaker 1: think nine minutes left in the fourth quarter where Chris
Speaker 1: Paul checked back in, and I was like, oh, this
Speaker 1: will be interesting because if they check Chris Paul back
Speaker 1: in this game and they leave Campaign in, uh, They're
Speaker 1: gonna have a massive problem with rebounding. And if they
Speaker 1: take Campaign out, you know, even with Chris Paul at
Speaker 1: his absolute peak, you know, like Campaigns is having an
Speaker 1: all time or type of role player game. Like You're like,
Speaker 1: he's just like it would be like the seven Mario
Speaker 1: charms that Thomas out in his point NBA Finals game.
Speaker 1: Like sometimes when the role players that hot, you gotta ride,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So that was the interesting
Speaker 1: dynamic there. And guess what they left him both in
Speaker 1: and immediately that they started giving up offensive rebounds and
Speaker 1: fouls and Anthony Davis Scotts in the line a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and if you watch those plays, the Lakers
Speaker 1: would put him in screen and roll, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Aton would get switched out and put on the perimeter
Speaker 1: against somebody, and then guess what You've got campaign and
Speaker 1: Chris Paul trying to box out gigantic guys underneath the
Speaker 1: basket and they're giving up offensive rebounds. So I would
Speaker 1: expect a lot more Chris Paul in game three, just
Speaker 1: by virtue of the fact that you know, they're not
Speaker 1: gonna bank on campaign play in the way that he
Speaker 1: did tonight. I thought that was more of a of
Speaker 1: an in game adjustment. Um. I also think Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: is gonna have something for that screening role. I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is, but he's gonna have something for
Speaker 1: that screen and roll. I also expect role players to
Speaker 1: make shots. This is something for the Lakers. This is
Speaker 1: something you and I have talked about at length. When
Speaker 1: when the Lakers, uh, when the role players played poorly
Speaker 1: like they did tonight, but Lebron and a D are great,
Speaker 1: they win. They just win by a small margin. And
Speaker 1: then when Lebron and a D play great and the
Speaker 1: role players play okay, they win by like fifteen. And
Speaker 1: then when Lebron and a d played great, and the
Speaker 1: role players played great. The Lakers are just gonna beat
Speaker 1: the ship out of you. Like that's that. That's you know,
Speaker 1: game six of the NBA Finals kind of stuff. So
Speaker 1: tonight was one of examples where the role players like
Speaker 1: Kuzma had another pretty bad game. I mean, everyone was
Speaker 1: a lot better defensively, but Kuzma couldn't shoot, k CP
Speaker 1: couldn't shoot. Wesley Matthew's got a couple of open looks,
Speaker 1: couldn't make him. You know, Crusoe wasn't really making threes,
Speaker 1: although he made a couple of big offensive plays, uh
Speaker 1: you know where he got into it. But that that
Speaker 1: little like driving fade away he made in the order
Speaker 1: was unbelievable. Uh, you know. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: the l a role players didn't have a fantastic, you know,
Speaker 1: uh perform like performance on offense. But it was in
Speaker 1: for them to win. And so what I look forward
Speaker 1: to it and what the Lakers are gonna need in
Speaker 1: in Game three and four is inevitably you're gonna get
Speaker 1: you know, a laxidi a laxadaisical defensive performance in there somewhere.
Speaker 1: Probably if they go up two games to one, you're
Speaker 1: gonna need the role players to make shots to compensate
Speaker 1: for that, and I think they will. But that's gonna
Speaker 1: be the big thing that I'm watching. The other thing
Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch is the crowd. I'm really interested to
Speaker 1: see how many people Los Angeles lets into the arena,
Speaker 1: because that Phoenix crowd was something else. And as we
Speaker 1: just saw, the Clippers got housed twice at home by
Speaker 1: the Mavericks and they look flat, and I you know,
Speaker 1: probably most of that is probably Clippers itis, but a
Speaker 1: good portion of that probably has to do with the
Speaker 1: fact that they don't have that rock and scrowd to
Speaker 1: kind of drive them, you know, because I think they
Speaker 1: were only letting like four thousand fans in. I'm not
Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact number. So I'm really interested
Speaker 1: to see how many fans l A lets in and
Speaker 1: to see if if the Lakers can ride that because
Speaker 1: going going back to Phoenix up three one, I think
Speaker 1: is very very important because with LA, with the Lakers
Speaker 1: health issues, I would not want to get into a
Speaker 1: long series in the first round. Yeah, every single every
Speaker 1: single playoff game feels like it's like five regular season games,
Speaker 1: right that aways talking about this, this team really needs
Speaker 1: continuity in chemistry, and it feels like every game they
Speaker 1: kind of build that. And that's why I'm seeing game
Speaker 1: three just to continue build UM and to see Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis continue to be aggressive early. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he'll see sixteen three does again, but hopefully his jumper
Speaker 1: starts to go. But you can tell they get a
Speaker 1: little bit more comfortable every game, and that's all I
Speaker 1: want to see really in game three. UM, they should
Speaker 1: be able to ride the whatever fans are in their
Speaker 1: whatever home crowd is in that. They should be able
Speaker 1: to ride that, hopefully to a win. And you're ride
Speaker 1: role players hit shots at home, and they should. They should.
Speaker 1: They should hit shots when we go back to Staples,
Speaker 1: KHP Kusma. They did that for two Shape games, not
Speaker 1: hitting a shot. I don't think who's hit a shot
Speaker 1: in game one either. They can't do that at Staples.
Speaker 1: I think Phoenix is a good and row team that
Speaker 1: they'll make you pay eventually. You can ride the run
Speaker 1: and a d like this, but they need a little
Speaker 1: bit help. Right. You can't be shooting from three. I
Speaker 1: think that's even worse if you take out what Lebron
Speaker 1: made from three. UM they're probably like or something for
Speaker 1: the rest of the team, like that's just not sustainable
Speaker 1: winning basketball. Phoenix is too good. They'll eventually win those possessions.
Speaker 1: And yeah, a lot of Chris Paul is probably coming.
Speaker 1: Like Chris Paul is a huge part of the team.
Speaker 1: Obviously they missed them ons they're going back and thinking,
Speaker 1: if we had Chris Paul, we probably win tonight. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that's a fair kind of assessment from them.
Speaker 1: And yeah, we'll see if he's healthy, if he's ready
Speaker 1: to go. Um and Devin book Rade, it will be
Speaker 1: a lot more aggressive and what's to night and Money's
Speaker 1: a really good coach, like he's gonna have them ready.
Speaker 1: So that's not just my want to see what they do.
Speaker 1: And hopefully Marcus Faull needs to play. Um, do you
Speaker 1: have anything else from from this game and the one coming? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Chris Paul is the kind of
Speaker 1: player that offsets some of Lebron's mental advantage. Um. What
Speaker 1: I mean by that is, I'm so used to rooting
Speaker 1: for Lebron teams and they're always the smarter and or
Speaker 1: prepared team later in the series because they have you know,
Speaker 1: arguably the smartest player in the league on their team. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, Chris Paul is right up there in the
Speaker 1: top two or three smartest players in the league. So
Speaker 1: I expect, you know, the Suns to continue to make
Speaker 1: adjustments and continue to find ways to score against this
Speaker 1: Laker defense, and it'll be a really it'll be a
Speaker 1: really really interesting, a really really interesting chess match. Um.
Speaker 1: The other big thing too to see is you know,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned that if if Anthony Davis can get
Speaker 1: some more of his intricate levels of his offense going,
Speaker 1: because that's something that they're absolutely going to need in
Speaker 1: my opinion, uh, in the long run as they face
Speaker 1: better teams. But you know, that's pretty much it. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think if there's anything else, um from tonight,
Speaker 1: I don't pick up my notes really quick, go ahead. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the last thing was just those huge shots from Lebron,
Speaker 1: like I think, uh actuated, don't take Levaka granted and
Speaker 1: I think you tweeted that you told your wife you
Speaker 1: would know that Lebron is gonna win that one. Um,
Speaker 1: but just crazy to see him continue to do that. Um,
Speaker 1: he had a huge three a huge fatally umper. Well
Speaker 1: I'm not sure he had bolts of his legs under him,
Speaker 1: but it went in. They were down one, I think,
Speaker 1: and he hit that over Cam Johnson. Just humans baskets,
Speaker 1: just playoff Lebron Like he always said, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to worry about Lebron. I guess I was right with that.
Speaker 1: But he didn't seem like he was a little passive
Speaker 1: in the fourth but once once it came down to it, Um,
Speaker 1: he had some big shots. So credit to him. Credit
Speaker 1: to him did for doing that so consistently throughout the years.
Speaker 1: But it was cool to see him se him to
Speaker 1: it again tonight because they needed it. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: so funny because you know, campaign makes that ridiculous jab
Speaker 1: step jumper. I think it was over Caruso and the
Speaker 1: top of the building just blows off. It hits Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's none of the ram just literally snaps the net
Speaker 1: and he just kind of captured the whole Camp john there,
Speaker 1: the whole campaign night of this greatest night of his
Speaker 1: life kind of performance. I think it was actually Monty
Speaker 1: who called the time out, if I remember correctly. Um,
Speaker 1: but there there was a time out right there, and
Speaker 1: in that time out, I looked over and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like throughout his career, he just kind of finds a
Speaker 1: way to win these games, you know. And and it
Speaker 1: wasn't just eight six eighties six. It was eighties six
Speaker 1: with them having all the momentum, the Suns and you know,
Speaker 1: and and Lebron and and the rest of those guys.
Speaker 1: They just picked him apart at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: made smart basketball plays, you know, Like you said, there
Speaker 1: was that huge shot that Marcusol hit, uh, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: hit a big three, and then that shot against Cam Johnson.
Speaker 1: You know, he went to post him up um and
Speaker 1: this this is something that Jason Apples tweeted out, and
Speaker 1: I actually thought it was interesting. You know, like on
Speaker 1: that play, he couldn't get much separation, Like he he
Speaker 1: drove baseline, got beat to the spot, um, turned, took
Speaker 1: a couple of power dribbles into the paint, wasn't really
Speaker 1: back in Cam Johnson down much. And I think a
Speaker 1: big part of that is he's just not pushing off
Speaker 1: super well on that leg. And then on that fade
Speaker 1: away he didn't get great lift. There was a lot
Speaker 1: of arm and wrist on that shot. But but he
Speaker 1: just he just nailed it. And and you know, like like,
Speaker 1: like Maple said in his tweet, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of Lebron getting getting by on his brain and getting
Speaker 1: by on his experience at the end of that game,
Speaker 1: and for the record, like I said in the tweet,
Speaker 1: you know, like this is just this is why. This
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest reasons why I've I've I've
Speaker 1: always advocated for Lebron over the years, Like this is
Speaker 1: just what it's like rooting for him, Like he just
Speaker 1: he just finds a way all the time, and he's
Speaker 1: such a winner. And that's why it always drove me
Speaker 1: so insane when his detractors would claim that he doesn't
Speaker 1: care about winning, or they use his finals record to
Speaker 1: try to say that he's a loser, or they act
Speaker 1: like it's lower on his his list of priorities. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: like above all, above, and beyond all else about this guy.
Speaker 1: He is a winner. That's what he does. He has
Speaker 1: and he has an innate ability sometimes it's hard to
Speaker 1: really describe, but it just it just he knows how
Speaker 1: to win basketball games and and generally speaking, he's gonna
Speaker 1: win all the important ones. And I think that is
Speaker 1: kind of part of the experience. And you know, obviously.
Speaker 1: I'm sure Laker fans are very excited to have them
Speaker 1: on their team. Yeah, it was cool seeing him like
Speaker 1: just chilled through the game, Like even though we were
Speaker 1: down one, it it never seemed like he was rattled,
Speaker 1: Like he was still just trying to make the right play,
Speaker 1: UM trying to pass it off kind of, and he
Speaker 1: got kind of trying to give the ball to KCP
Speaker 1: get him shots while like a game isn't balanced right
Speaker 1: now while you're shaking, and eventually pulls it out. So
Speaker 1: it was cool to see him kind of win the game.
Speaker 1: I think you're right, he won it with his mind
Speaker 1: more than like his athleticism. He wasn't really getting to
Speaker 1: the basket like zoom fadeaways over Cam Johnson, which I
Speaker 1: just don't think he does if he's if he's feeling great,
Speaker 1: and I think that was still with the a D
Speaker 1: at the pot. So hopefully like these few days, it's
Speaker 1: where the Lakers play every other day, so I guess
Speaker 1: they play again on Thursday. They don't get a two
Speaker 1: day break in between. But I hopefully he's feeling even
Speaker 1: more better. I think he's getting his conditioning back as well.
Speaker 1: Um as these games go on, so yeah, looking forward
Speaker 1: to game three, UM, what you see him? Do you
Speaker 1: see them winning? And three? I think the Lakers in five.
Speaker 1: So a couple of things, if you remember. I actually
Speaker 1: I didn't get a chance because I was out of
Speaker 1: town too to listen back to our postgame show after
Speaker 1: the Warriors. Um, but when I was driving back from
Speaker 1: from Texas yesterday, I listened to it, and there were
Speaker 1: a couple of things that stood out to me that
Speaker 1: we talked about that were interesting, uh not, the least
Speaker 1: of which was the fact that we all just assumed
Speaker 1: the Warriors would beat the Grizzlies, which obviously did not happen. Um,
Speaker 1: But we talked. We talked a lot about how like
Speaker 1: you know, I specifically, in my pick said that I
Speaker 1: picked the Lakers in five, and I said they'd neither
Speaker 1: lose Game one or Game three, and so they they
Speaker 1: lost Game one, and so my pick obviously is that
Speaker 1: they'll win Game three and four. I think there's two
Speaker 1: days off between Game four and Game five, if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, So then they have an opportunity, they have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to go home for go back to things
Speaker 1: for Game five, beat them, and then have some time
Speaker 1: off before they faced, you know that the winner of
Speaker 1: Denver Portland. But the things that we talked that was,
Speaker 1: like I said, you know, the UH, some of the
Speaker 1: coverages that they took from the Warriors, they may have
Speaker 1: to use those against some of these Phoenix suns guards
Speaker 1: when they get going. So this was kind of a
Speaker 1: nice tune up game. And well, that very well may
Speaker 1: be the case here in Game three or four. The
Speaker 1: Lakers may have to start trapping some of these pick
Speaker 1: and rolls because of how much they're getting picked apart
Speaker 1: by campaign and by and by Chris Paul. Chris Paul
Speaker 1: was unbelievable in the first half and pick and roll
Speaker 1: by the way. UM, So that that was that was
Speaker 1: one of the things I said. There was another thing
Speaker 1: where I had mentioned that, um that if Devin Booker
Speaker 1: went absolutely surgical like Kobe, that it would be a
Speaker 1: wrinkle in the series that could go in Phoenix's favor.
Speaker 1: And I would say that he has um that that
Speaker 1: stretch that he had there in the UH in the
Speaker 1: third quarter and then pretty much all the game one.
Speaker 1: You know, the Lakers were just playing fantastic defense and
Speaker 1: it just wasn't enough because Devin Booker. Booker was giving
Speaker 1: you lefty little push shots. He was giving you a
Speaker 1: little ten foot runners in the lane. He was in
Speaker 1: transition euro step one leg fade away, you know, three's
Speaker 1: off the dribble. He's just giving you everything. And so
Speaker 1: uh that that that was definitely something that you know,
Speaker 1: could have gone either way. Like Devin Booker could have
Speaker 1: had a rough first playoff series, but he's very much
Speaker 1: um every bit as good as he is in the
Speaker 1: regular season, which is an interesting wrinkle to this series.
Speaker 1: But it was fun just going back and listening to
Speaker 1: that podcast and and looking at all the things you
Speaker 1: and I were gonna be looking for, and and I
Speaker 1: guess what, some things have gone in the Sun's favor.
Speaker 1: But the Lakers are still one one and heading back
Speaker 1: to to l A. That's a pretty good spot for
Speaker 1: them to be in. Yeah, I think that's the biggest
Speaker 1: adjustment of Phoenix. I think they'll know now that the
Speaker 1: Lakers are gonna sell out. I'm Devin book going to
Speaker 1: see what they'll do on the Game three. I think
Speaker 1: I think they'll bring it, bring the right adjustments, and
Speaker 1: then that's what's fun about the playoffs. It's like an
Speaker 1: adjustment to the adjustment to the adjustment and no one
Speaker 1: has done that more than Lebron Ron and a got eight.
Speaker 1: He got some of that. Next year. We'll see how
Speaker 1: Devin Booker kind of handles that this is his first Playoffs.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think Chris Paul will be ready. Um,
Speaker 1: those dude, that team is good and they're gonna be well,
Speaker 1: they're well prepared, and they're young. Guys, aren't don't look
Speaker 1: like they're scared of the moment at all. So it'll
Speaker 1: be It'll be a fun series, and it could be worse.
Speaker 1: It could be the watching the Clippers highlights right now
Speaker 1: and man, that just that team just looks absolutely down,
Speaker 1: absolutely just depressed after that loss. Um, so yeah, it's
Speaker 1: gonna it should be fun. It should be a fun game. Three.
Speaker 1: Uh yes, I agree. Why don't we get to why
Speaker 1: don't we do why don't we do four callers? And
Speaker 1: then let's call it a night since it's so late.
Speaker 1: All right, let's see who we have, uh think? George
Speaker 1: was first? All right, Hello, I was going on all right,
Speaker 1: So quick question. I wanted to ask because I heard
Speaker 1: you guys talking about Drummer earlier, so I was curious,
Speaker 1: do you think that that can work moving forward. What
Speaker 1: would you guys rather go with like Trays and Marcus
Speaker 1: song go ahead? Oh yeah, So I definitely think it
Speaker 1: can be. It can move, you can go moving forward,
Speaker 1: and I think it will um. I think Drummond will
Speaker 1: continue to start. I always said like I think the
Speaker 1: guy that should be in irritation and Marcus Saul, But
Speaker 1: if he wants to play Drummond, I think it's fine.
Speaker 1: I think he fished for this series. I think he's
Speaker 1: a pretty good matchup for eighteen at least he should
Speaker 1: be like his physicality and I think he can move
Speaker 1: his speed on screens. He gets beat sometimes but definitely
Speaker 1: can't work. He had a nice impact to night and
Speaker 1: I think Jason talked about it. He's he he had
Speaker 1: he had an okay Game one as well. I think
Speaker 1: that that was his fault. So I think you can
Speaker 1: I think it definitely can can continue. Okay, Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I actually like Montrez in this specific matchup, and
Speaker 1: you know, I like him better defensively than Mark because
Speaker 1: he's more mobe and because it gives them a little
Speaker 1: bit more flexibility to do things like trapp and rotate
Speaker 1: and recover. The trick is is obviously he's a nonshooter,
Speaker 1: so how do you weave that out? And I think
Speaker 1: I think the thing with the Lakers that puts them
Speaker 1: into trouble is when they play Anthony Davis, who prefers
Speaker 1: to post up and isn't a great surgical passer with
Speaker 1: a guy who's in the dunker spot that clogs everything up.
Speaker 1: And for the record, that a D montrese minutes at
Speaker 1: the end of the first quarter in Game one, where
Speaker 1: really where the wheels came off, because I think it
Speaker 1: was I think it was tied when when Drummond was
Speaker 1: in there. So that's kind of the interesting conundrum because
Speaker 1: like I would play tres with Lebron while a D
Speaker 1: s off the floor because he's a good pick and
Speaker 1: roll guy to have with Lebron because he's super mobile
Speaker 1: on the defensive end um and he's just a little
Speaker 1: bit better at that some of the stuff that Mark
Speaker 1: got torched by today. But I just don't think it
Speaker 1: makes sense to play treads with Anthony Davis because a
Speaker 1: D is not a great passer, so he's not going
Speaker 1: to see the double teams and see the gaps in
Speaker 1: the defense super super well, and and it shuts down
Speaker 1: his driving Williams and takes away his physical aggressiveness. So
Speaker 1: it's a conundrum. But I mean, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, like like it's just about which guys you
Speaker 1: play with, which guys you know, like it's it. There's
Speaker 1: there's mixes that work, and there's mixes that clearly don't. Okay,
Speaker 1: last question before you guys are passed the mike. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like we're gonna go all out on Devon
Speaker 1: Brooker in game three or do you think it's going
Speaker 1: to be more of a help as army type of thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I still think they'll go out all out on Devin Booker.
Speaker 1: I think he's the main one that they want to
Speaker 1: focus on, trying to keep his scoring limited. But it
Speaker 1: depends that Chris Paul is going off too, and then
Speaker 1: it makes that tough. That's what's tough about Phoenix, Like
Speaker 1: it's hard to track Devon Booker and then you have
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, one of the best taking all pastors ever
Speaker 1: kind of orchestrating after that. But I think they live
Speaker 1: if they can make me tell Bridges guys like Cam
Speaker 1: Johnson um make them the shock creators. I think they'll
Speaker 1: live with that, even aiden if he has to get
Speaker 1: Pillot s ups and stuff like that. I think they
Speaker 1: list so. I think they're still gonna sell out okay,
Speaker 1: and trying to make everyone else m let's go ahead.
Speaker 1: What do you think? Yeah, I'm less convinced that they'll
Speaker 1: double Booker than that they'll double the campaign and Chris
Speaker 1: Paul actions, because that was where they were primarily getting
Speaker 1: beat today. I thought, just in general, KCP did a
Speaker 1: much much better job on Booker today than he did
Speaker 1: in the last game. Um and just in general, the
Speaker 1: five man units, it's again, it's never just one guy
Speaker 1: on one guy. It's always the way the five main
Speaker 1: unit works, and the five man defensive unit cohesively tonight
Speaker 1: was so much better than it was in game one,
Speaker 1: and that, in conjunction with KCP doing a better job
Speaker 1: on the ball, just did a better job on Booker.
Speaker 1: The problem with doubling Booker is he does a lot
Speaker 1: of isolation action mixed in with his pick and roll action,
Speaker 1: and doubling a guy in isolation is so much harder
Speaker 1: because it compromises your defense more than doubling a guy
Speaker 1: in pick and roll. Because the double guy pick and roll,
Speaker 1: there's that split second there where the other offensive players
Speaker 1: right there next to you, so he doesn't have an
Speaker 1: advantage yet. So the ball handle has to always throw
Speaker 1: some crazy looping pass or some perfect pocket pass to
Speaker 1: get to that other guy. So it's a little bit
Speaker 1: easier to recover. The Lakers got torched in Game one
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the game by sending open court
Speaker 1: like nobody else around double teams at Devin Booker, and
Speaker 1: it led to a bunch of open shots. So I
Speaker 1: tend to think that you keep going with the same
Speaker 1: coverage that you used on Booker tonight, and then you
Speaker 1: you if you're gonna trap where you're gonna do some
Speaker 1: extensive double teaming, you do it on that screen and
Speaker 1: roll action, which is the one that gave them the
Speaker 1: most problems. All right, man, thanks, I'm I'm a past
Speaker 1: to thank you. Thank you for having on. Man, we
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. I'm gonna sally, it's so is connecting.
Speaker 1: That's that I that's the only request left I have. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's fine. We've already been going almost an hour anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then these will be up for the podcast as
Speaker 1: well for everyone. I'll put the podcast version up directly
Speaker 1: after and then Roger will be going again on Thursday. Yep,
Speaker 1: and uh doesn't look like it's connecting. Um hm, try again,
Speaker 1: excitly it went off. Okay, anything else you wanted to
Speaker 1: have today? I think I think that pretty much covered it.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, I'm not sure what else there is looking
Speaker 1: forward to with good Game three and then go and
Speaker 1: watch these Clippers Mavericks highlights, um and see see what
Speaker 1: happened there. All right, everybody, thank you guys so much
Speaker 1: for coming to hang out with Rog and I for
Speaker 1: the postgame show. Like I said, podcast will be out
Speaker 1: here shortly, and then we'll be going again after Game
Speaker 1: three on Thursday, which will hopefully be a Laker win
Speaker 1: in front of a very large Laker crowd. But we
Speaker 1: will see what happens. Thank you guys so much, and
Speaker 1: we will see you on Thursday.