WEBVTT - Lakers/Kings Postgame Spaces 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:18.560 Mmmmm, all right, welcome to this day of the Lakers 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:20.320 on Dash Radio. Than you got so much to come 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:24.040 to hang out on the what's the Tuesday Tuesday night? Uh? 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:28.159 Finally some I would say easily the high point of 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:30.400 the Laker season, which is what we needed after that 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.840 horrible news this afternoon, UM that Lebron was going down. 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.000 I had a good feeling about tonight, Um, and I'll 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.279 explain why in a minute, but I'm really glad that 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.960 you and I Raj can for the most part talk 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.959 about good things tonight and and talk about how this 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:51.479 might be just an the second consecutive step in the 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:53.159 right direction. How are you doing, buddy, how's your week 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.920 going so far? Doing well? Yeah? I saw you and 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:58.760 a bunch of other people tweeting positive about the Lakers 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.120 earlier in the day, and and I just knew there 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.200 was something bad at just a bad thing I felt 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:05.160 was going to happen. And we got the Lebron news 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:07.440 right that he's going to be out. I think we'll 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.040 see it's probably gonna be ten days or something. It 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.039 just felt like this team can't build in any rhythm, 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.039 and it's not an excuse to come in tonight and 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:16.760 try and lose against the Kings. But I was a 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:19.240 little bit worried about that, and then the game started 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.200 and we started really slow. Frank again, when I went 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.000 with DeAndre Jordan's right, it was really ugly. I think 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:26.640 we had like fourteen points for a lot of the 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.280 first quarter, but that second half was huge, man. And 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:31.400 we'll get into it, but you're right, it's probably the 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.400 high point of the season, which is fascinating to say 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.199 after we get the news that we lose Lebron for 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:39.600 for a couple of days. But yeah, just a high point, 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:41.800 something we could build off of. I talked about it 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.319 after the last game that they've lost the benefit of 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.040 the doubt after the Detroit game that they would build 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.200 off of off of that win, it was good to 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.240 see it tonight. I thought it was just an incredible 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.840 second half, an incredible third quarter from the Superstars and 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.920 Dwight Howard as well being involved in that. But but yeah, man, 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.240 just just a good win. It's nice to have a 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.080 good win. And everyone coming coming over from the Warrior 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.600 Sons game, I bet a lot of people step to 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:07.720 that one, but yeah, this was a good one, a 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.560 fun game. Finally for us, the team was fun to 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.120 watch tonight. One of one of the biggest things that 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:17.040 I've been complaining about all years. Like, you know, the 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:22.280 Lakers had an unlikable basketball character. You know they you 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:24.400 know if they if the if if you could sum 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:27.399 up the entire Lakers personality and to someone that would 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:29.480 show up to your gym and play pick up with you, 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:31.240 he'd be the guy you don't want to play with, 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.080 that has all the talent in the world, but it 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:37.040 doesn't care and isn't willing to do the dirty work. 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:39.919 It doesn't really value the win as much as you do, 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.079 doesn't care if you lose and have to wait three 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.760 games to get back on. That was the Lakers this 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.959 entire season really up until in my opinion, the last game. 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:51.760 Even in the first chunk of the season, they would 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.920 have stretches where they would put those things together, but 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.440 they were just stretches. Even in the same game they'd 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.400 be terrible. Like you look at the Cleveland game and 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:04.360 you'd be like, man, Lebron was magnificent down the stretch. 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.520 They won by twelve. The defense was great. You know, 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:10.880 that looked like Laker basketball, and you forget that, Like 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.680 for most of that game, they were kind of coasting, 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.080 you know, and that Lebron really wasn't good for most 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:19.840 of that game. And and what stood out to me 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:24.000 in the in the last game against Detroit was there 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.560 was just a different energy around the team and it 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.720 didn't manifest on the scoreboard because there were so many 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.040 old habits that they had to kick. There was the 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.000 DeAndre Jordan's you know, kind of clunkiness in the in 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.040 the offense, particularly in the first half, although they put 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:41.520 together some good DeAndre Jordan minutes in the second half, 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.000 there was the you know, there was the fact that 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.880 the role players were not making shots. Actually kind of 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.240 dug into the numbers a little bit today and coming 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:55.200 into tonight, Malik Monk was below thirty on wide open threes. 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.080 So I kind of felt like there was you know, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.600 kind of a positive regression that was on regression. It 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.440 was on the way there, you know, and tonight, like, 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:07.800 you know, it's funny, that same energy carried over from 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.880 the last game. The problem was that the Lakers were 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:12.960 just like the theme of the first half was just 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:17.160 self sabotage. They were just undercutting their own good process 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:22.680 with some of turnovers. Th h T was really, really bad, 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.040 so bad that Frank went back to Rondo, which was 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.960 really interesting, but the the young fellow had to learn 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.400 a lesson and valuable lesson. We'll get into that later, 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.000 but the point being is just to see that effort 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:35.880 carry over. That was why I had a good feeling 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.760 about tonight. I just felt like, for the first time 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:40.919 all year against the Pistons, even though it was ugly, 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.720 it seemed like the team kind of understood that they 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:48.960 weren't good enough to not respect the game and that 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.960 they had to take it more seriously. And you saw 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.000 it down the roster, and then that carried over in tonight. 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.200 There were some obvious turnovers and things along those lines 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.400 to undercut them, but that way you've caught in that 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.440 second half. And when it caught in the second half, 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.680 you saw the massive talent gap. And again, the Kings 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:09.480 have a lot of talent. Shaun Holmes is good, the 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.560 Aaron Fox is good, By Field is good, Tyrris Halliburton 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.600 is good, and we have, even without Lebron, a lot 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.360 more talent than them. We just weren't respecting the game 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.280 for this entire first chunk of the season. And so 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.839 we'll get into more of the XS and oes details tonight, 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:30.560 but foundationally, just in terms of their basketball character, there 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.520 needed to be a change there. And I saw that 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.720 change against Detroit. I thought it would continue tonight, and 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.200 so far it's only two games, but I'm glad to 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:42.919 see that that change appears to be happening. Yeah, and 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.640 I feel like this team again kind of goes as 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:48.080 Rust goes. And I've been thinking about this a lot. 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.080 We've talked about a lot over the summer when when 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.280 they acquired Russ as that Russ is supposed to be 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.400 the third option, right, Like he's supposed to be the 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.839 third option on this team. But Jason, like, I don't 0:05:57.839 --> 0:05:59.279 know if you would agree, Like he hasn't been the 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:01.960 third option. He's been like the first option. It's been 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.760 like him trying to run the show and then Lebron 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:06.800 and a D kind of coasting trying to go through it. 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.120 And that's not really how this team is gonna work. 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.719 That's not the ceiling of this team. And about Detroit 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.120 against the Pistons, I thought we saw what the ceiling 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:16.000 of this team is, which is Lebron and a D 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:18.400 playing at their their high level and Rust being able 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.679 to pick his spots a little bit more attacking, attacking 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.800 spots of the game, not comparing them, but to similarly 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:26.760 to when I watched the Warriors, right when I watched 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.120 Andrew Wiggins be able to just pick his spots, and 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.000 now he's averaging like twenty on a super efficient level 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:33.960 that he's never done in his career. It is because 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.159 he's playing as like a third fourth option on that team. 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:38.359 And I get not comparing Russ to Andrew Wiggins in 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.280 that way, it's just I think that's where this team 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.960 is best. But man, in that third quarter, I think 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:44.480 we can kind of move a little bit to why. 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:47.360 Like I think the effort obviously was was big tonight. 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:49.359 I thought, you know, they went down big in the 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.279 first quarter, and I was a little bit worried about 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.599 the game getting out of hand. But the big shift 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.440 obviously obviously at halftime was putting in Dwight Howard for 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:58.960 for DeAndre Jordan's And again I don't think that was 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:00.960 just the magic a licks that was a big part 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.120 of it. But I thought the getting Russ going downhill 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.000 I thought was huge. He needs to be involved in 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:09.760 the game, and I thought, just early on, there's just 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.240 no space for him to work putting him with th 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.000 h T with A D and DeAndre it's just a 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.120 phone booth, and our defense was okay. We were still 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:20.720 giving up a lot of lob Dunster Shawn Holmes when 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:22.880 that third quarter that switched up is part of it. 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.480 I think they play harder when they're in better lineups. 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.040 Two right, they're kind of interconnected there. And I thought 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.240 the Dwight, a D with Monk and Ellington in the 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:34.120 corners for Russ just got him going. He got downhill. 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:36.280 You saw him start to rock the baby, and it 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.560 kind of energized the rest of the team. You saw 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.000 a defense pickup. Dwight was incredible again in that third quarter, 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:45.200 A D and Dwight looked like D and Dwight. If 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:47.360 you go check those numbers are great. Those two are 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.120 forced um even when we go big with them too. 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:51.600 But I thought that's what switched the game to be. 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:52.920 Would you agree with that? I thought that's where the 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.080 momentum changed. I thought when they went into that like 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.800 just double screen at the top, Ellington the Monk in 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:00.600 the corner, and Russ was able to go downhill. And 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:04.440 I thought a lot of his turnovers early honestly was overpassing. Uh, 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.160 he would drive and there was no help created. He 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.520 didn't create any advantage. So he'd come off the screen 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:11.640 and it's like Alex Land waiting for him, and he 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:13.160 gets in the air and passes. He got a lot 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.760 of turnovers early, and I thought that shifted the game. 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:18.560 And the third quarter Restcott downhill, he scored, He saw 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.360 his confidence pick up, his speed, his bursts was there. 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.520 He started to finish at the rim. D you see 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.160 that as well. I thought that's what shifted the game tonight, 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.240 just putting him with spacing and even if even though 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.679 it was two big they were both screening at the top, 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:35.320 and it got him just downhill and being able to 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:36.840 get to the basket a little bit more. And I 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.679 thought that opened everything up for the team. Yeah. No, 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.160 Dwight Howard was, you know, one of the biggest heroes 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:43.840 of the game in my opinion. Which was so interesting, 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.840 this this this white thing is kind of hilarious because 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.600 I was unaware of the fact that he was that 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.000 it was intentional to rest him last game against Detroit. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.840 I thought, I thought it might have been associated with 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.640 injury or something like that. When I found out today 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.040 and yes, today that that that was intentional, like it 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.800 like a planned rest in order in order to see 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:11.720 Lebron as the center. With the bench lineups, I nearly 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.240 lost my ship because I'm literally sitting there thinking, I'm like, 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.800 I'm like, then why are we playing DeAndre like? Like 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.840 Dwight is five times the player of DeAndre, Like at least, 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.880 I'm probably under selling it there, like he's there's not 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.280 a single thing that DeAndre does on the basketball court 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.520 as well as Dwight doesn't. And so I get it. Look, 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.160 if you want to lean into, you know, playing big 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.000 and then also playing really small with Lebron at the center, 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.400 that's cool. I can actually get behind that philosophically. But 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.880 then why in the world will we playing DeAndre like it? 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.000 You know? And like I've told you so many times, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.520 like I actually don't mind when the Lakers go big 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.720 and small doses when it's Dwight, because the the Dwight 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.839 A D pairing is so devastating defensively on teams, it 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.120 can be physically overwhelming. And I think we saw at 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:02.280 in the second it was actually really interesting Dwight game. 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:04.640 Because as much as I didn't actually come out and 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:06.680 say those things that I just said by planned on 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.040 doing it later tonight. And then Dwight came out and 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:13.000 really really got exposed as someone who was slow footed 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.160 against Rashaun Holmes, and he really struggled with him in 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.120 the second quarter on the glass, and really really struggled 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:22.440 with him in pick and roll. But at a certain point, 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.160 Dwight kind of I don't know if he just caught 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:26.480 a second wind or if he just started to just 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.280 play harder and play better. But they're in the in 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:33.160 the third quarter, Dwights, Dwight became the person who was 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.880 winning that matchup and and Sacramento really couldn't do anything 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.559 with him. Um, But like the bottom line is just 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.719 like strategically, it never makes any sense to drop a 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.520 center and have Dwight be the one you drop and 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.400 leave DeAndre in the lineup. That was so incredibly confusing. 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.160 But again and bringing it back to Russ with his 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:54.560 rim pressure, you know, Darius Sorriana pointed this out, and 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:56.240 I thought it was super interesting. He goes Russ is 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:58.720 a really interesting player to watch his rhythm build because 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:00.559 he kind of just tries to plow through the wall 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:02.480 and it doesn't work, and it doesn't work, and it 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:04.480 doesn't work, and it doesn't work, and then it works. 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:08.679 And you know the reason why it does is it's 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:13.120 physical wear and tear. It's it's you know, it's it's 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.800 like it's it's no different than over the course of 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:18.920 a football game. If you if you, if you're the 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.920 physically superior person, even if they managed to block you 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:24.560 on the line once or twice or three times at 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.360 four times, eventually you're gonna break through. Eventually you're gonna 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:29.360 wear them down. And that was such an interesting effect 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:34.040 from Russ tonight, just continuing to just almost be reckless 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.720 with his attacks of the basket. But eventually those small, 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:42.959 slight guards that Sacramento had eventually just couldn't handle it anymore, 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.080 and even with the big Laker lineups, he was able 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:49.200 to get into the paint and then from there it 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.200 was simple. Malik Monk missed a couple of really easy, 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.760 wide open shots to start the game, immediately reminding me 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.040 of those numbers that I looked up earlier today, and 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:02.480 then they started going in and then Ellington's Ellington missed 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.480 his first couple of shots a wide open. His first 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:06.839 at the first look that I saw that he got 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:09.040 was wide open, and I'm like, man, some of these 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.160 gotta start going in. And then they did in the 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.360 second half, and what you saw is it invigorated their defense. 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.199 And when it invigorated their defense, that looked like the 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.959 Lakers there in the second half, flying around a D 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.839 and DWIGHTE block and everything everywhere, getting into passing lanes, 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:28.080 Guys making extra efforts, guys boxing out. It just became contagious. 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.400 And you know, I always believed this was in there. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.000 I thought it was trapped and hidden under their shitty 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:39.520 basketball character that they had to kick. But once they 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.000 kicked that, they had to kick some bad habits. But 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.080 it was inevitable that they would start to have some 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.480 runs like this because that talent is there. I I've 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.120 always believed that was the case, and so I thought 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.480 it was really really exciting to watch that tonight. They 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:55.280 won the second half, and I think I have my 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.160 numbers correctly, sixty to thirty three, Like that's a real 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:01.319 that's a real thing that happened tonight. And the King's 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:03.280 you know, they're not a great team. They were missing 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:05.440 Harrison bon Bonns tonight, but like you said, they have 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.080 real NBA talent. Buddy Hell Jaron Foxx, you named in 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.960 Rashaun Holmes sixty seven to thirty three, there was some 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:15.000 shift at halftime there where like that's not nothing to me. 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:17.960 And I thought tonight was was very important, Like it 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:19.960 could have it was really easy in that first quarter. 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:22.160 They could have just laid down, right, like you talked 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.679 about their basketball character or whatever. They could have easily 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.080 just laid down. The King's played well to start, they 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.040 went up like seventeen to ten. They had a double 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.880 digit lead. I believe after after the first quarter, could 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.040 have been very easy to just lie down to just quit, 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:36.800 quit on this game. We don't have Lebron. We'll just 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:38.640 move on to go home. And I thought it was 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.079 big to see them come back and roar back the 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.040 way they did, especially in that second half. Lak Monk 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.640 hitting the halftime heave before halftime believed to put us 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.719 a huge shot. Yeah, to put us I believe by 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:52.880 nine a half time. And then they just came out 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:54.960 and shut them down. And you talked about them not 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.000 being able to get to get a shot up. I 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.720 thought link Monk and Ellington's defense was a big part 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.199 of that. Uh. The whole reason again not to blabor 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:06.360 Vogel again. But the only reason Vogel doesn't go to 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:08.920 these small lineups or these guard heavy lineups is his 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.520 defensive He's worried about the defense right, the defensive issues 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.360 that it can bring. And I thought Ellington, especially tonight, 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:18.120 he's not ever gonna be great. But I thought he 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:20.880 did his job like, he did his role right, and 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.120 he didn't get back cut Kings tried to do these 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.240 backpasses and he I think he got a bunch of 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.800 deflections there. He fought over screens pretty nicely. I thought 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.400 Leek Monk fought down low like you saw him, go 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.920 for rebounds, go for defensive rebounds, jump jump in the air, 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.720 get dirty Austin Reeves again as part of that. I 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:40.600 thought he played well. His box out, his toughness was 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:42.520 part of it. But I thought the guards played well. 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:44.440 To me, this is the lineup that I'd like to see, 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.480 I guess start the game. I think it's clear like 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:52.280 Taylan isn't fit for that lineup yet, especially without Lebron. 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.200 I don't think you can fit Tailan, especially if Vogel 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:57.760 is gonna start another center. I would love to see 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.440 Russ Ellington, Monk and Dwight and a D start because 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:04.160 I feel like we're going to continue the two bigs. 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:06.360 But that was just something that really ran the Kings 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:08.520 off the floor. They had no answer for it. They 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:10.800 had no answer for it offensively or defensively, and it 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:12.640 was it was cool to see us build something and 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.480 hopefully they can continue to build on this even without Lebron. 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:17.880 But I thought that was just another good process thing. 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:20.280 It was an accent that Russ played well in the 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.280 third to me, like, I know his effort and all that, 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.280 and he's and he plays hard, but but we have 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:27.800 to fit him in these lineups. That makes sense, and 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:30.400 I just think he needs at least that type of 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:32.000 sheeting on the floor when you have when you have 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:34.720 Ellington and Monk in the corners, it's hard to cheat 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:37.560 off of right, That's just a lot tougher for him 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:40.200 to for the for the guys to help and zone off, 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:42.280 and we when we put a D and Dwight at 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:44.320 the top, it just gives him a runway with these 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:46.280 guards going so far into the screens, it just gets 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:48.200 him to the basket. I thought that's something we can 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:50.960 use going forward. But yeah, a goodwin. Hopefully this is 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.320 something that they build off of, I believe. On Friday, yeah, 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:56.920 I agree. I wanted to move on to Anthony Davis 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.880 for a second, you know, coming into tonight after I 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:02.360 heard the news about Lebron, and we're not going to 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:03.960 talk too much about the Lebron thing. I mean, here, 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.400 here's the gist of it. He's we don't I I 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.200 still don't really fully understand how the protocols work in 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.000 terms of like how many days he's out and how 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:12.960 many blah blah here ten days, But then I hear 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.600 what if he gets too negative tests within twenty four hours? 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:17.560 The bottom line is, even if it is ten days, 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.200 it looks like, thankfully, because the Lakers schedule is so 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.040 randomly stressed stretched out here, it looks like he might 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.880 only miss like three or four games. So that in 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.800 terms of what this terrible news is, this is like 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:32.360 the best version of that terrible news, you know what 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.800 I mean, Um, it's unfortunate because I don't know that 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:37.840 they have enough talent to win against the Clippers. We're 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.320 going to find out. But that said, like, it's one 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.040 of those things where it is what it is at 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:46.480 this point, and coming into this evening, I wanted to 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.280 have one of our goals for tonight's pod to be like, Okay, 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:52.920 if you're the Lakers and you're starting to build some 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:57.800 positive momentum, what should your goal be in this Lebron 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.920 is down moment here? You know, because it's it's different 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:02.520 from when he went down the last couple of times, 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.159 because when he went down the last couple of times, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.320 it was it was injury. You know, there was internal discussions. 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:11.320 They made a plan like we Lebron probably could play 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.640 through this, but we're planning to rest him because it's 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.919 early in the season. We believe that the whatever damage 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:19.520 in the standings can be done, we can make up 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.520 for it. They even thought in that second rest stretch 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:24.399 that that they'd be able to win a bunch of 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.000 those games, which obviously they were unable to. But this 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:29.000 was a complete shock here. So as a team, how 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.199 do you read, how do you reorganize? How do you 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:34.119 move forward? And one of the top item on my 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.359 list was Anthony Davis has to play like an m 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:41.359 v P. You know. I we talked a lot in 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:44.000 the last part about how we hold Anthony Davis to 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:48.080 the standard of the best players in the league. That 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.320 is why we nitpick him. We don't nitpick him to 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.639 be jerks. We nitpick him because we think he should 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.840 be closer to Janice than he is to go there, 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.120 you know what I mean. And by two of that standard, 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.280 we nit pick him, you know what I mean. And 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:09.520 to this team without Lebron needs him to play like 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.760 he's in the conversation for the best player of the world. 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.760 What does that mean. That means he needs to play 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.359 like the defensive player of the year. That means he 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:20.879 can't float around the perimeter on offense. That means he 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:24.320 has to be a physically aggressive offensive player who attempts 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:29.760 to inflict his physical will on everybody on the other team. 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.400 And from the opening tip tonight, he did that. He 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.000 was bullying his way into the paint to take advantage 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:38.240 of his size dispatches to get shots in the around 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.359 the rim. He was flying around on defense, not just 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.399 in his area, but outside of his area. He looked 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.760 like a guy who was a bona fide best Player 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.520 in the World candidate tonight, and that needs to be 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:55.199 what he is every single night, especially in this stretch 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:57.800 with Lebron out. But I was thankful to see that 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.200 because I coming into tonight, thought that was going to 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:02.560 be the most important thing for to get out of 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.080 this team over the course of these next ten days. 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:09.160 And to see that was encouraging. And then Russ, who 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:11.240