Speaker 1: It was slow to show up on my feet too,
Speaker 1: So it might be like that for everybody. A bunch
Speaker 1: of tank jobs tonight. Huh. Yeah, what a weird day, man, Man,
Speaker 1: what a weird day. Every team played and I think
Speaker 1: we got like two good games out of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well that that Warriors game certainly was entertaining, you know,
Speaker 1: part of the reason why they've been such a um
Speaker 1: you know, I did h after after Warriors, Twitter was
Speaker 1: waxing eloquent about all of the ratings uh stuff yesterday
Speaker 1: and about how step is the only draw in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I did a little bit of digging and basically coming
Speaker 1: into this stretch, uh, the Lakers were the biggest straw
Speaker 1: in the league. But during during this crazy hot streak
Speaker 1: stuff has been on. In the last you know, a
Speaker 1: month or so, He's had like five of the ten
Speaker 1: most watched the games this year, um. And I think
Speaker 1: a big part of that is just high stakes. Every
Speaker 1: game for them matters. They were literally in a situation
Speaker 1: where they needed to win all these games to avoid
Speaker 1: being in the nine seed, you know. And I think
Speaker 1: a couple that with, you know, with how amazing stuff
Speaker 1: is and and everything else associated with it. It just
Speaker 1: you know, it's musty TV. You know, Yeah, it reminds
Speaker 1: me of Portland's last year, right, they just had to
Speaker 1: like win out um from the bubble, and that's kind
Speaker 1: of where they were going as well. They played like
Speaker 1: three straight They're gonna play like three straight playoff games.
Speaker 1: Tonight was one obviously the playing game as well, so
Speaker 1: exciting games for them exactly. And obviously we're not gonna
Speaker 1: talk about ratings tonight, but the but I I always
Speaker 1: say that, you know, the biggest issue with NBA ratings
Speaker 1: is a lack of urgency, and the Warriors just played
Speaker 1: with a hell of a lot of urgency all year
Speaker 1: and it was it was musty. But anyway, I think
Speaker 1: we've got enough to get started here. Welcome everybody to
Speaker 1: the State of the Lakers postgame show. Um, we're not
Speaker 1: going to talk too much about this game tonight game
Speaker 1: on account of the fact that the Lakers once again
Speaker 1: gave probably sub fift effort, especially on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the ball. We'll touch on a couple of things,
Speaker 1: but our primary goal for tonight is to really deep
Speaker 1: dive into a Warrior's Lakers playing game on Wednesday, which
Speaker 1: now all of a sudden carries a ton of importance
Speaker 1: because since Denver tanked, and because of the fact that
Speaker 1: the Clippers tinked, now all of a sudden, the Lakers
Speaker 1: are in a bracket that includes Phoenix and Portland and Denver.
Speaker 1: If they can win on Wednesday, what that means is
Speaker 1: they have a favorable match up against Phoenix, a team
Speaker 1: that cannot guard Anthony Davis as we saw last week,
Speaker 1: in a team that the Lakers would probably be heavily
Speaker 1: favored against in a playoff series, and then a second
Speaker 1: round series against either Portland, who is probably the most
Speaker 1: flawed of all of the West playoff teams that are
Speaker 1: in the top eight, and Denver, who's missing their second
Speaker 1: best player. So as it shakes out, Wednesday becomes incredibly important,
Speaker 1: not only to avoid the single elimination game that could
Speaker 1: take place on Friday, but also for the Lakers to
Speaker 1: stay on the proper side of the bracket um and
Speaker 1: they can do so just by taking care of business.
Speaker 1: And so we're gonna really dive into into that Wednesday
Speaker 1: game because it's so important. But before we get there, Roj,
Speaker 1: is there anything you want to touch on from tonight's
Speaker 1: uh wreck pickup game? Between the New Orleans Pelicans and
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers. Yeah, I had a few things
Speaker 1: kind of written down. I think I stopped writing after
Speaker 1: the second After the second half start, you could tell
Speaker 1: it really it really got to just an open gym running.
Speaker 1: But I thought Lebron just looked amazing, Like he came
Speaker 1: out and he looked like he was actually playing pretty
Speaker 1: hard at first quarter up until the up intil the
Speaker 1: half at least, Um, he was posting up pretty nicely.
Speaker 1: He was moving well. He was blowing up plays defensively,
Speaker 1: like I just haven't seen him defend like that since
Speaker 1: he came back right like he was just catching balls
Speaker 1: out of the air like they were trying to do
Speaker 1: weak side passes. He was blowing up the pick and roll. Um,
Speaker 1: he looked, he looked awesome. He looked as fast as
Speaker 1: ever um in transition. How about you? Did you see
Speaker 1: that as well from Lebron? I thought he was like
Speaker 1: the huge story tonight. He looked really good on the
Speaker 1: back to back right, Like I didn't expect him to
Speaker 1: play this much, especially played that second half. There was
Speaker 1: a little scare at the end there, but yeah, he looked,
Speaker 1: he looked awesome. Do you see that as well from him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so first about to scare um. You know, on replay,
Speaker 1: it looked like after he did this spin and he
Speaker 1: came down, he landed all his weight on that left
Speaker 1: leg and his right foot did touch. Uh. I can't
Speaker 1: even remember who the defender was, but it did come
Speaker 1: down on the foot, but it didn't look like he
Speaker 1: had and he weight on it. So and then after
Speaker 1: the play he was kind of smiling and laughing around.
Speaker 1: So I think Lebron is fine. I think he was
Speaker 1: just pulling a little bit of classic Lebron melodrama on
Speaker 1: along the baseline there. Um. But that said all, all
Speaker 1: in all, I thought he looked amazing physically, and that's
Speaker 1: literally all you can ask for, because the polished stuff
Speaker 1: is gonna come in time. I mean, hell, even when
Speaker 1: Lebron is at his absolute peaks a tendency to be
Speaker 1: kind of sloppy at the beginning of a playoff series.
Speaker 1: So that's just kind of part of the deal. You
Speaker 1: just want him to be physically capable of defending and
Speaker 1: doing the things that he needs to do physically in
Speaker 1: the post and getting to the rim, you know, the
Speaker 1: stuff that he can rely on even when his jumper
Speaker 1: is not falling and when his handles a little sloppy
Speaker 1: like that kind of thing. And I thought there were
Speaker 1: two plays to me that kind of showed that. One
Speaker 1: was the play that I think you're referencing in the
Speaker 1: first half where he just literally shot out of a
Speaker 1: cannon to jump into that passing lane and went down
Speaker 1: the floor for like a right handed layup where he
Speaker 1: was jumping at like a forty five degree angle from
Speaker 1: the rim and still finish like just an unbelievable defensive,
Speaker 1: you know, pick six. And then there was the play
Speaker 1: where he kind of tiptoed along the baseline where he
Speaker 1: caught the ball in transition along the right wing and
Speaker 1: he turned, he caught it at the three point line
Speaker 1: and turned and drove, and the defender tried to kind
Speaker 1: of shut off the baseline, but he left a little
Speaker 1: bit of a gap and Lebron just kind of like
Speaker 1: sidled along the side, you know, right along the baseline
Speaker 1: without stepping out of bounds and made a reverse layup.
Speaker 1: And that is an example of a play that you know,
Speaker 1: him having really good ankle stability would be necessary for
Speaker 1: him to be able to pull that off. And so
Speaker 1: both Anthony Davis and Lebron looked great physically, and I
Speaker 1: think that's literally all you can, you know, take away
Speaker 1: from this particular game. Yeah, I thought a D was
Speaker 1: moving well. He just his jumper wasn't going. He looked
Speaker 1: like very much he was trying to get through this
Speaker 1: came healthy, right Like you could tell in his intensity.
Speaker 1: Um wasn't great either. Another thing I wrote down here
Speaker 1: is I thought drum And looked pretty well, pretty good tonight, right,
Speaker 1: Like I just I was thinking, like his speed at
Speaker 1: his size, it really shows up next to Lebron and
Speaker 1: a D right like you don't really see it when
Speaker 1: he's not playing with them. But I thought he was
Speaker 1: a force. Like he had a few of those misses
Speaker 1: at the rim. I think he was like six for eleven,
Speaker 1: and again those five misses feel like because just easy
Speaker 1: they looked. But he was dunking a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of baskets. And we talked about this yesterday, like
Speaker 1: the spacing, the spacing issue, right, I thought they figured
Speaker 1: that out a little bit better tonight, Like Dennis Shrewder
Speaker 1: also looked like he was moving better, and I think
Speaker 1: that helped they found a drumming on a lot of
Speaker 1: like dump off dump off passes at the rim, and
Speaker 1: he was moving well, He's able to cut off kind
Speaker 1: of screens and it just was a force download. I
Speaker 1: think he had like Ken rebound before half time, so
Speaker 1: I thought he played well, um and he was pretty
Speaker 1: He's gonna be pretty situational as well. But did you
Speaker 1: see that too? That That's mostly the other thing I
Speaker 1: had written down from this game. Not much to take
Speaker 1: from it, but I thought Drummond also like his speed
Speaker 1: and his at that size, it just looks really good
Speaker 1: next to Lebron and a d tow other just freaks
Speaker 1: um at their positions, right, So when you have those
Speaker 1: two plus him, you could tell New Orleans had a
Speaker 1: tough time trying to like box him out. He really
Speaker 1: gave them problems download. Do you see that as well
Speaker 1: from them? Yeah? Yeah, So I actually thought they had
Speaker 1: an interesting wrinkle with him in the anker spot where
Speaker 1: they kind of spaced him a little bit further away
Speaker 1: from the rim. I don't know if you noticed that,
Speaker 1: but like you know, one of the things that I
Speaker 1: think we've noticed with Drummond and his athleticism is he's
Speaker 1: not really he doesn't really have a ton of pop
Speaker 1: like from a strike vertical the way that someone like
Speaker 1: Montrese Harold does, you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 1: they kind of had him stand almost like fifteen feet
Speaker 1: away on the baseline and as the the action would
Speaker 1: take place, he would kind of load up, and you know,
Speaker 1: if the ball didn't come to him, he would, you know,
Speaker 1: just go for a rebound. But then if he was
Speaker 1: able to catch, he had so much momentum going towards
Speaker 1: the rim that he actually had more of a traditional,
Speaker 1: you know, above the rim type of center presence down there,
Speaker 1: just because he had his momentum going towards the rim. Um.
Speaker 1: But I agree with you, and and obviously, like the
Speaker 1: biggest thing that we're gonna pay attention to um with
Speaker 1: him is whether or not he can be impactful defensively
Speaker 1: when everybody's engaged. And unfortunately we didn't get a fantastic
Speaker 1: look at that in the last two days. But but
Speaker 1: but I still think he's gonna have had some moments
Speaker 1: in the postseason for sure. Yeah, it's a good point
Speaker 1: on that, like him getting a momentum going to the rim,
Speaker 1: Like he's not a good like just straight up dunker
Speaker 1: right like would find him. He's running from not the corner,
Speaker 1: but like that mid corner, or we can kind of
Speaker 1: go in and catch and dunk. And I guess the
Speaker 1: only last thing I thought I talked to Saul looked great,
Speaker 1: and I felt like this was like a playoff rotation.
Speaker 1: I felt like, um, I know Ben Malcolmore is your guy,
Speaker 1: but he got I don't think he played tonight, Is
Speaker 1: that right? I didn't see him, so yeah, him play tonight.
Speaker 1: And I felt I felt like they put a lot
Speaker 1: of playoff lineups out there. Um, I would like to
Speaker 1: see Gasol kind of stayed with that second unit. He
Speaker 1: really opens things up. And yeah, I think that was
Speaker 1: it really from tonight after that second half, especially with
Speaker 1: Denver just absolutely taking um taking that game. There's not
Speaker 1: really much to take from here. But do you have
Speaker 1: anything else from from this game? No, I think we're good.
Speaker 1: So so basically, you know, as like a rounding assessment
Speaker 1: here at the end of the regular season, there's one
Speaker 1: thing that we were hoping to see, and that was
Speaker 1: that they would be healthy and and and everyone appear
Speaker 1: is to be healthy. And you know, Lebron, I still
Speaker 1: think like, like even on that little spin move lay
Speaker 1: up he had at the end of the game to
Speaker 1: get to his twenty five points per game streak that
Speaker 1: he was obviously chasing when he made that move. He doesn't.
Speaker 1: He still doesn't quite look, you know, as as powerful
Speaker 1: and explosive in that move as you would hope. So
Speaker 1: it's not like he's a percent by any stretch of
Speaker 1: the imagination. But I think Lebron and a d are
Speaker 1: where you would hope they would be physically given the circumstances.
Speaker 1: And so really that the everything else about the team,
Speaker 1: like the fact that they haven't played great defense in
Speaker 1: the last couple of games, those sorts of things I
Speaker 1: think are really relevant for this playing game, but but
Speaker 1: less relevant for the coming playoff matchups because they'll have
Speaker 1: more time to kind of figure that out. But so
Speaker 1: I I dug in a little bit to the numbers
Speaker 1: from this season from Lakers Warriors. Some of it, you know,
Speaker 1: most of it, to be honest, you gotta take with
Speaker 1: a grain of salt because you know, in the three
Speaker 1: matchups that the Lakers had, two of which they blew
Speaker 1: the Warriors out, and one that they blew them out
Speaker 1: and blew the lead. Uh, those three games were all
Speaker 1: before this recent stretch or the Warriors have looked fantastic.
Speaker 1: The Warriors have won fifteen of their last twenty games,
Speaker 1: and during that stretch they've kind of unlocked the formula
Speaker 1: that works. And so I don't necessarily think that you
Speaker 1: can look at this as just the Lakers are going
Speaker 1: to destroy them, because they destroyed them this year. The
Speaker 1: Warriors are a little bit better now than they were
Speaker 1: during that stretch. Um. If you look at the numbers
Speaker 1: in their matchups this year, they destroyed them with Lebron
Speaker 1: on the floor. They destroyed him with Lebron off the floor.
Speaker 1: They destroyed him with Steph on the floor. They destroyed
Speaker 1: him with step off the floor. There's really nothing you
Speaker 1: can take from that. Um. The only thing that I
Speaker 1: looked at from this year's matchups was because I was
Speaker 1: curious as to whether or not, other than Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: if the Warriors had anybody to throw out Lebron. And
Speaker 1: the only name that came to mind was Juantascano Anderson,
Speaker 1: who is another big, bruising forward who has the ability
Speaker 1: to at least not get completely physically dominated by Lebron.
Speaker 1: And in those minutes he had some success against Lebron. Um,
Speaker 1: and we'll dive into that a little bit here in
Speaker 1: a minute, But the point being, I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: you can take too much from what you've seen in
Speaker 1: the Laker Warrior matchups this year. What do you think
Speaker 1: about about the minutes they've played this year. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think there are still a few things you can take,
Speaker 1: but I think the size advantage is still there, right Like,
Speaker 1: like they beat him up on the board, Um, I
Speaker 1: think they have fourteen offensive rebounds against them in February.
Speaker 1: They want the rebounding him much of like forty six
Speaker 1: to thirty or something back in March. That's still there
Speaker 1: for them. And and also like the Warriors are gonna
Speaker 1: go to Steph Curry right Like, that's pretty much what
Speaker 1: they're gonna go to still um in this playing game.
Speaker 1: They have some other guys that are playing well. Jordan Pool,
Speaker 1: I thought I played really well tonight. Wantascano understand, like
Speaker 1: he's a nice piece for them. But the the Lakers are
Speaker 1: gonna try to take away step Curry, and I still
Speaker 1: think they have like the pieces to do that. Now
Speaker 1: that they're playing a lot better, they have a top
Speaker 1: five defense. I don't think they did when they played
Speaker 1: Um the last time. Back in March February, but they've
Speaker 1: been a pretty good defensive team all year. They moved
Speaker 1: more to Draymond at the five, right, I guess that's
Speaker 1: kind of the adjustment you have to um kind of
Speaker 1: look for there. But they still have the guards, are
Speaker 1: going to chase staff. That stuff. You can take A
Speaker 1: d didn't play in the last game, last one, if
Speaker 1: I remember correct, I think aid he played against them,
Speaker 1: or he didn't play in the last two actually, so
Speaker 1: he didn't play against them in February or March, and
Speaker 1: the Lakers won by over twenty and those two matchups.
Speaker 1: So I still think there's things you can take. The
Speaker 1: words are definitely playing better and in a one off
Speaker 1: it's totally different than a series that we talked about
Speaker 1: that a lot, But that's what I would take from it.
Speaker 1: The size advantage, and now the Lakers added adding Drum
Speaker 1: and they're kind of adding onto that size size advantage
Speaker 1: with the Warriors losing Wiseman too. Right now they're playing
Speaker 1: better with that Wiseman, but still they lose that size
Speaker 1: down know not, Draymond is an amazing five, amazing center.
Speaker 1: I just don't know they'll be able to keep them
Speaker 1: off the glass. That's how the Lakers one of those
Speaker 1: two matchups, they beat them up on the boards a
Speaker 1: lot offensive rebounds, a lot of points in the paint.
Speaker 1: That's how they being a bomb up at twenty. That's
Speaker 1: the thing I would take, I guess, and the other
Speaker 1: things I'm not too much sure, but but they can
Speaker 1: definitely still win that size advantage that they have over
Speaker 1: the Warriors. Mm hmm, I agree, And that will be
Speaker 1: the interesting thing to see is is whether or not
Speaker 1: the Warriors are capable of going small. I'm gonna read.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read a couple of just a couple of lineups.
Speaker 1: I I went into the NBA dot Com database and
Speaker 1: I just ran the last twenty games. So just this
Speaker 1: stretch where the Warriors are fifteen and five, and they're
Speaker 1: most used line up by a mile with two six
Speaker 1: minutes played. The next closest is forty eight minutes. So
Speaker 1: the lineup they lean on the most is Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: Camp Bays Moore, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Cavon Looney.
Speaker 1: So they actually are playing five for the most part
Speaker 1: um at least most often uh in these minutes, which
Speaker 1: I think is important because I think the Lakers. I
Speaker 1: agree with you in the sense that I think this
Speaker 1: is a series where the Lakers can lean on their size,
Speaker 1: and I think it's a series that's gonna force of
Speaker 1: Warriors to play bigger um. That lineup that I just
Speaker 1: mentioned in their two six minutes is plus six point
Speaker 1: seven per one possessions and they're okay on offense, and
Speaker 1: they're really good on defense. And that's to be expected
Speaker 1: because with kei Yan Looney on the floor, it just
Speaker 1: makes it hard to play four on three off of
Speaker 1: those Steph double teams. There's just they just don't have
Speaker 1: as much offensive talent on the floor. Their best lineup
Speaker 1: that played over thirty minutes in this twenty game stretch
Speaker 1: was Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Kent bays Bore, Juantascano Anderson,
Speaker 1: and Michael Molder, which is a small ball team, but again,
Speaker 1: that's that guy that I was telling you about, Juantaskano Anderson.
Speaker 1: Putting him at the four allows him to guard Lebron,
Speaker 1: which allows you to play Draymond at the five, which
Speaker 1: unlocks a lot of stuff for them. That lineup for
Speaker 1: them is plus sixteen eight per one hund possessions and
Speaker 1: thirty five minutes over this twenty games span, and in
Speaker 1: the minutes that Lebron and j t A have shared
Speaker 1: the floor this year, he's three for seven from the
Speaker 1: field over two from three, And if you take his
Speaker 1: scoring on a per thirty six basis, he scores at
Speaker 1: a rate of about fourteen point four points per game,
Speaker 1: which is pretty low. Um, So that's a really small
Speaker 1: sample size. I think it was fifteen minutes. So if
Speaker 1: there's a if there's a path to success there, it's
Speaker 1: them going small, trying to put j t A on
Speaker 1: Lebron and hoping that that allows them to play more
Speaker 1: freely offensively because keep on, Looney's not on the floor,
Speaker 1: and it just kind of opens up a bunch of
Speaker 1: things for them to be good on both ends. But
Speaker 1: I agree with you, I think it's all gonna come
Speaker 1: down to whether or not if the Lakers play drum
Speaker 1: and then in Davis, or if they play Marcus on Davis,
Speaker 1: will the Warriors be able to just avoid being completely
Speaker 1: physically obliterated. Yeah, And if you saw tonight, I mean,
Speaker 1: Jonah's Valancina's got twenty nine and sixteen, I mean, and
Speaker 1: he's just not that he's I mean, he's a good center,
Speaker 1: good bruising center, but he's not Anthony Davis and so
Speaker 1: Andrew Drummond being able to play next to them. And
Speaker 1: I just look at their lineup like they played I
Speaker 1: think eight guys today, right, So, I mean they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to throw probably Wiggins on Lebron pretty much full time,
Speaker 1: Draymond on a D and I just don't think that
Speaker 1: will keep up through a through a full game. Again,
Speaker 1: Steph can get hot right there, but that's what they'll
Speaker 1: have to go to. They're trying, they're gonna try to
Speaker 1: win the math game. I guess right, they're gonna shoot
Speaker 1: a bunch of threes. Um, Steph caught thirty six shots tonight,
Speaker 1: and I just don't I just don't feel like the
Speaker 1: Lakers would kind of allow him to get get up
Speaker 1: that many shots. Memphis was kind of having trouble trying
Speaker 1: to stay with him, right, Like he would give it
Speaker 1: to Draymond and you'd get like an easy cut off
Speaker 1: and and they'd like they'd use that almost every time
Speaker 1: on them. Um, they did not see that coming. All
Speaker 1: those split cut actions they had Looney throwing it into
Speaker 1: the post and then he just comes to the step
Speaker 1: comes to the screen for Steff. I just don't see
Speaker 1: that working against the Lakes in a full series. Now again,
Speaker 1: stephaniely just go insane. You can just shoot off and
Speaker 1: go I so against a d against the Switches, But
Speaker 1: I just don't think that'll that'll keep in a full
Speaker 1: in a full game like through forty eight minutes. UM.
Speaker 1: They've blow them out three times this year, two times
Speaker 1: this year. The one time that they didn't, UM, they
Speaker 1: were up twenty and just kind of let the gas
Speaker 1: off the pedal. But I guess we can kind of
Speaker 1: go to like how the Warriors would kind of win
Speaker 1: this game if that, if we want to go through there,
Speaker 1: it would basically be Steath going berserk, right, And I
Speaker 1: guess Draymond hitting. He didn't hit three tonight, but I
Speaker 1: guess him had taken those threes. I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: make like guys like Andrew Wiggins camp based more umqantes
Speaker 1: kind of awing like they're gonna have to prove to
Speaker 1: them they're gonna make shots. Lakers are really good at trapping,
Speaker 1: trapping ball streams and kind of making other guys beat them.
Speaker 1: I think they're the best, like off ball defense team
Speaker 1: in the league where especially if a d and Lebron
Speaker 1: are kind of engaged, what do you see from that, Like,
Speaker 1: what's your what's your way of the Warriors? I guess
Speaker 1: winning um that playing game on Wednesday. Yeah, so let's
Speaker 1: let's because I want to I want to dive into
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball. And I think I think
Speaker 1: the method in which the Warriors would beat the Lakers
Speaker 1: would involve them really disrupting and stagnating the Laker offense
Speaker 1: with their defense. So in a scenario where they'd win,
Speaker 1: i'd be the type of game where, you know, two
Speaker 1: minutes left in the first quarter, the Lakers call it
Speaker 1: time out because they're down, you know, twenty two to ten,
Speaker 1: because for whatever reason, you know, there's just no space
Speaker 1: on the floor, and drum Drummond is blowing up all
Speaker 1: the little handoffs and stuff to drum to drum end
Speaker 1: under the basket. Draymond Green, I mean, is blowing everything
Speaker 1: up under the basket. And Wiggins is doing a good
Speaker 1: job on Lebron, just kind of containing him. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, there's like no driving lanes because there's
Speaker 1: a lack of spacing, and you know, maybe KCP got
Speaker 1: a couple of contested looks, but they're not great like that,
Speaker 1: to me is the pathway to to the Warriors winning.
Speaker 1: It's just an excellent defensive performance and they're an excellent
Speaker 1: defensive team. And that is one in the cards with
Speaker 1: this team is them just really really putting up an
Speaker 1: incredible defensive effort stagnating the Lakers, a team that has
Speaker 1: been prone to that this year, especially when they play
Speaker 1: a five next to a D and so so that
Speaker 1: to me is is where it would start. And to me,
Speaker 1: it all comes down to because Draymond Green is gonna
Speaker 1: be just fine and amout to Anthony Davis and Kievan
Speaker 1: Looney is going to be just fine in the matchup
Speaker 1: against against any of the Laker centers that they throw
Speaker 1: out there. And when I say just fine in terms
Speaker 1: of Draymond, I mean he's gonna make it work. Like
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be easy. It's not gonna look like
Speaker 1: what it did against the Sun's where a D is
Speaker 1: just getting everything he wants and like the people on
Speaker 1: the couch watching at home or like this is violence,
Speaker 1: what's happening here, That's not what's gonna happen with Draymond.
Speaker 1: Like it's gonna be worked like a d might make
Speaker 1: some shots, but it's not gonna be easy. And so
Speaker 1: if Wiggins can hold his own and that matchup against
Speaker 1: Lebron and just not get completely, you know, destroyed to
Speaker 1: the point where they have to send reckless double teams
Speaker 1: and Lebron can pick them apart, I think things could stagnate.
Speaker 1: And if they do, that would be the recipe where
Speaker 1: the pressure creeps in a little bit, all the role
Speaker 1: players get sweaty poems and things start to get a
Speaker 1: little bit tougher, and then it just becomes one of
Speaker 1: those games where all of a sudden, you're middle of
Speaker 1: the second quarter and you're like, oh, this is gonna
Speaker 1: be a close one, you know what I mean? And
Speaker 1: and so I think it all starts for the Warriors
Speaker 1: on the defensive end. Yeah, and I think our guys
Speaker 1: are gonna have to hit open shots, right, Guys like
Speaker 1: k ZP Dennis Shrewder who hit a few threes tonight,
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to hit their open looks. Especially if
Speaker 1: we start Andre Drummond um, that lane is going to
Speaker 1: be clogged. But I guess my only question with that
Speaker 1: is that um if Kevon Looney and Draymond Green. They're
Speaker 1: gonna do a nice job, I guess, um in isolation
Speaker 1: against them. But can they stop like Lebron James from
Speaker 1: attacking the room? Can they stop Dennish Shrewder into the basket?
Speaker 1: Can they stopped Andrew Drummond Anthony Davis from attacking offense rebounds?
Speaker 1: I guess that's like my question there. Now, like the
Speaker 1: Lakers go cold and like Steff is going going crazy
Speaker 1: from three, that really opens everything else up for them.
Speaker 1: But I just think the Lakers have really good guards
Speaker 1: KCP Alex Cruce, So they're gonna try to try to
Speaker 1: make it really tough on Steff. Right, You're not gonna
Speaker 1: stop him, just make him work. Um now, I think
Speaker 1: make him shoot like forty times. I think that is
Speaker 1: kind of making him work a little bit. But they're
Speaker 1: gonna try to take those away, trap them a little
Speaker 1: bit harder, make Draymond kind of make that four on
Speaker 1: three passes to base Moore and guys like that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess that's the way that the Warriors could could
Speaker 1: could steal one right again, this game I believe is
Speaker 1: in is in l a But still, um, that's the
Speaker 1: way they can steal if STEP's going hot and then
Speaker 1: they're they're shooters are making shots. As more guys like that,
Speaker 1: UM can can stop them. But I think the only
Speaker 1: thing with as they have to take away the rim
Speaker 1: because Lebron's gonna try to attack the roim, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is gonna try to get to the rim. Um, that's
Speaker 1: the only way that they'll win this game. If they're
Speaker 1: able to take away that, then they have a chance.
Speaker 1: The Lakers shooters can go cold. Um, they don't have
Speaker 1: any awesome, great shooters on the team, but those dudes
Speaker 1: can go cold. Because do you see that as well?
Speaker 1: That's kind of the way this goes. The Lakers kind
Speaker 1: of go cold again in a one game sample. That's
Speaker 1: why I wanted to stay out this playing thing, not
Speaker 1: being scared of the Warriors, but just just putting this
Speaker 1: up to one game. It's just it's just really tough.
Speaker 1: But is that kind of what you see as well?
Speaker 1: Just them kind of going cold, and that's that'll be
Speaker 1: the way the Warriors can win this one. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: let's let's shift to that same matchup and focus kind
Speaker 1: of on on the Lakers here for a second, because
Speaker 1: the role players hitting shots is definitely an important part
Speaker 1: of it, agree with you, And it's definitely gonna be
Speaker 1: Let's put it this way, if the role players are
Speaker 1: making shots for the Lakers, I think they take care
Speaker 1: of comfortably um the end of the day. Well, I
Speaker 1: when I say Wiggins holds his own against Lebron, I
Speaker 1: just mean like he's physically capable of at least not
Speaker 1: getting entirely destroyed, because we all know Lebron is gonna
Speaker 1: get by. It's just a matter of what else is
Speaker 1: open there. And so what I think, what I think
Speaker 1: is gonna be really key to watch is, especially in
Speaker 1: a play in format, is how quickly is Frank willing
Speaker 1: to pull on a center if it looks like it's
Speaker 1: going to be one of the That's gonna be the
Speaker 1: the kill of this game, because if it is a
Speaker 1: game where the Warriors have a lead in the first
Speaker 1: half and the scoring numbers are very low, it's gonna
Speaker 1: hit the under that kind of game, and it's clearly
Speaker 1: for all of us watching because of a stagnant, you know,
Speaker 1: lack of space to operate for their two best players
Speaker 1: and and and they continue to play. That's a huge
Speaker 1: concern for me in that play in type of format.
Speaker 1: I think it's so important that Frank reads the writing
Speaker 1: on the wall. Middle of the second quarter, warriors are
Speaker 1: really hanging around or even have a lead. You know,
Speaker 1: Dan is kind of clogging things up because all treads
Speaker 1: they're clogging things up or whatever it is. I really
Speaker 1: really hope that that that Frank is not down episode
Speaker 1: to speak, and that he understands the threat of what
Speaker 1: could happen with against the really good defense, because with
Speaker 1: the Pacers the other night, even for an average defense,
Speaker 1: when they lock in at the end of a game
Speaker 1: and Drummonds on the floor, it's like, here come a
Speaker 1: bunch of ab shots because there's just nothing open and
Speaker 1: pick and roll because there's always the third defender involved,
Speaker 1: and because there's no opportunity for lebronore A d to
Speaker 1: bully their way to the rim on account of the
Speaker 1: lack of space to operate. So I Frank is aware
Speaker 1: of the fact that in a one game setting, have
Speaker 1: to be weaker with that plug than he would in
Speaker 1: the playoffs world, right, I think he's going to treat
Speaker 1: this as like do or die game, Like I don't
Speaker 1: think they want to go and and lose this game
Speaker 1: and then go play that that one game for your
Speaker 1: season against Whereons, against Memphids and Santonio, and then it's
Speaker 1: stuff that we've talked about all um this whole season.
Speaker 1: I guess this whole second half the season, at least
Speaker 1: I can't bring it back. I guess to tonight, Um.
Speaker 1: I thought the rotations tonight were very much playoff, playoff
Speaker 1: level rotations. We saw no treads tonight. UM, I think
Speaker 1: trends and kind of play against the Warriors. Actually, I
Speaker 1: think that's the team maybe you can play play against.
Speaker 1: They don't have that many centers. But again, I think
Speaker 1: drummer will get a quick pool, um if if they're down,
Speaker 1: marcusol will probably get minutes against the Words, and Gon'll
Speaker 1: be a nice team for him to play. And then
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis at the five. We'll probably see a lot
Speaker 1: more of that right um on on Wednesday, especially if
Speaker 1: it's a winning time. I think they'll still start with
Speaker 1: drumming and see how the game goes, see how the
Speaker 1: flow is going. But I think it'll be a quick
Speaker 1: pool for sure. We'll see a lot of k c P,
Speaker 1: a lot of cru So, a lot of kuzma Um,
Speaker 1: a little bit of Wes Matthews. But from there, I
Speaker 1: think the rotation will be pretty much kind of what
Speaker 1: it was tonight. Write a few th h team minutes,
Speaker 1: maybe not too much, and just stick with that eight
Speaker 1: nine month rotation. You can't mess around with this. I
Speaker 1: think they want to get that, at least get that
Speaker 1: game and then get the rest till till round one.
Speaker 1: But you would you see that as well. A lot
Speaker 1: of a d at the five probably. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: really what Bobo can go to, right, and then he
Speaker 1: has all those centers to kind of rotate around. I
Speaker 1: just think that that's what he'll he'll go to if
Speaker 1: if they're down they won't really keep with Drummond or
Speaker 1: if Drummond can't stay up. But I actually think, like
Speaker 1: against the Warriors, he kind of that's kind of his
Speaker 1: skill set, being able to switch up top. That's what
Speaker 1: Drummond kind of does, right, He's not really a big
Speaker 1: lob taking away center. But against Steph, I think that
Speaker 1: obviously step kills everybody, but that's kind of the type
Speaker 1: of archetype of player that he can play against. But
Speaker 1: we'll see, um, we'll see, but I'm pretty sure Voge
Speaker 1: will have a pretty quick pool on on Wednesday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he needs to again like bast basketball games have a
Speaker 1: tendency to slip away rather quickly, like you can fall
Speaker 1: apart quick and you can put yourself in and just
Speaker 1: like against Denver last year in Game three, where yeah,
Speaker 1: you start trying to come back and you get back
Speaker 1: into the game, but then you have no way and
Speaker 1: that's pressure who let the foot off the gas and
Speaker 1: put you away, Like you have to grab him by
Speaker 1: the throat from the start, and if you sense it
Speaker 1: slipping away at all, you've got to go to your
Speaker 1: ace in the hole because there is no second change.
Speaker 1: And we as we've discussed that length already. It is
Speaker 1: so important that they get seven eight, not only by
Speaker 1: the chaotic single elimination game on Friday, but just because
Speaker 1: of the opponents based along the way with Lebron and Dad.
Speaker 1: This is such an camp. So there's no point in
Speaker 1: pulling any punches in any way whatsoever. But lets let's
Speaker 1: to the defensive end. And so this uh the the
Speaker 1: what the Warriors do extremely well, basically what they've done
Speaker 1: give given Steph the ultimate flight, or at least they've
Speaker 1: gotten him to mentally ex smit green light the way
Speaker 1: that he didn't earlier in the season. He's shooting considerably
Speaker 1: more now than he did in the first and it's
Speaker 1: been a big part of the reason successful. They're basically
Speaker 1: just living and dying on high volume. Even double and
Speaker 1: triple teams. He just you can have a double team
Speaker 1: on Stephy seconds of a possession, but you let him
Speaker 1: slip and you get beat. It literally happened to the
Speaker 1: Jazz the other night. The phenomenal job guarding him offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: someone got detached from Steph. Step got a three and
Speaker 1: to beat them. You know that that's the way they're operating.
Speaker 1: They're just waiting for you to slip. So it's gonna
Speaker 1: be important for to not have the mistakes that have
Speaker 1: plagued them at even in the postseason one, because it's
Speaker 1: just sip ups where steps gonna be ready because he's
Speaker 1: an elitely he's an elite conditioned athlete. He's not gonna
Speaker 1: get tired if you leave him open. He's gonna strong
Speaker 1: and confident in the shot, and he's gonna make you
Speaker 1: pay um and then and then you know, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like we've always said, there's such
Speaker 1: a good tame. You do manage to get Step to
Speaker 1: give up the You just have to be really sharp
Speaker 1: on the back end and make sure that you know
Speaker 1: you end up with somebody that's an inferior player, making
Speaker 1: a like a Michael Molder, someone like a J. T
Speaker 1: A and stay glued the ball doesn't circle around back
Speaker 1: to him all and he can make you pay. Again.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a really interesting match up
Speaker 1: to see whether or not there's of taking out of
Speaker 1: this ridiculous that he's been in for over a month now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's gonna He's gonna try to shoot them into a win, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's really their chance here. Um, I don't think
Speaker 1: there's enough like talent there where they can win without
Speaker 1: him kind of scoring thirty five forty five points. But
Speaker 1: you were able to watch that full game today right
Speaker 1: against Memphis, Um, Step versus Memphis. I don't watch the
Speaker 1: entire thing, but I watched, Okay, so like watching watching
Speaker 1: against Memphis, just seeing how they depended him. Now, the
Speaker 1: Lakers gonna have a few days to kind of scout this,
Speaker 1: I guess, And again I don't know how much they need.
Speaker 1: They played him three or four times or three or
Speaker 1: four times this year, but just watching them trying to defend,
Speaker 1: try to trap him and just like relax after giving
Speaker 1: up the ball, right Like I saw Janey Jackson New Jr.
Speaker 1: Do that a lot. They really picked on him. I
Speaker 1: thought at the top of the key, Um, I just
Speaker 1: don't see that happening. I guess with the look, if
Speaker 1: STEP's going hot, you got it trapping. You have to
Speaker 1: get the ball out of his hands. And I think
Speaker 1: that's what they're gonna try to do. And the k
Speaker 1: CP I was CRUs like we touched on before. They're
Speaker 1: probably one of the best guys being able to chase
Speaker 1: over screens. Right, Stef's not gonna stop moving. He's gonna
Speaker 1: keep firing, um, even if he starts off slow. But
Speaker 1: I guess that's that's the way you gotta do it.
Speaker 1: You gotta get the ball off his hands to make
Speaker 1: make Hans Kanna understand, make Andrew Wiggins, make all those
Speaker 1: dudes make shots now. Wiggins made shots tonight. Jordan Poole
Speaker 1: had a really nice game for them. But I guess
Speaker 1: that's the key there is try to get them to
Speaker 1: slow down. STEP's gonna do what he does. I think
Speaker 1: he's still gonna get his thirty I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: make him work for it, I guess, And that's how
Speaker 1: you have to defend him. That you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: defend step. He doesn't have clay tops in next to him, right,
Speaker 1: so this is where you have to try to trap
Speaker 1: him part get the ball of his hands make I
Speaker 1: don't know how much you're gonna try to switch with
Speaker 1: a d at the top with him, but I guess
Speaker 1: that's that's the only way to defend him. Is there
Speaker 1: anything else you see from them on the officive band
Speaker 1: that the Lakers might have trouble trouble stopping I guess
Speaker 1: for them, I'm not even sure that I would do
Speaker 1: any switching with a D involved. First of all, I
Speaker 1: want to say that you know, you know it he's
Speaker 1: barbecue chicken or anything like that match up in that matchup,
Speaker 1: because he's not that he can hold his own in
Speaker 1: that matchup. But I just think it's inviting a risk
Speaker 1: that's not necessary. It's like it's like not filing at
Speaker 1: the end of a game when there's when you're down
Speaker 1: three or when you're up three, it's like, yeah, like
Speaker 1: you we're going to get a stop. It's like, why
Speaker 1: you can chance. If you feel like you've got guys
Speaker 1: that can knock down free throws, just commit the foul,
Speaker 1: then go home and winner, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of the way I see it with
Speaker 1: the with the with the steps stuff. Wrap the living
Speaker 1: out of him, and I would literally say, we're going
Speaker 1: to go down. If we lose, it's gonna because Michael
Speaker 1: Mulder made a ton of shots. Now, First of all,
Speaker 1: as you and I have talked about, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: the best trap and recover team in the league. They
Speaker 1: haven't always shown it a large part because of the
Speaker 1: inc um defense that can show up every once in
Speaker 1: a while, or they just mail it in. But that's
Speaker 1: that's always been their calling card. And the only difference
Speaker 1: is that it's not like it is with Harden, where
Speaker 1: you can trap him, he gives up the all and
Speaker 1: he backs away to half court. You have to remember that, deaf,
Speaker 1: you are not safe until literally you have secured the rebound.
Speaker 1: That is when you can finally relax on Steph Curry. Defensively,
Speaker 1: you can you can you can fake like he's out
Speaker 1: of the play for twenty seconds and then just break
Speaker 1: open at the right moment and make you pay, and
Speaker 1: so that will be the key different the way they've
Speaker 1: guarded you know, Dame and and James Harden, guys who
Speaker 1: were less. You know they're less. You know that the
Speaker 1: making making you pay for trapping them. You know, because
Speaker 1: step has been getting trapped basically ever since the two
Speaker 1: thousands finals. Uh, you know, even prior to that. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: in two thousand fifteen against the men, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 1: Like he's just been seeing nothing but traps NonStop. Now
Speaker 1: he's playing with inferior teammates. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, like, you know, these guys are pros and
Speaker 1: if you don't, if you're not sharp on the back
Speaker 1: end there, you will get beat. But I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be really interesting to see how committed they are
Speaker 1: to the trapping and if they're consistent they are sloppy
Speaker 1: with it, or if they go which is with a D,
Speaker 1: I think you run the risk of Staff getting hot,
Speaker 1: at which point anything can happen. You know, I have
Speaker 1: the utmost respect for Staff. I think he's the second
Speaker 1: best player in the league. I've been unbelievably impressed by
Speaker 1: the way he's played this season. I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: need to approach this game this day as if they're
Speaker 1: going against appear and not against someone that's beneath them,
Speaker 1: because I think they are very very capable of losing
Speaker 1: this game. That's how much I respect Steff, And that's
Speaker 1: how much I respect Steve cur and this Warrior's defense
Speaker 1: Green and and I really, I really hope, I really
Speaker 1: hope the Lakers come at it with a sense of urgency,
Speaker 1: and I hope they don't come in kind of lacks
Speaker 1: some days ago. Yeah, for sure, I don't think they're
Speaker 1: going to treat this as some like walk walkover when
Speaker 1: right that they know who said people people one knows
Speaker 1: who step is Draymond. They know their body of work.
Speaker 1: And again, look we can talk like excelling those and
Speaker 1: everything and like what they do defensively, but we talked
Speaker 1: about all the time. Basketball is not played don't like
Speaker 1: a spreadsheet or on like coach's boards. Right, It's played
Speaker 1: on the floor. And like you know, one game sample,
Speaker 1: anything can happen. Stef can go crazy, you can have
Speaker 1: forty five and they can win like that that could
Speaker 1: legitimately happened. Like Steff is that good where he can
Speaker 1: win you the game. I just don't. I just think
Speaker 1: the Lakers would be pretty heavily favored, um in this one.
Speaker 1: But definitely that that can happen in a one game
Speaker 1: playing sample. That's why you want to stay out of this.
Speaker 1: I was hoping Denver could could win tonight, but then
Speaker 1: it happened, so yeah, Steph can definitely win. I think
Speaker 1: they'll go into it serious. Um. Lebron looks ready right,
Speaker 1: like not piggybacking off tonight, but he just looks ready
Speaker 1: to go. I thought he was very serious. Um. He
Speaker 1: was talking to Shrewder and all those guys about kind
Speaker 1: of defensive kind of rotations and stuff like that. The
Speaker 1: team is ready to go. I think they'll treat this
Speaker 1: as a playoff game, as they should. It is a
Speaker 1: playoff game, because you don't want to go into that
Speaker 1: nine tin winner matchup. UM, So I think they'll take
Speaker 1: it serious again, like there's not I don't know what
Speaker 1: else you can kind of go go into there. Because
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a one game sample. They're gonna have
Speaker 1: to defend step and kind of make those other guys shoot,
Speaker 1: and I think if they do that, they'll win. Um.
Speaker 1: I feel like they went pretty comfortably in my opinion.
Speaker 1: I just think Lebron and a D will be ready
Speaker 1: to go by that time, by Wednesday, ready to ready
Speaker 1: to ramp it up again into A games and playoffs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think we can you know, inflammation. Just say,
Speaker 1: the two things that were keeping an eye on the
Speaker 1: most will be how successful the Lakers are with their
Speaker 1: trap and recover, whether they can get Steph quote unquote
Speaker 1: out of the game or at least as close as
Speaker 1: you can, or if it ends up burning them, or
Speaker 1: if they're sloppy and they let Steff get off anyway.
Speaker 1: And then on the defensive or on the offensive end,
Speaker 1: I think the thing we're gonna be watching is is
Speaker 1: that the Warriors are a top tier defensive team, and
Speaker 1: the and the Lakers play without a ton of spacing,
Speaker 1: and so I think those will be the things that
Speaker 1: that we have to keep an eye on. Um. But
Speaker 1: I agree with you, it's a one game sample. You
Speaker 1: know that there's a hundred different ways this game can go,
Speaker 1: and it's not gonna be like series where you have
Speaker 1: the X game and the Y game and the Z
Speaker 1: game and the A game in the B game, in
Speaker 1: the C game, and you look back on the series
Speaker 1: and you're like, wow, every game was like different than
Speaker 1: the others. You know, like like we've seen so often
Speaker 1: in the past watching NBA playoffs, so you know this
Speaker 1: is just gonna be you know, God knows what's gonna happen,
Speaker 1: and and and and the Lakers are just gonna have
Speaker 1: to be on their toes now, thankfully in terms of
Speaker 1: their preparation and effort. You know, you know who has
Speaker 1: a great deal of respect for Steph Curry too is
Speaker 1: Lebron James. You know, this is a guy that who
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not as simple as losing to Steph,
Speaker 1: but he has lost the staff three times in the
Speaker 1: playoffs and and and been sent and been sent home
Speaker 1: by him and his teammates. But the point is is,
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron has a great deal of respect for staff,
Speaker 1: and I I think that he's gonna have have those
Speaker 1: guys ready to go. Um. But yeah, dude, that's all
Speaker 1: I got in terms of of prep for this game.
Speaker 1: If you want to get some guests on here and
Speaker 1: we can take some questions. Yeah, people want to get
Speaker 1: through a question, We'll get get a few people up here.
Speaker 1: I guess my last thing on this, like my biggest
Speaker 1: concern with this team just all year. I think today
Speaker 1: was like the twenty six game that's Shooter Lebron any
Speaker 1: Da played together, right, And today it was like the
Speaker 1: third third game with with Drummond and then all those starters.
Speaker 1: So I guess that's my biggest worry go into a
Speaker 1: one game playoff that Warrior's team, even though they're really shorthanded,
Speaker 1: they've kind of been playing together for a little while, right,
Speaker 1: They've built a little good chemistry together. Um and Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr I think is short in the rotation. Um. I
Speaker 1: think I was talking to some Warrior fans and they said,
Speaker 1: seemque short in the rotation for like a few months now.
Speaker 1: They've been playing like eight nine guys, um, And they
Speaker 1: might get Ubery back as well, but by that playing game,
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure. But that's my biggest worry here
Speaker 1: is just that that chemistry is not there yet. The
Speaker 1: Lakers have the town level to win this game pretty comfortably,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is just that chemistry knowing where everyone is,
Speaker 1: especially like if they get down where the rotation should be,
Speaker 1: kind of being locked in in that respect, I think
Speaker 1: they'll be locked in mentally. It's just locked in as
Speaker 1: a team together, right, that's a little different. Um, So
Speaker 1: that that's my only I guess the biggest concern with
Speaker 1: this like one game playoff, right, when you get a
Speaker 1: series to kind of set it down, it's a little different.
Speaker 1: You can not relax in game one, but you know
Speaker 1: you can kind of feel things out, experiment lineups. You
Speaker 1: can't do this with this kind of game. It's a
Speaker 1: game seven to me because you don't want to go
Speaker 1: into that last game. So I guess that's my final concern,
Speaker 1: and then yeah, I should Do you have anything else
Speaker 1: from from this series? Yeah? Yeah. The last thing I
Speaker 1: was just gonna say it was just to just to
Speaker 1: follow up on what you were saying, is just like
Speaker 1: the Lakers have a talent advantage, a clear talent advantage,
Speaker 1: but the Warriors have been playing better basketball for for
Speaker 1: the last month, and a lot of that has to
Speaker 1: do with injuries. Like I'm not glossing over the obvious
Speaker 1: reasons why the way things are that they are, um,
Speaker 1: but let's let's call it what it is. The for
Speaker 1: the last month there, you know, the last twenty games,
Speaker 1: they have been a bona fide, you know, championship contender
Speaker 1: type of team in the way that they've played on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor. Now you could call that
Speaker 1: strength schedule, you could call that then capitalizing on injured
Speaker 1: teams that aren't playing all their guys. There's a bunch
Speaker 1: of of you know, underlying context there. However, you can't
Speaker 1: argue with the results. And the point is is that
Speaker 1: the advantage the Warriors have coming into this game is
Speaker 1: that they're playing damn good basketball right now. You know,
Speaker 1: the Lakers have won five in a row as well,
Speaker 1: but they've they've had three cake walks in that in
Speaker 1: that stretch. And so what you hope is that the
Speaker 1: Lakers talent in this recent stretch of winning, even though
Speaker 1: it's been a little sloppy on the defensive end, you
Speaker 1: hope that that can overcome the month or so of
Speaker 1: quality basketball that this inferior team has been playing. But
Speaker 1: you know what, dude, I cannot wait for that game.
Speaker 1: That is going to be one of the more entertaining
Speaker 1: NBA games of this last decade. I'm I'm very much
Speaker 1: looking forward to it. But yeah, let's get some people
Speaker 1: on Yeah, it's probably not to talk about ratings. Will
Speaker 1: probably be one of the most rated playoff playoff games
Speaker 1: in total, right, just Lebron step um going at it
Speaker 1: in a in a one game off kind of game
Speaker 1: seven feel Um, So I guess we can start with
Speaker 1: Pedro here and and get your request and only we
Speaker 1: can get to you tonight, um, which just kind of
Speaker 1: it's all nine is not too late, but probably twenty minutes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's up Goods. So we kind of talked
Speaker 1: a lot about the Warriors, but I was kind of wondering,
Speaker 1: do you guys know what seed we would be playing
Speaker 1: in the second round if we win Wednesday? So if
Speaker 1: we would Wednesday, it's really simple. We play the Suns
Speaker 1: in the first round, and if we beat the Suns,
Speaker 1: we play the winner of of Portland and Denver. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, that's the other angle of this Wednesday
Speaker 1: game that makes it so important is it's the difference
Speaker 1: between going through what would probably be the ideal path
Speaker 1: through the playoffs, you know, facing the Clippers in the
Speaker 1: finals or Western Conference finals, I should say, and then
Speaker 1: facing two inferior teams in the in the second round,
Speaker 1: and then the first and then the first round opponent
Speaker 1: that is a really, really bad matchup. The Lakers are
Speaker 1: a bad matchup for them in the sense that they
Speaker 1: can't they really can't guard Anthony Davis. You know, if
Speaker 1: they lose on Wednesday and they have to beat you know,
Speaker 1: Memphis or San Antonio on Friday, then you're looking at
Speaker 1: Utah in the first round, who has been the best
Speaker 1: record in the league this year, and someone that is
Speaker 1: probably matches up with the Lakers a little bit better
Speaker 1: um than the Suns do. And then you have to
Speaker 1: play the Clippers in the second round. So all all around,
Speaker 1: all around, this Wednesday game carries up the utmost importance
Speaker 1: for the Lakers pathway through all of this. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, then, because that would really make the
Speaker 1: pathway a lot easier. Nuggets and Sons, Right, I feel
Speaker 1: like both of the Clippers and Lakers kind of got
Speaker 1: what they wanted, I guess other than the playing game,
Speaker 1: I don't think the Lakers wanted to be in there.
Speaker 1: But going from Phoenix to like Denver and Portland, who
Speaker 1: are you know, respectable good teams. It's just in the
Speaker 1: second round, like that's that's a pretty good choice. And
Speaker 1: then from there you play the Clippers in the conference finals,
Speaker 1: and Lebron and e d should be in rhythm, right
Speaker 1: going the team should be in a really good flow
Speaker 1: by then. It's over a month from now. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that looks like what both teams can. Well, at least
Speaker 1: the Clippers wanted because they kind of force that to happen, right,
Speaker 1: and Denver can also helped out in there. So but
Speaker 1: it looks like they got what they wanted. Both teams
Speaker 1: are gonna play in the conference finals, which I think
Speaker 1: is right, which is which should have happened, right, That
Speaker 1: was the correcting everyone would have predicted before the season.
Speaker 1: So it looks like we got it. Yeah, the Clippers.
Speaker 1: The Clippers are sneaked in this is here, you know,
Speaker 1: geniuses who tank. So there's they're they're playing with fate.
Speaker 1: But Utah Donovan Mitchell has not played since his ankle injury.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell has not played, and Mike Conley's barely played. Uh,
Speaker 1: and so there there's the Utah is not exactly sitting
Speaker 1: in a super confident position. If they have to play
Speaker 1: Golden State in the first that is a much more
Speaker 1: dangerous series for them on account of their lack of
Speaker 1: health from the backcourt. And so there's a chance the
Speaker 1: Clippers could end up going you know, Dallas and then
Speaker 1: Golden State, a team that I think they man handle,
Speaker 1: or Dallas and then Utah you know, with a like
Speaker 1: a relatively rusty backcourt, so that the first, you know,
Speaker 1: say what you want about the Clippers and the Nuggets
Speaker 1: that you know they were smart to do what they
Speaker 1: did to them, just as it rolled them and and mhm,
Speaker 1: supule of intentionally losing basketball games. Yeah, the basketball gods
Speaker 1: are watching right as they see in the other and
Speaker 1: Laker from the podcast as well, So they're they're testing
Speaker 1: fate here, testing karma. So we'll see, let's see what's
Speaker 1: what happens. All right, Thanks God. Question that I really
Speaker 1: had was wondering him about. Appreciate it man, Thank you
Speaker 1: all right, thanks Jordans. Are you there, hy? Sorry? Can
Speaker 1: you hear me? I can hear you. What's hey? What's on? Man? Um?
Speaker 1: I was just wondering, how confident are you guys and
Speaker 1: the like us and the playoffs if we go, if
Speaker 1: we beat the side and awfully beat the Warriors. I'll
Speaker 1: just put a flat, uh, really simple. If they beat
Speaker 1: the Warriors on Wednesday, I think the Lakers, I think
Speaker 1: they have a very clear path through the first sounds
Speaker 1: based sheerly on what they are right now, and then
Speaker 1: as soon as Lebron gets back in shape, which again,
Speaker 1: like I was telling Rodgers just a second ago, that
Speaker 1: Western Conference Finals series is probably five weeks away at
Speaker 1: this point. So that's a lot of time to really
Speaker 1: get your legs back underneath you and playing not in
Speaker 1: a regular season schedule where you're you know, bare barely
Speaker 1: even motivated to to sweat on any given night. He's
Speaker 1: gonna be playing real, high leverage basketball games for five
Speaker 1: weeks going into that stretch. So I think if they
Speaker 1: can get through the Warriors on Wednesday, which I do
Speaker 1: not think is a guarantee, I think I think they're
Speaker 1: sitting really pretty to go on and run here and
Speaker 1: win this thing. And I think it would be the
Speaker 1: Vegas favorite if they win on Wednesday. Oh cool man, sure,
Speaker 1: sweet Yeah, I feel the same way. As long as
Speaker 1: they're healthy. We've been talking about that all year. Um
Speaker 1: they like to me, I think the Western Conference is
Speaker 1: a little tougher than a lot of people make it
Speaker 1: seem like. I still think Denver and Poorland are respectable teams.
Speaker 1: But the Lakers that they have, uh, if they have
Speaker 1: health on their side, they have the talent on their
Speaker 1: side as well. And I mean Jason talked about a
Speaker 1: lot the Clippers are the main team right that worries us,
Speaker 1: and I think we still kind of feel that way.
Speaker 1: And especially if the Clippers. The Clippers get to the
Speaker 1: Western Conference finals, that means they're rolling to right. Like
Speaker 1: they played well, they were able to knock two teams
Speaker 1: out of the playoffs, I think that's gonna be a
Speaker 1: health iight like I would still pick the Lakers by
Speaker 1: a margin, but I think I think that would be
Speaker 1: a really tough series. But I'm so confident that they
Speaker 1: can get there. I think can at least get there.
Speaker 1: They have that means they have a shot. Cool n
Speaker 1: my question, Yeah, it was pretty short, but thanks for
Speaker 1: thanks for answering it. Thank you for happing on Jordan.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it. Cool you man. I think I think
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting. You know, when when we speak confidently
Speaker 1: about the Lakers, you have to remember that these other
Speaker 1: teams all have flaws too, you know, and you know
Speaker 1: the Lakers flaw, the one that everyone is pointing to
Speaker 1: all season was, well, what about Lebron's ankle? Well what
Speaker 1: about a d you know in his achilles? And both
Speaker 1: of those seemed to be non issues at this point.
Speaker 1: So you're diving into a Clippers team that you know,
Speaker 1: they've been a little bit better at pressuring the rim lately,
Speaker 1: but they're not a great rim pressure team, and they
Speaker 1: tend to really stagnate in the clutch, and they rely
Speaker 1: too heavily in isolation, and and there are a lot
Speaker 1: of reasons that they could fall apart. Defensively, they haven't
Speaker 1: been nearly as sharp as some of the other contenders.
Speaker 1: You know, we've talked a lot about Brooklyn and their
Speaker 1: flaws and Milwaukee in their flaws. Like all these teams
Speaker 1: have have just a laundry list of items that could
Speaker 1: get them beat, and the Lakers have some items on
Speaker 1: that list too, but they have less the fewer of
Speaker 1: those items, and their stars look healthy, and there there's
Speaker 1: there's reason to be optimistic because all I'm trying to say, yep,
Speaker 1: I agree, let me get our um here. Yeah, all
Speaker 1: that other stuff is gravy. Right, Lebron looking like himself
Speaker 1: and a d looking like themselves is pretty much what
Speaker 1: we needed the last few games. It's like it's connecting.
Speaker 1: See if I can get jailing up here, Well, the
Speaker 1: other one connects can you hear a sailor? Yep? Can
Speaker 1: you hear me? Yeah? What's up? Man? Yeah? So I
Speaker 1: just had one quick question or just one quick question
Speaker 1: that guys might for your perspective, um, for the gamma
Speaker 1: Wednesday against the Lakers. I mean, I'm sorry against the
Speaker 1: Warriors for you personally, what would your ideal rotaste and
Speaker 1: look like? So Roger and I talked about this a lot.
Speaker 1: I think we'd both like to see a lot of
Speaker 1: a d at the five. But my guess is that
Speaker 1: they'll start big. Because the Warriors start big, they start
Speaker 1: keep on Looney at center. Um. And so my guess
Speaker 1: is that the Lakers will attempt to physically dominate them. Um.
Speaker 1: I just hope that if they are unsuccessful and physically done,
Speaker 1: and that they quickly audible as far as that. Outside
Speaker 1: of that, I think Roj you can dive into a
Speaker 1: little bit that I think it'll look a lot like
Speaker 1: it did tonight in terms of the guys who got
Speaker 1: dnp s. What do you think? Yeah, absolutely, I think
Speaker 1: that it will be like a shorter rotation like we
Speaker 1: thought tonight. We didn't see Tress tonight and he might
Speaker 1: play against the Warriors, But I kind of expect him
Speaker 1: to not play either either then and no bad maxim
Speaker 1: or either tonight. We got some Wes Matthews minutes, but
Speaker 1: I think we'll pretty much stick to the core of
Speaker 1: a Crusoe, k cp um, Kuzma and all, just like
Speaker 1: the main core guys. And then I think Drummond will
Speaker 1: still start. I think you'll get a quick pull, but
Speaker 1: I expect Marcusol to play a lot and just go
Speaker 1: with that eight nine mine rotation and treat that as
Speaker 1: like the game seven. And I feel like they will.
Speaker 1: Um so I think we'll see a short rotation. They'll
Speaker 1: see if that starting lineup works. If not, I think
Speaker 1: Bogle will get a quick pull, but I would like
Speaker 1: to see Marcosol, Andre, Drummond and then a d at
Speaker 1: the five. And I think we know like what the wings,
Speaker 1: who the wings are and and of course Lebron that's
Speaker 1: that's what I would he has a rotation. Mhm. Okay,
Speaker 1: thanks guys, thank you do see if we can get
Speaker 1: our showan back up here. Thank god it's going good
Speaker 1: doing well. Thanks. I just wanted to get your guys
Speaker 1: thoughts on what you see as Montrez Harrold's role moving forward.
Speaker 1: UM I think at the beginning of the season, we
Speaker 1: all had some ambitions for him, and we knew that
Speaker 1: he was limited defensively, But how are we gonna incorporate him?
Speaker 1: Do you think it's important to do so? Do you
Speaker 1: think that if he doesn't get time, he's gonna kind
Speaker 1: of act up on the bench. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: get your idea on that. Well, for starters, I think
Speaker 1: I think we all got to give much his roses
Speaker 1: for really, you know, uh, doing what we all hoped
Speaker 1: he would do this year, which was eat innings in
Speaker 1: a short turn round season where we expected some lebron
Speaker 1: a d health issues. I don't think we expected this,
Speaker 1: but we expected some issues in that department, and in
Speaker 1: Montrez did an amazing job. But at this point in
Speaker 1: the season, I think Roger and I talked about this
Speaker 1: a lot. I think it's all about matchups. I think
Speaker 1: he plays a lot against Phoenix. I think there's an
Speaker 1: opportunity to play him against Golden State anybody that doesn't
Speaker 1: use a big, bruising center. I like the option. But
Speaker 1: if he's going against you know, Nurkics or or or
Speaker 1: Yokich in the second round, I don't think you can
Speaker 1: play Montrez. You know, any if it's like going against
Speaker 1: Gobert and Gobert is just getting offensive rebounds over the
Speaker 1: top of him because he's not a great, you know,
Speaker 1: box out big, They're gonna be matchups where I think
Speaker 1: he just can't play him. As far as his attitude,
Speaker 1: I think I he got I think he's had some
Speaker 1: d MPs this year already, and I think he kind
Speaker 1: of understands how that works. Also, Frank Vogel deserves a
Speaker 1: ton of credit for just being extremely professional and straightforward
Speaker 1: with his players as it pertains of the rotation. He'll
Speaker 1: go up to him, he'll say, hey, Tries, you're not
Speaker 1: playing him, like it won't be something that surprises him,
Speaker 1: or where he sits on the bench just hoping he
Speaker 1: gets his number called. Like he's gonna have a very
Speaker 1: transparent coach who will then turn around in the next
Speaker 1: series and go, hey, guess what you're playing with the
Speaker 1: second unit in this series. You're gonna play twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes a game, probably, like you know, he's gonna be
Speaker 1: all in the loops. I think his attitude will be fine.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Roger, Yeah, this is like this
Speaker 1: is not the team where people really can pout right
Speaker 1: about minutes and things like that. You're in a championship team,
Speaker 1: like the minutes get allocated how they are UM. And
Speaker 1: we saw last year as well, Vocal was able to
Speaker 1: kind of choose who he wants to play in each series.
Speaker 1: I mean, JaVale started every single game UM in the
Speaker 1: in the regular season, and he was benched for a
Speaker 1: lot of series in the playoffs. I'm not like, Tres
Speaker 1: is another guy, Like I defend Andre Drummond and Montres
Speaker 1: is another guy. Like it's really easy to see what
Speaker 1: he doesn't do right, Like it's a really easy thing
Speaker 1: to do is just be like he's not this big
Speaker 1: defending he's not this big paint defender. He's not this
Speaker 1: really great pastor you know, out of the post, or
Speaker 1: he's not this great switchboard defender. But he's a really
Speaker 1: nice finisher down low. He's a guy that punishes small
Speaker 1: guy when teams try to go small small ball five.
Speaker 1: And I think that is useful in the playoffs series,
Speaker 1: Like that's just another weapon you can kind of throw
Speaker 1: out there. And is it more situational than a lot
Speaker 1: of other players, Yeah, for sure, But he still has
Speaker 1: like a really nice use on this team. I think
Speaker 1: against the team like Phoenix, who goes with Dario starch
Speaker 1: As at the five, that's a nice, nice team to
Speaker 1: kind of play him with. Right, Let's say we can't
Speaker 1: get any offense going, we just throw treads in there,
Speaker 1: trying to muck things up down low, get to the
Speaker 1: free throw line, get finishes at the paint if they're
Speaker 1: trapping really hard. Like I think he's gonna play in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, I'm not as much as he did in
Speaker 1: the regular season, Jason. I think you put it perfectly.
Speaker 1: He's an inning seeder right in the regular season, and
Speaker 1: I think he did his job right, like he Lakers
Speaker 1: are in the playoffs, not the best seed, but they're
Speaker 1: the seventh seed. And he really carried a lot of
Speaker 1: the offense when Lebron was out. Um, even when Shrewder
Speaker 1: was out and and we only had like a few
Speaker 1: guards able to run the offense, he really got points
Speaker 1: for us and when we needed it, kept us alive,
Speaker 1: kept us a float. Um kept our energy and a
Speaker 1: lot of games when we didn't have it. So he
Speaker 1: deserves credit for them. I think there are places to
Speaker 1: play him, and I think he'll play Um. We saw
Speaker 1: him play lot the other night yesterday. I forgot who
Speaker 1: it was already, but he got minute to get against him,
Speaker 1: So he'll he'll get minutes in the playoffs, will be
Speaker 1: it'll be situational. I just think there's there's things he
Speaker 1: does well that people just do not see sometimes. And again, yeah,
Speaker 1: doesn't play another minute at all because and he deserves
Speaker 1: what he did for us in the regular season, and
Speaker 1: he was a big part of the floating the boat
Speaker 1: here and the reason intendency right now, I just to
Speaker 1: fall up on that really quick. I do I agree
Speaker 1: with you. I think with this team it's it's tough
Speaker 1: to kind of say that you deserve a certain role
Speaker 1: or that you should be playing all the time. But
Speaker 1: we do see that. I feel like a little bit
Speaker 1: more of this season than we have in other seasons
Speaker 1: because we do have at the beginning of the season
Speaker 1: we wanted Shrewder to start, when maybe a more Avery
Speaker 1: Bradley type defensive guard would have been better next to
Speaker 1: Lebron playing point guard. We've had Drummond come in and
Speaker 1: have some disappointing games and still and keep that starting spot,
Speaker 1: and then Tras obviously coming off the six man year
Speaker 1: and and being one of the better finishers in the
Speaker 1: league around the rim. So I do think it's been
Speaker 1: a little bit tougher to manage that rotation this year
Speaker 1: than it was last year, just because it seemed like
Speaker 1: last year everyone kind of accepted their role and was
Speaker 1: good with what they were doing. So I wonder if
Speaker 1: you think that's any different. I mean, I understand there
Speaker 1: is this championship culture, but do you think that's any
Speaker 1: different this year? Yeah? Absolutely. I mean, for starters, last year,
Speaker 1: the Lakers were picking up j R. Smith and Dion
Speaker 1: Waiters off off of the waiver wire. At the end
Speaker 1: of the season, you had Kyle Kuzma. Wasn't Kyle Kuzma is.
Speaker 1: I know, it probably won't manifest in the numbers, although
Speaker 1: his three point percentages up, But Kyle Kuzma is a
Speaker 1: significantly better basketball player this year than he was last
Speaker 1: year because he's become so solid at doing all of
Speaker 1: the little things you need a role player to do
Speaker 1: to be impactful, and so that that has complicated things
Speaker 1: like last year there were a lot games where they
Speaker 1: just went away from Couz and went to Markeeve Morris,
Speaker 1: you know, uh in in those lineups because Markip was
Speaker 1: a little bit more dependable as a veteran and was
Speaker 1: knocking down threes. And so the point is is like
Speaker 1: just in general, this year, the Lakers have more options
Speaker 1: that they didn't have last year, so that complicates things.
Speaker 1: But again, I think encounter that with professionalism. I think
Speaker 1: I think if you're Ben McLemore and you sign a
Speaker 1: minimum contract to come play for the Los Angeles le
Speaker 1: who are contending for the championship and already have five
Speaker 1: guards that they're playing in their rotation, like, you knew
Speaker 1: what you signed up for. You signed up for. Inconsistent
Speaker 1: minutes you signed up for. If I'm having a bad game,
Speaker 1: I might not see the floor. Again, that's kind of
Speaker 1: part of the deal. All these guys knew what they
Speaker 1: were signing. If there's anybody that could could complain at all,
Speaker 1: it's Marcosol, you know, because he was getting pursued by
Speaker 1: some other teams and the Lakers really really wanted him
Speaker 1: signed into a two year deal. And then they're all
Speaker 1: all the buzz around the trade dead and was the
Speaker 1: Lakers need another center. The Lakers need another center, And
Speaker 1: then they go and signed Andre Drummond. So that was
Speaker 1: that to me, would be the one guy if you were,
Speaker 1: and he just has been such a pro about it.
Speaker 1: He's just been a pro. So I've been really impressed
Speaker 1: with just the way the whole organization has behaved. And
Speaker 1: what is a complicated situation, Like you said, it's hard
Speaker 1: to make these decisions right and then like really quickly,
Speaker 1: like a championship kind of hides a lot of things,
Speaker 1: Like we forget a lot of things because of the
Speaker 1: end result, right, Like the championship was there, so it
Speaker 1: feels like everything else would just soft and roses up
Speaker 1: to them. And the last year's team was special. I'm
Speaker 1: not doubting that they were great. I think they had
Speaker 1: the one seed locked up by like five games. But
Speaker 1: like we forget, like we were playing Rondo a lot
Speaker 1: of minutes, like I thought, when he wasn't playing well right,
Speaker 1: still getting like experimental minutes with him. We played a
Speaker 1: lot of Dion Waiters um in the seeding games, and
Speaker 1: Dion Waiters really never touched the floor that much in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, play a lot j R. Smith as well,
Speaker 1: So you know there were players that we saw play
Speaker 1: that just did not play again in the playoffs. Dutube
Speaker 1: situation and all that. Jabl McGee another guy as well,
Speaker 1: So I think it is last year. Maybe it wasn't
Speaker 1: as as much as this year, but still I think
Speaker 1: they both had players that Again, like in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: every series is is different, let alone like the whole
Speaker 1: playoffs compared to the regular season. Each series has its
Speaker 1: own things that's gonna need. So that's where I think
Speaker 1: the similarity is there from from last year. It's it's
Speaker 1: not too off for me. All Right, thanks a lot, guys,
Speaker 1: have a good night, and let's get this wink Man.
Speaker 1: We'll see you on Wednesday hopefully. All right, let's see
Speaker 1: God m sailary, are you there. Let's try to get
Speaker 1: but sheer here is as the other guy's connecting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like key left, no worries we meet someone else
Speaker 1: out here, Christmas? Christmas there? Do you ever to hear me? Yes?
Speaker 1: How's it going? Yeah, Like I just wanted to know
Speaker 1: your like your open on a roll of shooders. I
Speaker 1: think it's better if it comes off the bench. What
Speaker 1: do you guys think about it? And like I'm not
Speaker 1: a big chatsman, but like he has passed the eye
Speaker 1: tests on the difference. But I think from where I
Speaker 1: saw like start like off way through the season where
Speaker 1: we have like better differensive things with him on the bench. Then,
Speaker 1: um so if you could get check it under about
Speaker 1: a three point shooting things, and especially if you're going
Speaker 1: to play Drummond with the spacing thing, you see, it's
Speaker 1: like if it's better if he comes off the bench
Speaker 1: or something. So with Shrewder, the defensive numbers are a
Speaker 1: little bit tricky when you evaluate on off because of
Speaker 1: going against the team's starters versus going against their bench lineups. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, Dennis Shooter starts and he primarily plays against
Speaker 1: the other teams starters, so naturally it's gonna be harder
Speaker 1: to get stops against that group than it would be
Speaker 1: against bench lineups. I mean, that's why defensive metrics are
Speaker 1: so convoluted and why it's so difficult to use the
Speaker 1: defensive metrics to to draw a line between different players.
Speaker 1: And uh, as far as Dennis Shooter goes, we have
Speaker 1: to kind of trust our eyes. He's extremely good at
Speaker 1: the point of attack here, he pressures the ball all
Speaker 1: game long. He's got an extremely good motor. He plays
Speaker 1: hard the entire game, and he's good with his hands
Speaker 1: without fouling he's you know, we've seen him frustrate guys
Speaker 1: like Kyrie Irving like we saw earlier this year, Dennis
Speaker 1: Shrutter is an absolute plus defender. The only weakness he
Speaker 1: has on the defensive end is going to be against
Speaker 1: bigger wings that try to attack him and switches. As
Speaker 1: far as him coming up the bench, We've talked about this,
Speaker 1: you know, dozens of times on this podcast. But the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is is he deserves to start
Speaker 1: because of how good he is defense, and it's very
Speaker 1: important to him, obviously, with his the way he has
Speaker 1: behaved in interviews and stuff during the season, it's very
Speaker 1: important to him that he starts. It's it's part of
Speaker 1: his ego, which is fine. He's he's Dennis Shrewter. He's
Speaker 1: a very very good basketball player. He should have an ego.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, like I think
Speaker 1: we can be I think we can be confident in
Speaker 1: one thing with this group, and it's that Dennis Shooter
Speaker 1: is going to start. That's just that's just the way
Speaker 1: it is. Uh, they may go to a quick hook,
Speaker 1: they may not use him in key lineups, but he's
Speaker 1: gonna start. And as longest teams aren't attacking him and
Speaker 1: switches with bigger offensive players. I think he'll be on
Speaker 1: the court for all their most important lineups. What do
Speaker 1: you think, Roage? Yeah, I agree with that, and I
Speaker 1: also think like it gives them another shot creator, right, Like,
Speaker 1: I think that's important. But his team, especially if you
Speaker 1: start Andre Drummond, Anthony Davis, other guys that really just
Speaker 1: don't don't have the ball like that aren't creating shot um.
Speaker 1: And like touching on his three point shooting, I think
Speaker 1: it's more streaky right, Like he can hit open threes. Um,
Speaker 1: he doesn't hit him out of a huge rape, but
Speaker 1: he started hitting the three is a little bit more tonight.
Speaker 1: But I just think that ball handling and then you
Speaker 1: touched on his defense. His defense has been too good
Speaker 1: just to bench so um, just putting that together, you
Speaker 1: get all that defense, plus you get that shock creation,
Speaker 1: be able to be able to hit shots from mid range,
Speaker 1: be able to play in the pick and roll. Lebron
Speaker 1: doesn't have to run the offense the full time, um
Speaker 1: all game, and I think that's really important. I think
Speaker 1: that's why he'll continue to start. If you start a
Speaker 1: guy like Casey like Caruso, you can close with him,
Speaker 1: but if you start with him, you really just have
Speaker 1: the ball in Lebron's hands. Um the whole time. Um
Speaker 1: that he's that the starting lineup is playing, I think
Speaker 1: that's just a huge wear and tear on him. So
Speaker 1: that's why I like Sho just starting. And we've touched
Speaker 1: on this many times. He's earned that line, that starting
Speaker 1: line up, like you said, yeah, And then as far
Speaker 1: as Drummond goes, we talked about him a lot earlier
Speaker 1: in this spot, so when we uh uh, if you
Speaker 1: hang out about an hour after this, if you look
Speaker 1: at one of our Twitter feeds, you'll see a link
Speaker 1: to the to the podcast. You can kind of listen
Speaker 1: to the in depth of version. But the short version
Speaker 1: is is that it kind of similar to the Shrewder thing.
Speaker 1: We expect Drummond to start kind of perve some sort
Speaker 1: of agreement when he signed UM, and we just kind
Speaker 1: of hope that that Vogel, if he identifies that he's hurting,
Speaker 1: spacing and that he's not being a dominant physical presence,
Speaker 1: that he'll just take him out of the game quick uh,
Speaker 1: not entirely, unlike he used to do with JaVale McGee
Speaker 1: last year. Who would play basically the first few minutes
Speaker 1: of the game, in the first few minutes of the
Speaker 1: second half, and then not see the floor of the
Speaker 1: rest of the game. Um, so I'm not terribly worried
Speaker 1: about where he fits in the rotation. It's really easy
Speaker 1: to kind of manipulate rotations to get your best players
Speaker 1: on the floor, you know, like we saw last year
Speaker 1: just when when push came to shove, it just ended
Speaker 1: up being Alex Crusoe contagious called a pope, you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron Mark, Keith Morris, and Anthony Davis like it. Just
Speaker 1: regardless of who started, that just kind of ended up
Speaker 1: being who was on the floor when it mattered. You know.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's where Frank's power really comes into play.
Speaker 1: Yep uh anything else for the president, Yeah, that's just
Speaker 1: thank you, Thank you appreciate it. I think we have
Speaker 1: I think we have one more here. Cool, let's see
Speaker 1: one more and then we'll see you guys on Wednesday night. George,
Speaker 1: are you there? Can you hear me? We can hear you.
Speaker 1: So yeah, this is a very interesting season that we
Speaker 1: had here. So absolutely we just need to really just
Speaker 1: enjoy this moment. It's very much, very Dicey. Yes, we
Speaker 1: just have we we just know that we do have
Speaker 1: Lebron James. So just going to my question, I'm just curious,
Speaker 1: what's the who will guard Stephcer here? Because I think
Speaker 1: maybe Shooter would be we'll be starting, or because I'm
Speaker 1: he saw just the game earlier that Dylan Brooks was
Speaker 1: the one guarding step He's a bigger dude. So do
Speaker 1: do the makers consider Wes Matthews? And of course KCP
Speaker 1: would be there, of course, yeah, that's it. So I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be KCP for the most part. He's
Speaker 1: the lakers best lock and trail defender. It's his best
Speaker 1: skilled defensively. Um, I would be. I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: if Shrewder, you know, kind of advocated for himself in
Speaker 1: the in the planning for this game to try to
Speaker 1: be the one to guards stuff. But I think that
Speaker 1: would be a mistake. I don't. I think he's a
Speaker 1: little bit slender, and I think it's a little bit
Speaker 1: easy to pick him off with screens. So I think
Speaker 1: the guy, I think the guy they're going to try
Speaker 1: to throw at him his KCP. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like if Steph plays you know, forty
Speaker 1: two minutes, which you probably will in that game. Uh,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to probably put multiple bodies on him.
Speaker 1: I like Wesley Matthews. He's a little bit bigger and
Speaker 1: he's a little bit more susceptible to getting caught on screens,
Speaker 1: but he's definitely an option. Caruso would be another guy.
Speaker 1: I think that would be great to throw at him.
Speaker 1: What about you, Russ, Yeah, I think they're gonna pretty
Speaker 1: much try to mirror KCP with Steps minutes similar how
Speaker 1: they did. I think when he was guarding Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: Steps not the same defense, the same player as Steven Booker,
Speaker 1: but just keeping them on, just keeping that same kind
Speaker 1: of matchup with them. Other guys will obviously get a
Speaker 1: turn to him, but I think KCP is like our
Speaker 1: best guy that chases dudes around screens, and that's how
Speaker 1: step kind of gets a lot of his shots, um
Speaker 1: coming around screen actions coming uh through picks and all that.
Speaker 1: So I think I think he'll get most most of
Speaker 1: the minutes. West is another guy. You can throw him
Speaker 1: and throw him as well. Um, but yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you want speed on Staff and try to get as
Speaker 1: much size on him as well. And I think KCP
Speaker 1: is probably the best blend of that. Alice Crusoe as well,
Speaker 1: another guy in it. And like basically you also have
Speaker 1: to have your bigs going up right, and this is
Speaker 1: not no, this is not a one on one kind
Speaker 1: of match up here, Like then they're not playing mono
Speaker 1: mono here. Like you need your bigs to be able
Speaker 1: to come up and help and recover. That's that's who
Speaker 1: you need really playing well. You need like Andre Drum
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis, everyone to be in sync on what
Speaker 1: the coverages are against Steff or else he'll burn you.
Speaker 1: Um like he definitely can. So I think KCP will
Speaker 1: get the main assignment, but you'll have your bigs and
Speaker 1: all that be a huge part of the equation. The
Speaker 1: Lakers have done a good job on Steff this season.
Speaker 1: In their three matchups. He's shooting. Let's see, he's shooting.
Speaker 1: He's averaging twenty three points per game in the three matchups,
Speaker 1: he's shooting forty two point three from the field and
Speaker 1: thirty four point six from three with three rebounds and
Speaker 1: five assists. He add that to me, mostly comes down
Speaker 1: to two KCP k CP. If if I will, I
Speaker 1: think Roger and I are both going to dive into
Speaker 1: a lot of film over the next few days of
Speaker 1: this particular matchup. But from what my brain, what I
Speaker 1: remember from those games is KCP doing a really nice
Speaker 1: job on staff and I'm really interested to see what
Speaker 1: you and I find as we dive into the film
Speaker 1: a little bit this week. Yep, I agree. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: do have four guards have to face and maybe if
Speaker 1: really this is really closely, maybe Lebron with yeah take
Speaker 1: the challenge as usually doesn't beat the schemes. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: basically that's it. So yeah, I appreciate everything to you guys.
Speaker 1: Thank thank you man, We appreciate That's actually an interesting
Speaker 1: little wrinkle. There is the idea of Lebron and we
Speaker 1: talked about that earlier. The Lakers could start to switch
Speaker 1: some of these screens. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I think anytime you leave Stephan isolation, even though it
Speaker 1: may not be a high percentage shot on a possession
Speaker 1: by possession basis, you run the risk of him getting
Speaker 1: crazy hot, which can beat you in a one game setting.
Speaker 1: That's why I would I would primarily trap him, um,
Speaker 1: but having a guy like KCP that can stay attached
Speaker 1: to him so that that second defender that it gets
Speaker 1: involved in the trap can can be a pest, and
Speaker 1: the two of them together can hopefully force him into
Speaker 1: some turnovers and just make him in general be uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: I think I think that's all part of the uh,
Speaker 1: the operation there. It's gonna be a five man effort.
Speaker 1: There's no one man that's gonna stop step cry. I
Speaker 1: promise you that, Yep, exact. Jason, do you have time
Speaker 1: for a few more? We just got a couple more
Speaker 1: in year. Give it time to a few more? Yeah,
Speaker 1: go ahead, man, all right, we gotta Vne up here,
Speaker 1: our friend Vane and there Rod there Jason, a longtime listener,
Speaker 1: first time caller. I just wanted to jump in here.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I haven't been here in a while.
Speaker 1: I've been listening to you guys in the background, jumping
Speaker 1: around into different spaces than listening to people talk. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys covered this, because I may
Speaker 1: have been elsewhere. UM, but I'm curious, uh do you
Speaker 1: think the word I have my opinion, but do you
Speaker 1: guys think that the Warriors come out playing um A
Speaker 1: D against Draymond and solo coverage? Or do you think
Speaker 1: they're going to bring the double early. I think they'll
Speaker 1: start in solo coverage. I think Draymond I think I
Speaker 1: think Draymond, as an individual defender against a D will
Speaker 1: make him work and settle for a lot of jump
Speaker 1: shot jump shots. I really believe you will. I think
Speaker 1: I think that that is actually going to be a
Speaker 1: matchup that the Lakers would be smart not to overly
Speaker 1: rely on, because I just think I think Draymond in
Speaker 1: general has defended a D pretty well. What about you rush, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree with that. I think the guy that the
Speaker 1: doubles Lebron right away in the post. But I think
Speaker 1: they'll try to at least see now if eighties cooking them,
Speaker 1: they'll send the double. But I just think for the post,
Speaker 1: for the most part, they're gonna let Draymond try just
Speaker 1: bump him. Draymond has every heat, every trick in the book, right,
Speaker 1: and he's like the small, tough guy. It's hard to
Speaker 1: kind of just bully him and uh try and try
Speaker 1: to over the top of him and all that. But
Speaker 1: I think they're just gonna let that single single coverage
Speaker 1: um and try just double Lebron and see if that
Speaker 1: if that works out, for them. What do you what
Speaker 1: do you think? So, I think I'm in the same
Speaker 1: boat with you two guys. I think they'll try single
Speaker 1: coverage on Anthony Davis. But if the game, you know,
Speaker 1: if he starts drawing, like if he draws like a
Speaker 1: quick early foul on Draymond, or if he gets like
Speaker 1: maybe one or two buckets, even if they're tough buckets.
Speaker 1: But if he gets to the rim, it's like how
Speaker 1: he gets to it, which is gonna be probably the
Speaker 1: biggest concern for the Warriors. Um, if he gets to
Speaker 1: it really easy, they're probably gonna bring that double early. Um.
Speaker 1: If if it's a little tough, it makes bring in anyway,
Speaker 1: it's just to get the ball out of his hand
Speaker 1: because they may they may think did drumming playing that
Speaker 1: last matchup that we had against We didn't. We didn't
Speaker 1: have him on the team, right, So yeah, yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: So so one of the things, um, not to take
Speaker 1: time away from anybody. One of the things I've noticed
Speaker 1: is like, uh Adie likes the passage rum like with enthusiasm,
Speaker 1: like more than he likes to pass two more than
Speaker 1: he liked the passage of vail and passed and passed too.
Speaker 1: Uh who am I thinking of Dwight? And that's been
Speaker 1: like a wrinkle to his passing, like the enthusiasm behind
Speaker 1: it and like he's like high fiving him on the
Speaker 1: way back, and like, you know, they're acting like these
Speaker 1: the Bash Brothers or something like that, you know, just enjoying,
Speaker 1: enjoying doing what they're doing. So I always I'm curious
Speaker 1: that I wonder if Aidies sort of passing acumen has
Speaker 1: improved because he's he's passing to somebody he likes, and uh,
Speaker 1: I wonder if he'll try and take advantage of that
Speaker 1: a little bit more. I thought I saw it in
Speaker 1: the Pacers game. I felt like I saw it a
Speaker 1: little bit in the Pelicans game too as well today.
Speaker 1: So I'd be curious if that's a new wrinkle that
Speaker 1: that people aren't ready for when it comes to him,
Speaker 1: because that's that's a big part of unlocking, Like you know,
Speaker 1: he's complete package repertoire and that we that we want
Speaker 1: to see at him. Yeah, we talked a little bit
Speaker 1: earlier about how Drummond getting a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a running start out of the dunker spot. It's kind
Speaker 1: of unlocked a little bit of is above the rim
Speaker 1: stuff because he's so sloppy when he's coming from a
Speaker 1: standstill position, it just doesn't tend to get any lift.
Speaker 1: But I agree with you. I think I think I
Speaker 1: think we're all lying to ourselves if we don't pretend
Speaker 1: that really likes playing with Drummond U. The thing that's
Speaker 1: tricky is the like we mentioned at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the pod, the Warriors in this twenty game stretch where
Speaker 1: they've been fifteen and five, they're most used line up
Speaker 1: by a mile, has been with Keevan Looney at the five, uh,
Speaker 1: like over a hundred fifty more minutes than any other
Speaker 1: lineup that they've played. And so you know, it's very
Speaker 1: clear that the Lakers actually, for excuse me, the Warriors
Speaker 1: for being a team that we always think of as
Speaker 1: playing small. They've really played big with Luney a lot.
Speaker 1: But they like Looney on switches, they like him as
Speaker 1: a defender. Um. But I think I think that's an
Speaker 1: easy way to kind of throw matchups. If Draymond d
Speaker 1: is in the position where Looney ms on Lebron or
Speaker 1: where that it forces them to go to lineups that
Speaker 1: they don't like using with Draymond at the five where
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Lebron's physical presence, He's physical presence,
Speaker 1: just as big bodies around the rim, becomes something that
Speaker 1: can really punish the Warriors because they don't have a center.
Speaker 1: So I think I think so much comes down to
Speaker 1: what they end up doing with Drummond in the rotation.
Speaker 1: But I mean, yeah, like a D loves playing with him,
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't be surprised if Drummonds heavily involved in
Speaker 1: plays thirty five minutes. Yeah, and Drummond is like really
Speaker 1: good at like making himself available download right, he doesn't
Speaker 1: finish at a high enough rade that I would like,
Speaker 1: but he does make himself available. He's a big body,
Speaker 1: and I don't think that he saw this as well
Speaker 1: be name, Like I talked about this earlier, like his
Speaker 1: speed and his size, it really looks it looks really
Speaker 1: good next to Lebron and a D. Right, Like it
Speaker 1: seems to like like just make his attributes look a
Speaker 1: lot better. I didn't look as well without paying not
Speaker 1: playing with them. Obviously, everyone looks better next to Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D. But just his kind of skills and
Speaker 1: his talent, I feel like just gets better playing next
Speaker 1: to them like his rebounding, his force down low. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty clear a D and a D and Lebron
Speaker 1: recruited him here, right, and a D I think maybe
Speaker 1: even a little bit more. Um, it's pretty clear they
Speaker 1: wanted to play together, and I think they they're playing
Speaker 1: a little bit better. I thought the spacing was a
Speaker 1: little bit better tonight. Drummond got like poor dunks. The
Speaker 1: Pelicans aren't like the best defense. But just seeing him
Speaker 1: like go up strong, actually dunk was good. I think
Speaker 1: you're right, he is looking for him more. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that change is going to the playoffs, but
Speaker 1: it's definitely what's happening now. That's that's a good point. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just a it's just a small observation. But we
Speaker 1: haven't gotten a chance to see too much of Lebron,
Speaker 1: A D and Drummond together, So yeah, it's been very
Speaker 1: interesting to see how much more of A like a
Speaker 1: let me attack the rim, draw the extra guy and
Speaker 1: set up drumming, as opposed to him trying to score
Speaker 1: over two people, which is something that A D was
Speaker 1: trying to do a lot last season. So right, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's addition and then simplifying Drummons role
Speaker 1: even further. So yeah, that's all I had. Guys, Thanks
Speaker 1: for taking my questions. Thanks for appreciate you mine. Thank you. Alright,
Speaker 1: we got one more, alright, my guy Michael are you there? Hey?
Speaker 1: Y'all hear yeah, we can hear you. What it's going on? Man,
Speaker 1: how's how y'all doing? We're doing good? Well? Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't have anything deep or it's not even really
Speaker 1: Laker specific, but as I was watching the game to night,
Speaker 1: you know, I was really when I was sitting there
Speaker 1: watching at the end of it, I just I couldn't
Speaker 1: really believe like how happy I was to see the
Speaker 1: clock hit zero. And um, I just wanted to get
Speaker 1: y'all's thoughts on just this season in general, or how
Speaker 1: y'all are gonna remember it? Like you know how they
Speaker 1: say the season is a marathon, not sprint, but it
Speaker 1: felt like a marathon where he had to pull tires
Speaker 1: after a football practice and you know there was some
Speaker 1: outside of like the playing tournament, Steph season obviously Randall season. Um,
Speaker 1: it just I'm just so relieved. It feels like we're
Speaker 1: finally at like the starting line, and so I just
Speaker 1: wanted to get y'all's opinion on how y'all are gonna
Speaker 1: view this season, you know, regardless of the playoff outcome. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean you said it best man, like it's been
Speaker 1: it's just been one hell of a season. Uh and
Speaker 1: and from that standpoint, like you know, uh, for them
Speaker 1: to be whole at this point after everything that's happened
Speaker 1: kind of feels like a miracle. You know, like like
Speaker 1: we talked about how two weeks ago it was like
Speaker 1: absolute doomsday scenario Lebron came back too quick from his angle.
Speaker 1: A d looks completely watched, you know, Dennis Shoter just
Speaker 1: got Covid Like it was like all hell was breaking loose.
Speaker 1: And for them to actually kind of feel like their
Speaker 1: whole right now, it just it just feels like an
Speaker 1: absolute victory. But I still think it's been a fun season.
Speaker 1: And I mean, Roge you can speak to this too,
Speaker 1: just because you and I have kind of been going
Speaker 1: down this path together. But like you know, I'm a
Speaker 1: I'm a Lebron fan. Everybody knows. I'm from Tucson, Arizona.
Speaker 1: I don't I think grow up in an NBA city.
Speaker 1: I'm just a huge I'm just a huge basketball fan.
Speaker 1: Lebron is the one who got me interested in the game,
Speaker 1: and that's how I became a fan of the Lakers.
Speaker 1: But you know now that I with Raj have been
Speaker 1: covering the Lakers, like I've fallen in love with this team.
Speaker 1: And what's been really cool is with Lebron being out,
Speaker 1: you know, like you really get to spend a good
Speaker 1: amount of time getting to know all of the other
Speaker 1: players in bigger roles and seeing what they're capable of
Speaker 1: and and seeing that there's you know, Lebron is the
Speaker 1: one who came in and kind of turned things around,
Speaker 1: as we all know, but the Lakers are kind of
Speaker 1: formed a pretty awesome identity that starts with Rob and
Speaker 1: extends down to Frank and the rest of the guys
Speaker 1: on the coaching staff, and extends into professionalism throughout the
Speaker 1: roster that permeates through to Crusoe and into Kuzma has
Speaker 1: become such a savvy vet and and to you know,
Speaker 1: to Dudley, you know, and and everything that he brings
Speaker 1: as the as just the lead by example type of guy.
Speaker 1: And and I think it's been honestly one of the
Speaker 1: more fun seasons because there's been a ton of adversity,
Speaker 1: Like how much more boring? Now, obviously we probably prefer
Speaker 1: this for the the actual prospect of winning a title,
Speaker 1: but how much more boring would this season have been
Speaker 1: if the Lakers just rolled? You know like this? This
Speaker 1: this season has been more interesting, to say the leadst
Speaker 1: I think you would agree with me, right, Roger, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And I love that that you asked this
Speaker 1: because it's so interesting. Like what I was just thinking
Speaker 1: about is like you take this sacrifice every time, but
Speaker 1: it feels like that that this regular season is kind
Speaker 1: of the sacrifice for the championship last year, right, like
Speaker 1: there was no um, there's no off season. They jump
Speaker 1: right back into it, so you were going to give up,
Speaker 1: like what the season could have been? Like we talked
Speaker 1: about it before the season started. I thought this was
Speaker 1: this is the most talented Laker team that I've kind
Speaker 1: of seen. Um, I'm really good to watch the two
Speaker 1: thousand Lakers. So this is the most talented team I've seen,
Speaker 1: just top to bottom. And it feels like it was
Speaker 1: separated into like three separate parts. Like right, we had
Speaker 1: the beginning of the season. They started like twenty one
Speaker 1: and six and then um, A D goes down and
Speaker 1: then we get like a Lebron MVP season, Like I
Speaker 1: just that's not what I was expecting at all, And
Speaker 1: we got a Lebron MVP season and he goes down
Speaker 1: and then we get this like amazing like developmental kind
Speaker 1: of season where we get to like throw th ht
Speaker 1: and just let him kind of make mistakes and grow.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was really fun and just see
Speaker 1: him kind of growing to the player he is now.
Speaker 1: And you don't really get that as like your friends.
Speaker 1: We watched a lot of developmental years. We're watching like
Speaker 1: Brandon ingram Loams the ball and it kind of reminded
Speaker 1: me of that, just seeing his potential kind of um
Speaker 1: get to where it is now and now like it's
Speaker 1: all coming together. I don't know if we'll be able
Speaker 1: to see the full force of it. That's kind of
Speaker 1: how I'll remember this season is like three separate parts.
Speaker 1: Now that they kept a good defense for the whole
Speaker 1: thing memoraculously somehow, but like just getting like a Lebron
Speaker 1: MVP season, that great start to it, and now this
Speaker 1: is like the final trimester of it where you get
Speaker 1: like that complete and look, look, most some teams don't
Speaker 1: get a chance to get going the playoffs healthy. Right,
Speaker 1: Sometimes you just get injury rid old seasons like that happens,
Speaker 1: so we're lucky to even like get up healthy season.
Speaker 1: So that's how I kind of remember this into like
Speaker 1: a few separate kind of parts. And it's been fun. Um,
Speaker 1: even though we didn't get the full kind of superstars
Speaker 1: playing every game kind of thing. Um, I think it's
Speaker 1: been fun. And I think you've seen that impact throughout
Speaker 1: the league. You saw Miami start off slow, right, Boston
Speaker 1: had a season from hell, they went late in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: All those teams kind of really started slow. Denver as
Speaker 1: well started really slow, and you saw the impact of that.
Speaker 1: So that's how I remember this season. Oh well, y'all
Speaker 1: sound y'all sound like y'all enjoyed it more than I did,
Speaker 1: which which you know, hell, hell is the is the
Speaker 1: biggest thing. So that's the only win, some only w
Speaker 1: that we need. So I appreciate it, y'all. Thank you, Michael.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you. Man. Probably had some frustrations, for sure.
Speaker 1: It's probably picture of it, yeah for sure. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: just trying to be positive here, man. You'll take care
Speaker 1: than all right, Everybody thank you so much for hanging
Speaker 1: out with us tonight. UM, I'm going to take my
Speaker 1: almost thirty year old asked to bed. UM. I will
Speaker 1: have this posted on our podcast feed either here shortly
Speaker 1: or first thing in the morning for those of you
Speaker 1: who missed out. UM, and then Roger and I will
Speaker 1: hopefully be doing another preview podcast on Wednesday night, hopefully
Speaker 1: for the Phoenix Suns and hopefully not some sort of
Speaker 1: chaotic event sets where everybody's freaking out and we're trying
Speaker 1: to call him everybody down. But we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1: But thank you guys so much for hanging out with us.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. Thank you, Thank you guys,