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Speaker 1: Welcome to Lakers Tonight, presented by Fan Duel Here on

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Speaker 1: the volume, I am Jason timp Happy Wednesday, everybody. I

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Speaker 1: hope you're all having a great week. What a roller

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Speaker 1: coaster of a night that was. We are going to

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Speaker 1: break down the game. We're gonna talk about Anthony Davis's

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Speaker 1: injury and what it means. We're gonna talk about the

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Speaker 1: All Star break and how important it is for this team.

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Speaker 1: And then if you guys stick around for the end,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk about just how unfortunate this whole uh

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Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis partnership has been in terms of luck.

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Speaker 1: And then at the end, we're gonna do a rapid

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Speaker 1: fire where I go through just a bunch of the

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Speaker 1: notes that I noticed during the game, get into the

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Speaker 1: weeds a little bit. But you know, belief is a

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Speaker 1: hell of a of a weapon in basketball. I remember

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Speaker 1: when Anthony Davis was dealing with his hamstring injury or

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Speaker 1: excuse me, he's growing injury against the Phoenix Suns. One

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Speaker 1: of the things that I advocated for was don't bring

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Speaker 1: him back if you're not sure he can play, because

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Speaker 1: the mental strain that it puts on a team to

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Speaker 1: see one of your star players walk off the floor

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Speaker 1: unable to play is damaging. It does a lot to

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Speaker 1: slow down momentum, to take away that belief and make

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Speaker 1: it really difficult to win. And one of my strategies

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Speaker 1: were one of the things I proposed in that series

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Speaker 1: was like, hey, like you're at home, it's game five,

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Speaker 1: give it your best shot by Anthony Davis an extra

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Speaker 1: two days if he's ready to go in game six,

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Speaker 1: go And then what happened. Anthony Davis went out and

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Speaker 1: tried to play, pulled his growing again, and the Sun's

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Speaker 1: utterly exploded in the first quarter against a really flat

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Speaker 1: Lakers team, and it looked like that was gonna happen

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Speaker 1: again tonight after the Anthony Davis injury. It was a

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Speaker 1: movie we've seen many times this season. Happened earlier this year,

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Speaker 1: even when Anthony Davis went down with the knee injury

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Speaker 1: against Minnesota and the Lakers fell apart at the end

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Speaker 1: of that game. But there was an interesting thing that

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Speaker 1: happened late third quarter where Lebron got a rebound and

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Speaker 1: went the length of the floor and he laid the

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Speaker 1: ball up against I believe it was Gobert, and as

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Speaker 1: he's going down the floor, Aaron Donald gets up off

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Speaker 1: of his courtside seat and steps out onto the floor

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Speaker 1: and gives Lebron, offers Lebron a high five, and Lebron

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Speaker 1: notices the you know, Aaron stepping out there and gives

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Speaker 1: him a big high five back, and the entire demeanor

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Speaker 1: of Lebron shifted, and then the entire demeanor of the

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Speaker 1: team shifted. And it's crazy because it's just a simple

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Speaker 1: case of greatness inspires greatness. We literally saw Aaron Donald

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Speaker 1: put on one of the most dominant second halves we've

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Speaker 1: ever seen from a defensive lineman in the Super Bowl

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Speaker 1: making the pivotal play at the end of the game,

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Speaker 1: and that inspired Lebron to see him sitting courtside to

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Speaker 1: reach down in within himself and try to find something

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Speaker 1: to take control of that game. And coming of one

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Speaker 1: of his worst fourth quarters, not just of this season,

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Speaker 1: but one of the worst fourth quarters I've ever seen

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Speaker 1: Lebron play in terms of his two way plays playmaking

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Speaker 1: and is scoring against the Warriors. Lebron put together a

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Speaker 1: masterpiece of game control there in that fourth quarter to

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Speaker 1: steal that game against the Utah Jazz. Such an interesting

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Speaker 1: dynamic to watch him find belief out of the inspiration

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Speaker 1: he got from a dude in another sport and to

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Speaker 1: use that to kind of motivate him the rest of

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Speaker 1: the game. Lots of big plays from lots of Lakers.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna get to that in a little bit. For

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Speaker 1: those of you are just joining us. This is Lakers Tonight,

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Speaker 1: presented by FanDuel here on the volume. We were just

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Speaker 1: talking about Lebron's fourth quarter, you know, with the ankle

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Speaker 1: injury for Anthony Davis. Obviously, all we know is what

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Speaker 1: we visibly saw with the play and the way Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis reacted in terms of what he was feeling with pain,

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Speaker 1: and then we have the X ray. That's all we have,

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Speaker 1: so it's hard to go with no information. My gut

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Speaker 1: tells me this isn't as big of a deal as

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Speaker 1: it looks. But that's just my gut. So what is

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Speaker 1: that worth? I don't know. We all thought. I was

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Speaker 1: in a restaurant with some friends when a d hurt

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Speaker 1: his knee, and almost immediately I was like, oh, season over,

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Speaker 1: Like he's falling down in the tunnel. The dude fell

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Speaker 1: into his knee, this is over. And it turned out

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Speaker 1: it was just a great I think it was a

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Speaker 1: great to sprain and he was back in like six weeks, right,

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Speaker 1: So we don't know what's going to happen on that front.

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Speaker 1: Ankles are weird too, because they're horrifically painful. I've had

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Speaker 1: ankle sprains that kept me out for months, and then

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Speaker 1: I've had an ankle sprain where it felt awful, but

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Speaker 1: then the next day I could have played if I

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Speaker 1: wanted to. So it's just really hard to tell. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: the X ray is a big, a big part of it.

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Speaker 1: They're seeing that the ligaments are still intact, and the

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Speaker 1: fact that he didn't actually break a bone, that's obviously

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Speaker 1: a good first step. But we're not really gonna know

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Speaker 1: until tomorrow as far as how serious that is and

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Speaker 1: what it means for the team. But I do know

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Speaker 1: what means that we're probably going to be without Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis for at least a little while, right, Like chances

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Speaker 1: are the optimistic outcome here is that he's gone for

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Speaker 1: at least three or four weeks, right, And so then

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Speaker 1: this becomes just an even more pivotal stretch of Laker

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Speaker 1: basketball because one of the topics that I planned for

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Speaker 1: tonight was I wanted to talk about how important it

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Speaker 1: was for the Lakers to get into the upper half

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Speaker 1: of the plan, to get into that seven or eight spot.

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Speaker 1: And the reason why is because I think Phoenix is

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Speaker 1: too good for the Lakers right now, even with Anthony Davis.

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Speaker 1: Obviously with Anthony with Anthony Davis, but the Warriors, as

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Speaker 1: good as they are and as as much better stuffs

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Speaker 1: than anybody that's on the Sun's they have some shortcomings.

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Speaker 1: They have some matchups that the Lakers can attack. There's

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Speaker 1: some advantages there, and so one of the things that

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Speaker 1: I was looking at was like, hey, we just need

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Speaker 1: to get up to seven or eight. Win that first

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Speaker 1: playing game, earned the seven seed. Then we get our

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Speaker 1: seven game or against the Warriors, which is a team

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Speaker 1: that I think we can beat. As you saw in

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Speaker 1: that game the other night, even with Draymond coming in.

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Speaker 1: There's just some physical advantages there that the Lakers and

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Speaker 1: can tap into that would be problematic for the Warriors

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Speaker 1: in a seven game series. Well, that becomes infinitely tougher

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Speaker 1: the next if let's say Anthony Davis is out a month,

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Speaker 1: so he comes back, you know, after March six, you

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Speaker 1: have the Clippers coming up right after the All Star break.

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Speaker 1: The Pelicans are playing better, Dallas has been playing really

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Speaker 1: well lately, is defending the heck out of the ball.

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Speaker 1: You play the Clippers again, do you have a game

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Speaker 1: against the Warriors. You play at Phoenix against the Suns.

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Speaker 1: You play the Toronto Raptors, who are so much better

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Speaker 1: now with Pascal Siakam plains so well. And then you

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Speaker 1: have the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have been better than the

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Speaker 1: Lakers this season. So it's a tough stretch of games

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Speaker 1: here and it's gonna present an interesting dynamic for this

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Speaker 1: team because belief is going to play a huge role.

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Speaker 1: You know, Lebron as good as he was tonight down

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Speaker 1: the stretch, I have noticed that since his knee injury

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Speaker 1: he hasn't quite been as athletic as he was before.

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Speaker 1: The Injury's understandable what he's dealing with, Nie swelling, it's pain,

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Speaker 1: it's it's it's there's a lack of you know, there's

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Speaker 1: something going on there that's limiting him. And I think

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Speaker 1: it's so important that he has this time here at

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Speaker 1: the All Star break to get away from the game

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Speaker 1: and get some rest on that knee. If you're up

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Speaker 1: to me, I wouldn't even play in the All Star Game.

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Speaker 1: Last year he played thirteen minutes if I remember correctly,

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Speaker 1: so it was one of the first times in his

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Speaker 1: career he toned way back on minutes in the All

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Speaker 1: Star Game. I'm sure he's under a ton of pressure

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Speaker 1: from Adam Silver to make an appearance and to at

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Speaker 1: least start the game, but it's worth getting off that knee.

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Speaker 1: Because the Lakers don't play again until February, that's a

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Speaker 1: significant chunk of time to try to get some rest

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Speaker 1: for Lebron and hopefully recover a little bit to where

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Speaker 1: he was before the injury, but that stretch of games

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Speaker 1: there over the course of this next month is incredibly

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Speaker 1: pivotal because, like I said, it's so important for them

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Speaker 1: to get up to those upper seats. And that's where

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Speaker 1: belief becomes a problem, because throughout this entire season, one

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Speaker 1: of the biggest issues has been a lack of can

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Speaker 1: insistant effort, and there's a lot of reasons for that.

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Speaker 1: A big part of it is a lack of results, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: because of personnel issues and scheming issues and injuries. The

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Speaker 1: Lakers have lost a lot of games. And when you're

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Speaker 1: losing a lot of games, it's hard to do a

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Speaker 1: dirty job, you know, Like most of us would do

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Speaker 1: a dirty job if you paid us a lot of money, right,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's like being a trucker. You're away from

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Speaker 1: home all the time. They're gone a lot, but they

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Speaker 1: pay pretty well, right, So it's it's a balance what

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Speaker 1: Frank Vogel asks the kids to do or the guards

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Speaker 1: to do. Excuse me, it's very difficult. It's taxing on

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Speaker 1: your body. It's requires a ton of focus, and the

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Speaker 1: results weren't there, and so guys weren't really buying into it,

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Speaker 1: and so getting this team to believe in what they're

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Speaker 1: doing and the fact that it could work is going

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Speaker 1: to be a challenge with Anthony Davis out now, because

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Speaker 1: they need to once again, just like when Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: went out last time and they went seven and ten.

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Speaker 1: They need to find a way to stay a in

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Speaker 1: a very particularly tough stretch of their schedule, and that's

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Speaker 1: gonna be a challenge. Lebron is gonna be the one

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Speaker 1: to keep an eye on. There have been a couple

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Speaker 1: of moments this year where Lebron is teetered on that

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Speaker 1: edge of kind of falling back into some of his

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Speaker 1: old habits. Lebron hasn't quit on a basketball team in

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Speaker 1: a very long time, but it's something he's done in

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Speaker 1: the past, not like literally quit, but where he tones

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Speaker 1: back his effort. He clearly gets frustrated, he has bad

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Speaker 1: body language, he gets past progressive and so on and

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Speaker 1: so forth. And there have been a couple of times

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Speaker 1: this season where I thought he might go that direction again,

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Speaker 1: and he did it, and tonight again I thought the

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Speaker 1: same thing. I'm like, man, Anthony Davis is out again.

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Speaker 1: I wonder if Lebron is gonna reach a point where

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Speaker 1: he just checks out mentally, and no he didn't. He

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Speaker 1: kept going. But that's gonna be tested again and again

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Speaker 1: and again over the course of this next month as

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Speaker 1: they go on the road to some of these difficult opponents,

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Speaker 1: and they potentially take some tough losses, some losses where

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Speaker 1: the team doesn't really have a chance to win, which

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Speaker 1: is the most discouraging type of loss. So we really

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Speaker 1: need to keep an eye on Lebron and his body

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Speaker 1: language over the course of this next month to see

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Speaker 1: if he's up for it. Now, let's take a look

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Speaker 1: at the worst case scenario, just because it's just an

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Speaker 1: indicator of just how crazy this last couple of years

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Speaker 1: has been. So. First of all, Lebron and Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: are arguably the most dominant duo that we've ever seen

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Speaker 1: in the NBA. Obviously, there are a bunch of guys

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Speaker 1: in that group. You know, we're talking Kobe and Shack,

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Speaker 1: We're talking Stephan k D. But they were remarkably dominant

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Speaker 1: in their first season together. To give you an idea,

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Speaker 1: in the Bubble playoffs, Lebron and A D played together

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Speaker 1: on the floor for five D and sixty six minutes,

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Speaker 1: and they outscored opponents by fourteen point eight points per

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Speaker 1: one hun possessions. That's an outrageous number in any setting,

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Speaker 1: let alone in a playoffs setting. To give you an example,

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Speaker 1: Katie and Steph in two thousand seventeen. Mind you, the

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Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen Warriors were the most dominant team that

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Speaker 1: I have been in this era. Katie and Steph in

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Speaker 1: the two thousand seventeen playoffs were plus seventeen point one,

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Speaker 1: so only about two points better than Lebron in a

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Speaker 1: D were in the bubble. And that's with significantly better

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Speaker 1: supporting pieces. That's with Draymond Green, that's with Clay Thompson

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Speaker 1: and everybody else on that team that made that team

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Speaker 1: so great. That's how good Lebron and a D were.

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Speaker 1: That's a drum I've been beating NonStop over the course

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Speaker 1: of this last few years. I talked about how when

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Speaker 1: Lebron and a D are healthy and can finish the

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Speaker 1: game together, they win damn near eight of their games

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Speaker 1: coming into this season. That's how good that group was.

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Speaker 1: But this is a wild stat. If a D doesn't

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Speaker 1: play again this season, which would happen in one of

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Speaker 1: two situations. Either one the m R I comes back

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Speaker 1: nasty and he's got to be out a couple of months,

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Speaker 1: course of this next month, the wheels completely come off

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Speaker 1: and there's just no point in bringing him back. Those

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Speaker 1: are both potentially likely outcomes. If Anthony Davis doesn't play

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Speaker 1: again this season, him and Lebron will have played together

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Speaker 1: in just fifty three of a hundred and seventy available

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Speaker 1: games since the bubble, fifty three of one seventy. That's

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Speaker 1: less than one third, and it's incredibly unfortunate because, again,

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Speaker 1: this is one of the most dominant duos that has

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Speaker 1: ever graced the floor of an NBA court, who went

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Speaker 1: on an incredibly dominant run and ran away with an

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Speaker 1: NBA title, utterly dominated a team the Miami Heat, and

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Speaker 1: Game five barely scraped a game out, and it was

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Speaker 1: such an outlier performance that the Lakers utterly destroyed them

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Speaker 1: in the next game. It was a they manhandled everybody

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Speaker 1: they went up against. No one could hang out and

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Speaker 1: hang with them physically. They present this incredible dilemma for

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Speaker 1: other teams where you have these two bigs in the

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Speaker 1: front court that can guard all one all five positions,

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Speaker 1: can switch everything, and on the other end of the floor,

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Speaker 1: you can't keep them away from the rim. There's a

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Speaker 1: there's a direct line you can draw on the basketball

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Speaker 1: court between their fit, their natural fit with each other,

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Speaker 1: and the results that took place, and it's been utterly

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Speaker 1: destroyed by injuries. It's the what are the chances that

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Speaker 1: they would be on the floor together less than one

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Speaker 1: third of their opportunities during this stretch. It's just really unfortunate,

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Speaker 1: and I'm I'm hopeful that that's not the case. Again,

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Speaker 1: my gut tells me that eighties injuries not that bad.

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Speaker 1: My gut tells me that he'll be back in mid March.

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Speaker 1: My gut tells me that because of the predicament with

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Speaker 1: the play in, it doesn't make that much of a difference.

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Speaker 1: We literally watched him come back from the knee injury

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Speaker 1: and almost immediately fit in beautifully with everybody. I don't

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Speaker 1: need to see them get, you know, two three weeks

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Speaker 1: of reps together for them to be ready for a

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Speaker 1: playoff run. We just know that that's such a natural

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Speaker 1: fit that he's going to slide right back in whenever

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Speaker 1: he's ready to go. We know that he doesn't take

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Speaker 1: too long to get his conditioning back. So I'm not

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Speaker 1: like my I want to stay positive. I do, but again,

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Speaker 1: we don't know. And looking at the history of the

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Speaker 1: way this partnership has worked, it just seems cursed in

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Speaker 1: a lot of ways. And I'm really glad they got

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Speaker 1: the one title they did, because that's what this partner's

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Speaker 1: it was supposed to look like. That's how dominant the

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Speaker 1: two of them are together, all right. I wanted to

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Speaker 1: go rapid fire through some of the things that I

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Speaker 1: noticed in the game. So one of the interesting things

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Speaker 1: that has taken place over the course of this last

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Speaker 1: stretch of the season is the Lakers having to adopt

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Speaker 1: more switching because they go small. Switching is a huge

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Speaker 1: thing that I believe in because it stagnates your opponent.

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Speaker 1: When you switch screens, it shutdowns actions. When you shut

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Speaker 1: down actions, guys have to attack you in isolation. When

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Speaker 1: guys attack you in isolation, it stagnates them. And when

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Speaker 1: it stagnates them, guys get out of rhythm and that's

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Speaker 1: how they start playing poorly. We literally watched it just

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Speaker 1: work to the against the Jazz twice in the last

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Speaker 1: couple of months. It's a big thing that I believe in.

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Speaker 1: But one of the big downsides of switching is Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis could end up guarding somebody far from the basket, right.

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Speaker 1: And so what I liked about the dynamic you saw

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Speaker 1: tonight before Anthony Davis got hurt, and it's a dynamic

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Speaker 1: the Lakers can lean on again when Anthony Davis comes back,

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Speaker 1: is when he's on the floor, you can do more

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Speaker 1: drop coverages. Right. The idea of a drop cover just

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00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:02,480
Speaker 1: a d guards your big man stays on the big

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00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:05,800
Speaker 1: man doesn't switch that way, he can linger around the basket.

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Speaker 1: It works amazingly well against teams like Utah who use

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Speaker 1: a Rudy Gobert who can't shoot. Obviously, in specific matchups,

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Speaker 1: it's not as good of an idea, but in this

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Speaker 1: type of matchup it's awesome. You can keep a d

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Speaker 1: around the basket. And he caused a lot of problems

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Speaker 1: for Utah. But then you got to the second quarter

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Speaker 1: and a D s on the bench. They put Lebron

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Speaker 1: at center and they start switching everything and then they

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Speaker 1: start causing problems for Utah doing that, and I like

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Speaker 1: the dynamic of that. I talked about this last night

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Speaker 1: with the Boston Celtics. The ability to be defensively versatile,

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Speaker 1: to have multiple punches in your bag, multiple directions you

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Speaker 1: can go in order to you know, throw the opponent

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Speaker 1: out of rhythm, you know, I I there are a

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Speaker 1: bunch of other things you can You can play his

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Speaker 1: own defense, you could do trapping, and there are a

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Speaker 1: bunch of different things, but you need to have multiple punches.

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Speaker 1: And the Lakers have multiple punches on that front, which

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Speaker 1: I really like. I want to talk about Russ for

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Speaker 1: a second. Russ had a pretty damn good game tonight.

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Speaker 1: And one of the big reasons why is he embraced

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Speaker 1: the lot of the things that I've been talking about

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Speaker 1: that role players need to do. You Know, one of

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Speaker 1: the big things I've been harping on with Russ is

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Speaker 1: he needs to be held accountable and asked to do

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Speaker 1: what the role players do because that's what his you know,

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Speaker 1: abilities actually line up with, as opposed to whatever his

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Speaker 1: you know, his ego thinks he is as a basketball player.

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Speaker 1: Early in the game, one of the first possessions, he

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Speaker 1: did something that I've been pleading for all season. He

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00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:25,399
Speaker 1: caught the ball wide open on the left wing, and

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Speaker 1: instead of standing there because the team was ignoring him

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Speaker 1: and taking a shot or holding the ball and doing

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Speaker 1: something stupid, he just drove the clothes out on the kick.

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Speaker 1: He just put his head down and went to the

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00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:36,920
Speaker 1: room again, and he had a head of steam. Mike

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00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:38,959
Speaker 1: Conley tried to stop him, couldn't stop him. He got

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00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 1: to the room and he made a layoup Later in

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Speaker 1: the same quarter. A few possessions later, he on a

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis post up, cuts through the middle and gets

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Speaker 1: a layout, and then later on another possession. He shoots

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00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:52,159
Speaker 1: at three and makes it, but it wasn't a stand

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00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:55,240
Speaker 1: still three. He came out of the corner and interchanged

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00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:57,480
Speaker 1: with somebody and got open and made a shot. Movement

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00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,600
Speaker 1: is so key. What you were asking for from Russ

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00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:03,520
Speaker 1: is to not stand still, is to not take possessions off.

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00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:06,479
Speaker 1: We're asking you to be a role player. And when

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00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:08,600
Speaker 1: he is a role player, good things can happen. He

408
00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,080
Speaker 1: had a huge offensive rebound late in the game. He

409
00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:13,479
Speaker 1: had a couple of nice passes out to cutters. He

410
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:16,120
Speaker 1: made the right play. There was a big, big possession.

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00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:18,879
Speaker 1: I was panicking where he was in the left corner

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00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:21,360
Speaker 1: against Rudy Gobert, and he had that look in his eye,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, he's about to do something stupid. He's

414
00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:25,200
Speaker 1: about to do something stupid. No, he got the ball

415
00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:28,639
Speaker 1: back to Lebron, and Lebron found Austin Reeves for the dagger.

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00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 1: There's some there's some signs of life on that front. Now.

417
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:35,679
Speaker 1: The unfortunate thing is Anthony Davis going out of the

418
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:39,359
Speaker 1: picture slots Russ back up into a bigger role, which

419
00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:41,359
Speaker 1: of course can throw a bunch of this out of whack.

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00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:43,960
Speaker 1: But there's some signs of life on that front. I'm

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00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:46,920
Speaker 1: choosing to go positive. But then same game, first quarter,

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00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:49,320
Speaker 1: there's a play where he runs down to the left

423
00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:52,360
Speaker 1: wing and he's guarding Bogdanovich, does a couple of switches,

424
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:55,600
Speaker 1: literally doesn't move. I think Royce O'Neil ends up in

425
00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:58,040
Speaker 1: the corner. He's still on Royce O'Neil. Shot goes up,

426
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:00,720
Speaker 1: Royce O'Neill crashes the glass and gets an offensive rebound,

427
00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:02,600
Speaker 1: kicks it back out to Bogdanovich and makes a three.

428
00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:06,440
Speaker 1: Russ literally did not move on the possession, Like that

429
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:09,040
Speaker 1: can't happen, man, Like those are the things. So it's

430
00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:11,240
Speaker 1: a process. He never was going to turn around overnight.

431
00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:14,320
Speaker 1: He has to slowly make these adjustments. But he started

432
00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:16,159
Speaker 1: to show some of that life tonight. And you know what,

433
00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:19,200
Speaker 1: I I'm not a Russ hater. I'm going to call

434
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:21,280
Speaker 1: out the positive when he starts to do that kind

435
00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:24,680
Speaker 1: of stuff. So one of the things that moving on.

436
00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:26,479
Speaker 1: One of the things that people have pointed to a

437
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,320
Speaker 1: lot is this idea that teams like to attack Austin reeves.

438
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:32,680
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because there's a lot of like weird

439
00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,840
Speaker 1: dynamics to it, right, Like skinny, super young looking white

440
00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:39,480
Speaker 1: dude who's not very tall, not very athletic, and you

441
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:41,920
Speaker 1: know all of these super talented offensive players that are

442
00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:43,800
Speaker 1: just trying to mix him up and attack him right,

443
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,000
Speaker 1: and everyone's eyes light up when they see him because

444
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,679
Speaker 1: they think it's an easy opportunity to score. But the

445
00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:52,600
Speaker 1: dirty little secret is Austin Reeves is actually very very

446
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:55,280
Speaker 1: good defender. He's a different type of defender than what

447
00:22:55,359 --> 00:22:57,800
Speaker 1: you see elsewhere in the league. I've talked about this

448
00:22:57,840 --> 00:22:59,000
Speaker 1: a lot on the pot in the past. There's a

449
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:03,000
Speaker 1: difference between a positional defender and aggressive ball pressure defender.

450
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,440
Speaker 1: And aggressive ball pressure defender is more like Avery Bradley's

451
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:07,720
Speaker 1: a lot of reaching, a lot of gambling. Austin doesn't

452
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,320
Speaker 1: reach and gamble. He just simply positions himself between you

453
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:13,679
Speaker 1: and the rim and says, score over me. I'm not

454
00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:16,600
Speaker 1: gonna value, I'm not gonna reach, I'm not gonna compromise

455
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:19,119
Speaker 1: my position. If you can make a shot over the

456
00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 1: top of me, kudos. And over the course of the season,

457
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:25,359
Speaker 1: when teams have tried to attack Austin Reeves in isolation,

458
00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:29,359
Speaker 1: they're scoring about a point per possession, which is not great,

459
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,959
Speaker 1: meaning it's a it's an arrangement that's working well for

460
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,360
Speaker 1: the Lakers. And most importantly, when a team gets out

461
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:39,840
Speaker 1: of their groove of doing what they're doing, especially teams

462
00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 1: like Utah. Teams like Utah that run really dynamic offenses,

463
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:45,120
Speaker 1: when they get out of their groove and they start

464
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,639
Speaker 1: playing ice so ball against your Austin Reeves, that throws

465
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:52,280
Speaker 1: them out of whack. Every possession where someone takes five

466
00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:55,240
Speaker 1: plus dribbles to try to attack Austin Reeves while your

467
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:59,600
Speaker 1: other four defenders are standing still and resting and ready

468
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,120
Speaker 1: to attack act the other way. When they miss, it's

469
00:24:02,119 --> 00:24:05,520
Speaker 1: a positive, especially when the other teams not scoring on

470
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 1: those possessions. So again, all these teams are saying, hey,

471
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 1: we're attacking Austin Reeves. Good for you. Keep doing it.

472
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,800
Speaker 1: It's great for the Lakers. I was really impressed by

473
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,040
Speaker 1: Utah's defense tonight. They're like, you know, when you they

474
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:20,479
Speaker 1: brought a much better punch tonight than what they did

475
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:22,639
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks back. You know, there's always like

476
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: a spectrum in matchups when team A plays Team B.

477
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:28,080
Speaker 1: You know, if team A plays their best and team

478
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:30,320
Speaker 1: B plays their worst, you'll get one outcome and everything

479
00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,240
Speaker 1: in between. Right, that's the dynamic of basketball. It's like

480
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks the other night. They're not that much

481
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:37,880
Speaker 1: better than the Lakers. They're a good amount better, They're

482
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:39,760
Speaker 1: not that much better. They threw their best punch, and

483
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:41,840
Speaker 1: the Lakers through a bad punch. I was impressed by

484
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:45,840
Speaker 1: Utah's defensive intensity in that game throughout, which is what

485
00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:49,200
Speaker 1: makes this such an impressive win for under the circumstance

486
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 1: for Utah to bring a punch the way they did,

487
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:53,639
Speaker 1: the Lakers were two for thirteen from three in the

488
00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:57,000
Speaker 1: first half on wide open looks all over the floor,

489
00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 1: and they just weren't going in and they battled through.

490
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:04,159
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis messes up his ankle, lots of reason to

491
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 1: just pack it in and call it a night. No,

492
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:09,520
Speaker 1: they fought through that. Now, there was a weird stretch

493
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 1: in the second half where they went to Dwight totally

494
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,400
Speaker 1: disagree with that strategy. When you play an old fashioned

495
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,600
Speaker 1: plotting center, it plays right into the Utah Jazz his

496
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,199
Speaker 1: hands because now Rudy Gobert gets to camp under the

497
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:24,880
Speaker 1: basket the entire game, completely disrupt your offense. And then

498
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,080
Speaker 1: on the other end, he wasn't giving you like on

499
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:29,520
Speaker 1: the other end, because he's just not the same Dwight anymore.

500
00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:32,440
Speaker 1: He's not giving you anything in return. So I don't

501
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:34,960
Speaker 1: think it was surprising that the Jazz actually got it

502
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:37,639
Speaker 1: up to I think to twelve early fourth quarter with

503
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,159
Speaker 1: Dwight on the floor. Then Dwight goes off and they

504
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,720
Speaker 1: go back to playing small and they immediately go on

505
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:44,560
Speaker 1: a run to win the game. That's when the Lakers

506
00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:46,080
Speaker 1: are gonna be at their best, and that's the way

507
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:48,160
Speaker 1: they need to play over the course of this next

508
00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 1: stretch of games. And if you do plan on playing

509
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,680
Speaker 1: a center because of everything that's going on with Anthony Davis,

510
00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:55,879
Speaker 1: you need to get another center in the buy out market.

511
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:58,159
Speaker 1: And guess what, Tris and Thompson is not available anymore.

512
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,399
Speaker 1: So that's gonna make things a little more complicated. But

513
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,640
Speaker 1: all that said, I was impressed by the punch that

514
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 1: the Jazz through tonight, and I'm impressed by the fact

515
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:09,480
Speaker 1: that the Lakers fought through it and had a good

516
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 1: quality win story. Looking forward, here is going to be

517
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 1: watching the guys over the course of this next month

518
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:16,120
Speaker 1: and whether or not they're willing to make a run

519
00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:18,679
Speaker 1: at this because they've got a lot of reasons to

520
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: try to pack it in. Alright, guys, that is all

521
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 1: I have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate you guys coming

522
00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:26,480
Speaker 1: to hang out. I am headed to breckon Ridge first

523
00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:29,160
Speaker 1: thing in the morning for five days and I'm gonna

524
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:31,360
Speaker 1: bring all my stuff with me. If anything happens, I'm

525
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:33,600
Speaker 1: gonna be there to break it down. But our next

526
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 1: actual full blown show will be on Tuesday after the

527
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 1: All Star Game. As always, I appreciate your guys to

528
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:50,880
Speaker 1: support and I see you then the volume