Speaker 1: Hmmm, yeah, I saw him in the middle of it.
Speaker 1: Um Hamid and Lebron We're kind of going back and
Speaker 1: forth that whole quarter. It seems like, oh man, well,
Speaker 1: you know, it was kind of funny because like it
Speaker 1: was textbook a team. You know, I've seen Lebron do
Speaker 1: this before with teams in the Western Conference or excusely
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference. Used to do this to the Hawks,
Speaker 1: where like it would be the fourth quarter and they'd
Speaker 1: be up fifteen, and he'd get a switch onto like
Speaker 1: Paul Millsap and eat straight up, you know, dancing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: like turn his back away from Paul, dribble back and
Speaker 1: half corps like Wade, and it's like it's it's it's
Speaker 1: clearly like an attempt to, uh, you know, use body
Speaker 1: language to express that you don't necessarily have any sort
Speaker 1: of anxiety or fear or in the moment, right yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's it's also not the first time that he's
Speaker 1: done that, and it's led the game to kind of
Speaker 1: degenerating a little bit. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I do think there's a psychological effect to that. I
Speaker 1: think it leads to the team feeling confident and it's
Speaker 1: like for some of those young guys on that Phoenix
Speaker 1: bench to see, you know, Lebron kind of clowning them
Speaker 1: a little bit. I mean, I tend to think that
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff can have a little bit of
Speaker 1: an impact in the way that the psychology of the
Speaker 1: series shifts. Yep. But like they kind of took their
Speaker 1: belief away, right, and that's the whole point of these
Speaker 1: kind of playoff games. You could see like teams starting
Speaker 1: to lose a little bit of that a little bit
Speaker 1: of that confidence right as the game went on. Um,
Speaker 1: you saw it last year a lot with like Portland
Speaker 1: and Houston. Happened more in game three, but I saw
Speaker 1: it a little bit tonight when that lead kind of
Speaker 1: went up to like ten, twelve to like fifteen, Cameron
Speaker 1: Paint hit a bunch of like just like he's he's
Speaker 1: been hot from three. But other than that, I thought,
Speaker 1: I guess we'll get into it, um all the all
Speaker 1: the details and all that stuff. But Goodwin, Yeah, everybody,
Speaker 1: welcome to he stated the Lakers post game spaces. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys so much for coming to hang out with
Speaker 1: Roger and I. We're gonna go for about forty five
Speaker 1: minutes tonight. Since we're since we're gonna be in a
Speaker 1: rhythm of of going just about every other night here
Speaker 1: hopefully for the next couple of months, we'll go talk
Speaker 1: about the game for a little bit and then get
Speaker 1: your requests in and we'll take some speakers to come
Speaker 1: on to either event or share an opinion or ask
Speaker 1: any questions that you guys have. Um. I you know,
Speaker 1: obviously the theme of the last couple of games is
Speaker 1: primarily centered around a D and a D was amazing
Speaker 1: again tonight, and we're gonna talk about him. Um, but
Speaker 1: I want to start with Lebron tonight because I thought
Speaker 1: the way that he controlled the game in the in
Speaker 1: the third quarter, right at the beginning, um, you know,
Speaker 1: going into the half, it's this complete, you know, ship
Speaker 1: show rock fight of a game neither team can score,
Speaker 1: and uh, just in the in the third quarter there
Speaker 1: and that first little you know, seven minutes shift that
Speaker 1: Lebron had had ten points, three rebounds, three assists and
Speaker 1: just completely controlled the game on the on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. A couple that with the Laker defense,
Speaker 1: which we're gonna dive into in a few minutes. Um,
Speaker 1: I thought that was where the game swung and and
Speaker 1: just like that, a game that was hotly contested between
Speaker 1: two teams that seemed to be unrelatively even playing field
Speaker 1: suddenly shifted to a series that feels like so many
Speaker 1: Lebron playoffs series from the past, where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this dude's just way better than us and there's nothing
Speaker 1: we can do about it. And he had some dunks
Speaker 1: in that stretch. He looks great physically. Uh, it was
Speaker 1: just kind of like the whole package kind of coming together,
Speaker 1: and I thought that that was a good reason to
Speaker 1: be excited and it was good to see that he
Speaker 1: could still do that. What do you think about Lebron tonight? Yeah,
Speaker 1: this was like a rock pipe, right, This was like
Speaker 1: too defensive, kind of going back and forth. Lakers missed
Speaker 1: a bunch of open shots, but this was really intense. Um,
Speaker 1: this felt like a Western Conference final kind of game too,
Speaker 1: Like really top level teams to a two teams are
Speaker 1: playing real playoff intensity. And yeah, they won that third
Speaker 1: quarter by ten. That was like their biggest advantage. Every
Speaker 1: other quarter was tied pretty much one two points. Lebron
Speaker 1: came out aggressive, like this was a rock fight. In
Speaker 1: that first half, no one could score and he was
Speaker 1: really aggressive, got the team going. I think he had
Speaker 1: like a quick six points I think to start the
Speaker 1: half um and you could see it's crazy watching just
Speaker 1: him kind of work his way through a game, right,
Speaker 1: Like you could tell he started the game started a
Speaker 1: little bit aggressive, but let other guys kind of do
Speaker 1: their thing. Gave the ball the shrewder, let him attack
Speaker 1: and he was great. We'll discuss him later, but let
Speaker 1: him kind of attack off the dribble, attack and isolation,
Speaker 1: let him create, and then when it was time in
Speaker 1: that third quarter, he knew this was the time to
Speaker 1: kind of build the lead. Phoenix was taking a bunch
Speaker 1: of tough shots. They went cold. Lebron was pushing it
Speaker 1: in transition. Um he was coming off screen, roll a
Speaker 1: lot of screen rolls with Drummond Um getting a d
Speaker 1: easy looks down low. He really controlled this game again
Speaker 1: with his mind, and you could see his body just
Speaker 1: get better and better as these games go on, right,
Speaker 1: you could see him get healthier as he's keep going,
Speaker 1: Like it looked like his ankle looked the best he
Speaker 1: did tonight. He took a lot of contact at the
Speaker 1: rim man. He was kind of flexing after dunks, and
Speaker 1: does the stuff that Lebron does when you know he's
Speaker 1: really being feeling well athletically, which is awesome to see
Speaker 1: him just get to the basket. People talk a lot
Speaker 1: about him getting to the rim. He had a lot
Speaker 1: of shots at the rim tonight. He did take a
Speaker 1: few jumpers, but I thought he was aggressive, putting pressure
Speaker 1: on and putting pressure on all those guys trying to
Speaker 1: trying to defend Kaminski with that second unit. Um, he
Speaker 1: was great. It would look like a Lebron game. I'm
Speaker 1: never worried about Lebron, Like that's the guy that I
Speaker 1: guess I don't worry about. Twenty one points, nine assists,
Speaker 1: six rebounds, thirty minutes, didn't have to do the playoff.
Speaker 1: Lebron to beat this team, which I think sells a lot.
Speaker 1: I think these are these are arguably the two best
Speaker 1: teams in the Western Conference, and Lebron was able to
Speaker 1: still get a comfortable win, putting up you know, his
Speaker 1: below average for his standards, which I thought was really impressive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm interested to see the film in the shop chart
Speaker 1: to look a little closer, because it just felt like
Speaker 1: after you know, there was that stat that went viral
Speaker 1: the other day of I think it was yesterday, of
Speaker 1: Lebron's you know, shot dispersion during the shot distribution, I
Speaker 1: should say, is there is a better word? Uh, during
Speaker 1: his last several playoff runs, and he is coming off
Speaker 1: of a playoff run, you know, last fall, we're over sixty.
Speaker 1: I think it was something crazy like over six of
Speaker 1: his of his made field goals burned the paint and uh.
Speaker 1: And it was one of the better numbers of his career.
Speaker 1: And uh despite the fact that the Lakers, you know,
Speaker 1: I've always had spacing issues and uh. And then this year,
Speaker 1: through the two games he was in the teens. I
Speaker 1: think it was like eighteen percent or something like that.
Speaker 1: Don't quote me on that, But the point is is,
Speaker 1: like I thought tonight, it was the first time he
Speaker 1: looked a little bit more like his old self in
Speaker 1: the sense that his shot distribution involved a lot more
Speaker 1: at the paint, in the paint and at the rim um.
Speaker 1: I feel like, I feel like, inevitably, with his brain,
Speaker 1: even with him not necessarily being the same athlete he was,
Speaker 1: you know before the ankle, he he was gonna inevitably
Speaker 1: find ways to get the Phoenix defense to lean one
Speaker 1: way or another and find some cracks and get into
Speaker 1: the paint. And what's even crazier about that is the
Speaker 1: role players still aren't really making shots. I mean, what
Speaker 1: what West West Matthews made a couple there at the end,
Speaker 1: and I know KU's made one early, but for them too,
Speaker 1: for them to be where they are right now, I
Speaker 1: think at one point you tweeted out they were like
Speaker 1: three for eight team from three to start the game
Speaker 1: like that to me has to just be I tweeted
Speaker 1: out today. That has to be terrifying for Phoenix fans
Speaker 1: is the fact that the Laker role players aren't going
Speaker 1: because they're gonna get going there. These are guys, the
Speaker 1: guys the shots that the Laker role players are missing,
Speaker 1: our shots they made last postseason. You know, KCP is
Speaker 1: gonna make shots. Crusal made shots all season and can't
Speaker 1: hit the side of a barn right now, and and
Speaker 1: Kuzma is not making anything like these guys are gonna
Speaker 1: make shots. And when that happens, that's when that's what
Speaker 1: That's what's gonna end up potentially ending the series in
Speaker 1: five is if the Laker role players wake up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the the Lakers having the number one defense plus an
Speaker 1: engage will run an a D really makes up for
Speaker 1: a huge margin of error, right, Like if they're getting
Speaker 1: the three they shot percent from three tonight, I twated
Speaker 1: they took three three I think two threes and the
Speaker 1: third quarter like people just didn't want to shoot them.
Speaker 1: Um and Phoenix shot eleven. Usually don't win games by
Speaker 1: fourteen when the other team, you know, hits four more
Speaker 1: threes and you shoots uh twelve percent at three for me,
Speaker 1: like you just you really don't do that, So that
Speaker 1: gives him a big margin prayer. I thought the defense
Speaker 1: was was really big time tonight and a D just
Speaker 1: being aggressive. We can kind of move on to him
Speaker 1: sixteen fourteen three throes tonight after sixteen in game two,
Speaker 1: I think like that's the biggest barometer for him to
Speaker 1: show his aggression getting to the rim, putting putting his
Speaker 1: shoulder right into the chests of DeAndre and not letting him,
Speaker 1: you know, take rest on defense like I thought he
Speaker 1: was huge. Um, he's his jumper still isn't there to
Speaker 1: where it needs to be hit a few mid range jumpers.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I think he maybe won three tonight,
Speaker 1: but eleven boards. I think he had a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of offensive rebounds, a whole bunch of tips like this
Speaker 1: kind of aggression. It's crazy if you go watch game
Speaker 1: one and you watch this game, you think these are
Speaker 1: two totally different players. Like it's just just a totally
Speaker 1: difference in a not just aggression, but just his want
Speaker 1: to to play better. He's he's a superstar and he
Speaker 1: needs to play like it every night. And with the
Speaker 1: Lakers not shooting, well, I'm sure it will. I mean
Speaker 1: we hope coming Home would do that. It hasn't, but
Speaker 1: it's good process, right, These shots are open, like you
Speaker 1: have to take those, and they eventually some of them
Speaker 1: went in West Matthews, Like you said, hit big. I
Speaker 1: thought game changing shots took the lead from like ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen, and I thought that really put a stamp
Speaker 1: on this game. Um, what do you see from a
Speaker 1: D D tonight? Well? I thought it was so funny
Speaker 1: how you said it, Like, like the only thing I
Speaker 1: could think of all night too, was like, man, this
Speaker 1: looks so different than the guy we saw in game one,
Speaker 1: because you know, I think we all just assumed, like, oh,
Speaker 1: A D would be a little bit more physically aggressive,
Speaker 1: but he's gonna you know, his jump shots eventually gonna
Speaker 1: get going. That's that's just the way we assume A
Speaker 1: D is gonna finally wake up. Well, his jump shots
Speaker 1: still isn't working at all. And he was just he
Speaker 1: was the most physically aggressive player on the floor tonight,
Speaker 1: Like he just is an absolute bull in a China
Speaker 1: shop around the rim. And I think, I think, I
Speaker 1: think I tweeted I had he had six offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: Every time the Lakers uh shot anything uh at the rim,
Speaker 1: it felt like A D was in the mix even
Speaker 1: if he didn't get the offensive rebound, which again adds
Speaker 1: to the physical wear and tear that you put on
Speaker 1: the other team. Um. I saw something the other day,
Speaker 1: I think this morning that the Lakers have been rebounding
Speaker 1: about their own misses so far in this series, which
Speaker 1: just a stupid number, right, and Drummon is at like
Speaker 1: some crazy number by himself exactly, so a D. You know,
Speaker 1: I I have so much appreciation for the fact that
Speaker 1: A D kind of uh you know, understood that he
Speaker 1: his impact on the game doesn't strictly come with him
Speaker 1: making these jump shots. And you know, once again, we
Speaker 1: talked a lot about how the Laker defensive ceiling, which
Speaker 1: is not the same as their consistent defensive effort. Their
Speaker 1: defensive effort comes from Frank Vogel, that comes from all
Speaker 1: the guards working their butts off, and that's the night
Speaker 1: in and night out effort and focus stuff. But their
Speaker 1: defensive ceiling, the thing that allows them to hold the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns the twelve points in a quarter. The thing
Speaker 1: that allows them to take the second best team in
Speaker 1: the league this year and just manhandle them the way
Speaker 1: they did is Lebron and a D both peaking defensively
Speaker 1: within that unit, and I think we saw that tonight.
Speaker 1: I thought they did a much much better job of
Speaker 1: just making that pick and roll just a slog. Aton
Speaker 1: was never rolling free to the rim, he was rolling
Speaker 1: into bodies, he was getting chucked there. Everyone was just
Speaker 1: physical at every single point of the defense, and I
Speaker 1: felt like it just stifled everything Phoenix was doing. I
Speaker 1: was just part of it, was Frank and in the scheming,
Speaker 1: but like I just was so impressed with the Lakers
Speaker 1: just coming out and just physically shutting down Phoenix. The
Speaker 1: final score is not going to do with justice to
Speaker 1: how good the defense was tonight. No, at won't. I
Speaker 1: just want to give the exact stas so Anthony Davis tonight.
Speaker 1: Six offensive rebounds, like that's my biggest brom to for him.
Speaker 1: Him and free throws, six offensive rebounds, four team free throws.
Speaker 1: You can't ask for more than that, eleven for two
Speaker 1: and again he missed a lot of jumpers that he
Speaker 1: made in the playoffs last year. I think those will
Speaker 1: eventually go down. But that's the key for him, like
Speaker 1: being aggressive. They shouldn't be able to stop him on
Speaker 1: the board like they're playing eight and as the only
Speaker 1: big man, like he should be able to dominate, especially
Speaker 1: if Andre Drummond is there and they have to box
Speaker 1: him out too. He had three offensive rebounds tonight, both
Speaker 1: a d and Drummond plus eleven plus twelve. Um, they
Speaker 1: were the They were the biggest part of it for
Speaker 1: me and their defense man. Like you hold Phoenix to
Speaker 1: basically under a hundred for three straight games in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: like that's even I know Chris Paul is not percent
Speaker 1: himself now. I thought he played a much better game tonight. Um,
Speaker 1: I thought Chris Paul looked as good as he could
Speaker 1: off his injury. But still you hold a team like
Speaker 1: this that's a really hot shooting team, um that that
Speaker 1: can get really hot from three. They kind of took
Speaker 1: away the three pointer for them for most of the night.
Speaker 1: You hold them to under a hundred for three straight games.
Speaker 1: That's winning basketball. Let's playoff basketball. That's how these games go.
Speaker 1: These To me, this is a playoff Western Conference final
Speaker 1: type of game. I thought we saw that intensity um,
Speaker 1: I guess going into like the defense, so eighton again
Speaker 1: kind of went off right he was he was eleven
Speaker 1: for fifteen tonight, but he was a minus four team.
Speaker 1: What did you see on my thoughts on it? But
Speaker 1: what did you see like what they did with eighton
Speaker 1: um to like? Was he kind of just part of
Speaker 1: the defensive scheme to let him get open? Or do
Speaker 1: do you think that the Lakers kind of have to
Speaker 1: still try to solve him in these next couple of games.
Speaker 1: He was leaving for fifteen to night. He was the
Speaker 1: only one I believe on the team other than Tory
Speaker 1: Craig that shot above. So do you think he's a
Speaker 1: guy that they have to look at in these next teams?
Speaker 1: So and not necessarily and and this is gonna be
Speaker 1: this is gonna sound confusing, but I think I think
Speaker 1: you'll understand what I'm trying to say. I I think
Speaker 1: that the Eton lay ups and dunks at the rim
Speaker 1: were like the residual of all of the other attempts
Speaker 1: to shut down the action earlier, and essentially, like in
Speaker 1: many cases they're they're pick and roll was blown up
Speaker 1: before it ever even got to Eton. But in the
Speaker 1: few occasions where it broke down, it would result in
Speaker 1: an eight and layup. And usually if you remember what
Speaker 1: the way it would work is, you know, they would
Speaker 1: they would throw a past the eighton and one of
Speaker 1: the Laker guards who would rotate would just barely miss it.
Speaker 1: Eighton would catch, and then a d or whoever it
Speaker 1: was Kuzma on that last second rotation would come over
Speaker 1: and try to block him, but they just wouldn't be
Speaker 1: in time. And for the record, Eton is he's so
Speaker 1: big and he's got good hands that like he's he's
Speaker 1: just gonna finish any anything that he gets around there.
Speaker 1: But just in general, like I don't think that, like
Speaker 1: like you said, with the plus minus, I think the
Speaker 1: better way to measure it, and it'll be something we'll
Speaker 1: have to look at on Synergy or just on the
Speaker 1: NBA dot Com. A status website is just how many
Speaker 1: points they got per pick and roll possession rather rather
Speaker 1: than how many points DeAndre Eton got because my personal
Speaker 1: kind of like feel for it was like the few
Speaker 1: times it worked, it resulted in an eight and Dunker layup,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't working really, you know that I was
Speaker 1: kind of my read on it. Yeah, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I feel like they're okay with kind of giving that up, right,
Speaker 1: They're kind of trusting their bigs to get back on that.
Speaker 1: So they really want to take away Booker and Chris
Speaker 1: Paul coming off those screens and then take away those
Speaker 1: corner shooters Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jake Crowder and you know,
Speaker 1: we saw Lebron. You know, Lebron when he's engaged is
Speaker 1: just an absurd help defender as well. He got a
Speaker 1: lot of passes taking the away his brain works on
Speaker 1: that end of the floor as well, and then a
Speaker 1: d right next to him. Um. I thought they did
Speaker 1: a great job with them. I feel like that's part
Speaker 1: of the game plan. Like I feel like they'll live
Speaker 1: with DeAndre and kind of trying to catch it, kind
Speaker 1: of hold it and trying to finish over their guys.
Speaker 1: Um he was finishing over like Lebron more tonight, right,
Speaker 1: rather than just some guards and feel like it was
Speaker 1: Lebron down there more. He still want to leven from
Speaker 1: fifteen um. I thought a lot of his baskets kind
Speaker 1: of came off offensive rebounding too, and four offensive rebounds tonight.
Speaker 1: I thought he got a lot of book backs. But
Speaker 1: I thought they did a nice job. And I don't
Speaker 1: think he was the dominant force that he was um
Speaker 1: in both those Phoenix games. I didn't think his impact
Speaker 1: was as good as it was, and they kind of
Speaker 1: forced Devin Booker and Chris Paul to like go to
Speaker 1: him in those late kind of situations and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: if you want to go to him, go to him.
Speaker 1: We'll live with that take away threes um. I think
Speaker 1: Phoenix only got up with like threes um tonight, which
Speaker 1: I think is low for them, So they kind of
Speaker 1: ran him off the line. So yeah, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I think that's part of this team. Let him kind
Speaker 1: of go off Chris Paul and minus twenty tonight. I
Speaker 1: guess it looked better on the floor there, but I
Speaker 1: guess you can kind of keep going. Um. Dennis Shrewder
Speaker 1: like I have him him in my notes, he was
Speaker 1: huge again what a playoff performer like. He had a
Speaker 1: tough game one. What did you see from Dennis Shrewder tonight?
Speaker 1: Um in this one? Man? Everything? I mean he he
Speaker 1: had a couple of threes, remember correctly, and then just
Speaker 1: it just was like, you know, when when he came
Speaker 1: back from COVID, he looked just out of shape. His
Speaker 1: touch was off. Everything he was was coming up short,
Speaker 1: and that was kind of to be expected. You and
Speaker 1: I kind of had had hinted that that was what
Speaker 1: we expected. But we always talked about how we even
Speaker 1: though he didn't look good, we always talked about the
Speaker 1: fact that we we counted on him for later matchups,
Speaker 1: like up against a team like the Clippers or or
Speaker 1: the Nets as a guy who could attack switches. Well,
Speaker 1: he's the crazy part is he's in many cases he's
Speaker 1: just attacking his matchup. Ironically, DeAndre and this kind of
Speaker 1: almost solved his little quick dribble scoop shot because he
Speaker 1: blocked it a couple of times tonight, so he started
Speaker 1: to start the time it a little bit better. Um.
Speaker 1: But but he's anybody gets on him, you know, whether
Speaker 1: it's Chris, whether it's Devin Booker, you know, whether it's
Speaker 1: you know, mcail bridges are one of the wings. He
Speaker 1: just he's getting to the rim and putting pressure on
Speaker 1: the rim, and and tonight it was him finishing. But
Speaker 1: inevitably that's going to be something that Phoenix is gonna
Speaker 1: have to scheme for and it's gonna open things up
Speaker 1: for for the rest of the team. And you know,
Speaker 1: I I think that we expected to need him more
Speaker 1: later on in this playoff run, but he's been extremely
Speaker 1: important in this series. And one of the problems is
Speaker 1: is that Phoenix really hasn't you know, they exposed him
Speaker 1: in Game one, I thought at the point of attack
Speaker 1: and pick and roll. But in Game two and three
Speaker 1: they haven't really been able to expose him and pick
Speaker 1: and roll. And some of that's him fighting harder over
Speaker 1: the screens, and a lot of that is just the
Speaker 1: other four defenders doing a better job of of rotating
Speaker 1: and chucking eight and so he can't just run free
Speaker 1: to the rim and all that stuff. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I I can't say enough good about him, and I
Speaker 1: thought he made some of the biggest players there down
Speaker 1: the stretch while while the Lakers once again pulled you know,
Speaker 1: the thing that they've done so many times over the
Speaker 1: last two years, which is build a sizeable lead at
Speaker 1: the end of a playoff game, a regular season game,
Speaker 1: and then just start bullshitting their way through the final
Speaker 1: six minutes and uh and thankfully, when when those wheels
Speaker 1: started to come up, Dennis was the one who stepped
Speaker 1: up and was like, all right, I've had enough of this,
Speaker 1: and you know, made a jumper and made a lay
Speaker 1: up and had an a one as well, like you
Speaker 1: just you know, just an unbelievable game from him, back
Speaker 1: to back unbelievable games from him. Yeah, I was worried
Speaker 1: kind of what would translate, right, Like, I knew he
Speaker 1: was good. He was great in the regular season. I
Speaker 1: thought he had a great playoffs last year. I was
Speaker 1: worried about his decision making in the playoffs, and I
Speaker 1: thought we kind of saw that in Game one. I
Speaker 1: thought he had a lot more turnover. Is a lot
Speaker 1: of really wild plays, but his competitive and competitiveness matching
Speaker 1: that with Chris Paul, who tried to kind of get
Speaker 1: in and get in his head right, trying to do
Speaker 1: all his little tricks. Chris Paul is a super veteran
Speaker 1: that has every trick and under his sleeve, and I
Speaker 1: thought Shrewter matched that, like he wasn't trying to go
Speaker 1: toe to toe him toe to toe with him with
Speaker 1: like tricks, but like we're just matching. His energy is competitiveness,
Speaker 1: and I think you need to do that in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And just like on the floor, like his ball handling
Speaker 1: and his ability to get to the rim. It's just
Speaker 1: something like this Liquer team just didn't have last year
Speaker 1: other than Rajon Rondo who did it in spurts, And
Speaker 1: we discussed this a lot, but like just him being
Speaker 1: able to attack the basket when there's nothing going, like
Speaker 1: when a d is kind of just holding in, Lebron
Speaker 1: is at the corner of the wing, doesn't want to
Speaker 1: attack this possession. Give it the Shrewder go right at
Speaker 1: his matchup. Doesn't even need a screen sometime, just go
Speaker 1: right at Devin Booker to be able to draw a foul,
Speaker 1: draw contact, get to the line, which I think is
Speaker 1: huge for him. He had eight free throws tonight that
Speaker 1: second behind um Anthony Davis. Like that's eight free throws
Speaker 1: for at the guard position. It's just something we haven't had.
Speaker 1: He's still only one for four from three, none of
Speaker 1: the teams really shooting well. But I thought he was huge.
Speaker 1: He had a bunch of huge dumball passes, four assists.
Speaker 1: Game to the rim had three turnovers, but I thought
Speaker 1: they were I didn't think they were too bad. I
Speaker 1: thought they were just they had the right idea in
Speaker 1: the flow of the game, aggressive turnovers, right, And I
Speaker 1: thought he was I thought he was really good. He's
Speaker 1: had two straight really good playoff games. I'm I'm really
Speaker 1: impressed with him. Um So, I guess the only thing
Speaker 1: I had. The other thing I had written down here
Speaker 1: was just those shots not going in? Do you see
Speaker 1: them kind of going in in game four? Like? What
Speaker 1: do you see from that? Do you see there's anything
Speaker 1: they could do? Is just just open Like these are
Speaker 1: NBA players, they have to hit their open looks. So
Speaker 1: I think that they're inevitably going to go in. And
Speaker 1: for a couple of different reason is one, we've seen
Speaker 1: the Lakers go through stretches like this where they don't
Speaker 1: shoot the ball well and then they inevitably snap out
Speaker 1: of it. And then two, and this is probably the
Speaker 1: most important part because they're doing everything else, which is
Speaker 1: again something you and I have preached ad nauseum over
Speaker 1: the last two years is you know what, KCP, if
Speaker 1: you make shots, great, but what we really need you
Speaker 1: to do is guard. You know, that's the primary thing.
Speaker 1: And they've all done that, and as a result, they're
Speaker 1: up to one in the series. And to be honest,
Speaker 1: since basically halftime of basically in the last two games,
Speaker 1: the Lakers have never really been threatened, um, you know,
Speaker 1: with the biggest threat being that crazy run they went
Speaker 1: on at the end of Game two, which Lebron pretty
Speaker 1: much immediately rested back control of. So from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: like there's less pressure. This isn't the Clippers, you know,
Speaker 1: this isn't we're down two oh in the series. We're
Speaker 1: in Dallas. If I missed this shot, I'm going to
Speaker 1: be the lead story on I Disputed tomorrow. You know, Like,
Speaker 1: what this is is a team that is winning and
Speaker 1: everything else is going a d looks great, Lebron looks great.
Speaker 1: The only thing that's not really working is the jump shots.
Speaker 1: And so because of that, they're still winning and that
Speaker 1: relieves the pressure. You know, the Lakers don't have to
Speaker 1: hit shots in Game four to win. They just need
Speaker 1: to defend the way they did tonight, and so that
Speaker 1: that will relieve some of that pressure. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, this is the biggest thing that that I
Speaker 1: uh was thinking about in that second half. This series
Speaker 1: is just a knockdown, drag out fight. And the Sons
Speaker 1: you could tell they're still they're so sick of us,
Speaker 1: like they're like they're they're hard boarding the screw these
Speaker 1: guys mode, you know, like they hate they hate us.
Speaker 1: And Jay Crowd is sick of it, He's sick of Lebron.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker is literally so sick of it he's shoving guys.
Speaker 1: You know. Chris Paul inevitably when he gets back into
Speaker 1: this series is going to be a physical, uh nightmare
Speaker 1: to deal with the Sun's. This is gonna be two
Speaker 1: games here, if the Lakers pull it out in five,
Speaker 1: that are going to be extremely physical. That could have
Speaker 1: some dirty plays. And and for the record, KCP already
Speaker 1: has a pretty bad by contusion and bad enough to
Speaker 1: get him out of the game. And Dennis Shrewder turned
Speaker 1: his ankle over a little bit there in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: So you know, they have two days off here, they
Speaker 1: don't play again until Sunday. This this is a great
Speaker 1: opportunity in this next five days to close this series
Speaker 1: out and put their arguably the toughest opponent they'll play
Speaker 1: in the West. If the Clippers lose, arguably this team,
Speaker 1: this team is you. You have been preaching this NonStop
Speaker 1: over the last week. The Suns are good. Really, You've
Speaker 1: had to temper my expectations a bit because I underestimated
Speaker 1: them a bit and so of how good they are.
Speaker 1: If you can get him out of here in five
Speaker 1: and not lose too much physical wear and tear, things
Speaker 1: are gonna I'm not gonna say get easier, but they're
Speaker 1: gonna be like this could arguably be the hardest task
Speaker 1: that they have, you know, this unpolished version of the
Speaker 1: Lakers beating the second best team in the league by record. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've been saying I think Phoenix is good. I think
Speaker 1: they're still really good. I'm not sure where they had
Speaker 1: just from here, but just going out to your physicality
Speaker 1: point there, I want to give Andre Drummond some love,
Speaker 1: like it felt like before this series, and I guess
Speaker 1: rightfully so a little bit just with his up and
Speaker 1: down play, it was kind of like, let's just survive
Speaker 1: the first five minutes or you know after the Game
Speaker 1: one loss, all right, don't start him, don't start him,
Speaker 1: Let's get someone else. And again he can be really
Speaker 1: scapegoaded a lot. I thought he's been. He was great
Speaker 1: again tonight, like the second straight game. Um. I think
Speaker 1: his ability to kind of be in the defensive stance
Speaker 1: coming off those screens, getting hands in passing lanes, being
Speaker 1: able to get back to eton like, be able to
Speaker 1: deflect some of those not let all of those go through,
Speaker 1: some of them are going to ge through, but just
Speaker 1: getting his hands in passing lanes. And again three more
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds tonight. Um, I think his physicality is how
Speaker 1: to has an impact in this series. Um twelve rebounds
Speaker 1: in Game two, eleven rebounds. Tonight, Again he had one
Speaker 1: huge block. I was not expecting that was that on
Speaker 1: Devin Booker. Yeah, I was in the first quarter, little
Speaker 1: left hand Yeah yeah yeah. So again I thought that
Speaker 1: was again part of what they were trying to do,
Speaker 1: you know, not let Devin Booker get easy ones, allow
Speaker 1: everyone else to kind of get going, even if Chris
Speaker 1: Paul wants to kind of create fantastic Um. I like
Speaker 1: that they've tied his minutes to Lebron right, so he's
Speaker 1: not playing with like uh not that shooter is not
Speaker 1: a good good shot creator, but he's playing with the
Speaker 1: best shot creator on the team, so he doesn't have
Speaker 1: to wait. There's no there's not really any Drummond post
Speaker 1: ups as there were before. I think there were a few,
Speaker 1: but very little now you I don't really notice them
Speaker 1: throughout the game. So, um, he's playing with Lebron, playing
Speaker 1: with the shot creator that's finding him. Lebron finds these
Speaker 1: angles that I just don't see. Um, he gets he
Speaker 1: gets the ball to him down low. Drummond still misses
Speaker 1: some easy ones, but I again just credit to him.
Speaker 1: Just another really good game. I think his physicality is
Speaker 1: sending the tone um and it's a it's trouble for them.
Speaker 1: It's allowing Anthony Davis to come in and crash the board.
Speaker 1: Cale Kuzma had a bunch of utimates and remounts tonight
Speaker 1: because of Drummond as well. They have to go box
Speaker 1: him out. I just wanted to give him an ode.
Speaker 1: I thought he was good again. You hit the most
Speaker 1: important part there, which is like, you know, he has
Speaker 1: been scapegoaded, but the reason why he escape coded is
Speaker 1: because he was having issues on both ends and early on,
Speaker 1: and in the last two games he's been unbelievably good defensively,
Speaker 1: which at that point it's like, who cares if he
Speaker 1: fumbles the ball out of bounds a few times or
Speaker 1: misses a few layups around the rim, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: as our friend Alex Regular pointed out today, he's been
Speaker 1: finishing really well around the rim with the Lakers, especially
Speaker 1: as of late, and so the things are kind of
Speaker 1: coming together for him offensively in a way that they
Speaker 1: weren't early on. And a lot of that is it
Speaker 1: being tied to Lebron, which we we we figured might
Speaker 1: solve some of those problems, but none of that matters
Speaker 1: as long as he's defending, Like I think k c
Speaker 1: P said, a pretty good series, aside from the fact
Speaker 1: that he can't make a shot. But but it's because
Speaker 1: he has arguably one of the toughest jobs on the team,
Speaker 1: chasing around Devin Booker, and he's done. He's done a
Speaker 1: good job of taking that responsibility, especially in the last
Speaker 1: couple of games. And so, you know, again, Drummond, the
Speaker 1: bar is low there. He's a he's a veteran minimum
Speaker 1: signing at the center position. You know, on a team
Speaker 1: that doesn't necessarily need him, and and he just needed
Speaker 1: to hold his own on the defensive end. And I
Speaker 1: think he's been excellent on the defensive end in the
Speaker 1: last couple of games, and that I agree with you,
Speaker 1: Like he deserves his flowers, because that dude has taken
Speaker 1: way too much a lot from me, you know, like
Speaker 1: it was really frustrating for me to watch him, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of float around defensively, not really knowing where to stand,
Speaker 1: constantly turning his head, not seeing man in ball, just
Speaker 1: getting lost. Uh, and then all so hurting the team
Speaker 1: on the offensive end as a spacer and as a finisher. Well,
Speaker 1: now he solved a huge chunk of that with with
Speaker 1: what he's been doing defensively, and that makes everything else
Speaker 1: so much easier to deal with, right, And I guess
Speaker 1: the final kind of adjustment that was, well, it wasn't
Speaker 1: made tonight. It was made in game two. But we
Speaker 1: saw it again. No Mantres Harold again, right, No Mantresnasol
Speaker 1: is fully in the rotation. He's not just in the rotation,
Speaker 1: he's closing, which like brings a tear to my eyes,
Speaker 1: and almost every lake up to her eyes. Just it
Speaker 1: gives a d the chance to be the five down
Speaker 1: low and the ball just looks like it flies around
Speaker 1: even if he's hitting. I think he hit one three tonight.
Speaker 1: Just that threat of him out there. Um, to see
Speaker 1: Gasol back in the rotation again. I don't think Tres
Speaker 1: needs to go DMP the whole playoffs. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's gonna happen. But just seeing Gasol, it's nice to
Speaker 1: see Vogel kind of make the adjustment that we wanted
Speaker 1: to see. Um. Even though Treads had an okay game one,
Speaker 1: I thought he was getting killed defensively and we saw
Speaker 1: that Gasol was Again. I think he did his job
Speaker 1: on eight and like you gotta beat a couple of times,
Speaker 1: had a few weird blocking fouls at the rim, but
Speaker 1: it was good to see him. Good to him in
Speaker 1: the rotation. He got your guy Ben macklamore in there. Um,
Speaker 1: you could tell, yeah, he's thinking about the shooting right,
Speaker 1: just might as well. Ben maclamore always takes the shot
Speaker 1: that's like the least open right he called it. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: let me just go up, which just doesn't get him
Speaker 1: in any rhythm. Um. And again, defensively, he's still kind
Speaker 1: of lost like I didn't. No, yeah, you're right, you're right,
Speaker 1: play with he did not play with Lebron, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that's probably not the best way. He's Ben mclore. But
Speaker 1: they needed shooting man, No hit a shot, and I
Speaker 1: think bog would just was like can I get three
Speaker 1: points out? Have been? But yeah, it was cool to
Speaker 1: just kind of see the rotation is really tightened. No
Speaker 1: th HD tonight either, right, I think it was what
Speaker 1: we kind of expected. Um, he had a really tough
Speaker 1: two games in Phoenix, so so good to see the rotation.
Speaker 1: Titan Man, did you have kind of anything else from tonight? Um?
Speaker 1: I thought Marcusol was awesome in pick and roll defense
Speaker 1: in a way that yeah, it wasn't in game two.
Speaker 1: I thought, uh, just and so much of that is
Speaker 1: the whole unit, like so much of it is a again,
Speaker 1: but you know, uh, the guys from like A Film
Speaker 1: Room talked a lot about this after Game two. But
Speaker 1: one of the big reasons that Marcusol was having issues
Speaker 1: and pick and roll in the second half of Game
Speaker 1: two was the ball handler cutting across his face so
Speaker 1: instead of like snaking the pick and roll is what
Speaker 1: they call it, but essentially just switching directions on him.
Speaker 1: It's it's basically a crossover after the screen, and Marcusol
Speaker 1: just was having trouble anticipating that and just was a
Speaker 1: step slow. And I thought, I thought several occasions in
Speaker 1: the second half in particular, he just because again, like Marcusol,
Speaker 1: it's the same issue that you see with a lot
Speaker 1: of older players, Like this guy used to be the
Speaker 1: defensive player of the year. He's got all of that
Speaker 1: in him. Uh, he's got all the experience. It's just
Speaker 1: his body that has been failing him. And uh, and
Speaker 1: the truth is is like you can make up for
Speaker 1: a lot of that by being savvy. And I thought
Speaker 1: tonight he was much better at anticipating, uh that type
Speaker 1: of movement out of the pick and roll, was much
Speaker 1: more capable of staying in front and actually protecting the rim,
Speaker 1: and and that just, you know, again made it so
Speaker 1: that all the stuff he brings offensively was that much
Speaker 1: more valuable because he wasn't hurting you on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor. But ye, Mark, Mark was fantastic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we're going on here around forty minutes, So if
Speaker 1: anyone's kind of jump in, I'll add you in at
Speaker 1: you in here. But yeah, I was just looking at
Speaker 1: Aton's line here. Um, he only had one free though tonight,
Speaker 1: and I think, like that's just not enough offense, right
Speaker 1: if they're just feeding him even though he shot Levin
Speaker 1: for fifteen, but he's not getting to the line, not
Speaker 1: putting any actual pressure on the guys, Like I think
Speaker 1: they'll live with that. He went and living for fifteen
Speaker 1: and they only scored ninety five points. Um, that's just
Speaker 1: that's the scheme they're gonna go with. Um. I guess
Speaker 1: my only other thing is like Phoenix, the only adjustment really,
Speaker 1: I guess is Devin Booker and Chris Paul to kind
Speaker 1: of fire away, right. I expect to see that. But
Speaker 1: when you go into that game four, most teams, you
Speaker 1: have your adjustment, then you have the adjustment adjustment, and
Speaker 1: now it's just who's the better team. But we'll let's
Speaker 1: we'll get some people up here. I guess we gotta
Speaker 1: be requested. While you're bringing somebody up, go ahead and
Speaker 1: add the first person the What has been interesting to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on is, you know, Monty Williams has
Speaker 1: talked about this, Um, you know the way that the
Speaker 1: Suns are interpreting this is that it's a fistfight. And
Speaker 1: and the problem is is is I think they're going
Speaker 1: to respond to tonight by just upping their physicality even
Speaker 1: more on Sunday. And so again, it's just gonna be
Speaker 1: important that the Lakers kind of maintain that edge because
Speaker 1: I think this is a classic series where the Sons
Speaker 1: are the Sun's. No, they can't out skill the Lakers.
Speaker 1: The Suns, No, they can't out defend the Lakers, but
Speaker 1: they might try to kick their ass, you know, for
Speaker 1: lack of a better term, um, just by using using
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder, using Chris Paul, using Devin Booker, just to
Speaker 1: be super physical everywhere. Anyway, Let's get someone on yep
Speaker 1: a j Can you hear us? Yeah? I can hear ye. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. It's it's uh, it's funny, man. It was
Speaker 1: like the Lakers played like asked the first half, Bro,
Speaker 1: it was just you know, it was almost like they
Speaker 1: were going through the motions. Lebron was kind of pasting himself,
Speaker 1: and second half it just switched. Lebron just kind of
Speaker 1: went like, Okay, get out of my way, Let's let
Speaker 1: me take over this game. And it's almost like the
Speaker 1: Son's new at that point like, Okay, we're out matched,
Speaker 1: Like there's nothing we can do at this point, like
Speaker 1: you know, and that's why I think. You know, once
Speaker 1: you get in Devin Booker's head, he gets real sassy,
Speaker 1: and he gets real piste off and he does dumb
Speaker 1: ship like pushing people in the back, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So it's like that's what they I feel
Speaker 1: like they've been needing to do this whole you know,
Speaker 1: from game one, two and three is just get up
Speaker 1: on them. And I think putting in West Matthews was
Speaker 1: the perfect thing to do because I mean he was
Speaker 1: the only one to me that was consistent all night
Speaker 1: on defense. You know, his shots were his shots were
Speaker 1: going in I mean massive, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Like he he changed the whole outlook of what that
Speaker 1: lineup looked like. And you know, I think another positive
Speaker 1: thing is like who's is yet to still get going?
Speaker 1: K cps yet to still get going? And once that happens,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's a wrap, it's a rap, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I Mean, we know what we're
Speaker 1: going to get out of a D and Lebron, but
Speaker 1: our guys are still yet to really actually get going,
Speaker 1: so that that's actually something to look forward to. And
Speaker 1: I don't think Game four is going to be close, honestly,
Speaker 1: I really don't. Well, it'll be interesting to see because
Speaker 1: if they if the role players keep missing shots, it
Speaker 1: will certainly be contested to a certain extent. You know
Speaker 1: what you said, it was really interesting, like the first half,
Speaker 1: you know, the Lakers weren't playing their best. Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: actually came out and said that wasn't like her basketball,
Speaker 1: at least on the offensive ent, and this is what
Speaker 1: he said. And then I agree in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: The funny thing was, you know, like you said, in
Speaker 1: the third quarter, Lebron came over, came out and kind
Speaker 1: of took the game over. And in the first half
Speaker 1: he was plus no I'm when Lebron was on the floor,
Speaker 1: and I think the Lakers went in to half time
Speaker 1: up three if I remember correctly. Um, But anyway, the
Speaker 1: point is is, like, you know, these games have all
Speaker 1: these different phases, right the first game was like the
Speaker 1: ship Show. For the first half was like the ship
Speaker 1: Show phase where neither team could score and it was
Speaker 1: super competitive, and and then obviously most of the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter was basically a house of highlights reel with like
Speaker 1: bloopers and and and and and fun stuff. But they're
Speaker 1: in the third quarter. You know, in that first seven
Speaker 1: minute shift, Lebron came in and just stepped on their neck.
Speaker 1: And then the end of the third quarter, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: just completely executed them, um with his physicality. And so
Speaker 1: it was a Lebron in a d execution in a
Speaker 1: twelve minute quarter. And I think of what did they
Speaker 1: hold the Suns to like twelve points in that quarter?
Speaker 1: Like it just was it just again It's it's these
Speaker 1: decisive moments of the games where where you kind of
Speaker 1: put it all together and and it ends up swinging
Speaker 1: the outcome. And I thought that's what happened to night
Speaker 1: right right. And the crazy thing is, I mean, if
Speaker 1: you if you really watch the first half Lebron, I
Speaker 1: feel like he was just trying to get his guys going,
Speaker 1: because when he was driving in him he was really
Speaker 1: just looking to pass. And I felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: watching that, it was like, okay, let's let's get everybody
Speaker 1: going and see what we can do, and didn't really
Speaker 1: work out that well. So second half he was just
Speaker 1: like okay, you know, let me let me take control
Speaker 1: of this game, and that's when everything switched. It's just
Speaker 1: it's it's honestly, it's incredible to watch how he can
Speaker 1: literally just take over a game. Yeah, I'm with you
Speaker 1: on that. I feel like he took their belief right
Speaker 1: and at third quarter, I know that's more like an
Speaker 1: intangible kind of thing, but you can kind of see it.
Speaker 1: Um when he goes on those runs. Man, playoff Lebron.
Speaker 1: That's that stuff. It's really like he didn't have to
Speaker 1: tap into his full bag tonight, but when he turned
Speaker 1: it on, he got he got them up. He knew
Speaker 1: that was the time to kind of build the lead
Speaker 1: from like ten or fifteen. He started attacking the rim,
Speaker 1: getting to the basket, getting hand ones, getting dunks as well.
Speaker 1: He could just see he was feeling feeling it might
Speaker 1: agree with you. There my favorite thing. Man. It's going
Speaker 1: around on Twitter right now, but he's literally has his
Speaker 1: back towards it, towards Crowder and he has a smile
Speaker 1: on his face like I'm about to cook this dude.
Speaker 1: I'm about to cook this man. It's incredible to watch. Man.
Speaker 1: We joked earlier that that was like kind of like
Speaker 1: Lebron psychology, you know, just him him, you know, in
Speaker 1: a series tied at one in a fourth quarter against
Speaker 1: the two seed, you know, uh, in a series that
Speaker 1: after Game one the Lakers are only a minus one
Speaker 1: twenty favorite. And uh and in him my kind of
Speaker 1: toying with Jake Crowder like that, it just sends a
Speaker 1: psychological message to the opponent. And and and a lot
Speaker 1: of team there are teams that won't shrink from that.
Speaker 1: And we'll see what happens with Phoenix. They very well
Speaker 1: my fight to the to the bitter end. But there's
Speaker 1: a there's a long, long laundry list of teams in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference that just simply folded when Lebron did
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And that's why he does it.
Speaker 1: It's a psychological warfare. Yeah, I agree, a you. We
Speaker 1: appreciate you, brother. I'm gonna trying to get a few
Speaker 1: more because we're gonna appreciate you. Man, Yes, sir, get
Speaker 1: my guy the pettious Laker fan. Yo, what guys? What's
Speaker 1: going on? Man? Hew y'all doing? What's up? Are you there?
Speaker 1: Can you hear me? Okay? I can hear you? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Can you hear me? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, My man, I
Speaker 1: was saying, I love what you guys do. Man, I
Speaker 1: try to get getting here whenever. I just wanted to say,
Speaker 1: I just really appreciate that. Like, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: haven't been able to see the team put it all
Speaker 1: together in one game, and to an extent, we still did.
Speaker 1: But I feel a lot more confident about this team
Speaker 1: after seeing them put it put it together on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. Fully, I feel like this game was like
Speaker 1: the first game. They were fully you know, firing on
Speaker 1: all cylinders for most of the game and then and
Speaker 1: then um offensively in the third quarter. It showed what
Speaker 1: the Lakers can do when Lebron's just decides, Hey, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put my head down against the basket. So um,
Speaker 1: I want to kind of what you guys thought about
Speaker 1: Lebron and and the I know you guys talked about
Speaker 1: playoff Lebron a little bit, But what did you guys
Speaker 1: see different than the third quarter versus like, you know,
Speaker 1: the first half. Well, I thought that was the first
Speaker 1: time since the Denver game before the Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d injuries in the second half of that game earlier
Speaker 1: this year. Tonight was the first time since then that
Speaker 1: I've seen their defensive ceiling, because if you remember, that
Speaker 1: was when Denver had Yoka Jaanbury and everybody, and the
Speaker 1: Lakers just shut their water off and they couldn't do anything.
Speaker 1: And and you know, we talked a lot earlier in
Speaker 1: the pot about how you know that's their defensive ceiling,
Speaker 1: which is different than their day to day effort. That's
Speaker 1: like when everyone's engaged in Lebron in an a D
Speaker 1: or on the floor, and what they can do on
Speaker 1: the back line defensively, how how it can take even
Speaker 1: super high end offenses and just make things extraordinarily difficult
Speaker 1: for them. And I, as as I've said for two
Speaker 1: years now with Raj, I think this Laker defense is
Speaker 1: an all time great defense. And when they flipped that switch,
Speaker 1: it just flat out wins games. And I thought, I
Speaker 1: thought that was the driving force in combination with Lebron
Speaker 1: at the start of the third quarter and a D
Speaker 1: at the end of the third quarter doing what they
Speaker 1: did offensively, Lebron driving the basket and passing the ball,
Speaker 1: and then a D just as a as a physical uh,
Speaker 1: just mammoth around the paint, grabbing offensive rebounds and just
Speaker 1: beating the hell out of the Sun's physically. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: agree with you, and just with the Lebron point. Like
Speaker 1: you could tell I said this earlier, but he's kind
Speaker 1: of pacing himself, right. This is when too, he's trying
Speaker 1: to get to win sixteen, right, and he knows even
Speaker 1: though for us like every game is like a you know,
Speaker 1: Game seven, need to put your heart out every every night. Um,
Speaker 1: you could tell he picks his spots in that third quarter,
Speaker 1: he really picked that. He picked his spots to go
Speaker 1: to the rim. Miles Bridges couldn't couldn't handle him, Jake
Speaker 1: Crowd or all those dudes he spun Baseline a bunch
Speaker 1: of times, getting to the rim, getting dunks, doing stuff
Speaker 1: that he wasn't doing. And with the defense like this
Speaker 1: is this is a top level. I thought the Lakers
Speaker 1: last year had probably the best defense I've seen. Um
Speaker 1: this year, I think they can probably get get to
Speaker 1: that as well, maybe even a little better. I think
Speaker 1: Jason believes a little better. But um that when those
Speaker 1: when those dudes are engaged, Lebron and a d to
Speaker 1: me are still the best off ball defensive players in
Speaker 1: the league. And when you have your guards mixed with that,
Speaker 1: like it's a tough thing to score on. Phoenix is
Speaker 1: a good offensive team. I'm not sure where they finished.
Speaker 1: I think they finished top five or something offensively, I
Speaker 1: have to check with that, but to hold them under
Speaker 1: a hundred is is huge. So I agree with you
Speaker 1: on that that third quarter and that defense looks legitimate
Speaker 1: and ready to go. Dude. That last thing I want
Speaker 1: to say before I get out of here, and I
Speaker 1: appreciate you that's having me on is on that same point,
Speaker 1: I love. I wish that Frank Vogel got his flowers
Speaker 1: more because I think, um, a lot of people thought
Speaker 1: he was an all time great defensive line even before
Speaker 1: it before even coming to the Lakers, but he hadn't
Speaker 1: really had anything to kind of show for it as
Speaker 1: far as like in the highest level stide from those
Speaker 1: you know Pacers series that really you know, took Lebron
Speaker 1: to the limit. But I'm really hoping that like in
Speaker 1: the next you know, from his um stint here at
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and also like that that marriage between him
Speaker 1: and a D, those things that he could do with
Speaker 1: a D is just like amazing. So I really hope
Speaker 1: that he gets the flowers and the appreciation that you
Speaker 1: guys are giving them too. I'm with you, man, I
Speaker 1: think I think he doesn't get enough. He gets some.
Speaker 1: He has some lineups that drive us crazy right to
Speaker 1: the regular season. These experimental the Dramma minutes kind of
Speaker 1: drove us crazy the Rondo minutes last year. But I
Speaker 1: think these are all the means to an end. I
Speaker 1: think they have an idea of what they're trying to do,
Speaker 1: even if we all kind of disagree with it at times. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a means to an end here and and we'll
Speaker 1: see if it continues. But he just definitely deserves some
Speaker 1: credit for what's going on here. Getting a number one
Speaker 1: defense without Lebron and a d for pretty much halfter
Speaker 1: season is is no joke. Yeah, the guy that the
Speaker 1: guy to uh to listen to a little bit more
Speaker 1: detailed excess and those version of this is that Tim Cranes.
Speaker 1: That Cranze just Cranze, just mack basketball. He does an
Speaker 1: awesome job of kind of mapping this stuff out from
Speaker 1: what I saw it live, and I'll try to look
Speaker 1: more when we were watching when we watched the film,
Speaker 1: but I really just thought the Lakers were much more
Speaker 1: physical off ball in that pick and roll, because, like
Speaker 1: it just seemed like that that two man game was
Speaker 1: so free flowing through the first two games, and there
Speaker 1: just was no contact around the rim as that stuff
Speaker 1: was happening. And I thought the Lakers set a tone
Speaker 1: early that lasted throughout the game where they were just
Speaker 1: going to be more physical, and I thought that that
Speaker 1: was a big part of the way it shut it down. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and then you're right, Frank deserves a ton
Speaker 1: of credit for being a part of that chess match. Alright, Yes,
Speaker 1: thank you, appreciating me, Thanks, thank you, We appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Thanks man. Let's try to get two more here. I
Speaker 1: think we're running up on an hour. Sounds good, two more, okay, Basilio,
Speaker 1: are you there? Hey? What's up, my guys? How are
Speaker 1: you doing? I'm doing fine? All about you doing well? Well?
Speaker 1: What's going on? Hey? Oh good? Oh good? I have
Speaker 1: four thorts teams between the leap and one thing is
Speaker 1: the A D Snake crowd is really quiet right now.
Speaker 1: And there's the second thing, Booker, I think he dropped
Speaker 1: twenty four in the first game. Are you know that
Speaker 1: juts Man boggle may for him to keep paying nineteen points? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they they definitely have the Biggs coming up higher on
Speaker 1: the stream, So like when Booker gets a screen, drumming
Speaker 1: is kind of at the level of it. Instead of
Speaker 1: being back in like this help and recover, there's kind
Speaker 1: of no no, no Roman behind kind of coverage that
Speaker 1: let's Booker kind of get right into his jumpers and
Speaker 1: they've decided to get the ball his hands, so when
Speaker 1: he has an isolation at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: they'll send a double and it really makes him to
Speaker 1: take really tough shots over contests, and that's why you
Speaker 1: see his scoring output. It kind of go less and
Speaker 1: less as these games go on. They're they're allowing eight
Speaker 1: and to catch the ball at the rim, and that's
Speaker 1: that when when Bookers passing to him, he's not taking
Speaker 1: shots and the shots he does get are are pretty
Speaker 1: tough or in transition do agree chasing, Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: all adjustments, Like you gotta you gotta think about it
Speaker 1: with respect to uh uh, what will work outside of
Speaker 1: a one game sample. I mean, look at even beyond Booker,
Speaker 1: look at Cameron Payne, but he went off there at
Speaker 1: the end of the fourth quarter when the Lakers totally
Speaker 1: let their foot off the gas and let him get
Speaker 1: loose and transition and catch wide open, catches you threes.
Speaker 1: But the pick and roll stuff campaign was doing the
Speaker 1: stuff that he killed them with in game two was
Speaker 1: all shut off. And the same goes for Booker. Booker
Speaker 1: in game one was just killing the Lakers, uh curling
Speaker 1: off of hin downs and and then in ball screens
Speaker 1: just getting to a shot too comfortably just inside the
Speaker 1: three point and and and the Lakers have just made
Speaker 1: a simple adjustment of just leading him at the screen.
Speaker 1: Uh and and just being more physical in general. And
Speaker 1: as Are one of our previous colors pointed out, it's
Speaker 1: starting to really frustrate him and he's starting to lash out,
Speaker 1: which is good for the Lakers because that can kind
Speaker 1: of cause things to go off the rails and cause
Speaker 1: you to do something stupid like shovel player in mid air. Okay,
Speaker 1: And the last two things is are you a real
Speaker 1: concerned about the a D he said he punstands his knee.
Speaker 1: And the last thing, Chris Paul has been your in
Speaker 1: the series, but Coming On Pain has kept the songs
Speaker 1: in in kind of rounds. He made some a couple
Speaker 1: of tree and I guess I think Coming On Pain
Speaker 1: has been really great this series, he's been he's been amazing.
Speaker 1: And look, if they have to go to Cameron Pain,
Speaker 1: I think you've done your job. Pretty much Like if
Speaker 1: he's gonna hit tough step factor, he's he got a
Speaker 1: few open ones, but he's driving to the rim kind
Speaker 1: of finishing these tough layups. I think you live with
Speaker 1: those throughout the flow of the game. Um, he's had
Speaker 1: a great series. Credit to him getting himself back in
Speaker 1: the league. But like the game planning for him is
Speaker 1: tough when you already have Booker and Chris Paul, they
Speaker 1: and eight and you're trying to, you know, manage all
Speaker 1: these guys, and if campaign gets off on a few shots,
Speaker 1: I think you live with it. I think most of
Speaker 1: the shots are contested. Um, he's kind of he's been
Speaker 1: guarded by Caruso. I trust him to kind of make
Speaker 1: that a tough matchup as a series goes on. But
Speaker 1: he's been great. I agree, he's hit tough shots. His
Speaker 1: speed has been a factor. He's getting by guys and
Speaker 1: he's hitting pull up reason transition. Just he's been amazing
Speaker 1: in this series. Credit to him. He's just in a
Speaker 1: groove too, man Like. I mean that that's kind of
Speaker 1: basketball in a nutshell too, Like sometimes some of this
Speaker 1: is beyond XS and os. You know, there's there is
Speaker 1: a certain amount that you can control with XS and
Speaker 1: os and effort and focus and blah blah blah and
Speaker 1: all the stuff that Rogs and I talked about every day.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, like there's all
Speaker 1: things equal. You know, why is Alex Cruso, guy who
Speaker 1: you know, shot the lights out all year, incapable of
Speaker 1: making anything? And Cameron Payne who has had a good
Speaker 1: season but it's playing way above his capabilities in this series,
Speaker 1: Like why is that the case? It's just because Alex
Speaker 1: Crusoe's not in the group right now, and and Cameron
Speaker 1: Payne is very much in a group right now. And
Speaker 1: all you can hope is that at various points in
Speaker 1: the in the postseason, certain Lakers will make runs, just
Speaker 1: like Markith Morris went on a crazy run last year's postseason,
Speaker 1: or you know, Rondo had his moments, or you'd have
Speaker 1: KCP in the finals. You know that there you just
Speaker 1: hope that guys will pop up and make their runs.
Speaker 1: In this case, unfortunately for the Suns, campaign hasn't been enough. Um,
Speaker 1: but the Lakers You're gonna have Lakers role players to
Speaker 1: have their moments as well outside of what other teams
Speaker 1: can control. Yep, thanks, I appreciate you, man, Man, I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. I hit the last last one up here.
Speaker 1: I think it was, uh, big seven are you doing? Hey, hey,
Speaker 1: what's going on? What's going on? Man? Not much? Pretty
Speaker 1: stoked we got the win tonight, even though we came
Speaker 1: out looking and it was really tough to watch that
Speaker 1: first half. I'm not gonna lie um with all the
Speaker 1: miss shots, wide open shots, you know. And I kind
Speaker 1: of liked how Um Frank brought in Ben Mapplemore for
Speaker 1: a little bit um before the before k CP went down.
Speaker 1: I think that, I mean, even just to try it
Speaker 1: out for a little bit. I think it was nice
Speaker 1: and it kind of hits the way he were saying
Speaker 1: earlier with you know, he's actually trying new stuff verses
Speaker 1: in the regular season when everyone was getting all upset,
Speaker 1: you know, over him. Not I'm not trying new lineups.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think he's doing what he's supposed
Speaker 1: to do as a coach, and he's showing everyone like, hey,
Speaker 1: we won the finals last year and he is he
Speaker 1: is a champion. You know, as a coach, So I
Speaker 1: think he knows what he's doing. And yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I think he's really underrated for how well we're playing
Speaker 1: right now. I think that uh, as Roger and I
Speaker 1: have said throughout the last two years, Frank Vogel deserves
Speaker 1: the benefit of the doubt. He has shown that when
Speaker 1: push comes to shop, you'll make the adjustments that are necessary,
Speaker 1: and all the stuff that we've talked about, like, think
Speaker 1: of it like this. We preached for Caruso all year
Speaker 1: last year as the better player than Rondo and as
Speaker 1: the player needed more minutes and who started Game six
Speaker 1: of the finals. So you know, we preached dumping centers
Speaker 1: last year because you know, even Dwight and uh Um
Speaker 1: Javal weren't as good options as Drummond or Gasol. And
Speaker 1: guess what, he dumped the centers for the most part
Speaker 1: in the postseason. So as far as I'm concerned, like
Speaker 1: we can, you know, express our concerns, but he deserves
Speaker 1: the benefit of the doubt because he's shown the willingness
Speaker 1: to make the necessary moves. Yeah, coach, coach. Coaching is hard,
Speaker 1: man Like, it's not easy, like Bogol was what coaching
Speaker 1: in Orlando and had a bad team and sometimes you
Speaker 1: just never know what happened. Look at I think Tyler
Speaker 1: is a really good coach, um, and you know they're
Speaker 1: down oh two and he's having trouble finding lineups even
Speaker 1: with that same rondo. So it's tough. Man. Bogo deserves
Speaker 1: his credit. I think keeping keeping the defense where it was,
Speaker 1: it's just so impressive to me. Go watch, I mean,
Speaker 1: go watch these other teams. Man. Look go watch Denver
Speaker 1: Portland tonight. Yeah, I think it was like sixty. So
Speaker 1: just watching like him have a defensive kind of system
Speaker 1: that he's kept even with different personnel. Right, Drummonds different
Speaker 1: than like Dwight Howard. His skills are different. Being able
Speaker 1: to adapt to that is is key to me and coaching.
Speaker 1: And he seems very transparent with his guys, and that's
Speaker 1: all you can ask from a coach. And when you
Speaker 1: have Lebron and a d that's kind of your job.
Speaker 1: Stay out the way and make sure you deal with
Speaker 1: everything else. Let the stars kind of take care of
Speaker 1: what they do. I think the last thing I just
Speaker 1: have to say is I don't know when people will
Speaker 1: start to understand, like if you talk trash or Lebron
Speaker 1: like throughout the game campaign kind of you know, talking
Speaker 1: to him throughout the game, and it's like, what are
Speaker 1: you trying to do? Because when he came out that
Speaker 1: third quarter, it was you know, and I was listening
Speaker 1: to the halftime show with Charles you know, saying, oh,
Speaker 1: he's hurt. He he looks bad, he does not look good.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if Lebron saw that um and
Speaker 1: was like, okay, watch this, because he literally came out
Speaker 1: that second half and all those little you know, the
Speaker 1: rumors all he doesn't have that explosive jump. It's like
Speaker 1: he literally showed that way. He scored like six or ten.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many scored in a row right
Speaker 1: when that thing sorry, but you know, it's I don't
Speaker 1: know when people just get It's like the same thing
Speaker 1: with Kobe. You know, it's like if you're gonna be
Speaker 1: poking at him, he's gonna get you. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's it's funny to see it because
Speaker 1: it just keeps happening. So I don't think there's anything
Speaker 1: wrong with talking trash. I think you just gotta be
Speaker 1: prepared to face the consequences, like you know, for me
Speaker 1: personally that my time playing basketball, I've always been the
Speaker 1: kind of guy that like I'll talk when someone talks
Speaker 1: to me first, but I'll never started. But they're they're
Speaker 1: completely different guys out there that will start it all
Speaker 1: the time. And you know, like I'm like, like, you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron kind of strikes me as that kind of guy,
Speaker 1: like the guy that isn't he's not out there actively
Speaker 1: seeking that kind of thing, but you know, inevitably there
Speaker 1: are guys that come his way with that type of deal.
Speaker 1: And like that's the thing like Crowder, Crowder got Crowder
Speaker 1: got into it with Lebron in the fourth quarter and
Speaker 1: you know, nobody cares what happened the rest of the game.
Speaker 1: That highlight play on that spinoff is gonna end up
Speaker 1: being what leaves everything for the next twenty four hour
Speaker 1: news cycle. And it's like that's the price you pay.
Speaker 1: Like Patrick Beverley talked a bunch of trash to Luca,
Speaker 1: and what went viral is is Luca just spamming him
Speaker 1: into the basket and then him saying that he's yelling
Speaker 1: at too I think small and screaming into the Clipper
Speaker 1: bench like it's it's a dangerous game and if you play,
Speaker 1: if you play the game, you know, sometimes you win,
Speaker 1: sometimes you lose. But I I personally don't see the
Speaker 1: advantage and starting that kind of thing. But they're they're
Speaker 1: players who do and I'm not going to tell them
Speaker 1: they're wrong, you know, I don't. I don't mind it.
Speaker 1: And like that. There's guy like Draymond Montraz Harrold even
Speaker 1: it looks like a little bit campaign. They live off it, right,
Speaker 1: like they that ship needs to be something on their shoulder,
Speaker 1: and they create it anyhow they can um and I
Speaker 1: don't mind if you can bet him back it up.
Speaker 1: John Moran another guy really aggressive when he gets going,
Speaker 1: and I'm fine with it. It's a line there. You
Speaker 1: don't want to be dirty playing like you know, dirty
Speaker 1: pouls and stuff like that. But a little trash dog
Speaker 1: that's part of basketball around the world. I don't have
Speaker 1: a problem with. And Lebron is probably you're right, not
Speaker 1: the guy to do it too, but these guys do
Speaker 1: it to everyone, so kind of how it works. Well,
Speaker 1: much love guys, Thank you, I appreciate you all right, everybody,
Speaker 1: thank you for hanging out with us for the last
Speaker 1: hour and some change. UM. We will be going live
Speaker 1: again on Sunday. I will be immediately taking the screen recording,
Speaker 1: converting it into a podcast and I will tweet it
Speaker 1: out and Rog will tweet it out as well. UM.
Speaker 1: As is always the case, we appreciate you guys choosing
Speaker 1: out with us UM to talk some Lakers and well
Speaker 1: we'll see you on Sunday. Thanks everyone, ASTs