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Speaker 1: welcome to Lakers Tonight, presented by Fan Duel here on
Speaker 1: the volume, I'm Jason timp Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope
Speaker 1: you're week is off to a good start. That was
Speaker 1: a frustrating game in a lot of ways, but not
Speaker 1: entirely unpredictable. I mean, it's a late game collapse, right,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, when you're looking
Speaker 1: at the two teams and you look at the fact
Speaker 1: that the Lakers are trying to generate offense with an
Speaker 1: injured version of Lebron and the meanwhile, Dallas has their
Speaker 1: defense clicking on all cylinders and Luca playing as well
Speaker 1: as he is, it's not entirely unpredictable. We're gonna break
Speaker 1: down this game at least what what is worth breaking
Speaker 1: down from a game like this? Uh, if you guys
Speaker 1: stick around for the end. I have some notes on
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors and their recent struggles. The Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics big win on National TV tonight was as well
Speaker 1: as the Clippers, who have won six out of seven.
Speaker 1: So stick around for the end on that front. But
Speaker 1: let's we're gonna get started by talking about is how
Speaker 1: frustrating it is to see a team like this, in
Speaker 1: the circumstances that they find themselves in, be this inconsistent
Speaker 1: with their effort. Because the Lakers came out with a
Speaker 1: certain level of focus and desperation that they were completely
Speaker 1: and utterly lacking against the Pelicans the other night. And
Speaker 1: that's what's frustrating, because you know, when you have a
Speaker 1: talent limitation like the Lakers have right now, you're gonna
Speaker 1: lose some games. Like I said in crunch time, there
Speaker 1: Dallas had a huge advantage. It wasn't a huge shock
Speaker 1: that things went down the way they did. But if
Speaker 1: you play, if you package this effort, and you package
Speaker 1: this overall performance from the Lakers, and you use that
Speaker 1: on Sunday night against the Pelicans. You win. You win
Speaker 1: that basketball game. You probably win that basketball game going
Speaker 1: away by ten or fifteen points even tonight. Just within
Speaker 1: the lens of this game, you know you fell apart
Speaker 1: in crunch time, but you also had a period of
Speaker 1: time there in the second quarter where you kind of
Speaker 1: look like you were heading down the quit road again.
Speaker 1: And if you could remove that seven or eight minute
Speaker 1: stretch in the second quarter where you guys let go
Speaker 1: of a rope, maybe you're up fifteen in the middle
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter, and maybe Luca isn't capable of
Speaker 1: overcoming that gap at the end of the night. And
Speaker 1: that's where the Lakers need to have some sort of
Speaker 1: meeting or some some sort of hash out session where
Speaker 1: they figure out whether or not they want to do this.
Speaker 1: Because the basketball team that we saw for most of
Speaker 1: the night tonight is good enough to hover around five
Speaker 1: until Anthony Davis get back, gets back and make a
Speaker 1: run at things in the playoffs. But if you're gonna
Speaker 1: be inconsistent with the effort and completely mail it in
Speaker 1: in a winnable game like the one against the Pelicans,
Speaker 1: and then bring it against the team, but that it's
Speaker 1: not enough to win like it is against Dallas. Then
Speaker 1: there's just no point in going through all of this.
Speaker 1: And that brings me to Lebron because I think he's
Speaker 1: obviously injured. For those of you who are just joining us,
Speaker 1: this is Ers Tonight, presented by Fandel here on the volume.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been very critical of Lebron over the
Speaker 1: course of the last couple of games, and I think
Speaker 1: it's completely fair. Lebron fans can be crazy because he's
Speaker 1: my favorite player. Literally, I'm into this sport because of him.
Speaker 1: I was not raised on basketball. Lebron got me into basketball.
Speaker 1: He will always be my favorite player. I've loved watching
Speaker 1: him throughout his entire career. I also, as a competitor
Speaker 1: and as a fan of the game of basketball, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hold him to a certain standard, not just within that,
Speaker 1: but because he's in the conversation for being the best
Speaker 1: basketball player to ever play the game. That comes with
Speaker 1: a standard and an expectation that I'm gonna hold him too.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I have to separate what
Speaker 1: I'm criticizing him for for his effort from the obvious
Speaker 1: physical limitation that he's dealing with. Throughout that entire second half,
Speaker 1: he was leaning entirely on his jump shot because he
Speaker 1: couldn't get by people. There were a couple of these
Speaker 1: jump sides. There's a step back that he hit over
Speaker 1: Donny and Phinney Smith. Where he was he looked like
Speaker 1: Boris dial when he was with the two thousand fourteen Spurs,
Speaker 1: like he just he doesn't have anywhere near the athleticism
Speaker 1: he had even just one month ago just before this.
Speaker 1: Whatever this knee swelling thing is, is clearly and severely
Speaker 1: hampering him. So that's where that's where it complicates this
Speaker 1: issue because outside of you know, this stretch tonight in
Speaker 1: the second half where he really dialed it up, he's
Speaker 1: struggled mightily over the course of the last three or
Speaker 1: four games, and it's obviously hampering him. And I don't
Speaker 1: understand how it's gonna get better, because lebron Is explicitly
Speaker 1: told us in a postgame presser he said, it's just
Speaker 1: like my ankle last year. It's not ever going to
Speaker 1: be better until I give it rest. It's not going
Speaker 1: to be better until the off season. So from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: do I think this limited version of Lebron that has
Speaker 1: no lift, that obviously can't unleash any of his basket
Speaker 1: attacking part of his game. If I'm not getting that
Speaker 1: in the conjunction with Anthony Davis, this team is not
Speaker 1: going anywhere anyway. So you have to think about what
Speaker 1: you're holding out for. If you're if you're gonna try
Speaker 1: to make a run, to try to hover around five
Speaker 1: hundred until Anthony Davis gets back, you better believe that
Speaker 1: that group can make some noise, and they're not going
Speaker 1: to if Lebron is this hurt again, Luca was flat
Speaker 1: out better than Lebron at the end of this game,
Speaker 1: and I don't think it was Lebron's fault. Luca is healthy,
Speaker 1: Lucas in a groove, Lucas in a rhythm. Luca was cooking.
Speaker 1: Lebron is clearly hampered. All he could go to was
Speaker 1: deep threes, contested threes, and step back jump shots in
Speaker 1: the mid range. He had one blow by to the
Speaker 1: baseline where he barely got above the rim for a dunk,
Speaker 1: but that was the rare exception to what was a
Speaker 1: half of Lebron having to lean back on his jump
Speaker 1: shot because he's obviously physically hampered. I want to cut
Speaker 1: him slack on that front because that's out of his control.
Speaker 1: But what is in his control is his overall effort
Speaker 1: and demeanor, and in the in the in that second
Speaker 1: quarter when things were going off the rails, a lot
Speaker 1: of it was Lebron, and a lot of it was
Speaker 1: his effort and focus and energy on that front. And
Speaker 1: that's what really hammers home the fact, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: that they need to consider shutting Lebron down for the
Speaker 1: season because he's always going to struggle in these environments.
Speaker 1: I talked about this a lot two nights ago. Lebron
Speaker 1: struggles with motivation when the team's not good enough to
Speaker 1: compete for a championship. That that fact, that fact that
Speaker 1: the Lakers are good enough to compete for a championship.
Speaker 1: I think that is one thousand percent solid and evidenced
Speaker 1: right now by what we're seeing on the court. They
Speaker 1: can't do it. So at a certain point, you've got
Speaker 1: to read the writing on the wall. Lebron's hurt, He's
Speaker 1: gonna struggle in this environment anyway. The team's not good enough.
Speaker 1: I don't understand the point of trying to push him
Speaker 1: across this finish line when he's obviously not easically capable
Speaker 1: of it. It's gonna be hard. It's gonna be difficult
Speaker 1: for Lebron because he's got his personal goals right like
Speaker 1: he he's striving for all time NBA statistical achievements. And
Speaker 1: I know some people want to poop poo that because
Speaker 1: they're not winning, but hey, guess what, guys, Lebron's got
Speaker 1: enough of a winning resume that you guys can't say
Speaker 1: anything about that. He's allowed to do whatever the heck
Speaker 1: he wants. The dude is as secure and solidified of
Speaker 1: a winner that we have in the league today. And
Speaker 1: I understand his ambitions on that front. He just has
Speaker 1: to weigh that against his health because if there, if
Speaker 1: there's one more opportunity for him to win a title
Speaker 1: as an NBA player, it's gonna be some season after this,
Speaker 1: not this season, and he has to factor that into
Speaker 1: his calculation about how much stress and how much wear
Speaker 1: and tear he wants to put on his body. Not
Speaker 1: to mention all of these, you know your a as
Speaker 1: an athlete, your body is like a chain. Everything is connected.
Speaker 1: If when you have an injury in one part of
Speaker 1: your body, you compensate for it elsewhere in your body.
Speaker 1: My guests would be in these games, Lebron is probably
Speaker 1: absorbing more contact on his right knee. He's probably when
Speaker 1: he lands on his left knee, he's probably landing a
Speaker 1: little bit more straight legged. He is running the risk
Speaker 1: of a more serious injury materializing from this as well,
Speaker 1: and so that's why I think he needs to have
Speaker 1: a serious look in the mirror conversation with himself and
Speaker 1: with his team about whether or not this is worth it.
Speaker 1: For those of you who are just joining us, this
Speaker 1: is Lakers Tonight, presented by Fandel here on the volume.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Russ for a second because
Speaker 1: I think it was an interesting game from him in
Speaker 1: a lot of different ways. You know, uh, Twitter always
Speaker 1: is gonna stick to low lights with him, and he
Speaker 1: and I get it because particularly a lot of his
Speaker 1: low lights this season have been centered around effort, and
Speaker 1: those are inexcusable. It's kind of like the highlights I
Speaker 1: was sharing of Lebron today when you are jogging back
Speaker 1: on defense in Maxine Khaliba just sprints right by you
Speaker 1: for a dunk. That's inexcusable. That's just an effort thing.
Speaker 1: And then when you look at the end of the
Speaker 1: game and it's this close and you're in crunch time,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna think about the time you didn't sprint back
Speaker 1: on defense. Those things are inexcusable. But there were a
Speaker 1: lot of highlights going around tonight of Russ getting blocked
Speaker 1: at the rim by also by Max and Cleeb. I
Speaker 1: think it happened to him at least four times tonight.
Speaker 1: And then obviously you look at the box score and
Speaker 1: you see he's five for seventeen and you think, okay,
Speaker 1: he had a rough night. But this is a great
Speaker 1: example some of the stuff I've him talking about with Russ.
Speaker 1: Everything outside of that, everything outside of his field goal percentage.
Speaker 1: He did his job tonight. He applied a great deal
Speaker 1: of rim pressure. He created a lot of really good
Speaker 1: shots for his teammates. He had eight assists with no turnovers,
Speaker 1: which is absolutely hilarious in the context of the fact
Speaker 1: that before garbage time the other night against the Pelicans,
Speaker 1: he had zero sists in seven turnovers. So I don't
Speaker 1: even know how you could possibly have that. That is
Speaker 1: about as far apart of a playmaking two performances that
Speaker 1: you could possibly conceive. But he did a lot of
Speaker 1: a good tonight. He generated a lot of rim pressure.
Speaker 1: He created shots for his teammates. You have to look
Speaker 1: beyond the five or seventeen because that five or seventeen
Speaker 1: is part of what was caving in the defense. And
Speaker 1: created those wide open looks for Stanley Johnson, and created
Speaker 1: those wide open looks for Carmelo Anthony and and for
Speaker 1: Malik Monk that went in on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the ball. There was a handful of possessions that I
Speaker 1: could get nit picky with him. There was one late
Speaker 1: when the Mavericks got to one oh five where Lebron
Speaker 1: is guarding Luca, and Luca threw up like kind of
Speaker 1: kind of a garbage e lob and and he just
Speaker 1: didn't even attempt to disrupt the lobby, just stood there
Speaker 1: um while the Mavericks lay it into I can nit
Speaker 1: pick a few things, but for the most part, Rust
Speaker 1: did his job tonight. That's all you can ask. Yes,
Speaker 1: we can trim down on his field goal attempts if
Speaker 1: the team's all the way healthy, but in a night
Speaker 1: like tonight, when it's just Lebron and Russ he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to shoot a lot, and most of his attempts
Speaker 1: were at the rim. There were a handful of shots
Speaker 1: we didn't like, but for the most part, Rust did
Speaker 1: his job. He just had one of those nights where
Speaker 1: the MAVs were all over him at the rim and
Speaker 1: he wasn't making anything that's going to happen. I think
Speaker 1: those are the two things that's that like little gap
Speaker 1: or lack of understanding that we have his fans. Sometimes
Speaker 1: as we box score watch rather than watching what's happening
Speaker 1: in the game. You look at the box score, looks
Speaker 1: like an utterly disastrous game from Russ, But if you
Speaker 1: actually watched the game, you could tell he was impacting
Speaker 1: winning in a lot of ways beyond what was showing
Speaker 1: up in the box score. But again, if Lebron is
Speaker 1: at the point where his knee can't handle this, I
Speaker 1: just don't see the point in in riding those guys
Speaker 1: too hard. And at a certain point you have to
Speaker 1: think about what the long term future is for both
Speaker 1: of these guys. And maybe for Russ that means playing,
Speaker 1: but I think for Lebron it means not playing. And
Speaker 1: then you look at the guy that they just signed
Speaker 1: I really like when you in Gabriel, who did a
Speaker 1: really nice job guarding Anthony Davis in the bubble in
Speaker 1: that first round playoff series with the Portland Trailblazers. He's
Speaker 1: an example of a guy that, hey, it would be
Speaker 1: great to give him a ton of NBA minutes for
Speaker 1: the rest of the season to try to try to
Speaker 1: get a feel for whether or not he could be
Speaker 1: someone the Lakers use next year. He's a guy who's
Speaker 1: out of the league, which means you could probably get
Speaker 1: him for a discount. It's one of those deals where
Speaker 1: if you if he shows some signs of life over
Speaker 1: the next ten fifteen games, maybe you can sign him
Speaker 1: to a team friendly deal that locks him up at
Speaker 1: a discount for next season, when once again the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna need to look for athleticism and talent on
Speaker 1: the margins in the veteran minimum market. That's an example
Speaker 1: of a direction that the Lakers can go. That's the
Speaker 1: that is a more useful use of these last fifth
Speaker 1: twenty games or so then breaking down Lebron's body, further
Speaker 1: hurting his knee and potentially more and continuing this cycle
Speaker 1: of poor effort and bad body language and all of
Speaker 1: the negative consequences that come from that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Really quickly before we move on from the Lakers had
Speaker 1: a couple of quick hitters that I wanted to hit,
Speaker 1: just little notes that I had in the game that
Speaker 1: it was really interesting that they went with the new
Speaker 1: starting lineup, a lot of the guys that I've been
Speaker 1: clamoring for all season long. They started mo League Monk,
Speaker 1: they started Austin Reeves, started Stanley Johnson alongside Rust and Lebron.
Speaker 1: Those are probably the next three best players on the roster.
Speaker 1: You could argue Carmelo Anthony, but those are guys that
Speaker 1: can play, and they should have been in the starting
Speaker 1: lineup a long time ago, and they weren't because of
Speaker 1: politics and Frank leading on veterans and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised that the starters performed really well tonight.
Speaker 1: They came out the gates well. It was one of
Speaker 1: the rare examples of it of a Laker team that
Speaker 1: came out with energy to start a game this season. Next,
Speaker 1: I wanted to hit on on on Luca's moves. This
Speaker 1: has always been one of my most one of the
Speaker 1: most fascinating things about Luca when Luca was coming out
Speaker 1: of Europe. There was a lot of skepticism about whether
Speaker 1: or not he'd be able to create his own shot
Speaker 1: in the NBA because of the huge increase in athleticism
Speaker 1: going from what he was dealing with in Europe to
Speaker 1: dealing with in the NBA. And he's had absolutely no problem.
Speaker 1: In fact, he's been more dominant in the NBA, and
Speaker 1: he's actually gone on the record and said it's easier
Speaker 1: to score in the NBA, which I think has a
Speaker 1: lot more to do with the fact that he's surrounded
Speaker 1: by more talented players and it's harder for teams to
Speaker 1: send more help at him. But still Luca is doing fine,
Speaker 1: and the reason why is because even though he's slow,
Speaker 1: does not have a quick first step, doesn't have quick
Speaker 1: counter steps, doesn't have great lift. What he does have, though, is,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, the best arsenal of moves. You know
Speaker 1: what he reminds me of. He reminds me of an
Speaker 1: NFL wide receiver who's a great route runner but isn't
Speaker 1: necessarily the best athlete. Luca sells every bit of every
Speaker 1: single move with every part of his body, and as
Speaker 1: a result of that, guys like Stanley. Stanley Johnson came
Speaker 1: out and guarded Luca from the jump tonight. A guy
Speaker 1: like Stanley Johnson's very aggressive, he likes to reach, he
Speaker 1: gets out of position. Luca always utilizes that sort of
Speaker 1: thing against the defender. He's very good at selling like
Speaker 1: he's going one way to get a guy like Stanley
Speaker 1: to lunge or to slide one direction before he goes
Speaker 1: the other way. That's always going to do a better
Speaker 1: job of generating separation then you just running up and
Speaker 1: going fast, because if you're running up and going fast,
Speaker 1: if the guy guesses right, he's in front of you.
Speaker 1: But if you can sell us change of direction or
Speaker 1: a change of pace that gets the defender to either
Speaker 1: gamble or get himself out of position, now you have
Speaker 1: a wide open driving lane. Luca has made a killing
Speaker 1: out of that in the n b A. It's my
Speaker 1: favorite part of his game. I've nonstopped been trying to
Speaker 1: figure out ways that I can learn that for myself
Speaker 1: as well, and all of you kids growing up trying
Speaker 1: to learn the game. He's the guy to watch because
Speaker 1: you can't control your athleticism. You can't control how tall
Speaker 1: you get, you can't control how fast you get, you
Speaker 1: absolutely can control the way that you set up and
Speaker 1: sell your moves, and Luca is literally turning himself into
Speaker 1: an m b A like Pantheon superstar with that type
Speaker 1: of detention to detail with the way that he attacks offensively.
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Speaker 1: A couple or more quick ones. Austin reeves, it's been
Speaker 1: a great season for you, man. I think you've been
Speaker 1: a great fine for the Lakers scouting department. You're absolutely
Speaker 1: gonna be in the rotation next year. You have a
Speaker 1: long NBA career ahead of you. Because of all the
Speaker 1: things you do well, you gotta learn how to shoot. Man.
Speaker 1: Austin Reave shot the ball really well. In college his
Speaker 1: first two years, and then his shooting fell off in
Speaker 1: the last two years. He's been getting fantastic looks for
Speaker 1: the Lakers this year, and he's just not making them,
Speaker 1: especially of late, and you're starting to see teams catch
Speaker 1: onto that. And it's also starting to affect the Lakers
Speaker 1: in their psyche a little bit. When they run solid
Speaker 1: offense and the ball ends up in Austin's hands wide
Speaker 1: open on the wing and he misses again, and he
Speaker 1: misses again. That needs to be his major attention to
Speaker 1: detail this summer. Austin has to take the time to
Speaker 1: become a more proficient three point shooter. Last note, I
Speaker 1: had a fan text me on Twitter and ask why
Speaker 1: don't the Lakers run more pick and roll with Russ
Speaker 1: and Lebron? When they do, it seems to work. Why
Speaker 1: is it that they go away from that so often?
Speaker 1: It's a similar question that you here asked about Lebron.
Speaker 1: Why doesn't Lebron run more pick and roll with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis when back when Anthony Davis was healthy? And I
Speaker 1: think it's a combination of two things. One, NBA teams
Speaker 1: have figured out that they can guard Russ by putting
Speaker 1: a bigger, more athletic forward, because Russ likes to try
Speaker 1: to bully his way to the bass it and he's
Speaker 1: very one dimensional. Now he's not scoring out of the
Speaker 1: midrange really much at all. So you saw that tonight
Speaker 1: Russ could not finish around Maxine Cleeba around the basket.
Speaker 1: You can guard a guy like Russ with Maxine cleban now.
Speaker 1: That certainly certainly was not the case when he was younger.
Speaker 1: So part of it is if Russ is being guarded
Speaker 1: by forward and Lebron's being guarded by forward, what do
Speaker 1: you think is gonna happen? If Russ and Lebron run
Speaker 1: a pick and roll, They're just gonna switch it. Now
Speaker 1: you're in the exact same situation you were before the action,
Speaker 1: and one of those guys has to beat somebody off
Speaker 1: the dribble. But it's a similar matchup, so they're not
Speaker 1: really gaining anything out of it. The second part of
Speaker 1: it has to do with fatigue. I think when you
Speaker 1: have to high level, high usage perimeter initiators and one
Speaker 1: guy is doing a bunch of stuff and then he
Speaker 1: throws the ball to the other guy, I think the
Speaker 1: last thing he wants to do in that situation is
Speaker 1: become a screener. He wants to rest, and so like
Speaker 1: a guy like Lebron in particular on the possessions where
Speaker 1: Russ has the ball, I think in Lebron's head, he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm better off spotting up because if I spot up,
Speaker 1: I'm saving my legs for the next time I need
Speaker 1: to do something. Whereas if he's on the ball doing
Speaker 1: stuff as a point guard, but then as soon as
Speaker 1: he gives the ball to Rust now he's the pick
Speaker 1: and roll uh screener. That just adds a lot to
Speaker 1: his workload. So I think a combination to that and
Speaker 1: the fact that teams are switching it so much has
Speaker 1: made it so that action is not one that the
Speaker 1: Lakers go to very often. So to put a ball
Speaker 1: on it like it's as frustrating a game this season
Speaker 1: because that same effort would have won against the Pelicans,
Speaker 1: and they for some reason didn't use it then and
Speaker 1: then used it tonight, and then in the second quarter
Speaker 1: they let go with a rope for a while fell
Speaker 1: down by twenty one points. These are these are winnable
Speaker 1: opportunities here that the Lakers are coughing up for a
Speaker 1: variety of reasons that are mainly associated with effort and focus,
Speaker 1: and any time that happens, it's frustrating. It's gonna rub
Speaker 1: you wrong as a fan because you have to get
Speaker 1: up and grind at work tomorrow. And how annoying is
Speaker 1: that when you're grinding and the guys you're watching on
Speaker 1: TV for an entertainment product are not grinding. That's frustrating.
Speaker 1: That gets that can that can grate on fans, And
Speaker 1: and I hope that they come to some sort of
Speaker 1: agreement on what their strategy is here for the rest
Speaker 1: of the season, whether or not they're gonna go for
Speaker 1: this or they're gonna pack it in and rest. Because
Speaker 1: if they're gonna pack it in and rest, then you
Speaker 1: can provide the fans with a product of young players
Speaker 1: who will be in the future alongside Lebron and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: They'll play hard every night, they'll play desperate, and you'll
Speaker 1: get a much better product out of that. All. Right,
Speaker 1: before we get out of here tonight, I wanted to
Speaker 1: hit on a couple of things from around the league.
Speaker 1: I wanna start with the Warriors. So the Warriors lost
Speaker 1: again tonight. They lost by fifteen on the road in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: who was a good team. As I've been telling you guys,
Speaker 1: they've lost six out of their last eight in that stretch,
Speaker 1: their nineteenth in offense in twenty one and defense. And
Speaker 1: I was driving to the gym today and I was
Speaker 1: literally thinking to myself, you know, in the same way
Speaker 1: that Laker fans in that whole season, we all felt
Speaker 1: really good about the team, right, we all knew like
Speaker 1: this is a real championship contender. And I was really
Speaker 1: interested as I was driving today, I'm like, I was thinking,
Speaker 1: I wonder how Warriors fans are thinking right now, because
Speaker 1: this team very much does not look like a championship contender.
Speaker 1: And I'm and I'm not even looking strictly at this
Speaker 1: stretch of basketball. There's a couple of very distinct markers
Speaker 1: that are that are concerning Draymond Green is not yet
Speaker 1: been cleared for for contact. One of the big reasons
Speaker 1: why I'm not super bullish on Brooklyn, even though I
Speaker 1: do like the Ben Simmons fit. One of the reasons
Speaker 1: why I'm not super bullish on them is those guys
Speaker 1: haven't even played yet, and there's just not a lot
Speaker 1: of time left. I think there's still a threat but
Speaker 1: as soon as you cut into your continuity and your
Speaker 1: opportunity to practice and build chemistry, that's gonna lower your chances.
Speaker 1: It's gonna lower your odds a little bit. And the
Speaker 1: Warriors are running into a little bit of that. You
Speaker 1: need you need Draymond at the absolute top of his game.
Speaker 1: You need Draymond to put together an all time playoff
Speaker 1: run in order for this team to win. I mean defensively,
Speaker 1: you need Draymond to be vintage two thousand sixteen, two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen Draymond defensively, and that's gonna put a lot
Speaker 1: of stress on his body. And he's hurt right now,
Speaker 1: and especially with back stuff, that gets really tricky. Like
Speaker 1: there's a chance that he comes back, but he's not
Speaker 1: nearly as mobile as he is. I watched the video
Speaker 1: of him working out the other day. I know he's
Speaker 1: in his ramp up period, so I'm not judging that
Speaker 1: as the final product, but he doesn't look super mobile yet,
Speaker 1: and it's hard to imagine that he's going to sometime
Speaker 1: in the next six weeks magically rediscover that. Then you
Speaker 1: look at Steph. Steph is clearly having limitations. He was
Speaker 1: five for sixteen from three again tonight. Like I told you, guys,
Speaker 1: uh into the show on Sunday night, he's shooting right
Speaker 1: around thirty four percent from three in his last in
Speaker 1: his previous eight games before tonight. So you've got Steph
Speaker 1: undergoing some sort of decline, You've got Draymond a little hurt,
Speaker 1: and this team does not have that big superstar wing
Speaker 1: that all of the best teams in the league have
Speaker 1: that can physically dominate on offense in a playoff series.
Speaker 1: So they have some big, glaring shortcomings. They're small, they're young.
Speaker 1: When you take Draymond out of the equation, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of issues there, and they're fastly. For me, I
Speaker 1: think they're a clear discernible tier below the Phoenixes and
Speaker 1: the Phillies in the in the Milwaukee's and teams like that.
Speaker 1: I think those teams are very clearly a level above
Speaker 1: the Warriors, meaning if they were healthy, I think they
Speaker 1: I think they beat him soundly. So it's strange because
Speaker 1: with how well the Warriors started the season, you would
Speaker 1: have thought of them as a bona fide championship contender.
Speaker 1: But I think they're fastly falling out of that group.
Speaker 1: And the only way that I would consider them back
Speaker 1: in that group is if Steph regains his form and
Speaker 1: proves to us that this was just a slump and
Speaker 1: not a decline, and if Draymond can recover what he
Speaker 1: was physically and be able to put together a defensive
Speaker 1: playoff run like he did in the golden years of
Speaker 1: the Warriors. Next, I wanted to hit on the Clippers.
Speaker 1: So they've won six out of seven. They have the
Speaker 1: best defense in the league in this stretch over the
Speaker 1: last seven games, and their seventh and defense for the season.
Speaker 1: What fascinates me so much about this team because one
Speaker 1: of my producers asked me earlier, they go, why are
Speaker 1: the Clippers better than the Lakers? And I think it's
Speaker 1: one of the most fascinating topics that's going on in
Speaker 1: the NBA right now. They are the definition of a
Speaker 1: team that is manufacturing wins with the talent disadvantage. How
Speaker 1: do you manufacture wins with a talent disadvantage the same
Speaker 1: way Bill Belichick does it with the Patriots without Tom Brady.
Speaker 1: It's about scheming. It's about being ahead of your opponent
Speaker 1: on the tactical side of things. That's the only way
Speaker 1: you can make up that gap. Now that I want
Speaker 1: to be clear, the Clippers do have some talent, Okay,
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson is having a fantastic season. Again, He's one
Speaker 1: of the best five outguards that you could have because
Speaker 1: of his ability to beat people off the dribble and
Speaker 1: to shoot off the dribble. You have all these other
Speaker 1: guys that could do so much on the wing, like
Speaker 1: a Marcus Morris. Nicholas Patuma is kind of blossomed into
Speaker 1: a pretty reliable and valuable defensive player. I like their
Speaker 1: center's hearten side and Zoobach. They have talent. I'm not
Speaker 1: undercutting that by any stretch, but relative to other teams
Speaker 1: that are at their level in the league, they don't
Speaker 1: have as much talent. Why do they win? They win
Speaker 1: because tactically they are as advanced as any team in
Speaker 1: the NBA. That's a credit to Tylo, That's a credit
Speaker 1: to their general management. The way that team is put
Speaker 1: together is built for modern basketball. They're getting a ton
Speaker 1: of stops without Kawai and Paul George. Like I said,
Speaker 1: number one in defense in their last seven games without
Speaker 1: Kawai and Paul George. Why switching everything? Being very good
Speaker 1: at switching everything, stagnating the opponent, getting them to attack
Speaker 1: you in isolation, where you're just better at that because
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson is so fast, because you have all these
Speaker 1: wings that can attack matchups, they are manufacturing wins on
Speaker 1: the tactical side of things, whereas the Lakers have been
Speaker 1: like the exact opposite of that this year. They've been
Speaker 1: tactically holding themselves back. They've been actively and not intentionally,
Speaker 1: but they've been actively playing to their weaknesses rather than
Speaker 1: playing to their strengths. That's why the Clippers have better
Speaker 1: been better than the Lakers this year, and it's arguably
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that the Lakers have to address this offseason. Lastly,
Speaker 1: really quick before we get out of here. Tonight, the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics, they were on this is just the nature
Speaker 1: of the way this business works. I come on this
Speaker 1: show and I tell you guys that I think the
Speaker 1: Celtics are a bona fide championship contender. And then they
Speaker 1: promptly cough a game, a cough up a game at
Speaker 1: home to the Detroit Pistons, and then a couple of
Speaker 1: nights later they get blown out on the road by
Speaker 1: the Indiana Pacers. But what this was was a classic
Speaker 1: case of mid season malaise, especially in a weak part
Speaker 1: of your schedule. Indian Detroit are not good teams that
Speaker 1: mid season malaise leading to a defensive slit in the
Speaker 1: four games before tonight. The Celtics had a defensive rating
Speaker 1: of one thirteen point one before that in their stretch,
Speaker 1: uh in the stretch that I was talking about in
Speaker 1: the in the show where I highlighted them as a
Speaker 1: championship contender, their defensive rating was below one hundred, So
Speaker 1: that's a huge gap. And then tonight in the first
Speaker 1: half it looked like a continuation of the same thing
Speaker 1: at and I was getting whatever they wanted, a hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty five defensive rating in the first half tonight
Speaker 1: for Boston. But it finally clicked. And that's what happens
Speaker 1: for these really good teams when they're in one of
Speaker 1: these down stretches. Eventually their competitive nature kicks in and
Speaker 1: eventually they rise back to the level that they were
Speaker 1: at before that slump. They had a seventies six point
Speaker 1: seven defensive rating in the second half utterly strangled the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Hawks, and when you watched it, you could see
Speaker 1: the effects of their switching defense constantly getting the ball
Speaker 1: into situations where the pick and roll actions weren't working.
Speaker 1: And now all of a sudden, it's like, can Kevin
Speaker 1: Werder create a shot against Jalen Brown? You know, can
Speaker 1: Trey Young shooting another step back jump shot? You know,
Speaker 1: like here comes DeAndrea. They just they were forcing them
Speaker 1: to play isolation basketball and that team just doesn't have
Speaker 1: a lot of guys who are graded isolation basketball. And
Speaker 1: the Hawks couldn't score, and next thing you know, the
Speaker 1: Celtics e race that big deficit and came back to
Speaker 1: win the game. I still am a firm believer that
Speaker 1: that team can win a Chain Mpionship. They're definitely in
Speaker 1: that second tier. They're more like a Warriors, in my
Speaker 1: opinion than they are like a Bucks or a Sixers
Speaker 1: or a Sons. But they absolutely are still a threat
Speaker 1: in order to do that. And I'm happy to see
Speaker 1: that they were able to get back to that level
Speaker 1: because because it was a little unfortunate that they hit
Speaker 1: that stretch right after I started advocating for them. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. I appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys support. As always, We will be back on Thursday
Speaker 1: for our usual postgame show, U