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Speaker 1: welcome to Lakers Tonight, presented by Fan Duel here on
Speaker 1: the volume. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope you all had
Speaker 1: a great week. I hope you have big plans for
Speaker 1: the weekend. That was a hugely important Laker win for
Speaker 1: so many different reasons, not the least of which is
Speaker 1: the fact that because the Pelicans lost tonight, they now
Speaker 1: have a two and a half game lead on the
Speaker 1: ten seat, which is immensely important for what they're trying
Speaker 1: to accomplish. I guess if they intend to to try
Speaker 1: to get out of the playing tournament, having that game
Speaker 1: at home is obviously a very big deal. This was
Speaker 1: a thirteen point win. You'd have to go all the
Speaker 1: way back to January seven against the Atlanta Hawks for
Speaker 1: the last time the Lakers won a game this convincingly.
Speaker 1: That's how rare this kind of thing has been. We're
Speaker 1: gonna break it all down tonight. I want to spend
Speaker 1: a good amount of time on Lebron and and just
Speaker 1: because he deserves it for what he's putting forth here
Speaker 1: in the last couple of weeks. We're also gonna talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about Russ and his struggles and a
Speaker 1: little bit of a you know, seeing it juxtaposed against
Speaker 1: what he was sent away for is obviously frustrating in
Speaker 1: a lot of different ways. We're gonna talk about Taylor
Speaker 1: Horton Tucker, who flashed some crazy All Star place tonight.
Speaker 1: We'll talk, we'll dig into him a little bit, and
Speaker 1: then if you guys stick around for the end. I
Speaker 1: want to share my thoughts after rewatching Brooklyn Philly in
Speaker 1: some of the nitty gritty details about that matchup and
Speaker 1: what it might look like in a playoff series. But
Speaker 1: I have to start with Lebron. So he finishes with
Speaker 1: fifty points, seven rebounds and six six assists a team
Speaker 1: for twenty five from the field. He is now currently
Speaker 1: leading the NBA in scoring, which is ridiculous. I talked
Speaker 1: about this the other day. There are four players in
Speaker 1: the NBA right now averaging at least twenty nine points
Speaker 1: on at least true shooting, which is insane. That's just
Speaker 1: the We're in a golden age of NBA talent. You
Speaker 1: could argue there are six or seven guys that are
Speaker 1: top tier superstars right now. With the rise of Nicola Yokich,
Speaker 1: and with the rise of Joel Embiide, and with the
Speaker 1: rise of Luca don Chech. That's how deep the top
Speaker 1: of the league is. And we are having some all
Speaker 1: time great seasons that are being put forward by Janie Santana, Coopo,
Speaker 1: by Joel Embiat, young superstars in their absolute primes. Then
Speaker 1: we have Kevin Durant, who's also on that list of guys,
Speaker 1: who's averaging at least twenty nine and at least six
Speaker 1: true shooting. He is not quite as old as Lebron.
Speaker 1: He is a little older, but he's very much in
Speaker 1: his prime. He's putting forth an all time great offensive season,
Speaker 1: and Lebron is right there with them. It's you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron went on his show. I think it was the shot,
Speaker 1: but I can't even remember where I saw this clip,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, but it was recent and
Speaker 1: he was lamenting his reputation as a score and the
Speaker 1: fact that he never gets credit for that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And I understand the sentiment behind where those people come from,
Speaker 1: the people that feel like Lebron is not a great score,
Speaker 1: because what Lebron does lack is just that really really
Speaker 1: fine tuned polish. Obviously, if you watch a guy like
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving dribbled the basketball, and you watch a guy
Speaker 1: like Kyrie Irving and his footwork and his shooting ability,
Speaker 1: it looks a little sharper. I wouldn't even say a little.
Speaker 1: It looks a lot sharper than what you see from Lebron.
Speaker 1: But too often that simple detail, that one esthetic detail,
Speaker 1: is used to undercut everything else about what makes Lebron score.
Speaker 1: Because even though he's not the most polished guy in
Speaker 1: the league, he absolutely is skilled, as you've seen, especially
Speaker 1: there down the stretch, that crazy fade away he made
Speaker 1: over Kyle Kuzma over his right shoulder. That's an extremely
Speaker 1: difficult shot. That running, one legged, fading, floating double pump
Speaker 1: shot that he banked in off the glass in the
Speaker 1: third quarter in his run. That is an incredibly difficult
Speaker 1: shot that takes a great deal of touch. Obviously, what
Speaker 1: he does behind the three point line takes a great
Speaker 1: deal of skill, So there is skill there, even if
Speaker 1: it's not the prettiest and most polished skill in the league.
Speaker 1: And then obviously there's the physical element. The dude is
Speaker 1: like shock as a forward. He has this unbelievable physical
Speaker 1: set of physical tools that he can use to impose
Speaker 1: his will on the game. But the most important part
Speaker 1: of it that people glance over is the way that
Speaker 1: Lebron uses his brain to score the basketball. And he
Speaker 1: does so in two ways. One is with passing his
Speaker 1: willingness as a passer. Throughout his career, his his relentless
Speaker 1: pursuit of making the right read on every single play
Speaker 1: has made it so that teams are reluctant to send
Speaker 1: help at him a lot of the time. Not all
Speaker 1: the time, but a lot of the time, especially when
Speaker 1: his teammates have it going the way they did tonight,
Speaker 1: and in those situations because he has passed himself into
Speaker 1: single coverage, he is facing less individual defensive attention that
Speaker 1: helps him score. Another huge part of it is understanding angles.
Speaker 1: How many guys have you guys seen in your lifetime
Speaker 1: at any level of basketball, including the NBA. The example
Speaker 1: I think of all the time, it's like Ben McLemore.
Speaker 1: If you watched Ben McLamore do a workout, you would
Speaker 1: think he's the most skilled player you know. You think
Speaker 1: he's a top level skill, top top tier skilled level
Speaker 1: shooting guard in the league. The problem is is that
Speaker 1: he just never understood the angles and how to utilize
Speaker 1: that skill to create shots. That's kind of what Lebron
Speaker 1: has absolutely down to a science. If he gets just
Speaker 1: that little bit of an inch of a step on you,
Speaker 1: he knows when he can press the issue when he
Speaker 1: cannot press the issue. He understands the idea of leverage
Speaker 1: and getting even bigger, stronger defenders out of position so
Speaker 1: that he can get to where he needs to go.
Speaker 1: There are so many elements to what makes Lebron such
Speaker 1: a great score, and so many people gloss over those
Speaker 1: elements to try to undercut it as stat padding or
Speaker 1: he's just bullyball, He's just bullying people. And what they
Speaker 1: don't understand is he does have a great deal of skill.
Speaker 1: He does use his passing ability to get open. He
Speaker 1: does have a scores mentality. He has that understanding of
Speaker 1: the intricacies of how to locate and identify opportunities in
Speaker 1: a defense to get to your own shot. And I
Speaker 1: hope that at some point, either soon or maybe it's
Speaker 1: after he retires, I don't know, but I hope that
Speaker 1: at some point Lebron gets the respect that he deserves,
Speaker 1: which is that he absolutely no question belongs on the
Speaker 1: Mount Rushmore of NBA scores of all time. You have
Speaker 1: to put him on that list and it will be signed, sealed,
Speaker 1: and certified as soon as he passes Kareem at some
Speaker 1: point in the next season. I was really happy for
Speaker 1: him that he had that kind of night, you know,
Speaker 1: and and I'm hopeful that over time he will convert
Speaker 1: people into understanding what he brings to the table. For
Speaker 1: those of you who are just joining us, this is
Speaker 1: Lakers Tonight, presented by FanDuel Here. On the volume, we
Speaker 1: were just talking about Lebron scoring. I wanted to take
Speaker 1: a second to talk about his engagement level because I
Speaker 1: thought it was immensely important at the beginning of the game.
Speaker 1: I've been incredibly critical of Lebron over since the All
Speaker 1: Star break for his lack of intensity on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor and the way that that percolates
Speaker 1: down the rest of the roster and has caused some
Speaker 1: of the defensive issues that we've seen from the Lakers.
Speaker 1: It's caused some of the un serious demeanor that we've
Speaker 1: seen from the Lakers. Those things are all related. That's
Speaker 1: part of following your leader. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that's frustrating to me about that is I understand the
Speaker 1: idea that Lebron is in his nineteen season. I understand
Speaker 1: the idea that it insane to ask him to be
Speaker 1: one of the best players in the league after all
Speaker 1: of the mileage that he has on his body. I
Speaker 1: get that. But even under those qualifiers, what he was
Speaker 1: giving wasn't enough, and it was directly impact in the team.
Speaker 1: I understand the sentimentalit, like I understand why, like tonight,
Speaker 1: he tried in the first half and they were down
Speaker 1: seven after after two quarters. That's got to be frustrated
Speaker 1: when you're one of the best basketball players on the
Speaker 1: planet and you push your foot down on the gas
Speaker 1: and it's not enough against the Washington Wizards on your
Speaker 1: home floor. That's frustrating. So I acknowledge and understand why
Speaker 1: it's difficult. I know why he struggles with that. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying it's not enough anyway, because had they lost
Speaker 1: tonight for whatever reason, some shots don't go down, he
Speaker 1: gets thirty five instead of fifty. You know, to Allen
Speaker 1: doesn't get to hit some of the shots he hits.
Speaker 1: You know, Malik doesn't hit some of the shots he
Speaker 1: hits in the fourth quarter. There's a version of that
Speaker 1: story where they lose, but at least then you go
Speaker 1: back to the locker room with the dignity and the
Speaker 1: respect of the fans because you try and again, no
Speaker 1: one's asking you to leave your absolute heart and soul
Speaker 1: out there. That's unfair at this point in your career.
Speaker 1: But what he was giving wasn't enough. And like we
Speaker 1: talked about it earlier, with where they are situated in
Speaker 1: the standings right now, they're actually still is a little
Speaker 1: bit of a chance. Look at Brooklyn. Brooklyn last night
Speaker 1: going into the game was below five hundred. But all
Speaker 1: it takes is get your talent back on the floor.
Speaker 1: And play good basketball and play into your strengths. Now
Speaker 1: I don't think they have enough, but hell, you're gonna
Speaker 1: put the mileage on your body anyways, chasing Kareem, go
Speaker 1: for it? Why not try? Did you know that next
Speaker 1: Wednesday will be one month to the day since Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis sprained his foot. We're pretty close, probably about two
Speaker 1: weeks away from getting Anthony Davis back. You could probably
Speaker 1: get seven or eight regular season games in with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis in preparation for a playoff from why not go
Speaker 1: for it especially? And this is the most important part,
Speaker 1: it seems to me. Although I'm a little worried after
Speaker 1: he had to take some time off after Golden State,
Speaker 1: he's starting to look a little bit more athletic as
Speaker 1: time is passing by. I don't know if that's related
Speaker 1: to his conditioning and just getting back into shape. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's some healing going on with this knee.
Speaker 1: I don't know. A big part of it will be like,
Speaker 1: if we get the report from Shams tomorrow or from
Speaker 1: from David McManaman that Lebron doesn't plan on playing on Sunday,
Speaker 1: then forget all of this. But if he really is
Speaker 1: starting to trend in the right direction physically, and if
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is right around the corner, why not. If
Speaker 1: you lose, you lose, you go home, you rest up,
Speaker 1: you try again next year. But why not go for it?
Speaker 1: And I hope they do. The bottom line is what
Speaker 1: you saw from Lebron defensively tonight, which was nothing crazy.
Speaker 1: He wasn't out there like Draymond. He just put a
Speaker 1: respectable effort on that side of the floor. And that
Speaker 1: is enough for this team to look competent. And that's
Speaker 1: all I ask for from Lebron. It's literally it. I
Speaker 1: don't even care if he takes a few possessions off
Speaker 1: here and there, that's not the issue. It's that unbelievable,
Speaker 1: you know, embarrassing, let letting go of the rope that
Speaker 1: was taking place right after the alcar break. That's what
Speaker 1: can't happen, regardless of how many miles you have in,
Speaker 1: regardless of how great your resume is. But a big
Speaker 1: night for Lebron and I'm glad we were able to
Speaker 1: get to see that, and we gotta enjoy this for
Speaker 1: as long as we can. I wanted to move on
Speaker 1: to Russ because he obviously had a really rough game.
Speaker 1: He's had a handful of decent games as of late.
Speaker 1: I I I almost cracked myself up sometimes with the
Speaker 1: bar that I evaluate Russ with, I pretty much say
Speaker 1: he played okay if he didn't actively sabotage the team.
Speaker 1: One of the most frustrating parts of this season has
Speaker 1: been not even just Russ fans, but the pockets of
Speaker 1: fans that have tried to convince us that he's been
Speaker 1: good when he very much has not. The good games
Speaker 1: have been the outliers, the games where he has, like,
Speaker 1: you know, a thirty point triple double like you did
Speaker 1: against the Rocket, those are the outlier performances. More often
Speaker 1: than not, that hasn't been the case, and that's typical
Speaker 1: for an aging star. That's what happens. You tend to
Speaker 1: have a handful of moments where you can kind of
Speaker 1: look like your old self, but for the most part
Speaker 1: you can. And even in that Houston Rockets game, which
Speaker 1: was one of his better games, as you saw in
Speaker 1: the video I tweeted out earlier, he was bad and
Speaker 1: crunch Time took two really bad jump shots, smoked three
Speaker 1: layups right at the ram, two of which were remarkably
Speaker 1: easy layups. You know that's that's just kind of the
Speaker 1: reality of where we're at with the Russell Westbrook experience
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Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. And what's so funny to
Speaker 1: me too? As I really look back at this, which
Speaker 1: is normal to do when you're playing against the team
Speaker 1: that you traded these guys too, that you traded these
Speaker 1: guys four, you know there there is a case to
Speaker 1: be made that the two worst trades in NBA history
Speaker 1: involved Russ at Westbrook. And it's wild because a normal
Speaker 1: terrible NBA trade is like what you saw with the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets in the early two
Speaker 1: thousand tents. It's we want to win now, so we
Speaker 1: cash in a ton of assets for some older established players.
Speaker 1: They come in were relevant for a little while. That
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets team was you know, they were winning at home,
Speaker 1: trailing two games to one. You know, they had a
Speaker 1: chance to tie that series before Lebron dropped forty nine
Speaker 1: on him and knocked them out. That was a good
Speaker 1: basketball team. They cashed in for that moment, and then
Speaker 1: they fell apart, and then it became one of the
Speaker 1: worst trades ever because they lost all those assets. That's
Speaker 1: usually what a bad NBA trade looks like. Or it'll
Speaker 1: be like James Harden, you know, like the Harden trade.
Speaker 1: We thought, yeah, maybe James Harden might become a superstar,
Speaker 1: but he just played horrible on the Finals, like we
Speaker 1: didn't know what he was gonna be like. Usually, that's
Speaker 1: what a bad NBA trade looks like. What is so
Speaker 1: unusual about these trades. Let's go back to Chris Paul.
Speaker 1: The Houston Rockets are so unbelievably good that they had
Speaker 1: the one of the in my opinion, the most talented
Speaker 1: roster of all time, that two thousand seventeen, two thousand
Speaker 1: eighteen Warriors roster. They had them on the ropes. That's
Speaker 1: how good that Houston Rockets team was. But because James
Speaker 1: Harden had a personal beef with Chris Paul, they shipped
Speaker 1: Chris Paul and two first round picks and two pick
Speaker 1: swamps for Russell Westbrook. So not only was Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: the not the best player in the trade, but there
Speaker 1: were assets attached to it. And here we are again.
Speaker 1: Since December, Kyle Kuzma is averaging twenty one point eight points,
Speaker 1: nine point four rebounds, and four assists on percent true shooting.
Speaker 1: In the same span, Russell Westbrook is averaging sixteen point
Speaker 1: eight points, seven point four rebounds in six point one
Speaker 1: assists on forty eight point one percent true shooting. He's
Speaker 1: below when we wait everything with his three point shots
Speaker 1: in his free throws. That's how ridiculously bad he's been
Speaker 1: in this stretch. And Kyle Kuzma is a much better
Speaker 1: defensive player. There are thirty one NBA players this year
Speaker 1: that have attempted at least five shots in the restricted
Speaker 1: area per game. Russ would be dead last in that group.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't for Damian Lillard trying to play through
Speaker 1: an abdominal injury for a part of the season this year,
Speaker 1: Dame was dead last Russ Smith is three point two
Speaker 1: shots in the restricted area per game. That's how bad
Speaker 1: he's been this year. Kyle Kuzma very clearly was the
Speaker 1: best player the trade, and he was attached to a
Speaker 1: really good role player in Contavious Caldwell Pope, another really
Speaker 1: good role player in Montrez Harrold, and a first round
Speaker 1: draft pick, and the Lakers took back more salary. Now,
Speaker 1: to be clear, it's Genie Buss's fault that they didn't
Speaker 1: pay Alex Crusoe, but we also know, because Alex admitted it,
Speaker 1: they offered him six millions. So if they didn't take
Speaker 1: more money back in the Russell Westbrook trade, there simply
Speaker 1: would be more money available to try to counter the
Speaker 1: bulls and try to make a deal with Alex Crusoe. So,
Speaker 1: as far as I'm concerned, maybe it's a partial casualty,
Speaker 1: but it's absolutely, at the very least a partial casualty
Speaker 1: that Alex Caruso was part of this trade. And it's
Speaker 1: just wild to me that twice in the last the
Speaker 1: last handful of years teams have made this mistake. And
Speaker 1: it goes to show you that the reputation that Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook passed around the league vastly, vastly super recedes what
Speaker 1: his on court product is, you know, and and it's
Speaker 1: and it's just frustrating for the fans to watch because
Speaker 1: it's like in that game tonight, everything for the Lakers
Speaker 1: was humming on all cylinders except for Russ. It was
Speaker 1: actively hurting the team in so many different ways. Those
Speaker 1: were gut punches, those mislayups he had in transition, him
Speaker 1: getting into the lane and picking up his dribble, which
Speaker 1: is the turnover damn near every single time, it's one
Speaker 1: of the you know, it's wild, and you know, I
Speaker 1: think it's over this, this sequence of Russ getting traded
Speaker 1: for more than what his value is worth. My guess
Speaker 1: is that the Lakers will finally have to attach assets
Speaker 1: to him this summer. But man, what a wild ride
Speaker 1: this Russell Westbrook experience has been as a basketball fan,
Speaker 1: I can't remember anything like it. I I can't ever
Speaker 1: remember watching a player as infuriating as Russ. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because I've been accused by many people, mostly Russ
Speaker 1: stand of using Russ for engagement baiting or you know,
Speaker 1: making it about something that it's not and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just make this as perfectly clear as I possibly can.
Speaker 1: I generally forget that one of the time I tell
Speaker 1: you guys exactly what I think, I am authentic with you,
Speaker 1: But I would argue the most authentic opinion I have
Speaker 1: is the way I feel about Russ. He offends my
Speaker 1: basketball character as a basketball as a person who grew
Speaker 1: up around the game of basketball, and right now, I
Speaker 1: trained kids, I coach kids. I I live and breathe
Speaker 1: the game of basketball, and the way he plays the
Speaker 1: game is offensive to me. It's real. I'm not making
Speaker 1: it up. I have to be honest in the sense
Speaker 1: that it affects me. It's a bias, for sure, but
Speaker 1: I've also gone to great lengths this year to try
Speaker 1: to circumvent that bias. You guys have heard me on
Speaker 1: this show. Like I said, I hold him to a
Speaker 1: ridiculously low bar. When he doesn't actively shave point, it's
Speaker 1: I credit him after the game. I try hard to
Speaker 1: be positive about Rus. It's just really really difficult for me.
Speaker 1: One last Lakers note before we move on, h Taylor Horton.
Speaker 1: Tucker continues to show ridiculous All Star flash. He had
Speaker 1: to move on Corey Kissberg on the right wing right
Speaker 1: in front of the Lakers bench, where he just did
Speaker 1: a standard ripped through and then a pullback dribble and
Speaker 1: Kissberg went out of bounds and he made the shot.
Speaker 1: And then they're that one in the in the late
Speaker 1: fourth quarter where he did that like to dribble spin move,
Speaker 1: which is one It's like it's almost like a full
Speaker 1: court post uff. It's what Lebron uses all the time.
Speaker 1: But he like initiates contact with that first dribble, spins
Speaker 1: and hits you with his left shoulder, and then takes
Speaker 1: his second dribble into the lane and then I think
Speaker 1: he might have pumped baked or it might have been
Speaker 1: I can't remember what it was, but he had an
Speaker 1: acrobatic finish in the lane. He in retrospect, if there's
Speaker 1: there are a couple of silver linings to try to
Speaker 1: gather from this season, this disaster of a season. One
Speaker 1: of them is Austin Reeves and finding him the way
Speaker 1: that the Lakers did. Another one Stanley Johnson and getting
Speaker 1: him on a team control veteran minimum contract for next year.
Speaker 1: I actually really like when you and Gabriel, he showed
Speaker 1: a lot of really interesting flashes. Tonight, he made a
Speaker 1: corner three. His ability to run up and down the
Speaker 1: floor and hang with the pace of the game is amazing,
Speaker 1: but a huge net positive here. I would have traded
Speaker 1: Taylor because I didn't think Anthony Davis was gonna sprain
Speaker 1: his foot, and I thought the Lakers needed more talent
Speaker 1: in order to go after what they were going after.
Speaker 1: But now in retrospect, now that we know Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: was hurt, now that we know this team can't go anywhere,
Speaker 1: I'm glad we get one more year to look at Taylor.
Speaker 1: And maybe we tried him at the next trade deadline,
Speaker 1: because that's just what the sixth situation dictates. Maybe he
Speaker 1: gets moved this summer, I don't know, but at the
Speaker 1: very least we get to look at him a little
Speaker 1: while longer. Because this kid just continues to make me
Speaker 1: a believer. He's a little bit tunnel vision. He goes
Speaker 1: through like a couple of weeks spans where he's looking
Speaker 1: for his teammates and the flow is good, and he
Speaker 1: it's when he has the ball in his hands as
Speaker 1: a primary initiator, he's actually a pretty good pass or
Speaker 1: he's looking first teammates when he's playing off ball as
Speaker 1: a scoring guard, then he starts to get tunnel vision.
Speaker 1: And there were several plays today where you could tell
Speaker 1: even Lebron was getting discouraged just by some of the
Speaker 1: shots Tailand was taking as he was kind of getting
Speaker 1: out of the flow. But I am still a big
Speaker 1: believer in Tailand, and I'm glad we get to evaluate
Speaker 1: him for a little bit longer before we decide whether
Speaker 1: or not we're gonna move on from him or not.
Speaker 1: Al Right, before we get out of here tonight, I
Speaker 1: wanted to take a couple of minutes to take a
Speaker 1: look at, uh, some of the things that I learned
Speaker 1: when I dove into the tape from that amazing basketball
Speaker 1: game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia seventy Sixers
Speaker 1: last night, which, by the way, the the NBA regular
Speaker 1: season completely lacks urgency. It's the biggest flaw. When you
Speaker 1: put on that game last night and you're watching Sixers Nets,
Speaker 1: there's a feeling to that game and like a tenasy tent, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, an intensity that is lacking in like of
Speaker 1: NBA regular season games. And I'm not sure that it
Speaker 1: can ever be fixed because of the length of the
Speaker 1: regular season. It's one of the reasons why I'm actually
Speaker 1: open to some of the ideas the league has about
Speaker 1: potentially shortening the regular season, adding a mid season tournament,
Speaker 1: anything that you might be able to do to make
Speaker 1: individual regular season basketball games more meaningful. I think another
Speaker 1: big part of that is spacing games out a little
Speaker 1: bit because load management is a concern. Uh James Harden
Speaker 1: missed a huge matchup with the Miami Heat earlier in
Speaker 1: the week, which was directly related to hamstring management. If
Speaker 1: you had teams playing twice a week or three times
Speaker 1: a week at the max instead of these, you know,
Speaker 1: seven games every fourteen days kind of deal, I think
Speaker 1: you might have more stars appearing in the games, which
Speaker 1: would give you a better television product. That's a whole
Speaker 1: other thing, but I just I took a minute last
Speaker 1: night to appreciate what was a rare example of a
Speaker 1: very intense and very important regular season basketball game. If
Speaker 1: you go on my Twitter feed and you scroll down,
Speaker 1: I took the entire first quarter and I cut it
Speaker 1: up and gave some notes on what I noticed in
Speaker 1: the game. I encourage you to go to look at
Speaker 1: that if you're interested in getting into the weeds a
Speaker 1: little bit, but I wanted to share just a couple
Speaker 1: of quick notes from that game. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: in retrospect, looking back at that game, watching it in detail,
Speaker 1: James Harden kind of has two personas. He has his
Speaker 1: engaged persona in his disengaged persona. His engaged persona is
Speaker 1: extremely difficult to deal I think about like in two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen when he had that game winner on the
Speaker 1: road in Golden State. He's animated, he's talking shit, he's
Speaker 1: actively looking for a shot all over the place. He's
Speaker 1: getting into the paint. He's super, super aggressive. There is
Speaker 1: a tenacity to him. But the disengaged James Harden, he
Speaker 1: it's like it's like he's floating through the game. It's
Speaker 1: like he's actively hoping that somebody else will do the
Speaker 1: job for him. He'll make a simple read out of
Speaker 1: the top of the key, and he's not even really
Speaker 1: putting any pressure on the defense. I thought it was really,
Speaker 1: really really bad on the defensive end last night, especially
Speaker 1: in that first quarter one. Things are falling apart. The
Speaker 1: same James Harden, who actually defended pretty well in his
Speaker 1: first few games with the Sixers. So it's like again,
Speaker 1: his entire his entire persona. It seems to be directly
Speaker 1: tied to these kinds of moments, whether it's post he's
Speaker 1: in pressure, or a game like last night, or he's
Speaker 1: going up against his former team and they're looking at
Speaker 1: him in the eyes like screw you, man, We're gonna
Speaker 1: show you how stupid you were for not wanting to
Speaker 1: be a part of what we're building here. And that
Speaker 1: kind of seemed, that vibe seemed to shut James Harden down.
Speaker 1: You know, there's it's like the difference between going down
Speaker 1: fighting and going down floating. James Harden is gonna go
Speaker 1: down floating when things get tough, and we have so much,
Speaker 1: so many examples of that that I don't think it's
Speaker 1: up for debate anymore, to be honest, the next thing
Speaker 1: I wanted to hit on him was the foul drifting
Speaker 1: from em beating heartened obviously look bad for all of
Speaker 1: us watching it live, but on rewatch it was even
Speaker 1: worse than you guys think. There were probably a half
Speaker 1: dozen possessions in that first quarter where either in beat
Speaker 1: or Harden had an opportunity to make a normal basketball
Speaker 1: play that had a good chance of working and they
Speaker 1: bailed on the normal basketball play to do something. Jane,
Speaker 1: there's a play Joel empiads isolating Nick Clackson on the
Speaker 1: right elbow. He's got a live dribble or he's gotta
Speaker 1: he's in a triple threat and Clason's play off of it,
Speaker 1: and and Beat could just go up into his jump shot,
Speaker 1: but instead of doing that, he did weird little pump
Speaker 1: fakes and like fake rip throughs, like four times trying
Speaker 1: to elbow Nick Claxton in the face so that he
Speaker 1: can draw foul, and he ended up turning the ball over.
Speaker 1: I'm like, as I'm watching the tape, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: my laptop, like, play basketball. Just play basketball. You're literally
Speaker 1: one of the best basketball players in the world. If
Speaker 1: you play basketball, people can't deal with you. It's when
Speaker 1: you do this Jankee stuff. Yeah, it has there are
Speaker 1: days where it works. Hell are you shot thirteen three
Speaker 1: throws in the first quarter, But we all know that
Speaker 1: doesn't work in the postseason. Lean into what you're good at,
Speaker 1: which is basketball. There's another player, James Harden, did the
Speaker 1: same thing several times twice right at the end of
Speaker 1: the game. Right at the end of the first quarter
Speaker 1: where he had reads. James Harden is a great passer,
Speaker 1: one of the best passers in the league. I know
Speaker 1: he saw the open man, but instead he was diving
Speaker 1: into bodies, trying to draw contact, trying to get a
Speaker 1: foul because again he's floating through the game. And mark
Speaker 1: my words, if Embeat and James Harden go down foul
Speaker 1: drift ng, they'll go down. But if they go down
Speaker 1: playing basketball, they have a chance to win. I am
Speaker 1: still a believer in that core. The other thing I
Speaker 1: thought was interesting was the way the role players approached
Speaker 1: the game. And this was typical when you bring in
Speaker 1: a guy like James Harden, who is a high usage
Speaker 1: perimeter initiator, and you have guys like Tyres Maxie and
Speaker 1: who Tobias Harris, who were very very important parts of
Speaker 1: their offense before the trade. They now have to find
Speaker 1: out how they fit and I thought too often because
Speaker 1: they were relegated to off ball rolls when Harden and
Speaker 1: Beat had the ball. When they did get the ball,
Speaker 1: they really tried to force the action and both Tyres
Speaker 1: Maxie and and and Tobias Harris took a lot of
Speaker 1: bad shots over the course of that game. Several of
Speaker 1: which involved opportunities to make easy reads to move the basketball. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: on the other and Seth Curry, this was the example
Speaker 1: that I that stood out the most to me. He's
Speaker 1: playing off of two really high usage perimeter players, but
Speaker 1: he let the game come to him. He he there
Speaker 1: was two plays where he used a dribble handoff and
Speaker 1: a pick and roll to get down to the elbow
Speaker 1: and he just simply pump faked and Tyres Maxie went
Speaker 1: way past him and he had wide open seventeen foot
Speaker 1: jump shots, which is a great shot for Seth Curry.
Speaker 1: He built his rhythm on that. Then he made a
Speaker 1: wide open three coming off of a dribble handoff, so
Speaker 1: he got into the game with easy shots rather than
Speaker 1: forcing the action. Then he was in a really good rhythm,
Speaker 1: and then he could start kind of confer a shot
Speaker 1: more during the staggered lineups when either Durant or Irving
Speaker 1: was off the floor. There's a little detail there that
Speaker 1: Tyres Maxie Tobias Harris have to figure out over the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks. In general, the Sixers, if you
Speaker 1: will go back and watch that film that I put
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed, the amount of easy reads that
Speaker 1: the Sixers missed, not just the role players but James
Speaker 1: Harden and Joe elm Bad. The amount of easy reads
Speaker 1: that those guys missed forcing the action was crazy, and
Speaker 1: I thought it was a huge part of why their
Speaker 1: offense was stilted and a huge part of how Brooklyn
Speaker 1: kept getting out in transition. Meanwhile, on the other end,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant welcomed any extra defender that came in consistently
Speaker 1: made the right read, yet he still was able to
Speaker 1: get to his shot. The Nets offense just had a
Speaker 1: way better flow, and as KD mentioned after the game,
Speaker 1: a huge part of what they did was pushed the
Speaker 1: ball and transition. When you got lazy guys like James
Speaker 1: Harden and slow guys like Joe el embiid, if you
Speaker 1: can run up and down the floor, you can beat
Speaker 1: them down the floor a lot of times before they
Speaker 1: can set their defense and get a lot of quality shots.
Speaker 1: That way to put a bow on it. You know,
Speaker 1: I said some pretty strong words last night, like I
Speaker 1: and I believe them. I do believe Brooklyn would win
Speaker 1: that series, but after rewatching, I do think Philly is
Speaker 1: capable of playing a lot better than they did. But again,
Speaker 1: they got absolutely trounced last night, so they have to
Speaker 1: play a lot better in order for that to work out,
Speaker 1: and Brooklyn's got reinforcements coming Ben Simmons. You know, A
Speaker 1: huge part, like the one big glaring negative from Brooklyn
Speaker 1: in that first quarter was Bruce Brown really really struggled
Speaker 1: offensively and he was put in a short role position
Speaker 1: where he had to finish around Philly's size a lot,
Speaker 1: and he struggled with it. There were multiple possessions where
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown panicked and threw a garbage around the basket. Now, obviously,
Speaker 1: if it's game seven of a playoff series, maybe Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons does have to But I trust Ben Simmons offensively
Speaker 1: a lot more than that role. Andy's a much better
Speaker 1: defensive player. There's some little kinks that gotta work out,
Speaker 1: like you can't play Drummond if you're gonna play Ben Simmons.
Speaker 1: We saw that being an issue with Bruce Brown even
Speaker 1: last night. So there's little details I gotta work out.
Speaker 1: But I'm that that Brooklyn Hett's team is gonna just
Speaker 1: continue to get better when Ben Simmons gets integrated into
Speaker 1: the picture. But Philly far from their best punch last night.
Speaker 1: They definitely have more. I don't know if it'll be enough,
Speaker 1: but they're definitely capable of playing a lot better than
Speaker 1: they did. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for tonight. Thank you so much, sincerely for coming to
Speaker 1: hang out. As always, we will be back on Sunday
Speaker 1: night post game Laker Sons. Hopefully Lebron plays, Hopefully we
Speaker 1: get a good game. I will see you guys. It