WEBVTT - Nets/Lakers Postgame Spaces 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:17.600 M m all right, welcome to the state of Lake 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:19.280 because on Dad's ready. How thank you guys so much 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:21.319 for coming to hang out on Christmas Day. I hope 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.360 if you celebrate that you enjoyed celebrating. If you don't celebrate, 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:26.560 I hope you enjoyed the day off from work. If 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:28.480 you did have to work for whatever reason, I hope 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:30.560 you had a good day. But first of all, Rods, 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.400 how are you doing, buddy? I'm doing well, doing well? Man, 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.800 had a nice holiday. Uh, Merry Christmas to you and 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.400 everyone in here, and again, like if you celebrate obviously, 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.120 and happy holidays to everyone. That was a rough one. 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:45.839 We did have some good basketball though today before that, 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.159 so there was some good NBA um and today was 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:50.919 a fun game at the end. But yeah, how are you, man? 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:53.400 Merry Christmas to you and your your family, and happy 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:58.080 Holidays to you and your family. Good basketball earlier the day. 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.480 That's that is a I should say, a fun end 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:03.680 to the game. That's an interesting way to characterize it 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:07.880 because from my perspective, it was like we were already 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.880 deeply irritated by a deep irritating basketball game, and then 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.360 the basketball gods were like, why don't we top it 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.720 off by making it seem like there's an opportunity to 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.640 win before it blows up in your face. Um, I 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:23.360 think we have to start with Russ And I'm gonna 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.280 Ross Raj Beary with me here for a second, because 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:28.600 I'm gonna get something off my chest, something that I've 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:32.399 I've been complaining about a lot this season coming into 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:38.160 the season, and that my biggest spear with Russell Westbrook. 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.360 My biggest spear with Russell Westbrook from the beginning had 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.120 very little to do with fit. I had a feeling 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.320 that you know, over the course of a playoff series 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:51.720 and over the course of the regular season, he would 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:54.520 be mostly a net positive in terms of what he 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.279 brings to the team with his athleticism and his energy 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.320 and his good leadership and just the sheer force will 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.960 that is Russell Westbrook, and there's obviously so much good 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.040 that comes with that. But he is his own worst 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.120 enemy because he can't see one inch in front of 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.880 his face with his decision making on both ends of 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.000 the floor. And as I told you during the summer, 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:18.040 my biggest fear with Russell Westbrook wasn't you know what 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:21.160 would happen in the meat and potatoes, but rather a 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.240 handful of crucial possessions at the end of a playoff game. Now, 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.440 this was not a playoff game. We thought the Lakers 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.200 were probably gonna lose tonight. You know, it looked like 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:32.680 they were going to get absolutely destroyed tonight if you 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.840 paid attention there in the third quarter. So obviously this, 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:40.000 this in and of itself, isn't a crisis right now. 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.400 But what you saw tonight is what I'm so scared of. 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:48.360 Crucial game. Team is fighting. You're playing against the contender. 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:55.160 Everything's on the line. Two completely bone headed, critical mistakes 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.600 that cost her team of basketball game. On a possession 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:00.639 where the Lakers do a bunch of switching, Russ ends 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.400 up getting switched on Patty Mills he's guarding him at 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.120 the top of the key. He immediately turns his back 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:10.080 to Patty Mills and just starts drifting listlessly over to 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.280 the elbow, paying no attention to where Patty is. Patty, 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.480 because he's a smart basketball player, just relocates to the 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.160 weak side corner, easy driving kick. Russ is nowhere to 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.360 be found. Patty Mills is going to make that shot 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.760 nine times out of ten. That's a huge huge catastrophic mistake, 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.680 and then I think it was two possessions. Later on 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:33.080 the offensive end, Lebron drives into the lane, throws a pass, 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:37.160 gets deflected and it lands into Russ's hands. But there's 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.600 plenty time on the shot clock. There's no need to 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.440 rush anything. Russ sees a driving lane, gets into the lane, 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:45.720 has an opportunity to lay the ball up with his 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.480 left hand, especially since the shot blocker was on the 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:50.200 right side of the rim, so he could have used 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.440 the rim to protect his own shot. And for whatever reason, 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.040 even though I think he's dunked on one person this season, 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:58.520 and that one crazy run that he had, I can't 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.960 even remember what team it was against, but against the Celtics, 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.960 but he's missed more dunks than he's made this year. 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:08.640 He's very clearly not had the same lift that he's 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.040 had in years past. And he tried to left hand 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.080 dunk the ball and he was probably four or five 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:18.960 inches short of ever being able to make that attempt, 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:21.320 launched it into the rim, and just like that, the 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:23.600 game was over. And again, like you can live with 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.040 the four or seventeen or whatever he started the game, 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:28.000 You can live with any of that stuff because he's 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.920 getting offensive rebounds. He gets a loose ball here and there, 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.120 he gets a tie up, forces a jump ball. He 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.440 brings a lot of good to the table. But it's 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.280 those catastrophic decisions at the end of these games that 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.919 will cost you. It will cost you a loss in 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:47.320 a playoff series. Literally watched him do it to Kevin Durant. 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.240 No ca See, that's my biggest fear. So talk me 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.160 off the led rage, tell me how it's all gonna 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:56.720 be okay. Yeah, I'll try to be a little bit 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:58.880 more more measured with it. I don't know about talking 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:00.840 to you off the ledg. It feels like we've been 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.520 standing right at the ledge for a while now. Every 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:05.440 other game is rock bottom and then they all of 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:07.960 a sudden dig another bottom. Right, So we just keep 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.680 on falling through and just keep finding more rock bottoms. No, 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.920 Russ was bad throughout this whole night. I mean, you said, 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:16.520 you know, critical possession in the game. I think the 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.040 you know, the late run is a little fool's gold. 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.560 I thought Brooklyn really took their foot off the gas. 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:25.160 James Harden, who also has questionable decision making right in 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.560 in big pressure moments, I thought you saw that as well. 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:29.680 When the game got tied. He saw him kind of 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:32.440 take tough shots, make bad passes, and that end of 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:34.120 the run was kind of fools gold we were down 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.080 twenty or something with the fourth quarter. RUSS was just 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:40.320 bad tonight, And just putting this into context, this is 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:43.040 probably the worst RUSS you're gonna get. And you said 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:45.599 we can live with the four for twenty. We can't 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:47.800 live with the four for twenty, not with the way 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:51.000 that we're shorthanded right now, not without Anthony Davis and 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:55.240 the shots he's missing, like he's missing layups at the rim. 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.080 I thought the turnovers were just awful tonight and him, 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:00.240 him and Lebron had a nice little two man game. 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:02.680 Lebron was fronted in the post by the Nets a lot, 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:04.839 and he found him on the back doors when they 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:07.440 did high low action. But a lot of his turnovers 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.000 tonight he tried to push off makes, which is really 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.640 tough with this team. We're really slow to start the game. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.160 We had Dwight Howard obviously starting, and he tried to 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:17.599 run and we just weren't with him. And he would 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:20.520 drive in and do a lot of high risk, low 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.320 reward passes. It was just a lot of stuff that 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:25.680 was just really bad for him, and it was a 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:28.240 rough start and I thought that carried through the whole game. 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:30.880 He was just really bad. There's nothing to say, and 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.560 the late game decision making, man, are our best offense 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.839 tonight was Lebron Malik Monk screen roll right, like, that's 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.880 to me where we got our best offense? And Lebron 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:43.080 would dry kick it out to us and he would 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:45.599 drive or take these awful shots. He took a bunch 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.360 of job step three tonight, which made no sense. And 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:50.839 again not to pin everything on him, because the loss 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.680 is kind of you know, convoluted with a bunch of factors, 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.120 but no, he was really bad. We went on and 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.720 again these numbers aren't fair to him as well, because 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.480 I think there's stuff that this lineup did that are 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.279 productive just to the skill sets of the roster. But 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.480 we went on a seventeen because your run without him tonight, Jason, 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.000 that turned the fourth quarter around, and people are asking, 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:13.200 I saw our friend dom and saying, how the hell 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.960 could you put us back in? It's a bigger story 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.040 if you don't put us back inside, and I don't, 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.000 and I don't think they want that right now, and 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.840 I get that you have to find ways to have 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.960 Rus be you know, impactful in these minutes, and he 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:29.760 just wasn't. And I tweeted cruel after he missed that dunk, 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.640 because that's what it was. Right two thousand eight or 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.000 two thousand nine or even two thousand twelve of us 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.640 probably is still hanging on the rim right in that 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:39.800 kind of uh, in that kind of play, but he's 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.240 just not there, could not lift. And I think the 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.680 mislayups are part of that. We discussed his finesse. I 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:47.960 think he's lost a finesse part of his game, which 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.160 is just so fascinating to me. I know you say 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:52.720 he's never really had it, but I disagree just in 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:54.880 terms of I've seen the way he finished in the past. 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:57.240 But he was bad tonight, man, There's no there's no 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.200 sugarcoating it. He was. He was al He was I 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.400 think a minus twin six in the game we lost 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:03.640 by like four or five like that, just and plus 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:08.320 minus isn't always to tell all. Yeah, it matches the 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.400 eye test, man. And again if you probably you if 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:13.679 you don't put Russ back in this game, you probably 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:15.560 have a better shot at winning. But that's not how 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:20.160 a team works, right, That's not how construction, locker room chemistry, politics, 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.600 whatever you want to call it. You just can't bench 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.640 Russ in this type of game right now. It's it's 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.240 just not gonna happen. So it was bad, man, and 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.640 the fit was bad. I thought him. I thought Taylan 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:32.280 played well when he was off the bench. I like 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:36.640 the tailor Lebron monk with Melow lineups, but Russ was bad. 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.000 There's no sugar coning in for sure. Yeah. You know, 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.320 you said yourself, You're like, we can't, we can't live 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.640 with the four twenty games. And I agree with you 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:45.520 in the sense that if Russ is gonna have like 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.640 just absolutely disastrous offensive games, that it's going to have 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.880 a massive negative impact on the team. That goes without saying. 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.160 The problem is is Russ is just as likely to 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.560 make those types of mistakes when he's having a great game. Yeah, 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.120 you know, I'll even expanded out to the to the 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.559 to the larger scheme of the season. To start this season, 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.200 Russ was very reserved and crunch time and deferred to 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:13.240 Lebron almost exclusively and was avoiding those kinds of mistakes 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:17.080 but then suddenly tonight he lost his mind. And that's 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:20.000 the thing. You could be in a playoff series like that, 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.280 and he could be really good in the crunch time 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.040 a game one, and really good in the crunch time 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.800 a game too, but maybe the road team, you know, 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:28.880 maybe it's too too after five games, just because of 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.280 the way the series shakes out, and he loses his 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:33.800 mind in game five and bam, you're down three two 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:36.320 going on the road or whatever. It is, the circumstances 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.000 that the series provide. But that's the thing with Russ, 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.280 it's there's a difference between you can depend on me 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.800 to consistently make the right decision, and it's a con 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.040 total coin flip. One night, I'm reserved and I'm playing 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:52.760 the game measured and I'm slow down and I'm making 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:54.920 the right decisions. And then the next night it's like 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.520 you might as well just shot me like a baby 0:09:57.600 --> 0:09:59.400 in a tiny room and I'm just bouncing off the 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:01.840 walls and no one knows what I'm doing. Like that's 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.440 that is the Russell Westbrook experience in a nutshell. Again, 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.760 it's like a couple of plays before the two horrible 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:10.880 plays that I'm talking about that post up play where 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:13.600 he's posting at Patty Mills. It's like, dude, you haven't 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.160 been able to make a layup all game long, So 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.800 if you're going to any sort of complicated layup, I 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:21.200 should say so, if you're gonna post up Patty Mills, 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.640 you need to be thinking I am above the rim 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.040 by myself, or I'm kicking it out any sort of 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.480 below the rim finesse type of hook anything like that. 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.199 It's like, man, you just don't have it tonight. That 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.720 has to be moved around. But that that that's my 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.040 that's my thing. He could go twelve or twenty in 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:43.160 a pivotal playoff game and make two completely bone headed mistakes, 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:45.480 one on defense and one on offense, and it can 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.120 cost you a playoff series. And that's the problem. It's 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.280 like the example that I always uses that two thousand 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.160 fourteen series against the Spurs. In Game six, they're inside 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:58.000 there in Oklahoma City, okay see, it is actually down 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.880 pretty big late in Russ. Russ goes on an amazing 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.480 run in the middle late fourth quarter to get okay 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.040 see back in the game, and you're like, man, great Russ. 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.760 Two completely awful pivotal mistakes at the end of that 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.679 game that costs Okay, see the game. And that's the 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.520 kind of thing I'm talking about. It's good good, good 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:19.559 bad dad, you know, or it's good bad good bad 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:21.880 good bad, or nights like tonight where it's all bad. 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.920 But he cannot control his decision making at the end 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:30.319 of high leveled situations. And that is a potentially lethal flaw. 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.560 And I don't again, like he could play amazingly well 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.840 and amazingly reserved for the rest of the regular season. 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.280 He could do it for the entire first round, he 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.360 could do it for the entire second round, and we 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.520 could be sitting in Golden State and I would be 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.360 sitting on my couch terrified that he's going to do 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.400 that again, because that's that's the Russell Westgroup experience. And 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.960 and I don't know, I don't know how. I don't 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:54.920 know how you prepare for that. I don't know what 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.800 you do, because it's like it's like tonight, just one second, 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.559 you have all the momentum and it feels like you're 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:01.480 gonna win the game, and then the next second is 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:04.400 gone like that that that it's it's over. But when 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:06.280 when those mistakes happen at the end of a game 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:10.200 like that, there you cannot recover from them. And so again, 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:12.600 it's just it's very discouraging. And I mean, there's a 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:14.120 lot more to take from this game, guys. And we're 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.319 gonna get into we're gonna talk about their start, We're 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.520 gonna talk about Stanley Johnson, We're gonna talk about all 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.280 this stuff. But I think the story of this game 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:25.320 at the beginning here is Russell Westbrook. This is this 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:29.120 is part of the Russell Westbrook experience. He can almost 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:35.120 single handedly derail a game and that and that's that's problematic. Yeah, 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.000 the you know, the experience is a roller coaster, right, 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.080 and you talked about that playoff game. You know, he 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.360 brought us back, and he does this a lot in 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.120 every game, right. It seems like every game that he starts, 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:47.839 he really walks into it, right, He tries to feel 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.080 it out, and he makes his impact later on. And 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.720 you know, sometimes that's fine, you'll have a huge third quarter, 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:55.080 but you don't get the good without the bad with 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.040 him and right, and a lot of and this season, 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:58.640 like to give him a little bit of credit, like 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:00.600 he has kind of pushed the pace. He has kind 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:02.520 of try to keep our energy up when the when 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:04.760 the body language has been bad. So I don't want 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:06.800 to make this, you know, like he's been awful this season, 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.880 but you're right in crunchtime situations like it is a question. 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.200 It's why you know, a lot of late game situations 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:16.200 he has, you know, questionable plays, questionable shot selection. Even 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.240 in the Dallas game, Right, that three went in, But 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:20.760 Jason has probably be an awful shot, right to be honest, 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.120 Like we're like down three, uh and he hits three 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.560 to time, but that's probably a bad shot. This isn't 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:27.600 the first time it's happened either, right, I believe against 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:29.679 the Bulls, we were on our way to a comeback 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:31.720 and he like drove and tried to make like a 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.280 left hand lay up. I forgot who's at the rim. 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.600 I think it was Ruchevich or someone, and he just 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:41.040 missed that right at the basket's shot that I thought 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.080 that I was. I remember that right, right, And here's 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:46.240 the only like silver lining. I guess like that I 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:48.880 can go because we have this. We have seen a 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.080 few games of this team fully healthy, and we've seen 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:54.760 close games. And what has it been. It's been Lebron 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.720 with the basketball and Russ either as the screener or 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.719 in the dunker spot where Lebron's using another guard to 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:03.080 set the screen, or using Russ as a screener and 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.600 he can play four on three. We haven't really seen 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:09.000 very many times this season where Russ has the basketball 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:11.840 in like in late game situations where he's the kind 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:14.040 of main creator. And I thought tonight he got a 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.880 few of those possessions. And again, that's not how basketball works. 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.240 You can't just tell someone to never touch the ball late. 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.200 And there's players where Lebron, you know, it's gonna have 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:22.680 the ball, he's gonna have to kick to Russ and 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.280 he has to make high levels decisions. But I think 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.680 for the most part, and we are so far away 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.240 from that. I guess where we have to, you know, 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.480 worry about late game situations. I watched the Phoenix and 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.080 Golden State game today, and my goodness, we are so 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:40.480 far away from executing or compete, like competing or even 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.920 being at that level to a basketball that those teams 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.400 are playing at. We're on a ladder trying to climb 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:48.480 up there. And there's still time to you know, get 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.800 up those steps. There's process that we can do. Um, 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.000 and again that I feel like there's stuff that doesn't 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:56.840 help us out either. I think the starting lineup is 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:58.360 a big part of it. We can get into that 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.280 next as well, all the lineup stuff and all the 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:04.440 shifting that we're doing. But yeah, man, Russ was bad 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.600 and this was another tough one, just bad decision making late. 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.080 And hopefully he's not in those positions when eight is healthy, 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.720 when Lebron, you know, is there controlling the decisions in 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:16.640 the playoffs. I just don't think he'll be put in 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.320 those situations for the most part. But tonight's just a 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:21.160 really bad rest game. And we talked about over the 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:23.320 summer these are gonna happen. He's gonna have four for 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:26.200 twenty games. It's gonna be loud, and it was loud tonight. 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.240 And his mistakes are very much like what were you 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:32.520 thinking there? You know, or like what was the what's 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.000 the reward there of getting that passed through? Like a 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:37.000 lot of times it's like a screen roll and he 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:40.920 throws that pocket pass with like zero finesse. It's just hard, 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:43.880 it's down, there's no like if it gets through, it's 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.000 by luck, you know what I mean. So a lot 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:47.880 of players like that happened. But yeah, Russ was just 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.120 bad man and that was it was tough to watch, 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:52.160 and it's don't want to blame everything on him because 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.560 that's not fair because there's lineup stuff that we can 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:56.560 kind of go into next. But he was it was 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.920 bad man, and that's and there's no sugarcoating that tonight. 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.520 That's why I used the expression he can't see one 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.760 inch in front of his face, you know, like a 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:10.760 good game manager always sees the big picture. That's what 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:12.880 Lebron is so good at. He sees the big picture 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.120 of the possession right Like he sees, Okay, if I 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.160 beat this man at the point of attack, this rotation 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:21.000 is probably coming to take away the point, the pocket 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.280 pass or the week side corner or whatever. He's always 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.880 seeing several steps ahead. But at the same time he 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:27.760 also sees behind. He's like, okay, is this guy in 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:29.800 a rhythm? Knows this guy in a rhythm? Yes? Like, 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:32.760 is they haven't gotten a shot for so and so 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:36.200 in a while? You know, what's the what's the flow 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:38.640 of this game? Is this game flowing in a way 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.080 where they need me to be more aggressive offensively? Or 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:42.720 is this a great time to try to get other 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:46.280 guys involved. Like Lebron always sees the bigger picture, and 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:48.520 he also sees the bigger picture of the regular season. 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:50.600 That's why he can be such a good leader in 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.600 these types of environments with a team that has championship aspirations. 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.040 But with Russ, there's none of that. There's nothing outside 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.240 of what's one inch in front of his face. Think 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.760 about that last session where he missed the dunk. It's 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:05.360 a ricochet pass from Lebron that lands in his hands. Okay, 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.720 a couple of possessions earlier, Stanley Johnson catches the ball 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:13.600 on the wing wide open in transition, but he sees 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:15.800 the bigger picture of the possession and goes, I could 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.800 shoot this, but actually a better option is to go 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.119 to Lebron. Here swings it to Lebron. Lebron bullyballs is 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.280 way in the basket and gets a layup. That's the thing. 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:25.479 In that moment, Russ saw Lane and you know what, 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:27.760 he thought, it would be cool if I dunked this here, 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:30.680 Like if I if I dunked this one man, I'll 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:32.960 be all over the House of highlights. And he saw 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:37.240 that in that like that tiny little fraction of time, 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.639 he made a calculated decision that it was worth it 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.359 to go for the highlight, whereas if he was seeing 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.720 anything outside of that tiny, little fraction of moment, he 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.840 might have thought, actually, this this ball I need. We 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.280 happened to gain control of a loose ball. This is 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:56.560 a great time to get the ball back to Lebron 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.240 so we can make a real basketball decision. Or if 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:01.480 you see a lane, okay, I see e lane here, 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:03.720 I'm going to get into his body and try to 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:05.639 either get a foul or lay up. You know not, 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:09.359 Here's a low percentage play that even if i'm you 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:11.800 know all season long, I've been missing, I'm just gonna 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:12.919 go for it. You know what I mean? Like that 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.400 kind of decision making? Is that That's what I mean 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:17.360 when I say he can't see more than one inch 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.520 in front of his face. Now moving on to the 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:21.160 start of the game, because I thought this was really 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:24.320 interesting because you and I we were we had planned 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.600 on talking to start this game about their lackluster effort 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.679 and uh and body language in the with the starters. 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.320 And I think there's two elements to it. One is 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:36.960 that that basketball character thing that we that we keep 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.720 talking about all season having to do with guys just 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.159 not being willing to do the dirty work. But a 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.800 big part of it is just a foundational structure of 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:47.920 the lineup. We have talked. We talked a while back 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.600 about basic lineup rules, so you remember that it was 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.120 actually something that our guy Anthony Irwin from Silver Screen 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.480 and Roll kind of conceptualized. And one of the rules 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:01.280 was you cannot play Russ and th httgether or or 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:03.960 with the big was the big one. Basically, if you're 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.439