Speaker 1: The volume. All right, welcome to Lakers Tonight, presented by
Speaker 1: Fan Duel. Here on the volume, I am Jason, Tam,
Speaker 1: Pappy Friday. Everybody. I hope you all had a great week.
Speaker 1: That was a heartbreaker. Holy cow. We are going to
Speaker 1: talk about every single thing in that Laker game. If
Speaker 1: you stick around for the end, I will also give
Speaker 1: my first impressions of the hardened and bead pairing, but
Speaker 1: not till the end. We're gonna talk lots of Lakers
Speaker 1: here at the start. That was probably the most heartbreaking
Speaker 1: loss of the season I can think of, because it
Speaker 1: was one of the best Laker efforts in terms of
Speaker 1: the things that haven't gone well for the most part
Speaker 1: this season, that went well tonight. You know, I talked
Speaker 1: a lot last week on the show about how much
Speaker 1: this next stretch of Laker games, this next twenty four games,
Speaker 1: was gonna really test their metal because under the circumstances
Speaker 1: where they are in the standings, their situation, with how
Speaker 1: much talent they have and how and how poorly they've
Speaker 1: played all season, and with the Anthony Davis injury, that
Speaker 1: there would be kind of a loss of hope, Like
Speaker 1: what's the point of us putting in all this work,
Speaker 1: if there's not something achievable at the end. I had
Speaker 1: a feeling that that type of test would come several
Speaker 1: times over the course of the next month and a half,
Speaker 1: and it came early in this game when the Clippers
Speaker 1: shot incredibly well to start the game on difficult shot
Speaker 1: profile while the Lakers were doing their job on defense.
Speaker 1: And then meanwhile on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: you keep seeing like wide open three for Malik Monk Clank,
Speaker 1: wide open three for Camelo Anthony Clank, and next thing
Speaker 1: you know, you're down three. After you know, Luke Kennard
Speaker 1: makes another crazy contested thirty footer and I'm like, here
Speaker 1: you go, here's your first test. Here's your first opportunity
Speaker 1: to decide whether or not you really want to do this,
Speaker 1: And they did. They decided they wanted to do it,
Speaker 1: and that effort in the second half down the line
Speaker 1: was probably the best that I've seen this entire season
Speaker 1: outside of Lebron. And I have to start with Lebron
Speaker 1: here because this is one of the most unusual stretches
Speaker 1: of games from him that I can remember seeing. I
Speaker 1: would say that he was number one to blame for
Speaker 1: losing against Golden State a couple of weeks ago before
Speaker 1: the All Star break, he was horrific in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter on both ends of the floor. Defensively, he was
Speaker 1: throwing the ball away. On offense, he couldn't finish around
Speaker 1: the rim. He was really struggling with Golden State's length,
Speaker 1: and we all threw it away. Right, You're like, that's weird.
Speaker 1: Lebron doesn't do that very often. That's that's just an
Speaker 1: outlier performance. We move on, and we were all proven
Speaker 1: right when all of a sudden against Utah, he reaches
Speaker 1: deep and and just pulls out one of the best
Speaker 1: performances in the fourth quarter that we've seen from him
Speaker 1: in recent years. I think he had fifth in the
Speaker 1: fourth and basically carries the team to a victory against Utah.
Speaker 1: And then here we are against the Clippers, as a
Speaker 1: second half run from Malik Monk and Carmelo Anthony and
Speaker 1: Taylor Horton, Tucker and Dwight Howard has amounted to elite
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. I believe they were up six
Speaker 1: at one point, and it's just teed up there for
Speaker 1: Lebron to carry him home. And I tweeted out, they
Speaker 1: just need to get something from him. They don't need
Speaker 1: a lot, they just need something, and they got almost nothing.
Speaker 1: I tried to look at it. There were a couple
Speaker 1: of contested defensive rebounds he got and then there was
Speaker 1: that one picking pop where he hit Carmelo Anthony for
Speaker 1: the three. Outside of that, it was a lot of
Speaker 1: missed defensive assignment. Team is back to back switches on
Speaker 1: the perimeter, one that gave Robert Covington a wide open three,
Speaker 1: and then another that gave Luke Nardo Coffee a wide
Speaker 1: open three at the top of the key. He he
Speaker 1: had a play where he like kind of got out
Speaker 1: of his rhythm and started talking trash to Robert Covington
Speaker 1: and then just lost the handle and and and gave
Speaker 1: up a foul the other way. Like it was just
Speaker 1: it's a really I I can't remember a time that
Speaker 1: I've seen Lebron have two this bad fourth quarters in
Speaker 1: such a short period of time. And it's really unfortunate
Speaker 1: because down the line, everyone else on the roster, We're
Speaker 1: gonna touch on them all at some point tonight. Everyone
Speaker 1: else on the roster did everything necessary to win that game,
Speaker 1: not just to win that game. If they shoot a
Speaker 1: little better and they get more out of Lebron, that
Speaker 1: group can be above five hundred even with this intense
Speaker 1: schedule without Anthony Davis over the course of the next month.
Speaker 1: That's how well they played tonight. That's how well they
Speaker 1: did their jobs in the in the varying lineups that
Speaker 1: they that they went with tonight. And so I feel bad.
Speaker 1: I feel bad for the for the team, and I
Speaker 1: feel bad for for the fans because you know, they
Speaker 1: couldn't let it go and they went for tonight and
Speaker 1: Lebron just wasn't there. And again, like you gotta give
Speaker 1: Lebron a huge amount of benefit of the doubt because
Speaker 1: his resume is so extensive, and even his recent resume,
Speaker 1: he's still one of the top two or three players
Speaker 1: in the world. But this was bad. That was That
Speaker 1: was a game where if you get even more out
Speaker 1: of Lebron, you win, and instead you lose because you
Speaker 1: get nothing from him and and that and that's really discouraging.
Speaker 1: I was talking with one of my producers before the show.
Speaker 1: I would have gone to Russ on that last possession.
Speaker 1: How wild is that? Like that that's the type of
Speaker 1: night Lebron was having. He wasn't dribbling the ball well,
Speaker 1: he wasn't shooting the ball well, he wasn't making reads well.
Speaker 1: He was all over the place. And Russ had it
Speaker 1: going in the fourth quarter. He had a couple of
Speaker 1: drives to the basket. He had a mid range jump
Speaker 1: shot that he made around the foul line. He had
Speaker 1: a little floater that he made like Russ. Russ had
Speaker 1: it going, I would have gone in that direction. Now.
Speaker 1: That was ended up working out fine because the Clippers
Speaker 1: ended up sending a double at Lebron. But they just
Speaker 1: didn't execute well out of that. And obviously you're not
Speaker 1: gonna love a contested thirty ft three from Mellow. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, if you want a
Speaker 1: silver lining, Lebron's not gonna play that bad. And they
Speaker 1: didn't shoot particularly well, and everything that they did from
Speaker 1: top to bottom with the role players is replicable. Those
Speaker 1: are things they can continue to do moving forward. And
Speaker 1: so I want to go piece by piece through through
Speaker 1: some of these guys just to talk specifically about what
Speaker 1: they did so well. So I want to start with Dwight.
Speaker 1: You know, I I talked a lot this season like
Speaker 1: Dwight is a good backup center and a lot of
Speaker 1: the issues that have come with him this season have
Speaker 1: had to do with circumstance. Injuries have forced the Lakers
Speaker 1: to lean more on him than you'd want to. Instead
Speaker 1: of using him sparingly as a bench big, he's been
Speaker 1: forced to play big minutes on a lot of nights,
Speaker 1: and as a result, he's looked old, which is something
Speaker 1: that happens when you don't have that type of gas
Speaker 1: in the tank to carry you through those stretches. But tonight,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's the All Star break or
Speaker 1: if he just was showing some fight or what the
Speaker 1: deal was. That was as dominant a defensive performance from
Speaker 1: Dwight that I've seen in a long time, and he
Speaker 1: was killing on the offensive glass, doing some catch He
Speaker 1: had bobbled a few passes around the rim, but he
Speaker 1: was really good on the offensive end as well. And
Speaker 1: so you know, particularly in the first half when the
Speaker 1: wheels were coming off, when the Lakers were missing all
Speaker 1: their shots and the Clippers were hitting everything, that could
Speaker 1: have just as easily been a twenty five point game
Speaker 1: at halftime, and Dwight Howard was a huge part of
Speaker 1: why they were able to stay competitive. One of my
Speaker 1: favorite things about Dwight is he's active in drop coverage
Speaker 1: is one of the I hate drop coverages when you're
Speaker 1: doing them with someone like DeAndre Jordan's where he's kind
Speaker 1: of just waiting around the rim and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you drive right into me, I'll block you, but
Speaker 1: if you take anything from fifteen to five feet, it's
Speaker 1: all yours, bro, Like, I'm not even gonna go out there.
Speaker 1: That's kind of the DeAndre Jordan approach. What Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: does that I love is he's active and he's up
Speaker 1: on the ball handler and he got a bunch of
Speaker 1: strips tonight where he he's so crafty with his hands.
Speaker 1: People forget that's part of what makes him such a
Speaker 1: good defensive player in his prime. It's not just that
Speaker 1: he's a freak. It's not just that he's superman. It's
Speaker 1: because he has amazing defensive instincts, and those defensive instincts
Speaker 1: show tonight throughout the game, and he got a lot
Speaker 1: of cool strips and things along those lines. Melo had
Speaker 1: another kind of similar game like that, particularly in the
Speaker 1: second half. You know, uh, he they use the Lakers
Speaker 1: use him too much and drop coverages. I prefer to
Speaker 1: switch him because it's just he's just not quick enough
Speaker 1: to cover ground the way they need him to. But
Speaker 1: he did a lot defensively in the second half to
Speaker 1: stay active. He also had a bunch of strips and
Speaker 1: had a couple of key strips down at the end
Speaker 1: of the game to get stops. Those are those are
Speaker 1: veteran players on this Laker team that are gonna need
Speaker 1: to step up moving forward and if that can be
Speaker 1: continued Mello, particularly on the defensive end, and Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: at Dwight Howard just night and night out doing what
Speaker 1: he does as a backup center, that if they can
Speaker 1: get that moving forward, he gives it gives you a
Speaker 1: better chance, especially if Lebron can play a little bit better.
Speaker 1: The next thing I wanted to hit on was this
Speaker 1: idea of Malik Monk and Carmelo Anthony and what you
Speaker 1: do when they're not shooting well, because you know, in
Speaker 1: the first half Malik Monk and and Carmelo Anthony were
Speaker 1: breaking every thing, including wide open shots. But what's important
Speaker 1: is like when you're coaching other players, like if you're
Speaker 1: coaching Avery Bradley and he's missing everything and his head's
Speaker 1: not in the game offensively, you need to bench him.
Speaker 1: If you're UH coaching Stanley Johnson and he's doing the
Speaker 1: same thing, you need to bench him. With Mellow and
Speaker 1: Malik Monk in particular, I think it's so important for
Speaker 1: the Lakers to give them a super long leash to
Speaker 1: shoot through their slumps because when they get going, that
Speaker 1: is what makes the Laker offense so dynamic. Is what
Speaker 1: those two bring as those lethal shooters, and Malik Monkey
Speaker 1: even getting to the rim. Molik Monk got his rhythm
Speaker 1: tonight just putting his head down and going to the basket.
Speaker 1: And so I'm a big believer and letting him shoot
Speaker 1: through that. The same two guys that weren't making anything
Speaker 1: in the first half, and we're part of the reason
Speaker 1: they were losing, were the same two guys who got
Speaker 1: hot in the second half and allowed that run to
Speaker 1: kindle and and get going for the Lakers and actually
Speaker 1: get them to a position where they can win the game. So,
Speaker 1: but those two guys in particular, I'm a big believer
Speaker 1: in letting them have a long leash. For those of
Speaker 1: you who are just joining us, this is Lakers Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by FanDuel here on the volume. We're just breaking
Speaker 1: down the Laker game right now. Stick around at the end,
Speaker 1: I'll be talking a little bit about James Harden and
Speaker 1: Joel Embiat as well. I wanted to talk about Russ
Speaker 1: for a second. So Russ is on a three game
Speaker 1: stretch here, or he's starting to play pretty well, And
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a coincidence because it doesn't really
Speaker 1: have a whole lot to do with what he's been
Speaker 1: doing in the box score. You know that that's an
Speaker 1: easy place to get distracted. You hear way too much
Speaker 1: this season, like oh Russell Westbrook is shooting a higher
Speaker 1: field goal percentage than Steph. Don't care. He's not been
Speaker 1: nearly in the same stratosphere as a player as Stephen Curry.
Speaker 1: I don't care about what he does with his field
Speaker 1: goal percentage, or what he does shooting threes, or what
Speaker 1: he does rebounding or even with his assists. All I
Speaker 1: care about with Russ is is he impact acting winning?
Speaker 1: Is he making more winning plays than he's making losing plays?
Speaker 1: And as long as he's focused on all of the
Speaker 1: things that Frank needs him to do in his role,
Speaker 1: then he has a lot of leeway to miss the
Speaker 1: occasional pull up transition three or to smoke a layup,
Speaker 1: like he missed a fourth quarter lap tonight. He got
Speaker 1: all the way to the rim and he missed a
Speaker 1: left handed layup. I don't care. I thought he played
Speaker 1: great tonight because he had more good plays than he
Speaker 1: had bad plays. A huge part of this has been
Speaker 1: won him buying into the role and putting in more
Speaker 1: effort defensively. But two, he's playing slower, which again we
Speaker 1: talked about this a couple of weeks ago. I have
Speaker 1: no idea why it was Shock of all people that
Speaker 1: got through to him, but Russ specifically told us, like
Speaker 1: I was told by Shock to slow down. That's what
Speaker 1: I've been trying. That's what's been working for me. And
Speaker 1: it's not coincidence. Like when you're when you're flying into
Speaker 1: the lane at full speed, it's difficult to finish. Like
Speaker 1: just go up to your local l a fitness or
Speaker 1: something and take a lay up on aneath the rim,
Speaker 1: then go back to half court and sprint as fast
Speaker 1: as you possibly can and try to lay it up.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just tougher. Like, yeah, if you're a
Speaker 1: good basketball player, you can do it. But it's it's tougher,
Speaker 1: and Russ in those NBA settings in traffic would just
Speaker 1: throw a bunch of junk up and he missed everything.
Speaker 1: So him slowing down and being more methodical, doing more
Speaker 1: jumping off of two feet instead of one feet, that's
Speaker 1: more of a balanced take off as opposed to a
Speaker 1: you know, off balance one ft you know, line drive
Speaker 1: type of deal. That kind of thing is really really
Speaker 1: helped him. He's also been more selective with his jump shot.
Speaker 1: I only counted one jump shot tonight that I didn't like,
Speaker 1: it a transition pull up that he took in the
Speaker 1: first quarter. All the other jump shots he took made sense.
Speaker 1: They were against drop coverages when the big was sitting
Speaker 1: under the paint and the guard tried to go under
Speaker 1: the screen and he found himself there around fifteen feet
Speaker 1: with a lot of time for him to settle into
Speaker 1: a nice balanced fifteen footer. Those are good shots for us.
Speaker 1: You know, he's actually shooting a decent enough percentage this
Speaker 1: year on those that they're fine or you don't want.
Speaker 1: Russ is the isolation. I'm staring a guy in the
Speaker 1: face and I'm just elevating over him and throwing it
Speaker 1: into the corner of the backboard. Those are bad shots.
Speaker 1: But Russ in general is starting to round things out
Speaker 1: with his game. It's only three games, plenty of time
Speaker 1: for him to slip back into what was not working
Speaker 1: for him earlier. But if he can recreate this and
Speaker 1: he can extend it forward, there's a good player in there.
Speaker 1: And that was always my take with Russ was never
Speaker 1: he sucks. It was that he's playing poorly because he's
Speaker 1: stubborn and he's not embracing what the team needs him
Speaker 1: to do. He was sucking in the way he was playing,
Speaker 1: not in who he was as a basketball player. That's
Speaker 1: an important distinction. And I don't know if there was
Speaker 1: a wake up call in there somewhere or what the
Speaker 1: deal was, but we're starting to see some signs of life.
Speaker 1: I wanted to give him just a little little bit
Speaker 1: of a shout out. The last thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: hit on what was the Young Lakers. I did a
Speaker 1: video on this a couple of days ago, UM, with
Speaker 1: the help of the crew at the Volume Special shout
Speaker 1: out to them. They got that those guys are amazing
Speaker 1: and I couldn't do anything I do without them. UM.
Speaker 1: But in this video. I was talking about why it
Speaker 1: was so important for the Lakers to play their young
Speaker 1: guys moving forward, and I pointed out through net rating.
Speaker 1: If you just Google, if you just go to the
Speaker 1: NBA dot com and you look up the best Lakers
Speaker 1: playing alongside Lebron in order of net rating, it was
Speaker 1: basically the four young guys Malik Monks, Stanley Johnson, Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves and Taylor Horton Tucker and Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo Anthony,
Speaker 1: it's not a coincidence that he's in that list. It's
Speaker 1: because he still has an elite skill. Karmelo Anthony is
Speaker 1: such a good spot up shooter, and he's still a
Speaker 1: pretty good rebounder, and he's still a smart, savvy player.
Speaker 1: That elite skill though, that shooting allows him to succeed
Speaker 1: still in the league. A lot of the old players
Speaker 1: that the Lakers are playing, guys like Trevor Reza DeAndre Jordan,
Speaker 1: they don't actually have an NBA skill anymore. Like like
Speaker 1: Trevor Reasa had a wide open transition layup from Lebron,
Speaker 1: and he like in his prime, you'd still be hanging
Speaker 1: on the rim and instead he like looked like his
Speaker 1: knee gave out a little bit. He just looked a
Speaker 1: step slowly, airball to three out of the corner. He
Speaker 1: was missing by a lot. Like that guy, there's just
Speaker 1: not a whole lot he can bring to the table
Speaker 1: at this point in his career. Maybe it's the ankle injury.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, but he's not that
Speaker 1: guy anymore. Mellow is a vet that's still giving you something.
Speaker 1: Dwight hasn't been an every night player yet this year,
Speaker 1: but he gave you something tonight. That's something you look
Speaker 1: at outside of those two guys. It has to be
Speaker 1: the youth. It has to be Stanley Johnson, it has
Speaker 1: to be uh Austin Reeves, it has to be Tailor,
Speaker 1: and has to be Monks, and all of those guys
Speaker 1: gave you something tonight in some area of the game.
Speaker 1: Tailor I talked a lot in the video about how
Speaker 1: he's starting to come into his own as a playmaker.
Speaker 1: In the previous seven games, he had twenty six assist
Speaker 1: to just twelve turnovers. That's incredible for a twenty one
Speaker 1: year old guard. Guards are all like young guards are
Speaker 1: always a step behind with efficiency and limiting mistakes and
Speaker 1: and th HD is starting to show signs that he's
Speaker 1: kind of on the other side of that hill, which
Speaker 1: is exciting. He was amazing in that second half on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor, countless steals and strip aways.
Speaker 1: He had his entire offensive repertoire working. He was scoring
Speaker 1: at the basket, he was making three point shots, he
Speaker 1: was making contested turnaround jump shots in the midrange. He
Speaker 1: had everything going. He looked like the player that has
Speaker 1: had me so exciting, so excited all season. And this
Speaker 1: is again an extended stretch. This is eight games from
Speaker 1: tailand now where he's looked really good. I went on
Speaker 1: the favor It's Another Volume podcast on Monday this or
Speaker 1: Tuesday this week, and on that show, I said, the
Speaker 1: only way that the Lakers can have enough talent to
Speaker 1: win a championship this year is if someone like Tailan
Speaker 1: takes a massive leap. Now, in order for this to
Speaker 1: be a leap, Tailor has to stay good for the
Speaker 1: rest of the season. So there's a long way to
Speaker 1: go in that department, but that this is a good
Speaker 1: first step in that direction. Austin third quarter, especially in
Speaker 1: the first quarter and third quarter in particular, the Clippers
Speaker 1: went out of their way to try to attack Austin
Speaker 1: and as I've kept saying, every possession that the other
Speaker 1: team goes out of their offense to try to isolate
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves is a win for the Lakers because they're
Speaker 1: not warning very often, they're inefficient in those possessions, and
Speaker 1: the other four Lakers get to stand around and just watch,
Speaker 1: and then as soon as the shot goes up, they
Speaker 1: crashed the boards and they're running the other way. And
Speaker 1: the Lakers were getting a lot of good stuff on
Speaker 1: possessions where the Clippers were foolishly attacking Austin Reeves as
Speaker 1: if he was some good option to attack. So information like,
Speaker 1: I'm it's really unfortunate because the Lakers played well enough
Speaker 1: to win this game. It just so happens that the
Speaker 1: Lakers have played two They've put together two really good
Speaker 1: basketball games in their last three against the Warriors and Clippers,
Speaker 1: and come away with two losses because their leader, who's
Speaker 1: been amazing all season, who's been amazing for three seasons,
Speaker 1: their leader couldn't come through, And you just have to
Speaker 1: chalk it up to bad luck. It is what it is.
Speaker 1: But the overall package of what the Lakers put on
Speaker 1: the court tonight with the Lebron that we know, not
Speaker 1: the one we saw tonight, but the Lebron that we
Speaker 1: know that group can win enough games to make a
Speaker 1: run at the seven or eight seed and get Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis back and try to get into that seven spot
Speaker 1: to try to avoid Phoenix. That's a formula there, and
Speaker 1: so that's why what I wanted to stay positive on
Speaker 1: that front. As unfortunate as this loss is, the Lakers
Speaker 1: are starting to behave and show some signs of being
Speaker 1: a good basketball team. For those of you who are
Speaker 1: just joining us, this is Lakers Tonight, presented by Fandel
Speaker 1: here on the volume. We were just breaking down the
Speaker 1: Laker game. I wanted to take just a couple of
Speaker 1: minutes before we get out of out of here tonight
Speaker 1: to talk about James Harden's first game with the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: seventy sixers. First of all, I was joking with with
Speaker 1: my producers this it's the least shocking thing in the
Speaker 1: entire world, was that, Uh, James Harden looked fantastic tonight
Speaker 1: Because of course, because of course, James, as soon as
Speaker 1: he gets his you know, headspace in the right space,
Speaker 1: he's got it all figured out and now he's playing
Speaker 1: basketball again and he's playing well. That what he did
Speaker 1: in Houston to try to force the trade, what he
Speaker 1: did in Brooklyn to try to force the trade. It's
Speaker 1: just really ugly stuff. It's not a good look. You
Speaker 1: can blame it on injuries all you want, but dude,
Speaker 1: when you when you walk into Philly and you're looking
Speaker 1: super happy and all of a sudden, you're making all
Speaker 1: your step back threes and you're getting to the basket again,
Speaker 1: you're starting to draw free throws, that's that's an indicator
Speaker 1: of the fact that you were you know, we were bamboozled.
Speaker 1: For lack of a better term, you were leading the
Speaker 1: way and uh uh, you were basically trying to manipulate
Speaker 1: the situation into your favor. There are a couple of
Speaker 1: interesting things that stood out to me. So for starters,
Speaker 1: that team is ridiculously talented, and it's something that I
Speaker 1: that didn't really click for me until I saw it.
Speaker 1: I'll put together tonight. But they have this luxury because
Speaker 1: of how much offensive creation Joel and Beat and James
Speaker 1: Harden bring to the table. They have this luxury of
Speaker 1: being able to allow their role players to focus on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. And so now you're
Speaker 1: asking Tyree s Maaxe, who's very good point of attack defender,
Speaker 1: who moves his feet really well, has good size and
Speaker 1: strength at the guard position. And then two really good wings.
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris is a really good wing defender and Matissetibel
Speaker 1: is one of the best wing defenders that we have
Speaker 1: in the league. The dude is gonna be a perennial
Speaker 1: All Defense selection. When you put those three guys next
Speaker 1: to Joel Embiad, who's an awesome drop coverage big, then
Speaker 1: it's just makes James Harden's job easier. One of the
Speaker 1: things I noticed that they were switching everything one through four,
Speaker 1: but then they were running traditional drop coverages with them BEAD,
Speaker 1: but then when Harden would be in the screen with
Speaker 1: him BEAD a lot of times in BEAD would switch
Speaker 1: that one too. They're making things very easy for James
Speaker 1: and so his defensive shortcomings are just not a problem
Speaker 1: alongside this group, which allows him to stay focused on
Speaker 1: what he does best, which is score the basketball and
Speaker 1: create shots for his teammates, which is something he did really,
Speaker 1: really well all night long tonight. One of the interesting
Speaker 1: dynamics that I was looking at is, I was like,
Speaker 1: I was thinking, you know, Joel embiad is never really
Speaker 1: played with a really good pick and roll threat in
Speaker 1: his career, not one that dictates the type of attention
Speaker 1: that James Harden does. He's played with guys like Tyres Maxie,
Speaker 1: and he's played with guys like Ben Simmons, and he's
Speaker 1: done dribble handoff stuff with guys like Seth Curry, but
Speaker 1: he's never played with a real pick and roll threat
Speaker 1: that forces you to chase over the top and offer
Speaker 1: help from the big It's a it's a rare. There's
Speaker 1: only like a dozen of them in the entire league,
Speaker 1: and and Joe Ellen beats playing with them to playing
Speaker 1: with one right now. And one of the things that
Speaker 1: I noticed was, and beat who's not a great rim runner.
Speaker 1: He's not your Clint Capella, you know, Nick Claxton. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna roll to the rim and just jump, and my
Speaker 1: elbows will be above the rim, and you just throw
Speaker 1: it up there and I'll dunk it like the Joel
Speaker 1: and Beads. Not that guy. And so I was really
Speaker 1: curious to see how that dynamic would work. And basically
Speaker 1: what he did is every time he'd set the screen,
Speaker 1: they'd send two at James Harden and and Bead would
Speaker 1: just roll to the semicircle. It's kind of like a
Speaker 1: short roll. And then Harden would just throw him a
Speaker 1: baseball pass and he just catch and he would do
Speaker 1: him beat stuff right from the semicircle, just one dribble,
Speaker 1: spin lay up, but just quick turn and finish. And
Speaker 1: he was getting all sorts of fouls and all sorts
Speaker 1: of stuff right at the rim and scoring easy. And
Speaker 1: you know, when you're one of the things that sucks
Speaker 1: about being the only start, something that Lebron's dealing with
Speaker 1: right now, something can be dealt with all seasons. Something
Speaker 1: yokis dealt with all season. When you're the only star,
Speaker 1: you don't get easy shots, so everything you do is hard,
Speaker 1: and as a result, it's difficult to manufacture the offense
Speaker 1: that you manufacture over the course of the game. When
Speaker 1: you play with that other high level player, that's what
Speaker 1: allows you to supplement your offense with easy stuff. Joe
Speaker 1: embiad is gonna have fewer bad nights because he's gonna
Speaker 1: get more easy shots early in the game operating as
Speaker 1: a short roller off of attention that James Harden gathers
Speaker 1: and as a result is gonna get a lot of
Speaker 1: easy finishes, a lot of trips to the free throw
Speaker 1: line that will allow him to build his rhythm and
Speaker 1: allow him to get it going. That was a really
Speaker 1: impressive win. Minnesota is good. They were eighteen and eleven
Speaker 1: at home coming into that game, they were twelve in
Speaker 1: the entire league in home net rating. That's not an
Speaker 1: easy game. And Philly just went in there and whooped
Speaker 1: their ass. And and I again, it's never you never
Speaker 1: want to overreact to one game that could lay down
Speaker 1: and take a bad loss in a couple of nights here.
Speaker 1: But as far as first showings, that's as good as
Speaker 1: it gets. And I have one last thought because we
Speaker 1: did experience the all time foul bathing type of game
Speaker 1: from James Harden and Joel embid I. I can't remember
Speaker 1: exactly how many free throws they shot, but it was
Speaker 1: a million. We had our classic James Harden three pointer
Speaker 1: on the right wing, where as soon as he elevates
Speaker 1: to shoot, he just literally allows his feet to swing
Speaker 1: like four or five ft out in front of him
Speaker 1: and he's literally fault like there's a still shot of
Speaker 1: James Harden before he lands on the defender where he's
Speaker 1: straight up falling, like the dude is just falling for
Speaker 1: the sake of falling because he knows the foul call
Speaker 1: is coming. But one thing I'll say this, I hate it.
Speaker 1: It's basketball blasphemy. It's not good for the game. It
Speaker 1: never gets any easier to watch. But if there's one
Speaker 1: silver lining, it's that we know that doesn't work. We
Speaker 1: have decades and decades of evidence that that style of
Speaker 1: basketball does not work in the postseason. So if there's
Speaker 1: one vindication in all of this, it's that if James
Speaker 1: Harden and Joel Embi'd win a championship this season, they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to do with the old fashioned way by
Speaker 1: putting the ball in the basket and stopping the other
Speaker 1: team from putting the ball in the basket on the
Speaker 1: other end. All and although I was impressed by the
Speaker 1: whole dynamic and the way that it worked, that team
Speaker 1: makes sense in a lot of ways. I'm still not
Speaker 1: sure if James Harden and Joel and be can out
Speaker 1: execute Janice and Kevin Durant in a seven game series,
Speaker 1: but they're gonna have their chance. And as far as
Speaker 1: first impressions go, that was about as good as it gets. Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your guys support. Lakers play the Pelicans on
Speaker 1: Sunday night at seven pm Pacific Standard time. I will
Speaker 1: be going live immediately after that game. See you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume mhmm