WEBVTT - Lakers/Pacers Postgame Spaces 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:18.279 M m all right, Welcome to the State of the 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:23.599 Lakers Thanksgiving Day Special. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you're 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:25.600 I hope you got to work out in this morning 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:27.400 so you don't feel too guilty about all the food 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:30.440 you're about to eat. UM. I hope everybody gets to 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.560 rest up and spend some time with their family. UM. 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:37.519 I Roger and I are doing his spaces because obviously 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.200 I missed the game last night. I had my first 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.800 game as a high school coach, which was a ton 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.800 of fun, roller coaster ride of emotions, very different from 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.920 anything that I've ever experienced in the game of basketball 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:55.680 because you're so emotionally invested in the outcome, but there's 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.120 really really nothing you can do. Uh, you know of 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:02.480 an offer, slighted vice here and there, and a little 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.320 bit of game planning, but the truth of the matter 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:05.920 is is it's kind of out of your control. So 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:10.240 it's a totally different type of experience. But also just 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.320 every bit is satisfying from a competitive standpoint getting a win, 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.000 as it is when you're a player. UM. So that 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.840 was a lot of fun. But that said, I got 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:23.080 to enjoy the game this morning. Uh, take my time 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:25.959 with it. Pause and rewind and rewatch stuff and get 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:28.600 a really good feel, um, you know, for the flow 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.680 of that game and a really really interesting game. The 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:36.120 lack of Anthony Davis forced Frank to go to some 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.679 lineups that you know, he never in a million years 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.840 would play, and it kind of forced him to put 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.880 his eyes on some some modern basketball. And I thought 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:48.760 it was I thought it was really interesting. But first 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:51.000 of all, before we get too much further in ROZs, 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:53.720 Happy Thanksgiving to you, man. I hope you're doing really well. 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:57.360 I really appreciate you holding it down for me last 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.880 night while I was indisposed, and and I'm really excited. 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:02.480 I'm really excited to get to the bottom of this 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.200 with you. Yeah, I mean too, man. This is this 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.240 is a strange and happy Thanksgiving to you as well. 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:09.040 And everyone in here M surprised as many people on 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.799 a on a Thanksgiving morning. Uh yeah, it's a little 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.160 weird doing it the next day, right, because I'm so 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:16.800 used to just you know, jotting all this stuff down 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.280 and then trying to formulate thoughts that makes sense right 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.600 after where you're still kind of emotionally invested in the game, 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:25.959 and this is hours later and now I've been able 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:28.200 to sit with it. Your thoughts kind of changed a 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:30.320 little bit in terms of like how you see the game, 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.680 But I wanted to ask your thoughts. So what was 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:34.880 your your big takeaway from it? We didn't get to 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.480 hear you. You popped in while driving, but you had 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:39.760 you had not seen a minute of the game yet. 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.679 You said your game went to overtime too, right last night? 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.280 Your your high school game. Kind of twice you guys 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.880 went double overtime. The Lakers went into overtime. It was 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:51.840 just an overtime type of night. What was your what 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:57.040 was your was your takeaways from from that game? So, 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:58.679 you know, I thought I thought the Lebron at the 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.840 center stuff was the most interesting part of the game, 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.720 mainly for a couple of reasons. One not only what 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.880 it brought out of them offensively, but also, uh, they 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.200 leaned heavily into switching with that lineup. They did a 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.920 handful of different they were handful of coverages were like, 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:17.880 uh they What I liked about it is they didn't 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.080 switch indiscriminately, Like, for instance, there were a bunch of 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.120 plays out on the perimeter where they would do dribble 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:27.240 handoffs and a little quick exchanges where if the Lakers 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:29.720 were feeling lazy, they could have switched, but they fought 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:32.600 through those and then they would they would basically switch 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:36.160 on any real screening action, like a screening action that 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.920 was designed to gain an advantage. And obviously one of 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:41.960 the one of the other that the core of that 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.480 lineup in the fourth quarter not O T was th 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:50.280 h T with Lebron and Mellow and Monk and ellington 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.000 Um and then obviously an OT you swap out th 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:56.560 HT for Russ. But one of the keys there I 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:02.800 thought was Lebron, th HT, Russ and Mellow all have 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.000 a really low center of gravity and they're all really strong. 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:10.440 And so what's that What that means is as long 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.440 as you you know, with those those particular switches, they 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:17.279 don't give up too much around the basket in terms 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:21.880 of post position. And with a team like with a 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.080 team like Indiana, you have your guys like Malcolm Brockdn 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:26.680 who can put their head down and get to the rim. 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.480 But there's a lot of like you know, Carris Lavert 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.360 really likes to mix you up and try to take 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.240 jump shots, and there's a lot of jump shooting from 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.400 Duarte and and then obviously they love to attack in 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.000 the post with their two with their two big guys. 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.800 So having those guys that are strong enough that they're 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:49.160 actually decent post up defenders kind of allows that switching 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.960 defense to work. And then honestly, it's just a lot 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.960 of commitment to the work. You know, Russ and Lebron 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.200 in particular, we're both amazing defensively at the end of 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:03.120 that game. Obviously they weren't throughout the whole game, but 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:07.920 that that only works when the guys out there are 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.280 willing to work, you know what I mean, And so 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.560 especially the stars, and so it was, and then obviously 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:14.839 on the other end of the floor it became really easy. 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.520 It was a lot of rim pressure. Um th h 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.320 t obviously had a tough night again finishing around the rim, 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.120 but there were several times where he got into the 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:25.039 rim and missed the layup and guys were available for 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.160 offensive rebounds because he caved in the defense. There was 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.600 a play where he dove as a cutter and did 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.000 a quick seal, caught it in the paint and quick 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.120 swung it out the corner to Ellington for three that 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.600 he made. So he generated some rim pressure and then 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:41.200 obviously Russ and Lebron just driving the basket and and 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:44.440 just making easy kickouts to great shooters. It was good process. 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.240 There wasn't a flukey that wasn't a flukey offensive performance 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:51.400 that a lot of that was replicable and something that 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.360 they can apply moving forward. And it's a shift we're seeing, right. 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.240 It's uh. Last night, I think I talked a lot 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.840 about how Vogel is trying to, you know, play kind 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.640 of both sides of this offensive offensive thing. But I 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:03.800 thought last night we saw a really good shift. Like 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.839 Lebron at the five is probably something that he doesn't 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.320 really like to go to. I said yesterday too. He's 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.120 a guy that he's a big believer in having big 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.560 athletic dudes um at the rim, Like that's his base 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:17.760 type of defense as he likes to play. That's the 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.039 reason DeAndre Jordan's starts. That's why every Bradley starts to me, 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.200 because you have to play that base coverage. But last night, 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:26.400 so we don't get the stats right after the game, 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:27.880 So it's nice to be able to go back and 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.320 look at look at lineup data, so that that lineup 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:34.120 that you talked about, the Lebron mellow Westbrook, Ellington and 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.680 mug They played five minutes in the fourth quarter and 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.880 then three minutes in overtime. And again net rating is 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:42.800 is tough for a small sample, but they were sixty 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.360 one point four. There were plus sixty one point four 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.800 net offensive rating one forty defensive seventy eight point six. 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:51.680 And I only bring up those numbers because I think 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:53.800 that's where they have to kind of win. Obviously, the 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.200 defense isn't gonna be that low, the offense isn't gonna 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:57.880 be that high, but I think that's kind of where 0:06:57.880 --> 0:06:59.360 they need to fit. They need to be a super 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.680 really good offensive team and then kind of just defend enough. 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.160 And I saw that last night. Monk and Ellington are 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.960 never gonna be great as switching, like you talked about it, 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:10.600 but there's they have, Like Monk has a speed to 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:12.240 him that I think you can use. Right. He was 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:14.480 like last night, and you talked about effort as well. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.800 I saw him put it in, uh Lebron as Lebron, 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:20.240 I thought at the five, his effort was so different 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:22.520 than at the four. I want to ask you about 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:24.320 that as well, because did you see that kind of shift. 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:26.800 I thought when Lebron went to center. He definitely picked 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.120 up his effort um. He was involved in every play, 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:31.800 and I think that's part of it. I feel like 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.800 when he's at the four, uh, it induces him to load, 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.800 manage or you know, just relaxed defensively in a way 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.440 that him being at the center doesn't. What do you 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.240 what do you think about that kind of that kind 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:44.240 of take, because I feel like he does when he 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:46.600 was the main RAM protector last night, I thought he 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:50.400 was much more engaged defensively when he's at the four. 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.240 And maybe I said this too, there's just some negative 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.400 energy with that starting lineup. There's some like counterintuitive to 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:00.120 how this team's identity should be. Like they walk the 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.280 ball up the floor with Russ with that starting lineup, 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.880 and it's so against how he wants to play. And 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.240 you posted that that that video today of like they 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:10.320 got to stop and then like Russ and it's like 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.120 an outlet to Russ from bron He's flying down the 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.480 floor and he finds Malik Monk as the trailer from three, 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:17.280 Like that's that's the kind of pace they need to 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.320 play at. And I feel like a starting lineup goes 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:20.800 against so much of it. But what do you think 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:24.520 about that about Lebron's effort kind of going up when 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.119 he's the center, when he's the main kind of defensive cog, 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.960 rather than when he's playing at the floor. I don't 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.800 think it's overly complicated. I think Lebron is burdened by 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.360 what he's expected to do offensively. I think it sits 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:37.400 in the back of his mind at the time. I 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:41.400 think he knows that, like in some of that is 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.680 something he needs to get over, in particular when everyone's healthy. 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.520 This is something that I've been critical of him with, 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:49.920 is like, hey, like you don't have the same offensive 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:54.120 responsibilities when everyone's healthy, so you can devote more energy 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:56.360 to that side of the ball. But I think I 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.120 think when Lebron is at the four or at the three, 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.320 his thefensive responsibilities become more labor intensive in terms of 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.080 how much ground he has to cover on the perimeter, 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:08.880 and that just takes a lot of energy, especially for 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:10.719 a guy who weighs as much as he does. It's 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:12.440 just a lot to do a lot of starting and 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:18.080 stopping physically with his frame, and so at the center position, 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:21.079 it kind of offloads a bunch of it. It off 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.800 floads a bunch of the movement responsibilities to his brain 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.920 and to his strength. So for instance, it's less about 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:32.000 covering ground and it's more about banging, you know, like 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.559 fighting for defensive position, especially on the on the glass. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.800 And then obviously exactly and he can make up for 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.920 some of his unwillingness to be mobile on the perimeter, 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:45.840 you know, in the dregs of the regular season, by 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:50.000 transferring that into can you communicate, tell guy, tell other 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:54.439 guys where to go, help dictate coverages and blow up 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.160 plays with your brain um and then lastly with his hands. 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.320 There's a handful of plays in the in the fourth 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.240 quarter and overtime where he blew up plays without having 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:08.679 to jump, just by reading a play, seeing it coming 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.240 in advance, knowing what the big guy is gonna do 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.559 when he catches getting in the way and disrupting with 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:18.400 a swipe down or or just by knocking him off balance, 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.040 things along those lines. That's his defensive job as a 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:26.040 back line guy is easier for him to do in 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:29.960 the regular season, in particular because it's not as physically demanding, 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.160 and little things like boxing out. Lebron likes that kind 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.280 of stuff well, but every single time that shot went up. 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.560 He was he was textbook box out low squatting, pushing 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.360 Sabonis and Turner out of the lane, and that kind 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.360 of thing. Again, He's not that that kind of thing 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.680 to Lebron is is easier than asking him to fly 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:51.760 around in rotations and chase guys off the line. So 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.920 I think that's the big reason why the the Lebron 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.319 at the five lineups look so good defensively. And then 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.760 you know, obviously, uh that this is where I wanted 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.079 to kind of transition into Russ for a second, because 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:08.520 the whole, the whole concept of this team is starting 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.840 to make more sense offensively when you watch him, um, 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:14.600 at least in terms of the flow of decision making. 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.840 So for instance, like you can kind of see like Mellow, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.960 Mellow just knows where his shots come from. Now. He 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:22.959 knows like, hey, when I got a little guy on me, 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:25.320 they're gonna throw to me in the post and I 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:27.160 get kind of free rein to do whatever I want 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:29.880 down there, and then I have this like blazing green 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.800 light from the three point line. He knows that, and 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:34.839 so as a result, you can kind of just see 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.000 in the offense, everyone kind of understands where Mellow is 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.360 going to be aggressive, and they understand how to play 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:42.319 off of that. The same goes for Lebron and Russ, 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.320 and it's so cool to see Russ kind of figuring 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.520 that out because I thought one of the pivotal stretches 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:50.959 of the game was the end of the third quarter 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:53.800 where Lebron goes to the bench. They're actually down ten 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:58.360 and Lebron Lebron engaged into the game defensively really in 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.360 that third quarter and he played well, but Indiana is 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:03.600 a good team at home, and they made some shots 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.360 and they kept the game kind of at arms distance 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:08.760 at ten points, and you could tell Lebron was frustrated. 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.040 There was a stretch there right before he stubbed out 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.120 of the game where Malik Monk in THHD both took 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:16.640 bad shots driving to the basket and missed, and his 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.000 body language got a little a little crappy, and you 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.760 can tell he was just annoyed and frustrated. And Lebron 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.679 as a tendency to, you know, when the game is achievable, 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.120 he's really dialed in, and sometimes when it's going off 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:29.600 the rails, he can kind of back out of the 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:31.800 game a little bit. And I thought it was so 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:34.960 critical that at the end of the third quarter, Russell 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.839 Westbrook just put his head down and got to the 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.160 ring and there was a stretch right to end the 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:42.320 quarter where it was he drove up to the basket, 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.120 made a layup. Then he on the very next possession, 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.200 drove to the basket, kicked out to the leak Monk 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:51.520 and Molik Monk used that close out from the defender 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:53.920 to get a little bit of a step uh to 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:57.680 make a pull up three to score fifth point. And 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:59.720 then obviously he could went right back down, drove to 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:01.480 the bast get, drew a foul, made two free throws, 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.520 and it's like bam seven, Oh run, we just turned 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:06.880 this ten point deficit into a three point deficit. Now, 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.720 Lebron's checking into the fourth quarter believing that that his 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.360 team could win, you know, and having that with Russ 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.880 is such a huge advantage because like he he has 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:18.840 looked so good over these last few weeks. And I 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:22.200 think and I think it's hard to you know, especially 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:25.880 with the NBA fans at large, non Laker fans, they 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:27.720 have a tendency because they don't watch the team enough 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.800 that Russell Westbrook just becomes the punching bag, you know. 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:32.800 And we saw that with we saw that with Kendrick 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:36.200 Perkins yesterday with that asinine take that he had on 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:38.360 on TV that kind of was making the rounds. But 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.720 Russ has been fantastic in the last couple of weeks, 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:44.520 and like even with his game tonight five or fifteen, 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.120 just took a ton of rim pressure and what that 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.920 does to generate quality looks for the rest of the team. 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.360 And you could see the pathway. The pathway is Russ 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:53.920 just putting his head down and get into the room 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:57.920 when Lebron's off the floor. Um there and for the 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.480 most part in crunch time deferring back to Lebron and 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.120 it works. You can see that. And obviously Anthony Davis 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:04.520 has to find a way to fit into that too. 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:07.240 But I was really really impressed with that offensive give 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:10.120 and take throughout the game. Yeah, and I've been saying 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.240 Russ has been having these like nuclear type of quarters 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.280 right where he just it's a nuclear tidal wave and 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:17.719 I would like to see a little bit more of 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.040 a consistent effort, consistent attack through it. But he picks 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:23.360 his spots and he's been much better, like you said, 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:25.200 the last few games. I think on the road trip 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:27.680 he's been pretty much the only one playing with the 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.320 type of urgency. I think he's been one of the 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.120 few guys and he's really picked them up. He's been huge. 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:36.640 His room attack was great last night. I think Lebron 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.480 like not to pick this back onto Lebron at the five. 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:41.800 But the reason we had to play Lebron at the five, 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:44.880 in my opinion, is because we have one serviceable center 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.680 on the on the roster right now, right especially last 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.120 night without a D is pretty much just why Howard, 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.000 which I think is why you know, Vogel was searching 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:55.680 and he found this Bron at the five lineup. But 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:57.960 I think it just it opens things up for Russ too. 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:00.640 It just it opens all the good stuff for us 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.200 when you have the amount of spacing that Braun at 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.720 the five gifts, plus adds another playmaker to that right 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:07.600 even when it's rust with a D at the five 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:10.240 eighties not the type where you can throw throw the 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:11.560 ball to him at the top of the key and 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:13.320 he play makes out of it. And I think it's 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.720 just nice for us to have that. I think lak 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:17.760 Monk next to it to another guy you can give 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.920 the ball to Russ does a lot of this drive 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.200 where he just touches the paint, like his whole goal 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:24.160 is to just touch the paint, right, and he collapsed 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:26.360 with the defense in whatever way. Kick it out and 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.160 Fee has all these guys around him. Uh, it really works. 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:31.400 I thought Wayne Ellington was a big part of last night. 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.040 To Wayne Ellington, I think went five for seven from 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.600 three last night. Uh. And I was so huge on 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.000 him in the summer, and I thought we really used 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.120 him and Malik Monk straints UH to our advantage. And 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:43.640 I want to ask you about this because they went 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.840 to the Uh, they went to the inverted guard screens, right, 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:49.600 And I've been asking for this with Allington with Monk, 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:51.760 and we saw that with Braun at the five. What 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:53.600 did you think about that, because I think that's something 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.680 we really should keep going forward. I harped on in 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:00.640 a lot last night how much I hope stays in 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.320 the rotation. And I don't think I know you said 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:07.000 like Lebron likes to have more of a physical toll 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:08.840 on him rather than having to move around. But I 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.320 still think it's a lot for him to play center 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.120 in a huge, huge amount of minutes. But I think 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.320 it's something we can go to with our second units, 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.000 like the rust bron led units. If you can have 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.560 Lebron at the five and those units, I think that's 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.000 somewhere we where we can something we can use to 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.800 our advantage when eighties off the floor, because I don't 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:28.600 think I think we only have one service will center 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:31.000 and we'll see dwhy Howard has these up and down games. 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:32.520 But what do you think about that? Because I thought 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.640 that was a huge part of last night too. It 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:36.800 looked like Lebron ball, right, and this is something Lebron 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:38.480 has done all his career. He did it with k 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:40.880 C P A lot. I think Ellington is a better shooter. 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.360 Ellington might have even more gravity. There was a bunch 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:45.840 of ghost screens where he'd faked the screen, but and 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:47.840 then League Monk coming and set the screen. Just having 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:49.880 shooters with gravity around. But what do you think about 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.160 that action? Because I think that's something important we can 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:55.680 take into into the games here. Yeah, brown ball is 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:57.520 the is the phrase that came to my mind as 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:01.120 I was watching the tape, because it's he feels most comfortable. 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:04.200 It's his style of play. But the irony is that's 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.119 the kind of his Russ's style too, And one of 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:09.320 the downsides of lebron ball is you know, when he 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.000 can get fatigued when you really wear them out by 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.000 having him consistently make decisions at the top of the key. 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.960 So having Russ as another option there, you know, kind 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:21.840 of like a second side creator is huge. Um. You know, 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:26.480 especially since this season he's shooting like on wide open threes. 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.679 I think he's actually he's right around thirty that can 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:31.840 remember if it's thirty four or thirty six, but it's 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.520 right around He's shooting wide open threes this year, which 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:37.600 is well enough that it's not going to kill you, 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:40.200 um if he if he continues to get good looks 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.119 out of it. But you know, the thing with the 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:44.680 guard the inverted guard screens is really interesting because the 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.480 reality of it is it's such an uncommon basketball play 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.760 that guards don't really know how to defend it. You know, 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.760 they don't they don't want to switch on the lebron 0:17:55.800 --> 0:18:00.320 So you know, there's a tendency it confuses defenses. You know, 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.560 like obviously, when coaches are practicing pick and roll coverages, 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:05.920 are talking about pick and roll coverages before a game, 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.080 they're envisioning Lebron and Russ running screening actions with DeAndre 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.080 Jordan and Dwight Howard, or maybe they're prepping for Anthony 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:14.720 Davis because they don't think he's going to stay in 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.480 his hotel room. So the point is is like it's 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.760 a confusing action because it's not something that you're necessarily 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.880 prepared for, and they're gonna they're gonna, in all likelihood, 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:27.600 want to switch it eventually, especially in like a playoff series. 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:29.600 You know, when they can scout it a little bit more. 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:31.639 But that's a switch you don't want to give up 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.600 because now you've got Lebron going against a smaller, smaller defender. 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:38.080 But then the flip side of that is more often 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.760 than not, with the switch like that, guys are gonna 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.960 botch it. And when they do, they're going to overplay 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.840 Lebron because you, if you're obviously your instinct is to 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:50.120 go to the better players. So there were a ton 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:52.720 of those sequences. Uh two of them I think that 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:54.640 I can remember in the fourth quarter in particular, where 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:57.280 Ellington and Monk, like you call them goo screens, come 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.800 inside the screen and then just quickly slip it. But 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.119 guys stay with Lebron is just an easy swing pass 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:04.080 and you're getting a wide open look out of it, 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.040 And yeah, I'm with you. It's a it's a it's 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:11.000 a really really interesting wrinkle. And you know, obviously, Anthony 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.480 Davis is the guy who's going to play the five 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:16.639 the vast majority of the time, as it should be. Um, 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:19.040