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Speaker 1: and I here at the volume. Happy Winesday everybody, hope
Speaker 1: all if you guys are having an incredible week, We're
Speaker 1: gonna be reacting to the Lakers in a mustling game
Speaker 1: getting their ass kicked yet again by the Sacramento Kings.
Speaker 1: Have really had their number this year, and the Kings
Speaker 1: win with defense, something that's been a consistent theme for
Speaker 1: them this season. Where to break that game down from
Speaker 1: the perspective of both teams, If you're looking for Nuggets heat,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be hitting that thing first thing in the morning.
Speaker 1: I only caught the fourth quarter this afternoon. With the
Speaker 1: time change, it started much earlier. We're gonna be hitting
Speaker 1: that in the morning as long as well as probably
Speaker 1: one additional game from tonight's slate. But saw that Reggie
Speaker 1: Jackson came in hit a bunch of big shots in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter, as the Nuggets have one of their
Speaker 1: textbook fourth quarter execution runs that they went on. So
Speaker 1: we'll be hitting that in the morning, but just hitting
Speaker 1: Lakers Kings in tonight's show. You guys know the joke
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: It I mean a lot to me. If you guys
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Speaker 1: You guys, don't miss show announcements as well as the
Speaker 1: film threads that I do from time to time. Don't
Speaker 1: forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast
Speaker 1: under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful of alleviate rating
Speaker 1: and review on that. On that front, we're also going
Speaker 1: to do a mail bag at least one more this week,
Speaker 1: if not two more, so make sure you drop some
Speaker 1: mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So I've talked about this a lot. I
Speaker 1: kind of last week in the Wednesday game, the one
Speaker 1: that the Kings went into LA and won, I talked
Speaker 1: a little bit about some of the matchup issues that
Speaker 1: the Kings present for the Lakers, and then that game
Speaker 1: was a resounding example of those matchup issues being exploited.
Speaker 1: And then you know, the Lakers had an opportunity in
Speaker 1: a must win game for them really and so many
Speaker 1: different levels. Obviously, to try to get out of the
Speaker 1: nine to ten slot, this specific game is vitally important
Speaker 1: to have any hope of climbing out of that specific
Speaker 1: position that they're in. And once again, like, it's the
Speaker 1: same stuff that keeps happening. And when you see a
Speaker 1: large sample size of basketball games and the same thing
Speaker 1: happening between two opponents, that typically means that it's a
Speaker 1: matchup related issue because like, obviously basketball games have a
Speaker 1: certain amount of varias, right, Like, there's always like random
Speaker 1: guys that get hot from three, right, Like, all these
Speaker 1: guys can shoot, but you're gonna have games where certain
Speaker 1: guys shoot above what they normally shoot. Right, Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: hid seven threes tonight, Right, Harrison Barnes hid seven threes tonight.
Speaker 1: Those are your guys that get hot. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: random kind of occurrences that take place, but the key
Speaker 1: facets of the game in matchup situations like this tend
Speaker 1: to be the same, right, And like first match up
Speaker 1: to hit on is Sabonis versus Anthony Davis. One of
Speaker 1: the things that happened with Anthony Davis is as that
Speaker 1: twenty twenty season unfolded, we saw an evolution of him
Speaker 1: that we saw that began with the Pelicans, where he
Speaker 1: was this great a guy that really showed some high
Speaker 1: level jump shooting, right, and then he peaks in the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty bubble and a lot of people look at
Speaker 1: it as just the bubble if you really zoom in
Speaker 1: on that season, and I covered that team very closely
Speaker 1: obviously that year. The Anthony Davis shot really well at
Speaker 1: the tail end of the regular season going into that
Speaker 1: bubble run, and then shot really well for the first
Speaker 1: stretch of the following season until he got hurt. So
Speaker 1: it was an extended stretch there where he was shooting
Speaker 1: the ball really, really well. And you know, one of
Speaker 1: the things that happens when you're a really tall player
Speaker 1: like Anthony Davis, you usually have one of two You
Speaker 1: either have like a speed advantage or a strength advantage.
Speaker 1: And when AD has one of those two, so for instance,
Speaker 1: when he's playing against a really slow footed center that
Speaker 1: he can just go right around. He looks great on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the four when he plays against
Speaker 1: a a particularly skinny center that he can just bully
Speaker 1: under the basket, kind of like what we've seen with
Speaker 1: Chet Holmgren so many times this year. He can have
Speaker 1: a ton of success, right, but once he runs into
Speaker 1: a guy that is both stronger and quicker than him,
Speaker 1: which is what Sabonis is all of a sudden, when
Speaker 1: Sabonis can beat him to spots and withstand the physical
Speaker 1: onslaught of Anthony Davis in those situations, it exposes his
Speaker 1: flaws as a shot maker. And Anthony Davis has had
Speaker 1: little improvements over the years, Like he's become a guy
Speaker 1: that can hit the floater in ball screens around you know,
Speaker 1: fifty five percent right. And he's a guy that can
Speaker 1: occasionally get to a left shoulder hook as long as
Speaker 1: the spacing is right and shoot that little hook shot
Speaker 1: over the top, and he can hit it like fifty
Speaker 1: to fifty five percent of the time. Nowhere near as
Speaker 1: efficient as a Yokis per se, but at least it's
Speaker 1: a shot that he has in his bag. But in general,
Speaker 1: as an over the top shot maker, that's a weakness
Speaker 1: of Anthony Davis for whatever reason. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's a combination of injuries or just how much muscle
Speaker 1: he's put on on his upper body, even though that's
Speaker 1: not really his archetype as a player. Whatever it is,
Speaker 1: there's been a lack of development in that specific area.
Speaker 1: And you know, one of the things that happens in
Speaker 1: the NBA is especially when you get into games that
Speaker 1: carry a certain amount of importance, which obviously is in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, but also during big moments in the regular
Speaker 1: season where there's like you know, especially important games in
Speaker 1: the standings, and the physicality and the intensity ramps up,
Speaker 1: especially as we saw in general since the All Star
Speaker 1: Break in terms of the way the game has been
Speaker 1: officiated around the league, just allowing more physicality, Like the
Speaker 1: league will find your flaws. It's not about what you're
Speaker 1: great at when you get into these kinds of games.
Speaker 1: It's very much about what you're bad at. And that's
Speaker 1: a thing like against against demonesst of Bonus, when ad
Speaker 1: is on offense, he Sabonis can beat him to spots
Speaker 1: and hold his ground, and so because of that, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis has to make over the top shots to beat him,
Speaker 1: and he just can't. It's not a strength of his
Speaker 1: Right then, when we flip and go to the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, Anthony Davis has put on a
Speaker 1: lot of muscle, but he's a high center of gravity guy.
Speaker 1: That was never his advantage. His advantage as a basketball
Speaker 1: player was speed and quickness and skill compared to other centers, right,
Speaker 1: Like that was what made Anthony Davis one of the
Speaker 1: best young center prospects in the league. It was his speed, quickness,
Speaker 1: and skill in addition to his length. It wasn't strength.
Speaker 1: And so as AD's put on strength, it hasn't changed
Speaker 1: the fact that with his frame, he is a really
Speaker 1: high center of gravity. So even though he's bigger and
Speaker 1: longer than Demonas Sabonis overall as a player, Sabonis and
Speaker 1: his low center of gravity can just power through Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: And we saw that in a bunch of different ways
Speaker 1: in this game, powering through him on cuts, powering through
Speaker 1: him on rolls cut, powering through him on straight post ups.
Speaker 1: To the point where here's the thing, Ad was really competing,
Speaker 1: and that that's what I mean when I say related
Speaker 1: in the sense that like AD's trying really hard, So
Speaker 1: Bonus is trying really hard. This wasn't an effort thing.
Speaker 1: S Bonus is just a bad matchup versus Anthony Davis. Now, obviously,
Speaker 1: Sabonis has his own issues when he runs into other
Speaker 1: really big, strong players that have really strong bases, kind
Speaker 1: of like what we saw with Kevon Looney and Draymond Green.
Speaker 1: He can struggle to create the separation he needs to
Speaker 1: finish around the rim, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: that starts to shine a light on some of his flaws. Right,
Speaker 1: but specifically, as we zoom in on the Ad Sabonis battle.
Speaker 1: On the offensive end, it's he can beat him to
Speaker 1: spots and force him to make shots over the top,
Speaker 1: which he's not good at. And on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: he can bump him off of his spot because of
Speaker 1: his high center of gravity and still find finishing angles.
Speaker 1: And then in that fourth quarter run, it was a
Speaker 1: lot of work on the offensive glass. So Bonus had
Speaker 1: I think five offensive rebounds in total in the game,
Speaker 1: but he had several. He had like three in a
Speaker 1: row there in the fourth quarter where it was like
Speaker 1: either tapouts or offensive rebounds, where one of two things
Speaker 1: would happen. Either Ad would have to help in a
Speaker 1: ball screen situation or a dribble handoff situation. I talk
Speaker 1: a lot about that bracket of a two man game coverage,
Speaker 1: right the over the top guy in the screen defender
Speaker 1: as Ad has to come out, that leaves a vacancy
Speaker 1: for Sabonis to operate there, and sa Bonis did a
Speaker 1: lot of damage to Ad there and then in there
Speaker 1: were two offensive rebounds in that fourth quarter stretch where
Speaker 1: Ad was engaged with Sabonis underneath the rim. But once again,
Speaker 1: what Sabonus is doing is he's basically it's a rebounding
Speaker 1: strategy where you're basically giving yourself a field of play
Speaker 1: that's your side, meaning like Sabonis will just bury Ad
Speaker 1: up into that the side of the rim that's closest
Speaker 1: to the shooter, and he's basically making it so that
Speaker 1: any long rebound that comes over the top, he can
Speaker 1: disengage from Ad and go get the basketball. And one
Speaker 1: of the things as a team you need to do
Speaker 1: to counter that is crack down from the perimeter to
Speaker 1: help Ad in those situations. And that's something that the
Speaker 1: Lakers have always struggled with this season. So, like again
Speaker 1: a matchup related thing AD struggles with big guys that
Speaker 1: can kind of fight him off for position and seal
Speaker 1: off elements of the of the court where they can
Speaker 1: offensive rebound, and then the Lakers don't have the perimeter
Speaker 1: rebounding to account for it. So that's kind of an
Speaker 1: example of the SA bonus versus AD element here. Now. Secondly,
Speaker 1: the Kings have a ton of speed at the guard
Speaker 1: position on the defensive end the floor as well. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about offense, but I want to zoom in
Speaker 1: on the offense on the specifically when the Lakers are
Speaker 1: on offense, because one of the things the Kings are
Speaker 1: twentieth in defense this year coming into the night, and
Speaker 1: they haven't defended nearly as consistently as they need to,
Speaker 1: which is definitely something the Kings have to sharpen up
Speaker 1: if they're gonna have any chance to make a deep
Speaker 1: playoff run. Right like after tonight. They're now sixteen and
Speaker 1: three when they hold their opponents to one hundred and
Speaker 1: ten points or fewer, and they're ten and fifteen when
Speaker 1: they allow over one hundred and twenty points. They've always
Speaker 1: won with defense. This year, they have not been a
Speaker 1: team that is good at outscoring teams and shootout types
Speaker 1: of games. The tenth and offense. They are a good offense,
Speaker 1: but they're not good enough offensively to do that. They
Speaker 1: have to identify what their strength is. Like perimeter speed
Speaker 1: is the best strength of this roster, and perimeter speed
Speaker 1: can be deployed in two ways. We've talked endlessly about
Speaker 1: Malik Monk and Deer and Fox and then coming off
Speaker 1: of these dribble handoffs and their ability to work in
Speaker 1: the mid range and their ability to attack the rim
Speaker 1: and beat guys just off the dribble and straight ISO
Speaker 1: situations as well. And that's all great, that's all great,
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, one of the
Speaker 1: best ways to deploy perimeter speed is in ball pressure,
Speaker 1: just like and flying around in rotation right and like
Speaker 1: one of the specific weaknesses that D'Angelo Russell has had
Speaker 1: throughout his career, who saw this in a big way
Speaker 1: against Bruce Brown in Kentavious callboll Pope in the Conference
Speaker 1: finals against the Nuggets last year, is when you're a
Speaker 1: guard that is quicker than d Lo and strong enough
Speaker 1: to hold your ground against some of the leverage plays
Speaker 1: that he makes, you could really cause him problems, and
Speaker 1: from the opening tip of this game, Kean Ellis was
Speaker 1: just up in D'angela Russell's jersey, and then as soon
Speaker 1: as he stepped off the floor, here came Here came
Speaker 1: Davion Mitchell, and he did the exact same thing, and
Speaker 1: they were just up in D'Angelo Russell's space, being super
Speaker 1: physical and bumping him off his spots and not giving
Speaker 1: him the kind of baked in openings that Delo's accustomed
Speaker 1: to operating with. He ends up going two for nine
Speaker 1: in the game, so like like that's the thing. And
Speaker 1: again Dlo has been twenty three points per game for
Speaker 1: like literally like two months now. He's killing everybody. Again.
Speaker 1: They held the Lakers to one hundred and seven points,
Speaker 1: an excellent defensive effort from the Kings. The Lakers have
Speaker 1: been the second best offense in the league since the
Speaker 1: beginning of February. They've been the sixth best offense in
Speaker 1: the league since January seventh. That's a thirty game sample size.
Speaker 1: This is an This is an elite offense that the
Speaker 1: Kings just completely shut down tonight. It started at the
Speaker 1: point of attack, started with Keon Ellis and Davion Mitchell
Speaker 1: for the entirety of the game just making D'Angelo Russell uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: And again, one of the problems with D'angela Russell just
Speaker 1: overall as a basketball player is like he kind of
Speaker 1: is like James Harden in the sense that in the
Speaker 1: flow of an eighty two game regular season his skill. Obviously,
Speaker 1: James Harden is a much much better player than d
Speaker 1: Angela Russell. I don't mean to compare him like that,
Speaker 1: but it's a similar issue that James Harden runs into
Speaker 1: when he gets into the postseason. D'angela Russell wants the
Speaker 1: athleticism steps up a level, the intensity steps up a level,
Speaker 1: the physicality steps up a level, and teams are willing
Speaker 1: to do things like pick up full court and ball
Speaker 1: pressure and deny and do all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, d Loo's athletic shortcomings start to
Speaker 1: rise to the surface. And again, this is why I
Speaker 1: talk about like the playoffs and important regular season games
Speaker 1: as like exposures of your flaws. The reason why they
Speaker 1: matter is like it's just like anything else. It's like
Speaker 1: a video game. Each level you pass gets harder and harder.
Speaker 1: Lebron said that during the postseason last year. Every time
Speaker 1: they want a series, he'd be like, the next one's
Speaker 1: gonna be even harder. It's because he knows, he's been
Speaker 1: through this. He knows it's like you every consecutive series.
Speaker 1: It's like it's another team that has made it to
Speaker 1: this point, that has better person that is better coached,
Speaker 1: that plays harder, that is more firm in their details
Speaker 1: and more firm in their habits, and they will expose
Speaker 1: what you're bad at. And in this particular game, there's
Speaker 1: one guy in this matchup that has a significant advantage.
Speaker 1: We talked about Sabonis and how he struggled Ad and
Speaker 1: how he struggles with Sabonis. We talked about D'Angelo Russell
Speaker 1: and how he can struggle with the speed guards for
Speaker 1: the Kings. Even osinries he shot the three ball really
Speaker 1: really well, but this is not a team that he
Speaker 1: can like really create off the bounce against the way
Speaker 1: that he can against some other teams. Although Austin had
Speaker 1: a great game Tonatia twenty eight six and four, kind
Speaker 1: of seventeen from the field, hit seven three. He's a
Speaker 1: great game from Austin, but Austin has struggled in this
Speaker 1: matchup this year, he's had rough games against the Kings,
Speaker 1: and so we talked about the guards. We talked about
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. The one guy who really has a big
Speaker 1: time advantage is Lebron James. None of their wings are
Speaker 1: big enough to guard him, none of their bigs are
Speaker 1: fast enough to guard him, none of their guards are
Speaker 1: big enough to guard him. No one can guard it.
Speaker 1: But it requires him to play with a certain level
Speaker 1: of physical imposition. His advantage there is strength and power,
Speaker 1: and for three quarters Lebron was just floating around the
Speaker 1: dam perimeter and content to throw up jump shots and
Speaker 1: was sloppy with the basketball, and to tie it all together,
Speaker 1: he was also having a bad defensive game. Ei There
Speaker 1: were countless possessions in this game where he was ducking
Speaker 1: under picks on Harrison Barnes and letting him walk into
Speaker 1: three point shots, or just not paying attention off the ball.
Speaker 1: There was a big three that I think he can
Speaker 1: Murray hit on the left wing in the third quarter,
Speaker 1: where Lebron was standing in the dunker spot on the
Speaker 1: right side of the floor guarding his man. The Kings
Speaker 1: had moved around and every Laker moved and Lebron just
Speaker 1: stood there and next thing. You know, there's a wide
Speaker 1: open shooter on the left wing because Lebron's not paying attention,
Speaker 1: and so, like, honestly, it was one of the worst
Speaker 1: games I've seen Lebron James play in his time in
Speaker 1: a Laker and heresy. And so when you already have
Speaker 1: disadvance that you're working against from a personnel standpoint, with
Speaker 1: ad On Sibonis and with d Lo and Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: against their athletic and speedy backcourt, and you have this
Speaker 1: one guy who's got like this the the tools to
Speaker 1: really punish this team, and he gives you just one
Speaker 1: of his worst efforts of the season, not just in
Speaker 1: terms of his shot making, but also just in general
Speaker 1: with his approach. Took too much of a passive approach
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor. And you're just not
Speaker 1: gonna beat a really good team in a must win
Speaker 1: setting like this if you don't get better play out
Speaker 1: of Lebron James and Anthony Davis. But at least with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, I thought he was competing. I thought ad
Speaker 1: was trying. This is just a bad matchup for him.
Speaker 1: These are weaknesses in his game that are exposed. Look, Lebron,
Speaker 1: he has the strengths in his game and the lack
Speaker 1: of weaknesses in his game to attack this team. He
Speaker 1: just needs to bring the requisite level of physical imposition
Speaker 1: and he just did not. And that's that's where it
Speaker 1: kind of turned quickly for them. I want to come
Speaker 1: back to the Kings a little bit. I want a
Speaker 1: little bit about defense. We talked about how they're sixteen
Speaker 1: and three when they hold opponents to one ten or fewer.
Speaker 1: They're ten and fifteen when they allow over one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty points. In this particular game, you saw they're
Speaker 1: capable of defending at a really high level. Kean Ellis
Speaker 1: and Davion Mitchell because of what they can do on
Speaker 1: the ball taking the primary guard. It leaves Daron Fox
Speaker 1: and Malik Monk to take a matchup like Austin Reeves,
Speaker 1: who is a really good player but obviously is not
Speaker 1: as involved in the offense typically as the Angela Russell
Speaker 1: typically is. It's an easier job, right, And that's just
Speaker 1: that goes down the line to other matchups as well.
Speaker 1: When you can throw a ke On Ellis and a
Speaker 1: Davion Mitchell at a Damian Lillard and you can keep
Speaker 1: Dearon Fox in Malik Monk in an easier, lower intensity
Speaker 1: defensive matchup right. But it's that speed flying around on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. It's rebounding Like Keg and Murray had eleven
Speaker 1: rebounds tonight, eight of them defensive. It's like that. That
Speaker 1: to me, it's the wave after wave of perimeter speed
Speaker 1: for them when they're defending on the ball, being physical
Speaker 1: in their ball pressure, denying off the ball, flying around
Speaker 1: in rotation. When they really weaponize their speed, they can
Speaker 1: be good. And like when we you know, when we
Speaker 1: look back at the offensive end, obviously we get seven
Speaker 1: threes out of Harrison Barnes. Big one there was the
Speaker 1: Lakers were ducking under picks. So with the with the
Speaker 1: guards they were chasing over the top, but with Harrison
Speaker 1: Barnes in particular, they were going under. And so Harrison
Speaker 1: got into a rhythm early by basically finding that soft
Speaker 1: spot right behind the screen as the defenders ducking under
Speaker 1: to go to the other side of the screen, and
Speaker 1: he was just rising and fire firing, and so he
Speaker 1: got comfortable like that and he started hitting catch and
Speaker 1: shoot threes after that. Again, Kean Ellis, we talked about
Speaker 1: his defensive effort, but he also did a really nice
Speaker 1: job punishing D'Angelo Russell in this game early for overhelping,
Speaker 1: just sitting in that right corner and being ready to
Speaker 1: take and make the big threes in the corner when
Speaker 1: de Lo overhelps. We talked about Keagan Murray hit the
Speaker 1: five threes, also took two super important charges on Lebron
Speaker 1: the eight defensive rebounds. Darren Fox had a bad three
Speaker 1: point shooting night, but he cooked him in the mid
Speaker 1: range and at the rim like he always and you
Speaker 1: didn't need him to score much tonight. And then you know,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. The Kings have their own issues. They're
Speaker 1: a little bit matchup dependent too, Like when they face
Speaker 1: teams with really good perimeter defenders like Houston, like Chicago.
Speaker 1: They've taken some bad losses and they in the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks they've lost at home to Houston, to Chicago,
Speaker 1: to Miami. They have their own matchup related issues, right,
Speaker 1: But this type of matchup they can thrive against. They
Speaker 1: kicked the Bucks ass last night, same sort of thing,
Speaker 1: a team that lacks speed on the perimeter and they
Speaker 1: just did a ton of damage to them. But like
Speaker 1: they do have their advantages, and so the question is
Speaker 1: for the Kings, just like we've talked about with the
Speaker 1: Lakers and their kind of path, their sliver that they
Speaker 1: can kind of slip through to try to make a
Speaker 1: playoff run. For the Kings, it's consistently defending. You have
Speaker 1: better personnel than the twentieth ranked defense in the league.
Speaker 1: You've got guys that can really fly around and make
Speaker 1: things difficult on the perimeter. That has to be something
Speaker 1: that becomes a part of your identity in the next
Speaker 1: month two. So Bonus has to maintain his element of
Speaker 1: rim finishing and the confidence that he's had in his
Speaker 1: jump shot this year, because that was what hurt him
Speaker 1: against the Warriors last year, right ignoring him in jump
Speaker 1: shooting situations and then kind of withstanding the drop shoulder
Speaker 1: left handed finish. That's the Bonus can kill teams with.
Speaker 1: Third Deeranon Fox has to play like a superstar. He
Speaker 1: did for the most part in the playoffs last year.
Speaker 1: This has been the best scoring season of his career.
Speaker 1: I think Dearon Fox is encroaching on that superstar tier.
Speaker 1: He needs to play like that when they get there.
Speaker 1: And then again, Malik Monk, I thought Milik Monks showed
Speaker 1: that he can succeed in the playoffs last year and
Speaker 1: the Warriors series. Obviously they need him to maintain that.
Speaker 1: But if they can put all that together, they have
Speaker 1: a puncher's chance, just like anybody else after the Denver
Speaker 1: in Boston tier. But did you twentieth on defense is
Speaker 1: not good enough. That's something that for their personnel they
Speaker 1: need to be better at. On the Lakers front, this
Speaker 1: is just what they are. They're a good team, but
Speaker 1: they're a flawed team. I had a lot of fans
Speaker 1: in my Twitter mentions being like, oh, they're maybe the
Speaker 1: Lakers are just bad. No, they're not. They They're what
Speaker 1: twelve and six in their last eighteen games, that's, you know,
Speaker 1: two wins for every loss. They're what nineteen and twelve
Speaker 1: in their last thirty one games They've started the season
Speaker 1: fifteen and nine counting the n season tournament win. Like,
Speaker 1: they're not a bad team, They're just a flawed team.
Speaker 1: They're exactly what they were last year. If they catch
Speaker 1: the right matchups, they can beat teams. They catch bad matchups,
Speaker 1: they can lose the teams. That puts them in that
Speaker 1: tier with the rest of the teams down there. But
Speaker 1: the problem is is because they let their foot off
Speaker 1: the gas and went three to ten for a thirteen
Speaker 1: game stretch. After the n season tournament, they don't have
Speaker 1: the luxury of being in a situation where they can
Speaker 1: have a home playing game to win one to get in,
Speaker 1: let alone, maybe even a secured in a playoff spot
Speaker 1: there in the four to five to six range, which
Speaker 1: they very well might have had if they didn't let
Speaker 1: their foot off the gas in such a big way
Speaker 1: in the middle of the season. And so they've now
Speaker 1: put themselves in a situation they were already flawed, they
Speaker 1: were already matchup dependent, but now they put themselves in
Speaker 1: a situation where they might not even have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to beat a team four times out of seven because
Speaker 1: they mailed in so many games during the middle of
Speaker 1: the season. Now they're in the playing tournament, you know.
Speaker 1: And like, as we look at their kind of personnel situation,
Speaker 1: like Lebron is old and he's not as consistent as
Speaker 1: the younger stars in the league because he's old, and
Speaker 1: because he's dealing with the nagging ankle injury, and like
Speaker 1: the legs just aren't there like they usually are. I mean, hell,
Speaker 1: I'm thirty two and I feel like, my legs are
Speaker 1: not as consistently good as they were when I was
Speaker 1: in my mid twenties. I can't even imagine how that
Speaker 1: dude's feeling at thirty nine with all the minutes that
Speaker 1: he has on his body. Right, So, like that's just
Speaker 1: something that comes with the territory, right, Anthony Davis, he is,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, firmly one of the ten best basketball
Speaker 1: players in the world, but he has a significant matchup
Speaker 1: weakness against big bodied centers that can withstand his physical
Speaker 1: approach while also sliding their feet well enough to make
Speaker 1: him into a shot maker and that can bury him
Speaker 1: under the rim on the other end of the floor.
Speaker 1: And then their role players. They all have abilities, but
Speaker 1: they've got some redundancies, right, Like Ruey's more or less
Speaker 1: the same type of player as Lebron Delo is more
Speaker 1: or less the same type of player as Austin Delo
Speaker 1: in particular, really really struggles with ball pressure and physicality.
Speaker 1: Ruey straight up can't play him in certain matchups defensively
Speaker 1: because of his inability to navigate screens and defend on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. And again, everything for this team comes down
Speaker 1: to what kind of path lays in front of them,
Speaker 1: and at this point there's so much luck that they
Speaker 1: need to get in terms of the team they place
Speaker 1: a face in the play in the team they face
Speaker 1: in the first round. It just like with each passing day,
Speaker 1: it just seems like that window gets narrow or and narrow.
Speaker 1: There's still a path there. But like I in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, I looked at this particular game against
Speaker 1: Sacramento is a certain gateway test, like if you're gonna
Speaker 1: do something in the playoffs, this is the game you win.
Speaker 1: They each have three times already, Like you have the
Speaker 1: motivational advantage, you need the game more than Sacramento does.
Speaker 1: You have the embarrassment like sort of thing going on
Speaker 1: after everything that's happened to you against them this season,
Speaker 1: and you go on the road and your two best
Speaker 1: players play like crap and you get your butt kicked,
Speaker 1: Like that's that to me is one of those things
Speaker 1: where like if you look back at a team that
Speaker 1: makes a deep playoff run, they typically pass tests like
Speaker 1: this in the regular season, and the Lakers more often
Speaker 1: than not have failed these kinds of tests. And I'm
Speaker 1: a big believer, and like a basketball team will tell
Speaker 1: you who they are and you know, even early in
Speaker 1: the season, when they started fourteen fifteen to nine counting
Speaker 1: the N Season Tournament win, even at that point they
Speaker 1: were winning kind of ugly games. They would bs for
Speaker 1: three quarters and then lock in and win at the end.
Speaker 1: That was how they were winning early. They would play
Speaker 1: bad for three quarters and then come back and win.
Speaker 1: Like they were an inconsistent effort team from the start.
Speaker 1: So are we surprised that they went three to ten
Speaker 1: after the N Season Tournament and immediately relaxed once they
Speaker 1: had a little bit of success. I'm not surprised. Are
Speaker 1: we surprised that they've been not very sharp off ball defensively,
Speaker 1: which is what killed them tonight getting you know, we
Speaker 1: talked about the bracket coverages, like they constantly were just
Speaker 1: in predicaments where like they had to bring that third
Speaker 1: defender over and then they get burned on a skip pass,
Speaker 1: or Lebron would have to come down to box out
Speaker 1: some bonus and then he'd get burned on a skip pass,
Speaker 1: and like they just this has It's been a consistent
Speaker 1: issue all year, and so again when teams try to
Speaker 1: tell us who they are, we got to listen to them,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm off my soapbox for tonight. Big win
Speaker 1: for the Kings kind of just feels like that kind
Speaker 1: of season for the Lakers, and I feel like all
Speaker 1: Lakers fans should adjust their expectations accordingly. But I do
Speaker 1: want to just say before we get out of here
Speaker 1: that I sincerely appreciate all of you guys for supporting
Speaker 1: the show. Tomorrow morning, we'll be back with Heat Nuggets
Speaker 1: in probably one other game, and then just a typical
Speaker 1: game breakdown mail bag type of day on Friday, so
Speaker 1: I will see you guys tomorrow morning. I appreciate you
Speaker 1: see that the volume