Speaker 1: M Well, that was a cute old fast and ask
Speaker 1: you thing. ROSA. Yeah, I'm not really sure where to
Speaker 1: take this one. I was writing notes, you know, as
Speaker 1: I try to do, and I realized how um unnecessary
Speaker 1: that was. After about I think like the six minute
Speaker 1: mark of the first quarter, it was pretty much over.
Speaker 1: So I'm not really sure where you want to go
Speaker 1: with us this one. So where where would you want
Speaker 1: to Well, I guess we can kind of let more
Speaker 1: people get in here. We'll go for a little while
Speaker 1: and then kind of let people as well, um vent
Speaker 1: their frustrations. I'm sure there's a lot of people would
Speaker 1: like to kind of come up and I guess say
Speaker 1: their piece, um that. But there's a game coming up,
Speaker 1: So where would you where'd you want to take this? So, Okay,
Speaker 1: like I'm kind of with you, there's not a whole
Speaker 1: lot to take there. I had a hand full of
Speaker 1: things that I want to touch on, but there's not
Speaker 1: too much to take away from a game. When a
Speaker 1: team quits the way that the Lakers did. Um. But
Speaker 1: I mean that there's no real way to sugarcoat well
Speaker 1: what happened out there that they they went into a
Speaker 1: huge playoff game. Um, on the road. And I think
Speaker 1: one of the things you and I glossed over when
Speaker 1: we were prepping for this is we failed to account
Speaker 1: for the fact that a lot of these guys, you know,
Speaker 1: Alex Cruso, I mean, Dennis Shooter has had some playoff
Speaker 1: games that he's been a part of, but none that
Speaker 1: none that resembled this, like really high pressure games for
Speaker 1: a team that has expectations, and uh, Dennis hasn't really
Speaker 1: been in a spot like that. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of these guys were a little bit I thought shell shocked.
Speaker 1: A Drummond was another big one who was who was
Speaker 1: shell shocked. And and I think that, uh, they let
Speaker 1: go the rope. And and that's what happens when you
Speaker 1: let go of the rope on the road in front
Speaker 1: of you know, seventeen thousand ravenous fans and a young team.
Speaker 1: Um that's really riding that wave the way that the
Speaker 1: Suns were. But I'm with you, I don't want to
Speaker 1: spend too much time talking about it. We'll hit on
Speaker 1: the few things that that we want to touch on,
Speaker 1: and then I think we should just get some of
Speaker 1: you guys, the fans up here to to vent a
Speaker 1: little bit and get some of your frustrations off off
Speaker 1: of your chest. Uh. I guess where I wanted to start,
Speaker 1: raj is in the first quarter, I thought that the
Speaker 1: Laker role players were obviously shook, and it manifested by
Speaker 1: them not wanting to take open threes. And there was
Speaker 1: a specific play that I tweeted about were Lebron drove, worked,
Speaker 1: worked to a matchup that he liked, and then beat
Speaker 1: his man to the basket, drawed an extra defender, kind
Speaker 1: of jumped out of bounds, and just through a scoot
Speaker 1: pass to the corner to Shrewder and Shrewder home and
Speaker 1: didn't take the open shot, at which point the Lakers
Speaker 1: had to reset and they ran an action with with
Speaker 1: Drummond and Shrewder and he ended up missing a much
Speaker 1: more difficult contest to Jumper. And remember sitting there thinking like,
Speaker 1: what's the point of having Lebron do all that work
Speaker 1: to draw all that attention if you don't want to
Speaker 1: shoot the ball? Um and then cuss first possession comes
Speaker 1: in wide open corner three doesn't take it, And I
Speaker 1: thought that was so bizarre, just the mentality of the team.
Speaker 1: What did you notice early in the game as far
Speaker 1: as the Lakers and their approach from the start. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: like I think they actually went up what like five
Speaker 1: nothing or seven nothing, right, I don't think Penix was
Speaker 1: kind of hitting shots early, and then Devin Booker kind
Speaker 1: of hit his first three, which kind of showed how
Speaker 1: the game was gonna go. Um. I thought he had
Speaker 1: a bunch of tough shots in the first you got
Speaker 1: a nice whistle, Um, he got a bunch of and ones.
Speaker 1: Um that really got him going and got the crowd going.
Speaker 1: I thought the crowd was a huge part of this.
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't the reason the Lakers lost this game,
Speaker 1: but you can totally tell the difference between like this
Speaker 1: capacity and like what's going on in the stable center.
Speaker 1: But that's no excuse for these guys to be passing
Speaker 1: up shots. I thought Dennis Shrewder, Kyle Kuzma passing up
Speaker 1: those threes were just huge for the Sons. They just
Speaker 1: continue to pack the paint. People were telling Lebron to drive.
Speaker 1: There were just no lanes, especially with Andre Drummond there.
Speaker 1: He got pulled early. So Frank Bogo went with Marcus
Speaker 1: saul Um and I think he put in Caruso as
Speaker 1: well for Shrewder. With in like six minutes and six
Speaker 1: quake minutes, and then Saw got attacked in ball stree
Speaker 1: in actions, which I thought they would, and Lakers just
Speaker 1: could not shoot Man Passol Gonna hit it three. Crusoe
Speaker 1: was also kind of passing some up. K cp Um
Speaker 1: still isn't himself, and that really just took the game off.
Speaker 1: I thought Lebron would be a little bit more kind
Speaker 1: of aggressive to come out, but it just seemed like
Speaker 1: the whole team was kind of ready to just go
Speaker 1: to Game six, right like. I think that was that's
Speaker 1: what the vibe felt like. And maybe Anthony Davis being
Speaker 1: like a game time decision kind of just really messed
Speaker 1: with I don't know, I don't know if that's the
Speaker 1: reasoning we're not in there, but just him kind of
Speaker 1: maybe about to play, and once he wasn't playing, it's
Speaker 1: like the whole team kind of just took a breath
Speaker 1: and I was like, Okay, game six it is, and
Speaker 1: and the whole team kind of felt like that. In
Speaker 1: that first quarter. It was just sad they had ten
Speaker 1: points I think like three minutes left in the first
Speaker 1: Um just could not score. And then Devin Booker hitting
Speaker 1: those shots campaign came in and pretty much punked all
Speaker 1: our guards went straight to the rim um. I think
Speaker 1: you said it absolutely exactly, And that was the sad
Speaker 1: part to me. It's like the there's like a there's
Speaker 1: like a competitiveness that should show up when a guy
Speaker 1: is just taking you right off. The dribble campaign wasn't
Speaker 1: even getting screened. Sometimes it was just one on one
Speaker 1: um straight line drives, and that's really what killed us,
Speaker 1: I thought early. And then the game was over and
Speaker 1: you're down in like the second half, in the second quarter,
Speaker 1: like six minutes left. W what do you? Where do
Speaker 1: you go from there? Um? So that's kind of how
Speaker 1: I saw this game started. It was it was a
Speaker 1: really poor effort, and you can't just concede games in
Speaker 1: seven game series. They already conceded Game one. They talked
Speaker 1: about it and the games the absolutely run rag and
Speaker 1: that was what I said after Game one, like it's
Speaker 1: all fun and games to have a feelout game, but
Speaker 1: there is an anatomy to it. A seven game series,
Speaker 1: you have to beat them four times and things can
Speaker 1: go off the rails. You can have crazy shooting nights,
Speaker 1: you can have the opposite of a crazy shooting night.
Speaker 1: Someone can get hurt. You can have a night where
Speaker 1: the crowd just carries you. And this is why you
Speaker 1: cannot trick off a game, because if you're up, if
Speaker 1: you're up three games to one and the a d
Speaker 1: injury happens, the entire belief surrounding the Sun's franchise is
Speaker 1: different than the way they were tonight. I would be
Speaker 1: willing to bet money that the Suns were talking to
Speaker 1: themselves today about how they were going to go out
Speaker 1: there and kick their ass tonight because they believe. And
Speaker 1: I think that I think that there was a huge
Speaker 1: psychological advantage to to the way that the Suns were
Speaker 1: playing and and and it was it was just it
Speaker 1: was just so frustrating. And again you have to think
Speaker 1: that coming into this game that Frank Vogel was talking
Speaker 1: to them extensively about how they needed to be aggressive
Speaker 1: at the three point line and they just needed to
Speaker 1: make some shots. You have to think that was the
Speaker 1: talking point. You have to think Lebron was telling him,
Speaker 1: I need you guys to shoot. I'm gonna be kicking
Speaker 1: it to you. I need you guys to shoot. And
Speaker 1: for them then to come out and to not be aggressive,
Speaker 1: you know, in all those different spots, and for the record,
Speaker 1: I want to they're a little bit of blame on
Speaker 1: Lebron here. He had a couple of sloppy turnovers at
Speaker 1: the beginning, and you know, I think that you have
Speaker 1: to read the writing on the wall and you have
Speaker 1: to see, hey, these guys are all are completely shook.
Speaker 1: So maybe now is when I have to start firing away,
Speaker 1: even if I go ten for thirty. And he did
Speaker 1: that in the third quarter, but it was too late,
Speaker 1: and I don't know that any of it would have
Speaker 1: been enough tonight. Um. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like you and I talked extensively, they just needed some
Speaker 1: guys to make some shots to loosen things up. Because Lebron,
Speaker 1: if you when we watched the tape, it's gonna be insane.
Speaker 1: Lebron had no advantage to work with when he would
Speaker 1: get to his spots. It was it was Chris Paul
Speaker 1: was just completely ignoring Dennis Shudder. Wanted nothing to do
Speaker 1: with Dennis Shredder guarding him at the three point line,
Speaker 1: you know, like you hat eight and waiting under the basket.
Speaker 1: Mccale Bridge is just literally hunting passing lanes because nobody's
Speaker 1: making any shots. You make two or three threes early
Speaker 1: in that game, it softens things up, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the driving lanes do open up, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's that cascading effect that you and I always
Speaker 1: talked about kind of hit its zenith and in the
Speaker 1: worst way tonight, where all of a sudden, just the
Speaker 1: entire Laker offense bogged down in that second quarter and
Speaker 1: a lack of shooting became a problem. And then right
Speaker 1: on the other end, the Son's just continually confidently knocked
Speaker 1: everything down. And I want to give them a ton
Speaker 1: of credit for for doing what the Lakers did not
Speaker 1: in that regard, right And there was a lot of
Speaker 1: like referee like talking about the referees, and I thought
Speaker 1: they also had a bunch of like struggling struggle calls tonight,
Speaker 1: But we talked about a lot they reward the physical team, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's what referees do. They were aboard the physical team,
Speaker 1: and Phoenix was absolutely the more physical team. They were
Speaker 1: punking us down low, punkings on offensive rebounds, going right
Speaker 1: right at us at our chest, and they were going
Speaker 1: to get the calls. And I think Lebron tried when
Speaker 1: we're down like fifteen eighteen to go to the rim.
Speaker 1: Tried to put his head down and they were just
Speaker 1: staying off him, and you know, he thought he got
Speaker 1: fouled on a few of them. Looked like he might
Speaker 1: have got hit in the face. But you know, when
Speaker 1: you're down eighteen twenty, you don't have any sympathy from
Speaker 1: the referees. Um, they weren't calling anything, and that he
Speaker 1: just couldn't go to the rim. So at that time
Speaker 1: all he can do was shoot. The jumper was off
Speaker 1: to start. I thought he started hitting later later in
Speaker 1: the third quarter, later in the fourth he started getting
Speaker 1: his jumper going. Maybe that would be good for a
Speaker 1: game six. But they were flying under our screens. Man,
Speaker 1: They're just especially Dennis Shruder was pumped making right like
Speaker 1: he was pump aking to no one. No one was
Speaker 1: going for those. Um, he has no driving lanes as well.
Speaker 1: He's coming off those eight and is sitting in the paint.
Speaker 1: He's lost all confident. It's in his mid range jumper,
Speaker 1: his three ball. He was shooting as a super last resort.
Speaker 1: So it's just a lot of hens going against them,
Speaker 1: and maybe going home helps here again, we can hope
Speaker 1: the three point shooting is still just got awful. I
Speaker 1: thought Wes Matthews hit a few tonight. I try to
Speaker 1: get it with them. You have to find some shooters,
Speaker 1: man uh Vogo went to the thht and Ben McLamore
Speaker 1: trying to just find, you know, some kind of spark.
Speaker 1: I think in the second quarter that just wasn't The
Speaker 1: other guards did deserve to play anymore because they had
Speaker 1: mentally checked out of the game direction exactly. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of how the game went. Man. Like I wrote
Speaker 1: down Drummond's kind of defensive awareness, but again, all this
Speaker 1: stuff is so minute like it just doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: the effort isn't at a baseline level. Like I thought
Speaker 1: his awareness was really bad tonight. Um he was. He
Speaker 1: was just coming off screens. Devin Booker hit three threes
Speaker 1: in a row, and he's coming off worried about Kaminsky
Speaker 1: on the short roll, Like you let co Minsk kind
Speaker 1: of get that pass right, You've got to get up
Speaker 1: on Devin Booker when he's steaming hot like that. I
Speaker 1: think Booker had like eighteen in the first quarter, and
Speaker 1: one of the last shots of the quarter there was
Speaker 1: a little a little screen with Kaminsky and Drummonds kind
Speaker 1: of sitting back and I'm like, you gotta be up
Speaker 1: on that. And again, those are things that matter on
Speaker 1: the core. Those are kind of the xs and os um.
Speaker 1: The game isn't played on spreadsheets and all that. But
Speaker 1: that's just the stuff that I saw kind of on
Speaker 1: the floor that they need to clean up. But again,
Speaker 1: those things are so minor when you look at just
Speaker 1: the total effort and just getting out getting punked out
Speaker 1: of the out of the game in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: like you didn't even give yourself a chance in my opinion,
Speaker 1: Like this game was over five minutes in, which is
Speaker 1: just unacceptable for a for a playoff game. And I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I thought a lot about, you know, just
Speaker 1: kind of leaning back on what what Lebron must be
Speaker 1: thinking right now as someone who has been in so
Speaker 1: many different playoffs series in his career, and the one
Speaker 1: that came to mind for me was two thousand eighteen
Speaker 1: in the first round against Indiana, in particular, Game six,
Speaker 1: they go down to game six, they're up three games
Speaker 1: to two. They barely squeak out Game five on the
Speaker 1: on the sequence where Lebron blocks Victor Oladipo at the
Speaker 1: him on one end and then makes the three to
Speaker 1: win the game on the other, so you basically barely
Speaker 1: squeak out game five. They go on the road in
Speaker 1: game six to Indiana, same thing, completely raucous crowd, and
Speaker 1: it kind of reminded me of this game in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways because Victor Oladipo was just like Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: total coming out party in game six, like straight up
Speaker 1: missed a dunk on Lebron and then went right back
Speaker 1: at him like two possessions later and dunked on him,
Speaker 1: and crowd's going crazy, and you could tell the cas
Speaker 1: veterans were just like that will get him in game seven,
Speaker 1: like they just totally just mentally checked out of the
Speaker 1: game and try game seven. Here's the problem here. I
Speaker 1: I do think the Lakers have a chance to win
Speaker 1: Game six. I think that there's even if a d
Speaker 1: doesn't come back. I think that there's I think that
Speaker 1: a team that gets pumped the way they did is
Speaker 1: going to respond in some manner. At home, the guys
Speaker 1: are it's an elimination game. The team that's back is
Speaker 1: against the wall always approaches an elimination game with a
Speaker 1: certain amount of desperation. I think the Lakers might win
Speaker 1: Game six, but the bottom line is they have to
Speaker 1: come back here and win anyway. So they they don't
Speaker 1: have the luxury that the two eighteen Calves had in
Speaker 1: that they could fall back on on their on their
Speaker 1: home court advantage. This is not the case now. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever slim chance there was to win the
Speaker 1: series just became significantly slimmer. And and I thought that, uh,
Speaker 1: I thought that at the very least, you know, you
Speaker 1: just need to hang around and then maybe a Lebron
Speaker 1: you know, explosion can put you over the top. But
Speaker 1: just to just completely let the rope slip like that,
Speaker 1: I thought was so bizarre, right, And I feel like
Speaker 1: the difference only in the in the Indiana kind of series.
Speaker 1: They weren't. Were they like a seventh seed or like
Speaker 1: a sixth seed or something like that, I believe, Like
Speaker 1: I don't think it was. I think it was a
Speaker 1: four or five. I mean, like harping on this point,
Speaker 1: Phoenix is legit. This is a legitimately really good team.
Speaker 1: Like we talked about a lot, this is probably the
Speaker 1: two best teams in the West most likely like this,
Speaker 1: this is a really good team. I just want to
Speaker 1: give them credit as well. The shooter. They know what
Speaker 1: to do, they don't make mistakes, they get back on
Speaker 1: the defense, they know exactly what they're running on offense,
Speaker 1: they know what they're doing. They came with a game
Speaker 1: plan and executed it. I thought great tonight and also
Speaker 1: in the second half of Game four. So I just
Speaker 1: want to give them credit as well. And that's a
Speaker 1: difference here. You're you're you're playing with the team that's
Speaker 1: legitimately good, that can go all the way and my
Speaker 1: my opinion, go all the way to the finals. Um,
Speaker 1: and a person like Chris Paul I think he got
Speaker 1: shaken up tonight, but he looks kind of back to himself,
Speaker 1: controlling the floor, kind of controlling where shots come from.
Speaker 1: And they're confident. Man, they're gonna go to l A
Speaker 1: and think they can win. And uh, I feel like
Speaker 1: the Lakers are kind of leaning on this Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: news and look at a d plays. He plays like
Speaker 1: I think he might play. He looks like he might play.
Speaker 1: But um, I'm not sure if that will just be enough.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of basketball kind of concerns for me
Speaker 1: as well. Um, just on the floor, we saw Gasol
Speaker 1: kind of start I wrote that as well. Gasol started
Speaker 1: in the second half, maybe he starts, you know, game six,
Speaker 1: That could be an adjustment they do. But um, like
Speaker 1: the efforts got to be there. The crowd won't be
Speaker 1: like it is in Phoenix. Um, they've got to be
Speaker 1: able to play, create their own kind of energy and
Speaker 1: see if they can kind of pull this off and
Speaker 1: move this to a game. I would have gone small
Speaker 1: for the record in terms of the marketing, like at
Speaker 1: a certain point, this isn't working, you know, with the Bigs,
Speaker 1: especially in pick and roll coverage. I think I think
Speaker 1: I would say they had one good game and pick
Speaker 1: and roll coverage, probably Game two, where they were so
Speaker 1: physical off the ball and jank things up. But the Suns,
Speaker 1: like Booker, was getting easy shots against those coverages. And
Speaker 1: at what point do you just say, I'm putting you know,
Speaker 1: markis Morris at the five and I'm and I'm going
Speaker 1: down switching everything, making them isolate and giving Lebron as
Speaker 1: much space is humanly possible to works with. I I'd
Speaker 1: like to see them try something because the the you know,
Speaker 1: we we knew coming into this series that one of
Speaker 1: the problems would be Phoenix car words in Laker pick
Speaker 1: and roll coverage, because all season long, they've done that
Speaker 1: stupid catchheads that I've complained about, which basically lets pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooters go off to the spot where the
Speaker 1: big man is not really he's not really up at
Speaker 1: the screen bothering things. But he's also not back shutting
Speaker 1: down the rim either. He's just kind of in the
Speaker 1: middle and like no man's land, and and it has
Speaker 1: bothered me all season. But but yeah, I I think,
Speaker 1: like I I think at some point Frank's gotta reach
Speaker 1: deep down into the deck here and try something different,
Speaker 1: because I thought even in the that second quarter when
Speaker 1: the Lakers were trying to get something going, they just
Speaker 1: kept putting Marcus all In, Andre Drummond and screening actions
Speaker 1: and just getting whatever the hell they wanted. And and
Speaker 1: Frank leaned heavily this. Rob Polinka and Frank have leaned
Speaker 1: heavily on this idea that we're just gonna be big
Speaker 1: and we're gonna pulverize everyone. Well, guess what, You're big
Speaker 1: guys are pull verizing them. If anything, we're getting poll verized,
Speaker 1: at least in the last two games. And uh, and
Speaker 1: so at what point is the trade off they're not
Speaker 1: worth it because you're trading off that physical presence for
Speaker 1: a lack of foot speed and for a lack of shooting,
Speaker 1: although Marcosol has had his moments. But the point is
Speaker 1: is like that trade off, you're you're getting all the
Speaker 1: bad with none of the good right now, So at
Speaker 1: what point do you try something different and see if
Speaker 1: you can't unlock something to to try to swing this series.
Speaker 1: I'll be interested to see what they decided to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I guess my last kind of point that we
Speaker 1: can kind of move to what we think for game
Speaker 1: six and then I'm let let some people come up here.
Speaker 1: But uh, my only thing is that I feel like
Speaker 1: they overreacted a little bit to eight as well, Like
Speaker 1: I like their coverages in game one game too. They're
Speaker 1: holding him to points, kind of getting up on Booker
Speaker 1: and letting him kind of pass to eight and every time.
Speaker 1: And you know that physicality you talked about, like dominating
Speaker 1: down low, that doesn't work without a D, right, Like
Speaker 1: that's the point of having Drummond in a D. We
Speaker 1: talked about it a lot, and lebron Um, all three,
Speaker 1: all three of those guys have to be engaged defensively
Speaker 1: for that to be a dominating force. And also Phoenix
Speaker 1: is running. Phoenix is running on his campaign, Devin Booker
Speaker 1: because of how we tacked the offensive glass. If we
Speaker 1: don't get the board, they're gone, and then our bigs
Speaker 1: are steps slow eating his rim running. Um. A lot
Speaker 1: of things like that are going on. And again a
Speaker 1: D doesn't solve all these He definitely helps. He needs
Speaker 1: to be the help guy because other guys are just
Speaker 1: too small. And he said Marcus Marcus markis Morris at
Speaker 1: the five. I just don't think he can move lot
Speaker 1: early enough to stay with the guards right now. He
Speaker 1: got beat off the dribble a lot tonight by Chris
Speaker 1: paul Um Devin Booker right to the rim, and I
Speaker 1: just don't think he's ready for that um to be
Speaker 1: the five and just to switch everything and uh and
Speaker 1: the spacing it should help, But if we're still not
Speaker 1: hitting at the rate, they're still just gonna pinch the
Speaker 1: paint right and just shrink the floor whenever Lebron has
Speaker 1: the ball, and it's basically gonna meet him trying to
Speaker 1: get in the post or try to do high screen
Speaker 1: action with Markis Morris. And I think they'll they'll kind
Speaker 1: of live with that. But but moving on to like
Speaker 1: game six, what's what's your main kind of look for this?
Speaker 1: Is it a d kind of coming back or or
Speaker 1: any kind of adjustment you want to see after What
Speaker 1: do you want to see in game six? So I
Speaker 1: think it starts and ends with with their psychology and
Speaker 1: and and how they respond mentally to getting kind of
Speaker 1: smushed the way that they did today, um and made
Speaker 1: to feel small. I mean, here's the reality of the situation.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis coming back, Anthony Davis playing tonight wouldn't have
Speaker 1: solved enough problems to to win that game. They lost
Speaker 1: not because they lacked talent. They lost because of the
Speaker 1: fact that they didn't show up to the game mentally.
Speaker 1: And and so that's the way you got to look
Speaker 1: at it is like when you're getting beat that resoundingly,
Speaker 1: it's everything you're You're you're getting outplayed in every facet
Speaker 1: of the game. The color commentator, I can't even remember
Speaker 1: it was at this point, but he kept pointing out
Speaker 1: the fact that the Suns were out working him, and
Speaker 1: that can't happen. You can't be the desperate team but
Speaker 1: also be the team that's getting out worked. And so
Speaker 1: I mean, we could talk about adjustments all day long.
Speaker 1: Uh you know about which lineups to you is whether
Speaker 1: or not you you try to favor shooting, whether or
Speaker 1: not you go away from centers. We can talk about
Speaker 1: that all day long. But if the Lakers don't show
Speaker 1: up and fight on Thursday, They're gonna go home. And and
Speaker 1: and that's it's really that simple to me. And and
Speaker 1: you know what's upsetting about that is I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, teams follow their leader psychologically, and I feel
Speaker 1: like Lebron really tried in that first quarter to try
Speaker 1: to get something going and it just wasn't there. They're
Speaker 1: the driving lanes weren't there. And then he he shot
Speaker 1: five quick jumpers, if you remember, and I think he
Speaker 1: made one of them. He made the third, the three,
Speaker 1: And it's like that that that was what it was
Speaker 1: gonna be. You know, I was thinking a lot before
Speaker 1: the game, but you know, what would a bad Lebron
Speaker 1: game look like? And I thought it would be just
Speaker 1: miss jump shots and maybe some bad body language. But
Speaker 1: you can depend on him to do the other things right,
Speaker 1: Like Lebron is not gonna completely shrink away from an
Speaker 1: up big game. You know, but he had some limitations
Speaker 1: in his ability to get into the paint that was
Speaker 1: magnified by the lack of spacing, and he tried to
Speaker 1: get it going with the jump shot early on. Like
Speaker 1: if he has that same third quarter jump shooting stretch
Speaker 1: but in the but in the first quarter, maybe it
Speaker 1: gives enough, you know, belief to the role players that
Speaker 1: they hang onto the rope and that and that's what
Speaker 1: what you hope for. So Lebron, I think in game
Speaker 1: in game six, has to be extremely aggressive early and
Speaker 1: send the message to his team that you know, we're
Speaker 1: not letting go of the rope tonight. But but I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Guys don't make shots and guys don't
Speaker 1: take you know, do their job, it's not gonna work. Right.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are asking for like a forty
Speaker 1: five point gamer from Lebron tonight, right like they wanted
Speaker 1: him to kind of go off on his scoring get
Speaker 1: plus assists. That just doesn't happen without guys hinting shots
Speaker 1: like they just have to or the Leakers are going home.
Speaker 1: Um and hopefully going home helps that, but I don't
Speaker 1: know how much it will. They're shooting something on open
Speaker 1: jumpers before tonight, I haven't looked at the numbers tonight.
Speaker 1: They're probably even worse. Um, but those dudes have the
Speaker 1: gay shots, and uh, like Lebron has nothing else to
Speaker 1: say for like there's no game after game six, Like
Speaker 1: like tonight, he can kind of, you know, sell himself
Speaker 1: that there's another game a D come back when we
Speaker 1: hold it for that one, um, But there's nothing after
Speaker 1: game six, So we're gonna get the full Lebron. We're
Speaker 1: gonna know whether or not he has that capability in him. Um.
Speaker 1: I think there's still there's still a gear there that
Speaker 1: he can go to, right, there's still gear where he
Speaker 1: can get to the rim um at a at a
Speaker 1: certain point where Phoenix um can't stop him even though
Speaker 1: they're packing the paint like crazy. But I think there's
Speaker 1: still another gear he can get to, another aggressiveness that
Speaker 1: he can get to hopefully in game six. But guys
Speaker 1: have to hit their shots and they can't be scared, um,
Speaker 1: And I think they look at the film and realize
Speaker 1: that and hopefully a D can play Like That's the
Speaker 1: main thing. Like my main takeaway kind of from tonight
Speaker 1: was like we can't defend them kind of without a
Speaker 1: D like that was kind of the little lost c
Speaker 1: it in tonight as well. You just look at the
Speaker 1: floor man, and just the way where their defend. We're
Speaker 1: defending screen coverages like we need a D as the
Speaker 1: help guy. We just don't know what we're doing off
Speaker 1: the ball without it. These lineups just have not played together.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of why I wanted to see Gasaw start,
Speaker 1: just to give Lebron that spacing early. Right, It felt
Speaker 1: like once once Kasaul came in, the crowd was already
Speaker 1: super into it. Booker was in a flow like it
Speaker 1: was just a game was over by that time. It
Speaker 1: felt like even though it was just we were down
Speaker 1: like fifteen or something like that. So that's where I
Speaker 1: want to kind of see going into game six, Um,
Speaker 1: do you have anything else from today? Are going to
Speaker 1: gain six? Bring me the first person? You can bring
Speaker 1: the first person up. I think I think you made
Speaker 1: a really good point, like starting gas Saul in hopes
Speaker 1: of getting Lebron driving lanes early, Um might have been
Speaker 1: the smarter move, But I mean I hope it might be.
Speaker 1: It might be too late, you know that, that's the
Speaker 1: hard part. Like Frank, Frank was slow with adjustments for
Speaker 1: the entirety of the last two years, you'd always do them,
Speaker 1: but he wait till the last uphole minute, and and
Speaker 1: I I would hope that he makes that adjustment for
Speaker 1: Game six, but man like, like, who knows, And at
Speaker 1: this point it just might be too late. It's it's
Speaker 1: hard to even really, you know, bridge the gap mentally
Speaker 1: to figure out how the Lakers could win this series
Speaker 1: at this point, Like you have to somehow play ten
Speaker 1: times better in game six than you did tonight, and
Speaker 1: then you have to somehow go into Phoenix in game
Speaker 1: in game seven and get a win. I mean, Lebron
Speaker 1: has done it before. They went down to Boston in
Speaker 1: Game five in two thousand and eighteen and got rolled,
Speaker 1: and then they they had a crazy game in game six,
Speaker 1: and then he went into Boston in Game seven and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, those young Celtics players got really
Speaker 1: cold in the moment. But that team didn't have Chris
Speaker 1: Paul right, and that team wasn't as good as this
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns team is. So it's like, like you said,
Speaker 1: it's just they have an enormous task ahead of them
Speaker 1: at this point. And I you said, I think Lebron
Speaker 1: has this other gear to get to agree with you
Speaker 1: when he's healthy, and I'm not a hundred percent sure
Speaker 1: that he has that gear right now, and and I'm
Speaker 1: not sure that he will be able to tap into
Speaker 1: that in a way that he could have if you know,
Speaker 1: someone Hill didn't dive into his ankle. Well, let's see
Speaker 1: on a game state. Are you there? Yeah, I'm here, man,
Speaker 1: what's up Fellas? Hey? Um? Just yeah, man, just watching
Speaker 1: the game and yeah to him, I just think Braun
Speaker 1: is this whole year. Man, it's just been so clunky
Speaker 1: and so it's just it's just been so different than
Speaker 1: last year with the cohesion and man, I just I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna give up on Bron, but man, that
Speaker 1: it's gonna be tough on on Thursday night. Man, we
Speaker 1: just need somebody to to step up. And the problem is,
Speaker 1: you know, when I thought a guy like Russo and
Speaker 1: it's just like man, who can step up? This team
Speaker 1: has not been able to exhibit any type of cohesion.
Speaker 1: And I'm concerned that that the Laker is gonna go home. Man.
Speaker 1: So I hope not, but I'm just not feeling optimistic.
Speaker 1: You know, Roger and I are both Lakers optimists, you know,
Speaker 1: we really are, and I am still optimistic about the
Speaker 1: future of this team. Um. I think that when you
Speaker 1: actually when we actually reflect on this season, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure Rog and I will do a special podcast after
Speaker 1: the season, you know, whether that's in July or or
Speaker 1: in a few days, we'll see, but I think we'll
Speaker 1: look back on it, and when we'll look back, we'll realize,
Speaker 1: you know a lot about how just how term, you know,
Speaker 1: how much turmoil there was this year. And I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer that Lebron is going to age gracefully and
Speaker 1: that he's going to be able to be a top
Speaker 1: five player in his late thirties. I really believe that.
Speaker 1: I believe that Anthony Davis will figure out how to
Speaker 1: stay healthy. I feel like that's gonna be his number
Speaker 1: one goal this offseason. And I feel like Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is gonna be great. I like t HD, I like
Speaker 1: I like Rob Polinka and what he what his plan is,
Speaker 1: and I like Frank Is the coach, and I like
Speaker 1: these role players. I'm a Lakers optimist, but this team
Speaker 1: isn't the Lakers right now. This is this is a
Speaker 1: hurt Lebron. This is no A D. This is Dennis
Speaker 1: is completely getting out played by the backup point guards
Speaker 1: by the from the Phoenix Suns. This is Dennis, you know,
Speaker 1: did some stupid COVID stuff and and killed his rhythm
Speaker 1: and and lost two weeks right before the postseason, and
Speaker 1: god knows if he'll even be on the roster next year.
Speaker 1: And this is every role player on the rock on
Speaker 1: the roster going completely stone cold from three and so
Speaker 1: all like, this is not what the Lakers we know
Speaker 1: for lack of a better term, So the optimism has
Speaker 1: to lie in what can you not what this is
Speaker 1: right now? And I don't even want to talk about
Speaker 1: you went into the off season a lot there. I
Speaker 1: don't even want to go into the off season yet.
Speaker 1: But when I look at like this season, I guess
Speaker 1: just looking for the forest through the trees. It just
Speaker 1: feels like the championship was kind of the sacrifice UM
Speaker 1: for this season, right. A D was never himself this season,
Speaker 1: Like I just never thought he was. Um, I just
Speaker 1: never thought he got and then he kind of rhythm
Speaker 1: to be what he was last year even when we
Speaker 1: started twenty one and six. So that's kind of how
Speaker 1: I see this season and maybe that's how it ends.
Speaker 1: But there's still another game, Like, you're still alive, you
Speaker 1: have Lebron James, there's still adjustments to be made. Um,
Speaker 1: whether you lose by one or lose by thirty, you
Speaker 1: only get one lost word in the playoffs, So we
Speaker 1: have another game left. So I don't I don't want
Speaker 1: to really go into all season stuff. Yeah, I still
Speaker 1: kind of want to kind of keep it on this
Speaker 1: this season, even how treasurers treasurers it kind of turned into.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's kind of where I'm at here. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure by that is just that, like I I
Speaker 1: think that you and I are off to this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, And I was using the off season, we're
Speaker 1: really just the future of the team to say to
Speaker 1: say that we are optimists. I'm just saying I think
Speaker 1: you and I are both also realists and we acknowledge
Speaker 1: the reality of the situation right now. Appreciate you, Joe.
Speaker 1: We're gonna trying to get get some more people up here.
Speaker 1: A lot of people requested here, let's see, trying to
Speaker 1: go in some kind of order. Jordan, are you there?
Speaker 1: Looks like it, Hey, can you hear me? I can
Speaker 1: hear you? What's going on? Many? Um? So obviously that
Speaker 1: was a pretty bad loss, real frustrating. Um, But I
Speaker 1: was just wondering, um, how how I don't know you
Speaker 1: guys probably answered this a little bit um before. But
Speaker 1: how confident are you guys now, like and and for
Speaker 1: games six and then for game seven. I'm fairly confident, um,
Speaker 1: But yeah, how confident are you guys if we can
Speaker 1: that we can tune this around. I'm on game six
Speaker 1: mode right now, like game seven. It feels so far away,
Speaker 1: like that feels like, you know, like a bridge that
Speaker 1: I can't even see right now, Like Game six should
Speaker 1: be the focus, and I think we can win Game
Speaker 1: six one game. It's at home. You know, roll role
Speaker 1: players tend to shoot better at home. They're supposed to.
Speaker 1: These open shots are supposed to fall in like this
Speaker 1: sample that we've kind of created, although there's only one
Speaker 1: kind of game sample left, but you know, these open
Speaker 1: shots should go if they take them confidently. And I
Speaker 1: think Lebron will have the team ready, um A D
Speaker 1: hopefully will play. That's where I'm at. It's a winnable game,
Speaker 1: like it just is home game there. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a tough one, but I think it's winnable, and that's
Speaker 1: where I'm at with this. I'm not sure. The game
Speaker 1: seven feels like such a far cry away from me,
Speaker 1: Like I can't even can't think about it. How about you, Jason,
Speaker 1: I'm with you. They can win Game six, that's certainly
Speaker 1: in the cards, and then from there anything can happen.
Speaker 1: In a Game seven with Lebron, So I would say that,
Speaker 1: you know, any other team, i'd probably say that it's
Speaker 1: not over, but that it's looking extremely bleak at this point.
Speaker 1: I would say that it's still bleak, but that the
Speaker 1: Lakers certainly can win. It's just what you're asking them
Speaker 1: to do is you're asking them to win a game
Speaker 1: at home, which they absolutely can do, But then they
Speaker 1: have to go and do exactly the same environment as
Speaker 1: tonight into an even higher pressure game and they have
Speaker 1: to be fifty times better than they were tonight. You know.
Speaker 1: So that's that's where that's where it gets complicated. But
Speaker 1: you know, um, i'd like, like Roger said, it starts,
Speaker 1: it starts with Thursday. Yeah, I mean, the odds are
Speaker 1: in our favor, right, Like those shots like they got
Speaker 1: to go down soon or later, right, So hopefully hopefully
Speaker 1: that song getting in game six. So yeah, but no,
Speaker 1: thanks for answering that. Thanks Jordan. We appreciate you coming
Speaker 1: on man there. Yeah, I was trying to get the
Speaker 1: next person up here. Thank you, Johny. I appreciate it. Nick.
Speaker 1: See if I can get multiple people and then kind
Speaker 1: of take turns. Have to wait. I guess while we're waiting,
Speaker 1: what do you think about tread Oh? I guess Jay's Jake?
Speaker 1: Can you hear us? Yeah? What's going on? Man? Ah?
Speaker 1: It's tough, h Like I had how hope to this game.
Speaker 1: I really thought we like, if we didn't come out
Speaker 1: and with the knockout punting game one, we wasn't gonna win.
Speaker 1: In quarter one, we wasn't gonna win. And after that
Speaker 1: second quarter, I just turned the game because I knew
Speaker 1: it was going to game six. You can tell that
Speaker 1: in the body, legs and everything. And Dennis, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad he turned down that extension because if we need
Speaker 1: to pay him, it would have been so mad like
Speaker 1: because it's it's to the point like if you're not
Speaker 1: you're not scoring, what do you want to call for?
Speaker 1: You just hurting the team? Oh for nine And in
Speaker 1: the game that we really needed going back to Staples.
Speaker 1: It's like it's sad, but I think we're gonna pull
Speaker 1: it out in seven if a d comes back. But
Speaker 1: it's looking bleak, like you said, yeah, I just want
Speaker 1: to quickly like for Dennis, like like he hasn't played
Speaker 1: well and we need more from him. He had two
Speaker 1: awesome games though on Game two in game three, like
Speaker 1: we needed all his points in that we don't win
Speaker 1: game two or game three without him. So he had
Speaker 1: an awesome those two games. He was confident. I don't
Speaker 1: know what happened, and without a d R mark it
Speaker 1: for air and scoring is just so low, um that
Speaker 1: we needed to kind of perform. But you're right, the
Speaker 1: body language was terrible, and Jason had talked about it. It
Speaker 1: It looked bleak right when they started. They didn't look
Speaker 1: like they believe. Devin book great. A few shots and
Speaker 1: it looked like that was it, Like they just packed
Speaker 1: it up. We're ready to go back um to l A.
Speaker 1: So that that was really disappointing. I agree with you
Speaker 1: on that. I can't say it any better. I mean,
Speaker 1: we we talked for two days coming into this game
Speaker 1: that the role players need to make shots and that
Speaker 1: they need a lot from Bennett's and Dennis came out
Speaker 1: and gave you an over that's just really that's really tough.
Speaker 1: It's really tough to win like that. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, it's very clear that they packed
Speaker 1: it in and they're betting on game six and you
Speaker 1: know what, if they come out of this in seven
Speaker 1: games and it all works out, like maybe we'll look
Speaker 1: back and laugh about this. But them willingly giving up
Speaker 1: game one and Game five of this series was so
Speaker 1: bizarre and and it's just it's just poor strategy when
Speaker 1: it comes to trying to win these playoffs series because
Speaker 1: they like Anthony Davis healthy version of him just completely
Speaker 1: no showed Game one of this series man in a
Speaker 1: game that the Lakers could have won, and like the
Speaker 1: the entire psychology and tenor of the series is different
Speaker 1: if the Lakers are up three games to one instead
Speaker 1: of two two coming into this game. And and obviously,
Speaker 1: like every person on the roster deserves blame at certain
Speaker 1: points for the way the series has gone. Um Like
Speaker 1: I like, I was really hard on Lebron in Game
Speaker 1: four in the second half for letting go of a
Speaker 1: game that I thought he still could have stolen, but
Speaker 1: man like it just like that Dennis. Dennis was the
Speaker 1: big shiny you know, the scapegoat tonight. But everybody, everybody
Speaker 1: deserves a ton of blame. Yeah, I agree. Appreciate you, J.
Speaker 1: We try to get through some more people here. Appreciate
Speaker 1: you coming up? Jack? Are you there? Yeah? Can you
Speaker 1: hear me? I can hear you. What's going on? Man? Well?
Speaker 1: I mean that was tough tonight, But I don't know.
Speaker 1: My question is is that So I've been a big
Speaker 1: defender of this year's roster in terms of, like, like
Speaker 1: on a talent level this year, but what's up with
Speaker 1: this team's mentality compared to last year? Because I feel
Speaker 1: like even though last year's team was probably less talented
Speaker 1: on paper, they just had a completely different mentality to
Speaker 1: them game in and game out. And it's just been
Speaker 1: just driving me crazy this year watching this team. So
Speaker 1: I actually disagree with you a little bit in the
Speaker 1: sense that, um, you know, the best indicator of consistent
Speaker 1: effort in the regular season is defensive rating, and the
Speaker 1: Lakers were number one. So the important thing we have
Speaker 1: to remember is that all thirty NBA teams in a
Speaker 1: seventy two or eighty two game season are going to
Speaker 1: mentally check in and out for various stretches, but go
Speaker 1: on in any game stretch where they kill everybody, and
Speaker 1: then they'll have a game where they don't try, or
Speaker 1: the two or three games where it doesn't look good.
Speaker 1: That's kind of just part of the deal in the NBA. UM,
Speaker 1: and as far as in the playoffs then you know,
Speaker 1: letting go of a game with a poor effort. They
Speaker 1: did the same thing last year. I thought all all
Speaker 1: four of their losses, all five of their losses in
Speaker 1: last year's playoff run, I thought were a large part
Speaker 1: due to poor effort. Um. I like like that was
Speaker 1: that was kind of what we noticed when we were
Speaker 1: going through those series. So I think this is kind
Speaker 1: of the way these teams are. I mean, we we've
Speaker 1: seen it with all these teams, Brooklyn Blue, Game Blue,
Speaker 1: Game three, in Game four in Boston, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: just for no reason other than that they weren't playing hard.
Speaker 1: You know that that kind of thing. It just as
Speaker 1: part of part of the way these NBA teams are. Um,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are one of the more consistent effort teams.
Speaker 1: It just this is how it can bite you in
Speaker 1: the butt. If you if you let one, if you
Speaker 1: let one or two of them go in a seven
Speaker 1: game or all of a sudden injury puts you with
Speaker 1: your back against the wall, and then that's what happened here.
Speaker 1: The only the only like disagreement with that is like
Speaker 1: we had the best defense it was it was with
Speaker 1: like a bunch of different lineups, right, Like I felt
Speaker 1: like we had a bunch of different squads throughout the year.
Speaker 1: Like that's that's my name. Main difference from last year
Speaker 1: and last year. Like, I think the farther that we
Speaker 1: get away from it, the more kind of special that is.
Speaker 1: Like groups like that don't really Like they've talked about
Speaker 1: it as well. They said that was one of the
Speaker 1: most cohesive units that they've been on teams that they've
Speaker 1: been on, and Vet Steps said that, um and also
Speaker 1: like that team just played together more. They had a
Speaker 1: lot more cohesion. They played games together, And I think
Speaker 1: that matters when you get into a playoff series, do
Speaker 1: or die kind of situations where you don't need to
Speaker 1: just think you know where your teammate is going to be.
Speaker 1: You need to like, no, you need to absolutely know,
Speaker 1: like my help is going to be there on the
Speaker 1: back side. That's just like the X and these part
Speaker 1: of it. But also I just need to know, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I get beat here, my guys gonna be at
Speaker 1: the rim helping for me, and those kind of things
Speaker 1: you just build through a regular season, and this team
Speaker 1: just never got a chance to kind of do that
Speaker 1: and still have the talent to kind of oversee that.
Speaker 1: But just when you don't have the talent as well
Speaker 1: a D L Lebron not himself. Um, those things add up,
Speaker 1: and I think that's where last year's team kind of
Speaker 1: had to how to roll over over this one where
Speaker 1: they a lot more cohesion exactly what other guy would
Speaker 1: be minutes together, all those kind of stuff, um, that
Speaker 1: that this team never got a chance to do. I
Speaker 1: agree with you, and that to me is the difference. Like,
Speaker 1: the difference is not in mentality to your question, Jack,
Speaker 1: Like the difference in my opinion, is not in mentality
Speaker 1: from this year to last year. It's the continuity and
Speaker 1: and that's not their fault. I like, I think health
Speaker 1: was the entire reasoning behind it. I also think we
Speaker 1: could probably safely assume that they don't even sign Drummond.
Speaker 1: If if a D and Lebron stay healthy throughout the season.
Speaker 1: That kind of feels like a reactionary signing as a
Speaker 1: result of a perceived lack of depth and talent. And
Speaker 1: that's not to say that Drummond is it was a
Speaker 1: bad signing or anything like anything like that. But my
Speaker 1: point is is they never even got to continue with
Speaker 1: that Marcosol starting lineup that actually was really good, you know,
Speaker 1: and build the continuity that they could fall back on
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Yep, I agree, Jack, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep this, keep appreciate keep this mind moving,
Speaker 1: Jen Jennef are you there? Yeah? How you doing, man?
Speaker 1: How you guys doing doing? My question is this, what
Speaker 1: do you guys feel about the trade with Skttle Lowry
Speaker 1: that they didn't we didn't the foot Dayal and Horder
Speaker 1: Tucker the guy can play in the playoffs? Man, he's unplayable. Jason,
Speaker 1: I'll let you. I'll let you touch this one first.
Speaker 1: So I hate Monday I hate Monday morning quarterbacking for
Speaker 1: the record, Like what I mean by I hate it
Speaker 1: is like I don't think anybody gets to play that
Speaker 1: I told you so card, Because to me, that's that's
Speaker 1: big banking on results rather than you know, acknowledging the
Speaker 1: fact that everything is a gamble. The Kyle Lowry trade
Speaker 1: could have happened and the Lakers still could have lost.
Speaker 1: That that's the important first detail that said, I think
Speaker 1: we do all know for a fact that Kyle Lowry
Speaker 1: would have been a more reliable game in and game
Speaker 1: out type of player in this series than Dennis Shrewder
Speaker 1: would have been, you know, and I think that that
Speaker 1: was one of the parts that got gloss over. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not in a position to sit here and say, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I told you guys it should have Kyle Lowry, because
Speaker 1: I just feel like that's being intellectually dishonest and being
Speaker 1: captain hindsight, and I'm not going to do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just think like it was still I would still
Speaker 1: probably not do the deal like Lowry with a hobbled
Speaker 1: a d and a hobbled Lebron, I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: far you're going anyway, right just even looking at I
Speaker 1: know you don't like to do the morning quarterback or
Speaker 1: however that's called, but just looking even at adding Lowry
Speaker 1: to this team, you probably get maybe one more win,
Speaker 1: two more wins, But you know, you're not going anywhere
Speaker 1: with eighties, not himself, lebrons on himself anyway. So you
Speaker 1: still get to keep KCP. Still it keep Dennis shrewder
Speaker 1: maybe going forward to keep th HT and whatever picks
Speaker 1: the Raptors were asking for. So the tough thing to
Speaker 1: kind of go back and look at um. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I still probably wouldn't do the deal with Lowry help maybe,
Speaker 1: but well, we'll never know, and I'm I'm comfortable with
Speaker 1: their decision in the off season. The one tricky thing
Speaker 1: with that is that'll be interesting to see. And again,
Speaker 1: I don't want to dive more into the off season
Speaker 1: because I know, I know Roj wants to stay in
Speaker 1: the moment. But if they end up letting Dennis walk
Speaker 1: because they don't think he's worth the money, and uh,
Speaker 1: and then you don't have the option of signing Lowry
Speaker 1: to that you know, two year, fifty million dollar extension
Speaker 1: that he wanted. That's the one part that kind of
Speaker 1: stucks is if you had. One of the factors of
Speaker 1: that trade is everyone was like, oh, well we'll keep Dennis,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah. And one thing, one thing, last thing
Speaker 1: I'll say about Dennis that I think is important is
Speaker 1: he was playing really well before the damn COVID suspension
Speaker 1: and like he had that game against Utah where he
Speaker 1: just picked them apart and and then he his his
Speaker 1: his dumbass went and did something stupid it and got
Speaker 1: suspended for two weeks and completely disrupted any of that.
Speaker 1: And I think that that was something that to keep
Speaker 1: in mind as far as in defense of Dennis. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a sad part about this. He's had a good season,
Speaker 1: like we were even talking about like an all defense
Speaker 1: type of season, you know, and he was playing well,
Speaker 1: and then he went out for COVID once and then
Speaker 1: went out again right before the season and that was
Speaker 1: just brutal killed his rhythm. He was not he even
Speaker 1: talked about it. His conditioning was killed. And he's had
Speaker 1: two good games in this series as well. That will
Speaker 1: all be forgotten if he plays bad again in Game six.
Speaker 1: And that's the sad part about this is like fans
Speaker 1: are really going to jump on him. It's really easy
Speaker 1: to kind of scapegoat him as well. He's easy one
Speaker 1: with Drum and his his misses are also loud, right,
Speaker 1: Like when he has bad games are allowed very similar
Speaker 1: to Drum, and he'll go like over eight over one
Speaker 1: for twelve or something like that. And that's that's kind
Speaker 1: of sad part about this is he's had a good season,
Speaker 1: but you get judged on the playoffs and that's kind
Speaker 1: of how it goes. Jenne. I appreciate. I appreciate you. Man.
Speaker 1: We're gonna try to get that line move and appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Let's see, Renee, are you there? How you don't follow us?
Speaker 1: How's it going? Man? A couple of things I wanted
Speaker 1: to touch on really quick with you guys, Like one, Um,
Speaker 1: you touched on it earlier. I'm still optimistic to an extent.
Speaker 1: I do think that we can win the series if
Speaker 1: a D is healthy. But that's banking on that, um.
Speaker 1: But the question I have for you guys is like,
Speaker 1: looking ahead to the off season, what are you looking
Speaker 1: for us to do with the rosters? Putting rods on
Speaker 1: the spot? I like, man, that's that? That just that
Speaker 1: hinges so much kind of I guess not really. I
Speaker 1: mean it kind of hinges on what happens in Game six,
Speaker 1: But um, I really don't know, man, I can't even
Speaker 1: think that far. Like that's such a like I don't
Speaker 1: know where you go here, Like I guess you gotta
Speaker 1: re sign Dennis and kind of hope this team comes
Speaker 1: back healthy. Still Lebron in a d helped the resign
Speaker 1: out with Caruso. That would be my priority number one. UM.
Speaker 1: Also bring back Marcusol and then everyone else has kind
Speaker 1: of signed. Kuzma's there, and then you kind of fill
Speaker 1: in veterans um from there. Marcusoft is actually signed next year,
Speaker 1: so you don't have to worry about that, UM, but
Speaker 1: you just bring other vets that want to win, and
Speaker 1: I think they'll do that. I'm not worried about the
Speaker 1: off season. So that's that's kind of where I would
Speaker 1: That's where I'll go with it. But I don't even
Speaker 1: want to talk about that. Man. We're still alive. We're
Speaker 1: still alive. We're not going there. Yeah. The one thing
Speaker 1: that I'll say is something that I tweeted earlier. You know,
Speaker 1: given the circumstances, all of the outlier circumstances. I don't
Speaker 1: even know how you. I don't even know how you
Speaker 1: make any calls, Like how do you if as rob Oblinka,
Speaker 1: how do you sit there and think like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is what we needed or that's what we need, or
Speaker 1: this guy isn't a good fit or that guy is
Speaker 1: not a good fit when they've never played like they've
Speaker 1: barely played together. So I don't know how. I don't
Speaker 1: know how you make those calls like it's uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things. I tweeted this, you know,
Speaker 1: weeks ago, um before, back in the in the regular season,
Speaker 1: when we were all talking about how the Clippers thing
Speaker 1: wasn't working, and it's like, why would you blow it
Speaker 1: up if you're the Clippers after this season when everything
Speaker 1: everything was so unusual, and everything was was was chaotic
Speaker 1: and everything was not like a normal season. And I
Speaker 1: I like, even if the Clippers would have lost to
Speaker 1: the Mavericks, would have been like, hey, like, I don't
Speaker 1: think we should jump the gun here when when this
Speaker 1: is not a normal season. And so that that's my thing.
Speaker 1: I don't think you can even make calls about the
Speaker 1: off season based on this series. I think I think
Speaker 1: it did like for all, you know, the same group
Speaker 1: of guys healthy, you know, runs off seventy two wins
Speaker 1: and wins the title and you don't know, you just
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, I agree, Renee. We appreciate you man,
Speaker 1: Uh are you there. Yeah, man, I'm here. Man good,
Speaker 1: how are you doing that? Doing as well as we can? Man?
Speaker 1: Which it was. It was a rough one, And my man,
Speaker 1: I guess my question is maybe based off kind of
Speaker 1: like your last jury. You might not want to get
Speaker 1: too much into this, but um, I think it's pretty
Speaker 1: evident at this point that Lebron's window is kind of closing,
Speaker 1: um in terms of father time catching up to him
Speaker 1: and all those type of things. And then I guess
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of wondering, like what your comfort level
Speaker 1: is with with Anthony Davis kind of being the leader
Speaker 1: of the Helm for the next five years under his
Speaker 1: new contract, you know, like once once that time does
Speaker 1: come from Lebron in terms of his injury issues, and
Speaker 1: then you know the occasional no show no shows in
Speaker 1: playoff games. So but really quickly, I tweeted this earlier
Speaker 1: and I and I stand by it. Like seven months ago,
Speaker 1: Lebron was living in the paint as the Finals MVP
Speaker 1: seven months ago, and he had a contact injury, one
Speaker 1: of the few that he's had in his career that
Speaker 1: that knocked him out for basically the last thirtysomething games
Speaker 1: of the season. So as far as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 1: his his end is eventually going to come. But I
Speaker 1: don't think it's necessarily fair to use this is like
Speaker 1: the doomsday scenario, because I don't like healthy stars which
Speaker 1: struggle in the same circumstances, you know, like I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a coincidence that c. J. McCollum
Speaker 1: is having a tough series with Denver when he missed
Speaker 1: most of the season with with the I think it
Speaker 1: was plan or faciare or whatever it was that his
Speaker 1: his injury was so So the point is is, like
Speaker 1: it's just it's it's really hard for any his basketball
Speaker 1: so rhythm oriented. Like I'm gonna use a stupid personal example,
Speaker 1: but like I'm going to a Ruba on Thursday, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be gone for eight days. There's a zero
Speaker 1: percent chance that I just come back and play like
Speaker 1: my normal self. When I go play like it's gonna
Speaker 1: take me weeks to get back into shape after being
Speaker 1: basically a beach bump for eight days. Then I think
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of the problem here is Lebron
Speaker 1: was effectively off of his foot for probably five six
Speaker 1: weeks there and then, and then did very minimal stuff
Speaker 1: to kind of inch his way back on the court.
Speaker 1: And then he's like like he's in like training camp
Speaker 1: mode right now, while the dudes that he's playing against
Speaker 1: are coming off of the best season of their careers
Speaker 1: and playing at the top of their games. Like that's
Speaker 1: a difference here. And Jason, you said seven months ago,
Speaker 1: not three months ago, he was having an m v
Speaker 1: P level season, like exactly. It was the leader from
Speaker 1: the m v P before you know, he went down
Speaker 1: and then your kids kind of took that over. But
Speaker 1: and he was getting to the rim game, to the basket,
Speaker 1: showing no real ill effects, UM, jumping as high as
Speaker 1: I've kind of seen him getting to the basket, taking contact, um,
Speaker 1: m VP level kind of numbers MVP level impact even
Speaker 1: without a d in there, like he was he was himself. Man.
Speaker 1: I yeah, I mean, I agree with you. I think
Speaker 1: it's definitely it's super hard to obviously discount Lebron. I mean,
Speaker 1: what he's already done in his career is is incredible,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean I think at this point, you know,
Speaker 1: like y'all said, seven months ago, and like you just said,
Speaker 1: three months ago, he was you know, m VP talk, right,
Speaker 1: and I Oh sorry, I was just gonna sell what
Speaker 1: what do you think? Like, I guess more of my
Speaker 1: question is is like, what y'all's level of concern more
Speaker 1: for more for Anthony Davis, like over the next five years.
Speaker 1: So I still think he needs a high level shock
Speaker 1: creator to kind of be next to him, right, I
Speaker 1: think that's pretty clear. Um, I don't think a guy
Speaker 1: like Dennis Shrewder is enough. And look, the Lakers are.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are gonna attract high level shock creators. That's
Speaker 1: just how the kind of world works, right, That's how
Speaker 1: they're going to go after pre agents that are gonna
Speaker 1: fit with him. And uh, I just don't think Lebron
Speaker 1: is as close to done yet as that kind of
Speaker 1: UM playmaker. And when those two are playing together, Man,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are a high level team. They win at
Speaker 1: a high level UM and they still do. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's where my concern would be with a d I
Speaker 1: can't really talk on the injury kind of stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: this was kind of a weird year for him, short offseason.
Speaker 1: He came in out of shape, was never really himself,
Speaker 1: to be honest. If you look at eighties games, even
Speaker 1: early on, Um, even when they were twenty one and six.
Speaker 1: He was loafing through games. He was not really trying
Speaker 1: on a lot of nights. UM, So that's I hope
Speaker 1: next year he comes in kind of with a with
Speaker 1: a killer attitude. I picked him for Defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year this year. I was way off. He approached
Speaker 1: the season way differently than I thought he would. I
Speaker 1: thought he would approach it the way Lebron would. I
Speaker 1: thought Lebron would approach it the way he would, and
Speaker 1: it just didn't happen. But that's where I see with
Speaker 1: a D that's my main concern here. He's still not
Speaker 1: a high enough level shock creator where he can be
Speaker 1: the number one kind of scoring option on the title
Speaker 1: level team. I guess do you see that as well, Jason, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do. But I also think that the partnership works
Speaker 1: in the sense that, um, Lebron's playmaking will continue to
Speaker 1: be a thing as he gets older. You know, like
Speaker 1: think of it like this, like, uh, this version of
Speaker 1: Bron and this series. You know, a guy who's averaging
Speaker 1: you know whatever it is, twenty one points a game
Speaker 1: on you know, right around you know, the high forties
Speaker 1: from the field, and you know, capable of knocking down
Speaker 1: threes and is still passing the ball really well. Like
Speaker 1: that version of Lebron is going to be old Lebron.
Speaker 1: Like the way the way Lebron is right now is
Speaker 1: the way I see him in a couple of years.
Speaker 1: I just happened to think he still has some peak
Speaker 1: in him that has been taken away by the injury.
Speaker 1: But the point is is when a D was being
Speaker 1: physically dominant, dominant in Games two and three, they won
Speaker 1: comfortably against this really good Son's team. So I'm still
Speaker 1: a believer that this pairing works even as Lebron ages. However,
Speaker 1: with a D there are a couple of things to
Speaker 1: keep in mind. One, the injury stuff is real, Like
Speaker 1: he has to figure out how to stay healthy. I
Speaker 1: don't know what that is. I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: his diet. I don't know if it's his workout regimen.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's his pliability. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is that he's got to do.
Speaker 1: But he's got to figure it out. Because here's the
Speaker 1: reality of the situation. Everyone goes out quick turn around,
Speaker 1: a quick turn around, blah blah, and I agree, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong. It was part of it, but like
Speaker 1: the Lakers still had seventy two days, that should have
Speaker 1: been enough for him to at least like, even if
Speaker 1: he was rusty, he should have come in at least healthy.
Speaker 1: You know your point. You know, Davis has never really
Speaker 1: been a consistent person that's been healthy throughout his whole career.
Speaker 1: I mean, even when he was in New Orleans, he
Speaker 1: he had tons of tons of injury issues, you know.
Speaker 1: And when he's healthy, he's not healthy. That's the thing,
Speaker 1: you know. And and and then my last criticism with
Speaker 1: him in terms of like a franchise cornerstone is his
Speaker 1: tendency to completely no show about one out of every
Speaker 1: five playoff games is bizarre. And and and that's one
Speaker 1: thing that I that I don't know if it I
Speaker 1: don't know if it stems from playing with Lebron and somehow,
Speaker 1: you know, the Lebron's hello CenTra is helio centrism being
Speaker 1: a problem or I don't know, I don't I honestly
Speaker 1: don't know what it is, but that that would be
Speaker 1: my one other thing. But both of those things, the
Speaker 1: injury stuff, and uh and the you know what will
Speaker 1: rather what Roger was saying the lack of playmaking and
Speaker 1: his tendency to no show playoff games. Having Lebron with
Speaker 1: him is almost perfect because Lebron makes up for that
Speaker 1: stuff with the playmaking, and because Lebron almost always seems
Speaker 1: to sense when a D s not mentally there and
Speaker 1: he tries to make up for it. We saw a
Speaker 1: lot of that last year in the postseason. If you remember,
Speaker 1: a D would just be completely loafing around in the
Speaker 1: first half and Lebron half thirty before halftime. You know,
Speaker 1: And I think that I think that the pairing works.
Speaker 1: But the injury stuff he's got to figure out, because
Speaker 1: this is going to be a season that got derailed
Speaker 1: by an a D injury here. That's basically what's happening here.
Speaker 1: And and this is one out of two now, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Have to be fair. I mean,
Speaker 1: he played Tanner, We appreciate you. We kind of bring
Speaker 1: some of these PEPs here. I Axander, can hear us?
Speaker 1: The only thing I'll say on eighties, like he played
Speaker 1: seventy games consistently. I think the previous three before last year.
Speaker 1: Last year he also played a thing like seventy games
Speaker 1: or something. He just goes down a lot he scares
Speaker 1: us a lot. He has a lot of like, you know,
Speaker 1: go to the locker room, get a Chad come back.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of scary thing with him. And I
Speaker 1: think it's just a mentality thing. He's very It's very
Speaker 1: easy for him to just give the ball to like
Speaker 1: Tennis shrewder and be like, oh yeah, I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: space here, and like a quarter will go by and
Speaker 1: he took like two shots and then he'll try to
Speaker 1: get a rid up. So that's my only thing with
Speaker 1: with a D. But Alexander, can you hear us? Bro? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can hear you, guys. I can hear you guys.
Speaker 1: Thinks let me talk to you guys. Um And something
Speaker 1: I've uh an issue I've had all season is the
Speaker 1: Lakers shooting right. I mean, I think we lead the
Speaker 1: league and missed wide open threes, you know where the
Speaker 1: defender is six ft or fur other away. How do
Speaker 1: we fix this because you know we're doing We have
Speaker 1: so many people on our roster. You think of k CP,
Speaker 1: you think of West Matthew's been McLamore, where their only
Speaker 1: job is to hit hit wide open threes. It's just
Speaker 1: for me, it's just unacceptable as a fan to watch
Speaker 1: us shoot sub thirt in playoff game after playoff game.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't win a championship that way. I
Speaker 1: just don't how to fix it. I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: the venting thing, obviously, I don't think you guys have
Speaker 1: the answers to that. But it's just frustrating to watch
Speaker 1: this brick completely wide open threes that other playoff teams
Speaker 1: are hitting with consistency. I think that's go ahead, Okay,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say that that's tough. Yeah, there is
Speaker 1: no real ANSWPA. They're they're pros. They're supposed to get
Speaker 1: their open shots. They work on them. But like tonight,
Speaker 1: just gonna use tonight as the example, Like they shot
Speaker 1: it scared, and you really don't have a chance if
Speaker 1: you shoot it scared. Like if you can at least
Speaker 1: shot it confidently, you can put them up, you shoot
Speaker 1: them open. I can kind of live with the misses
Speaker 1: the passing of shots, which is kind of troubling um
Speaker 1: going forward here. But yeah, it's tough, man. They won
Speaker 1: last year with it, though, right they struggled shooting all
Speaker 1: the year and h we all we all said they'll
Speaker 1: hit him when it counts um but even like the
Speaker 1: home games. I mean not to cut you off, but
Speaker 1: like you mentioned earlier about hey, role players played better
Speaker 1: at home, guys did right. Our guys are still shooting
Speaker 1: from three at home. There's no difference home the road.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't understand it. Like it's just so
Speaker 1: many compl And we've been a bad shooting team this year,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned last year. I don't think we've been
Speaker 1: in the top half of three point shooting percentage in
Speaker 1: the last four or five years. I just don't get it,
Speaker 1: Like shooters like Danny Green come here to die, like
Speaker 1: he was decent in Toronto, bad here good in Philly.
Speaker 1: Like I just don't understand. It's like a curse. I think, Uh,
Speaker 1: like a couple of things you have to understand that
Speaker 1: we as a fan base kind of have to understand.
Speaker 1: You know. First of all, this was by design. The
Speaker 1: Lakers prioritized players with defensive talent over players that could shoot. Uh.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are the kind of team that was like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna look for the Wesley Matthews Alex Crusoe types,
Speaker 1: not the Gary Trent Junior types, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And that there is a scenario here where the Lakers
Speaker 1: of all kinds of shooting and Lebron's having you know,
Speaker 1: a ridiculous offensive season on crazy high efficiency, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is dunking on everybody but their average to blow
Speaker 1: average defense because none of their guards can keep anybody
Speaker 1: out of the paint. And you know that, I think
Speaker 1: that's the thought process there. That said, the percentages have
Speaker 1: been even lower than they should be. Like what happened
Speaker 1: last year was the Lakers were a slightly below average
Speaker 1: three point shooting team, if I remember correctly, they shot
Speaker 1: about thirty five from three in the playoffs last year,
Speaker 1: which was okay, not good, certainly a little bit below average,
Speaker 1: but enough so that they're high end defense was enough
Speaker 1: to carry them, you know what I mean. And this season,
Speaker 1: what the problem has been is that the lack of
Speaker 1: shooting has actually been a problem for the first time
Speaker 1: here in this postseason. Now the important detail, and as
Speaker 1: Roger and I keep pointing out, the Lakers were up
Speaker 1: two games to one in this series and showboating in
Speaker 1: the first half of Game four at home, you know,
Speaker 1: having fun because while a d was healthy, because even
Speaker 1: though they could not make a damn three to save
Speaker 1: their life. That's so everything. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it might get simplified down to shooting, it might get
Speaker 1: simplified down to X role player had a bad, bad day.
Speaker 1: What what it really is is this team was built
Speaker 1: around Lebron and A D physically pulverizing you, and half
Speaker 1: of that unit has gone in the other half, Like,
Speaker 1: what was the whole plan going into this series? We
Speaker 1: just need to beat the Sun's because A D is
Speaker 1: the guy that they can't guard. We just need to
Speaker 1: give Lebron to trying to get his legs back, and
Speaker 1: we said he's got like five weeks before that Clippers series,
Speaker 1: so that's five weeks for him to get back in shape.
Speaker 1: And the whole thing got thrown off because the guy
Speaker 1: that was supposed to carry us through that point, A
Speaker 1: D got hurt and now the guy that's not ready
Speaker 1: yet has all the responsibility. So like the role players,
Speaker 1: making shots is certainly a part of it, but it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of by design. And the Lakers were winning
Speaker 1: this series without making threes at one point. Yep, I
Speaker 1: agree with that, and like you have to win the
Speaker 1: paint battle, you have to win the free thow bout
Speaker 1: you have to been the reboundy like if you're not,
Speaker 1: if you're getting outscored from three, and they're not in
Speaker 1: the series. Phoenix isn't shooting that great from three either,
Speaker 1: and I think that's just by design as well. The
Speaker 1: Lakers want to run him off the three make book
Speaker 1: and Chris Paulity contested tough shots, don't put them on
Speaker 1: the line and live with kind of eight and scoring
Speaker 1: at the rim. And they've done that to an extent
Speaker 1: before tonight's you know, total meltdown, and then that second
Speaker 1: half in Game four. They've kind of done that. They've
Speaker 1: been in every other, every other game, UM and the
Speaker 1: three point shooting just has not give him any margin
Speaker 1: of air to work with. That's a sad part, and
Speaker 1: you're right to be frustrated with it. UM Pro should
Speaker 1: hit their open shots. But this is a defensive minded team.
Speaker 1: They were built around a defense, and Lebron and a
Speaker 1: t like Jason said, kind of just mean destroyer of worlds.
Speaker 1: And one of them is not there and one of
Speaker 1: them doesn't look like himself yet. So that's that's the
Speaker 1: trouble part with it, man. And then we hope those
Speaker 1: shots go down. KCP didn't play last game. He didn't
Speaker 1: look like himself tonight either. He's our main shooter, right,
Speaker 1: He's not an elite shooter, but you know he's a
Speaker 1: guy when he's open. Was supposed to be a knockdown
Speaker 1: three point shooter. He was shooting what from three for
Speaker 1: like the first month and a half of this season,
Speaker 1: if you remember, Caruso was shooting from three to start
Speaker 1: this season. Like we're hitting like extremely big time open shots.
Speaker 1: And from there they've really cooled off. And the playoffs,
Speaker 1: you're supposed to hit your open looks to free up
Speaker 1: the stars. That's the whole point of it, as the
Speaker 1: whole point of spacing, as the whole point to get
Speaker 1: Lebron going. Once Lebron gets attacked in the rim, he
Speaker 1: gets people in foul trouble. It's just just like dynamism
Speaker 1: that kind of isn't there because has of the open
Speaker 1: shots not going. People want Lebron and drive. There's nowhere
Speaker 1: to go. Eighton is sitting at the paint. Jake crowd
Speaker 1: is sitting and help. They're helping one pass away. They
Speaker 1: do not care and I should just can't burn them, um,
Speaker 1: And that's that's what's happening. But thank thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much. I appreciate it. Thank you Alexander, We really
Speaker 1: appreciate you coming on. Man. Surprised no one has asked
Speaker 1: about Treads yet. It's kind of a funny. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of time I talk about him. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I could tell that this was kind of the case
Speaker 1: in game for I think what tries is the kind
Speaker 1: of guy that doesn't take too kindly to getting thrown
Speaker 1: in and garbage time the way like I kind of
Speaker 1: felt like the not that it was garbage time in
Speaker 1: game four, but I I didn't think Treads was great
Speaker 1: in his minutes in game four, and that's our part
Speaker 1: of the reason for that is like he's a little
Speaker 1: pouty over the fact that he's out of the rotation,
Speaker 1: but the reality of the situation is his tread is
Speaker 1: and turning this thing around, h it's gonna be and
Speaker 1: role players making threes, you know, no, for sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't think he would have made a huge difference.
Speaker 1: Maybe his energy. Jay, are you there? Can you hear us? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What's close? What's going on there? Just just answer your question.
Speaker 1: Nobody's asking about Trus because everybody's depressed about shoulder. Um,
Speaker 1: you're right, Like I'm gonna say this, Let'm tell me
Speaker 1: how you guys feel about this, right, I think going
Speaker 1: back to the line up conversations that we were having earlier,
Speaker 1: I think personally it's too late. I think vocal got
Speaker 1: too cute, um and continuing to afford I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that Drummond is the problem, but clear are you there?
Speaker 1: Can't hear Jay? We lost you for a second. Man,
Speaker 1: My bad, my bad, folks, You're good. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know where I left off, but what I
Speaker 1: was saying is is that we got to give this
Speaker 1: Sun's credit. Right. Um, they're frustrating everybody on the court. There.
Speaker 1: They're baiting Lebron in the wing. Uh, they're bating him
Speaker 1: in the corner on passes when when they're just throwing
Speaker 1: a fake double like Lebron is clearly frustrated. And part
Speaker 1: of that is the spacing like I don't want I
Speaker 1: don't want to beat a dead horse. But going back
Speaker 1: to the line of like I said this, when when
Speaker 1: Schroeder went into the protocol continuing to put him in
Speaker 1: the starting lineup, I know this is kind of like
Speaker 1: the nuclear option, I don't know if you guys know
Speaker 1: the stats since he's come back from from the protocols,
Speaker 1: but he's shooting in seven games like that's tempero sent
Speaker 1: lower than what he shot all season. Right, he had
Speaker 1: a great season before that. I agree. Um, The problem
Speaker 1: is is the Sun's defense is really good. Right, Drummond
Speaker 1: is a negative spacer in all facets. Schroeder does not
Speaker 1: shoot the ball, right, and then you have every other
Speaker 1: wing on the on the Lakers just not taking a shot.
Speaker 1: You guys were having a conversation earlier about what was
Speaker 1: different from last year's team and this year's team, and
Speaker 1: I agree that it's it's there's a lot of moving parts.
Speaker 1: You can't um, you can't compare them. But my simple
Speaker 1: answer is Lebron was making every single decision when it
Speaker 1: came down to current time. You had Lebron on the
Speaker 1: ball and he was getting put in high picking rolls
Speaker 1: and he was making every decision. We had sixteen turnovers
Speaker 1: tonight and they scored twenty three points off those turns. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So ultimately my question is is do you think that
Speaker 1: there's any value at all whatsoever to consider bringing Shoulder
Speaker 1: off the bench to one match campaign, who's who's been
Speaker 1: kicking everybody's ass um but to just to put the
Speaker 1: ball in Lebron's hand and just if we're gonna take
Speaker 1: Like I know we're saying that role players need to
Speaker 1: hit shots, but when you go look at the film, men,
Speaker 1: those shots aren't as open as as I think we
Speaker 1: we think they're when when um, when we were wanting alive, no, no,
Speaker 1: for sure, and I think kind of Vogel agreed with you.
Speaker 1: He pulled true to really early tonight. If you remember, Um,
Speaker 1: I think Shrewder got pulled with like after like five minutes. Um.
Speaker 1: He put in Gasol and Crusoe for drumming and Shooter
Speaker 1: because he was just not playing well and and like
Speaker 1: there's a lot of positive to him, like I thought
Speaker 1: his season was okay, but uh, and it gives Lebron
Speaker 1: another ball handler to where they can't just ball pressure
Speaker 1: him all night, which I think they would do. If
Speaker 1: you take Shooter off the floor, Lebron is the only
Speaker 1: guy dribbling, and again with drumming on the floor as well,
Speaker 1: there's just no space. So if you run, they're running ball.
Speaker 1: Street action was Lebron and drumming and he's trying to
Speaker 1: you know, put the guy on his back, put the
Speaker 1: guy in jail, and attacked the rim. And there's no
Speaker 1: space there. Shooter. You know, the theory of Shooter was
Speaker 1: supposed to, you know, give a guy to give to
Speaker 1: be a pick and roll partner with a d a
Speaker 1: guy who's a lethal score that you have to kind
Speaker 1: of um defending the paint as well, a guy that
Speaker 1: puts pressure on the rim. And he's just none of
Speaker 1: those things right now. And I just don't know if
Speaker 1: the COVID thing impacted. He had two really good games.
Speaker 1: I talked about it earlier Game two. In Game three,
Speaker 1: we don't win without him, we just don't um. But
Speaker 1: the COVID thing, I mean, it sucked. He went into
Speaker 1: protocol right before the season ended. He just did not
Speaker 1: have enough time with you know, drumming lebron a d
Speaker 1: this season. Maybe that's what it is. But you know,
Speaker 1: maybe they do put in the bench. I was keeping
Speaker 1: from more Crusoe minutes. He's one of the guys that
Speaker 1: didn't look scared tonight to shoot, which which says something.
Speaker 1: Which is sad that it says something, but it does.
Speaker 1: He's one of the guys that kind of pulled, so there,
Speaker 1: maybe I just think it might be too late for that.
Speaker 1: Like you said, to bring him off the bench, I
Speaker 1: don't know how much that helps killing his confidence in
Speaker 1: the process. Right, So you've been going off the bench. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe you put Crusoe in, you get a little bit
Speaker 1: better from the starters, but then you get you get
Speaker 1: maybe nothing from him. Maybe he just goes into a
Speaker 1: mental blockade. So I don't know where to go with that.
Speaker 1: That's a thin line. What do you think, Jason, That's
Speaker 1: what I was gonna say too. Is just at this
Speaker 1: point in the season back against the wall making that change?
Speaker 1: Is it just the risk to reward factor is low?
Speaker 1: I mean, you can you could effectively bench him by
Speaker 1: having him start but then pulling him quickly and then
Speaker 1: bringing him in when Lebron goes to the bench and
Speaker 1: then attempt to try to salvage whatever that is. But
Speaker 1: I don't know. It'll be really interesting to see what
Speaker 1: happened in game six. It'll be interesting to see if
Speaker 1: the rotation expands as he just starts throwing stuff at
Speaker 1: the wall, or if he shrinks it down to like
Speaker 1: seven guys or eight guys and goes down with the
Speaker 1: ship so to speak. Um, you know, there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of different options there. Like I like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: I'd like to see them go small a little bit um,
Speaker 1: but just just because Aton has a tendency when he
Speaker 1: feels like he's in a crowd, he'll give the ball up.
Speaker 1: So if you rotate fast enough, I think you can.
Speaker 1: I think you can still have some success defensively. But
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean at this point, like if if,
Speaker 1: if guys don't start playing to their potential, meaning role
Speaker 1: players don't start hitting at least league average when when
Speaker 1: they're wide open, Dennis Shrewter doesn't like Dennis Shooter has
Speaker 1: to be better than Campaign. Like, if Campaign is going
Speaker 1: to be better than Dennis Shooter, you're losing the series.
Speaker 1: That's just the reality of the situation. Like, and if
Speaker 1: you don't like you, they're they're capable of playing much
Speaker 1: better defense than they did tonight too, And I don't
Speaker 1: know they're there. We've kind of touched on it all
Speaker 1: already tonight. But I think at this point, the only
Speaker 1: real starting lineup move to to make would be to
Speaker 1: start Kassol in hopes of opening up some driving lanes
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the game. Yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 1: That's the that's the change I wanted to see. I
Speaker 1: want to seek gasol kind of starting give Lebron's face early.
Speaker 1: It just feel like we talked about it earlier. But
Speaker 1: you know, once they brought the solid and the game
Speaker 1: was kind of over, sadly, like Devin Booker had it going,
Speaker 1: the crowd was going crazy. They were already down I
Speaker 1: think ten eleven points um, And by that time, Phoenix
Speaker 1: buid all their confidence. They weren't missing anything, they were
Speaker 1: getting all the calls rightfully. They were the more physical team. Um.
Speaker 1: They were getting everything going their way. Every offensive rebound
Speaker 1: went their way, every loose ball. And I think it
Speaker 1: was too late. You need to get Lebron going, get
Speaker 1: is scoring going, maybe get the team going that way. Um,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't. I don't know. Benja Shreoterman that
Speaker 1: that's a tough decision that has a lot of implications,
Speaker 1: I think, just not just helping the starters, but it
Speaker 1: might hurt him and they need him in this series.
Speaker 1: Even if a d plays, they need his offense. Man,
Speaker 1: he can't score like this. They need twenty from him,
Speaker 1: like in a in an efficient way as well. And
Speaker 1: he also used to be playmaking. He can't be turning
Speaker 1: the ball over tonight. He just drove but just no,
Speaker 1: like no, I don't know how to explain it, like
Speaker 1: just there was no decision making. He just drove and
Speaker 1: decided I'm gonna shoot here, and mcal Bridges sent him
Speaker 1: to the third row. I think three times, um, and
Speaker 1: he got punked by campaign. Campaign is like out playing
Speaker 1: Chris Paul in some parts, like that's a tough guy
Speaker 1: to I'll play right now. But that's that's what I
Speaker 1: see with Shooter. Man. I don't know where else to
Speaker 1: go that. Yeah, I appreciate you, man. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: let's get one more person that we're gonna kind of
Speaker 1: call it. I think we've been going here for over
Speaker 1: an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Let's see Jay.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you man, Thanks man, good luck songs, see Lakers
Speaker 1: all the I think he says Lakers all the way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how are you doing man? Good are you? How are
Speaker 1: you doing doing well? Man? So I was like I
Speaker 1: think you said earlier in the in the space, that's
Speaker 1: like you were talking about like a soul minutes how Roman,
Speaker 1: Because like you said, like we were down double figures.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to point out that, like the game
Speaker 1: was ton ton when was in and then like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it really felt like because I was noticing like in
Speaker 1: the game, like the Sun's really started like they were
Speaker 1: started attacking his slow feet like Chris Paul you had
Speaker 1: book or they were all sure like they really started talking.
Speaker 1: And then like that's when like I saw like the
Speaker 1: Sun's offense got going. Yeah for sure. You know, I
Speaker 1: just felt like the momentum maybe I guess I remembered it.
Speaker 1: It felt like we were down more at that time,
Speaker 1: but I feel like their momentum was kind of already building.
Speaker 1: I think we started up like seven nothings or something
Speaker 1: like that. I think they went on like a fourteen
Speaker 1: oh run um that coincided with the dissoloments as well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I just felt like the game was kind
Speaker 1: of ended. Lebron was already kind of tired. He saw
Speaker 1: his teammates are already scared to shoot. That's why men
Speaker 1: kind of BCP kind of like, yeah, they were, they
Speaker 1: were not taking the open shots. Absolutely, Yeah that I
Speaker 1: thought that like early in the game, the Lakers defended
Speaker 1: pretty well in the first six minute stretch and then
Speaker 1: you could just see kind of like as the role
Speaker 1: players started missing shots and his Lebron's like kinda like,
Speaker 1: let's see if I got my jumper going tonight type
Speaker 1: of shots. As they weren't going in, I think the
Speaker 1: belief left, and when the belief left, the defense slipped,
Speaker 1: and then when the defense slipped, it was over. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree with them, and it's hopefully in game six
Speaker 1: they started off a little bit better. Um, it's not
Speaker 1: as lopside and after after the first quarter, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think this game really fell off defensively. Hopefully everyone plays
Speaker 1: harder and then the role players played better so we
Speaker 1: can get game six. Absolutely, man, I agree, appreciate it. Alright, alright, everybody,
Speaker 1: Roger and I are gonna get some sleep. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: quickly convert the recording of this to a podcast for
Speaker 1: you guys to check out if you didn't hear the
Speaker 1: thing in its entirety. Roj and I were both very
Speaker 1: angry in the first half, or whatever our version of
Speaker 1: angry is. We did our our own little event events
Speaker 1: as at the beginning of this UM, so you guys
Speaker 1: will be able to to go back and listen to
Speaker 1: it and um uh. The Thursday pod is gonna be
Speaker 1: a little tricky for me because I'm flying out of
Speaker 1: Phoenix and I may or may not be in a car,
Speaker 1: so depending on how good the cell services, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try to hop on with ROJ to do a postgame show,
Speaker 1: but worst case scenario, I'm sure we'll be able to
Speaker 1: figure something out. Thank you guys all so much, as
Speaker 1: always UH for your support and UH and hopefully we
Speaker 1: have more than one more game to cover this season.
Speaker 1: I appreciate everyone, Thank you so much for hanging out