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Speaker 2: hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Wensday, everybody, O
Speaker 2: ball of you guys are having a great week. On
Speaker 2: a jampackshow for you guys. Tonight, we had the Minnesota
Speaker 2: Timberwolves deliver the final nail into the confident of the
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Lakers, the first iteration of the luka doncic
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Lakers. We're going to start with that game,
Speaker 2: breaking it down from every single angle. After that, the
Speaker 2: Houston Rockets beat up on the Golden State Warriors tonight,
Speaker 2: and now come that I kind of sort of sawcoming
Speaker 2: that we'll talk about both why I'm not overly concerned
Speaker 2: for the Warriors, but also some reality in terms of
Speaker 2: the puncher's chance that Houston has moving forward in the
Speaker 2: series that we'll talk about, and then we'll take some
Speaker 2: questions at the tail end of the show. You guys
Speaker 2: are the jope. Before we get started subscribe to the
Speaker 2: Hoops and I YouTube channel so you don't miss any
Speaker 2: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jsonltc.
Speaker 2: You guysn't miss you Announcementsn't forget about a podcast feed
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Speaker 2: also super helpful if you leave a rating and a
Speaker 2: review on that front. Don't forget about our social media
Speaker 2: feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where Jackson's doing incredible
Speaker 2: work throughout this postseason. Make sure you guys follow us
Speaker 2: there and the last but not at least keep dropping
Speaker 2: mail bag questions so we can get to them throughout
Speaker 2: the remainder of the postseason. And then also, don't forget
Speaker 2: we are doing our first playback after show tonight. We'll
Speaker 2: talk a little bit more about that in a few minutes,
Speaker 2: but after the show tonight, we're going to be heading
Speaker 2: over to playback. I'm probably going to go through the
Speaker 2: whole fourth quarter of that Wolves Lakers game because I
Speaker 2: thought that was super fascinating. We'll watch some film, we'll
Speaker 2: take some questions. You guys are going to be able
Speaker 2: to come up on stage and talk be a lot
Speaker 2: of fun on playback after the show. So let's talk
Speaker 2: Lakers Wolves. I thought the Timberwolves sent a message tonight.
Speaker 2: There was a certain dynamic after the first four games
Speaker 2: of this series where it was clear that the Wolves
Speaker 2: had won the key swing stretches of the series, but
Speaker 2: it was also clear that the Lakers had some advantages
Speaker 2: and there were extended stretch of the series. Is where
Speaker 2: of the series or they had success right like through
Speaker 2: the first three quarters of Game four, for instance, or
Speaker 2: in Game three up until the point where it was
Speaker 2: tied one o three, one oh three with a few
Speaker 2: minutes left, or all of Game two when they were
Speaker 2: in control. Right like the first two games they trade
Speaker 2: blowouts and then you have these two knockdown, drag out
Speaker 2: fights in Minnesota that come down to the final few possessions,
Speaker 2: and in both games the Wolves did look better. But
Speaker 2: you could at least talk yourself into the Lakers having
Speaker 2: a chance, right, Well, Luca was very sick in Game
Speaker 2: three of the series. There were a couple of calls
Speaker 2: that went against the Lakers late in Game four, right,
Speaker 2: you could at least talk yourself into the Lakers having
Speaker 2: underachieved and potentially being capable of regaining control of the series.
Speaker 2: Tonight was the game or the Wolves sent the clear
Speaker 2: message that they're just the best, better basketball team. They
Speaker 2: jumped tom early throughout the game, it was abundantly clear
Speaker 2: that the Wolves were able to generate offense easier. The
Speaker 2: only reason the Timberwolves didn't win this game by twenty
Speaker 2: five something points is how many wide open threes they
Speaker 2: ended up missing. You want to know a big part
Speaker 2: of how Rudy go Bare ended up with nine rebounds,
Speaker 2: it's because all these wide open threes were clanging off
Speaker 2: the rim as the Lakers were in transition. That could
Speaker 2: have gotten way uglier than it looked on the scoreboard.
Speaker 2: Their defense seemed to clearly win. I was talking about
Speaker 2: that battle, like which unit is going to make the
Speaker 2: opposing unit more uncomfortable? I thought the defense for the
Speaker 2: Timberwolves clearly did a better job of making the Lakers
Speaker 2: uncomfortable than vice versa. The giveaway was tonight, there were
Speaker 2: these possessions where Austin, Lebron, and Luca would all be
Speaker 2: on the floor together, two of them would be on
Speaker 2: the floor and the Wolves would be switching, and every
Speaker 2: defender on the floor would be a good defender, and
Speaker 2: it looked like the Lakers didn't have a guy who
Speaker 2: was like, give me the fucking ball, I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: to work here. All of them were kind of hot
Speaker 2: potatoing the ball around because none of them really felt
Speaker 2: comfortable attack any of the matchups. Any ground that the
Speaker 2: Lakers seemed to gain as a half court offense was
Speaker 2: lost in this game. I thought the Wolves clearly demonstrated
Speaker 2: that they were the better team tonight and removed any
Speaker 2: doubt as to any of the weird factors that might
Speaker 2: have had any effect shifting the early games of the series.
Speaker 2: Rudy Gobert was amazing tonight as an offensive rebounder and
Speaker 2: as a vertical spacer. The Lakers tried to do a
Speaker 2: lot more doubling against Anthony Edwards tonight. That led to
Speaker 2: a lot of weak side disadvantages, meaning like guards trying
Speaker 2: to box out Rudy or in many cases, nobody trying
Speaker 2: to box out Rudy. I thought Lebron had one of
Speaker 2: his worst games of this series, probably his worst game
Speaker 2: of the series in terms of his defensive activity and
Speaker 2: his work on the defensive glass. And when the problem
Speaker 2: is is when Lebron's not really engaged on the defensive glass,
Speaker 2: this team just can't rebound. They just don't have the
Speaker 2: size on that back line, and Rudy Gobert just bullied
Speaker 2: them over and over and over again. Twenty seven points
Speaker 2: and twenty four rebounds. That's an unbelievable stat line for
Speaker 2: Rudy go beher in in a closeout game, and a
Speaker 2: big moment for him, especially after what happened between him
Speaker 2: and Luca last year in the postseason. Had to have
Speaker 2: been feeling good for Rudy Gobert there heading back to
Speaker 2: the locker room after closing that deal. I thought Julius
Speaker 2: Randall was awesome the entire series. I thought he was
Speaker 2: awesome on defense. I thought, with exception of a handful
Speaker 2: of bad shots here or there, I thought he was
Speaker 2: effective as a score I thought that he keeked late
Speaker 2: in games, was great creating advantages out of the post
Speaker 2: and high post. In the fourth quarter of tonight's game.
Speaker 2: He did work on the offensive glass in Game four. Julius,
Speaker 2: this is one of the few things with Minnesota that
Speaker 2: I had a good read on coming into the series.
Speaker 2: I believed in Julius Randall. I thought that he was
Speaker 2: a victim of circumstance in most cases, previously in his
Speaker 2: playoff career, and I thought that he demonstrated that he's
Speaker 2: capable of being a very impactful playoff player in this series,
Speaker 2: specifically because of his size and physicality and how that
Speaker 2: translates into these uber physical environments. And you know, one
Speaker 2: of the things we talked about after the Julius Randall
Speaker 2: tray was the idea that, you know, Carl Anthony Towns
Speaker 2: is a better basketball player than Julius Randall in a vacuum, right,
Speaker 2: And there are certain things that he does that were
Speaker 2: helpful to Minnesota, specifically his ability to space the floor right.
Speaker 2: But with Julius Randall from the day the trade was made,
Speaker 2: one of the things I talked about was he is
Speaker 2: a better high post, low post shot creator than Karl
Speaker 2: Anthony Towns. He's better at that specific gift, right. And
Speaker 2: in the fourth quarter tonight, they went to him repeatedly
Speaker 2: there in that spot against Lebron, against Luca, against Austin Reeves,
Speaker 2: and he repeatedly got to his spot in the middle
Speaker 2: of the floor for shots or right at the front
Speaker 2: of the rim. He was dominant tonight, and I thought
Speaker 2: I thought he cleanly, clearly demonstrated that he's capable of
Speaker 2: being an impactful playoff player when he's healthy and in rhythm,
Speaker 2: and there was no advantage attacking Julius. There was nothing
Speaker 2: that Lebron was getting on Julius on one on one.
Speaker 2: There was nothing that Luca was getting on Julius one
Speaker 2: on one. It's a good matchup for him and it'll
Speaker 2: be interesting to see, let's say, if he faces a
Speaker 2: Golden State in the next round, a team that more
Speaker 2: attacks his focus and discipline defensively, because it's going to
Speaker 2: be so much more about navigating the blender of the
Speaker 2: Golden State offense and having to chase down to chase
Speaker 2: around smaller, quicker players. But in this kind of matchup
Speaker 2: where it's like a team led by two bully ball forwards,
Speaker 2: Julius proved to be a very impactful defensive player because
Speaker 2: of his ability to hold up on an island in
Speaker 2: those situations. Jada McDaniels Jada McDaniels got his ass kicked
Speaker 2: by Luka Doncics last year in the postseason. I thought
Speaker 2: he just did a way better job this year with
Speaker 2: this physicality shrinking that space as Luca was trying to
Speaker 2: get into a step back in the mid range. There
Speaker 2: was none of that dynamic we saw last year, or
Speaker 2: it looked like Luca was constantly dislodging Jaden McDaniels off
Speaker 2: of his base and just getting wherever he wanted to
Speaker 2: on the floor. I thought he did a much better
Speaker 2: job on Luca in this series than he did last year.
Speaker 2: He also showed the pop as a week side scoring forward.
Speaker 2: We've talked so much about this as like a very
Speaker 2: important player archetype this year, and look, look there were
Speaker 2: games where he wasn't as effective. He wasn't very good
Speaker 2: in Game two offensively, He wasn't very good tonight offensively.
Speaker 2: But there were games in this series, specifically Game one
Speaker 2: and Games three and four at stretches, where he was
Speaker 2: profoundly impactful offensively because of the ability to be that
Speaker 2: weak side scoring forward. And it wasn't even knocking down threes.
Speaker 2: It was catching and ripping on closeouts and just repeatedly
Speaker 2: getting to the rim doing damage on the offensive glass.
Speaker 2: He had two more offensive rebounds tonight, Like Jada, McDaniels
Speaker 2: was better in this series than he was last year.
Speaker 2: Nas Reed, I thought the story of his series was
Speaker 2: late game shot making. They probably don't win Game three
Speaker 2: or Game four if not for nas Reed being able
Speaker 2: to come in and provide the scoring off of the
Speaker 2: bench in that situation, the way he was able to
Speaker 2: providing Anthony Edwards with a clean kickout Reid on the
Speaker 2: left wing in Game three, him scoring out of action
Speaker 2: in Game four coming off of a Horns action or
Speaker 2: in transition in Game four attacking Austin Reeves in a
Speaker 2: post up and getting to his right shoulder hook and
Speaker 2: finishing in the lane. Nas Reed was a huge part
Speaker 2: of their ability to score down the stretch in this series.
Speaker 2: Dante DiVincenzo his ball pressure throughout the series, especially on
Speaker 2: Austin Reeves. There were stretches of this series like tonight
Speaker 2: for example, where he looked more impactful than Austin in
Speaker 2: this series, like there was just down the line, so
Speaker 2: many great contributions from a Minnesota team. And look, here's
Speaker 2: the deal. If you're going to win a series in
Speaker 2: five when you were an underdog going into the series,
Speaker 2: it's going to require a bunch of guys down the
Speaker 2: roster winning their matchups. And there were just so many
Speaker 2: examples of that in this series. And so before we
Speaker 2: talk a little bit more about the sport the Superstar matchup.
Speaker 2: I want to get into our Course Correction segment with
Speaker 2: Microsoft with respect to Anthony Edwards. Welcome to Course Correction,
Speaker 2: brought to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and
Speaker 2: teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under
Speaker 2: immense pressure to get things right. They must rise to
Speaker 2: the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries
Speaker 2: with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy
Speaker 2: responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA, you have
Speaker 2: your own hurdles to face. In this segment, we will
Speaker 2: highlight the player every week that has risen to the
Speaker 2: occasion when his team needed him. Whatever challenge you're facing,
Speaker 2: Microsoft empowers you with expertise to say bring it on.
Speaker 2: This week's player of the Week is Anthony Edwards and
Speaker 2: his dominance in the Lakers Timberwolve series. I thought ant
Speaker 2: was fantastic tonight in a way that won't show up
Speaker 2: in the box score. Five for nineteen Right didn't have
Speaker 2: a single turnover and eight assists, the third game in
Speaker 2: the series where it was high playmaking totals with low turnovers.
Speaker 2: He throughout this game, specifically in the second quarter when
Speaker 2: the Lakers started bringing a lot of double teams, and
Speaker 2: it was fantastic in that second quarter stretch, and then
Speaker 2: like multiple times in the fourth quarter tonight, just making
Speaker 2: simple reads like that simple driving kickout read off of
Speaker 2: Luca to Mike Conley in the right corner. There were
Speaker 2: so many examples where you remember in Game two when
Speaker 2: Ant had zero assist how I talked about how he
Speaker 2: didn't make the strong side corner pass a single time,
Speaker 2: and how it was there and he just wasn't making
Speaker 2: it there. In that second quarter, he was making it,
Speaker 2: just thrusting Nikhil Alexander Walker there in the right corner,
Speaker 2: even after he just airballed a shot from the same spot.
Speaker 2: You know how mature it is for him in that
Speaker 2: situation to go, I'm not going to force the issue here.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna dump it right back to the strong
Speaker 2: side corner because it's open, and ni Kiel's gonna confidently
Speaker 2: step into the shot and knock it down. I thought
Speaker 2: he was so mature as a half court surgeon in
Speaker 2: this series. And then in the big moments in Game three,
Speaker 2: in Game four, down the stretch, Game three tie, game
Speaker 2: late step back three boom, step back three, boom, driving
Speaker 2: kick to nas Reed on the left wing, boom. He
Speaker 2: was fantastic down the stretch. Game four starts the fourth
Speaker 2: quarter down double digits, hits, three ridiculous off the dribble
Speaker 2: jump shots that immediately changed the tone and tenor of
Speaker 2: the game. Had another driving kick to Dante DiVincenzo on
Speaker 2: the left wing, who drove it for an and one.
Speaker 2: Every time series was hanging in the balance one way
Speaker 2: or the other, Anthony Edwards grabbed the reins resoundingly and
Speaker 2: just took control of the series. He has solidified himself,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, as a top five player in this league.
Speaker 2: I saw some comments on Twitter earlier today talking about
Speaker 2: how the Lakers lack of rim protection was allowing people
Speaker 2: to get fooled by Anthony Edwards again, and don't get
Speaker 2: me wrong, there's no doubt that rim protection combined with
Speaker 2: a better perimeter athlete will present a different problem for
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards right like Derek Jones Junior and Daniel Gafford
Speaker 2: and Derek Lively, different type of challenge defensively than what
Speaker 2: the Lakers presented. I'd even argue the Warriors with their
Speaker 2: ability to put a guy like Moses Moody on the ball,
Speaker 2: who's just a bigger, better athlete than the Lakers have
Speaker 2: on the perimeter, and Draymond Green on the back line
Speaker 2: is going to be a bigger challenge. And I think
Speaker 2: Steve Kerr is a better coach than JJ Reddick. I
Speaker 2: think the Warriors are overall a better, smarter team than
Speaker 2: the Lakers. I think that I think that the Warriors defense,
Speaker 2: as I've consistently said this year, is just another level
Speaker 2: above what the Lakers are defensively. So Ant's going to
Speaker 2: have another challenge in the next round. It's not going
Speaker 2: to be the same, But I think I think trying
Speaker 2: to minimize Ant's success in this series to just the
Speaker 2: Lakers lacking rim protection is missing the point. He was
Speaker 2: below fifty percent in the restricted area before tonight's game.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen the numbers from tonight, but I would
Speaker 2: imagine he is below fifty percent in the restricted area. Again,
Speaker 2: he did not win this series getting to the rim.
Speaker 2: He won this series making quality decisions as a point
Speaker 2: guard and with his over the top shot making, and
Speaker 2: those were the things last year that failed him in
Speaker 2: the Dallas series. And so yeah, like there's more challenges ahead.
Speaker 2: This Lakers team, I think has been pretty clearly revealed
Speaker 2: in this first round series as a team that was
Speaker 2: not as good as I thought they were. We're going
Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about that in a few minutes.
Speaker 2: But with ant moving forward, I did think that this
Speaker 2: was a positive step in his development. The next lefe
Speaker 2: that he had to pass. There's more levels ahead. He's
Speaker 2: got a long way to go, but I think he's
Speaker 2: clearly in the top five. I think he's clearly a
Speaker 2: top tier superstar in this league. He was fantastic defensively
Speaker 2: all series long. In this matchup, I thought Ant was
Speaker 2: just amazing. That's it for this week's course correction. Remember
Speaker 2: Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take bold steps and
Speaker 2: make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive your
Speaker 2: business forward. With Microsoft as your trusted partner, you can
Speaker 2: navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions and reaching
Speaker 2: new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com Slash Challengers to learn more.
Speaker 2: So where did I go wrong picking this series? There's
Speaker 2: two main areas. The big one is is like I
Speaker 2: thought that Anthony Edwards just cleanly and clearly outplayed Luka
Speaker 2: Doncic in this series. I just thought he was the
Speaker 2: better basketball player on both ends of the floor. And
Speaker 2: you know, when I came into the series, I just
Speaker 2: thought that that was a matchup that Luca would win.
Speaker 2: And I thought like Ant would be closer to where
Speaker 2: Lebron was. Is like a guy that looked like somewhere
Speaker 2: in the five to tenth best player in the league,
Speaker 2: but you know, not being able to be the same
Speaker 2: kind of commanding presence that Luca is as an offensive
Speaker 2: force in the series, and just was able to flip
Speaker 2: that dynamic. And you know, for all of the talk
Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of talk. I saw Carson Breber
Speaker 2: when my friend from Nerd Sash do a video yesterday
Speaker 2: talking about depth and how important depth is in the NBA,
Speaker 2: and I don't disagree. I think depth is super important.
Speaker 2: It'd be really nice if you could have a depth
Speaker 2: piece that you can go to. Everyone was bitching at
Speaker 2: a JJ Redick for not playing any of his bench
Speaker 2: guys in Game four. How did Jared Vanderbilt look down
Speaker 2: the strutch to night guys like there wasn't exactly a
Speaker 2: guy that JJ trusted to put out there in those situations? Right.
Speaker 2: The reality is, though, is that in these sorts of situations,
Speaker 2: it comes down to when you're in the half court,
Speaker 2: your superstar has a superpower and that superpower is what
Speaker 2: overcomes surrounding circumstances and like that, that's the reality. Like
Speaker 2: the Lakers couldn't score in this series. They had shooting
Speaker 2: on the floor, they had play finishing on the floor,
Speaker 2: and when they generated fantastic looks, they went in. But
Speaker 2: it came down to ultimately, Luca could not create that
Speaker 2: initial advantage. He could not beat his one on one
Speaker 2: defender profoundly enough to dictate that second defender that could
Speaker 2: get the defense in rotation and allow the Lakers to
Speaker 2: generate wide open shots. He wasn't able to do it
Speaker 2: effectively enough. On the other end of the floor, Anthony Edwards,
Speaker 2: and what he does was dictating two sometimes three defenders
Speaker 2: every single time down the floor, and so his team
Speaker 2: was able to repeatedly generate fantastic looks. And so here's
Speaker 2: the thing. Do I think the Lakers roster has issues? Yeah,
Speaker 2: they need to get a legitimate, bona fide center. We're
Speaker 2: going to talk about some of the other kind of
Speaker 2: like deficits that they have and where the Lakers should
Speaker 2: go from here. I didn't think JJ Reddick had a
Speaker 2: good series, but ultimately I thought it came down to
Speaker 2: Luke out played Aunt, Julius Randall out played Lebron. It's
Speaker 2: really difficult to overcome that, no matter how good your
Speaker 2: coach is, no matter how deep you are, no matter
Speaker 2: what other you know, kind of cards you can pull
Speaker 2: out of the deck, so to speak, if your stars
Speaker 2: get beat, it's gonna be really hard to win. And
Speaker 2: like when I saw that, you know that message from
Speaker 2: from Carson, Like, I think it's valuable in terms of
Speaker 2: like just how athletic the game is now, with how
Speaker 2: fast everyone plays. To have seven or eight guys that
Speaker 2: you really trust is a huge asset. But I look
Speaker 2: at the Denver series and I think that they're winning
Speaker 2: because Jokich is the best player and he's dominating the
Speaker 2: star matchup and Jamal Murray is kicking James Harden's butt.
Speaker 2: And I look at this series and I think Anthony
Speaker 2: Edwards and Julius Randall outplayed Luke and Lebron. And I
Speaker 2: look at the Celtics Magic series and I'm watching game four,
Speaker 2: you know, Pivotal Game four down on the road in
Speaker 2: Orlando and Jason Tatum is surgical on one end of
Speaker 2: the floor and Pala Bancaro looks like he doesn't know
Speaker 2: what he wants to do on the other end of
Speaker 2: the floor. It even looking at the Pacers series, how
Speaker 2: did the Pacers pull that out down the stretch? Tyrese
Speaker 2: Haliburton just backpacked the team in crunch time. And ultimately,
Speaker 2: I still think having the best player in a series
Speaker 2: really does matter, even though depth also matters. I think
Speaker 2: that this was a good example, and there were several
Speaker 2: examples in this first round of the Star matchup playing
Speaker 2: and big role in how these series go. So where
Speaker 2: do the Lakers go from here? We can get more
Speaker 2: into it in the mailbag. I'd imagine we're going to
Speaker 2: talk a lot of like big picture Lakers stuff here
Speaker 2: and on playback here in a little bit. But like
Speaker 2: I thought, there were obvious athleticism deficits. You know, if
Speaker 2: there's one thing that I just didn't listen to my own,
Speaker 2: like I let my heart get in front of my head,
Speaker 2: so to speak. I watched every single minute of the
Speaker 2: Minnesota Timberwolves kicking the shit out of the Denver Nuggets
Speaker 2: last year. I watched every single minute of the Minnesota
Speaker 2: Timberwolves kicking the shit out of the Phoenix Suns last year.
Speaker 2: I watched probably like the better part of forty forty
Speaker 2: five Minnesota Timberwolves games. This year, like I watched them,
Speaker 2: and I repeatedly came on the show and said, Man,
Speaker 2: the upside with the Wolves is they can just maul
Speaker 2: everybody when they get into the playoffs and the ref
Speaker 2: swall of the whistles and it just turns into a
Speaker 2: blood bath and everyone just kind of seems powerless under
Speaker 2: those waves of size and athleticism. I knew it, and
Speaker 2: I didn't properly factor it in. It was just foolishness
Speaker 2: on my part. And it's a lesson learned, a valuable
Speaker 2: lesson learned. But I do think there's some reality with
Speaker 2: the Lakers roster build and their lack of athleticism, and this,
Speaker 2: to me is something to keep in mind with the
Speaker 2: build moving forward. I think there was a lot of
Speaker 2: talk coming out of this series, even when things were
Speaker 2: going poorly and even before the series. Now the Lakers
Speaker 2: just need a center. How Austin Reeves is the perfect
Speaker 2: kind of co star to have alongside Luka Doncic. He
Speaker 2: kind of fits the mold of the Jalen Brunson Kyrie
Speaker 2: Irving idea of having like a shot creating guard next
Speaker 2: to Luka. And you know, Lebron James is this guy
Speaker 2: that can operate as like a defensive folk rum and
Speaker 2: a small screen folk rum slash secondary ball handler, whatever
Speaker 2: you need. I look at it now and I go,
Speaker 2: I don't know that you can be athletic enough with
Speaker 2: Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic as core players. And so
Speaker 2: I think the Lakers, when you look at their kind
Speaker 2: of like their coffers going into this offseason. You have,
Speaker 2: if I'm not mistaken, at least one first round pick,
Speaker 2: because I think they gave up the other one in
Speaker 2: the ad traits. You have one first round pick. You've
Speaker 2: got I think at least one pick swap. You've got
Speaker 2: the Dalton connect piece, which I think is a young
Speaker 2: player that some teams would value. And then Austin Reeves
Speaker 2: is one of the best assets in the league because
Speaker 2: of his salary and what he makes right. So I
Speaker 2: think that the Lakers have to start seriously considering the
Speaker 2: reality that if they play Austin next to Luca in
Speaker 2: the big picture, there is an athleticism deficit, and if
Speaker 2: you're not freaky athletic at the other three spots, it
Speaker 2: might not be tenable. And so, and by the way,
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean that Austin. I'm a big believer in Austin,
Speaker 2: and I absolutely think that Austin can have success in
Speaker 2: a championship context. I think Austin got humbled a little
Speaker 2: bit in the series. I think that Austin was revealed
Speaker 2: to have two major shortcomings. One his ability to handle physicality.
Speaker 2: I think he'll spend a good amount of the summer
Speaker 2: in the weight room. I think also Austin was exposed
Speaker 2: as a poor catch and shoot player, and I think
Speaker 2: he's gonna have to spend a lot of time this
Speaker 2: summer if he's gonna stay alongside Luca operating as a
Speaker 2: catch and shoot player. But beyond that, it's about the matchup, right.
Speaker 2: So the Wolves kick your ass in large part because
Speaker 2: they just have all these bodies, right and so, like
Speaker 2: Edwards had, Austin reeves in jail in this series, And
Speaker 2: so Austin has to find a way to be impactful
Speaker 2: even when he's not able to score or the basketball effectively,
Speaker 2: not turning the basketball over by not struggling against that physicality,
Speaker 2: by adding strength and working on ball handling through physicality,
Speaker 2: and then two becoming a better catch and shoot player
Speaker 2: so that you can be at least an asset off
Speaker 2: the ball offensively. There were guys, there were in each
Speaker 2: of these last two games what at least like eight
Speaker 2: or nine clean catch and shoot looks that Austin missed
Speaker 2: that literally could have changed both games. If Austin shot
Speaker 2: the ball better from three tonight, they very easily could
Speaker 2: have won tonight. If Austin shot the ball better from
Speaker 2: three in Game four, they very easily could have won
Speaker 2: Game four. That is a piece of low hanging fruit
Speaker 2: for Austin that he can improve on. He needs to
Speaker 2: become a better catch and shoot player. But regardless, in
Speaker 2: the big picture, I tend to look at it as
Speaker 2: though you're putting yourself in a bind building around Luca
Speaker 2: with Austin being as unathletic as he is. And so
Speaker 2: there's a version of this where like if you put
Speaker 2: Austin on the Orlando Magic, he'd be incredible there because
Speaker 2: he would be anchored by big, strong athletes all over
Speaker 2: the floor, and his specific trait his skill set, which
Speaker 2: revolves around like high level skill on ball offensively becomes
Speaker 2: very valuable in the context of that team.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So, like, I think what we've noticed here is, Yeah,
Speaker 2: because guys, you don't want to overreact to the Timberwolves matchup.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you're gonna run into a
Speaker 2: big athletic team if you're gonna win the title. It's
Speaker 2: like it's a prerequisite. You're gonna have to overcome a
Speaker 2: team that's probably bigger and more athletic than you, Right,
Speaker 2: And so with that being the case, I think with
Speaker 2: the Lakers moving forward, they have to at least explore
Speaker 2: the idea of flipping Austin for a bona fide two
Speaker 2: way athletic starter of some kind to anchor alongside Luca
Speaker 2: the obvious need for a vertical spacer. I think that,
Speaker 2: you know, I think Luca. I think Luca had a
Speaker 2: really bad offensive series. I thought he was exposed as
Speaker 2: a poorly conditioned athlete can consistently faded towards the end
Speaker 2: of games. He missed back to back games where he
Speaker 2: had bad misses right at the rim that directly led
Speaker 2: to run out layups or run out transition threes. That
Speaker 2: hurt the team. He obviously has a lot that he
Speaker 2: can get better at. But at the same time, there's
Speaker 2: some clear stuff that you can do to make his
Speaker 2: life easier, and one of those is get him a
Speaker 2: legitimate screen and roll threat. Get him somebody that you
Speaker 2: can sit in the dunker spot and that can create
Speaker 2: that vertical spacing window right now, that is not I
Speaker 2: saw a lot of talks surrounding that in this series
Speaker 2: that I don't necessarily agree with. There was a lot
Speaker 2: of talk about, like play Jackson Hayes. The TNT broadcast
Speaker 2: was being ridiculous, constantly panning to Jackson Hayes every single
Speaker 2: time Rudy Goberg got an offensive rebound. Does anybody remember
Speaker 2: what it looked like when Jackson Hayes was on the
Speaker 2: floor in this series. He's awful. He can't do anything
Speaker 2: on either end of the floor. That was not going
Speaker 2: to be an answer after what we saw off of
Speaker 2: the early parts of the series. But going back to
Speaker 2: the Boston series last year, there will inevitably be a
Speaker 2: team that can switch that action, and so like the
Speaker 2: five out spacing look would have been a counter against
Speaker 2: Boston in a way that the vertical spacing piece wasn't
Speaker 2: because of Tatum and Jalen Brown's ability to switch the
Speaker 2: Doncage lively and the doncicge Gafford pick and rolls right,
Speaker 2: and so like, yeah, you want to get him a center,
Speaker 2: But most of this still comes down to in order
Speaker 2: for Luca to be able to carry a team through
Speaker 2: four playoff rounds, he has to become a more better
Speaker 2: conditioned athlete. Luca got blown by or gave up a
Speaker 2: bucket on five possessions before the first team before the
Speaker 2: first TV timeout tonight in the fourth quarter, it was
Speaker 2: just give the ball to aunt or Julius against Luca,
Speaker 2: and they were going right around him for the bucket.
Speaker 2: He's got to find a way to be better than
Speaker 2: he has been on that end of the floor. He's
Speaker 2: got to find a way to be better in the
Speaker 2: fourth quarters offensively against these bigger athletic teams. And the
Speaker 2: only way he's going to get there is if he
Speaker 2: does the work that Steph Curry and so many other
Speaker 2: of the lesser athletes and NBA history have done, which
Speaker 2: is work obsessively on conditioning so that you can hold
Speaker 2: up as that situation gets more complicated later in these
Speaker 2: postseason series. We'll talk a lot more about Lakers throughout
Speaker 2: the mailbag and in the excuse me in the playback segment,
Speaker 2: But that's my initial impression right now as we go
Speaker 2: to this summer is they're a little bit further away
Speaker 2: than I realized, and we're gonna be talking a lot
Speaker 2: about that. It's a very important summer for Rob Polinka
Speaker 2: in the Lakers. So before we talk Warriors Rockets for
Speaker 2: a few minutes, I just wanted to remind everybody we
Speaker 2: are starting our first ever watch playback after show tonight.
Speaker 2: So when we are done here on YouTube Live, we
Speaker 2: are going to head right over to playback. We're going
Speaker 2: to take questions from the audience. We're gonna let you
Speaker 2: guys come on stage to share your opinions. We're going
Speaker 2: to do some film towards the tail end of that segment.
Speaker 2: We're going to do a bunch of stuff. It's going
Speaker 2: to be less formal, it's gonna be a lot more interactive.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be hanging out on playback for a solid
Speaker 2: forty five minutes or so after the YouTube Live show,
Speaker 2: So make sure you guys take the time to hit
Speaker 2: the link in the subscription below this video right when
Speaker 2: we get done, and I'll see you guys over on
Speaker 2: playback when we are finished here. All right, let's talk
Speaker 2: Warriors rocket. So as wrong as I was about the
Speaker 2: Lakers series, I've been somewhat on top of this one.
Speaker 2: I predicted before the series that I that the Warriors
Speaker 2: would win in six games and that they would probably
Speaker 2: get blown out in Game five. This is a somewhat
Speaker 2: typical series flow for the better team playing without home
Speaker 2: court advantage. I saw a stat today actually that home
Speaker 2: teams down three to one who are favored in game five,
Speaker 2: when they were thirty and ten in the last forty
Speaker 2: games since two thousand and three. So it was kind
Speaker 2: of cool to see us stat that kind of matches
Speaker 2: up with something that I've always kind of felt about
Speaker 2: this kind of game, which is just a really tough
Speaker 2: game to win, especially when you're the more athletic team.
Speaker 2: Like that was the big difference between the Minnesota Lakers
Speaker 2: game tonight, is like, you know, when you have a
Speaker 2: home team feeding off their home crowd who's the supremely
Speaker 2: athletic team, they can be overwhelming, Whereas like what we
Speaker 2: saw with Minnesota La tonight, Minnesota's athleticism travels and it
Speaker 2: became something that the Lakers were unable to overcome. But again,
Speaker 2: that's basically what happens in these series that I see.
Speaker 2: When you have a road team that you pick to win,
Speaker 2: you steal a game on the road between games one
Speaker 2: and two, you take home court advantage, You come home
Speaker 2: and you win games three and four, you punt game
Speaker 2: five because it's a really tough game to win, and
Speaker 2: then you end up closing things out in game game six.
Speaker 2: And Houston came out tonight and just kicked Golden State's
Speaker 2: ass at every phase of the game. They forced the
Speaker 2: Warriors into nining turnovers in the first half and Men
Speaker 2: Thompson's ball pressure on Steph was amazing. Steph did a
Speaker 2: poor job of handling it. You got picked clean a
Speaker 2: bunch of times around half court. The Rockets shot the
Speaker 2: ball super well. They got one point sixty seven points
Speaker 2: per jump shot in the first half. That's outrageous. They
Speaker 2: shot super well on contested Dylan Brooks and Fred Van
Speaker 2: Vliet both made like running crazy contested threes right before
Speaker 2: the half as the Warriors were making their run. Brooks's
Speaker 2: three banked in and it was ridiculous, right, They ran
Speaker 2: nine possessions of zone and held the Warriors to just
Speaker 2: six points on those possessions. Fred van Vliet kept up
Speaker 2: his hot shooting from Game four. I mean, Thompson goes
Speaker 2: for twenty five points, He's really starting to showcase his upside.
Speaker 2: Dylan Brooks had twenty four. Everything went right for the Rockets. Now,
Speaker 2: there was an obvious lack of intensity from the Warriors
Speaker 2: that you know we talked about even leading up into
Speaker 2: the game, right, So how much of this is translatable
Speaker 2: for the Rockets to Game six back in Golden State. Now,
Speaker 2: before I talk any further again, I do not think
Speaker 2: this will happen. I think the Warriors will take care
Speaker 2: of business. I think they'll come out and probably win
Speaker 2: Game six relatively comfortably against Houston. I think that when
Speaker 2: they really engage themselves defensively, they can strangle this Houston offense.
Speaker 2: And I think that they have the ability to just
Speaker 2: hit the Jets right out the gates, change the tone
Speaker 2: and tenor of the game, build a little bit of buffer,
Speaker 2: and I think they'll be able to stiff arm the
Speaker 2: Rockets for Game six. But the Warriors haven't exactly scored
Speaker 2: well in this series. They're averaging less than one hundred
Speaker 2: and three points in their three wins. The reason why
Speaker 2: they're up three to one is they haven't the Rockets
Speaker 2: haven't been able to score. So the case in if
Speaker 2: you're going to try to draw a line between what
Speaker 2: the Rockets have shown over the course of the series
Speaker 2: and a potential win in Game six back in Golden
Speaker 2: State and a win in game seven, what you would
Speaker 2: try to focus on is that the Rockets have found
Speaker 2: some success in the half court offensively with the Shanegun
Speaker 2: Fred van Vliet two man game, particularly inverted when Shane
Speaker 2: Gun's on the ball, but it at least puts the
Speaker 2: Warriors in a predicament where they have to switch and
Speaker 2: then Shanguon can get some favorable matchups there. Now, in theory,
Speaker 2: if you defend as well as you defend it through
Speaker 2: the rest of this series, and you keep things low
Speaker 2: scoring enough Fred and Alprin Shangoon generate enough offense, they
Speaker 2: absolutely can win that game Game six and take it
Speaker 2: home for a Game seven against Golden State. But I
Speaker 2: don't think they will. I think this was a textbook
Speaker 2: example of just a really tough, close out game to
Speaker 2: win on the road against a young super athletic team.
Speaker 2: Just tip the cap for the Rockets to the tip
Speaker 2: a cap. Tip the cap to the Rockets for throwing
Speaker 2: a great punch. But I expect the Warriors to show
Speaker 2: that veteran resolve when they get home on Friday night.
Speaker 2: We were gonna have two games on Friday, but now
Speaker 2: we're gonna end up only having one game. So just
Speaker 2: as a teaser before we head over to playback, Jackson's
Speaker 2: gonna come on and we're gonna take one question. After
Speaker 2: that we will head over to playback.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, indeed, this was This is a question that's,
Speaker 3: you know, partially it's asked in jest, but the sentiment
Speaker 3: of it is certainly serious. And the question is that
Speaker 3: we got a lot of this. Was Nico right? And
Speaker 3: maybe Nico is not right? But the question about sort
Speaker 3: of Luca's defensive condition that you definitely alluded to, You
Speaker 3: definitely talked a lot about how big of a problem
Speaker 3: is that obviously was a problem this series, How big
Speaker 3: of a problem is it sort of long term?
Speaker 2: So Nico is not right, and I think people are
Speaker 2: just using that as the obvious talking point for guarding
Speaker 2: Lucas struggles in this series. In order for Nico to
Speaker 2: be right, you have to equate whatever the diminished version
Speaker 2: of Luca's value that you see, you have to equate
Speaker 2: that down to one first round pick and Max Christi,
Speaker 2: who has the potential to be a good two way
Speaker 2: starter in this league but isn't there yet. And Anthony Davis,
Speaker 2: who is an awesome player, but at this phase in
Speaker 2: his career is a lot slower than he used to be.
Speaker 2: He finally had a couple healthy seasons in a row
Speaker 2: and then he broke down this year. Like for any
Speaker 2: concerns you have about conditioning, Anthony Davis famously came into
Speaker 2: Lakers camp out of shape multiple times in the Lebron
Speaker 2: James era. It was something that Lebron himself was frustrated with.
Speaker 4: So like the the Nico piece is ridiculous because even
Speaker 4: if you just try to, like I saw Zachlosay in
Speaker 4: his pod, like, oh, there are corners of the NBA
Speaker 4: a smart NBA world that.
Speaker 2: Say, oh you can see getting off of Luca as
Speaker 2: being smart. I still think that's stupid. I don't agree.
Speaker 2: But even if you, even if you accept that, the
Speaker 2: actual nuts and bolts of the trade make no sense
Speaker 2: now from there, Luca was out of shape when he
Speaker 2: got hurt, allegedly from the reporting. Part of what triggered
Speaker 2: the need or the desire for them to take this
Speaker 2: action was Luca shortly before the trade, about a month
Speaker 2: before the trade, showing up to the facility bad as shit.
Speaker 2: So like there's a certain amount of like like this
Speaker 2: was never gonna be the season where Luca would prove
Speaker 2: everyone wrong. He was out of shape when he came back.
Speaker 2: He played his way into shape. He never really looked
Speaker 2: at any point into peak shape. He just looked at
Speaker 2: some points like Luka downschips that we've known over the
Speaker 2: course of the last couple of years at times. And
Speaker 2: so I think for Nico to be right, it would
Speaker 2: need to be we're here again next year and Luca
Speaker 2: looks fat, out of shape, banged up and can't play
Speaker 2: any defense. If we're here again at that point, then
Speaker 2: it's a totally different conversation. But even within that context,
Speaker 2: the trade doesn't make any sense. But Nico's lack of
Speaker 2: belief in Luca, I think would have to be predicated
Speaker 2: on multiple additional years of him not living up to
Speaker 2: his potential.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is the first time we've ever seen Luca
Speaker 3: have a subpar for his standards.
Speaker 2: Playoff run.
Speaker 3: Yeah, ever, yeah he's been they've lost, you know, they
Speaker 3: haven't won the championship before, but he's been outstanding and
Speaker 3: every other playoffs until this year. Not every superstar is
Speaker 3: great in every single playoff run. It doesn't necessarily mean
Speaker 3: it's the most recent one, so you know, fair to
Speaker 3: take a close look at it. But it doesn't necessarily
Speaker 3: mean this is going to be the consistent thing that
Speaker 3: happens for Luca throughout the rest of his career.
Speaker 2: No, I totally agree. It's it's I'm curious to see.
Speaker 2: I'm curious to see what Luca does this summer. I'm
Speaker 2: curious to see if Lebron takes a pay cut. I'm
Speaker 2: curious to see what kind of moves they look to make.
Speaker 2: I want to see what the roster looks like when
Speaker 2: we get to August or to October. Excuse me, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be interesting. I will freely admit as having rooted
Speaker 2: for Luca, that I was very disappointed in him in
Speaker 2: this series. But at the same time, I also know
Speaker 2: that if there was some sort of you know, what
Speaker 2: do you want to call it? Like a transformation of character,
Speaker 2: or like some sort of leap that he takes as
Speaker 2: a competitor. It's gonna happen next season, not this season.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, we're gonna head over to playback. Make
Speaker 2: sure you guys meet us over there again. The link
Speaker 2: is here in the description. We'll be starting up there
Speaker 2: just in the next couple of minutes. We'll see you
Speaker 2: guys over there shortly. What's up, guys. As always, I
Speaker 2: appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They
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Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
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Speaker 1: The volume.