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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Friday, everybody, He'll bother you. Guys are having a
Speaker 1: great end of your week. Got a jam pack day
Speaker 1: for the show today. We're gonna do two episodes in
Speaker 1: this one. I watched Lakers Celtics live last night and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to give my Lakers Celtics thoughts here
Speaker 1: in the morning. Then when I'm done here, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go back and watch some more games from last night
Speaker 1: and do our mailbag. So just Laker Celtics in this
Speaker 1: video and then keep an eye on the feed. Later
Speaker 1: today we'll have more instant reaction content as well as
Speaker 1: a mailbag. You guys are the joke before we get started.
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Speaker 1: We're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you guys
Speaker 1: follow us there. And the last but not least, keep
Speaker 1: dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so we
Speaker 1: can keep hitting them on Fridays throughout the remainder of
Speaker 1: the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So after
Speaker 1: the Lakers got smashed by the Clippers, I did an
Speaker 1: episode where I talked about the Lakers looking like they're
Speaker 1: starting to lose belief a little bit, some bad body language,
Speaker 1: some comments, and the postgame presser from JJ Reddick and
Speaker 1: Lebron James. It just kind of seemed like they didn't,
Speaker 1: they were losing confidence in their ability to achieve their
Speaker 1: ultimate goal this year. After last night's dominant win against
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics, JJ Reddick said, hopefully there's some belief
Speaker 1: reinforced here about what we can and be, And so
Speaker 1: I wanted to take a second, just really quickly before
Speaker 1: we dive into the deeper details of this game, to
Speaker 1: talk about why belief is so important to a basketball team.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, there are two mental hurdles that every
Speaker 1: team has to get through in order to play championship basketball.
Speaker 1: And these are separate from anything with talent on the
Speaker 1: roster because we all can agree that, like, in order
Speaker 1: to accomplish something as a basketball team, you have to
Speaker 1: have talented players, and then you have to play a
Speaker 1: certain type of way. Right, it's a combination of two factors, right.
Speaker 1: The first mental hurdle is you got to compete. You
Speaker 1: have to get your competitive motor running, meaning you have
Speaker 1: to be bought into the concept of winning, not just
Speaker 1: playing basketball. I've referred to this concept on the show
Speaker 1: as the fear of losing, because I think that's actually
Speaker 1: more how it manifests for competitors, Like I think it
Speaker 1: has more to do with just like a trying to
Speaker 1: survive that game without losing that mentality that brings that
Speaker 1: competitive nature out of people. If you're not going to compete,
Speaker 1: you're not going to win. If you're just okay with
Speaker 1: losing and you're more in it for love of the game,
Speaker 1: you're never gonna get to where you want to go
Speaker 1: in terms of championship goals. I thought that D'Angelo Russell
Speaker 1: quote was an interesting example of that when he talked
Speaker 1: about never taking for granted playing free basketball again. Free
Speaker 1: basketball is fun. I know the feeling. I vividly remember
Speaker 1: when I finished my last practice, last game, last sequence
Speaker 1: playing in college, and I came home and I went
Speaker 1: to go play pick up at the University of Arizona
Speaker 1: Rec Center, and I vividly remember this feeling where I
Speaker 1: was like, this is fun, Like it's not work anymore.
Speaker 1: Like it's like, if I happen to not get back
Speaker 1: on defense on this possession, I'm not going to have
Speaker 1: a coach chewing me out or anything like that. And
Speaker 1: especially coming off of that particular season, which was the
Speaker 1: most structured team that I ever played with, and so
Speaker 1: like I sympathize with the feeling of like what it
Speaker 1: feels like to play stakes free basketball, but at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like it has some fun to it.
Speaker 1: But playing winning basketball is a fundamentally different thing. It's
Speaker 1: also fun, but in a different way. It's more like work.
Speaker 1: The attention to detail consumes your every thought. That last
Speaker 1: year that I played in college, I played at the
Speaker 1: NAIA level up in Phoenix at a school called Arizona
Speaker 1: Christian University. At the NAIA level, the coaching is insane.
Speaker 1: Shout out to coach Jeff Rudder up there by far
Speaker 1: the most structured team that I played in in college
Speaker 1: and the closest thing to the pros in terms of
Speaker 1: like advanced schematic stuff on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: and so like there what I had a coaching staff
Speaker 1: that was relentlessly holding me accountable to my job on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor when I was there. That
Speaker 1: it's like work, but the rewards come in different ways.
Speaker 1: Like you build camaraderie with your teammates as you survive
Speaker 1: the grind together. You have these team accomplishments like winning
Speaker 1: games or winning trophies, and yes, you do still have
Speaker 1: some fun. Do you think the Lakers were having fun
Speaker 1: when they were kicking the shit out of the Celtics
Speaker 1: last night. Like it's fun when it all comes together,
Speaker 1: but it definitely feels overall more like work. So you
Speaker 1: got to get your competitive motor running so that you're
Speaker 1: willing to do the work. But if basketball is gonna
Speaker 1: feel like work, if it's going to feel like a chore,
Speaker 1: then you better be getting rewarded for it. This is
Speaker 1: where belief comes into the equation. Playing winning basketball is
Speaker 1: a pain in the ass. It's constant mental engagement. It's
Speaker 1: a shit ton of running, it's taking a bunch of
Speaker 1: physical contact. It's holding onto the rope. No matter how
Speaker 1: good or how bad things get, it's really hard to do.
Speaker 1: The team needs to believe that they're hard work the
Speaker 1: shit that sucks will actually lead to them getting the
Speaker 1: thing that they want, in this case, silario'brian Trophy. Before
Speaker 1: this game against the Celtics, the Lakers had been consistently
Speaker 1: dropping games against good teams. The Clippers controlled them, These
Speaker 1: Spurs destroyed them in the second half. The Mavericks destroyed
Speaker 1: them in the second half. The Rockets basically led them
Speaker 1: wire to wire. The Lakers got it close a couple times,
Speaker 1: but Houston always pulled away the Cavs. The Lakers hung
Speaker 1: tight for about two and a half quarters and then
Speaker 1: lost control.
Speaker 2: Of that one.
Speaker 1: Now I would argue that poor execution played a role
Speaker 1: in those losses, but the point is they were losing
Speaker 1: consistently to the good teams in the league. And so
Speaker 1: if you're gonna get a forty year old Lebron James
Speaker 1: and an aging Anthony Davis to really commit to the work,
Speaker 1: they need to believe that this team can actually win.
Speaker 1: And there are two things that can actually convince them
Speaker 1: that they're capable of winning an NBA championship. One a
Speaker 1: trade for more talent, which we'll get into later. But
Speaker 1: if you bring in more talent, obviously Lebron and Ad
Speaker 1: will believe more. But a second thing that can accomplish
Speaker 1: that is a signature win, a win that demonstrates to
Speaker 1: you what your ceiling looks like. So you can at
Speaker 1: least strive to be at that ceiling as much as
Speaker 1: possible moving forward. And I thought last night was that
Speaker 1: for the Lakers internally, Lebron James in his postgame presser
Speaker 1: was really trying to dump a bunch of water on
Speaker 1: that win and talk about it's just another night in
Speaker 1: the NBA.
Speaker 2: I don't disagree with him.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of factors there, Like disclaimer for Celtics fans,
Speaker 1: I know that that was a really tough game for
Speaker 1: you guys, schedule wise, it was your fifth game and
Speaker 1: seven nights is on the road for the last three
Speaker 1: games in that stretch, tail end of a back to back,
Speaker 1: It's an overtime game the previous night against the Clippers,
Speaker 1: and in general, the Celtics is aren't playing their best
Speaker 1: basketball right now. All that is true, we can agree
Speaker 1: that there were some other factors that play here. I
Speaker 1: thought that last night had a lot more to do
Speaker 1: with like good Lakers than any sort of like big
Speaker 1: picture problem that the Celtics have. Like the Lakers played
Speaker 1: a great game. The Celtics weren't playing their best and
Speaker 1: they were worn down. That's how you end up getting
Speaker 1: a blowout, right But I do think where I disagree
Speaker 1: with Lebron is I do think it's an example of
Speaker 1: what they can be. I saw a lot of potential
Speaker 1: outcomes in my mind for last night's game, including some
Speaker 1: that involved the Lakers winning. I thought they could win
Speaker 1: that game, but I never in a million years thought
Speaker 1: the Lakers would control that game from wire to wire,
Speaker 1: blow them out, and do it with their defense. That
Speaker 1: was Boston's first twenty point loss of this entire season.
Speaker 1: It was only the second twenty point loss in the
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday, and chrisops porzingis era here with the Celtics.
Speaker 1: So again, everyone including Lakers fans, knows that the Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics are not at their best right now and that
Speaker 1: when they see them again in March, it will probably
Speaker 1: be a much greater challenge. But the Lakers also played
Speaker 1: their best game of the season last night. It's okay
Speaker 1: to acknowledge that too. To JJ's point, hopefully there's some
Speaker 1: belief reinforced about what this team can be.
Speaker 2: I was really high on the Lakers before the season.
Speaker 1: I thought they would win fifty games if they stayed
Speaker 1: relatively healthy. I thought that they were a good trade
Speaker 1: deadline away from serious contention. Now my faith in them
Speaker 1: has been seriously shaken as I've actually watched the season layout.
Speaker 1: I think they've been mostly bad this year if you
Speaker 1: really dig into it. They've dominated the bad teams in
Speaker 1: the league and have been pretty consistently mediocre to bad
Speaker 1: against the good teams in the league. They've been a
Speaker 1: bad road team. They have shaken my faith in them,
Speaker 1: in large part beyond it because the roster issues I
Speaker 1: knew about going into the season. In large part what
Speaker 1: shook my faith in them is the lack of commitment.
Speaker 1: I thought after what happened with Darvin ham last night,
Speaker 1: I thought that or last season. I thought that JJ
Speaker 1: Reddick coming in and trying to establish more structure with
Speaker 1: the group from are to finish and on a possession
Speaker 1: of possession basis, would galvanize these guys to actually attack
Speaker 1: a regular season and that's not what happened. I think
Speaker 1: that there's a mandatory minimum level of regular season engagement
Speaker 1: for a team to win a title, and I think
Speaker 1: the Lakers have fallen woefully short of that in the
Speaker 1: large sample this season. But there have been moments where
Speaker 1: we've seen what it looks like last night is at
Speaker 1: least the kind of win that JJ can use to
Speaker 1: try to put up on a pedestal as an example
Speaker 1: and put it in the team's face and be like,
Speaker 1: this is what you're capable of doing. This is where
Speaker 1: I want to start getting into some specifics from the game.
Speaker 1: JJ Reddick talked about them keeping the ball in front.
Speaker 1: It was a big part of how the Lakers kept
Speaker 1: the Celtics out of wide open catch and shoot jump
Speaker 1: shots last night. The Celtics generate sixteen unguarded catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jump shots per game according to Synergy, that's the
Speaker 1: third most in the NBA. They generated only eleven last night.
Speaker 1: A big part of that was the Lakers containing the
Speaker 1: basketball staying out of rotation. Are the Lakers an elite
Speaker 1: perimeter defense full of guys that can put the clamps
Speaker 1: on people? No, of course not. But they do have
Speaker 1: plenty of guys who can guard. And there is a
Speaker 1: huge difference in this team between when they're really competing
Speaker 1: to stay in front of the ball and when they aren't.
Speaker 1: The other thing that JJ talked a lot about was
Speaker 1: game plan discipline. He said it was their best game
Speaker 1: plan discipline game of the season. The big thing there
Speaker 1: was not overreacting to Boston hunting mismatches. The Celtics are
Speaker 1: a killer whale offense, right They pick on your worst defender,
Speaker 1: try to attack him, usually in the post or with
Speaker 1: an ISO. When Porzingis would catch a smaller player in
Speaker 1: the post, whether it was Max or was Austin. They
Speaker 1: weren't doubling. They were doing what you're supposed to do
Speaker 1: in a switching defense. They were crowding, digging, stunting, but
Speaker 1: all within the context of being able to quickly close
Speaker 1: out to a shooter to not give up the easy
Speaker 1: swing pass, swing pass, wide open catch and shoot. Three
Speaker 1: types of things that can happen when you recklessly double
Speaker 1: or you're not set up for that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis was really the only guy last night that
Speaker 1: would occasionally completely leave his man to try to like
Speaker 1: go for a late shot block on a player in
Speaker 1: the post, or like really dig down. But again, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis his if you think of it like this, like
Speaker 1: if you the camera are the shooter and I am
Speaker 1: the offensive player that has the ball, there's a space
Speaker 1: between us, right and if you're the help defender, your
Speaker 1: ability to cover ground is going to dictate how much
Speaker 1: you can come over to help. If you're a freaky athlete,
Speaker 1: you might be able to straight up double team and
Speaker 1: then recover. Like there are guys like Gary Payton with
Speaker 1: the Warriors, Draymond Green with the Warriors I've talked about
Speaker 1: where it's like they can straight up double team but
Speaker 1: then still get out. Yehannest for years did this with
Speaker 1: the Bucks and still does from time to time, where
Speaker 1: it's like he can help at the rim or double
Speaker 1: team but still close out to a shooter. That's that's
Speaker 1: unique player to player. Anthony Davis was the guy last
Speaker 1: night that was a little bit more aggressive in terms
Speaker 1: of his helper's doubles or stunts or is attempting to
Speaker 1: go in and get a block at the end of
Speaker 1: an ISO. But for the most part, everyone else was
Speaker 1: kind of splitting that difference and not overreacting to those attacks.
Speaker 2: So as a result, Yeah, Chris.
Speaker 1: Tops Porzingis and Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, they hit
Speaker 1: some buckets in the post, but they avoided that onslaught
Speaker 1: of threes that Boston usually destroys teams with. Again, that
Speaker 1: eleven unguarded catch and shoot threes stat that I told
Speaker 1: you guys about earlier is a great stat to demonstrate that,
Speaker 1: And that's what like, as I kind of look back
Speaker 1: at the Lakers defensively after last night, I genuinely feel
Speaker 1: bad for JJ Reddick about.
Speaker 2: The stuff with the switching.
Speaker 1: The Lakers switched one through five with the starters last
Speaker 1: night against Boston's shooting bigs. They did some more drop
Speaker 1: type stuff when it was like Cornette on the floor,
Speaker 1: but like for the most part when it was Horford
Speaker 1: or porzingis because they didn't want to give up easy
Speaker 1: picking pop threes. They switched, which is the same scheme
Speaker 1: that has been killing the Lakers all season.
Speaker 2: But it worked last night.
Speaker 1: Why because the Lakers did all the stuff that you're
Speaker 1: supposed to do to make switching work, actually competing on
Speaker 1: the ball to keep the ball in front, crowding but
Speaker 1: not overhelping, gang rebounding, all of that stuff. But again,
Speaker 1: it's been terrible for the Lakers all season because they've
Speaker 1: sucked at all three of those things. They haven't competed
Speaker 1: as well on the ball. They've given up too many
Speaker 1: straight line drives, they've been dominated in the post. They've
Speaker 1: been standing around off ball and glued up to shooters
Speaker 1: and just leaving a guy on an island one on
Speaker 1: one instead of crowding and making it more of a
Speaker 1: tight space type of ISO to make life easier for
Speaker 1: your on ball defender. And then the gang rebounding piece.
Speaker 1: They give up a switch, and then they'd all just
Speaker 1: standing around while the ball came off the rim, and
Speaker 1: a big player that's matched up with a little player
Speaker 1: would go get the rebound over the little player. It's
Speaker 1: pretty clear after what you saw last night and what
Speaker 1: we've seen at times this year, they are capable of
Speaker 1: executing that scheme properly. And that's the vision that JJ
Speaker 1: sees when he's in practice, when he's looking at the roster,
Speaker 1: when he's you know, at home, obsessing over this kind
Speaker 1: of thing. He thinks, like, these fucking guys can switch.
Speaker 1: I know they can do it. This is a scheme
Speaker 1: that will work for us. They just gotta fucking do it.
Speaker 1: That's what he's thinking. That's what's going on in JJ's head,
Speaker 1: and that's why like he stuck with it as long
Speaker 1: as he did.
Speaker 2: Now, I actually like.
Speaker 1: That JJ's been using it more as a matchup specific
Speaker 1: kind of thing, like using it depending on the team,
Speaker 1: depending on the opponent. Right now, here's the thing. They
Speaker 1: did it match up specific against Boston. It worked. They
Speaker 1: did it match up specific against the Spurs. It didn't
Speaker 1: because there was a they didn't X right, Like, It's
Speaker 1: all it comes hand in hand with whether or not
Speaker 1: you execute it. But I do actually think this is
Speaker 1: a scheme the Lakers will need to use when they
Speaker 1: get into the postseason. So I like the idea of
Speaker 1: continuing to try to build it out. I just think
Speaker 1: they might have to stick with more traditional schemes for
Speaker 1: the most part during the regular season because this team
Speaker 1: just doesn't want to do the job in order for
Speaker 1: that switching scheme to work. I've always talked about how
Speaker 1: to guard Boston. In my opinion, the best way to
Speaker 1: guard Boston is to switch and contain, because if you
Speaker 1: switch and contain, then you force them to take off
Speaker 1: the dribble jump shots. As soon as you get compromised
Speaker 1: in containment, meaning they start driving past you or posting
Speaker 1: through you, that's when you're gonna start either giving up
Speaker 1: layups which will beat you, or having a hard help
Speaker 1: which will beat you with them getting wide open threes.
Speaker 1: But switching and containing is the way to guard Boston.
Speaker 1: It is the appropriate game plan. The Lakers did it,
Speaker 1: they did it right, and it worked. Like JJ said,
Speaker 1: it was their best game plan discipline game of the season.
Speaker 1: Their rebounding was super sharp. The Lakers have been a
Speaker 1: bad rebounding team all season. Specifically, they allow an offensive
Speaker 1: rebound on about thirty percent of their opponent's misses on
Speaker 1: the season, that ranks twenty third in the NBA. Last night,
Speaker 1: the group effort was excellent. There were some weak spots,
Speaker 1: like I thought Ruey had a RUI. I think he
Speaker 1: had six or seven rebounds, but he lost several. He
Speaker 1: allowed several offensive rebounds by missing box outs and not
Speaker 1: crashing properly. But as a team, I thought they did great.
Speaker 1: They allowed an offensive rebound on just twenty three percent
Speaker 1: of Boston's missus last night, which is an excellent number.
Speaker 1: That's a seventy seven percent defensive rebound percenters.
Speaker 2: That's excellent.
Speaker 1: Lebron was the main factor there, Like one of the
Speaker 1: biggest issues for the Lakers this year defensively is Lebron
Speaker 1: is a lowman and is inconsistent effort. The lowman is
Speaker 1: an incredibly important position in the NBA because in terms
Speaker 1: of defensive responsibility, the reason why, like what usually happens
Speaker 1: there is you're putting the You're always going to put
Speaker 1: the lowman is typically on the opponent's worst offensive player,
Speaker 1: a guy that they're typically gonna jam in the corner
Speaker 1: in the dunker spot, right because they want to have
Speaker 1: them provide a very basic role to try to provide
Speaker 1: some spacing, but they're not going to do much in
Speaker 1: the way ball handling, right, And so then what ends
Speaker 1: up happening is your elite ball handlers, they're all like
Speaker 1: great jump shooters, and so as they're coming up off
Speaker 1: these screens, you got to have your big up at
Speaker 1: the level. You got to get your big up there, right,
Speaker 1: So Anthony Davis is coming up to the level of screens,
Speaker 1: he's getting out on the perimeter, especially in these switches,
Speaker 1: right like when the Lakers are switching, Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: ending up on the perimeter. And so what ends up
Speaker 1: happening is like in those ball screens, the low man
Speaker 1: all of a sudden becomes responsible for two people. Because
Speaker 1: if Anthony Davis is up at the level and there's
Speaker 1: a role man behind, Lebron now has to account for
Speaker 1: the role man who got behind Anthony Davis and Lebron's
Speaker 1: man in the corner. Or if Anthony Davis switches out
Speaker 1: onto the perimeter in a switch and now there's a
Speaker 1: post player looking to attack a smaller Laker, Lebron once
Speaker 1: again is the primary helper and rebounder in that situation.
Speaker 1: If he's gonna help the guy in the post. He's
Speaker 1: the guy who's closest, He's the guy who's got to
Speaker 1: get the rebound when the shot goes up. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of physical responsibility on that position, a lot of
Speaker 1: meeting guys at the rim, like rim confrontations, a lot
Speaker 1: of big contested rebounds, a lot of difficult rotations out
Speaker 1: to a shooter in the corner. It's a difficult position,
Speaker 1: and you got a forty year old playing it, a
Speaker 1: forty year old that on nights like last night looks
Speaker 1: like a dominant lowman, and then on many nights this
Speaker 1: season is a downright destructive lowman because he's not jumping
Speaker 1: for every contested rebound, not jumping in every ring confrontation,
Speaker 1: and not making those rotations on.
Speaker 2: The back line.
Speaker 1: And so that's kind of like one of the conundrums
Speaker 1: with this Laker team is like when Lebron and Ad.
Speaker 1: When Ad is at a level like he was defensively
Speaker 1: last night, and when Lebron is engaged as a lowman,
Speaker 1: they can be really good defensively, especially when now they've
Speaker 1: got like pretty solid perimeter defenders. In a way that
Speaker 1: they did it because gave Vincent is healthy and playing
Speaker 1: good basketball, because Dorian Finney Smith is playing, because Max
Speaker 1: Christy is playing. You know, now, Austin Reeves is not
Speaker 1: your best perimmeter defender in the starting lineup, right, Like,
Speaker 1: they have good talent around them in terms of at
Speaker 1: least adequate defensive talent. When Lebron and ad are engaged
Speaker 1: like that, they can actually be a really successful defensive group.
Speaker 1: But this is one of the things, like, and again,
Speaker 1: I've been on the fence about the trading for a
Speaker 1: center thing because I think it's got to be the
Speaker 1: right kind of center. If it's a really good center,
Speaker 1: I think it's the kind of thing that could add
Speaker 1: a physical element to this team that makes them difficult
Speaker 1: to deal with. I just think a really good center
Speaker 1: is expensive and maybe not available, and I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that the Lakers can pull it off. And I think
Speaker 1: bringing in a mediocre center or a bad center, you know,
Speaker 1: relative to starting centers in the league, doesn't really accomplish anything.
Speaker 1: But if you want to know why that like too
Speaker 1: big look that Anthony Davis talks about a lot is
Speaker 1: something that's appealing to him, it's specifically because Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: would love to have a lowman who does that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff consistently night tonight, unlike Lebron James does, or
Speaker 1: maybe he'd like to be the low man. Right, this
Speaker 1: is where we talk about the Jannis and brook Lopez concept. Right,
Speaker 1: like it's a bracket if you're defending action three on
Speaker 1: two in ball screens, meaning like you're ball screen defenders
Speaker 1: coming up to the level and back like a high
Speaker 1: drop and back, and your lowman is going help at
Speaker 1: the rim corner. Help at the rim corner. There's these
Speaker 1: two large amounts of space that you have to cover
Speaker 1: both vertically and side to side, and so having two
Speaker 1: seven foot dudes that can get back and forth in
Speaker 1: those situations is really difficult to deal with for any offense.
Speaker 1: And so one of the reasons why Anthony Davis has
Speaker 1: talked a lot about wanting to have a center is
Speaker 1: he envisions a world where you send a center. Let's
Speaker 1: call it Walker Kestler. And I think Walker Kestler is
Speaker 1: a very very long shot. I think it's very unlikely
Speaker 1: that Utah trades him, but he's kind of like a
Speaker 1: dream target for me, just because I think he's the
Speaker 1: kind of guy that could really add a physical dynamic
Speaker 1: to the Lakers. You send Walker Kessler up to the level.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is your low man. You saw how good
Speaker 1: Lebron was at it last night. Imagine Anthony Davis doing
Speaker 1: that in large chunks throughout the season.
Speaker 2: Or switch the roles.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is defending out on the perimeter and you
Speaker 1: have Walker Kessler, a guy like that, cleaning things up
Speaker 1: on the back line. Again, that's the basketball concept behind
Speaker 1: that desire for Anthony Davis, behind that desire for the team.
Speaker 1: I just think it has to be a really high
Speaker 1: level center for it to make a lot of sense. Like,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of guys out there that people
Speaker 1: have talked about as potential trade targets at the center
Speaker 1: position that are a little closer to Jackson Hayes than
Speaker 1: people are willing to admit. And so from that standpoint, like,
Speaker 1: it's got to be the right kind of guy. But
Speaker 1: it is an interesting concept. One of the things that
Speaker 1: we saw last night is Lebron James himself can scale
Speaker 1: up and be a great low man in the postseason.
Speaker 1: This is why the Lakers are very difficult to discuss
Speaker 1: as a regular season team. They are definitely more dangerous
Speaker 1: as a playoff team than they are as a regular
Speaker 1: season team. Their regular season performances are not necessarily the
Speaker 1: best representation of what they would look like in the postseason.
Speaker 1: When I watch the Calves, I'm watching a Calves team
Speaker 1: that's gonna play more or less the same way in
Speaker 1: the postseason. They're young, they're athletic, They're playing great basketball
Speaker 1: every single night. Their pathway is, we're gonna perfect basketball
Speaker 1: and see if it carries us when we get into
Speaker 1: the postseason. This is a forty year old Lebron James.
Speaker 1: It's completely unrealistic to expect him to be as locked
Speaker 1: in in the regular season every single night as some
Speaker 1: of these other teams are. That said, even within that context,
Speaker 1: I think there is a certain threshold, a mandatory minimum
Speaker 1: of regular season engagement. Like I talked about, that is
Speaker 1: mandatory that Lebron and the Lakers have fallen short of
Speaker 1: this season.
Speaker 2: But they're halfway through. They're halfway through.
Speaker 1: They're capable of restoring that at some point in the
Speaker 1: next forty one games. But again, like that concept of
Speaker 1: Lebron and his kind of wavering effort as a low
Speaker 1: man is a big part of why I think the
Speaker 1: Lakers are a complicated team to discuss as a playoff
Speaker 1: threat relative to their regular season success. A couple other
Speaker 1: Lakers I wanted to shout out on the glass, Dalton,
Speaker 1: Max and Austin getting down and scrapping for loose balls.
Speaker 1: Those guys got eleven defensive rebounds.
Speaker 2: Again, this is part of the shit that is hard
Speaker 2: about basketball.
Speaker 1: It's not easy to constantly get involved in every scrum,
Speaker 1: jump ball, everything like that to try to get a
Speaker 1: loose ball.
Speaker 2: It sucks.
Speaker 1: You get scratched, you jam fingers, you get an elbow
Speaker 1: to the ribcage, you get all sorts of shit that hurts,
Speaker 1: and it's exhausting. And again, it's a chore. It's a job.
Speaker 1: This is part of the shit that's hard about basketball.
Speaker 1: But it's a non negotiable to get to where you
Speaker 1: want to go. A couple of the guys I want
Speaker 1: to shout out in the big picture, I just thought
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves was incredible. I've talked a ton over the
Speaker 1: last couple of years about how I just trust Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves in really important games. He just I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's it's the expression, it's like he's a gamer.
Speaker 1: That's literally what it is for Austin, Like, if it's
Speaker 1: a really big, really important game, I just count on
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves to be the best version of himself. I
Speaker 1: thought his dribble penetration was key last night. He was
Speaker 1: just constantly attacking getting downhill a lot of like pace,
Speaker 1: meaning like instead of dribbling the ball off the floor
Speaker 1: slowly and then statically standing at it, staring at a
Speaker 1: defender and then trying to drive past him, which is
Speaker 1: going to be the hardest time to drive past a
Speaker 1: good defender, especially a good defender like a Derek whit
Speaker 1: or Drew Holiday, Right, that's the hardest time to do it.
Speaker 1: But if you're going up pace, meaning like let's say
Speaker 1: you get a defensive rebound, you throw it up to Austin,
Speaker 1: Austin dribbles up the floor and then with like he's
Speaker 1: all right, but he got ahead of steam. He's coming
Speaker 1: at you at full speed and then it's in and
Speaker 1: out crossover, Like while he's coming at you full speed,
Speaker 1: that's so much harder to contain. That's so much harder
Speaker 1: to keep in front, right, And like he was just
Speaker 1: all night like made basket miss basket. It didn't matter
Speaker 1: Austin was coming at the Celtics with a head of
Speaker 1: steam and getting into the paint. I actually thought he
Speaker 1: generated some catch and shoot looks that didn't go down either.
Speaker 1: Like I thought, Austin played a great game, didn't turn
Speaker 1: the ball over, competed defensively, just a really really solid game.
Speaker 1: Gave Vincent defended well all night. There was an early
Speaker 1: fourth quarter stretch where Peyton Pritchard kept trying to bully him,
Speaker 1: and he just stood him up and got stops. He
Speaker 1: had four threes gave Vincent, by the way, in his
Speaker 1: last sixteen games of shooting forty one percent from three
Speaker 1: on four attempts per game. But I want to just
Speaker 1: just before we're done with the Lakers, I just want
Speaker 1: to shout out Lebron James and Anthony Davis. I've been
Speaker 1: really critical of them this year for inconsistent engagement, and
Speaker 1: I've blamed them in a lot of ways for this
Speaker 1: lopsided season that they've had, and I do believe that
Speaker 1: their their lack of engagement has been a problem for
Speaker 1: this Lakers team in terms of their kind of uneven
Speaker 1: performance throughout this season. But I just thought they were
Speaker 1: absolutely fantastic on both ends of the floor last night.
Speaker 1: I thought they were the two best players last night.
Speaker 1: And again, I know Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum were gassed,
Speaker 1: and again I set them aside for a minute. We're
Speaker 1: talking about the Lakers. I'm just saying in that particular game,
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis were better. They were truly
Speaker 1: physically dominant on both ends of the floor in a
Speaker 1: way that they have often looked when they get to
Speaker 1: the postseason. That's why it's so hard to quit these guys.
Speaker 1: You have a six nine, two hundred and sixty pound
Speaker 1: monster power forward and a six ' eleven, two hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty pound monster center with a seven to six
Speaker 1: wingspan that can play power forward. They both can run
Speaker 1: and jump with the best in the league and their
Speaker 1: elite defensive players when they want to be, and they
Speaker 1: both thrive offensively as the physicality and the intensity go up,
Speaker 1: Which brings me to my final point.
Speaker 2: We talked about ways.
Speaker 1: To restore belief, to grow belief in your big picture goals,
Speaker 1: a signature win, or an influx of talent. If you're
Speaker 1: Rob Pulink and Genie Buss, it's time to shit or
Speaker 1: get off the pot Yovan Boja on our show last week,
Speaker 1: reported that he thinks it's more likely that the Lakers
Speaker 1: do a smaller deal. I literally do not see the
Speaker 1: point in that Lebron's forty years old and this team
Speaker 1: does have championship upside, but only with a legit talent upgrade.
Speaker 1: And you're not getting a legit talent upgrade by making
Speaker 1: a smaller deal on the margins. You need to include
Speaker 1: first round draft compensation. And if you don't think Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis can do it, which I think
Speaker 1: would be fucking insane after what we saw last night,
Speaker 1: then pull the dam of team up, Like, if you
Speaker 1: don't think they can do it, trade the guys. But
Speaker 1: a smaller move accomplishes nothing. Either be about it or
Speaker 1: don't be about it. No more sitting around and watching
Speaker 1: the greatest basketball player of all time and another top
Speaker 1: ten player in this league. Try to fight through what
Speaker 1: you guys know, damn well, is not a championship roster. Frankly,
Speaker 1: if you Rob Polinka and Jeanie Buss are not going
Speaker 1: to compete alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis, then you
Speaker 1: need to send them to a team that will compete
Speaker 1: with them. And so at that point, I mean, Lebron
Speaker 1: and Ad said a clear message last night. We can
Speaker 1: still go. We can still go with the best guys,
Speaker 1: but they need horses, and you've got two first round picks.
Speaker 1: How are we gonna look back at the Lebron era
Speaker 1: with the Lakers? How are we gonna look back when
Speaker 1: it's five years from now in the Lake are mid rebuild,
Speaker 1: but they have two extra first round picks instead of
Speaker 1: the you know seven or whatever they would or they
Speaker 1: could get by taking on bad salary and trading role
Speaker 1: players for draft compensation. They could easily recoup all this
Speaker 1: stuff down the line. You know what happens when you
Speaker 1: trade for good players. They're good players. So when you
Speaker 1: trade for good players, then suddenly you don't need the
Speaker 1: good players anymore. You get to trade the good players.
Speaker 1: And when you get to trade the good players, you
Speaker 1: get picks back. Put the picks on the table, Do
Speaker 1: everything in your power to give these guys what they
Speaker 1: need to fight or be done with this, be done
Speaker 1: with it. Trade them. But like Lebron and Ad want
Speaker 1: it as frustrating as their commitment has been this year.
Speaker 1: So either meet them at that level or don't. On
Speaker 1: the Celtics front, I don't think there's much to get
Speaker 1: in here. Ironically, as I talked about, this is their
Speaker 1: first twenty point loss of the season and only their
Speaker 1: second indie drew holiday Christops porzingis era. Guess what their
Speaker 1: last twenty point loss was January last year, a thirty
Speaker 1: plus point blowout loss in Milwaukee. Also a fifth game
Speaker 1: and seven nights, also the tail end of a back
Speaker 1: to back, also an overtime game the night before. Most
Speaker 1: of this was just fatigue, guys, not too much to
Speaker 1: get into there. I talked about settling the other day.
Speaker 1: Settling is about conserving energy, and settling, to me is
Speaker 1: just like I have a mismatch, but instead of attacking
Speaker 1: it with physicality, I'm gonna take a jump shot. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of settling last night, but a good
Speaker 1: amount of that is almost to be expected under the circumstances,
Speaker 1: and again something we've seen.
Speaker 2: Before, as recently as last year.
Speaker 1: But I do think Boston has been in a little
Speaker 1: bit of a funk with their offensive process. This isn't
Speaker 1: just a last night thing. This is something I've been
Speaker 1: talking about for a while when they've been loo of late,
Speaker 1: it's been their offense that's been the problem almost every time.
Speaker 1: Still a lot of bad process. The entire opening sequence
Speaker 1: of this game was Jalen Brown trying to iso Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis straight up, that's just stupid. He hit a couple
Speaker 1: of threes, so it ended up being like reasonably efficient.
Speaker 1: That's not good process. Still a ton of settling. That
Speaker 1: really is the main issue that I'm seeing if you
Speaker 1: ask me to like pinpoint one specific issue with the
Speaker 1: Celtics right now. They're trying to beat mismatches too often
Speaker 1: with jump shots instead of physical aggression. When you're physically
Speaker 1: aggressive against the mismatch, you get easy twos. When you
Speaker 1: get easy twos, it becomes untenable for the defense. When
Speaker 1: it becomes untenable for the defense, they start to send
Speaker 1: extra bodies. When they start to send extra bodies, that's
Speaker 1: when you get your wide open catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1: It happens in that order. If you attack mismatches by settling,
Speaker 1: you get tougher twos. If you get tougher twos, you
Speaker 1: don't hit enough of them. If you don't hit enough
Speaker 1: of them, the defense doesn't view it as untenable. If
Speaker 1: the defense doesn't view it as an untenable. They're gonna
Speaker 1: let you keep attacking like that. They let you keep
Speaker 1: attacking like that, you'll continue to hit inefficient twos and
Speaker 1: you won't keep your team in rhythm with catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jump shots in the ball popping ground. It's just
Speaker 1: a it's an order of operations for Boston. And again
Speaker 1: I'm not judging last night because I think it's about fatigue.
Speaker 1: But like I talked about that sixteen catch and shoot
Speaker 1: wide open, sixteen unguarded catch shoo jump shots at the
Speaker 1: Celtics attempt every game that ranks third in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Last night was the fifth consecutive game where they did
Speaker 1: not reach sixteen unguarded catching shoots six games in a
Speaker 1: row or five games five games in a row like that.
Speaker 1: That's a troubling trend in terms of just their overall
Speaker 1: offensive approach. That's the thing that they got a picks
Speaker 1: to get this thing back on track. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all I have for today, or all I have
Speaker 1: for this morning. I should say I'll be back later.
Speaker 1: Today was some more game reactions in a mailbag.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume.
Speaker 2: What's up guys?
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 1: do that, I'd really appreciate it.