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Speaker 1: presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: week so far. I gonna keep it nice and simple.
Speaker 1: Today we're gonna break down yet another heartbreaking collapse for
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers at home against the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: and then the Sacramento Kings continue their struggles against the
Speaker 1: good teams in the league, getting their butt kicked in Philly,
Speaker 1: a couple of teams we haven't really touched on much lately,
Speaker 1: so I wanted to briefly touch on them. You guys
Speaker 1: know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the
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Speaker 1: you guys don't miss any show announcements as well as
Speaker 1: any video breakdowns that I do. And then, last but
Speaker 1: not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of
Speaker 1: these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube
Speaker 1: to finish. You can find them wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcasts under Hoops to Night. So that was a really
Speaker 1: impressive end to the road trip for Boston if you
Speaker 1: really factor in all of the different things at play.
Speaker 1: So you drop a couple of really tough games to
Speaker 1: the Warriors and the Clippers, who are two really good
Speaker 1: Western Conference teams in my opinion, the two best teams
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference, and those two teams we're looking
Speaker 1: for signature wins on their home floor. You dropped those games.
Speaker 1: That's tough, but that happens. And then you have it
Speaker 1: back to back. So it's your third game and four
Speaker 1: nights on the road again against the Lakers team that's
Speaker 1: been playing pretty good basketball for about a month now.
Speaker 1: I pointed this out, even with all of the collapses,
Speaker 1: even with everything in this last you know, sixteen game stretch,
Speaker 1: their nine and seven counting what happened to the Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics last night. So and they've been pretty good on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor. So you this was a
Speaker 1: tougher game than it would appear on the schedule. You
Speaker 1: come in and you really dominate them for two and
Speaker 1: a half quarters. Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown demonstrating all
Speaker 1: sorts of high level shot making. That Lakers team is
Speaker 1: so small on the perimeter that these bigger guards are,
Speaker 1: these bigger wings that are good at hitting off the
Speaker 1: dribble jump shots are gonna be really difficult for the
Speaker 1: Lakers to guard. And Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown right
Speaker 1: now are probably the best duo in the NBA. And
Speaker 1: they really controlled this game for the most part for
Speaker 1: about two thirds of it. And then you know, and
Speaker 1: they were able to keep the Lakers in the half court,
Speaker 1: contain things defensively, They did a nice job for the
Speaker 1: most part on Lebron James and Anthony Davis. They're just
Speaker 1: really damn good players that are gonna find ways to
Speaker 1: score points anyway. But then the Lakers punch you in
Speaker 1: the mouth and they start forcing a bunch of turnovers
Speaker 1: and getting stops, and they start getting out in transition,
Speaker 1: and Lebron and Anthony Davis get engaged, and they just
Speaker 1: go on this unbelievable run and on. At the same time,
Speaker 1: it kind of triggered some of those bad Boston Celtics tendencies,
Speaker 1: you know, holding the ball to late clock and then
Speaker 1: instead of driving and kicking or looking for those tough
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots, and it started to look a
Speaker 1: lot like the previous two games. At one point, the
Speaker 1: Lakers led by thirteen points with less than four minutes
Speaker 1: left in the fourth quarter of this game. Now part
Speaker 1: of me, I feel really bad for Lakers fans. Again,
Speaker 1: for those of you who don't know, I am not
Speaker 1: a Lakers fan. I just covered the Lakers for a
Speaker 1: couple of years, um, so I have a lot of
Speaker 1: friends within the Lakers fan base. And then I've always
Speaker 1: been a big fan of Lebron James, so I do
Speaker 1: root for the Lakers. I've never hid from that specifically,
Speaker 1: but I root for a bunch of different teams around
Speaker 1: the league. Because I grew up in Tucson, Arizona not
Speaker 1: an NBA town. The Phoenix Suns never marketed to them.
Speaker 1: I've always just been a fan of the game of
Speaker 1: basketball in general. The only real teams that I'm actively
Speaker 1: rooting for ore from a team standpoint, or the University
Speaker 1: of Arizona teams because I grew up in Tucson and
Speaker 1: this is a college town. But like, I'm a fan
Speaker 1: of the Lakers because I'm a fan of Lebron and
Speaker 1: I have a lot of friends who are Lakers fans,
Speaker 1: and so I root for them, But I don't have
Speaker 1: any specific rooting interest for the Lakers. But I felt
Speaker 1: really bad um for my friends who are Laker fans,
Speaker 1: because this team has just time and time again just
Speaker 1: found a way to break their heart and the Laker
Speaker 1: fans heart. And I can't even think about how I again,
Speaker 1: I didn't watch the game live. I watched it this
Speaker 1: morning because I was hanging out with my wife last night,
Speaker 1: and I just I just can only imagine what Lakers
Speaker 1: fans must have felt like, because you're up fourteen or
Speaker 1: a thirteen with less than four minutes left in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, and they choke it away again and it
Speaker 1: looks just like all of the other losses late game
Speaker 1: losses that they've had this season. But credit to the
Speaker 1: Celtics because they really locked in over that last four
Speaker 1: minute stretch. They got a bunch of stops. They did
Speaker 1: a nice shop on Lebron James and Anthony Davis, containing
Speaker 1: them and keeping them out of the paint. Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: once again just ridiculous shot making. He hit a tough,
Speaker 1: tough step back three over Anthony Davis on the left wing.
Speaker 1: During that final run, he hit that ridiculous turnaround jump
Speaker 1: shot over Lebron James to tied the game. With like
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds left in overtime, Jayson Tatum made another turnaround,
Speaker 1: one legged fade away. Jalen Brown hit basically what ended
Speaker 1: up being the dagger in late ot. Those two guys
Speaker 1: when they're hitting shots over the top of the defense
Speaker 1: like that, you just got to tip the cap. But like,
Speaker 1: really really impressive two way run from those guys to
Speaker 1: steal that game from the Lakers. Again, if you're looking
Speaker 1: at it, last game of a road trip, you're exhausted,
Speaker 1: you're ready to be home, you don't have legs. Third
Speaker 1: game in four nights. I think of a sleep part
Speaker 1: of that too. Like, none of us ever sleep as
Speaker 1: well and someone else's bed than we do in our
Speaker 1: own bed, right, And that goes for hotels and whether
Speaker 1: you're crashing at a buddy's house or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: you just don't sleep as well and sleep as how
Speaker 1: athletes recover and so over the course of a long
Speaker 1: road trip. That's why those final games are so so
Speaker 1: tough on teams. You're fatigue, you haven't slept really well
Speaker 1: in a while, You've got your mind back at home,
Speaker 1: thinking you're gonna be thinking you're gonna be home soon.
Speaker 1: You're down thirteen four minutes left. You could have very
Speaker 1: easily just let go of a rope, and instead they
Speaker 1: fought back and really change the tone of the entire
Speaker 1: road trip with that type of comeback when you're Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown and Jayson Tatum both talking a lot after the
Speaker 1: game about how pleased and impressed they were with their
Speaker 1: guys forgetting that particular game in the manner in which
Speaker 1: they got him. I wanted to shout out Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: because he had a couple of really rough nights in
Speaker 1: a row against Golden State, against Golden State and the
Speaker 1: Clippers where he looked a lot like some of those
Speaker 1: issues we've seen last year, but he bounced back in
Speaker 1: a big way in this game. I liked how he
Speaker 1: started the game looking to get guys involved as a
Speaker 1: passer before he really turned it up as a shot
Speaker 1: maker late in the game. And then remember we were
Speaker 1: talking about how his rim finishing and his finishing in
Speaker 1: the paint in general was a big part of his
Speaker 1: issue the last couple of games. Well, he was eight
Speaker 1: for fourteen in the paint against the Lakers and five
Speaker 1: or seven in the restricted area, so he got that
Speaker 1: back on track. And then that big shot over Lebron
Speaker 1: at the inter regulation. That's kind of a big moment,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, uh, there're these like kind of
Speaker 1: like it gets cliche when people talk about like passing
Speaker 1: the baton and things along those lines, but when you
Speaker 1: really think about it confidently at the end of a
Speaker 1: game like that, to look, Lebron James the second best
Speaker 1: basketball player of all time in my opinion. Who yes,
Speaker 1: he's older and he's not quite the athlete that he
Speaker 1: is that he used to be, but he's still a
Speaker 1: top ten player in this NBA and who's been playing
Speaker 1: really good basketball for the better part of a month now,
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum looked him eye to eye and went and
Speaker 1: got a basket on him, and Lebron played good defense
Speaker 1: and forced him into one of his tougher shots, you know,
Speaker 1: that turnaround fade away over his right shoulder, and he
Speaker 1: just knocked it down and knocked it down confidently. It
Speaker 1: was that, you know, just just long off the back
Speaker 1: room and in uh that that just you know, that's
Speaker 1: always a big indicator for jump shooters. When they're knocking
Speaker 1: to been off the back of the rim. That means
Speaker 1: they're not alligator armying or leaving them short. They're confidently
Speaker 1: raising up and knocking the shot down. And you know,
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot over the last couple of days
Speaker 1: about the importance of superstar play and how it's the
Speaker 1: difference between the bad offenses and the good offenses in
Speaker 1: the league. We talked about this a lot with the
Speaker 1: Clippers yesterday, and you know, we talked about it for
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of warping the defense to create close
Speaker 1: out opportunities, but it's also about rescuing possessions and attacking matchups.
Speaker 1: And when you have two guys and Jalen Brown and
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum, that can consistently rise up and hit jump
Speaker 1: shots over the top of contests. That just shoots that
Speaker 1: little bit of extra juice into your offense and helps
Speaker 1: carry you in big moments. But yeah, I thought that
Speaker 1: was I thought that was kind of a cool moment
Speaker 1: for Jayson Tatum to go into l a and kind
Speaker 1: of outplay Lebron on his home floor to get a win.
Speaker 1: Moving on to the Lakers. You know, bad losses happen
Speaker 1: to everyone. Blown leads happened to everyone. I mean even
Speaker 1: we were just talking a couple of days ago about
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors kind of blowing a game at
Speaker 1: the end. Um uh, when when Steph Curry and Draymond
Speaker 1: Green and and Andrew Wiggins and and and Clayton I
Speaker 1: think of just Clay Thompson and Jordan Pool played in
Speaker 1: this particular game when they were missing a bunch of
Speaker 1: guys and it's like heartbreak at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: um off of a couple of turnovers by Jordan Pool.
Speaker 1: That sort of thing happens. It happens to everybody that's
Speaker 1: the most well coached and most experienced team in the league,
Speaker 1: albeit they were missing guys. It happens to everybody. The
Speaker 1: difference is for the good teams or for the players
Speaker 1: that are willing to learn. You learn from those mistakes
Speaker 1: and they become scar tissue. You guys have heard me
Speaker 1: talk about this a lot, the scar tissue that comes
Speaker 1: from losing. It's a big part of what makes veteran
Speaker 1: players more valuable in big playoff moments than younger players.
Speaker 1: They've experienced painful losses enough times to remedy those issues,
Speaker 1: and this Lakers team refuses to learn. You know, some
Speaker 1: of the shot making stuff is unavoidable. Like again, if
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown are going to hit big
Speaker 1: time shots over the top of the defense, you gotta
Speaker 1: tip your cap to them. But that's not the only
Speaker 1: way they lost. There were plenty of avoidable mistakes. And
Speaker 1: I wanted to kind of break down the final sequence
Speaker 1: of the game just kind of show you what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. So it's one of six, nine three with
Speaker 1: less than four minutes left. Lebron gets a wide open
Speaker 1: three on the left wing and he misses it. Good offense,
Speaker 1: good shot, just missed it. And Lebron, while he's struggling
Speaker 1: with pull up shooting this year, he's been actually pretty
Speaker 1: good in catch and shoot situations this year. So on
Speaker 1: that very next possession, Boston dribbles up the floor and
Speaker 1: a D is back, but he's back to the paint
Speaker 1: and his matchup is Grant Williams, and Grant Williams is
Speaker 1: running along the left wing, and Grant Williams is a
Speaker 1: good shooter who has been lights out in spot up
Speaker 1: situations this year. A D was matched up with him
Speaker 1: in this particular small ball Celtics grew. A D just
Speaker 1: concedes a three to Grant Williams, like saw him running
Speaker 1: the left wing, had an opportunity to close out, chose
Speaker 1: not to just conceded a basket, and he did. And
Speaker 1: a lot of these comebacks for the Lakers, these blown
Speaker 1: leads for the Lakers, have started just like that. It's
Speaker 1: the lazy plays early in the comeback that turns a
Speaker 1: seventeen point lead into an eight point lead in a
Speaker 1: matter of seconds, you know, or or you know in
Speaker 1: this case, at thirteen point lead into something much less
Speaker 1: than that in a matter of seconds. And that's what
Speaker 1: happened here. A D concedes the three to Grant Williams.
Speaker 1: Then Lebron turns it over to Marcus Smart, on the
Speaker 1: inbounds pass like Grant hits the three Lebron turnover, Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart layup. Now it's an eight point game in a
Speaker 1: matter of seconds. Again, that's your stars. That's Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Lebron. That's Anthony Davison Lebron in a matter of
Speaker 1: seconds turning a thirteen point lead into an eight point
Speaker 1: lead by being lazy and unfocused. Then they go down
Speaker 1: the floor. Russ takes and misses a pull up jump
Speaker 1: shot at the right elbow. Russell Westbrook is shooting twenty
Speaker 1: on pull up jumpers this year. We're gonna talk a
Speaker 1: lot about Russ here in a little bit. Eighty five
Speaker 1: players this year have taken at least eighty pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots. Russ ranks in percentages. Only Keldon Johnson has
Speaker 1: been worse. He has that he continues to take the
Speaker 1: shots that skilled guards take, even though he's not skilled
Speaker 1: the way that skilled guards are. So off of that
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook. Miss Jayson Tatum has a really nice giving
Speaker 1: go tries to dunk on Lebron was pretty solid defense,
Speaker 1: to be honest. You just Tatum made a hell of
Speaker 1: a play. Goes to the line, he makes two free throws.
Speaker 1: Then Anthony Davis hits a really tough turnaround jump shot.
Speaker 1: Then that's when Jayson Tatum goes down and hits the
Speaker 1: tough step back over Anthony Davis. Again, we're in the
Speaker 1: tough shot making face here. Lebron goes down hits a
Speaker 1: nice fall away in the lane, a really tough two
Speaker 1: point jump shot. So it's just superstars making superstar plays
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor. But then after Lebron
Speaker 1: hits that jump shot, Marcus Smart in transition attacks Austin Reeves.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are not back, They're not in their help side,
Speaker 1: so Austin is by himself and Marcus s markets an
Speaker 1: easy lay up. Everyone's hugged up to their man. Leave
Speaker 1: Austin on an island. That's bad defense. They go down
Speaker 1: to the other end. Anthony Davis misses turnaround jump shot,
Speaker 1: Celtics go down, Grant Williams misses the three, then Lebron
Speaker 1: misses the three. Then we have Jalen Brown and Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart at the top of the key. Lebron is guarding
Speaker 1: Jalon Brown. Excuse me, Anthony Davis is guarding Jalon Brown
Speaker 1: and Lebron is guarding Marcus Smart. Marcus Smart sets a
Speaker 1: ghost screen, which is a super common action in the
Speaker 1: NBA where you have a perimeter player that can shoot,
Speaker 1: go set a fake screen. So he runs up like
Speaker 1: he's gonna set a screen, and then he just runs
Speaker 1: out to the three point line. And for the most
Speaker 1: for the most part, when it's two perimeter players like that,
Speaker 1: like jay Len Brown and Marcus Smart, you switch that screen.
Speaker 1: Lebron clearly thinks it's a switch. Anthony Davis clearly does not.
Speaker 1: They botched that switch. They give Marcus Smart a wide
Speaker 1: open three, which he's going to make every single time. Now,
Speaker 1: fatigue might have played a role there, which we're gonna
Speaker 1: get to in a little bit, but regardless, Lebron and
Speaker 1: a Dye botched the switch. That's under your control. Then
Speaker 1: Lebron and a d run the pick and roll on
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, Anthony Davis gets fouled
Speaker 1: on the lob. Anthony Davis has a chance to go
Speaker 1: to the line one ten to one oh eight shot
Speaker 1: clock is off, opportunity to ice the basketball game, and
Speaker 1: he misses both free throws. That's under his control. Then
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum goes down and hits that tough shot over Lebron,
Speaker 1: and Lebron goes down and misses the tough shot, and
Speaker 1: we're headed to overtime. That's how you blow at thirteen
Speaker 1: point lead in four minutes. Again, there's some tough shots
Speaker 1: in there, but a d conceding a wide open transition
Speaker 1: three to Grant Williams. That's bad defense. Lebron turning it
Speaker 1: over to Marcus Smart giving up a free layup, that's
Speaker 1: unfocused basketball. Russ taking another pull up jump shot, which
Speaker 1: should literally Russ should literally never ever take one. That's
Speaker 1: how bad he is at it, and he continues to
Speaker 1: do so. You know, like Lebron and uh, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: botching a switch that's under your control. You can, by
Speaker 1: focus and effort contain that particular issue. Anthony Davis two
Speaker 1: free throws at the end. That's a fixable problem. So
Speaker 1: we can talk about the tough shot making, and you
Speaker 1: can tip the cap to a certain extent to the Celtics.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is is every time the Lakers
Speaker 1: blow a big lead, it's a factor of bad offensive
Speaker 1: decision making and lazy defense. And even though it happened
Speaker 1: against Indiana earlier this year, even though it happened against
Speaker 1: the Blazers earlier this year. No matter how many times
Speaker 1: it happens to them, they do not learn their lesson.
Speaker 1: They are not building the scar tissue. So if you
Speaker 1: ask me whether or not I expect the Lakers to
Speaker 1: do something like this again at a later point in
Speaker 1: the season, the answers, yes, they've proven that. And then
Speaker 1: we go into overtime and Lebron James and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: were completely out of gas because they've played a million minutes,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about in a minute. So it turned
Speaker 1: into the Russell Westbrook Show, and that one about exactly
Speaker 1: as you would expect. He got to the rim a
Speaker 1: couple of times and made a couple of layups, but
Speaker 1: then Boston started packing the paint and daring him to shoot,
Speaker 1: and he missed back to back to back wide open
Speaker 1: jump shots because he's arguably the worst volume jump shooter
Speaker 1: in the NBA. In the Boston Celtics win, I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about Rust for a second because we're reaching
Speaker 1: a little bit of a crisis point because he's been
Speaker 1: so horrifically bad in his last five games. So if
Speaker 1: you remember after that Blazers game, the Bucks game in
Speaker 1: the Wizards game. I said that was his best three
Speaker 1: game stretch since his time coming of the Lakers. Generated
Speaker 1: a boatload of quality shots for the Lakers bench units.
Speaker 1: He was limiting his mistakes like taking fewer bad shots
Speaker 1: and turning over the basketball less, and he was playing
Speaker 1: solid defense. And in that stretch, his shifts were positive
Speaker 1: in all three games, and he was plus sixteen overall
Speaker 1: in a three games. Fan immediately he regressed, don't look
Speaker 1: at the stats. Yeah, I know he's averaging fifteen, eight
Speaker 1: and five or whatever it is over his last five games,
Speaker 1: but he's had four or more turnovers, and four of
Speaker 1: the five games he's taking a boatload of bad jump shots. Again,
Speaker 1: I don't understand what the green like there. He's playing
Speaker 1: like he has a green light. I was watching the
Speaker 1: film from Lakers Celtics this morning. He took two early clock,
Speaker 1: tough three point shots that both one was an airball
Speaker 1: and the other was like two ft long and barely
Speaker 1: grazed the back of the room, Like he's shooting like
Speaker 1: he's got a green light. It literally doesn't make sense
Speaker 1: because of how bad he isn't making jump shots. He's
Speaker 1: making a lot of defensive mistakes, and he's been a
Speaker 1: negative every single game. Russell Westbrook is minus fifty one
Speaker 1: in the last fifty in the last five games. The
Speaker 1: Leakers are plus sixteen when he's off the floor. And
Speaker 1: this is, you know, this is what makes Russ so polarizing.
Speaker 1: You know, there's there's such an up and down volatility
Speaker 1: to his play. He makes so many huge momentum plays,
Speaker 1: and he made a ton of momentum plays in that
Speaker 1: game against Boston. Where's whether it's a steel and a
Speaker 1: runout dunk or another runout transition layoup. It just he
Speaker 1: can make these momentous plays and and a lot of
Speaker 1: Russ fans will cling to those, but they don't pay
Speaker 1: attention to the damaging mistakes that he makes that undercut
Speaker 1: that success. For instance, there was a sequence in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, I think the Lakers were up to ninety
Speaker 1: and Russ gets out in transition and just gets all
Speaker 1: the way to the rim and explodes and makes a
Speaker 1: right handed lay up, and you're like, man, what a
Speaker 1: play from Russell Westbrook. And then two possessions later he
Speaker 1: does the exact same thing, but the Celtics do a
Speaker 1: better job of getting back and building a wall in
Speaker 1: front of the room and he tries to stupid drop
Speaker 1: off past Anthony Davis who's not open and standing like
Speaker 1: eighteen inches away from him. Leads to a turnover and
Speaker 1: they go the other way in the Celtics get an
Speaker 1: and one on adjacent on adjacent Tatum layup, So Russell
Speaker 1: Russ west Russell Westbrook fans will cling to that play
Speaker 1: that he made, the transition play, but they'll completely ignore
Speaker 1: the one he made two possessions later. In the aggregate,
Speaker 1: it's plus two for the Lakers on the transition play,
Speaker 1: and then it's a mistransition opportunity, which is about a
Speaker 1: point per possession and three points the other way because
Speaker 1: of the transition live ball turnover. In the aggregate, that's
Speaker 1: like negative two points in a two possession sequence. That's
Speaker 1: why I can't look at the box score with Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook to get a feel for his impact on the game.
Speaker 1: And that's what makes him so polarizing. You have the
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook fans that only cling to the good, and
Speaker 1: then you have a lot of Russell Westbrook haters that
Speaker 1: only cling to the negative. Now I get frequently lumped
Speaker 1: in with that group, which I don't think is fair
Speaker 1: because I constantly point out when he does play well
Speaker 1: or the good things he does in terms of his
Speaker 1: shot creation and rim pressure and the way he's been
Speaker 1: performing with the Lakers bench groups. I try my best
Speaker 1: to try to play the middle ground, and too often
Speaker 1: I get called, you know, looped in with all the haters.
Speaker 1: But then, like you get into overtime, there was a
Speaker 1: play um it was the one where it was when
Speaker 1: they were up one fourteen to one twelve, and Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook takes another pull up jump shot. Again, like we
Speaker 1: talked about, worst eight four out of eighty five pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooters in the league at that volume, takes
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot, jogs back in transition and
Speaker 1: guards nobody. Marcus Smart drives past Lebron James on the
Speaker 1: right wing. Bad defense from Lebron there again, I thought
Speaker 1: Lebron and A d in particular were completely wiped out.
Speaker 1: At the end of this game, Marcus Smart gets down
Speaker 1: to the middle, Anthony Davis contains Marcus Smart. Grant Williams
Speaker 1: is wide open on the right wing. If Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: was in normal defensive position, that would have been his rotation.
Speaker 1: He's not even in the play. In fact, he's guarding
Speaker 1: nobody On this play, he loses a side of man
Speaker 1: and ball and he's drifting out to the left wing,
Speaker 1: completely unaware of anything that's going around him. Grant Williams
Speaker 1: makes it three, the Celtics are up by one. That's
Speaker 1: the that's the up and down nature of the Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook experience, and Russ fans only see the positive and
Speaker 1: they refuse to see the negative. As we zoom out
Speaker 1: on Russ's season, now, he's had a lot of good games.
Speaker 1: He's probably had ten or so good games where he's
Speaker 1: been like a significant positive. But the bad plays are
Speaker 1: starting to outweigh the good plays again, and the bad
Speaker 1: games are starting to outplay outweigh the good games. So
Speaker 1: here's where we're at in totality this season. The Lakers
Speaker 1: are plus twenty eight when Russ is off the floor.
Speaker 1: They are minus seventy one when he's on, which is
Speaker 1: dead last on the team. Even if we account for possessions,
Speaker 1: he's minus three point seven per one possessions, which is
Speaker 1: the worst among the Lakers rotation players. The Lakers are
Speaker 1: thirteen points better with a D on versus a D off.
Speaker 1: They are one point two points better with Lebron on
Speaker 1: versus Lebron off, they are seven points worse with Russ
Speaker 1: on versus Russ off. So the bottom line is is
Speaker 1: that things have probably gone as good as they possibly
Speaker 1: could have gone for us this season, and it's still
Speaker 1: has been a complete disaster in the aggregate. And he's
Speaker 1: undercutting which what has been a pretty dominant stretch from
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis since November six, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: thirty points and thirteen rebounds a game on six shooting
Speaker 1: Lebron James since November six, eight and six on from
Speaker 1: the field and from three, and yet the Lakers are
Speaker 1: dropping winnable games in large part because they have the
Speaker 1: majority of their salary resources their most expensive player. The
Speaker 1: majority of those resources are tied up in a player
Speaker 1: that actually hurts the team but makes enough momentum plays
Speaker 1: to fool the staff in front office into thinking that
Speaker 1: he's been a positive when he clearly is not, and
Speaker 1: there's this narrative surrounding him that he's been the sixth
Speaker 1: man of the year this year. Oh, we moved russ
Speaker 1: to the bench and everything has been better, and there
Speaker 1: have been good moments in good games with Russ on
Speaker 1: the bench, But the reality is in the aggregate they're
Speaker 1: getting destroyed when he's on the floor, and they're positive
Speaker 1: when he's off. He and when he's alongside Lebron James,
Speaker 1: there's too many rogue possessions of pull up threes. There's
Speaker 1: two little activity off the basketball to remain a threat,
Speaker 1: and he makes too many defensive mistakes. But the problem
Speaker 1: is that narrative of him being the sixth man of
Speaker 1: the Year, that's gonna be enough to trick the Lakers
Speaker 1: into thinking that that's where he should be and they're
Speaker 1: gonna keep him. I will be shocked if the Lakers
Speaker 1: actually decided to move Russ, and it's a shame because
Speaker 1: it's gonna undercut any chance that Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis have to make a run this year. Last thing
Speaker 1: I wanted touch on with the Lakers is Lebron James
Speaker 1: anything to us with fatigue. So part of the issue
Speaker 1: with Russ taking up this kind of salary resources with
Speaker 1: him being the most expensive player on the team, the
Speaker 1: Lakers have a severe depth problem. They don't have enough
Speaker 1: good basketball players to run lineups with the two of
Speaker 1: them staggered more frequently playing fewer minutes. So Lebron played
Speaker 1: forty two minutes, played the entire fourth quarter, in overtime,
Speaker 1: took just one brief rest in the third quarter. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis played forty six minutes and played the entire second
Speaker 1: half and overtime. So when we look at things like
Speaker 1: that botched switch where Anthony Davis and Lebron should have
Speaker 1: switched the Jalon Brown Marcus Smart action, when we look
Speaker 1: at Lebron getting beat to the basket by Marcus Smart
Speaker 1: in overtime, you know, on the Grant Williams shot, which
Speaker 1: ended up being the lead changer. I'm I can't get
Speaker 1: super upset at those two guys because they're tired. It's
Speaker 1: just natural. Now. I would hope that, especially when you
Speaker 1: factor in the gravity of that particular game, that they'd
Speaker 1: be able to lock in and get those stops. But
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be over really critical of them when
Speaker 1: it's clear that they're tired. And you know, I talked
Speaker 1: before the season, I said, if Rob Polinka and Genie
Speaker 1: Buss are patient with the trades, they might be able
Speaker 1: to get something better. I admitted that before training camp.
Speaker 1: I get it, there is upside there but there was
Speaker 1: an obvious downside by skipping the opportunity to give your
Speaker 1: team a full training camp to integrate players, by burying
Speaker 1: yourself in the standings because the Lakers, they knew they
Speaker 1: had a difficult schedule to start the year. By digging
Speaker 1: that hole in the standings and by losing that continuity,
Speaker 1: now in the process, you're running your stars into the
Speaker 1: ground and you're digging yourself a massive hole in the standings.
Speaker 1: Is that worth it to potentially have something ten better
Speaker 1: in the trade market? I don't think so, because this
Speaker 1: group I don't think has the stamin unnecessary to go
Speaker 1: on an incredibly difficult playoff run. It was a stratg
Speaker 1: G that I thought was clearly flawed from the start,
Speaker 1: and big shock, he came back to bite the Lakers
Speaker 1: in the butt alright, moving on to King's sixers. So
Speaker 1: this was a dominant win for Philly. They led by
Speaker 1: twenty five for most of the game. Really good balance
Speaker 1: for Philly. They had six players and double figures. Joel
Speaker 1: Embiad at thirty one and seven on sixteen shots. Joel
Speaker 1: Embiad is averaging thirty seven points per game in his
Speaker 1: last ten games. He's not really there's you know, it's
Speaker 1: funny because there's been a lot of talk like, oh,
Speaker 1: why isn't it be getting enough as much attention for
Speaker 1: this recent play as Anthony Davis has been getting. And
Speaker 1: I think that's silly because Anthony Davis has been better.
Speaker 1: He's been the best defensive player in basketball during that stretch,
Speaker 1: and he's been the best rebounder in basketball. He's averaging
Speaker 1: fourteen rebounds per game in this recent stretch. So like, yes,
Speaker 1: and Beat is scoring the way that Anthony Davis has
Speaker 1: been even a little bit better, but he's not having
Speaker 1: the overall impact the way that Anthony Davis has had.
Speaker 1: That said, Joel Embiid is having a really impressive run
Speaker 1: as a score. He had fifty three against Charlotte the
Speaker 1: other night, averaging thirty seven points per game in his
Speaker 1: last ten games, really really impressive night. I just want
Speaker 1: to draw a line between him and what Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is doing, which is like, like, there's a reason why
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis has been being called one of the best
Speaker 1: players in the world in the last month or a
Speaker 1: month and a half or so. It's because he's literally
Speaker 1: been the best defensive player in basketball, the best rebounder
Speaker 1: in basketball, and he's scoring at a Joel and Be
Speaker 1: type of rate. UM, But kudos and Joel and B
Speaker 1: because like he's on a ridiculous scoring run right now. Uh.
Speaker 1: James Harden twenty one and fifteen assists on thirteen shots.
Speaker 1: He had three more mid range shots in this game.
Speaker 1: We talked a lot last week about James Harden and
Speaker 1: his mid range scoring um, and then Tobias Harris pitched
Speaker 1: in twenty one and seven. But I thought they won
Speaker 1: this game on the defensive end of the floor. Batiste,
Speaker 1: heybel It's interesting because he's been kind of like a
Speaker 1: polarizing player within Sixers Twitter because a lot of Sixers
Speaker 1: fans wanted to play more, but then a lot of
Speaker 1: other Sixers fans are like, no, he's too bad offensively,
Speaker 1: and he kind of goes in and out of the
Speaker 1: rotation based on what you know. DC Rivers thinks they
Speaker 1: need on the offensive end of the floor. But he
Speaker 1: is so damn good defensively. Um. And he did such
Speaker 1: a good job in this game, in particular now vigating screens,
Speaker 1: having a good idea of one to go under versus
Speaker 1: one to go over when he thought he had a
Speaker 1: chance to recover and using his length to bother Dear
Speaker 1: and Fox in his pull up jump shooting, which is
Speaker 1: such an important part of his scoring out of pick
Speaker 1: and roll. And then when you have Joel and Beat
Speaker 1: at the rim, especially with a guy like Sabonis who
Speaker 1: will take perimeter jump shots but doesn't like to take
Speaker 1: them at volume, it really allowed Philly to continue to
Speaker 1: contain Deer and Fox and give him a really tough night. Um.
Speaker 1: The Sixers have now won three in a row to
Speaker 1: get back up to fifteen and twelve. They're the fifth
Speaker 1: seed in the East right now since Phillies five and
Speaker 1: seven start, So since November twelve, they are ten and five,
Speaker 1: which is the fourth best record in basketball. They are
Speaker 1: thirteenth and offense and fourth and defense, and they've been
Speaker 1: missing a bunch of guys over that span. They're actually
Speaker 1: starting to get healthy now, which kind of leads you
Speaker 1: to the conclusion of why their offense has been a
Speaker 1: little uneven. Um, So keep an eye in the Sixers
Speaker 1: because if Tyrese Maxie comes back, which I think they're
Speaker 1: planning around Christmas, if Tyrese Maxie comes back, they've kind
Speaker 1: of established themselves on the defensive end, in a way
Speaker 1: that they didn't early in the year. I would be
Speaker 1: I'd be surprised if the Sixers don't go on a
Speaker 1: run to start next year in January. So the Sacramento
Speaker 1: Kings continue to struggle against good teams. They are seven
Speaker 1: and one this season when they're playing against teams that
Speaker 1: are below five hundred, and they are seven and eleven
Speaker 1: this season when playing against teams that are five hundred
Speaker 1: are better. The realities, they just can't. I talked a
Speaker 1: lot about this before the season, like, you have to
Speaker 1: be able to play defense to beat the good teams
Speaker 1: in the league, because you know, there's kind of like
Speaker 1: a baseline level of what you can accomplish um defensively
Speaker 1: in a game with a miniscule level of effort that
Speaker 1: bad teams won't be able to exploit. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: if you play lazy defense where you just chase guys
Speaker 1: out the three point line and funnel them into the paint,
Speaker 1: and you know, teams that aren't willing to make the
Speaker 1: extra passes to get high quality shots so they don't
Speaker 1: test your defensive rotations, you'll be able to get enough
Speaker 1: stops to win games, especially when on the other end
Speaker 1: you're playing against a bad defense, and your offense can
Speaker 1: light them on fire. But when you're playing against a
Speaker 1: good team, there's a certain level of shot making and
Speaker 1: offensive you know, um organization with extra passes and and
Speaker 1: and cutting and things like that that squeeze out extra
Speaker 1: points on the offensive end of the floor, and then
Speaker 1: on the other end of the floor, your offense will
Speaker 1: be less effective because you're going up against a great
Speaker 1: defensive team. You need to be able to lock in
Speaker 1: and get stops to beat the good teams in the league.
Speaker 1: According to Cleaning the Glass, when the Sacramento Kings play
Speaker 1: a top ten team in the league by point differential,
Speaker 1: they have a defensive rating of one seventeen, which ranks
Speaker 1: in the league, and you can see it in the
Speaker 1: results if you start to look at their schedule. They
Speaker 1: lost to Atlanta, they lost to Boston, they lost to Phoenix.
Speaker 1: Then they beat the Pacers. Then they beat the Clippers
Speaker 1: without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Then they beat the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bulls team, which is kind of spiraling. Then they
Speaker 1: lose something to the Milwaukee Bucks. Then they beat the
Speaker 1: Calves without Donovan Mitchell. Then they lose to the Knicks
Speaker 1: and the Sixers. So the reality is of the Sacramento
Speaker 1: Kings is they're just a fun, mediocre team that will
Speaker 1: probably lose in the playing tournament or get swept in
Speaker 1: the first round. I really am interested in a bunch
Speaker 1: of specific players is on their team. I like Dearon Fox.
Speaker 1: I made a lot of improvements as a jump shooter
Speaker 1: this year. I liked him. Honesta Bonus is that bullyball
Speaker 1: post player that passes the ball really well. I think
Speaker 1: he had five more sists in this game. Um. I
Speaker 1: really like Kegan Murray as a future kind of three
Speaker 1: and D player that has more of like a lightning
Speaker 1: quick Clay Thompson asked, type of release you know, dave
Speaker 1: On Mitchell is starting to add some offense to offset,
Speaker 1: you know, to to add to what he brings on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the four. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: good to like with the Sacramento Kings, but at this
Speaker 1: point it's just an interesting team, not a good team.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, That is all I have for today.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow with our with the power rankings, I believe
Speaker 1: is the plan at this point. So we're gonna get
Speaker 1: to hit on a bunch of teams tomorrow. Um. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your guys to support. Keep an eye
Speaker 1: on the Twitter feeds, you guys can see show announcement.
Speaker 1: So I'll let you know when the show is coming
Speaker 1: out and I'll see you guys. Then the volume