Speaker 1: So Dame could have grabbed all the headlines by himself
Speaker 1: last night, but something fascinating happened. Something As a Blazer fan,
Speaker 1: I don't really care to discuss. But for the people,
Speaker 1: we will. For the people, we will not brush it
Speaker 1: off and discard it as an anomaly or as an
Speaker 1: abhorrent situation. The Los Angeles Lakers were in Dallas, and
Speaker 1: they might have saved their season by staging what would
Speaker 1: also be something historic in their comeback, but it wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just the comeback. The coming back. That's fine.
Speaker 1: The comeback itself was amazing, but it that would have
Speaker 1: been worth talking about anyway. But it's how they came back.
Speaker 1: It's not just a barrage of threes, which, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are never gonna give you a barrage of threes.
Speaker 1: But what it was was lock down defense against one
Speaker 1: of the most difficult guys to defend and stop in
Speaker 1: the league. Luka Doncic, one of the most unguardable dudes
Speaker 1: in league history, plays at his own pace, is absolutely
Speaker 1: a load on the court. You cannot move him, you
Speaker 1: cannot stop him, and yet the Lakers did. Kyrie and
Speaker 1: Luca ran out to a huge first half lead, looked
Speaker 1: like the Lakers were cooked. They then rallied as we'll
Speaker 1: get into Vanderbilt and Austin Reeves lockdown Luca, while Lebron
Speaker 1: looked really good and Ad pretty much looked like he
Speaker 1: should be the guy that the Lakers run their offense around.
Speaker 1: The Lakers end up stealing a win that they should
Speaker 1: not have won but absolutely needed on the road. Huge
Speaker 1: w for a team that most people have written off
Speaker 1: even after the trade deadline, and as a world class
Speaker 1: lifelong Laker hater, it pains me. It pains me to
Speaker 1: say that the Lakers are just not the same team
Speaker 1: as they were before the deadline. They were dead. They
Speaker 1: were barbecue chicken. They were not just barbecue chicken. They
Speaker 1: were a little piece of coal inside of the barbecue.
Speaker 1: Like that's how cooked they were. They had been on
Speaker 1: the grill a long time. And if they had an
Speaker 1: even Windhorse said this on his podcast, if this roster
Speaker 1: was the roster that they came into the training camp with,
Speaker 1: they'd probably be a five seed, four seed. This is
Speaker 1: this is a really good roster, top six team in
Speaker 1: the West Foreshore, probably most of it having to do
Speaker 1: with Jared Vanderbilt, a player that nobody seemed to feast
Speaker 1: after at the deadline, which made no fucking sense. Malik Beasley,
Speaker 1: who can shoot Dilo, who had an ankle injury last
Speaker 1: night and didn't actually even play, but he's been a
Speaker 1: bucket And I don't really know why people whipped on
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt. That doesn't make any sense to me. He's
Speaker 1: probably the most important new Laker on this team. Why
Speaker 1: you say how you say Vanderbilt? Jared Vanderbilt as a
Speaker 1: primary defender on Luca. Luca was zero for three with
Speaker 1: one assist and five turnovers, all caused by Vanderbilt, who
Speaker 1: either forced a turnover intercepted a pass. Seven foot one
Speaker 1: wing span. Our guy Jared Vanderbilt has that allows him
Speaker 1: to stay big, stay long, stay active against a very
Speaker 1: huge Doncic, like a guy who is just very crafty,
Speaker 1: moves at his own pace and gets around pretty much everyone.
Speaker 1: Messed with the step back multiple times, cut off passing
Speaker 1: lanes when he wanted to drive. Vanderbilt's five deflections led
Speaker 1: the Lakers and was almost as many as the entire
Speaker 1: MAVs team had by themselves. Yeah, he was also by
Speaker 1: the way, six for eight from the field shooting, had
Speaker 1: seventeen rebounds. This was a guy that Minnesota had and
Speaker 1: they just gave him up. They just gave him up
Speaker 1: for Rudy Gobert and other things. Like they gave other
Speaker 1: things up too. He was a plus fourteen and twenty
Speaker 1: seven minutes, had eight offensive rebounds himself. That's incredible. I
Speaker 1: am shocked the teams like the Blazers didn't go after him,
Speaker 1: like teams like the Kings, a contender like the Suns,
Speaker 1: a contender like the Bucks. Like you gave up five
Speaker 1: second round picks for Jake Crowder, you couldn't give one
Speaker 1: first round pick in four second rounds for Jared Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1: I know you want a veteran, but like, Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: is pretty good. He's gonna be good for a long time.
Speaker 1: And this led me to a question because you had
Speaker 1: the Clippers game and you had the Lakers game, and
Speaker 1: so I was thinking about him both, and I wondered
Speaker 1: to myself who got better more? Like who got more
Speaker 1: better between the Clippers and the Lakers. I know it's
Speaker 1: like a ridiculous way of saying it, but that's how
Speaker 1: I think about it. So like who had the better
Speaker 1: roster up grade, because it's like pretty close. They got
Speaker 1: both a lot better. I love the fact that the
Speaker 1: Clippers got Gordon Plumbley bones Russell Westbrook. I don't really
Speaker 1: love the west Russell Westbrook, but it's a part of
Speaker 1: their situation. And the Lakers team, though, is completely unrecognizable.
Speaker 1: They got Ruey from the Wizards. But then you add
Speaker 1: in d lo who was out against the MAVs. Like
Speaker 1: I said, Vanderbilt Malik Beasley, all of that changed this
Speaker 1: team for the first time all year. The Lakers are long,
Speaker 1: they can switch, they can play defense and the same
Speaker 1: athletic way that they won the title in the Bubble.
Speaker 1: They can shoot, and it all shows they can just
Speaker 1: do more things, like Darvin Ham can just be a
Speaker 1: better coach because like he has the pieces for them
Speaker 1: to do those things he wants them to do. And
Speaker 1: watching that game made me realize that, like what Darvin
Speaker 1: Ham at the All Star Game we said, Remember we said,
Speaker 1: he said, hey, we are not doing any of that
Speaker 1: load management shit anymore. No more, nobody from one through fifteen,
Speaker 1: there is no more of that, no more sitting out
Speaker 1: for the rest of the year. And damn if we
Speaker 1: didn't see an example of that, come down to the
Speaker 1: wire and show us exactly that it was true. He said,
Speaker 1: whoever could play is gonna play. And sure enough, in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, Lebron James, Lebron James sprained his fucking
Speaker 1: ankle so bad he had to take his shoe off,
Speaker 1: rolled around in abject pain in ways that made my
Speaker 1: own ankle hurt. And what did he do. He put
Speaker 1: that shoe right back on and he ran back down
Speaker 1: the court. He didn't even come out for a second. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And like, injuries are a concern for the Lakers, and
Speaker 1: you've had a de miss time, and Broun missed time,
Speaker 1: and Reeves miss time, and Shroeder miss time, and Braun
Speaker 1: of course is the centerpiece of that. So when he
Speaker 1: was down in clear pain, it was like, oh, shot,
Speaker 1: they are done. Is it the rest? Is Ron done
Speaker 1: for the season? No? No, He put that shoe back on,
Speaker 1: tight it tight, and just kept it moving. This is
Speaker 1: what he said after the game when they asked him
Speaker 1: about his ankle, to get the foot ankle question out
Speaker 1: of the way so we can talk about the game
Speaker 1: down for a little bit there.
Speaker 2: Obviously stayed in and finished.
Speaker 1: The game out any different for.
Speaker 2: The last of the weeks. It's been better, that's for sure,
Speaker 2: but definitely wasn't gonna go to the locker room. And
Speaker 2: I finished the game on tonight just you know, understood
Speaker 2: the import of the game. And then the momentum that
Speaker 2: we had. I feel like we could you know, still
Speaker 2: wouldn't have to be a down, but were monitored the
Speaker 2: next couple of days, see how it feels and go
Speaker 2: from there.
Speaker 1: He said, it's been better. Yeah, no shit. That ankle
Speaker 1: injury looked it was a non contact just just sprained
Speaker 1: it on his own. Looked bad. And earlier this week
Speaker 1: he said they'd basically have to carry him off the
Speaker 1: court to keep him from playing out the rest of
Speaker 1: this year. So he's going to muscle his way through
Speaker 1: the playoffs. And that was not hyperbole. He gutted that
Speaker 1: game out when the Lakers needed him. He continued to
Speaker 1: play on what is probably a very painful ankle injury.
Speaker 1: And so when Lebron is thirty eight, this is a
Speaker 1: thirty eight year old man. This man is ready to
Speaker 1: collect his AARP card and his Social Security from the NBPA.
Speaker 1: And when he's out there risking further ligament damage. Bron
Speaker 1: is not allowing anybody out there, like Malik Beasley to
Speaker 1: do any shenanigans, Like there is no more a Disney,
Speaker 1: there is no more paper, skin and bones of whatever
Speaker 1: they say glass for Anthony Davis, no more street clothes.
Speaker 1: AD stops right now. If he's putting his body on
Speaker 1: the line, then AD sure as hell is going to
Speaker 1: be doing the same and to make sure that everyone
Speaker 1: else is going to do it as well. And so
Speaker 1: as much as I hate to say it, because I do,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are fun. Yeah, they're really fun to watch.
Speaker 1: They are. They're like the most fun that they've been
Speaker 1: since Lebron got there. They're really dangerous, they play really
Speaker 1: good offense and defense. They if they make the play
Speaker 1: in tournament, I would be worried if I was the
Speaker 1: other team. Like if you're the Warriors and you play
Speaker 1: the Lakers, it's basically the exact same thing that happened
Speaker 1: the year before or the time before when it was
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, This night night sleep mask for our dubs.
Speaker 1: Like if you are the team that plays the Lakers
Speaker 1: in the seven game series, uh also have fun with that,
Speaker 1: Like have fun with that dog fight. You remember New
Speaker 1: Orleans when they played the Phoenix Suns last year and
Speaker 1: then things were so bad for the Phoenix Suns in
Speaker 1: that seven game series. If they all got COVID, then
Speaker 1: they just died against the MAVs the next round. That's
Speaker 1: whoever plays the Lakers in the first round. Maybe the
Speaker 1: Lakers don't beat you, but they beat you in continuity
Speaker 1: where you're basically knocked out, put so much pressure on
Speaker 1: you you're gonna be so sad. The whoever you play
Speaker 1: next is just gonna cruise, just cruise along. Suns looking
Speaker 1: at you, Nuggets looking at you, MAVs looking at you.
Speaker 1: You better fucking pray you don't get the Lakers in
Speaker 1: the first round or it is gonna be night Night
Speaker 1: sleep mask. And if this team is fascinating, they are fun.
Speaker 1: And why didn't they do this before? Like why, I
Speaker 1: don't know how Rob Plink pulled it off, but I
Speaker 1: tell you what, he just finally did something that a
Speaker 1: GM is supposed to do. Next twenty seventh games are
Speaker 1: gonna be very interesting.