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