168. What to make of LeBron's historic night and more Russ rumors

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guys weekends are off to a good start. That was unpredictable in a lot of ways, because you know, I knew, I knew Lebron would bring it tonight. He always has taken this matchup with Steph Curry personally. However, this overall situation, particularly with talent with the Lakers, is so precarious, and the Warriors were desperate there in a little bit of a free fall that I was under the impression that they wouldn't have the juice to be able to get

this done, but they were. And it's there's kind of two different sides to it that we need to look at. Part of that is just how bad the Warriors have been. This is now their fourth consecutive loss. This is the eighth loss they have in their last ten games. They are seemingly coming apart at the seams, which is really strange because they played such good basketball for a while there when Draymond first went down. We're gonna dig into that here in a little bit. We're gonna talk about

Lebron's big night. We're going to get to some of the nitty gritty with this game, as I promised I would, and then at the end, if you guys stick around, we will talk a little bit about just how good Luka don Che has been of late, and how good the Mavericks are and whether or not they have the

potential to rise out of the West this year. But let's let's start with Lebron because I've been very, very critical of him in the last couple of weeks, and I'm always, as you guys know, I'm never interested in just peddling some narrative I'm interested in being authentic and honest, and if I'm going to criticize Lebron, it's because I'm legitimately frustrated with something that he's doing. And if he's going to do the job, if he's going to do the things that the team needs him to do, I'm

going to credit him for that. And you know, one of the things that I that I preached about immediately after the All Star break was the fact that the Lakers needed to play the young kids. I talked all about how they were the ones bringing the most effort on a night and night out basis, but also that they were their best players, that Austin Reeves was their best off ball player on the team and one of their best isolation defenders, that Stanley Johnson was clearly their

best wing. You know what Taylor Horton Tucker has been bringing as a playmaker of late, although he had a rough night tonight. And then Malik Monk and what he brings as an offensive threat and what he can bring with some of his athleticism, particularly in transition. And there was a play in the game the other night where Austin Reeves threw a lob to Malik Monk and I tweeted out as a joke, I said, play these kids

forty eight minutes. You know what I was thinking was is like the Laker, This Laker product on the court has been so sloppy, so unprofessional, so un serious, that I thought, hey, at least for the sake of maintaining some integrity in all of this, play the young kids a lot, because then at least, if you're losing, then you're going to have a pro sucked on the floor that's not gonna get booed off the floor. If you lose and you bring effort, the fans will support you.

If you lose and your effort is trash, they will probably be frustrated throughout the process. Which brings me to Lebron because one of the things that made it so that even the young guys weren't succeeding in the last couple of games was Lebron completely let go of the rope on the defensive end of the ball. We'll dive a little bit further into that concept here in a minute, but in this game, Lebron just did more. He wasn't the dominant defensive player that he was in the bubble.

He wasn't the dominant defensive player that he was from two thousand and nine to two thousand and sixteen, but he just gave a little bit of effort on the defensive end of the floor, and it was enough for those young lineups to succeed. Lebron was plus thirteen tonight, Russell Westbrook was plus thirteen, Malik Monk was plus nineteen, Austin Reeves was plus eighteen. All of them played at

least thirty two minutes. And so if the Lakers have to have a little bit of a formula there, play the young guys, get just something out of Lebron on the defensive end of the floor, and you're going to get a product that is passable on the floor. Now, a lot of that has to do with the warrior struggling. I don't think that this team has the capability to hang through some of the tougher parts of their schedule that's coming up. But at least this is a passable product.

I still think Lebron is hurt. I know he showed a little bit more vertical pop tonight. I'm not sure if that was just the vibe in the arena or what it was, but he's not quite getting that same separation, particularly driving by guys and in the post, which is something that is a little bit concerning in the sense that it makes me wonder if it's worth gunning for this season, because if he's hurt, you're not going to

have the ceiling you need. Anyway, he definitely looked a little better tonight, but I'm still a little worried about that. This scoring performance involved Lebron making six three point shots, It involved Lebron making twelve free throws. It was a lot of a lot of you know, kind of just manufacturing and squeezing points out of the game with some of his savvy and some of his skill, not so much his athleticism, which is a testament to how amazing he is. I want, I don't want to undercut that

to any extent. However, I'm still a little bit worried about his knee. In the long run, Hopefully what we saw tonight wasn't just riding the adrenaline. Hopefully it was signs of progress. Hopefully the knees getting a little bit better, Hopefully the pain is getting a little bit less intense, and hopefully Lebron is starting to feel a little bit of pop there, and over the course of the next couple of weeks, hopefully he can turn that into a

stretch of good basketball. You know, it's funny. One of the one of the things that I've really enjoyed about being a part of this fan base is getting to interact with Laker fans. You know, I grew up in Tucson, Arizona. In Tucson, Arizona, the Phoenix Suns didn't even do a great job marketing to them. It's not an NBA town, nobody is in nobody's a die hard fan of an

NBA team in Tucson, Arizona. I grew up without a fan base, and so I've kind of been adopted into the Laker fan base in a lot of ways, and I've really enjoyed getting to know them and what their expectations are for this team. And I've had the good fortune to be able to meet a lot of these people and talk with them about how they feel about this season, and they're frustrated with what Lebron had been doing in the past couple of weeks. I touched on this a little bit in our last podcast, But when

Lebron is chasing Kareem. I don't think it's a referendum on what his you know, legacy is or anything like that. However, Laker fans can see through that a little bit. To be clear, Laker fans will support Lebron to the end, even if they lose every game the rest of the season, as long as he tries somewhat to do his job

within the team concept. If he did what he did last game and for the most part over the last couple of weeks and just completely mail in the defensive end of the floor and just focus on getting his twenty eight points so that he can continue to chase Kareem, that would turn a significant portion of the Laker fan base against him. I truly believe that, and that's one

of the things that he has to realize. Like tonight, what you did tonight, even if you didn't score fifty three fifty four, if you just scored, you know, twenty five points, the fan base will support you and you will continue to have that massive margin for error or or leeway with the fan base because of what you're doing within the team concept to try to at least attempt to win the games. That's what the fans want.

They don't necessarily want you to try to kill yourself trying to squeeze something out of the season that's not attainable, but they do want you to just act like you care. What Lebron did tonight on the defensive end of the floor wasn't anything special, it wasn't amazing, but it was enough. It was enough to maintain the respect of of the fan base and to maintain the respect of of the organization,

and I think that that's important. I really really liked that within the starting lineup they went with the small lineup instead of with Dwight, because that's so important Against teams like the Warriors. They run so many off ball actions. They run so that it's a heavy motion offense with lots of cutting and screening, and and having a switching defense kind of takes a lot of that stuff away. That was a big part of why the Lakers got

out to such a big lead. But one of the things that's killing this team, and it's one of the reasons why they're going to struggle for the rest of this month as they play better teams, is the fact that when they go to their bench, they're way too small. When you're riding bench lineups with Lebron off the floor and Carmelo Anthony's at center, and you've got Avery Bradley and Dj Augustine and Taylor Horton Tucker and Russell Westbrook

on the floor. That's the aggregate size and athleticism of that lineup is so InCred dobly low G League teams would run them off the floor with their athleticism and their strength. It's a problem. They got absolutely blitzed in their bench lineups tonight. Dj Augustine was minus tenny and he got some minutes with the closers that buffered that a little bit. Taylan Horton Tucker was minus eleven. Avery

Bradley was minus seven. That's the part that's so frustrating about Rob Polink and not addressing this in the buyout market, about Frank Vogel refusing to play when you and Gabriel or or looking for somebody else who can do that. When the Lakers go to their bench, we we now have established that the starters, if Lebron puts in the effort, can compete. We know that Russell Westbrook, Malik Monk, Austin Reeves,

Stanley Johnson, and Lebron works. We know that's enough to carry you in the starting lineups and in the closing lineups as long as Lebron's trying. But when they go to the bench, the bottom will continue to fall out until they address that that's something they need to get to. I don't know if it's another buyout guy. I don't know if it's just playing when in Gabriel Moore. I don't know if it's dipping into the G League or finding somebody they need to find some athleticism in size

and effort to go to bring off the bench. If you're really gonna go for this. They have to decide if they're really going to go for this is tonight what happened against the Warriors. Is that the outlier or is that what they want to do moving forward? That's the part they got to figure out, which brings me to these reports. So Adrian or Zanowski tweets out a couple hours for the game that many in the Lakers organization want Frank to bench Russ, but that Frank isn't

ready to. Earlier today, mark Stein reported that within the Lakers organization, there's a lot of tension that's been building a lot of conflict with Russ about him unwilling being unwilling to accept his role, about some really nasty film sessions, with some arguing he actually used the phrase that it was impossible to bring Russell Westbrook back, which is frustrating because we already knew all of this. We already knew that Russ was probably a better option coming off the bench.

We already knew that he was obstinate and that he was stubborn as it pertains to his role. We already knew that he was having trouble in film sessions. We had reports that he refused to work out with Phil Handy. We already knew all of that stuff. So the fact that more of this stuff is coming out and that the Lakers are continuing to go down kicking and screaming with the Russell Westbrook thing is super frustrating because you

got to decide what the goal here is. If you're saying that you can't bring back Russell Westbrook, that he has to go, then and if you're saying that he can't play with your starters, then you need to bring him off the bench. Then what's the point of even having him around. It's the same thing with Frank Vogel. If you don't think Frank Vogel can coach your team next year, and currently right now the team's not playing hard for him, then you can't keep Frank Vogel around.

At a certain point, there's no point in and and just dragging the ball and chain along as you go about this journey. The Lakers have to figure out what they want. I know the reports that have been coming out, I know the comments from the press conferences say that they don't think they're done. I know Lebron says that

he needs to be buried twelve feet deep. I know Frank Vogel says that they believe they can go on a run with UH with Anthony Davis and Lebron, but that's not evidenced in what we saw in their competition in the games leading into tonight. So if tonight is a sign of them attempting to do this, then enough of the reports, enough of the leaks. Russ was actually pretty good tonight. Just try hard every night the rest of the season, play your young guys and go down

swing it if that's what you're gonna do. But if it's gonna be a pout fest, if it's gonna be lots of negativity. If it's gonna be Lebron mailing in the defensive end of the floor, then there's no point to this. And then you do need to send Russell Westbrook homb and you do need to either find a way to get Lebron to try a little bit on defense or send him home too. You need to find young players and athletes to try to maintain some sort of passable on court product over the course of the

next month and a half. They just have to figure that part out. That's going to be the question moving forward. Is tonight what they want to be or is tonight the exception? My guesses, and I would imagine you all feel the same way. My guess is that tonight's the exception. My guess is that they'll go right back down that dark path the next time they touch a basketball court together.

And that's frustrating. That's really frustrating for the fans, and it's really frustrating for anybody who's a competitor that's watching this team. For those of you who are just joining us, this is Lakers Tonight, presented by Fandel here on the volume. I wanted to move on for the to the Warriors

for just a second. I always, you know, really lean on the local fans of these teams to try to learn what they're experiencing as they watch what we like, We us Laker fans, we have such an intimate relationship with his team. You know, many of you watch every

single game. I watch every single game twice. You know, we we we are so familiar with what's happening with this team and what the guys with the Warriors are telling you, what the people who watched that team are telling you, is that the lack of Draymond Green is finally starting to wear on this team, that the lack of Draymond Green is finally starting to cause them to fall apart. So Draymond Green is the best back line defender in the league. We've talked about this a lot.

He's arguably the best defender of all time. He's certainly the best defender of this era. He does a lot to clean up issues on the perimeter for the Warriors. But when Draymond Green goes down, at least at first, they actually did a decent job, especially on the defensive end of the floor, because they have they have what the Lakers don't have. They have a ton of athletic wings that have really quick feet, that are committed to the defensive end of the ball, and that can keep

their mand in front. But over the course of this last month that has started to wear on them, because when you don't have that back line presence, your perimeter defense becomes that much more important. You can give up straight line drives if Anthony Davis is behind you, you can give up straight line drives if Draymond Green is behind you. But if they're not and there's not that back line help, you desperately need guys to keep people in front, and over the course of this last month

that has fallen apart for the Warriors. And then in addition to that, Steph Curry is experiencing some sort of significant decline. This is something we've talked about at length on this podcast. His shot is about he's shooting about ten percent worse from three over this stretch of the season than he did over the same stretch last season when he was shooting extremely well. That's not like, oh, I missed two or three more shots out of a

hundred attempts. That's not some small amount. That is a significant chunk of what he brings offensively, and that Cascades teams don't have to send as much help at him, that you can play a more traditional defensive scheme against him when he's not as dominant. So with that, in addition to the Draymond Green piece, this team is kind of coming apart at the seams, which is why I I if you're a Warrior fan, I would imagine you

have to be deeply concerned. You know, unless Draymond Green can regain his physical form that he had before the injury, and unless Steph Curry can regain his shooting form that he had early in the season, this team isn't going anywhere. They're liable to potentially lose in the first round. I was joking with my producers before the game this this was a game that the Lakers could win if they put together an effort, because the Warriors aren't very good

right now. That's got to be concerning, especially for a team that was humming on all cylinders. I compared them to the Lakers to start this season, and so that's something they have to figure out again. Just to put a bow on on this whole ing. I'm really really happy that Lebron, you know, was was able to show that he can still do this even in his injured form. I appreciated that he gave He did it in a respectable manner. He didn't do it mailing in the defensive

end of the floor. You know, Lebron His defensive focus over the course of his career has been an interesting ebb and flow. He started as a young player who is not a great defensive player, which is super typical for young guys who come into the league, and then right at the tail end of his first calf stant he really ratcheted up on that end of the floor.

Particularly that was during the Chase down block phase. Then in Miami he was a great defender the entire time he was there, and then in the first two seasons with the Calves, he was a very good defensive player. But one of the things that's really interesting about Lebron on the defensive end of the floor is his care

has always been attached to his belief. If Lebron believes his team can win a championship, truly believes that his team can win a championship, he will defend just like he did in just like he did when he doesn't believe. When that belief goes away, that's the first thing Lebron cuts out. So look at two thousand seventeen, the Warriors signed Kevin Durant. They had just won a title, But the Warriors signed Kevin Durant, and I think lebron knew it.

I think lebron knew in his heart of hearts that he didn't have the ability to beat that team with as much talent as they had. And so that entire season, the same guy that was an amazing defensive player in two thousand and sixteen was not in two thousand seventeen, was not in two thousand eighteen, was not in two thousand nineteen on that Lakers team that was so talented, that was having all those injury problems, And then as soon as there was a real opportunity in he ratcheted

it right back up. And so that's the tough part here. I understand where Lebron is coming from. He's looking at the situation. We don't have the horses. We can't beat these teams. We can't beat Phoenix, we can't beat Memphis, we can't beat all of the any of those teams in the East. Why am I gonna put a ton of miles on my legs to try to do this. And no one's asking him to be Draymond Green. No one's asking him to be the defensive player of the Year.

He just has to do what he did tonight. He just has to care enough that the Lakers can run a functional small ball lineup in those minutes. All right, We're gonna move on to the Lakers really quick. To talk a little bit about Luca before we get out of here. So, the Mavericks are twenty three and seven since New Year's Eve. During that stretch, they are eleventh

in offense. It's pretty good, not great, pretty good, second in defense in third and net rating behind just Boston and Phoenix, two teams that I've talked about plenty on the show as of late. So in that span, Luca is averaging thirty ten and nine on fifty true shooting. So the Mavericks are rounding into something that looks like a contender. And so, just like I've done with all these other teams, it's time to ask is this a

team that can truly win the championship? And it to me, it all comes down to the the question of of of what you think of as of Luca as a top tier superstar. One of the players that he's most commonly compared to that I vehemently disagree with is James Harden.

Everyone wants to say, this is just the European version of James Harden, the next guy who's this heliocentric top of the key, make every decision, make every every read, have the ball in his hands all game, you know, relies a lot on drawing fouls, that kind of thing. That's the line people want to go. And it frustrates me because I could not. I could. I think they're so incredibly different. As I've talked about on this podcast a lot, James Harden is one of the most predictable

basketball players in the NBA. He always wants to attack from the left wing or the right wing with a live dribble, either an isolation or a ball screen, and he's either gonna go to a step back three or he's gonna go all the way to the rim. When he goes all the way to the rim, he might stop short for a floater, but for the most part, it's trying to get all the way to the rim for a layout and then from there he can make reads just like any decent playmaker can. Luca is remarkably versatile.

Guys like James Harden. Defenses get so used to seeing what he does that in a seven game series, you give a guy, you give a good defensive wing, hundreds of reps guarding James Harden, and he's doing the exact same thing. He's gonna kind of figure him out a bit. That's a huge part of why James Harden struggles at the end of playoff series is but look at what Luca Don did against the Clippers in his last two playoff series. He seemingly didn't have any issue doing what

he wanted to do throughout the entire series. And the reason why is he's way more versatile. Yes, he can go from the left wing or the right wing and isolate and do the stuff that James Harden does, but he also can get by his man and put him in jail, trap them on his backside, take a couple of slow dribbles into the lane and get to a fifty footer. He can do the Chris Paul thing where he gets into the lane and takes a little fall aways.

He's got this huge arsenal of little push shots and hook shots and one like fadeaways and turnarounds and all these things that make his offensive attacks so versatile that no defender can figure him out if you have an audible guarding Luca. He's got an audible right back at you, and that keeps him effective as playoff series is dragged on, and that's immensely important. Not to mention he's bigger. He's six ft nine, He's super strong. He's got that size

to lean on you. This is something I talked about all the time, that physical tools and how important they are in super physical environments when the refs swallow the whistle, when the defense is really clamped down. Having the ability to use a massive frame to hold somebody off is a massive advantage. It's something that has constantly affected guys like James Harden and Steph Kurt, who's someone that I've talked about with that in the past. That that's the

huge difference between those two guys. That's why he looked flat out better than Kawhi Leonard in those two playoffs series. Is And so the question becomes, does this team have the ability to make it out of the West. Does this team have the ability to get to the championship. And that's where that defensive effort becomes so interesting again. Since New Year's Eve a thirty game sample size, the Mavericks are second in defense, and you guys have seen

it's not just about personnel. They have athletes that are defending right like Cleaver is doing a pretty good job, Dorian Finney Smith is doing a pretty good job. You're getting You're getting a decent amount of athleticism. But it's a lot of guards. It's a lot of Jalen Brunson, It's a lot of Luca don Hitch, It's a lot of Spencer Dinwitty. There's a lot of offensive minded players that are having success in their defensive scheme. And this

is where you gotta credit Jason Kidd. They are doing what I have been insisting on for all of these teams for so long. They're doing a ton of switching. They're leaning into modern defensive concepts and how well that they work that is something that has proven to succeed all the way through the latest rounds of the playoffs. That is the huge difference between this Mavericks team in

the Mavericks team that damn near beat those Clippers. Teams that were really, really good, that were much much more talented. So that's that's gonna be something that they can lean on in this postseason. It's gonna be the same Luca. It's gonna be the same offensive versatility, it's gonna be the same things that he brings to the table as an offensive player, but with the defense to hold on.

In those Clippers series, Luca utterly controlled the game, but the overwhelming defensive athleticism of the Clippers in the in the tissue paper defense of the Mavericks eventually came back to bite them, and how did it bite them, barely losing in Game seven. So when you give Luca the ability to get stops, he suddenly becomes a much more devastating threat to any of these teams you get in a knockdown, drag out playoff series. With Luca and his

team is getting stops, he's that much more dangerous. Then. The other thing you have to look at is fatigue. And I'm not necessarily worried about it because with the Clippers in the against the Clippers in those series, he seemed to be strong and fine as the series progressed. But even that's less of a worry anymore because of

the Spencer didn Witty acquisition, you know. Haral above. Vulgaris went on the Bill Simmons podcast a couple of weeks back and he talked about how in last year's playoff run, one of the things that killed them was the fact that Nick patum was able to completely shut down Jalen Brunson and basically made it so that Luca had to generate everything for them offensively, and so when the shooting started to fade as the series went along, that's when

they fell apart offensively. Well, Spencer didn't what he gives you that extra wrinkle there, because again, these are all about matchups. If Lucas being guarded by Paul George or Kauai and Nick patum Is is guarding uh Jalen Brunson, then someone else is going to have to guard Spencer Dinwoody and he might have the best matchup. We saw that against the Warriors when Dallas beat them the other night. Spencer dinwood he just gives you that other guy that

can create his own shot. It alleviates some pressure from Luca, and it gives you another matchup that you might be able to attack. So to make a long story short, they're not in that top tier there. I don't put them with Billy, I don't put them with Milwaukee. I don't put him with Phoenix, I don't put them with Well. I think those are honestly the only three at this point. But I don't put them at that top tier. But they're in that tier right below. Some things go right,

some injuries, you know, affect other teams. Lucas stays healthy and plays well, their defense competes. They absolutely can beat anybody at this point, and I would be terrified to face them if I was any of the teams in the West, especially a team like Golden State. That's that is that has you know, first or second round exit written all over it. Alright, guys, that is all I have for tonight. I appreciate you guys support as always. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, and

I'll see you in a couple of days. Ye