Clippers/Lakers Postgame Spaces

the process most of the night. They started to get a little bit on track in some areas of the game as the game progressed. But you know, tonight, when guys are banking in threes, you know I'm a lot. I'm a firm believer that that's the basketball. Guys. When you play like you deserve to lose, things start to have and at the end of the game as if you deserve to lose. And that's kind of where my head's at right at this exact moment of time. I've

got a ton of thoughts. But before we get too deep into it, Rogs, how you doing, man, how's your week bend so far? Are you as annoyed as I am? Yeah, I mean, happy Friday to you and everyone in here, and appreciate everyone that comes out and hangs out after another just awful way. That's probably the worst way to lose, right, A close game, a game where you never could take

the lead, which is very frustrating. So every time you get it within two, the Clippers hit like two threes, and then again it's eight, and then again it's ten. It felt like just an uphill battle all game. And yeah, you're right, just a bunch of frustrating things. I thought Tyler coached a hell of a game. I thought after every time out the Clippers came out and got exactly what they wanted. I gay, so we can go chronological here, like I thought. The starting lineup, but I was annoyed

by it. And it's not Taylor's fault. It's not th HD's fault, who, to be honest, did a nice job on Paul George, like I thought, he did his role, like he fought him in isolation, made him take tough shots over the top. The spacing again was just absolutely disgusting. To start the game, A d post ups with Dwight Howard th ht on the opposite wing just looked really bad. Our defense was okay to start. I thought the Clippers missed a lot open shots and then we just fouled

them a ton of the second quarters. That was my biggest frustration. I thought we started off with bad process and then once Maleikue Monk, you just saw the energy of the game change. I thought when he came in and they hunted him defensively for sure, That's why we had to start trapping Paul George. But I think this team needs to hurry up and realize who they are because this you can't go to these lineups like I get it. Dwight Howard for DJ was was definitely the

right move. But then when you put Taylan in there, you just again destroy your spacing and I thought Lebron Russ and a d all all kind of suffered for it. So yeah, just a frustrating game, Just a total opposite spectrum. How you watch the Clippers who just spread you out, it's pretty much a little bit of dribble penetration, kickout, kick out. They have three shooters that you have to close out hard to man the other side. It's a d lebron and Rush trying to pound the pound their

way through like a bull in the China shop. It's just two totally teams under the opposite end of spectrum in terms of offense. But I was hell of frustrating to watch. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up that the Lakers need to figure out who they are, because that's the detail that gets lost in all of this. The Clippers are a team that know what they're good at. They know what they do well, and they lean into those things. They know what they're bad at, and they

stay away from those things. The Lakers are a team that are clearly internally unaware of what they're good at. Um, you look at the Clippers, you're gonna see a lot of Paul George attacking with drible combinations leading into pull up jump shots because that's what he's best at. That is his best skill. When you're looking at the very best but Paul George game, it's all sorts of beautiful, drible combinations and jump shots from all over the floor.

But nad what is their best game look like? Their best game looks like if you're Anthony Davis, it's bullying guys. And mismatches in the post. It's flying around on defense, making plays out of your area. It's Lebron getting downhill, creating for his teammates, generating high quality three point shots for his teammates, and then living at the rim when

the other team ceases to help on his drives. And what you're seeing, with exception of a little stretch there at the end of the third quarter when Russ really started to put his head down, I saw a team that was settling all night long, and yes, spacing was part of it. We're gonna talk about the starting lineup there. It doesn't make any sense. It's totally redundant and actively handcuffed handicaps the team on offense. So we're gonna get into that. But they didn't play with the line up

the whole game. They played a large chunk of that game with a D at the five, with a lot of shooting, and I saw dozens and dozens of opportunities where Russ in the first half he was much better than the second half. But rust in the first half in Lebron all game saw driving lanes and just chose to not attack because it was easier on their body. Maybe they're lazy. Yeah, I get it. Lebron's rusty. He's

been in and out of the lineup. But for whatever reason, we do not embrace the fact that we are a downhill basket attacking team that generates high quality three point shots for our best shooters on kickouts. And until we accept that and embrace that, we are going to continue to flounder and mediocrity. That's just the reality of our predicament. Meanwhile, the Clippers, who have significantly less talent than us, because they're best player, because they're leaning into their strengths, they're

a better basketball team than us. They've played a significantly better schedule, the tougher schedule than we have, and they've been better in every area of the game up to this point in the season. So are you surprised that things went the way they did? And so it was one of the more infuriating games that I've ever watched. And until the Lakers waked the hell up with these little details about their entity, they're going to continue to planner like this. Yeah, And I mean it wasn't all bad,

I guess to me. We lost this game in the first quarter, and then in the fourth quarter. I thought the second and third. We played well enough to win. We just need to start with some shooting like that that nine up in the in the starting lineup, it's just begging for shooting next to them. And we saw Rust get going a little bit, he got downhill. But you're right, there was a lot of settling, and I think the spacing and them settling are all intertwined. To me,

like that, that's all part of it. How can you attack when there's three people in the paint with driving waynes But I saw it all night long, for sure, I agree with you. I just think like when you started start the game with that, it sets up a tone. It's that it sets the tempo for the game. I thought that we played way too slow and the Clippers

not turning the ball over. I was watching, I had the Clippers broadcast for some reason, was playing and they were talking about how the Clippers were, you know, holding onto the ball, they weren't turning the ball over, and some of that was true. But I just feel and you saw Lebron try to get a few steals, but we need to get out and run. We played way too slow. This game was played fully pretty much in the half corps and I think that leans to the Clippers.

The Clippers are the better offensive team, especially in the half courp they execute better, and I thought that really just that's what made the game to me. They were the Clippers didn't turn the ball over, We couldn't get out. They hittent of the three tonight. That's with going I think four for for four for thirteen or something from three at the half. So they were absolutely on fire in the second half. We were putting the ball out of the net and we weren't getting turned over. So

it was a slow game walking it up. And that's the lead to like you saw a lot of you know, actions that get Lebron or a D in the midpost, and it leads to these fade away jumpers. And I thought a D was aggressive. I thought he got a lot of offensive rebounds minus the you know, mis free throws. I thought he was really good tonight. But you're right, a lot of settling. But I think that's all intertwined to me, Like, definitely Lebron and Russ were settling, but

we need to put them with lineups that that makes sense. Uh. That was my main thing from tonight, like we need to put lineups. That makes sense. And I thought our defense was fine in the first quarter, and the zone made no sense to me. Did you see that, Jason, Like, why aren't we zoning against the Clippers who absolutely spaced you out? That made no sense. I thought our standard defense. But he's directly into their strengths exactly. Frank's hole double

team thing was completely nonsensical. Paul, you get you. If you're gonna panic every time a superstar makes a contest to jump shot, then we're gonna double team every team, every star in the league. Like that's that's playing against Paul George. When you play against Paul George, he's going to make some tough shots. You cannot change your entire defensive scheme to something we basically haven't done all year

just because he made a couple of tough shots. Like it was if Frank was all over the place tonight too. He was every bit as bad as he usually has been this season. Well to the like double team, like I understand because they don't want Malik Monk on Paul George. Right, So you had Malik Monk in the game and the Clippers and ty Lou, who's extremely good at what he does when I'm Milik Monk every single position, and that

makes sense. He did that with Reggie Jackson too, and I was fine, if you're gonna trap Paul George, the guy you don't, you can't leave Luke Knar like that. Can't be the guy you don't close out on, make Sergi Baka Shoe or make whoever else you You can't leave Luke Arnar to mean, I thought they did that way too many times. I thought we overreacted on Reggie Jackson. I thought he got a bunch of just ball fakes, straight line layups, like I get the trapping Paul George.

That makes sense, you know, don't leave Leak Monk on the island with him. I would have rather just switched, like you said, and trust your help behind them, and trust that and make Paul George hit those tough shots. But I understand the idea of trying to trap and get back to your man. But then they just completely fell apart. I thought we had no clue what we were doing. We double turgy back in the post for

some reason late in the game. That's where Canard got his first three, and then he got a couple of wide open ones off of some miscommunications. I thought that's what lost the game. It was close enough to win even with how bad they played, but just the execution down the stretch was awful. We had no clue what we're doing defensively, and you're right, Vogl was all over

the place. Yeah, So with the starting lineup m that you brought up, this is the one time, the one area of the game where I would cut the Lakers from slack their stars, at least for not driving the ball to the basket. You know there, Every time you put a lineup together, you're trying to accomplish a certain list of tasks that need to be done on the basket, correct,

Like I need a certain amount of shot creation. I need a certain amount of finishers, whether that's a vertical spacer or a guy who can knock down threes or a slasher who can catch and rip through and get all the way to the rim. And then defensively, I need contain at guys, guys who can guard, guys who can dribble, guys who can chase shooters off the screens, and any guys who can guard on the back line do something to either tagger roller disrupt an interior pass

and defend the rim with verticality. You need to check all those boxes in order for a lineup to have some amount of success. The starting lineup that Frank went with was so incredibly redundant. It was all dribble creators with all guys that are gonna First of all, they defended fine with that lineup that was obviously going to happen. But on the offensive end of the floor it was totally redundant. But nobody that is a knockdown shooter in

the entire lineup. All guys that are trying to get downhill with everybody's defender in the lane stopping them from going downhill. And you know, there's a certain aggregate spacing like I I actually like using to Howard as a big man alongside Anthony Davis to try to bring a little bit of you know, a really like nuclear size wrinkle that confuses the other teams and really shuts off the paint. I like that, but it can't be with

the starters, because it can't be with Russ. You need to have a certain aggregate shooting on the floor that makes that lineup function. That needs to be a either like a Russ off either three shooters or Lebron and two shooters with A D and Dwight, then you're gonna get a lot of of quality looks in that offense, and you'll be able to disrupt the other team with

your overwhelming size. But going with the starters, with Russ and th HT, who's defender will inevitably have a foot in the paint every time they don't have the ball, and dwites man who's in the paint, and Lebron and a D who in and of themselves are not fantastic shooters.

You're you're asking for failure that Our guy cran just pointed out a sequence where where th h T drove and kicked to Russ, who was unguarded because Russ's man was in the lane, at which point th HT relocated to the three point line and Russ drove right back into the paint into th h t s man and kicked out to th HT. And it's like, I'm literally on the couch trying to pull my hair out because

I'm watching this team actively handicap itself. You have weapons there, but you you don't want to use all of them at the same time like that, because their skills become redundant, your offense gets crippled. And if there's one thing I'll toss you in terms of the rest of the game, it does set a tone. When you set a tone for settling that lingers and that sort of thing can be the reason why Lebron is content to continue to

take jump shots later in the game. I'm not letting him off the hook for that, but I'm just saying the starting lineup certainly doesn't help with that. They commit push sure, and I think, you know, the Clippers are a good team. They're good solid team. We tend to talk about the Lakers, obviously, but they're good solid team. I think zoo Bach is one of the best, you know, rim protecting bigs and when you just combine that with

the spacing, was is gonna be tough to score. The Clippers, I think are the second rank defense, and you put you put a lineup, you put an already offensive the challenge lineup against a really good defense. I think that's what it's gonna look like tonight. But I don't really like to And I think like plus minus sometimes is you know, low hanging analysis, and it's not always the best indicator of how a person played or how the

impact of the game. But Wayne Ellington a plus fifteen in twenty minutes, and I thought that matched the eye test to me, like he takes shots that the Clippers were kind of begging you to take. Clippers zoned a lot tonight, and that makes sense with our lack of shooting and all our guys who just want to get to the rim. They played a lot of zone. It was a lot of ball kicks to th HT open to the corner. I think he was like, oh for three from three tonight and then just stopped shooting them.

But yeah, like I thought Wayne Ellington was much needed. I thought he would start tonight, and even when he started playing well, I thought they would keep th HD in the in the starting lineup. In the second half, I was okay with starting Russ, Wayne and t h D if you want to keep th HD on Paul George, which isn't even what happened. They put th HD on Reggie Jackson, just our third, which is really confusing to me, which if you're not gonna put th HT on Paul George,

and what's the point of playing him anyway. But that's the stuff that I would like them to move up to and look vocal took DeAndre Jordan out of the starting lineup. That's step one. I think step two is putting a shooter um in that lineup, and they're gonna get picked on. We saw tonight. Paul George isn't the greatest, uh comparison for that, because not everyone has a you know, six ten star wing like that, but they're gonna get

picked on. I just think there's ways around that. And you need your offense to have taken away where we're not playing from behind every single game. The King's even the great win against the Kings, we were downten before the tip for the ball tipped up in the air. So I just think it's tough to win that way when you're just battling uphill all night. And I thought you saw that. You saw the fatigue as well, um and and it's tough to play that way. Yeah, I agree.

And and at a certain point, Frank needs to feel the urgency. We've we've noticed in the past that Frank is willing to make these sorts of adjustments as soon as he feels the gravity of the situation, which is what he did in the playoff run. In the bubble. But like man, like we were a five hundred basketball team. We have all our guys with exception of a reason, and we are we're we're getting beat by mediocre teams. The Clippers are good. They're good. They're good team. They're

they're not a great team. We're gonna face a lot of better teams this year. That's a team at home with all our bodies that we have to beat. That's a that's a game we have to win. And so again, to your point, like spotting the other team ten points or or a proverbial, you know, mythical ten points. However you want to quantify all of the negative effects that come from that lineup, you're just setting yourself up for failure.

They were just in general, like I said, keeping Dwight Howard in lineups that have a certain amount of spacing so that you don't have to play with the starters. You use that wrinkle with shooting, you know, keeping th ht and Russ staggered so that his his skill set isn't completely wasted with the starters. The lebron at the center.

I she like that look, but it needs to be a little bit more switching and a little bit less traditional pick and roll coverage because Lebron is just not big enough to be a really effective drop coverage big. He's better if you can try to keep him, you know, rotating around in defense and communicating and flying around. Take advantage of the foot speed that that lineup has, you know what I mean, that's the advantage of that lineup.

I thought they did a lot of switching in the second quarter with that group, and it looked okay, But then in the fourth quarter there was no there was no switching, and Lebron is getting barbecued in drop coverage against Isaiah Hartenstein, and so there's just a lot of really really bad process tonight. But it's like I can't even man, I like, I can't even like stop finding places to point blame here, because it's like they went to Lebron at the five in the second quarter and

he would not drive to the basket. He had like a five minute stretch at the center with all of this spacing and shooting, and I counted one basket attack and it was in transition when he got the and one. Every single half court set, he was completely unwilling to his head down to get to the rim. It's like the whole purpose of sacrificing all of our size and athleticism to put you at the five is to create space for you as a driver and as a rollman.

Like you have to wise on that. And like, I know, I've been really critical of Lebron this year, but this team needs more out of him. They need him to be better. And there's only so much slack you can cut him on the on the in and out of the line up front. Yeah that okay, I'm gonna spot you that when you miss more jump shots and usually miss, or when you need to sub out more frequently than you usually do because you're tired, But dude, if you can't.

There was a play where he had Isaiah Hartenstein in the corner with plenty time on the shock clock in the second quarter and Wayne Ellington is wide open on the opposite wing and Wayne Ellington's van is waiting under

the basket. He could have either skipped at Wayne Ellington or done a rip through on Isaiah Hartenstein, gotten to the paint and done a little pass along the baseline to the corner, and he jacked up a stupid step back three that he missed, which as I've pointed out on Twitter if you look into the numbers, he's terrible with that shot. This season, he's he's money on catch and shoot wide open threes. He's right around fifty. I

can't remember the exact numbers. That obviously changes every day, but he's shooting an incredible percentage on his wide open catch and shoot threes, and he's breaking the hell out of all these step back jump shots, and he just keeps going to him and like I, I, it's it's it's been extremely frustrating because this this is not the Cads where you can bs your way through the season and you know that you're facing the Raptors in the

conference finals, so you'll be fine. No, the meanwhile, on ESPN, two teams that are fifty times better than us are battling out. We we have a lot of ground to make up. We are in a position of urgency. Lebron has to be better. He has to be better. He has to understand what this team needs for him to be lean into what he's good at and and this ship will right itself. I thought Anthony Davis was pretty damn good to Lebron has to catch up to that.

He has to Yeah, I agree with that, and those you know Lebron at the center lineups is that are definitely new. Um, it's definitely stuff that they're trying. They need to get their defense in order and that as well. It was basically an Eric bledsoe um Harten signed pick and roll and they got whatever they wanted. Like I think it was like three straight and ones Hardenstein did like a triple handoff or he just faked the hand off and got right to the rim for a dunk.

Just a lot of those plays that we need to kind of sort out, and I think that will work itself out. But you're right. You put Lebron at the five so he can drive in and find shooters, and I think it was Mellow Monk next to him in those and he took jump shots and that's a way for Lebron to kind of load manage two games. And I can't really speak to how much that impacts him. It's only what I think. This is game eleven with bron Adi and Rust Rust playing, so it will be

a process. But yeah, right, he needs to be better for this team, I thought him and Rust needs to kind of match Um a D S level. I thought Adi was great tonight all night. His jumper is going as well. That looks like that's training up. Words aside from the three point, did he take a three toime?

I'm not even sure if Aid took a three tonight. Yeah, and again in those lineups who were no spacing a D or the off guard has to be a shooter because Lebron's gonna hit some threes Russ the other team, will you know, welcome Russ taking any type of three. So the a D and the off guard guy has to be a shooter if there's a traditional five out there. But I thought Aid was was great again tonight. It looks like he's he's really picking up. You talked about

him playing all these games in a row. He looks like in a rhythm. His offensive rebounding was good. I thought he didn't get calls tonight, but I mean he was missing at the line anyway. The Clippers hit like the Clippers. I think took like twenty three throws or something in the in the second quarter. But yeah, I thought he was good. And Lebron's gonna ramp himself up. I'm not worried about him, but you're right, we're in

an urgency situation here. We need to start winning, but I think we need line ups that are conducive to it too. I just don't think we can continue to start like I taking DJ out but then starting tailor just you don't I don't feel like you don't gain enough offensively, uh in that in that transaction, you know what I mean? Like you put in dwy who's actually less of a lob threat, it feels like, and then Taylor, who's a guy who's not going to shoot the three.

We just have no spacing and it just created his tempo for the team that is so slow. I keep talking about it's so against the identity of Russ as well, a guy who wants to get up and down the floor. We just play way too slow. That's why Malik Monk pops off the screen. He gets in and it looks

like he's playing at a speed like that. You know, on a podcast you can put like two point five speed and stuff like that looks like when it looks like when Malik Monk comes in the game, the game just goes to two point five speed and we're in like one point five or whatever, slower than the or point five speed that's lower than a regular speed. But yeah, man, I don't know. This is a tough laws. It looked like we could really build off that that King's come back.

But again just a little step back here again as we play Boston, I believe on on Tuesday or something, another tough game and another team that's going that knows what they're good at. They have guys that just put their head down and go to the rim. And and you know, like, did you notice that the game find like we the Clippers basically stiff armed us most of the game, kind of holding us in that five to ten point range, and and Russ turned the game around

at the end of the third quarter. He turned the game around started with one play he uh in transition. Carmelo Anthony relocated to the week side corner and he just put his head down, did kind of like that d Wade like kind of rip over the top dribble kind of did didn't there was no space there, there was a big man under the rim. The defender was backing up and giving him a jump shot. He just plowed into his chest, did that kind of rip over

the top and kicked it to Carmelo Anthony. He made it three and then two additional times before the end of the quarter, Russ put his head down and got to the rim. It changed the tone of the way we were playing offensively. Are this team has a clear pathway towards success and it's lebron A d and Russ applying rim pressure that will either create layups for them or high quality three point shots for their great three

point shooters. And then on defense less jankie, defense less, zone less pick and roll coverages that our guys are just simply incapable of carrying out, just switch everything, stagnate them. And if you lose the occasional battle in isolation because of a mismatch a guy gets to the rim or Paul George makes a pull up jump shot, you'll live

with that. It's it's when they compromise themselves by making guys chase over the top of screens, which they're just bad at, and making the big guys defended drop coverage, which they just haven't done a good job of this year. And then all this like kind of random indiscriminate doubling, which is getting our defense out of uh, you know, getting it out of organization. We're we're and then on the offensive and settling for so many jump shots when

the opportunities are there. We are playing away from our strengths and and to me, as long as we continue to do that, we're going to continue to underperform. Yeah, and you know, Frank has recently taught about how they're only going to one center lineups now, right, so not including a D as a center, which is funny, but going to only Dwight Howard. I think where this is moving and where the trend is going, and maybe we're just gonna wait till, you know, until it gets bad

enough where we just get here. But the trend we're going to is just putting Lebron and a D at the four or five, right, Like, that's where this needs to go to. Like we can mess around, we can try to uh you know, walk around the walk around the issue here, but I think that's the main thing. We need to eventually get to Lebron, a D at the four or five, r us at the one. And if you want to put th h D out there, fine, but get a shooter in there and then that's how

you have to play. To me, because this starting lineup starting uh getting getting leads at are ten points, eleven points. Trying to come back from downhill every game is just not gonna work. It's not inducive to this team. It's not the identity of this team. Russ comes out and plays like it's like a different player every single game that we get from the first quarter to the third quarter. Right, It's like you talked about how he changed the game around.

That was when we went small. It was one center on the floor. I believe when when when when Rest turned the game around. It's just a different player, and we need him to be the you know, again, we people clumb about the stats, the ten and ten or whatever, but he needs to be at least producing. I'm not sure what Russ had tonight, but still like we need his production man to to play. I think we had like fourteen points in the first quarter with like two

minutes left or something like like. That's just not enough for a team with this much offensive firepower to be scoring four teen fifty points, even though I know the Clippers are a good defense, But still like, I think that's the issue that we're walking around here. I think taking out DJ for Howard, that's like a step, that's like half a step in the direction, but the main direction to me is going with the lebron at the four, eight, at the five. And maybe we only see that when

Tevor Reason gets back. We saw a Reason kind of shooting around today, Uh, doing some shooting around work. Maybe that's when we get to it. But I feel like that's where this team is trending to all this other stuff. I feel like we're just kind of wasting our time until we get get to that final point here. Yeah, I hear you. I think like there's obviously help on the way, but we're not getting the most out of

this group. And that's what's so infuriating about that, is like to your point, Like like you, Frank, I know you like to play Dwight are a center. I know you like to play a traditional center. It does not have to be with at the opening tip. It's just a terrible time to do it. Like you, I get that you want to get th ht an opportunity to be aggressive with the basketball. It does not have to be with the starting group, you know, even even with

Avery Bradley. It's like I get that you want to have this ball containment guard that sets a tone and and and and inspires the other players on the floor to play better defense. It does not have to be with the starting group all the time in NBA history, guys have come in off the bench and brought defensive momentum with them that carries throughout the team. That was

literally Alex Carusoe for US last year. It's just it's it's so frustrating to me to see just blatant bad process undercutting this team, because like with Lebron healthy, as much as I can't wait for a reason to get back, we don't need him to be a good basketball team right now, and and and it's just I just don't even know where else the guy. Let's let's move on to th h D because I wanted to UH to get into this with you for a minute. So as we saw again tonight, UM he kind of fell apart

with typical young guy mistakes. UM. Uh taking bad shots, committing fouls that made no sense within our defensive scheme. UM obviously all the spacing concerns that come with the UH with him with the starters. I'm at the point with th HD, and you can tell me if you disagree. I'm at the point with th HT where I think you need to ride him out the same way you do Molique Monk or or Ellington or any of these

other guards. Like, if he's got it, going ride it out with him, But if he doesn't, there almost needs to be a quick hook with him because phts a young player, and one of the things with young players is man when it rains, it pours, like when they start making mistakes, they lose their head and it's just like, now, okay, I I took a bad shot, so now I'm going to while Paul George is in a triple threat on the wing, just stick my long ass arm right into

his shooting pockets so that PG just has to raise his arms to drop out like that's just an unintelligent basketball play. Or catching the ball in the middle of the zone and instead of turning and looking just panics shooting a one like fade away even though you're completely wide open. Those are young guy mistakes, and young guy mistakes will come and go. That's kind of typical for

a player in that age group. But when you're seeing those nights where the mistakes are coming in bunches, young players don't have the mental fortitude to push through that and suddenly rein it in and start playing fundamentally sound, calm basketball. It's just impossible for them at that age. And so I think Frank needs to be quicker with his hook with th HD, Like, Okay, does THHD have it tonight? Is he making his perimeter shot? Is he

making smart decisions? Is he focused on defense? If he's If he's doing those things, ride him out, because then he's a ten million dollar player, maybe even more. But when he's not those things, he can actively hurt the team. And he was I think on minus eight in the first half of a game that we only trail by three UM. And it's just it's one of those things where the th HD experiment is reaching a point where we're in an extended enough slump that we have to

shorten the leash. In my opinion, where are you at with t HD? Yeah, And we went into this a lot in the last part as well. I think it's a tough conundrum for for Vogelo as well, because I think THHD is one of our better, you know, isolation defenders. Just to stick on a positive note, I thought he did do a good job on Paul George tonight as well as you can on All Star like that like

he made him work. I thought we double teamed a little bit unnecessarily as well, Like when when he had Paul George on the wing, I thought it was fun to leave t HD on him. He was taking tough, contested jumpers. He had a few fouls like you talked about reached in. But it's tough to like put th HD in the you know Benja movie. He's not playing or if he's not, like this is a they're trying to develop him. And you know, when you play a

pay a player ten million dollars a year. T HD is the fourth highest paid up player on this team. You need to get your investment from that. You need to build him up. And I think that's the tough role that they're gonna walk here. I think if you're not playing t HD, then who do you kind of go to. I guess like they put it off. Yeah

that's true, and I would like that. But obviously, like v was not gonna play on Inton thirty five minutes a game, Like it's clear like he's just not going to play him that much because of the defensive issues. Like I think t HD again, I keep saying this, he has the highest ceiling of any of the players on the team right now in terms of like what he can be versus what he is right now, and that's a tough kind of game to play there. I agree with you, um, I would like to tend more shooting.

I would like to see th HT in lineups that don't have both Russ and Lebron on the floor. I think that's, like you said, very redundant. Like it just all his skills become everything that he's not good at is what he has to be good at for for for lack of better better term there, like when you put him next to Russ and Lebron, he's the third guy who needs to be a shooter, and that's just

not what he is. I would love to see him maybe just next just next to Lebron on second units or where he can lead a team where he can have some ball screen, you know, responsibilities. But it's a tough, tough decision. Man. He's not shooting well, he's not confident in his shot. He was left wide open town again. He's driving into lanes that are not open, trying to kick out. Uh those The screening with Lebron isn't as clear as isn't as smooth as it was before. So

it's it's tough that he's gonna have to work through. Man, it feels like he's a staple of this rotation, and I think he's gonna be taken out because of they need him on the defensive end as well. He just needs to shoot, He needs to shoot more. I think he's too good a shooter to be to be to be this bad, to be this not confident in his shots. So I don't know where to go from here, though. I don't think that he's gonna I don't think he's

gonna lose minutes. I just don't think the guards behind them are they're enough defensively to where their kid they're going to play over him. Yeah, you know, did you see that? Note the numbers that I shared the other day about how basically all of the Laker's best lineups include at least two of their top three shooters. Yeah, did you see that? By any chance? Like? I don't.

I don't think that's a coincidence, And I think it's because of the fact that you know, like Molik Monk for instance, Um, he got attacked tonight in isolation against Paul George and there's a tendency to overreact to that kind of thing because I'm sorry, but like again, I think I think Paul George finished the game like seven for twenty, like dude, Like good players are gonna make tough shots, like that's just that's just part of the game. You can't overreact to that court this sort of thing.

Is Molik Monk getting barbecue to the basket for layups

every time. If so that it's another conversation. But if he's if Paul George is taking uh, you know, his normal diet of off the dribble jump shots that he's gonna get against almost every player, but you're getting so much more at a Malik Monk offensively then, as as opposed to going the direction of a guy like t. H T who might be able to make Paul George feel a little less comfortable and maybe he goes, you know, seven for twenty instead of eleven for twenty or nine

for twenty or whatever it is, but the entire free flowing nature of the offense disappears. I think that's what you're seeing manufact man manifest in those numbers. What what what you're seeing is that, in my opinion, when the Lakers play at least two of their three best shooters.

Then obviously I'm referring to Ellington, Monk and Mellow. The Lakers start to make some shots, and when they do, you know, lebron A D. Russ are more comfortable getting downhill, getting to the rim, and when the ball is going in the basket, it invigorates their defense. First of all, stops transition opportunity of these gives them an opportunity to get back and set their defense. And then when they get their defense set, they're feeling good, they're feeling confident

because they're scoring. It just allows for a higher level of defensive output from a group that in theory would

have lesser defensive output because of their talent. And that that I think that's what you're seeing in those numbers, because as we've seen this entire season, all of the Laker lineups that go heavy towards defense are getting run off the floor, whether it's when they go big, they're getting run off the floor in transition or with their you know, smaller lineups that are prioritizing the thht bays more Russ types, they're just not having enough opportunity on

the offensive end. To get easy looks to invigorate their defense, you know what I mean. And so that's that's where I'm at with this stuff. That that that I think. I think that we should never have a lineup with none of those guys on the floor, which is why Ellington, I think is a is a shoe in start, right. But we need to do a better job of almost staggering the shooters so that we always have two of them on the floor because that's just when we play

at our best. That's out identity. And I don't know what's taking Frank so long to embrace that. Let's stick on Milik Monk because I thought he was again just incredible tonight, and not just the shot making the way he played off Lebron. They really went to the Malik Monk kind of coming up to set a screen and the Clippers like to switch, and the way you kind of beat us switches, you slip it. And he did great jobs slipping those screens. He got into the open floor,

his drive game, his athleticism game to the basket. He only played twenty nine He played twenty nine mins tonight, and I felt like that wasn't enough. Still, like I wanted to see him out there for like thirty five, thirty six tonight he was here too. Yeah, it's minutes. I've definitely picked up his defense. I thought is getting better other than that Lebron at the center lineup where they really picked on him and with the Paul George

at the end, but I thought he fought. He did a nice job in Reggie Jackson to me, he has to play like I don't. I'm not sure if he'll start. I think Valley Valentine will be the next kind of starter in line. But I just love him. Lebron and Russ seemed to have this chemistry and again he just pops up off the screen like he's so energetic. He comes off and it just looks like the game moves

in a faster speed when he plays. But I just wanted to kind of give him credit tonight because I thought he was awesome his shot making two where he can shoot where he's not open, which I think is very key for this team, Like he's not wide open, but he's still able to get shots up, and he has enough off the bounce stuff, way more off the

bounce stuff than I thought he would. Um he cat just can attack off a close out behind the back stuff floaters Like, I thought he was just really good tonight, and uh he was a plus zero on the night, which I think a lot of that was in that first half. I thought he played well, but I just want to give him credit because I thought he was good again. You're right, we need to keep our scores on the floor. I thought we overreacted a little bit

at the end. I'm fine trapping Paul George, Like, I think that's an okay, you know, like if you want to do that, that's fine, but there has to be some control out of that. Luke nar can't be the guy you leave. And I thought that's where we lost the game. We won the four thirty six thirty two, but it just wasn't enough because the defense at the end. But yeah, Malik Monk needs to play, man Like, he's

been too good. He's shown way too much. He needs to play and needs to play a lot, at least until I guess the reason gets back where we can kind of fill the roster out. I guess, as Bogas says, but I would like him to keep playing more. Man. I thought he was awesome again tonight. The interesting game with Malik Monk because he's continuing to flash good dribble creation right. Um that stretched there in the second half.

A lot of it was actually initiated by himself from the perimeter and then on the defensive end, and this is why they have to lean into switching, which is why I'm getting so annoyed by this. Over the course of the season. You know what, Malik did a pretty good job in isolation tonight. Yeah, we're there a couple of times where he let Paul George get a little too comfortable on those pull up jump shots, yes, but for the most part he's there, he's not getting beat

to the rim. He's doing a good job of contesting shots. There were i ronically the ones where he was giving more uh shots at the rim was against Eric Bledstell, who did a really good job of just dropping his shoulder into Malik Monk and displacing him. And then every time you just pump fake and get one of them off their feet and then you just jump into him and get free throws. But the point is is like that, over the course of a game, the other team's gonna

score a lot of points. So like it's it's if if if the majority of them come in isolation against defenders that maybe have a little bit of a disadvantage as opposed to up and down the floor and transition easy looks off of pocket passes looks off. That's kind of the way that got it. Like if you are forcing them to consistently isolation, he stagnate them and over the course of the game. That can manifest in a

bunch of different ways. Malik Monk again, where I was seeing him getting killed on defense tonight was on screens when they would run a tick and roll and instead of switching it, Lebron would be in a drop and

Malik would get caught on screen. He's a small guy, he's skinny, that that plays into his weaknesses and and so I just I'd like to see them kind of change up some of those, uh, some of the way that they try to utilize these guys defensively because I think you'll be able to get more out of him

in that regard. But again on the offensive, and ma Leak is just incredible, Like he just it's ironic because this whole season he's been bad with wide open three's, but he's just making these tougher ones when the defenders closing out on him, and then he's continuing to flash that really high level close out attacking that like like we talked about on the last pot that you know, it's not just a ripped through layup or a wide open three, but rather, you know, I beat a guy

off the ripple, there's help and I can kind of scoop around him for a nifty like left handed finish or like a floater or that extra move if the help defender meets him further out from the rim. Like He's just he's everything that we didn't have in the previous two seasons. And so I'm a huge moviek monk fan. Um, I just think Frank is setting him up to fail when he asks him to chase guys over screens and

in defending pick and roll like that. Yeah, I agree with that, and I'm not sure if he's ever going to be a positive defender, but I see him trying. I see him fighting for rebounds as well more like and that's all you can really ask for him, like a six one guard. Um, I think he gives you enough offensively to where you can kind of live with the defensive shortcomings that he has. And again twenty nine minutes, Like,

we'll see if you'll continue to play that. I just think we need scoring and he gives so much pop off the off the bench for us. The Russ and Monk lineups have been great. I think they're like plus ten in the lineups for the season, so that has that has some chemistry that they're building there. And yeah, I would hope he plays more man, but I just think if you're gonna go with this, you know, big lineup that you're gonna start with, you have to have

some shooting in the off guard lineup. And I think the quickest pulled to me put Wayne A. Lincoln in there. He's a VET, he's a guy who he's not a flash. He doesn't have as high ceiling as Monk, but it's just a solid player and it gives you shooting. And I thought the game change when Ellington hit two threes. I thought that's when like the game kind of shifted.

You saw the energy pick up. He was like again, he was a plus fifteen tonight in his and I think twenty minutes, twenty short minutes plus fifteen, And I thought the whole energy of the game change when we had shooting in there, but Russ Brown a d with shooting and it's not not too not too complicated to put out formula. I get what Vogo is trying to do, and I totally understand it. And I thought tonight defense

was a big problem too in the second half. Clipper scored a bunch of points in the second half, But it's just not the identity of this of this particular team, like it just is. And this team feeds off his offense. Again, when you can't score and you were not craying turnovers on the other end, it's just a bad process. I thought we were lucky to be down three, honestly at halftime with all the free throws that we gave up, and I think we were like four for four for

something from three as well. Uh so we were really lucky to only be down three. But yeah, I mean we need to we need to go into this identity, this offensive identity, because starting these games downtown, it's just not good process. You're not gonna win a lot of games. You're not gonna go on in ten game win streaks. I'll tell you that. Uh what Anthony Davis kind of predicted the other day, You're not gonna go any ten game winning streaks playing like this, so hopefully you gotta

win over Boston again. This is tonight's only game eleven of Lebron a d Russ trio. Did you know that it's only games game eleven? And this is what game twelve though? I think right because they were seven and four with Lebron before, I'm pretty sure. Okay, game twelve, okay, yeah, sure, but yeah either way either way wild yeah. Not not very many reps here, so hopefully that's that's kind of building.

But you know, we're getting small, small adjustments. Vogel has had that Trevor Rees is going to come in and have a big role. We'll see if that just shifts the whole team, shifts everyone in their right positions. But that's still probably a week away. So and we have a couple of games here. But at least we got Lebron back. At least Lebron is not out, so that's

a that's a good thing. That's a positive for this And he's going to continue to look rusty like this until he can stay in the damn lineup, like I mean, and I feel for like, there's that quote after the last game where Russ was like, I'm gonna call Lebron as soon as I get out of here, because I know how frustrating it can be to be in and

out of the lineup, and like, I get it. I I sympathize with Lebron in that regard, but like, man, like this team needs him on the floor, and you know what, he needs to be on the floor for his own game, Like he there's a reason why he's leaving all those jump shots short at the end of the game and missing all these layups. It's because the dude has literally played like three times total in the last what three weeks, like like three or four weeks

or whatever. Like, the guy just can't stay on the floor. And and it's been another it's always been weird stuff, you know, like the Okay, guy lands and you're you're nervous about the pains. You're gonna take it slow for a couple of games. Okay, that's fine. Now you have this doma old thing. You know, you're nervous about having to play through pain for most of the seasons. You decide to give it a rest. Okay, that's cool, that

makes sense. You get in the physical altercation with a with a nobody on the pistons and get yourself ejected for a game, and then here comes to the COVID thing. It's like, man, it's like he just can't catch a break in terms of staying on the floor and building

his own rhythm. And I don't think we're gonna You know, there's been a lot of people this past a couple of weeks who have gone out of their way to bring back the whole is Lebron washed card I'm sure you've seen seeing that stuff all over social media and like, look like he might be. But hell if I know, I haven't seen the dude on the court, like, I like, seriously, like, I mean, he might be washed. I don't know what

to tell I don't think he is. I I think that he'll if he can manage to stay on the floor for a couple of weeks in a row, he'll look like an MVP candidate again. I just I just don't think he's reached the point physically where he can't do that anymore. I think this is a thousand percent related to conditioning and rhythm, because the damn, the damn a never ending list of roadblocks that have knocked him off the court here, you know, every other every other game.

So it's it's just I'm not worried about Lebron and in any respect, but man like I just again, just when he's out there, he needs to understand what the team needs from him. And on this team, they the whole point of this offseason, the whole point of bringing in all those shooters, was trying to recreate braun ball, right, trying to recreate the spacing that guys like Russ and

Lebron have thrived in over their whole careers. And until they lean into that identity instead of having the same shot profile that you that you have when you when you have no spacing, that's the part that's driving me insane. It's like you you went this route to try to make it easier for you to get to the rim. And I'm not even seeing him look at the ring in these games. Like it's like it's it's not all spacing,

it's not all conditioning, it's not all rhythm. He's got matchups against the guys who cannot guard him with an opportunity to get into the paint, and he's just not looking there. And if you want to tell me, hey, he's ramping up. That's fine. I hear you, and I get that. That's probably what That's probably what his reasoning is. However, this team is not good enough for him to do that.

This team is not good enough for him to kind of just trick trick his way through the season until late March and then be like, Okay, time to get This team is not good enough and the West is too hard and they're going to find themselves behind the eight ball if he doesn't start to understand what this team needs from him. I have seen in the last month. I have seen Russell Westbrook wake up. Russ looks fantastic. In the last week and a half or so, seeing

Anthony Davis wake up. Anthony Davis looks fantastic. Lebron needs to join them. There he has to. He just has There's the I can't go into it any further than that. He just has to. Yeah, Lebron is not a guy. I guess I worry about that kind of stuff, Like I guess if Russ is going and if Lebron's your biggest worry, then I think you're doing fine. He was nine for twenty three tonight, which is just not a

normal thing. You see from Lebron usually eight threes to for eight from three to me, I think the team needs his defense just as much, though, like you talked about the absolutely they brought on all these scores, all these shooters, brought in Russell Westbrook as well, right to take some of the offensive load. They need him defensively, especially we're gonna play these lebron As center lineups for

only going once. Enter like he has to be engaged on that end, and sometimes you just don't see it. Again with the Hardenstein lineups got to the rim too, He's like he needs to be the back line guy and needs to be engaged on on that end for this team to have a chance. And I keep saying that might be unfair for a guy in year nineteen, but that's how the roster is well haveing three stars

and a team full of minimum players. The other two minimum guys are Thhd who just turned twenty one a couple of days ago, and Kendrick Nunn, who hasn't played a minute on the floor. Everyone else is a minimum player, every single other player league Monk as great as he is a minimum guy. Carmelo Anthony in the late stage of his career minimum guy. You need your three stars had to carry the load on both ends. It's just how it is. I think a D like you talked about,

has has met the moment as he should. He's the twenty eight year old in his prime, Like this is what he should be doing. I think Russ, Yeah, Adi looked awesome tonight. And I think that's the biggest positive to take from the team from the last few days. Is a D and Russ especially has picked it up. Russ only ten points to nine, only eight shots, um. I think that was just a factor of him again in the lineups, and I think some of that was just the Clippers are really good at taking away the

rim uh and something I was settling. All that was kind of mixed in there. I would have but for the most part, Ustles looked good in the last few weeks. But yeah, Lebron, I think Lebron, I don't really worry about that kind of stuff. I worry about it more on the defensive end, because I don't think this is a team where he can coast on that end and

they'll be fine. I'm not worried. I'm just annoyed. Like again, like dude, like like I I just hold this guy to a different standard, I guess than than like man like like I I know it's in there, like I I there's a version of tonight's game where Lebron is still rusty and where his conditioning is still poor and he still leaves some of his jump shots short, but he gets to the rim four or five additional times because the opportunities are there, and they score a certain

amount of points on those possessions, maybe seven eight, seven eight points, and you win this basketball game. Like like, that's that's the way that I look at it. And that's the thing that I can't like, that's the thing that I can't ignore here, Like I can't. I I am. You guys know, I'm a Lebron fan. Like I. I think he's my favorite player. The dude got me into the game of basketball. I when he's at his best,

I will be the guy singing his praises. But like they they just need more out of him than what he's giving. And and after that loss against the Kings a couple like a week and a half ago, he came out and said, I guess it was actually a week ago. I think it was last Friday night, but anyway, after the lost against the Kings, he goes, I have to find a way to be better for my team.

And after that he came out against Detroit and he had exactly what I'm talking about, a game where he's still rusty, where he's still not in the rhythm, where his jump shot still wasn't really falling, but he was physically aggressive on both ends of the floor, and his team got to win, and they needed it from him because, as you remember, in that game, nobody on the damn team could shoot and we barely beat Detroit Um, but that was in large part because of Lebron and Nad

and what they were doing on the on on both ends of the floor, like they just and I had a good feeling about tonight because I thought we were trending in that direction, and and all night long up until the end of the third quarter, really bad process, a ton of settling, and that's that comes from the top down, that comes from Frank, and that comes from Lebron,

you know. And and all of a sudden, you see Russ start putting his head down trying to get to the rim even when there's limited space, and voila all of a sudden, the Lakers look like a good basketball team again. It's like it's so not complicated to me. And this is the last thing I'll say, because we're getting here to the end, and I want to hear your you know, your two cents on this as well. But this is gonna bring it back to that initial point.

Like the Clippers know what they're good at, they know who they are, and they lean into it. There's always Lukenard Marcus Morris in each corner. And here is Heartensteineryboka set high, scream or just spacing, and here comes Reggie Jackson, Paul George, Eric Bloodsoe trying to get downhill to the rim. And you know, maybe they give Paul George a little more leeway in terms of off the dribble shooting, but

they just lean into their strains. And those guys like Canard Marcus Moore's they are gunning like they catch it's they're just shooting, shooting, shooting, And for whatever reason, we can't figure out that same formula. We can't figure out play our shooters. Get Lebron and a d and Russ going downhill, have them either finished at the rim or

kicked to the shooters. That's our offense. Our offense is not playing a bunch of non shooters having Lebron and a d take step back jump shots, because if they do that, we will get out shot by other teams that are good at step back jump shots because that's

what they're good at, that's their strength. Our guys are six ft nine, two hundred sixty pounds downhill basket attacker and six whatever pounds downhill basket attacker and the guy that everyone compares to the greatest power forwards of all time, that's our guys. We don't have James Harden on our team. We don't have Paul George on our team. We don't have finesse shooters on our team, so we cannot afford

to play with the packed paint. When we do that, we are specifically undercutting what our our stars are good at, and we have to understand that concept. Yeah, that's that's kind of where I'm at. Two. I'll think about this because when I was the game I believe was tied with six minutes left in the game. It was like six minutes left in the game. The game was tied,

and we had all our guys out there. They had get their guys out there, and that's usually when Lebron decides, I'm just going to the basket, right, I'm gonna I'm gonna take who I want. I'm gonna get the matchup I want. I'm a matchup on I thought back to that Clipper game that we played right before the bubble. We're he pretty much just took Marcus Morris to the rim whenever he wanted. That's not really what we've been tonight, right, Maybe this is just this is an urgent game for

us and not an urgent game from them. Maybe that's kind of how I'm trying to look at it as well. This is a ramp up time, and there were quotes coming out today Lebron said it's extremely frustrating that he hasn't been able to play four straight games. I mean, that's something as well to get him ramped up. But you're right, I would like to see them go with more facing. But I mean, to be fair, we kind

of did at the end of the game, right. I believe they went to Carmelo and Malik Monk next to Russ Lebron and a D and I think the defensive issues were kind of and then we undercut that by double exactly exactly, and I would like to switch more there. Again, though I understand what Vo was trying to do. He doesn't want Paul George getting leaked monk on a one on one situation. And then Tyler and then really took advantage of that. They made Luke Anard the screener there.

So if you trap As Lucarnard on ah that design out of the time, that was genius. It caught the Lakers with their pants down, which again is absolutely and then also the zone just made no sense to me zoning up with them having Marcus Morris, Lucas Lucarnard on the floor. Just going in the zone made no sense

as well. Just a lot of stuff that That's the I guess the most frustrating part, and I guess we can close with this is these are all fixable stuff, right, It's none of this is like, none of this is stuff that they can't fix or again, there are roster roster issues to the to this team, there are deficiencies at every on every level from every player. But a

lot of stuff is fixable. A lot of stuff is stuff that they can control um and a lot of stuff that should trend upwards that the season goes here, Lebron is eventually going to get into rhythm. That's just what we've seen the last twenty years or whatever. Russell Westbrook seems to have picked up. Anthony Davis looks like the top five guy that we've been begging for all years. That's stuff that is looking up. There are just marginal things that we need to change to get some of

these losses into wins here. But tonight it was a close game, like you throw away, how frustrating it was Marcus Moore's banked in the three to put them up six, doubling off Lucarnard. But it was a close game against the team that's pretty actually solid, Like that's the that's the thirty thousand view. You always asked me the thirty thousand ft of view view of this. That's the thirty ft view right take away how we lost. It was

a close game against a good team. There's a lot and with a lot of bad process mixed into it. So that's where I'm kind of with this. If you can win against Boston that kind of maybe it can help with this. Boston is another good team. I think they played a good game against Utah tonight. But that's where I guess this team moves on to is continuing to find who they are, and I think it's playing the shooters. I don't think again, I don't think plus

minuses everything. But Wayne Ellington me in a plus twenty in a game we lost by you know, six or seven. I think that that tends towards something that tells you something with how the game went. So hopefully we put in some different lineups in the next game. But there's no one fix here, but there are fixes to be done. I guess it's my final saying on that. Well, this is why I need Rog. I need Rog because he

is capable of bringing the positivity. Um. You know it's ironic because I feel like I used to be like or a Laker optimist, but this team has This team has stressed me out more than any basketball team that I've ever watched, because I have never seen a team this is like, this is you know what, this is not. This is not the two thousand thirteen Lakers. This is not Steve Nash is actually washed, Dwight Howard has a bad back, and Kobe is stuck with the entire workload.

That's not what this is a this this is Lebron obviously, the only wrinkle that I'll really toss you, even aside from all the other line up stuff, Even aside from all the guards swapping, of all the you know, Trevor rees that injury, everything, Lebron's inability to stay in the lineup has been the only excuse I would toss this team that would actually justify how poorly they've played, and when he's played there seven and five against the dogshit schedule.

The point is is that this team has a player in Lebron who is very much, even in his limited state, a top ten player, and Anthony Davis who is trending up towards being in the conversation as a top five player, and Russ looks great. We can't be this bad. We can't be this bad. It's it is confounding to me. But anyway, guys, I'll get off my soapbox again. I I'm thankful for Raj because I need him to counterbalance some of the negativity that I've been bringing to the

pod lately. Um. But so we're heading into a funky stretch here because we have three straight days off. The Lakers don't play again until Tuesday. UM, I'm thinking so I'm golfing in a charity golf tournament tomorrow, So Rog, I'm thinking maybe Sunday morning we'll get together and do something. Maybe we'll touch on the we got large at that point because we've been talking Lakers endlessly. UM, and then we will be back for our normal uh post game

show on Tuesday. No dash radio for this one since it's a Friday, but this will be on our podcast feed here in about twenty minutes. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys in support. I know Roger just too. We haven't blown away by how many of you guys have been hanging out with us after these games and and and rocking with the pods. So I just want to extend my gratitude to all of you guys, and I look forward to being able to record again with

Roj on Sunday. Thanks everyone appreciate coming out on a Friday night.