Episode 48: Lakers/Raptors Postgame

with us. We'll start with just Roger and I going back and forth, just talking about what we saw, and then we'll bring you guys up to talk. Rog what was your where? What where's your frame of mind right now? How are you feeling overall? Well? I guess the first thing was the news about Lebron leaving the game, right, I feel like it didn't seem too serious. I didn't see where he he kind of he got hurt at but that was probably the biggest thing. And then obviously

the play of Anthony Davis man his uh. I understand he needs to ramp up, right, he needs time to kind of get going here, but we're getting kind of late and it's obvious that him and the team especially just does not care right now about these games. There's just so little intensity. It has a preseason type of intensity to me, especially on the defensive end. And I

think they're really starting to play with fire here. Um. And again, they have a long leash because of what they did last year in the in the playoffs and uh and that gives you kind of a lot of rope to work with. But they need to start building

some chemistry. I think Lebron and a d what only played like twenty suning games together before he got hurt this year, and then that trio with Drummond they're trying to work out, which well, we'll discuss Drumming later a little bit, but uh, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at right now. This team is not playing well. It's could they do not play They do not care about these games. Um, you can just tell the way that they're they're defending, but it's you can you can critique

the process, but this is what the process is right now. Yeah, I don't think they quite understand the gravity of the situation. They're not a good Historically in Lebron's career, he hasn't been a good game one type of player, not that he's not capable of being good in those types of games. He's just he's a guy who likes to kind of ease his way into playoff series, really test out of defense and kind of see where the openings are and

he peeks later in series. That's just kind of been his m and that's what makes the play in so dangerous is it takes away one of Lebron's biggest strengths as a basketball player, which is his mental advantage, his ability to make adjustments that other superstars do not make. That's one of his strengths. And by putting yourself in a plane setting, you open yourself up to, uh, to

that type of a risk. And then to couple that with the fact that their defense looks like absolute dogshit right now, which, by the way, it's not something that clicks on overnight. It's one of the big reasons why they've struggled in game ones is they bring crap effort to start the series and then they kind of start to feel like their backs against the wall a little bit,

and then they step up and start playing defense. But like with those two things together, you put yourself at risk and they're playing what happens tonight in a vacuum, doesn't matter. They are better team than the Raptors. It's not a matchup thing. It's literally just them not bringing the requisite effort like the like, especially without O g in and no. But it's not like they had a bunch of wings to force Lebron in THEYD to work harder than usual as an effort problem, which in a

vacuum doesn't matter. But when you look at the situation, that's when it becomes scary. I don't understand why they don't see the gravity of the situation. They're literally now as of right the second tied for the seventh seed. Yeah,

and it would potentially be in a plan, right. You make a good point about that, and even just even looking back, even larger than just Lebron being able to adjust to a team like usually in a seven game series, the better team wins, right, Like for the most part seven game series, a better team will win out four to seven, you know, playing game like, Look, the Lakers are gonna be favorite in any playing matchup, but you never know in a two game, one game, one game sample,

anything can happen. But I mean, it's just like all of us here, I feel like everyone listening pretty much that nobody wants to play the Clippers in the first round, right, But this Laker team obviously is betting on their health, and I don't think they see any of these West teams in some different tiers, like I feel like they they feel like they can just come in and play anyone and it's a dangerous, dangerous game they're playing here,

but they just want to get themselves healthy. And you saw Lebron leave the game early here, which means next game they're probably going to be even more cautious. Um, and I just don't see them. Maybe tomorrow Denver gets their attention, but you just watch this team defend and they're just not locked in at all. That there's still eight full games left and that looks like a long

road for them. I don't think they'll start picking up to like three or four games, and if they're really getting like into dangerous playing tournament, right, I think there's still like a game ahead or other tied with with Portland and Dallas right now. But if that, if that gets and less, maybe they'll start start really taking this serious.

But it's it's clear that they're just trying to get to these healthy, just like they did in the bubble seating games, even though the situation and the scenings are totally different well, and the seating is totally up in the air because everyone's tied, like there are so many different combinations of different playoff matchups that might end up happening here, because if how clustered everything is, like Dallas and the Clippers very well might end up excuse me not,

Dallas Denver and the Clippers could finish three or four, like either one of those are in play, Phoenix and Utah one or two, either one of them in play. All Dallas, Dallas and and Portland's and and l A

are all tied like it could be anything. So you think at that point, understanding that so much is up in the air, they would at least just try to get their fundamentals and their identity really dialed in, because identity is what you lean on when you can't make adjustments when you are in a play in type of setting. If that's what they end up and they're gonna need to adjust on the fly, they won't have you know, a seven aim or to get all that stuff dialed in.

But I want to talk about a d for a second, because this is getting really bad because everything else, you know, you could theoretically say, like, you know, if things are healthy and have all the guys are gonna be fine, blah blah blah blah. But Anthony Davis looked like somewhere between the second and fourth fifth most best best player in the world when he was in the bubble. He doesn't look like that at all this year. And if you got my Twitter feed, it took a couple of clips,

but you don't have to look at my clips. If you just watch these games, you can tell like he's he genuinely isn't engaged on that end of the floor, and that used to be his identity, that used to be his thing that he did primarily in his offense was kind of a cherry. On top of that, it's like, for whatever reason, that whole, the whole like facet of his game has been put on the back burner this season. And I think it's a problem because they actually need him.

Like the Lakers defend with their guards and with frank and with effort and all this stuff, but their defensive ceiling, which is what they actually need to win the title, the stuff that will allow them to shut down the very best offenses. That's all Anthony Davis and abroad, and

they need to actually get back to that level. Or a lot of this is spoken mirrors, and they're going to be in big trouble if they run into a good offense, right And we can look at all these like xs and o's and look at film and all that, but I'm not sure what you can look at if the effort isn't there, Like the Lakers are trapping all these ball screens, they're having drum And come up high and a D is the help man. He's the one that has to stop the role and get out to

the shooters and he's literally just standing there. I mean, last game against Sacramento, Rashaan Holmes got whatever he wanted in the paint. And I'm just not sure what you can take out of any of this um going forward, Like what can bold we even look at? Like a lot of us like to create critique Andre Drummond a lot, but how how can I even tell if Andrew Drummond a D parents gonna work in the eighties, not you know, going at his full strength, And you said a D

hasn't been a top ten player this year. I mean, that's absolutely true. He came into this season and Laker fans of game and you know, a big benefit of the doubt, and I think he still has a lot of it. He came in he wanted to go slowly through this season, and it was understandable have any one day off season. But the time is here like this, like he cannot be still sleep walking through these games.

And it's but maybe that's what he's been told to do by the coding staff, you know what I mean, Like I don't know, maybe they're telling him just stay cautious. But he's just not where he needs to be. And it's just tough to really like look at any of the exits and doesn't look at like what players are working or not if he's not engaged. Because the Lakers defense needs him to be a top I think he can be the second best player in the league. Like that's his ceiling in the playoffs and reached it a

few times and he's nowhere, nowhere near that. So that's that's someone's concerning thing with this team. All the other stuff are so Anselar like under Drummond, He's not gonna to me. He's not gonna decide the Lakers title chances, right Ben mc lamore, all these other guys, Like it's on the stars, it's on those guys to get it going.

And it did. And now the pressure is on because these seeding games are you don't want to be in there, Like they can say what they want, but they don't want to be in that like play you know, one game to game elimination coming up here, exactly anything can happen. I mean, like like if John Muren could be the nine seed and just gets super hot and shoot you out of the playoffs, like anything happened, and and like again, and you made the great point. It's like it doesn't

matter about those ancillary pieces. But when you actually, like look at the end of the first half, when you play your best lineup, which is KCP Alex Caruso, Kuzma, lebron A d Hey, maybe you can swap Crusoe for Schroeder if he's if he's healthy, depending on what your need is. But that's probably one of their two very best lineups that they can put together. And they were getting run off the floor that stretch at the end

of the first half. It went from you know, eight to fifteen and a handful of possessions Like it was. It was really embarrassing. And you know, as as far as Anthony Davis goes with him kind of like getting it going, like it's still there. I know, you guys saw in the fourth quarter that was that possession. Kyle Lowry. Kyle Lowry mixes Anthony Davis up crosses him over, which happens when you're a bigger player and you're going against

a quick guard. But he trails behind Kyle Lowry bothers him enough where he has to do a drop off pass him. I can't remember if it was Ken Burge or someone else, but caught ball and went up with like a floater from like eight feet and a d just swallowed that thing, just keep flying in like completely changed direction from guarding Kyle Lowry on the drive, turned around, elevated his arm, literally goes to the top of Staples

Center and and blocks the shot out. I think Utah watonob he ended up making a crazy floater off of the chaos that surrounded it. You know, you're like you're like whoa, Like that's Anthony Davis And then two possessions later, he's not paying attention to his man off the ball, uh and Pascal Siatum flares up to the wing, catches the ball. A D slow on his clothes out, gets beat middle and gives up a layup and probably should have been an A one because he recklessly swatted down

at the ball at the end. Like that's like two possessions. After you see this flash of the old a D, he's back to like fundamental stuff that they teach you in AU or in youth basketball about playing defense. Like it's just I I My thing with this kind of stuff is like, don't overstretch yourself out about not caring as much as they do, because there's probably some reason

they don't care. However, I think it's okay as fans, yeah, to give him some to give him some crap about it, you know what I mean, Like like they deserve to go on their phones tonight and see a fan base that's all really upset about their effort because it was pretty embarrassing. Yeah, And I think I think you hit on what's like the frustrating part of it is it feels like it's more mental mistakes right than like physical

than him not being able to do something. It just feels like there are a lot of mental mistakes, Like the closeouts are awful, he jumps, He does stuff that's just not stuff that Anthony Davis does, Like I think somebody pump faked at the rim and he jumped and they got easy lay about it. It It just stuff that Ad doesn't do when he's locked in. And and we've seen it, right, not even a year ago. He saw

in the playoffs last year. What he's capable of. He's capable of shutting down full on defenses pretty much by himself as a roller help man. And you know there's other things that can help him. Obviously he's playing the four here. I think he's better as a five on both ends of the floor. But but yeah, he's just not really needs to be in. The mistakes feel like they're more just mental engagement mistakes, just walking through, um these games when you know this is time to get

reps in. You see these other teams. We watched an awesome game today between the Bucks and the Nets. Um those two teams look ready to go, right like those these teams locked into a playoff, and the Lakers look like it's game ten of the regular season, like they're just they're just getting started. When when when we're going to get started pretty quickly here, So that that seems like the most The thing that's bothering a lot of people is that these feel like mental mistakes, not just physical.

And you know, he has to get back in conditioning, like he missed like twenty sounding games. It's understandable, but it's just like the engagement has to be there now like that. That's where I think, that's right. I think most people are frustrating it. Yeah, I agree. I mean, if we want to add a silver line into this, like it does vaguely resemble what happened in the seeding games. There was I remember it's actually my my it was

on my birthday last year. They were playing Indiana i think, and the Bubble and like, oh yeah, the fifth game of the Bubble and they had just lost the game to somebody who can remember was and it kind of felt like this, like it felt like, hey, like they don't need this game, but hey like they probably should start playing better soon. In Indiana. Just just beat them, just Indiana, just beat him. And yeah, I'm literally sitting there, I'm like I cannot believe how bad they look right now.

And that was when the following day when all of the talk shows and stuff, we're talking about when the Lakers are in trouble and stuff. The one big difference between that though, is like like that Laker group was going to that billionaire's house wherever the heck it is and and blame pick up and and they were all kind of in a rhythm like Lebron is Lebron is not like, uh, his original self yet, so like that's gonna take some time, so that wrinkle in there, and

then Anthony Davis sure as hell isn't. So that wrinkle is what makes it different. Like theoretically they've shown this kind of malaise before a playoff run, but Lebron and a D or Lebron and a D. So that's where that's where this gets tricky. Is you just hope, against all hope that that whatever is going on with Lebron and a D can be fixed, uh, because the effort

and stuff will certainly be there when the time is right. Yeah, And the and the thing we kept saying, right is that the Lakers had the number one defense and then we're adding Rodyn a D to it. Right, That was the whole thing that's what people were excited about. And it feels like what has happened is A D and Lebron came back into the whole team just backed into where they are right like they're trying to get through in rhythm, and the whole team just decided together to

to drop their intensity. Um. And that's why I just keep going back to those bubble games, because the Lakers identity, even from last year, was that they played hard every night, right, they played hard every night up until the Bubble games, and that's where we were so surprised. And even this year, they played hard pretty much every night. When Lebron and a D went out, the team was competitive, played hard,

defended hard. The guards were fighting over screens, being really being really tough, um, really tough to score on still, and people are shocked, like they, oh, wow, the Lakers have the fourth best defense without you know, Anthony Davis, you know, or fourth best even about Lebron and a D. And and now this is where the team just looks like they've dropped back. Um, all the intensity, all the all the focus that they need. So that's that's kind

of the frustrating part. But I understand it's not the same as the bubble. But it just feels like they they're comfortable wherever they end up in this seating and that's you can critique the process, but that's just where they that's just where they're sitting. So the silver lining is that this is not them going at their best right.

I saw somebody I think tweeting me today they said, uh, this maybe just who they are, and I'm just like, that's not who they've been, Like, this is this is I mean, it's not that recent, but that's not who they've been. They've been a really good defensive team all year um up until a D and Lebron came back. This is kind of when the big drop has happened.

So that's the silver lining to me. There's still a lot of there's still eight games left, still time to kind of fix this, but they need to start now. And and for the record, I'm I'm of the opinion that that blame should be placed at the feet of Lebron and it D because if you're defending and your stars come back and the effort tails off, I think it's because your stars have come back and they personally are not approaching it with the same intensity that everyone

else was. And then I think it's you know, I was talking about like a waterfall act. It just kind of like percolates to everybody, and then everybody just kind of plays with a little less intensity and everybody plays a little less focus. UM. So I that that that, to me is like one of the biggest compliments I can play pay. Steph Curry is Like Steph Curry may not be the defensive force that Anthony Davis is, but because he plays his ass off on defense, it percolates

down to his teammates. And I don't think it's a coincidence that Steph Curry has been on elite defenses every year even though he's not an elite defensive player. I think it's just because he sets the tone. And I think it's okay too to give the leaders of the team some some criticism for for kind of slipping that responsibility.

UM as far as rotations, but I thought it was interesting because a lot of criticism about a lot of rotation stuff for good reason, like too much drumm in with Anthony Davis closed the game with Drummond and th h T. I don't know what that was about. They had um like Ben McLamore, who's like a seamless perfect

Lebron teammate. You know, this guy who's just like an absolute gun slinger with a super fast release that if you even shade a little bit too far into the paint, Lebron just can throw one of his baseball passes and he can have catch and shoot threes all day. Vogel wasn't really pairing them for whatever reason like that just there's a lot of rotation stuff that doesn't make sense.

But if you remember those quotes from Vogel, especially with Drummond, he goes, you know, we're a believer in this trio, and that reminds me a lot of what he used to say about Rondo. If you remember he used to say the same thing about Rondo. We believe in Rondo. We know we know that because yeah, because I think somebody asked him in a postgame pressor if had all the net rating stuff with Rondo, and he's like, we believe in Rondo, Like we we believe in this this, uh,

you know, this pairing. And if there's one thing you can maybe lean back on is that maybe when Lebron and a d start trying and everything really comes together in the postseason. Maybe there is some value there next to an engaged Lebron in an engaged a d where Drying looks where he looks like a valuable piece knows Like you said, how can you know when out? It's

like literally catting in these games. It's just it's just ridiculous, right, Yeah, And the things that Drummond is good at, we're just not playing to them, right, Like he's trapping every ball screen. I thought, like I thought Drummond and Adie would switch a lot more, and they're not. Um EIGHTI has been pretty much just the help guy with Drummond has to

like trap and then also get back. That's why we're giving up so many lobs and like guys catch it in the dunker spot and they just get easy layups time after time because Drummond he just doesn't have the ability to like stop the ball handler and then still get up and like take away that law pass, which again eighties the help guy there, But yeah, that's he's just not be put in the bed and look he struggled as well. I just and they keep in my notes here, I put like they kept ground Hill put

it nicely. They said they're trying to establish drumming in the post which I thought it was just a really nice way to put it. But it's just way too many, way too many drumm and post ups. Like I think like the first ten possessions were like four Drummond post ups and he just it either goes in or it's like an awful air ball off the rim, and it's just weird what they're None of this like pertains to the playoffs, right, like at least we think exactly you

don't get anything out of it. And and to me, I said this a live I feel like Drummond is the devail replacement, like we saw him as the Dwight Howard replacement, but just watching him, I just I see him as the debail replacement. Like he's gonna play the five right now, He's gonna he's gonna bang banglow, so a d doesn't have to. But once the playoffs comes, hopefully, um, I'm just thinking positively here, Gasol will be that you know, defense of the Player of the year, former defensive player

of the Year like Dwight was. And again he's not the same type of player Dwight is, but just that experience I think will be leaned on more of the playoffs. Drummond is getting these minutes now and Vogol, You know, Vogo is a smart guy. He understands, like he he knows that there's no way you can just keep drumming out here this long against really good playoff teams, let alone, what what's going on against teams like Sacramento, Toronto all

those stuff. But again, you don't know, because like you said, we need to engage Lebonn and a Dy to really understand what's what's going on, and we're not getting that, and I don't know when when we're gonna get it, honestly, Flow, we might just walk into the playoffs kind of blindfolded, um and and hope, hope things work. I just want to see it look good once. I just want to

know that it's still in there somewhere. And if there is one silver lining, like the one team that you'd be potentially worried about playing in the first round would be the Clippers, right just because there are a bad matchup for the Lakers in a vacuum and so throwing

in the circumstances and it gets even more scary. But the silver lining there is that the clippers are all banged up, and Kauai's basically on a minute restriction because he's the only with I think it's stuff with his foot, and it's like they kind of had had they've had some similar problems. Uh, So that would that would kind of make it so that both teams are probably wary

of each other. Uh. But yeah, I would just I would just like to see it look good once and then one last note on Drummond and then hey, everybody who's here, if you would like to hop in and talk with Roger and I send out a request and we'll start taking guests here in a second. Um. But the one thing with Drummond that I think is is troublesome as far as his defensive his defense translating to

the postse and is this his reaction time? Um, you know, like when he can stand still, like when he's in a coverage where he's already in the paint and he can just kind of wave around with his hands. He's good with his hands. The problem is that he's got he's slow. Um, he's slow with like his first step and that affects him on defense when he needs to

be kind of you know defending in space. And the example I give is that one it's on my Twitter feed where Kyle Lowry is coming off of basically a pin down um that hasn't coming up to the top of the key and Drummond like sees it coming and like right as the pin down is happening, like I think, what Nabi or someone cuts across the floor and he kind of gets there and he body checks him and then he goes up to the screen. Because you know,

Kyle Lowry's good shooter, you have to be there. Uh you know if if the guy who's trailing is a step behind but he's not actually there, like he reacts and he's slow, he's not Kyle, but he still completely leaves the role man and Kyle Lowry drops it off to the role man who goes down to the layup and scores over a d because he apparently can't protect

the rim anymore. But the point being is that drumming like he's reading the plays, like he knows where he's supposed to be, but he just he's slow with his feet, he's not mobile. What makes Tread's even functional in the Laker defense even though he can't protect the rim, is he's mobile, and he plays hard and he can be in these rotations and fly around and and and help cover for some of his size mistakes just as a

mobile defender. But like Drumming, it's just kind of this like counterintuitive fit with the rest of their defense because he can't move his feet uh in open space as well as they need him to in order to be of any sort of value. Yeah, and then I just wanted to like, before we open this up, I think you said that the Lakers were closing with a strange lineup, right, We have like THHD and and Drummond and a lot of the part of that is that Lebron didn't come

back in the game. But that's another thing. It's just like the unsious nous of like the rotations, right, it's a lot of experimenting. And again, like they did this in the Bubble Games as well. We put a lot of j R. Smith, a lot of Dion Waiters, So maybe he can work. But this is the whole new team. Man.

Something I had in my notes here was like, these are the unintended consequences of like just tricking off a lot of these games, right, is that like you get you get really lackluster effort on a lot of plays and like we're playing Ben mclimore a bunch of minutes, like I just don't know if he's playable, and a lot of playoff rotations because of his of his defense right, like unless he's scorching hot from three, he's an unconscious shooter, which I think is a is a good thing and

a bad thing at times, like he doesn't know what they or he doesn't really have to be wide open to shoot, which I think this team kind of needed. But when you're like when you're missing, you're going like, oh, I'm not sure what he shot tonight. Um, I don't think he he made it three if I remember correctly, But did you get a bunch of great looks? Though? Where were his good looks? You're not playing him with one of the best three point generators in league history.

Like that's the part that bothers me. I can't give up on Macimore until he plays with Lebron Right. But I'm just talking from his defense though, Like I feel like he gets like he gets back to a lot and yeah, no, for sure he should be playing solely with Lebron Right, like he she should not be playing with especially when there's no shock creators. And then again another thing that like whither we're running just so much th H T S screen and roll, which I just

don't like. And look, she's awesome, I'm super high on him, but like again, I just don't think that stuff will happen in the playoffs, which again just first is the point here? What's the point of this when we're like eight games away from when these games start really mattering. So that's that's my thing with the with the game tonight. Like you said, it doesn't matter in the in the vacuum, like it's a loss to Toronto or tied for the seating or whatever. No, this really matters in the in

the grant scheme. But it's time to start getting rotations that are going to play. This is still a brand new team. Dennis Shrewder's out with COVID protocols. We don't know when he'll come back. Him and A d have barely got to play together, and Ron and we have barely cut to play together. And he's supposed to be the starting point guard creating a lot of shots in

the playoffs. So that's that's a nasure here, is that we're I don't know how much of this you can translate or Bogo can even look on film and be like, Okay, this is where I need to change things because the effort just isn't there. They're just trying to get healthy and get through these games. And maybe that works out. Maybe the healthiest team wins this year. Maybe that's maybe that's the number one thing. But I guess we'll see. Yeah, and uh, this is the last thing I'll say before

we bring our first guest on. But like it reminds like, in my opinion, when when things are not going as planned, you shouldn't be more experimental. You should go back to what's tried and true. The two thousand eighteen Calves did this. If you guys remember, they got into a big They basically got by an eight ball against Indiana, and they went into Indiana in game six in the first round, got absolutely blitzed. That was the game that Victor Ladipo dunked all over Lebron. And what did they do in

game seven? They went back to Trisan Thompson. It was less Larry Nance, was less Rodney Hood. There was a lot of Lebron, Derrick Smith, Kyle Korver, Kevin Love and Trisan Thompson. They went back to something that was tried and true because they knew that, you know what, all the experimenting trying to get something to to work with what was new wasn't working. So they went back to

lineups that they had had success with. And so I just wish that they would, you know, at least to try to gain regain some rhythm going into the postseason, that you'd see more, you know, traditional lineups with you at the five, you know, Lebron surrounded by shooting any anything that has historically worked, rather than like, hey, maybe this will work, you know what I mean? Like that, I just don't understand that the strategy there. But I'm

gonna go ahead and um, let's see, Alex. I'm gonna try, you man, let me know if this works. Yeah, that's tough, Alex. Can you hear us Man? All right? No, Alex, let's try Trevor. Yeah, Trevor, what's up, Trevor? You got anything for us? Man? All right? There's no, Trevor. Maybe on the settings or something. Do we have to I should be working. I think there's just some people that requested a while back. They are still active Maples, look at this.

What's up? Man? Can you hear us? What's going on? Man? Talk us off the cliff? Man. Uh, well, I just saw Vogels quote seven minutes ago. We're not trying to accept speriment anyway. Right now, we're trying to win games. And that is the scariest thing I've heard all season. I really used to believe that. I just want to tap in and said, that's the scariest shit I heard

all season. Him saying that they are legitally trying to wear right now, he's not serious going out there with Drummond and th ht with six misutes in the fourth quarter. I'm sorry, I can't who's believed it. I don't understand how he could say that. Uh, and he's not even playing shooting with Lebron. If you're trying to win games, you gotta play shooting with Lebron in a d so that he can get going. But I, oh, man, that's

from okay, So I thought, I'm not being crazy. I understand you're trying to get drumming going, but Gasaw going from starting center to d MP, is that not ridiculous? Yeah, it is getting kind of ridiculous. I mean I hope they they're having like some pre pre pregame talks on this, like, hey, you're gonna play tonight, You're gonna play tomorrow night, not tonight, kind of like give him a game game off here. Um. That that's what I hope is happening, just so he's

ready and he's he's okay with it. Obviously, his quotes weren't that great either when them when the drum and signing happened, but but then after that his quotes got a little bit better. But yeah, that's what I hope is happening. And I mean everyone's professional here. I think Vogo is pretty um, pretty good. I kind of explained these things, so yeah, but it is weird that he got zero minutes to night, but it's just grout patient

is too much. They have treads Drummond and then also eight either trying to get into So I guess they're just telling the soul hopefully play tomorrow because that's not gonna be trouble. Yeah. I was looking at this back to back because if I recall, his best game of the season was against the Raptors. If I were calls of like fifteen four blocks, U was a couple of threes, right, and I am I right, and believe I think that's right.

And then the first Duggets game they play in Staples, that's the best defense I've seen on Yokich all year. So I'm hoping that tomorrow he gets at least a good time of fifteen minutes. Yeah, for sure. Hopefully you gotta try something again. You gotta try something to try to open things up. And and for the record, he's kind of turned into a little bit of a Crusoe effect from last year, where you know, the BA is begging into play and then every time he does, it's like, oh, look,

mircosols plus eleven again. That that's kind of the Marcus All experience. And for the record, basketball isn't that complicated. Like when you watch him play, like go watch that second quarter against Sacramento, just everything opens up when he's a spacing every position. Yeah, and then on your Vogel quote quote, there's just no way because a D demon play any minutes at the five tonight. He played a couple.

There was one they were just right, okay, yeah, I must most of but most of it was drezz and a D Yeah, well, yeah, is not is not playing. It's shenanigans. Fellas. I'm calling Vogels quote, I'm calling shenanigans on everything that we're hearing about the Lakers right now, because it just does not make sense. What's that mean? What's the fellas? I just I just wanted to you know, usually I just sit in the background and lurk, but then this conversation was very productive. So I just want

to say a good evening to you guys. Wonderful job with the space. I always enjoy listening to people's races and just kind of hearing what everybody has to think about. UM. My only two cents on on what's going on right now is um. I do think it's a conditioning thing. I know a lot of fans are panicking because we are at risk of going into the play in and stuff. I got um, so I definitely understand that. But just

I think Jason you made it. Um. You made a good point earlier when you guys started the space where and I think Roger you followed up that the drop off on the defensive end it's so bad that it's almost unbelood like it's almost by design that they're not trying, you know, what I mean, Like it's I don't know how you go from a team, Okay, we just lots to the Raptors. Right. This team had I think O g I don't know. I can't remember Pascal played in the game in Toronto, but I know Garry Trent Junior

played in that game. They had a few other guys. I know they didn't have Lowry, but like we blew them out without Brown and a D and then to magically lose the game in the fashion that we did today, at least on the defensive end, you know what I mean. Like it's so bad that it has to be by design. And so that's why I'm just calling Shenanigans. You know. Obviously I'm more optimistic, um, but the other folks um. So that that's all I have to say about that.

And I'll just say this, it doesn't make sense that Vogel magically, you know, you have two guys in Wes Matthews and Gasol who have been consistent, consistently good on the defensive end, and you're a defensive minded coach. And then we add Andre Drummond, which is like basically adding like a j R. Smith, you know, at the center, like man, like we're adding guys and then all of a sudden we're like, yeah, we're committed to this guy. We're gonna we're gonna run with him. And I think Roger,

you hit it on the head. I think if you think of Drummond as the Javail role where it's very very situational with him, Um, we know what we get out of Gasol man the moment steps on the floor, it's all positive stuff. So I think you know he's just he's an ins eater. He's just gonna eat up a lot of minutes. Um, and we'll see what happens. Think you just need to get healthy. Last thing before

I get off and let 'all rock. Who's just said mcchannon just sweet tweeted COO's said the song should be played, So there you go to payers. I love that speaks his mind. So that man, thanks for having a man. We appreciate it. Appreciate it. Uh what do you what do you make of Drummond as is? Do you think he's completely useless or do you think there is a potencial for him to become useful if Lebron in a peaking. I think Drummond has very good feet on the defensive end. Um,

when he gets he gets pulled out on switches. I think that's an advantage that he probably has over the soul, because the soul is a little bit uh, you know, he doesn't get into his stance. Drummond does try to get into a stands defensively. Um. So I don't think he's useless. I think he has some struggles. I think you described a player earlier where he kind of picked off a pass from Lowry off the floor where he kind of what's it called. I think it was like

a pocket pass or something to action. He's good at picking them off the floor. But I think Drummond's largest issue is he tries to play the passing name like a hockey goalie does. Like he's trying to figure out where the ball is coming from so you can pick it off. And so when you run into a guy like Luca, like a guy who was a little bit bigger, Um, he can seal those passes right over him. And that that's a problem, especially if Ad is not playing weak

side defense. So, um, I don't think he's useless. That was a long answer, But I don't think he's useless. But I think he's very situational. I have a saying that I like to say is that if you're not generational in the modern NBA, you're situational. And I think Drummond is a situational player, and Vogol have to be

really good with his minutes. Yeah, And I just don't like the situation that they're also putting him in him like they're trying they're trapping every single ball screen with him, and they're making him have to like stop the ball handler and stop lob guy. Right, he just can't jump

like that. He doesn't take away the lob. So I feel like they are you seeing that same kind of thing when you see like the like him trying to take away lobs, and it seems like we're giving up a ton of dunks um and even at the rim, like he's just not a guy that's pretecting the rim. And the way a D is helping right now is just it's compounding the problem to where like what me and Jason were talking about earlier is that it's tough for Bogo to even kind of gauge what's going on.

I feel like he doesn't even know if it's working. Yeah, Yeah, So you know, um uh that has that's been sort of one of those other things that like it's been so bad compared to what it's been all season, it's like this is not even it's I don't even know how you can possibly be this bad in this coverage that you guys have been running all season. So I think,

you know, I think Vogel probably has certain principles. We know that he has containment principles that he likes to have his guards play, like if you can't stay in front of you guys, at least try to contain them, you know, like send him into into your bags and stuff like that. I think one of the things that he's probably trying to get Drumming to be better at um,

because he does have the hands is at least defensively. UM. I think he's trying to get him to do kind of what gasoldas like Cassoules an amazing trap, an amazing trapper. He knows where the passing angles are Drummonds. Yeah, So I think that's what he's trying to get to UM. But obviously, look, you know, if that pass makes it out of the trap, you have all the weeks that, Yeah, the weeks I open and if a d is just gonna watch, people don't get I mean, look at the names.

I've done it right, Alex lenn Rashaun Holmes, Dwight Powell. Um, it wasn't Bomba the or Magic Kid. It was the other guy that they were playing Uma. His name escapes me. But every single big man has just you know, kind of dominated the Lakers, and so you know, well we'll see. I wonder if it's a scheme thing, it's a coaching thing, um, but it's just been so bad that it's it's not believable.

That's this is the way I have to say. And there's something to be said about Dennis suddenly being removed from the line up messing with their offense, not even because they're incapable of scoring without them, because they certainly are. I mean, they want a championship without him. But it's it's hard to go from a guy like Dennis who's has who has the ball in his hands so much,

suddenly not having the ball at all. And then and then all of a sudden, all of these guards who have been getting the ball a lot less, they're not

getting the ball a lot more. And you know, Lebron does a lot of playmaking, but he's not a give it to me every time type of guy the way that Luca or James Harden is so like it's one of those things where I think that kind of threw them for a loop a little bit, and a bunch of different things got got discombobulated, and uh, I tend to think that that the talent and stuff is still there. My main concern is just will Lebron and a D be Lebron and a D. Because if they aren't, there's

there's there's no point in even doing this. There's just too much talent in the league right now. The teams they have to go through are too good. The only way any of this works is if Lebron is the best player in the world and a D is the fourth best player the world. That's the only way this works. If you're gonna be Proke, if you're gonna be the Clippers,

you're gonna be Denver. Yeah. I would say if I could offer any sort of maybe silver lining for any of the folks that are listening that are Laker fans, um that that you know I've watched those Kobe and shatyears, Um that that year after they won their first championship, they were notoriously bad on like they were bad all season on defense, and this Laker team wasn't up until

a D and Lebron came back. You know, I don't know if they think that they can just turn on and switch Lebron and eighties specifically um, but if they do think that they could do that, it seems like that's what they're trying to do, because there's you know, I think one of the easiest tells is the fact that on the offensive and Lebron was deferring a lot to Alex Cruso and we was, you know, they were running up like a two man game, like Crusoe's trying

to set up drumming post plays, and I was just like, what is it? This office doesn't even make any sense, Like this is not even something that we've done all the season, you know, And so I think that's something It's been so different that it just doesn't make any sense.

That play where Kyle Lowry finished um that lay up to close the half, the Brons about to jump to defend it, and then last week he decides not to, And I was like, Oh, that's interesting, because that's definitely a play that Lebron would have made, like in a real you know, real do or die sort of situations. So we make those players in the postseason NonStop. Yeah, exactly. And so it's just, you know, I think all this

stuff you guys are mentioning is value. You know. Eight maybe a little bit tentive because of his injury, Braun, Maybe a little tentive because of his injury. Um, but hey, we we don't have the luxury of having like a five game lead over this over the two seeds like we did last time. So we'll see, we'll see how it checks out. Been hanging out as long as you want, Man, I'm gonna try to get a couple more people in here. Yeah,

I'm I'm gonna call it for the night. I just want to, you know, jump in contribute and you know, you guys are doing a heck of a job. And I help everybody listening, and you guys have a wonderful evening. I'll be lurking in the background shore. Oh right, let's do. Let's get two people up here to ask questions and then we'll call it a night since it's super late. And then I'm sure Roger and I may even do another one of these tomorrow. Let's see. Let's try DJ YEO. Yeah,

you're right. I think people people requested a while back and probably forgot. Oh goodness, let's try a J A J. What's up? What's going on? Yeah? How's it going? Man? Thanks very good man? Yeah, man, of course, man, you know, I got I'm I'm kind of stuck on that CU's quote. Man, He's like, you know, a lot of the fans on you are fifty ft Yankosol, he's too slow, unathletic. But then you see the other half is just like the assault.

I actually might be the glue for this team. And then that Coups quote was telling because even them, even the players, are like, I think we might need Gasol out there, you know what I mean, Like it's obvious, you know, and at this point we need gasolve And there's plain and simple, that's it. So I'm just a double check. I wanted to see the actual quote. There isn't an actual quote? Is this an from vig Tennant?

Says Kuzma, endorsed giving Marcusol playing time as one potential tweak the Lakers can do to get out of the funk. There and kind of a no brainer. Get a get a defender out of the pain. You might help Lebron and a d get going, which you know is arguably their most important thing right now, even more important than their defense because you can always audible back to that defense. Um, just like going a D at the five and playing three, you know, really good effort guards at the point of attack.

But that that quote is quite the quote is crazy because it means that we're not crazy. Uh. It legitimizes

our concerns. It goes to show you that, you know, like it, like we're not being irrational fans here, Like the dudes, the dudes are in that locker room are looking at each other and thinking like like this doesn't make a whole lot of sense, you know, and and uh and hopefully having cus they're um kind of voicing that that that helps put the pressure on a little bit um and maybe even if Frank doesn't do anything,

maybe that pressure helps drumming to play better. I'm starting to think that kind of internal pressure is a good thing. And we forget Like this team started I think what one and six, and I believe that was with Gasol at the starting lineup and all the numbers kind of bear out that he's playing well and and the team knows this. I mean, like like if we see it,

they see it as well. So I'm, like I said before, I think Drummons in the Maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I feel like Drumms and devailable right like once the playoffs have we forget Javelle started every game last year and he drove us crazy at times, but then in the playoffs game, Dwight started a lot of the games or Jabelle was benched for a lot of series, and I think that's what happened. Now they're still kind of playing with fire here. Um, I don't know if

Marcusol is okay with how that is. Playing time is going being being pushed up and down game in the game, but I still think he'll be a key part and the team knows this. I mean, it's pretty clear anyone who's watching can tell that Gasol helps his team tremendously on on both ends. The crazy thing with the Drummond thing is the Becassal thing is he's he's got another year on his deal and I'm pretty sure it's not a player option or anything punky like that, like, it's

just just straight up additional year on his contract. So it's like if he needs to be a part of your plan in some in some way, shape or form, I mean, otherwise, what was the point of doing all of this? Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think it was to please a D and maybe even Lebron because I feel like they really wanted a name like drumming, or they just wanted drumming on the team, and it wasn't really what was best for the team, which for me, I think Gassoul is right now best for the team

because he could spread, He could spread the floor. I mean, he could shoot from long distance. Drumming is kind of like, you know, he's he's just kind of download and he either gets a rebound and puts it back or he's you know, Lebron sets him up and he misses a dunk. It's like, you know, there's there's no heavy medium and you know what I mean. I mean, I'm not gonna be it's not all on drumming. I mean, let's be real. I mean, there there's been there's been. I mean A

D was awful. I mean, he was giving up his defense. He don't look like a d that let's be let's be real, so I can't put it all on drumming, but he's not the team just honestly, it's very Clippers right now. It's just kind of like they feel like they can turn it on at any time. But the difference is they're they're not healthy. That's I mean, that's get serious. They're not healthy. And the thought of them they think that, oh, yeah, we have a switch that

we can flip on it anytime. That that's not gonna work this season, you know what I'm saying. Like Denver's tough, the Jazz are tough. I mean that's I mean, as hard as it is to say, the Clippers are right there, they're like the silent assassin is just they're just waiting. The weeds just kind of ready to pounce, you know what I'm saying. So it's like we got our work cut out for us big time. I just want to read the shout out. Chase Taylor thirty two sent me

the Kuzma quote. Um Kusuma says, I'm not sure what to do. I wish we could get a little more time out there with Mark. That would be something that was pretty good for that would be pretty good for us for sure. So that's a full quote from Hovan Hovan boo hoo, just out. So, yeah, it was a

nice little push for Gasol. But I think that's pretty clear and just to be fair, like just to be fair to a D like this was when it was reported both Lebron Andrew and a D wanted Audrey Drummond, right, I think that was the reports they both recruited him heavyan the theory of Andre Drummond is still there right like within engaged Anthony Davis, two people who should be dominating the offensive rebound who should be taken away the

rim right be able to move their feet. Drummond can really move his feet when he knows which direction he's going, But like when you know Sich directs he's going, he can move his feet pretty quickly get out to the corners m two shooters when everyone is engaged. And we haven't seen that yet, so just still give him a little bit of the of the Banta doubt until that happens. But yeah, for sure, I think as all should be

should be playing. I made the comparison earlier to Rondo and was saying that, like, you know, there was a similar phenomena with Rondo, where the coaching staff and everyone was pushing, pushing for him against the greater you know, knowledge of all the stats that we knew and what we were seeing with their eyes. The difference was is like Rondo was was Rondo was like actively shaving points when the Lakers were actually trying and Lebron and maybe

you were good. So that was the huge difference. Like Drummond has been pretty bad, but he's been pretty bad for a team that also has been pretty bad just in general. Um, so that's the one thing that kind of if if you're gonna, if you're gonna make an excuse for him, the excuses that the team is bad right now, and so maybe that he's kind of just being brought down with the ship, if that makes sense.

And so I would, like I said before, I'd like to see and maybe this is what the coaching staff is hoping for is just you know, they want to they want to get into these postseason environments and they want to turn these games into total rock fights, and they're hoping that hey, if we're in a rock fight

and it's just a super physical playoff series. But Lebron and a d are being Lebron in a D. Then we'll just win games one, O, two to ninety two, you know, and we'll just beat the hell out of teams physically, and Drummond will have some mislayups, but physically he'll just be a huge pain in the ask to deal with for other teams, and and it'll just be part of that physical on slaught of Lebron and NAD. Maybe that's what they're thinking, and well, I guess we'll

find out. But what's funny is that's what they were doing when they didn't have Lebron and a D. They were just being super physical, and that's how they were beating teams, like beating teams with really good defense, their guards, being physical at the top at the point of the tech buying screens. And that's just all gone gone downhill recently. But we have maybe when that picks up, Drummond will we'll play better and and he can fit into more

like a natural scheme with a D. And everyone engaged. Yeah, um a j thanks for having on, man. We really appreciated man. Yeah, man, thank you for having me on. Appreciate you. All right, we'll take we'll take one more question before we get out of here. Since it's super late. Let's try. Let's try t and he bounced out. Let's try zach a ryo. Y is zachar right? What's that? Man? Can hear us? Nothing? All right? Let's try Will will be the one for us? Man? Will can you hear us? Will?

All right? No? Will see for the podcast version, I'll try to edit this kind of stuff out for you guys. I appreciate everyone that's in here. By the way, is our first basis, so just working out, working out the gigs, working out the kings yet, Julian, Let's try Julian, what's up? Man? Thanks for hopping on. You know what, I don't really have a question per se. You guys covered a lot of stuff, But since a lot of people were coming on here and not speaking, I felt like I needed

to jump on and say something. Um, this is the one thing I would say, Dude, I don't really have like um, I don't really have like the worst to express like what's going on? But um, I will say this. Lebron is a psychopath. He is a single path. This dude like he for some reason, he loves he thrives

in chaos. And I don't know what it is, but like this reminds me so much of the last the Last year Bubble Games because there's a lot of similarities with the whole with the drumming, uh integration and Deon Waiders. Because if you would have gone back to the Bubble Games, you would have thought that Deon Waiters was about to

be a big piece for the Lakers rotation. Just think about how many minutes they were playing him in the Bubble like they were playing him a lot of minutes in those seating gas He was playing twenty plus minutes a lot of nights. And there's something about the games leading up to the playoffs where Vogel and the coaching staff they like to use these games to figure out who they're going to put into the rotation and who

they're gonna basically bench for the playoffs. So right now I get a big feeling at Treads is not gonna be a big part of the rotation if he if something doesn't change, because him and him and Drummond they play a similar role and Gasol brings something different. And even though the Gasol is not playing right now, I keep telling people to be patient because I think they

already know what they get from Gasol. They already know what they get from him, so like they don't need to put him out there to kind of to find out what he's going to give them. So I think his spot is already kind of solidified. And you guys already kind of said something like that. I think Rods

did um. But Lebron is a psychopath, dude, Like, I don't, I can't even I really don't know what's going on to the fullest, But I'm like, I don't not panicking because the more things start to go haywire, the more I know that Lebron is going to like kick into another gear, you know what I mean. Well, Julian, first of all, your optimism is exactly what we all needed on this to come in here and and just you know, sometimes it really is that simple. And let's let's pray.

Let's let's pray at you're right, because I agree with you. I mean, I had a guy, uh Joe is his name,

was one of my friends here on Twitter. It was tweet me in the middle of the Sacramento Kings game, and he was, you know, complaining about Anthony Davis just like the rest of us, and he was saying something along the lines of telling the story of that time A D was playing video games with Dennis Shruder and then Lebron FaceTime in and Lebron was watching the Bucks game while A D was what was playing video games And he's like, I just don't think he takes it

that seriously. And I don't think that that's necessarily fair criticism of Anthony Davis, because guess what, not everybody wants to completely surround themselves with basketball all the time. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. However, Lebron is a psychopath and he is completely obsessed with basketball, and I think a lot of people take the fact that he's not a super polished basketball player and they twist that into a like a lack of skill, lack of

love of the game. Lebron, you know, shows his love of the game in different ways. I think. I think he his work ethic is primarily dedicated towards his body, and that he works on his skill set less than some of his peers. But he is completely in psychotically obsessed for the game, and that is something that I think will eventually snap into uh snap into a gear with the specific group to try to to to whip

him into shape. Yeah, you know what about Lebron over the years, he is the guy that will step up in the locker room and to him out for destroying a for leaving of road locker room messy, like he's like, you know what, I think that might be the only reason why the guys are looking a little loss right now is because Lebron is not He's not bringing out the whip. He's not like he's not controlling every possession.

He's giving it to Caruso and standing back. And sometimes this team, they they move at Lebron's beat a little too much. Ever, they think rely on him too much, especially a D. Like if a D doesn't see Lebron locked in, he kind of like lollygags or something. He tries to like just feel feel his way out. And when Lebron finally snaps, which is coming. Do you see his quote about the playing tournament, It's coming. He's going

to snap eventually, He's gonna get tired of it. But in a roundabout way to do I think he don't like it easy. And I don't even know if he knows that he does this. It's like he waits for things to get so bad that he like he has no choice and he just said, he said, this is the worst we've been. There's no way to go but up. He just said that tonight. It's like he waits for it all, like all the wheels to fall off, bro, before he just like snaps, and when he does snap,

they do have another gear. So like when that guy say they don't have another gear, they do have a gear. They do have a switch and it happens when Lebron snaps, and when they snap that they can turn on like this defense. That's just all worldly, Like they have another like the switch, another gear. Bro. You know when when when you call the Lebron the psychopath, what I thought it was like after that game went against Houston and then like they panned to Lebron sitting there on the

stores table with a D and he's like, Okay, it's time. Um. But yeah, that's why I keep comparing this to the Bubble games, because this is the only other time I can remember like this iteration of the Lakers kind of just not playing hard. Like it's different between not playing well and not playing hard. Right, the defense usually just doesn't drop off to this level. And I was going back watching some of the seeding games, Like we forget they got blown out by Oklahoma City. They were they

played all their guys that game. They got blown out by uh by Houston, that same Houston they destroyed in the second around. So so I think you're right, Lebron is a psychopath. Like it's the only difference here is like they still have to try to find some breaths.

Like there's like like like we we made fund of the Clippers to do this a lot last year, right, but like there's a respect to like the continuity and a respect to like be the chemistry of the game that you have to put in a little bit, right, like just walking into the playoffs blindfolded and expecting Lebron to whip everyone in in like shape. It's just not

the problem, yeah, to get a process to go. But but as me and Jason talked about a lot, this team is built around Lebron James like that that's the way this team is built. It's built around his shock creation.

So when they don't have kiss shock creation, it it boils to other different issues, especially when Shrewder doesn't play, and that boils onto the defensive end, not getting back in transition, turnovers, all that stuff, all all compounds, but like expecting, I know Lebron will be there when it matters, Like I know he's gonna play hard when it matters. It to me, it's not about that, it's getting everyone

on that same page. So when he does turn it on, everyone can run with him, right, Like he can't be going a hundred miles an hour while you know someone else is going eighties, someone else is going seventy because it's just it just worked. So that's where I want to I want to see the team going. But people, I don't think it's time to panic yet. But like, I think you're right, but all the games are close

to that, you know. And Joe Jason, I'm glad Jason brought up that Indian looked dude, Like you go back and look at those bubble games from last year. Dude, they were getting smoked by Indiana, bro, Like, who is it?

T J. Warren was smoking them like, he looked at like Jordan the third bro Like this dude was smoking them bro like, and they looked like they couldn't keep up with anybody, And like that's that's why it's like I look at this and I'm like, damn, it's just it just reminds me too much of that bro where it's like how Lyriach and I looked like t J. Warren looked last year during the bubble games, during the

seeding games. And I really don't know why, But when you see somebody like um Handley, Phil Handley going on on Instagram and responding to people saying, you know, talking about we like, basically they some people value regular season games and we don't. Like I don't know why they do it, but they do it, and they are playing with fire. But like that's what I mean by Lebron being a psychopath. This dude love playing with fire. Dude

like he loves playing with fire. Like I don't know if they want to see, like Lebron is using these games to be like let me see, let me see if drumming is going to be valuable for let me see if Caruso can set up drumming. Let me like, it's just these weird little things that he's doing, you

know what I mean. And I don't know why. I mean, I joke, I joke all the time that you know, for people like us if you if you want to go play a pickup game tomorrow and there are a hundred people in the crowd and you're run through layup lines before the game or whatever, you literally be covered in adrenaline because he'd be like, Man, I'm playing in

front of a hundred people, It's sweet. Lebron literally has played in so many high leverage moments in his career that like, he shows up in Sacramento in front of the crowd of twenty people and you can't really he doesn't feel it, know what I mean. He doesn't get stoked for that, And I think, like I think, at the end of the day, like there is some truth to the fact that he thrives in adversity because it

brings the best out of him. But that said, like my guess is with his competitive nature, that doesn't mean he actively seeks out adversity. I think it's just a symptom, a side effect of of him just kind of not taking every single moment super seriously, which is which is which is part of the deal. But do you really

want to see what happens tomorrow? Bro? I really want to see what happens tomorrow, because it wouldn't be the first time this year where they laid down to I think it was this year where they they lost to a bad team on the backer back and then the next night they smoked. I think they did it with the Rockets, or was it or was it the Nuggets. Earlier this season they hid it somebody where they looked like they lost to a bad team and then the

night after they smoked a good team. Yeah, I want something. I expect Lebron to play. I mean, look if you look at the situation, and they were down sixteen when he checked out with six minutes left, and it was one of those deals where my my guess is he was again like I'm a little tight, I'm a little store tomorrow is a Muslin Like, let's just let's let's start treatment right now, because if I start treating it right now, I've got a better chance of my team tomorrow.

I didn't. I didn't. I didn't take the sore ankle thing as a sign of concern. I mean, I could be wrong. I'm not Lebron. I don't know what he's thinking, but that's kind of that's kind of where I was at with that. Yeah, smart though, there there was no way they can really come back. I mean, so I think it was a smart move. So when people are panicking about him saying that the ankle was sword, I wouldn't pant it too much about that. I really just

think that he started treatment early. Just like you said, Bro, they they've seen the game was out of reach. So he's like, you know what, let's get ready for tomorrow and as long as he plays tomorrow. I don't know, dude, I got this feeling about tomorrow, Bro, We'll see. I got a feeling at us feeling. They shocked a lot of people, Bro, because there's been a against a good team, against a good team, it's been so they've been a while. They played back to back to back to back games

against like Washington. It was a good team. But they don't They're not significant in the NBA landscape, and I think the Lakers didn't take them that seriously. You had the Kings, you had this Raptors team, and then the there's one other game in there where they were playing against somebody who wasn't actively really relevant. But you know, the truth of the matter is just like that, like tomorrow is. It's not a muslin, but it's one of those games where like you would certainly think that a

desperation would kick in at some point. I mean it was desperation didn't kick in tonight, and you certainly hope that tomorrow would be tonight. Um, Julian, no problem. Yeah, I just want to I just want to read this, uh this Lebron quote Lebron James on the planned tournament from Bill Aorum. Whoever came up with that sip needs to be fired. That's hilarious. For for whatever it's worth, I think complaining about the point in tournament is lame. I'm the opposite. I love it. I think it takes

away this tanking stuff. I hate the Oklahoma City is I think it's complaining about the plane tournament. Okay, Okay, I thought you were talking about the place tournament. Yeah, yeah, I love it. It takes away all this tanking, this blamee taking even though Oklahoma City all these picks and they're still tanking doesn't make sense to me. But yeah,

so I love it. And you know that's what they're facing here, like this is the consequence of not caring about any of these games, Like you, you might fall into this this plan tournament. So hopefully they win against Denver, and not just the plane tournament or not just the taking, it also gets all the teams that are in the playoff. I'm still trying, like like this where where Phoenix, Utah, Denver and the Clippers are all really good, Like finishing six,

seven or eight isn't as big as a deal. Uh So literally, you know, look at you look at the standings. You might think, oh, like Lakers, Blazers, uh and and Mavericks are all going to finish somewhere in there. They might not care, but because of the playing tournament, it adds this extra urgency. So now it's not about finishing six or seven, it's about finishing six or playing and that's that just overcomplicates it to the point where teams

have to try hard. But you know, Lebron, well, I'm a huge Lebron fan, but I'm not a fan of every little thing that he says. And that strikes me as pointless plaining, dude, like you just you guys literally just showed up against the team, um that was the twelve seed in the Eastern Conference and without a significant rotation players including you know, they're one of the best scoring guards and one of their best young prospects and and you literally just laid down and and gave up

seventy in the first half. And there's no there's no there's no getting mad at Adam Silver about what happened just tonight, Like that's there's no one to look out there but in the mirror. Yeah, you make a good point about that, because a lot of the teams probably would be resting guys, like like the Clippers or even though it's probably be resting guys if if the playing tournament wasn't there, So now they're incentive to kind of stay stay in the good seeds. But but none of

this like matters. If the Lakers aren't playing the way they need to write, it doesn't matter who they play

in the first round. That's what's so fascinating to me about this is like I really think they don't care about who they play, Like all of us as fans probably don't want them to see the Clippers, but like I would love to know if they if they feel that way, if they like put the Clippers and some other tier than the than the Nuggets or the you know, the Jazz or the Suns, which it doesn't look like they do because they don't look like they care about

winning these games in any time any type of official manner. So we'll see tomorrow. How they treat tomorrow's game will be really telling. To me. Um, A game tag against Toronto is kind of tough to gauge because they should have one tonight just based on their talent um, but they didn't because their their effort was so poor that they couldn't even bridge that gap. And then Kyle Lowry

took tonight personal for some reason. But oh absolutely, I'm gonna take this moment to take my personal Kyle Lowry victory lap, because if you ask yourself right now, if you'd rather have Kyle Lowry and Ben McLamore or KCP and and and THHD, oh that's right. They we would have had to give up Shrewder too, So maybe maybe

maybe I'll just for all my victory lap. Um. Anyway, Uh, the point is is, I I do not take I do not feel any remorse for talking about how freaking good Kyle Lowry is because he's just really really good. But anyway, yeah, I do think I do think tomorrow will be it will be an interesting game to see

how they approach it. Uh, mentally and and uh, you know, you make a good point about the like trying to figure out what these teams think about each other, Like uh, like who knows, Like there there, it's all matchup based. Like the Clippers very clearly are terrified at Denver, like they cannot mentally aim that matchup. They just they just

completely crumble under that matchup. And then you know, Phoenix just beats the living ship out of the Utah Jazz every time they put you know, and then and then the Lakers have had a lot of success with Denver. You know, they went one and one against them the season,

but a d got hurt in the second one. And then uh, and like clearly like that when the Lakers really turned it on against Denver in that first matchup, like Denver really crumbled, And it's just everything's all that matchups And you know, it might literally be that simple. And the Lakers, for whatever it's worth, have a lot

of flexibility to attack specific matchups. But I am interested to hear to see what what tomorrow one is it being like, yeah, I guess my my final point for it tonight would just be like I've been standing watching like I think a lot of the fans have been also standing watching, like watching the mass I think Dallas lost tonight if I'm to sacrament but like, but none of that matters that the Lakers aren't playing the way they need to be, right, there's no point of me

watching Dallas lose. That the Lakers are gonna drop all these games. So they have to get themselves right, get get playing well, get lineups. That makes sense that they're gonna play going forward. And they have eight games left now, so I mean that's the same amount as the Bubble games, So I guess, I guess maybe maybe that would be their marker to start start really pushing for these games, to start to start trying and get get the effort going.

Hopefully Lebron's plays tomorrow as well, but again you have tomorrow will be big for me to see how the rotations play out, how they defend Yokis, do they do it? Do they do anything like match of dependence, try to scheme amount double team And I'm just interested to see that if if BOTHO can't get any actual data for how to defend Denver, because if they just don't play

with effort, then there will be no point. You won't learn anything from from tomorrow's game, as they didn't learn anything from tonight gave up seventy one points in the first half. You don't learn anything from a game tonight, am I exactly agree. Um, everyone who hopped in here and listened with us, I sincerely appreciate it. It looks like, judging from what I can tell from my wife's phone here, that my attempted screen capture from Jason tims Burner account

appears to have worked. UM, so I should be able to give you guys a full podcast version of this on the State of the Lakers podcast feed. You can find it on my Twitter page. You can find it on Roger's Twitter page. We usually do two or three shows a week. We may even do another one tomorrow night. Uh, depending on whether or not Rog has time for it. We'll see. Um, I'm just kidding anyway. I thank you guys so much for listening to Roger. I apprecient you

as always. Uh. We've obviously we're thankful to have all you guys hop on and give us some questions comments. Maples and Venet. We appreciate you guys as well, and we will see you guys tomorrow