Episode 56: Lakers/Suns Game 2 Postgame Spaces

I think the Sons are really good. You don't win that many games in the regular season without being a legit team, and they have all the continuity, even with Chris Paul going out, which we'll talk about later, but they have all this continuity they've built us through the regular season and it shows. It shows in pressure moments their guys have confidence to take big shots. We'll go I guess we'll cover campaign as well, but just huge

shots from those role players. Yeah, Like we're like you said, we're going to dive into the actual intricacies of it all, but the biggest Like if you're gonna add like a kind of like a story of this game, the story of this game was that the Sun's kind of came with you know, one of their best punches, so to speak, in an effort on both ends that included, you know, a huge run at the end of the game, and the Lakers punch was just a little better. And and

we're going to dive into all that. Um, welcome everybody to the State of the Lakers postgame show. Thank you guys so much for being patient with Rog and I as we were engaged in travels around the around the country. Rog came to my home state. I left my home state to go to my family's home state, and I've happened to catch the game one in a podunk, Texas sports bar in a town called Graham, which is that two hours outside of Dallas, at this ranch that we stopped by on the way out of town. And very

fortunate to catch the game. Very unfortunate to be able to record anything because there was like no self service out there or anything like that. But I appreciate you guys being patient with us. We're gonna try to cover as much as we can from these first two games, and then depending on how long we go, we'll try to get some of you guys up here to hang out. But I guess, I guess my first question for you, Roj is just where are you standing? How do you

feel after that game? Do you feel like the Lakers are in for an absolute fist fight here? Do you think the Lakers figured some stuff out? Do you think this is kind of flukey from Phoenix to be this competitive? Where what's where you at mentally right now with with this series? It's not glucky at all to me, like that you win that many games in the regular season, you're good team Phoenix is really well coached. They weren't going to go down easy, even with Chris Paul out.

A lot of people are trying to pick the Lakers in foo. I think you picked him tie. Um. I always thought this was a little longest series six previous probably not seven, but at least the sixth game. I just think they're really good. Devin Booker is a tough cover. The Lakers definitely figure some things out. But I guess my main takeaway here is like we need Anthony David to show up to the playoffs. Um, he was not there for Game one. He was definitely here tonight. He

was more aggressive. Um. I know there were still points of the game where he could have been a little bit more aggressive. But I thought he played a really good overall overall game. Um, he got to the foul line a lot and just Jumper didn't go down. But it was a good game from him, and that the Phoenix is just they're a tough team and they don't stop. They have guys off the bench who aren't scared of the moment. Cam Johnson campaign all this DeAndre Aden I thought,

had another list strong game inside. Even the Lakers figures and things out. So but the Lakers, their job, hero is to steal one, right, Like, that's what your job is. When you have the road team in the playoffs. Your your job is to get a split. Everyone would like to get to but your job really is just get one, get at least one. And they did that. They still home courtback and they go back to State full is Um. I think, as we know in regular playoffs, the home

the home team's role players shoot better. I think hopefully we get some of that. I want to go back. But yeah, I think that was a pretty solid game is what I expected. I didn't think we were just going to blow them out. Yeah. So one of the things that I talked about a lot last year, Um gosh, I can't even remember which series it was or which game,

but I'm pretty sure I talked about it with you. Um. But essentially the reason why it's so dangerous to trick a game off, you know, to essentially let a game slip away to feel things out or whatever it is that you do, uh, whatever it is that the Lakers did in game one, whatever you want to call that effort,

which we'll get into later. When you do that, and then you talk all the right stuff and you say like, oh, you know, we you know, we're gonna come out and be more aggressive in game two, We're gonna make the adjustments. And Anthony Davis is like, that's on me. I'll come back, I'll be better. That's all well and good, but you're never guaranteed to win a basketball game even when you play your best. And I thought the Lakers put forth

a considerably better defensive effort. I thought Anthony Davis was way better than he than he was in game one. Um, but here comes campaign with like the game of his life, and all of a sudden, you still you still can't guard DeAndre and in any screening role action with one of their guards, and Devin Booker goes on a run in the third quarter where he's surgical attacking you in the half court and so you almost lose. And don't get me wrong, it worked out, um in this series,

very well may work out for the Lakers. But that was what was frustrating to me about that game Game one in particulars It's like, yeah, you're feeling things out, Yeah it might all work out, but what if campaign makes one more of those shots, he misses a couple of those threes, and Lebron who is clearly a little bit hampered, I'm not concerned about it in the long run,

but that's the reality of his situation right now. Um, it's clear that that if some of those shots don't go in, they could be heading back to l a down to oh um. And so that's one of those things where it was a little frustrating for me hearing, you know, Darius story on Our Friend from the Laker Film Room podcast. He said this, Uh, he said this

on his post game show the other night. He goes, I'm a little sick and tired of hearing the same usual stuff from the Lakers after dropping a game one and and I and I kind of share that sentiment, but that's that. It is what it is. It all

worked out in this particular game. As far as Anthony Davis in particular, you know what I was most impressed with is he made huge, huge plays in that game even though his off the dribble jump shooting game is still completely broken, including his last one being an absolute airball uh long over the rim, a shot over DeAndre Ayton. So for you know, for him to continue to be

physically aggressive on both ends of the floor. He drew some fowls in the paint being aggressive, trying to drive to the basket, and then obviously the two huge threes he made in the second half. For him to do all that when his you know, mid range game, which was his bread and butter and last postseason. For him to do all that while his mid range game basically completely abandoned him, I thought was a pretty impressive game. And at the end of the day, all you need

is the wind who cares about all the details. Yeah, you brought up those late two threes. I think that was huge for him to just keep shooting them. There are a lot of players and some of my mentions hoing to just tell me that, like people are passing up shots. They definitely were. The Lakers shot thirty percent from three. They went out to him for thirty three. I thought they got a lot of open looks right, like a lot of them were good. K CP passed up a lot of them. I think he missed all

his three. Um Kuzma missed his open threes. Just a lot of dudes who usually have been hitting him through the regular season, just we're not making the three. Phoenix also only shot. They only took twenty six three, which feels low for them, but that the Lakers really kind of closed them out. But yeah, think Davis Man, his his jumper wasn't going. Um. He was kind of adding to that, adding to all the players who weren't shooting at the end of the game. It looks like nobody

wanted the ball. Um. Nobody wanted the ball at the end. And he was one of these passing up shots. But he hit those two big ones late and he saw him like delt how to stream Um and they have to. He has to keep shooting those that that midrange a little shot there, like he does settle sometimes, but it's part of their offense, like it's part of what makes them so tough. His isolation scoring, especially when they're playing

with two bigs. They closed with him at the five, which I thought really read him up a little bit more. But if they're playing with two big that little that jumper has to be falling at some point, and I think it will, especially off picking roles. Um he was missing all of them, but it has to go that that that's part of his game. Um, So I think it will. I think some home games will help for him and the whole team. Just get the shooting right.

Usually can't win shooting thirty percent from three, like usually just do not win. Um, the Lake has held next to like ninety four points before that. I don't know what that Devin Booker foul pest was at the end. That was kind of dude. But before that they had on like ninety four points in the first game. That's really good for the Son's team. That's that's a high powered offense. Again, there's no Chris Paul, but that's it's still a really good offensive team. And to hold him

to that is is good. So I guess we can kind of keep moving here, Like what did what do you see from like their defense? Like what what change do you think in that in that first in that in that game before after Game one, so well, first of all, we saw a complete shift away from Montrez Harrold into Marcusol. There was there was a bunch of really interesting stuff with the rotation. I don't know if you noticed this, but in the first quarter they stayed with Lebron and sent a D to the bench and

they brought in Marcusol. And then in the third quarter they took Lebron out early left a D in the

game with marcusol. Um. But you know, for all the things that Marcusol did to help them on offense, I thought his lack of foot speed actually hurt them a bit and pick and roll, and you know, as far as the Laker defense goes, they this is the most fascinating part of of of an NBA playoff series is when when a really elite defense like the Lakers turns it up and brings the effort in a way they did not in Game one, and they shut down all of the easy stuff, and yet still the Phoenix Suns

managed to generate a bunch of advantages and it obviously for them, it came through screen and roll with campaign and Chris paul A little bit of Devin Booker in the second half, although he wasn't as good as he was in Game one, but it was all the same exact thing. It was DeAndre Atan setting a really solid screen at the point of attack that got whoever it was, whether it was k C. P Cruso, Dennis Shrewder off

the ball handler. So now the ball handler is craning into the paint and the Lakers are trying to corral him with the big man, but the foot speed is too quick with those guards and they're getting around the big man and when the help comes there, spraying it out around for threes and so it will be really interesting to see is even though the Lakers stepped up their defensive intensity and there's gonna be a lot fewer mistakes when we look at the film, they're gonna have

to figure something out on how to slow down that pick and roll because they made the Sons made it look easy at a lot of stretches tonight. And Eton is so good after setting that screen, diving to the rim and just making himself available, and then when he catches the ball, he keeps it high above his head and he just dumps it into the basket and and and that pairing works extremely well. And so what I'm really really interested to see what what Frank Vogel wants

to do. My personal opinion is that they need to drop the center's put a d in that screening action and start switching some of this stuff. Now. The problem is is that then Eton is doing a really good job of diving to the rim and then uh posting up. But that's where you know, the the overall foot speed of the Lakers. By dropping a center and going with another Wayne player or another guard will make it so

that they can rotate and do a little bit better. Um, And then we can also talk actually, what's your opinion on the defense and then specifically what did you think about Dennis Shrewder defensively tonight? Yeah, so I thought defensively, like they really try to sell out on eight and he still had he still got a lot of good looks in the paint. But I thought they had like a dum and Drummond kind of step up a lot higher right on Devin Booker trying to not let him

get that mid range pull up a little easier. And they have Lebron who got a bunch of steels early, right because he was just reading that past and I was going to eight, and I think he picked off like two or three eight. He got a few picks as well, and just having those dudes as a help defender, and you could just see there their engagement was so different right just to start this game. You could tell their engagement on defense a d lebron. Both of them

were just ready for that play. And I think the son's kind of adjusted a little bit eight and still got good looks. He has some good passes out to like mckel bridges and other dudes to hit threes. But I thought they were really trying to sell out and eating and not let Devin Booker kind of get to that mid range jumper. That's what I thought they did, and I think it kind of worked out. You hold them to like ninety seven points, he should be able to win. Um, that's a winnable formula for them, and

I think they'll still they go to it. They'll live with h Like I know you said, Mark up beat off the dribble a few times by campaign. I believe it was right campaign campaign. Oh man, he had some step back threes that were just like prayers and I was thinking that just might not be that, this might

not be the game. But I think I think they'll live with like Campaign and like even book are kind of getting to the rim a little bit right instead of like hitting those those jumpers over them getting threes um creating shots for three. I think they'll live kind of with trapping him up top, and then if they switch, they switch and try to give help on eating and live with Campaign and those dudes hitting layoups at the rim.

I just have to hit a few crazy layoups DeAndre and also had like a crazy backhanded lay up around Andre Drummond. But I think it looks like David Man. It looked looks special. I was like, well, I was not expecting that, but yeah, like that, I think they'll

live with those shots. And if you can take away the open threes from mckel Bridges, Cam Johnson who got who got away a couple on a couple of threes to end the third, But like you can take away their three point shot, you'll live with that and then try to make it as tough as you can. Jevin Booker, m K c p who So we're really chasing him hard to kind of give him back pressure there. He got cooking a little bit in the third, but I thought they did a pretty nice job, like as they could.

And Jannis schuder Man, what a what a playoff level form of game, right, what a huge game to step up. They needed every one of his points. I don't know what he finished with. There's like twenty something points, I think, but it was huge. He was the only really one going for a little while. He kind of kept them afloat up there while the Suns we're kind of trying to come back. His pressure at the ram I thought

was huge. He got to the basket and got to the foul line, d a few threes, his majorines jumper as well. Um, he still got a little bit like score heavy, like he wasn't he wasn't passing his much, but they needed his points. What did you see from him so offensively? I thought he was fantastic And for all the reasons you said, like when things get staggered, because things get stagged in a couple of different ways

for the Lakers. A lot of times when Lebron gets fatigued, he rests s Wally's on the four, so he gets like he just starts throwing swing passes across the top, like basically just begging for somebody else to make a place that he can rest, you know. And then and Anthony Davis will get bullied off his position and won't even look at the rim or if he sees it. Sometimes when he sees the double, he doesn't even want

to look at the rim. So there are times when things we get stagnant, and having Dennis be aggressive is a huge value. But I do think there's a trade off there, and it's an interesting trade off because Vogel throughout the season, you know, when push comes to shove, he tends to favor defense, and I thought that Dennis shrewder in his inability to uh to really do anything

to fight through those screens at the point of attack. UM. I thought that that was part of the issue why the Lakers had so many defensive breakdowns in the second half. So it's an interesting conundrum because you need Dennis um on the floor to take some of the offensive pressure off of Lebron and a d but he's just not as good as a defensive player. Uh. Then when the Lakers go to like a Crusoe k CP type of backcourt, you know what I mean, and so, and again we

don't we don't have the answers. And that's what's interesting to me is I'm interested to see what Frank does because there's so many different things he could do. And you know, maybe maybe it's not switching. Maybe it's putting a D in the screening action and having him do a traditional drop coverage. But just because he's faster and more mobile and just a better defensive player, maybe maybe it just works better. I don't know. I'm really interested

to see what they do. But I thought I thought that was the interesting conundrum of the Dennis Shrewder experience, was he was kind of a lifeline for them and the defense on the offensive end in the second half, but I thought he was also the one of the primary culprits for them falling apart and pick and roll defense. Yeah, he's a little small for Kevin Booker, right, like the match up with him, a little small Frand but he fights, but he gets hit on screens a lot too, and

it really freed up Booker. Um in that third quarter. Yeah, they needed his offense. They need another ball handler. Um. I think they ran a line up. I forgot what it was. They also had THHD out there, which I guess we don't really talk about, but that was that was weird. His minutes as well, but they had a line up out there. I think it was with a d um a d at the five and I forgot who else was out there, but there was no ball

hammer out there. They had to kind of call a time out, and I thought he was huge with that, allowing them to not just have to have Lebron bring it up every time, and that's a huge we we talked about this all year, like that's gonna be used in the playoffs, and it was tonight, like just having him to be able to create create his own shot. They needed every single point out of that. They only scored I think what like a hundred hundred nine nine

to nine, so they needed his points. He had a see what he finished with, Yeah, and he finished with twenty four, So he was he was huge. Um. I guess the other guy, like we can really move on to was Andre Drummond, who seems to be the main, the main character every single night. Um. I thought he I thought he had a really good game. What do you what do you see from Andre Drummond? I thought he was fantastic. Um really throughout the game, you know his you know, we always say that Andre Drummond is

a good play, bad play guy. Right, It's kind of the joke that we like to make. Yeah, and the truth is just tonight it was good play, good good play,

good play, bad guy. You know, bad plays. Sorry, butchered that, but you get the point, Like he just he made a lot of good plays, and so the bad plays were a lot easier to stomach, Like when Andrew Drummond gets uh beat to his spot when he's trying to make a post move and then he turns to face the basket and he holds the ball at his waist and every single time and gets snatched away from him. That's frustrating. But those were the those plays were in

the minority. Today. I thought he was excellent on the defensive end. I thought he grabbed a bunch of key rebounds on contested rebound type of plays where it could have gone either way. Um. I thought that offensively, he did a really nice job and a couple of like those you know, ducans and seals underneath the basket, and and he's starting to generate a little bit of chemistry with Lebron that all works. You know, if it were up to me, you know, it would be kind of

staggering him with Anthony Davis. I'd play him, you know, fifteen to twenty minutes and basically have him be the five when eighties off the floor, and then I'd have a handful of minutes a game where you played both bigs, maybe in the minutes when Lebron's not out there where you're just hoping to physically dominate them because you know you're not gonna be able to score. I don't know what that looks like, but you know this today was a good, good Andre Drummond game. And uh and for

the most part he was. He had his moments in game one where he was okay too. He's just a little bit less. That balance wasn't really there for him where where his productivity was high. But I thought Drummond was great. I'm sure you feel the same way. Yeah, he was. He was off his his physicality. I thought I was really important in this game. I'm really trying to match up with DeAndre and he got twelve rebounds. I think a lot of them are offensive offensive rebound

and he was finishing down low. I know, we always talked about he has a lot of loudness, takes a lot of loudnesses. He had a few again tonight, a couple of like fox balls where you try to catch it and it just falls out of bounds. But I thought he was really good. He really finished down low, finished some passes from Lebron cut at the right time, pretty much like fell fell into the scheme that they

were trying to run. I'd think to be a nice job kind of stepping up on book here and being in the right possessions where he was supposed to be on defense. Um, so yeah, I thought he had to get to get a really good game. Um, I guess like the other guy, I think that's really important. Here is Marcosol. We've been begging for Marcus all minutes, right and uh and we and we finally got him. And I thought it was nice to have both of them there. Tres kind of got cut out the rotation. But I think,

what do you seem from Marcusol from tonight? Well, offensively, the the the impact was immediate. I mean I think it was their first I think it was their first possession, like late second quarter where or what late first quarter

excuse me, where he immediately went to Lebron. James posted up and they put Marcusol one pass away, which is my favorite thing that they do with him, because if he doesn't take a three, he can make a quick decision up there, and he's such a good passer that he's like the ideal guy to be making that second read off of a Lebron double team. Um uh. And he made it three immediately and kind of free things up. There were a couple of moments where I thought he

was overpassing. Uh. Specifically, there was one in the in the fourth quarter where he caught the ball wide open at the top of the key with two seconds on the shot clock and should have taken the three and then swung it to Crusoe and he was shot clock violation. Um. Where that's like classic Marcusol, like being a little too passive. Uh. The he you know, Marcosol always unlocks this like back

door cut part of the Laker offense. But you know, clearly Monty Williams has coached the hell out of those guys because they weren't giving up any of the back door stuff to the Lakers, and they were trying like they would they give the ball to Market at the top of the key or at the elbow, and Lebron would do a hard V cut or any of these other guys would do these hard cuts and just nothing

was open. Uh, So credit to Monty Williams. Like that was again, I'm going to reiterate this the biggest takeaway I had from this game is like, the Suns are extremely well coached team that plays their ass off, has guys that can make plays, and they like, you're gonna have to beat them. They're not just going to roll over. It's gonna be a lot like the Denver Nuggets series

last year in my opinion. But again, and we mentioned this earlier, the only downside with Mark was on the defensive, and I thought his lack of foot speed was a

little bit of a problem. He made some defensive plays, but in general, like that, when you when you're doing some sort of catch head or drop coverage and you still get beat to the basket, it's like the mother of all defensive breakdowns because now you've got two guys on the guy who had the ball, but he no longer has the ball because he's kicking it out to somebody. So you're you're trying to cover too much ground in your rotations and you're just inevitably gonna give up an

open shot. So again, I'm not sure if this is necessarily the series for him because of how much pick and roll he's gonna have to guard. Uh. I like him better if Denver advances and he's in the next round. But it's unquestionable what he does for them offensively, just by keeping the floor a little bit more spaced. And he had the biggest shot of the game in my opinion, And when Phoenix went up to I think on the it was and nobody wanted to shoot. It felt like

nobody wanted to take a shot. The ball swung around, Sun swung around, and finally went to Mark and he he kind of set his feet for a few seconds and I hit that huge three to put him up one, and yeah, I hit the space thing he gives I thought was great. Again. He got beat up to dribble a few times on defense, but I think you live with that. Um his it's smart to his i Q next to Lebron, I think really showed off and he

did a nice shot on defense as well. I don't think even though he just got beat a few times, I thought he was in the right place, um, and he was connected with the team. So yeah, I love that he played tonight. We'll see if it continues in game three. Right, you never know how the how the rotations go. But I feel like you proved that he should be out there. There's no way he should be collecting uh D m ps um and in playoff games

like he shouldn't be them on playing. We touched on this a lot, like he should be the one out there if you want to take away minutes from someone his treads and drummond, but this all should be out there. Um, But what are you looking forward to? Uh? In game three? Of the most like what are you are you looking forward to? See? What adjustment? Maybe? Uh, it's the most most important thing. You want to see a couple of things. So first of all, like I would expect to see

a lot of Chris Paul in game. In game three, I thought, uh, you know, I thought Reggie Miller was flapping off at the mouth without really knowing what he was talking about about the Chris Paul injury. And that kind of bothered me because like, don't get me wrong, and Chris Paul has heard he's clearly having some stuff

with range emotion with his shoulder. But I thought the primary reason why Chris Paul sat out a lot in the second half was because Campaign was literally going nuclear and Campaign is small, and you know, like as I was watching the game, there was a moment like I think nine minutes left in the fourth quarter where Chris Paul checked back in, and I was like, oh, this will be interesting because if they check Chris Paul back in this game and they leave Campaign in, uh, They're

gonna have a massive problem with rebounding. And if they take Campaign out, you know, even with Chris Paul at his absolute peak, you know, like Campaigns is having an all time or type of role player game. Like You're like, he's just like it would be like the seven Mario charms that Thomas out in his point NBA Finals game. Like sometimes when the role players that hot, you gotta ride, you know what I mean. So that was the interesting

dynamic there. And guess what they left him both in and immediately that they started giving up offensive rebounds and fouls and Anthony Davis Scotts in the line a couple of times, and if you watch those plays, the Lakers would put him in screen and roll, and uh, you know, Aton would get switched out and put on the perimeter against somebody, and then guess what You've got campaign and Chris Paul trying to box out gigantic guys underneath the

basket and they're giving up offensive rebounds. So I would expect a lot more Chris Paul in game three, just by virtue of the fact that you know, they're not gonna bank on campaign play in the way that he did tonight. I thought that was more of a of an in game adjustment. Um. I also think Frank Vogel is gonna have something for that screening role. I don't know what it is, but he's gonna have something for that screen and roll. I also expect role players to

make shots. This is something for the Lakers. This is something you and I have talked about at length. When when the Lakers, uh, when the role players played poorly like they did tonight, but Lebron and a D are great, they win. They just win by a small margin. And then when Lebron and a D play great and the role players play okay, they win by like fifteen. And then when Lebron and a d played great, and the role players played great. The Lakers are just gonna beat

the ship out of you. Like that's that. That's you know, game six of the NBA Finals kind of stuff. So tonight was one of examples where the role players like Kuzma had another pretty bad game. I mean, everyone was a lot better defensively, but Kuzma couldn't shoot, k CP couldn't shoot. Wesley Matthew's got a couple of open looks, couldn't make him. You know, Crusoe wasn't really making threes, although he made a couple of big offensive plays, uh

you know where he got into it. But that that little like driving fade away he made in the order was unbelievable. Uh, you know. But for the most part, the l a role players didn't have a fantastic, you know, uh perform like performance on offense. But it was in for them to win. And so what I look forward to it and what the Lakers are gonna need in in Game three and four is inevitably you're gonna get you know, a laxidi a laxadaisical defensive performance in there somewhere.

Probably if they go up two games to one, you're gonna need the role players to make shots to compensate for that, and I think they will. But that's gonna be the big thing that I'm watching. The other thing I'm gonna watch is the crowd. I'm really interested to see how many people Los Angeles lets into the arena,

because that Phoenix crowd was something else. And as we just saw, the Clippers got housed twice at home by the Mavericks and they look flat, and I you know, probably most of that is probably Clippers itis, but a good portion of that probably has to do with the fact that they don't have that rock and scrowd to kind of drive them, you know, because I think they were only letting like four thousand fans in. I'm not

I can't remember the exact number. So I'm really interested to see how many fans l A lets in and to see if if the Lakers can ride that because going going back to Phoenix up three one, I think is very very important because with LA, with the Lakers health issues, I would not want to get into a

long series in the first round. Yeah, every single every single playoff game feels like it's like five regular season games, right that aways talking about this, this team really needs continuity in chemistry, and it feels like every game they kind of build that. And that's why I'm seeing game three just to continue build UM and to see Anthony Davis continue to be aggressive early. I don't know if he'll see sixteen three does again, but hopefully his jumper

starts to go. But you can tell they get a little bit more comfortable every game, and that's all I want to see really in game three. UM, they should be able to ride the whatever fans are in their whatever home crowd is in that. They should be able to ride that, hopefully to a win. And you're ride role players hit shots at home, and they should. They should. They should hit shots when we go back to Staples, KHP Kusma. They did that for two Shape games, not

hitting a shot. I don't think who's hit a shot in game one either. They can't do that at Staples. I think Phoenix is a good and row team that they'll make you pay eventually. You can ride the run and a d like this, but they need a little bit help. Right. You can't be shooting from three. I think that's even worse if you take out what Lebron made from three. UM they're probably like or something for the rest of the team, like that's just not sustainable

winning basketball. Phoenix is too good. They'll eventually win those possessions. And yeah, a lot of Chris Paul is probably coming. Like Chris Paul is a huge part of the team. Obviously they missed them ons they're going back and thinking, if we had Chris Paul, we probably win tonight. Um. I think that's a fair kind of assessment from them. And yeah, we'll see if he's healthy, if he's ready

to go. Um and Devin book Rade, it will be a lot more aggressive and what's to night and Money's a really good coach, like he's gonna have them ready. So that's not just my want to see what they do. And hopefully Marcus Faull needs to play. Um, do you have anything else from from this game and the one coming? Yeah, I mean, you know, Chris Paul is the kind of

player that offsets some of Lebron's mental advantage. Um. What I mean by that is, I'm so used to rooting for Lebron teams and they're always the smarter and or prepared team later in the series because they have you know, arguably the smartest player in the league on their team. Well, you know, Chris Paul is right up there in the

top two or three smartest players in the league. So I expect, you know, the Suns to continue to make adjustments and continue to find ways to score against this Laker defense, and it'll be a really it'll be a

really really interesting, a really really interesting chess match. Um. The other big thing too to see is you know, like you mentioned that if if Anthony Davis can get some more of his intricate levels of his offense going, because that's something that they're absolutely going to need in my opinion, uh, in the long run as they face better teams. But you know, that's pretty much it. I'm trying to think if there's anything else, um from tonight,

I don't pick up my notes really quick, go ahead. Yeah, that's the last thing was just those huge shots from Lebron, like I think, uh actuated, don't take Levaka granted and I think you tweeted that you told your wife you would know that Lebron is gonna win that one. Um, but just crazy to see him continue to do that. Um, he had a huge three a huge fatally umper. Well I'm not sure he had bolts of his legs under him, but it went in. They were down one, I think,

and he hit that over Cam Johnson. Just humans baskets, just playoff Lebron Like he always said, I'm not going to worry about Lebron. I guess I was right with that. But he didn't seem like he was a little passive in the fourth but once once it came down to it, Um, he had some big shots. So credit to him. Credit to him did for doing that so consistently throughout the years. But it was cool to see him se him to

it again tonight because they needed it. Yeah, it was so funny because you know, campaign makes that ridiculous jab step jumper. I think it was over Caruso and the top of the building just blows off. It hits Yeah, it's none of the ram just literally snaps the net and he just kind of captured the whole Camp john there, the whole campaign night of this greatest night of his life kind of performance. I think it was actually Monty

who called the time out, if I remember correctly. Um, but there there was a time out right there, and in that time out, I looked over and I was like, yeah, like throughout his career, he just kind of finds a way to win these games, you know. And and it wasn't just eight six eighties six. It was eighties six with them having all the momentum, the Suns and you know, and and Lebron and and the rest of those guys.

They just picked him apart at the end of the game, made smart basketball plays, you know, Like you said, there was that huge shot that Marcusol hit, uh, Anthony Davis hit a big three, and then that shot against Cam Johnson. You know, he went to post him up um and this this is something that Jason Apples tweeted out, and

I actually thought it was interesting. You know, like on that play, he couldn't get much separation, Like he he drove baseline, got beat to the spot, um, turned, took a couple of power dribbles into the paint, wasn't really back in Cam Johnson down much. And I think a big part of that is he's just not pushing off super well on that leg. And then on that fade away he didn't get great lift. There was a lot of arm and wrist on that shot. But but he

just he just nailed it. And and you know, like like, like Maple said in his tweet, there was a lot of Lebron getting getting by on his brain and getting by on his experience at the end of that game, and for the record, like I said in the tweet, you know, like this is just this is why. This is one of the biggest reasons why I've I've I've always advocated for Lebron over the years, Like this is just what it's like rooting for him, Like he just he just finds a way all the time, and he's

such a winner. And that's why it always drove me so insane when his detractors would claim that he doesn't care about winning, or they use his finals record to try to say that he's a loser, or they act like it's lower on his his list of priorities. No, no, no, like above all, above, and beyond all else about this guy.

He is a winner. That's what he does. He has and he has an innate ability sometimes it's hard to really describe, but it just it just he knows how to win basketball games and and generally speaking, he's gonna win all the important ones. And I think that is kind of part of the experience. And you know, obviously. I'm sure Laker fans are very excited to have them

on their team. Yeah, it was cool seeing him like just chilled through the game, Like even though we were down one, it it never seemed like he was rattled, Like he was still just trying to make the right play, UM trying to pass it off kind of, and he got kind of trying to give the ball to KCP get him shots while like a game isn't balanced right now while you're shaking, and eventually pulls it out. So it was cool to see him kind of win the game. I think you're right, he won it with his mind

more than like his athleticism. He wasn't really getting to the basket like zoom fadeaways over Cam Johnson, which I just don't think he does if he's if he's feeling great, and I think that was still with the a D at the pot. So hopefully like these few days, it's where the Lakers play every other day, so I guess they play again on Thursday. They don't get a two day break in between. But I hopefully he's feeling even more better. I think he's getting his conditioning back as well.

Um as these games go on, so yeah, looking forward to game three, UM, what you see him? Do you see them winning? And three? I think the Lakers in five. So a couple of things, if you remember. I actually I didn't get a chance because I was out of town too to listen back to our postgame show after

the Warriors. Um, but when I was driving back from from Texas yesterday, I listened to it, and there were a couple of things that stood out to me that we talked about that were interesting, uh not, the least of which was the fact that we all just assumed the Warriors would beat the Grizzlies, which obviously did not happen. Um,

But we talked. We talked a lot about how like you know, I specifically, in my pick said that I picked the Lakers in five, and I said they'd neither lose Game one or Game three, and so they they lost Game one, and so my pick obviously is that

they'll win Game three and four. I think there's two days off between Game four and Game five, if I remember correctly, So then they have an opportunity, they have an opportunity to go home for go back to things for Game five, beat them, and then have some time off before they faced, you know that the winner of

Denver Portland. But the things that we talked that was, like I said, you know, the UH, some of the coverages that they took from the Warriors, they may have to use those against some of these Phoenix suns guards when they get going. So this was kind of a nice tune up game. And well, that very well may be the case here in Game three or four. The Lakers may have to start trapping some of these pick and rolls because of how much they're getting picked apart

by campaign and by and by Chris Paul. Chris Paul was unbelievable in the first half and pick and roll by the way. UM, So that that was that was one of the things I said. There was another thing where I had mentioned that, um that if Devin Booker went absolutely surgical like Kobe, that it would be a wrinkle in the series that could go in Phoenix's favor. And I would say that he has um that that stretch that he had there in the UH in the third quarter and then pretty much all the game one.

You know, the Lakers were just playing fantastic defense and it just wasn't enough because Devin Booker. Booker was giving you lefty little push shots. He was giving you a little ten foot runners in the lane. He was in transition euro step one leg fade away, you know, three's off the dribble. He's just giving you everything. And so uh that that that was definitely something that you know,

could have gone either way. Like Devin Booker could have had a rough first playoff series, but he's very much um every bit as good as he is in the regular season, which is an interesting wrinkle to this series. But it was fun just going back and listening to that podcast and and looking at all the things you and I were gonna be looking for, and and I guess what, some things have gone in the Sun's favor. But the Lakers are still one one and heading back to to l A. That's a pretty good spot for

them to be in. Yeah, I think that's the biggest adjustment of Phoenix. I think they'll know now that the Lakers are gonna sell out. I'm Devin book going to see what they'll do on the Game three. I think I think they'll bring it, bring the right adjustments, and then that's what's fun about the playoffs. It's like an adjustment to the adjustment to the adjustment and no one has done that more than Lebron Ron and a got eight.

He got some of that. Next year. We'll see how Devin Booker kind of handles that this is his first Playoffs. But yeah, I think Chris Paul will be ready. Um, those dude, that team is good and they're gonna be well, they're well prepared, and they're young. Guys, aren't don't look like they're scared of the moment at all. So it'll be It'll be a fun series, and it could be worse. It could be the watching the Clippers highlights right now and man, that just that team just looks absolutely down,

absolutely just depressed after that loss. Um, so yeah, it's gonna it should be fun. It should be a fun game. Three. Uh yes, I agree. Why don't we get to why don't we do why don't we do four callers? And then let's call it a night since it's so late. All right, let's see who we have, uh think? George was first? All right, Hello, I was going on all right, So quick question. I wanted to ask because I heard you guys talking about Drummer earlier, so I was curious,

do you think that that can work moving forward. What would you guys rather go with like Trays and Marcus song go ahead? Oh yeah, So I definitely think it can be. It can move, you can go moving forward, and I think it will um. I think Drummond will continue to start. I always said like I think the guy that should be in irritation and Marcus Saul, But if he wants to play Drummond, I think it's fine.

I think he fished for this series. I think he's a pretty good matchup for eighteen at least he should be like his physicality and I think he can move his speed on screens. He gets beat sometimes but definitely can't work. He had a nice impact to night and I think Jason talked about it. He's he he had he had an okay Game one as well. I think that that was his fault. So I think you can

I think it definitely can can continue. Okay, Okay, Yeah, So I actually like Montrez in this specific matchup, and you know, I like him better defensively than Mark because he's more mobe and because it gives them a little bit more flexibility to do things like trapp and rotate and recover. The trick is is obviously he's a nonshooter,

so how do you weave that out? And I think I think the thing with the Lakers that puts them into trouble is when they play Anthony Davis, who prefers to post up and isn't a great surgical passer with a guy who's in the dunker spot that clogs everything up. And for the record, that a D montrese minutes at the end of the first quarter in Game one, where really where the wheels came off, because I think it was I think it was tied when when Drummond was

in there. So that's kind of the interesting conundrum because like I would play tres with Lebron while a D s off the floor because he's a good pick and roll guy to have with Lebron because he's super mobile on the defensive end um and he's just a little bit better at that some of the stuff that Mark

got torched by today. But I just don't think it makes sense to play treads with Anthony Davis because a D is not a great passer, so he's not going to see the double teams and see the gaps in the defense super super well, and and it shuts down his driving Williams and takes away his physical aggressiveness. So it's a conundrum. But I mean, at the end of the day, like like it's just about which guys you play with, which guys you know, like it's it. There's

there's mixes that work, and there's mixes that clearly don't. Okay, last question before you guys are passed the mike. Do you feel like we're gonna go all out on Devon Brooker in game three or do you think it's going to be more of a help as army type of thing. Yeah, I still think they'll go out all out on Devin Booker. I think he's the main one that they want to focus on, trying to keep his scoring limited. But it depends that Chris Paul is going off too, and then

it makes that tough. That's what's tough about Phoenix, Like it's hard to track Devon Booker and then you have Chris Paul, one of the best taking all pastors ever kind of orchestrating after that. But I think they live if they can make me tell Bridges guys like Cam Johnson um make them the shock creators. I think they'll live with that, even aiden if he has to get Pillot s ups and stuff like that. I think they

list so. I think they're still gonna sell out okay, and trying to make everyone else m let's go ahead. What do you think? Yeah, I'm less convinced that they'll double Booker than that they'll double the campaign and Chris Paul actions, because that was where they were primarily getting beat today. I thought, just in general, KCP did a much much better job on Booker today than he did in the last game. Um and just in general, the five man units, it's again, it's never just one guy

on one guy. It's always the way the five main unit works, and the five man defensive unit cohesively tonight was so much better than it was in game one, and that, in conjunction with KCP doing a better job on the ball, just did a better job on Booker. The problem with doubling Booker is he does a lot of isolation action mixed in with his pick and roll action, and doubling a guy in isolation is so much harder because it compromises your defense more than doubling a guy

in pick and roll. Because the double guy pick and roll, there's that split second there where the other offensive players right there next to you, so he doesn't have an advantage yet. So the ball handle has to always throw some crazy looping pass or some perfect pocket pass to get to that other guy. So it's a little bit easier to recover. The Lakers got torched in Game one at the beginning of the game by sending open court like nobody else around double teams at Devin Booker, and

it led to a bunch of open shots. So I tend to think that you keep going with the same coverage that you used on Booker tonight, and then you you if you're gonna trap where you're gonna do some extensive double teaming, you do it on that screen and roll action, which is the one that gave them the most problems. All right, man, thanks, I'm I'm a past to thank you. Thank you for having on. Man, we really appreciate it. I'm gonna sally, it's so is connecting.

That's that I that's the only request left I have. Okay, that's fine. We've already been going almost an hour anyway. Yeah, and then these will be up for the podcast as well for everyone. I'll put the podcast version up directly after and then Roger will be going again on Thursday. Yep, and uh doesn't look like it's connecting. Um hm, try again, excitly it went off. Okay, anything else you wanted to have today? I think I think that pretty much covered it.

Um yeah, I'm not sure what else there is looking forward to with good Game three and then go and watch these Clippers Mavericks highlights, um and see see what happened there. All right, everybody, thank you guys so much for coming to hang out with Rog and I for the postgame show. Like I said, podcast will be out here shortly, and then we'll be going again after Game three on Thursday, which will hopefully be a Laker win in front of a very large Laker crowd. But we

will see what happens. Thank you guys so much, and we will see you on Thursday.