Hoops Tonight - LeBron drops 46 in Lakers loss vs. Clippers, Tatum & Luka's late-game struggles

is super easy. You can jump into the action at any time during the game with live betting and I love building those same game parlays and Fanduels now live in Ohio, so use promo code Jason T and download the fandel app today to start making every moment more twenty one plus In select states, gambling problem called one

hundred gambler or visit FanDuel dot com. Slash r g in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia, and Ohio called one hundred next step or text next step to five three three four two in Arizona called one eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Slash chat in Connecticut called one hundred Mine with it in Indiana, visit k S Gambling help dot com. In Kansas call one eight seven seven

seven seven zero stop. In l A visit www dot m D gambling help dot org in Maryland dial one eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York, called one five to two four seven zero zero in Wyoming, or visit www Dot one gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, Welcome TOOPS Tonight, presented by Fan Duel here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

I'm recording this on Tuesday night. By the time you're listening to this, I will be well on my way to Lake Tahoe in California, where there's record snowpack to do a few days of skiing. I'm very excited tonight. We're gonna be talking about the Clippers delivering a little bit of an ass kicking to the Lakers an impressive display of jump shooting. We're also going to talk Celtics heat, the MAVs and the Wizards and the Calves and the Nicks.

And then I also have a couple of quick hitters for you take on the dunk contest, and then a little follow up on some of the fallout from the Ruby Hatch and Murray trade and some of the conversation surrounding Rob Blinka. You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribed to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt s you guys don't miss any

show announcements. And if, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you get to your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. And then, lastly, before we get started, you guys have heard me talk about game Time, the fastest growing ticketing app in US. If you were looking to get out to any NBA, NHL, NFL playoff games, or even a concert or comedy show, game Time has amazing last minute deals on tickets to

all of these. I just got my wife and I tickets on game Time to go see the University of Oregon come to the Kale Center to play the Wildcats on Thursday night next week. Very very excited to go to that game. Uh. The process was super easy. This app is super user friendly. You have a really good feel for where your seats are. Everything is disclosed and like I said, I like it easy. Um no matter where you live, get out and have some fun this week.

Download the Game Time app and to your email and deem code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first first purchase terms apply again and to your email and the code Hoops that's h o O p s for twenty dollars off. Download Game Time Today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Clippers beat the Lakers one thirty three to one fift team writing, I mean, quite frankly, just impossibly hot shooting.

They shot fifteen for twenty three from three in the first half. That's one of the hottest shooting halfs I've ever seen. That six on Massive Volume, they scored seventy seven points. And even though the Lakers really battled back in the second half, Lebron just left everything he had out there on the floor to try to get him back in the game. It just was too big of a hole for them to dig for them to dig out of. And you know, honestly, there's been a ton

of Clippers pessimism this year. Some of that is, like, as you guys know, before I started with the Volume, I covered the Lakers exclusively and so I've got a large, uh most a lot of the people that I follow on Twitter are Lakers fans, and so I've got a little bit of a Lakers window in terms of the stuff that I see on the Twitter feed. Um so a lot of it is probably Lakers fans just having moments at the Clippers expense. But I'm glad that I

never jumped off of the Clippers bandwagon. I did drop them from my top tier of contenders, but that was just because of health and honestly because Brooklyn had just demonstrated to be better than the Clippers to this point in the season. But I never stopped believing in the ceiling of this team when they are completely healthy. I'm just a huge believer and their specific brand of basketball.

They've prioritized the right types of players to put around their stars, and they never succumb to that, you know, that need that a lot of teams have their like the Lakers, had to try to flip quality role players for that third star. Like the Lakers did when they flipped three of their most important role players for Russell Westbrook.

The Clippers have never fallen for that. They've understood the model, which is, you know, we have two star ball handlers, but you also have star band ball handlers that contribute in the physical in the physical areas of the game, like defense and rebounding, like tonight Kawhi Leonard and Paul George had eighteen rebounds to go with their great defense.

You guys know what, You've heard me talk about that with like Chicago for instance, teams that don't compete on the defensive end, and it doesn't necessary or stars that don't compete on the defensive end, and it doesn't necessarily have to do with position, because even Stephan Clay with the Warriors really compete on the defensive end of the floor, which allows that core to work. But Kawai and Paul George two star ball handlers that also compete defensively and

on the glass. And then year after year the Clippers have hunted role players with size. You guys know how much I value perimeter size, but guys that can shoot and dribble as well, and getting those guys to buy into their defensive scheme, and then from there it's driving

kick basketball with good spacing principles. I get that it can get ugly sometimes during the regular season when they're just isoing and pick and rolling every time, but like I say, that brute force type of offense actually translates to the playoffs better than most offensive styles. And we've seen the Clippers offense obliterate teams in the postseason even without Kawhi Leonard as we saw in season. So I'm

a huge believer in their offensive play style. And then overall, they have a good amount of versatility because they can go big with Zoo back at center, but they can also play small with five wings and do a real five out, you know, supermodern type of basketball. All their issues this year were based on health. Yes, those role players are very skilled. Marcus Moore is very skilled, you know,

Luke Nard very skilled, Reggie Jackson very skilled. But if you put them in set half court environments, an attack, set NBA defenses, and set NBA defenders, they're gonna struggle to create their own shot. You need that initial advantage from Kawai and Paul George to put those guys in positions where their offensive skill allows them to expand the advantage and eventually finish the play. When you have half of your season, well, your two primary advantage creators are

just gone. It's just gonna stack the deck against a lot of teams around the NBA, so I never was really concerned with them on the offensive end of the floor, and now they're getting healthy. They've won three games in a row. Paul George and Kahi Enterd both look incredible. Norman Powell, you guys have heard me talk a lot about him in recent weeks. He continued his outrageously good plays four for five again from three tonight. He I think has a much better case for sixth Man of

the Year than Russ. He doesn't have the top end that you've gotten from Russ, Like there have been five or six games this year from Russ that Norman Pale could never touch, because Russ has managed to occasionally capture some of that m v P type of impact. But in terms of the night and night out lack of

volatility that you get a guy from Norman Powell. And then actually you can play Norman Powell in your closing groups because he actually compliments your superstars because he's one of the best spot up players in the entire league, Whereas Russell Westbrook gets into that closing group and he actually hurts the Laker star players because of his inability to play off the basketball. So I look at Norman Powell is a better candidate for six Man of the

Year than Russ based on that versatility. You can use him to be aggressive on the ball in the middle portions of the game. Not quite as much top end, but much higher floor, less volatile, and he can play with your closing group. He's just a better basketball player. Um. The Clippers check every box. They have the top end talent, They're a top ten defense, they have tons of shooting

and ball handling around their stars. They have an offensive rating over one hundred in the half court when Kawai and Paul George are both on the court, which would rank in the top ten in the league for teams. And they have scheme versatility. Like we talked about earlier. They are a bona fide championship contender. End of story. You don't want your team to have to beat the Clippers four times in a week. That doesn't mean you can't. I don't think they're top tier contender right now, but

don't write that team off. They're gonna be a pain in the ask for whoever gets them. On the Lakers front, Lebron was amazing again and seven UH. Dave mcmeneman reported right after the game that Anthony Davis is planning to return tomorrow against the Spurs, as well as Ruey hatch Mura making his debut after the trade from the Wizards.

UM So I wanted to now that we know that the A D injury era is officially over here, let's take a look at this because a D went down in the first half of the Nuggets game back on December sixt and he missed the rest of that game and twenty additional games. If you would have told Lakers fans at the time that a D was gonna miss twenty games, almost all of them would have told you that the season was over. But there was no hope

to float things for that long. But thanks to m v P level play from Lebron and key contributions from role players and kind of like a new helter skelter ball pressure transition hunting identity courtesy of Darvin Ham and the players that are available in that locker room, they kind of took on a unique style and floated the ship.

They went eleven and ten in that stretch. How many of you would have guessed that the Lakers would have gone over five hundred and twenty one games without Anthony Davis. It was an unbelievable season saving effort from that group. So I wanted to tip the cap to the Lakers in a special tip of the capital Lebron, because this has been one of the most remarkable stretches of his career.

During this stretch without Anthony Davis, Lebron average thirty four point three points per game, eight point three rebounds, seven point four assists, sixty three percent true shooting despite being incapable of hitting his three consistently, and the Lakers were plus one eleven with Lebron on the floor and minus

one twenty six with him off the floor. I've levied a good amount of criticism over Lebron's career, especially in the Calves days, for him being a fair weather leader, essentially the kind of guy that like, when the team has a real chance to win the title, he's the perfect guy to captain that ship. But when things start to go south, he used to get powdy. He'd get passive aggressive, he would tweet weird stuff. He would like

actively just not try. In two thousand eighteen, before the trade deadline, Lebron was damn near point shaving because as soon as he found out that trades were in the works, he locked back in and and and and went to work the cash GM at the time. I'll never forget he did like like an on Kobe Altman did like an interview during a game, and he was like, yeah, like we like the trades, we like the players, but make no mistake, we traded for a re engaged Lebron James.

That's literally what he said. That's the type of guy Lebron used to be. So credit to Lebron for ditching that ugly part of his little career resume, because he's done an outstanding job this season and last season of keeping a positive attitude and galvanizing the group when guys have been out of the lineup. Um, I think that, you know, my dad used to say that people would never change when they get into their thirties and stuff. Um, because you're kind of really set in your ways and

who you are. And so credit to Lebron for making a late career shift in his approach to how he handles adversity. And I don't think you can call Lebron a fair weather leader anymore. I think he's just a damn good leader. And that didn't used to be the case, he put his foot down and he saved the season. Really is that simple. But now we're gonna get to see Lebron with conventional lineups alongside a real NBA forward and Anthony a Us again, and hopefully I'm shooting if

Rob and Genie or feeling frisky at the deadline. Um all right, before we move on to the next game, my first COI hitter is also Lakers related. A lot of Lakers fans were, you know, and we see this a lot on Twitter because Twitter is just devolved discourse

in so many different ways. But um, Rob made a good trade, and so obviously the apologists of the NBA, of the Lakers front office are now coming out and they're like, oh, we all owe Rob an apology, and I I hate and I haven't seen too much of this directed at me and mostly at some of the other more loud Laker fans that I follow, But you know this, this particular concept always has annoyed me, and I wanted to just kind of set something straight. This

is how objective analysis works. You point out when they do good things, and you point out when they do bad things. The Ruey hot Schermer trade was a good trade. There's a great trade, in my opinion, but it's not the first good trade Rob has made, and I've pointed out the they're good moves that he's made. I thought he did an excellent job in the two thousand nineteen summer after Kuai signed with the Clippers at audible NG and having a good backup plan to surround Lebron and

Anthony Davis with good role players. I've been consistent about that. I thought he did a good job last summer, at least fundamentally, even though he ignored the forward position, which we'll get to. I liked his switch from going from veteran veteran minimum contracts to younger veteran minimum contracts uh younger players that had high motor so that they could fix some of the ugly malaise from last year and infused real effort and energy into this team. I thought

that was really smart. But he also completely destroyed a championship contending roster by flipping three of their best three and D players for a player that everyone in the world knew in the moment was a bad fit for Lebron James and a bad playoff player and a player that would struggle in crunch time, and then after completely emptying emptying the roster of forwards, he took eighteen months to find another forward, and in that process, in that

stretch without forwards, the Lakers lost a lot of games, in many of the games a direct result of personnel shortcomings. And then he ran it back with Russ this year, And I get that it's been a little bit better this year than it was last year. I would even say it's been a lot better this year than it was last year. Last year was a complete unmitigated disaster, and this year has been like good stretches and bad stretches.

Right before Anthony Davis got hurt, really good stretch of Russ, but then that was immediately followed by a bad stretch of Russ. But then recently it's been like ten straight games of him being good, but then the last two games he's been a complete disaster again, and he can't play crunch time, and he probably won't be able to play much in the playoffs. So that we and we

all knew that after we saw it. We knew it before the Rush trade, we knew it all last season, we knew it after last season, We knew it all summer and he chose to run it act. So like in the aggregate, as I look at everything, yeah, there's been some good moves. There's been some bad moves, but there's been a lot more bad. And here we are January three, and the Lakers, who won the title in twenty and dominant fashion have been below five hundred for

a year and a half. That's the reality. And yeah, there has been some injuries, but the Lakers used to be able to win when Lebron and Anthony Davis were out of the lineup. That's what happened in one when they had the good role players. So in the aggregate, it's been a rough go of things for Rob Polinka. But look, I'm gonna point out the moves that I agree with, and I'm gonna point out the moves that I disagree with. Objectivity goes both ways. I'm not gonna

blindly praise somebody and I'm not gonna blindly criticize him. Recently, Rob Polinka made a really good trade. If he continues to make really good trades from here on out, or for the most part, really good trades, free agent signings,

savvy moves, it's gonna change my opinion of Rock. I'm always looking at everything is another opportunity to learn about a player, or to learn about a coach, or to learn about an executive, not just another opportunity to you know, reinvigorate some existing opinion that I have about the person. Tip off the new year with fan Duel, America's number one sports book. New customers get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first

five dollar bet. Just download the Fandel sports Book app. It's safe, secure, and super easy to use. Then you can bet on everything from the money line to point scores too. Three's drained. My favorite bet for this week is Tuesday Night the l a Clippers in crypto against the Lakers minus four. The Lakers are gonna probably be integrating Ruey Hatchamura in that game, and it's gonna dramatically shift the Lakers rotation around, which I think is gonna make it a very weird game and a lot of

guys are gonna be out of rhythm. So I like the Clippers in that game. Plus fand will even lets you combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payout with a same game parlay, So don't miss out place your first five dollar bet to get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets, win or lose with promo co Jason t make every moment more with Fan Duel, the official sports book partner of the NBA. Alright, moving

on to Celtics Heat. The Heat won. The Celtics were actually up eighties seven and seventy seven in this game.

You've probably seen this story before for Celtics fans. And then the Heat went on a fifteen oh run, Heyweed, Heywood Highsmith knockdown back to back corner three's, and then Bam took over at a really nice driving bank shot going to his right, this nasty transition, dunk this two hand jam in traffic that was ridiculous, and then he had a nice pull up jumper at the foul line, and then Tyler Harrow and Pick and Roll had a really nice three that was your fifteen oh run put

the Heat up five. But then the Celtics battle back. Jayson Tatum hit an and one floater, Grant Williams hit a corner three to tie the game, and then Bam hit essentially the game winner on a short on a short roll pass from Tyler Harrold. The Heat were really spamming hick and roll at the end of this game with Bam and Tyler Harrow. Um the uh the The Celtics ended up trapping Harrow on this play. They hit

the drop past to Bam. Bam cot at the foul and Payton Pritchard came over and actually tagged Bam, and Bam just was patient and just kind of like kind of brought the ball high like he was gonna throw a swing pass. Payton Pritchard recovered back out to the wing and in that little gap right as Grant Williams was recovering, there was that brief opening and Bam just

elevated and knocked down the jump shot. And then on the other end of the floor, they double team Jayson Tatum and he turned it over um, which we'll get to in a second. But I have three quick things I want to hit on this game. One Bam shot creation once again down the stretch carried this team. That is everything for this team. If he can look to score this aggressively and this confidently and this frequently, it adds a dimension to the Heat that they haven't had.

And it significantly raises their playoffs ceiling. Secondly, Tyler Harrow and pick and roll. I've said consistently Tyler struggles against the set defensive player. He's not going to create off the bounce against the defender right in front of him. He's just a little too thin and doesn't quite get enough separation. You're seeing that again in ISO this year. He's just zero point seven three points per possession in

ISO including passes, which is obviously bad. But what I've always said about Tyler Harrow, give him a screen and give him some drop coverage and he's going to barbecue you. And he's having an incredible pick and roll season. Forty two players in the NBA this year have run at least four hundred picking rolls including passes. Tyler Harrow is fifth out of forty two in the entire NBA in points per possession and pick and roll including passes at

one point one three points per possession. Made a bunch of key plays down the stretch of this one, and then Jayson Tatum one for four with two turnovers in the fourth quarter tonight. A couple of key turnovers late through a Lobb pass that Bam at a Bio was already dropping back. It was just a really bad decision and Bam stole it. And then late in the game and this one, it kind of it's not all on Tatum, but they trapped him and ended up turning it over.

I took a screenshot at this place. You can find it on my Twitter, your feed. But on the play, you know, one of the things I always talk about with trapping is if you apply good ball pressure, you

have to throw a looping cross court pass. Because obviously, if it's a lazy trap, I can just throw a dart like a like a laser beam across the court that's gonna hit a shooter in the pocket and it's game over, right, But if you apply ball pressure, now I'm fighting to protect the basketball and I'm trying to find a place to throw it, I'm gonna have to

throw it kind of high in in looping fashion. That allows the heat to basically ignore the guy in the far corner and guard everyone else and so no one's open. And that's what happened on that particular play. It's an impossible cross court pass against ball pressure, right, So what you have to do in that situation is you have to flash somebody to the high post. One of the players that's not being guarded has to flash because you're creating an easy outlet that that player can then turn

in the four on three and make a play. And on this play, Robert Williams was kind of in the middle, but he just kept jogging down towards the bat ask it and eventually there was nobody there and there was no good option for Tatum. But the reality was is it was still a turnover, and eventually Jayson Tatum is going to have to figure out how to be comfortable and confident in these late game scenarios. He's getting good reps,

but it has to click eventually. This is becoming a consistent issue al right, before we move on to our last two games, my last quick hitter of the night non NBA players and the dunk contest. So I was talking to my father in law the other day and he said that he had listened to UH. I think he was listening to like Sirius XM radio and some NBA channel and uh, my father in laws, a big basketball guys, is one of my favorite people in my

family to talk basketball with. And he goes, yeah, like they were talking about potentially bringing in professional dunkers into the dunk Contest, and I haven't actually seen this reported, so I don't want to confirm that, but I do think it's relevant because the NBA is allowing Mac McClung, a G League player, to participate in the dunk contest. So there were two kind of things that I wanted to hit on here, because I personally am not okay

with non NBA players participating in the dunk contest. Um. I am a basketball player, pretty good one was good college basketball player. I'm not a pro. Um. I had several options to go overseas for little bits of money, but I was married and had two dogs and had no interest in leaving my good paying job to go overseas to make three hundred bucks a week to grind up the overseas ladder. I'm at peace with it. It

is what it is. But I have never in my life uh insinuated that I'm an NBA player, or that I'm as good as those guys, or or that they have my spot in the league or anything like that. And the main reason why is because I think that it's sacred. As a basketball fan, I think the achievement of being an NBA player is sacred to me. It's such an incredible accomplishment that I would never in a

million years put myself in their shoes. If you see me talk about me and myself as a player, or you see me post a video of me playing in some basketball event here in Tucson, it's just my expression of my love for the game and has nothing to do with me being like, hey, look at me, I'm an NBA player. I've never been like that because those

guys are sacred to me. And that extends to this dunk contest situation, because, yeah, is there an issue with the dunk contest and getting stars to participate, Sure, but that's I mean, that's that's a problem that is probably not going away anytime soon. But there are plenty of NBA players that are willing to participate in the dunk contest. I don't know about you, guys, but I'm really excited

to see Shaden Sharp in this dunk contest. I think he has an opportunity to put put forth one of the best free throw line dunks in NBA history this year. I'm excited to see it. But like putting in, let's start with mc mclung for instance. Yeah, mc mclung is gonna be interesting to see in that dunk contest, but he's not an NBA player, and so to me, it kind of defiles the sacred nature of what the MBA

Dunk Contest is that extends tenfold for bringing in professional dunkers. Now, some of you basketball players out there that listen to the show will relate to me on this, and a lot of this might go over some of your guys head, but bear with me, um. I've run into my share of professional dunkers in my life, and most of them are nice guys. Some of them are a little bit more arrogant. But what has always bothered me is like,

they're not basketball players. They're athletes. It's like a track and field competition at that point to do all this crazy acrobatic stuff with dunking. Some of the best professional dunkers that I've ever played with were parable basketball players, and that's not again. What they do is a marvel of human athleticism, and I do enjoy every once in a while and I'm scrolling through Instagram and I see a video of, you know, some professional dunker doing something crazy.

I I watch it, but to me, that's separate, and what makes the NBA dunk content so damn cool is those are real life NBA players, damn good basketball players, doing those athletic feats. I have no question that if you brought professional dunkers into the NBA Dunk Contest, you'd see some of the most amazing dunks in NBA Dunk contest history. But again, it would be defiling that sacred nature of what an NBA player is and what that means to be an NBA player. So please look after

this mc McClung experiment. No disrespect to mc McClung. He's a far more accomplished basketball player than me, a damn good one, and he probably will play in the NBA again one day, and he has in the past. But you shouldn't be in the dunk contest. That's that's just my opinion that that is a sacred event for NBA players. All Right, two more games then we're out of here.

We're gonna go quick. Calv's Knicks. The Knicks win one oh five to one of the rae Julius Randall hit the shot of the nights tied at one on one or one d to one hundred, and there's kind of a stagnant possession where he was standing unguarded in a triple that threat at the top of the key finally just rose up and knocked it down. Um. And then on the other end of the floor, Calves are on pick and roll draw some help kick out past to Isaac Cora on the left wing, wide open three, and

he missed it. But Isaaca Coro is shooting thirty percent on catch and shoot threes this season. He's gonna miss two out of three, two out of three of those. That position continues to be the biggest weak point on the Calves roster, and you're seeing it regularly at the end of games where Calves have really struggled. But then the Calves got a couple of stops, but Donovan Mitchell made two really bad reads, driving into traffic and getting

blocked on consecutive possessions at the rim. He did hit some huge shots late in the game to get the Calves back into this game, but he can get tunnel vision sometimes. He got a little bit of that West broken him, uh, and it hurt the Calves and crunch time tonight. The Caves have now lost fourteen games involving

clutch situations, which is bottom ten in the league. Both their offense and defense fall apart their fourteen in both offense and defense and clutch situations despite being the second best defense in the league overall. UM. On defense, they played two small guards that don't defend. You have plenty

of entry points to attack their defense. And then on offense, they are the fourth worst spot up team in the NBA converting spot up opportunities to the clue to the clip of just zero point nine eight points per possession, which is just not gonna get it done. So you can dig off of their role players, just like the NIXT did with Isaac Akorro and help on their stars, and you're gonna get a lot of stops that way

because they're just not gonna make shots. UM. At this point, I think the Calves are staring down the barrel of a five game exit in the first round this year. I think this roster is fundamentally flawed into catastrophic ways. Two small guards that you can't account for defensively and

the small forward position. UM. And I hope for the sake of Cavs fans, and I know this is gonna suck to here, but I actually hope it's embarrassing for you, because Cavs fans are the Cavs organization, and Cavs fans are very attached to Darius Garland, and I have Darius Garland's a great young player, and he's a phenomenal human being, and all indications are that he's earned a great deal

of love from that fan base. But as long as that Donovan Mitchell is better than him, and as long as Darius Garland is there next to Donovan Mitchell, it fundamentally hampers the team. So I hope they lose an embarrassing fashion because that will be the trigger that they need this summer to move Darius Garland for a legit forward that you can put next to Evan Mobley and Jared Allen that can score and defend at an extremely high level, which will allow the Calves to have a

better playoffs ceiling. That UM is all that matters in the end anyway. UM goodwin for the Knicks, though they just have not been good against good teams this year. Before tonight they were just seven and fourteen against teams that were five or better. But they did have a good game plan tonight, helping off of those spot up shooters. They wrote some hot shooting in this game and good late defense to build a solid win to break their four game losing streak, and then quickly before we get

out of here tonight Wizards MAVs. The Wizards won six. Just watch the end of this one beal hit. The biggest shot of the game is step act three over Luca on the left wing. Uh, and then Kuzma wanted at the free throw line drawn a blocking foul on the right sideline. UM. Luca was great overall and six, but three deadly mistakes down the stretch. He missed the free throw that allowed the game to be tied for

Kuzma to break the tie. Then he was the one who committed the silly blocking foul and a tied on game. Kuzma was just dribbling up the right sideline doing some stupid stuff and Luca just cut him off and bumped him for no particular reason at all whatsoever. Um. And then on the other end of the floor, down one twenty six, he turned it over. The maps are spiraling now,

they've lost seven out of nine. I do think that things will stabilize a little bit when they get fully healthy and back into rhythm, like they didn't have Christian would tonight. But this team is not good enough right now, and I don't know, they're in kind of that weird position where like you can look at it like be aggressive at the deadline and try to get something around Luca, but Lucas so young that like, you know, you know,

Rob Polinka after the Ruby had to mr trade. Uh, he did a little press conference today and he basically laid out his case for why the Lakers should be patient and how you know, he wanted to get that you know, truly great trade with the with the assets that they have and in a vacuum. That's such good reasoning. But it doesn't make sense for the Lakers because Lebron's

in his twentieth season. And so even if like you wait till this summer and you make a better trade, like and if it works out, you're in the NBA Finals. Lebron will be thirty nine and a half in next

year's NBA Finals. So even if you get thirty percent more out of the that individual player, Like, how much of a decline are you looking at from Lebron over the course of the next fifteen, sixteen months or whatever, so that I've never seen that as sound reasoning, Like I think the Lakers have to pour it into this season because I don't know how long Lebron is gonna stay at this level, but probably not for much longer. And you know, but for Luca, I actually see that

as the appropriate strategy. You don't want to make the mistake that the early Calves did with Lebron, where they kept going all in every single year and they never got that truly great piece next to Lebron. The next thing you know, he's leaving. So I would pitch it to Luca like, hey, man, like it might take us two or three years, but we're gonna get you a guy, like a real guy, like a real co star, and

we're gonna build a real championship roster around you. Because I'd rather be truly great when you're seven, then a little bit better this year. That is a good strategy for Luca because of his age. You guys can probably see the difference there. Alright, guys, that's all I have for tonight. So, like I said, I'm in Lake Tahoe, but I am bringing my stuff and we're gonna be covering Grizzlies Warriors on Thursday morning, so keep an eye

on the feeds on Thursday for a video. And then when I get back on Saturday night, I think is Laker Celtics. I get back late Saturday, right, but I'll be working and covering those games on Sunday morning. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys as support and I will see you next time. The volume