Hornets/Lakers Postgame Spaces

Russell Westbrook. Um, you know, the heroes of the game, in my opinion, were the role players. And while you know, Anthony Davis made several huge defensive plays and a few big baskets as well, I felt like he kind of was working through some some stuff mentally that game. It seemed like it was definitely a funky barn. What was your you know, initial takeaway? Um, you know, just like

I say always from thirty feet up, what's your initial takeaway? Yeah, And again we do these right after the game, so it's kind of hard to fly that high right away, So just trying to look at it right away. Obviously, the turnovers from Russ are probably the big story in this UM. I'm not sure if I think you two did the eight seem pretty frustrated at that. I'm not sure if that was his direct frustration, but I guess

that was definitely part of it. Vocal again went with the two big exiting the reasons that we've talked about a lot, the idea that we don't have any wings. I thought it worked in the first shift in the starting lineup, like I thought they played pretty well. The Hornets aren't really a team that have a lot of like shot making off the dribble per se. And I thought on the second half they kind of started going to that. You saw Lamello be a little bit more

comfort rule and that's starting five just got pulled. So that was I guess my first takeaway here is Vogel with a very short leach in that second half. With that with the two big lineup, and I thought we found a few things. And again, those rust turnovers on the fourth are really bizarre. You just I know his decision making isn't always great, but usually just don't see that from a guy that's been in the league as long as him. I guess just the like you know,

nonchalant walking the ball up. He's getting picked up almost at half core by Terry Rosier, and you know he loses the ball out of bounds one play. One play they knock it out that lob to a d lay. Just that one didn't make sense some of the decision making overall. I mean, it was a rust game. And that's why I say lean into the rust ball, right because I thought you saw some of the positives from that.

So that's like my main takeaway here. A lot of strained stuff, a lot of the five free throws on one possession, just weird stuff that happens like that that they had the hornets back in the game, So we are going to talk about Ross. I did think was super interesting the way that Terry Rogier completely threw him off of his game with ball pressure, which is which is bizarre because that's supposed to be like the one thing that every point guard has to be able to handle,

you know what I mean. But we're gonna I think I feel like, as you and I always do, we should start with the positive because I have lots of thoughts on Russ. What I'm gonna say, I'm gonna save him. But the uh yeah, I'm very much going to need you rush tonight to to talk me down from some of some of my opinions on Russ. So so we'll say that for a little bit. But to big guys that I want to shout out tonight, Um, Austin reeves, particularly in the first half, although he also made some

plays in the second half. You know, the one thing that's starting to pop up with Austin a little bit is his three point shooting is starting to be a little bit of a lot. Not a liability, but he's not knocking him down at as high of a clip as you'd hope for from that position. Very very Alex Crusoe esk in a lot of ways, Um, but just in general, one of the better. I tweeted out it was the best half he's played as a as a pro.

I think you could probably look at this game now and say it was probably his best game as a pro. Just incredible off ball defense, incredible on ball defense, this level of energy that was contagious that went through the whole team. He had two isolation scores tonight that I counted one on Kelly Ubre Or he drove into his chest and bounced him off and then shot like a little ten foot fade away and knocked it down. And

then he had that huge one. I think it was either in the fourth quarter over time, I can't remember, but where he attacked out of the week side corner and uh, you know, the ball kind of stuck with him and all of a sudden there was four seconds left on the shot clock and he just drove to the baseline and did you know one of my favorite go to moves, Just hit the dude with your shoulder in his chest and just spin off if you if you do it and you initiate the contact and you

and you hit him a little bit like regardless of height difference, you can get shot off and he and he made it as a huge one just in general, like, I think we've come to the point with Reeves where he's been so good that you absolutely have to keep him in the rotation and even as the team gets healthy,

he's that he's been that good. And I think he's been that good enough for long enough that the guys in the locker room would understand why he's getting minutes, which may not have been the case earlier on and then the other big guys. Belton Um Obviously we've talked a lot about how his extreme high level spot up

shooting is such a huge deal. Um. Obviously it basically won them the game tonight, but even looking forward for the team and it's ceiling and what this team is going to look at it look like in high leverage moments, having a guy like that you cannot leave is going to be such a huge asset. And then as we saw tonight, I thought he had his best defense and

effort game of the year. Tons of multiple effort plays defensively, getting his hands on on on balls that even used to being active in passing Wayne's contesting shots that he used to just let go. Just just an awesome, awesome, awesome game from Carmelo Anthony. And so those are my two stars of the night, the two huge, glaring positives that I wanted to point out. Would you agree with that? Was there anybody else that you wanted to shout out? No?

I would agree with that. Well, let's start with Reeves because I thought, just this is just an incredible sentence to say, like, well, I tweeted it too, But when the overtime started, I said, we needed him out there to guard LaMelo Ball, you know LaMelo Ball, the one averaging twenty on from three and all that, and Volgo put him in for defense. Frank Bogo put Austin Reeves and every badly and for defense Land and the undrafted rookie,

and you're right, his defense was just incredible. We talked about it all the time that Frank, you know, likes to play this drop kind of coverage and you need guards who can stick. And Austin Reeves was the best at it tonight. He might have been the best at it all year. He drew a few offensive fouls I believe too on that where he was kind of chasing on overs ear. But the work on LaMelo that last play, he gart him one on one. If you watch closely,

they got he got him one on one. They had a screen he switched and then shut off Gordon Hayward at the rim, which allowed a d to come out and contest, which I think was forgot who was in the corner who took the three um But but yeah, was able to contest that, and then they got offensive rebound and got a tough one from Martin in the other corner. But yet his defense was just incredible even if his shots not going, He's just in the right place way too many times for me to where you

don't play him. And I think in that second unit, im i'd actually like, I think to start him right now if you start a D at the five, I think Reaves has just been that good defensively. But just his defense was incredible even if he didn't make, you know, his spot up three's teams don't leave him though, you know what I mean, Like, even if he's not making his spot up three, he's a guy they respect as a shooter already. Like they don't play off of, they don't stack off him. Melo got a bunch of good

looks open three tonight. I think reeves on the floor for a lot of them. He just helps the spacing, he's in the right place, he's there, recharges, you know, and his hustle energy that all just is needed on this team where you can tell the lack of energy just goes back and forth and then mellow. I don't know what other I don't know if there's any like superlatives left to talk about him. Some of these three to night weren't even open. Uh. He was just feeling

it at Staple Center. I think he was shooting like sixty eight percent on threes and that went that one man, the wheels were coming off. It felt like the team was about ready toe and that three hitting it overtime completely changed the complexion of it. Yeah, and you could see him to be like, let's go, let's keep it going. If he's the camera kind of pan on him, but he was while he was walking back on that. But yeah, and he saved us. I don't know where this team

would be without Mellow. It's another twenty plus game from him. I think it's like his fourth for the season or something. But it's just he's been great, Like it's there's nothing you could say. And his defense like if it's possible, that's more than enough, And like you talked about tonight, it was even better than that. He gets hands on a lot of strips. He's never going to be perfect, but he's kind of been in the right place A

few times. I thought the Mellow lineups were good enough defensively to win, but as shooting, he has just been incredible. So I did with with you. Those were kind of the two stars from to name. You know, Mellow is an interesting guy for Russ to watch as an example of how to age gracefully as a star. That was, you know, much more nuclear, you know, in his younger days. Now, Mellow to his you know, to to Russ his defense, Mellow it was it was a propless. He didn't accept

it right away. But if you look at what Mellow is as a basketball player right now, like he's he's the same level of skill that he's always had. It just he was he had a certain amount of athleticism in his prime that allowed him to have a physical advantage to go with his skill, that allowed him to be a guy who was, you know, one of the best scorers in the league. Right So the core skill set behind that is still there. But Carmelo Anthony has understood that he's not the same player, and he has

transformed his game in a lot of ways. He understands like, hey, like, I will not be able to play for a winner unless I put in more effort on the defensive end than I did when I was in my prime. Like, and he gets that, Like he he knows that a game like tonight, um Frank might go another direction if he's getting just barbecued all over the floor. So he over the course of this season has each successive game gotten a little bit better on the defensive end, a

little bit better with his effort and focus. He's completely changed his shot profile to uh to taking higher quality shots. When he takes the tougher shots, they now take place when he already has his rhythm, you know, even you know, I've complained a lot about him posting up bigger wings, um,

you know, instead of posting up smaller guards. And there was a play in the first half where he got Kelly Ubrey on him and I remember sitting there thinking like, I don't really like the snatch up, and but Mellow, Mellow was hard about it. He's like he pumped, like Mellow's like, I'm not gonna be able to just elevate over the top of this guy anymore, so I'm gonna try to Outsmarten and Kelly Bray is young and overaggressive, and he jumped out of his shoes and Mellow got

two free throws out of it. Point being like, Mellow is finding a way to age gracefully. And it's a big thing that Russ has to pay attention to. And this is something that I talked a lot about a couple of nights ago when we did our last pot after the Portland's game. You know, Russ has to kind of accept the realities of who he is as a basketball player now and and try to identify what he can still do to impact the game and try to focus on those areas and pull back in other areas.

That's the only way this is going to work. And to his defense, as bad as he was tonight, which we're gonna talk more about, like he's kind of in a rocket between the rock and hard plates here like that, the team needs him to to try to create something. I mean, like, here's the reality, Like like Vogel probably goes with Rondo for the first six, seven, eight minutes of the fourth quarter if if, if he doesn't get ejected.

You know, he was forced to go back to Russ early there, and and the you know, the team just needs him to do this. But when Lebron comes back, when th Hd comes back, when the team's whole, he's got to find a way to tell some of his back because what you saw tonight is something that I've talked about a lot over the course at the beginning of this season, the concept of hemorrhaging possessions. So, for instance, who was the better basketball team tonight even without Lebron

The Lakers were. The Lakers were clearly the better basketball team. They were roughly points better if you look at the way that they played on both ends of the floor.

But Russ hemorrhage so many possessions as either a director's old turnovers or the other big one that you saw a lot, especially in the first three quarters, was I had absolutely no advantage here, but I'm just gonna throw it up at the rim anyway, you know, around the basket, like just like getting into the lane, having no separation and just jacking stuff up, like shots so crazy that if you saw a dude shoot them at l a fitness, you'd be like, what is this guy even doing in here?

Like that's how bad it was. And what you saw was so many of those clustered in one game that it damn near costs them. That's how bad that was. And what scares me is the idea of him doing that hemorrhaging possessions even in a smaller skill Let's say, Hemorrhage is half as many. But it's Game five against Phoenix on the road and the series is tied at two, and he does two or three stupid things in the fourth quarter that can literally cost you a playoff series.

It can't. And as I've pointed out so many times over the years, like he's done it in the past, there are Oklahoma City games, pivotal Oklahoma City playoff games where his poor decision making arguably cost them serious and so it's just it's it's one of those things where you know, I'm having a really hard time trying to keep a positive outlook with this because even if he does temper back a lot of this stuff, just his basketball i Q isn't what it needs to be for

what this team needs out of that position. And I'm a little bit scared. So you can try to talk me down. If you can try to talk me down, that'd be great. Talk me down and said, well before we get super deep into us, because I feel like this is where this is going. Um, I just want to keep shout out to a couple more players. First of all, Rondo, you spoke a little bit about him. That's the like playoff Rono you won't see every night.

But I think like this team right now that's hurt needs him to be a little bit more right, just again we can get into us. But I just thought once he came in, I think he did come in for us, just change the whole energy of that game him. He was active on defense, calling out plays, He forces a d to play in the air, which I really like about him. He was throwing him lobs and stuff.

I'm gonna give him a quick shout out. And then also I thought Wayne Ellington, you know, he didn't still didn't shoot well, but I thought you saw kind of what he could be. And then Malique Monk is well, I thought they made impacts. Still not great defensively, but I thought they had pretty good games for for what they can what they did tonight to bring it on Russ. Like watching this game, it kind of again is the Russ experience. You're gonna get good stuff, you're gonna get bad.

The finishing isn't there. I know we talked about this with Ruche as well last time, like this is kind of what he is. And again I thought there's a little bit still more finesse that was in his game, like the left handed finishes that are just way off those kind of stuff I'm hoping kind of gets cleaned up. But I thought you did see some things like he came in for Rondo and Ronald got ejected and the lead actually increased. They went up to eleven, and then

I think it went to fourteen. Um, and then all those bad plays kind of happened in that crunch time. You know how they NBA games go when a team tries to, I guess, play not to lose rather than win, right, you know what I mean. I felt a lot of that energy with rus. It was a lot of this walking the ball up really slowly, uh just zero pays, taking like sevent eight seconds to get it off. And again Terry Rosier give credit to them. And then I thought the Hornets also went to a lot of zone

as well. Um, and I think that really mess the Lakers up as well. And I guess my only like you know, positive kind of spin is those are Lebron's time though, right, that is the time where like the ball is in Lebron's hands like you're not gonna see. And I think it's been clear this season. And right, you thought there's been like some talk that maybe would be kind of a back and forth Layton games. No, it's been pretty much Lebron has the ball, rush is off.

You know, maybe screening but maybe being in a dunker spot, or you know, maybe screening for Lebron are doing these off off ball screens. But Lebron is the one who's gonna have the ball in his hands and making those decisions. And I think it's clear that you know you don't Russ in those positions. To to put it nicely, I guess that's why I'm not too worried about it. This is the time we talked about last time, to just rack up wins. I know it was ugly, but they

did get the win as ugly as it did. Look, they did hold them off and over time. So look, this is what you're gonna get right now. Russ is gonna have to be this thirty percent usage player like he just is, especially if you're going to continue to start two bigs, which maybe this is the game that changes it. I wouldn't bet on it, you know, Vocal use the word tempting tonight to start eighty at the five h We'll see if that happens again. The wing

situation isn't gonna change. I don't believe that Taylor horn Tucker is gonna play the next game. They're gonna want him to get a few practices in. I'm sure. I don't think none is close enough. So if the wing csition position doesn't change, I think we're gonna still start this, you know, phone booth starting lineup for us, and this is what you're gonna see. Sometimes I thought he did a better job of kind of not taking those threes, even with Charlotte flying way under. Decision making is what

it is. The turnovers are what they are. But overall, it was a better game from him. Uh then maybe those if you take I know, you can't take away those fourth quarter turnovers, but we take those away. It wasn't a terrible you know rust game, you know what I mean, Like like if you take good away, like the point of the game where Lebron would have ball. I know, this is a really big spin on it, and you can't take those away, and that's part of the experience. I'm just trying to pull you down from

the ledge here. I'm just saying but but but yes, just watching it tonight, watching the full game, I thought it was an okay game from him. We did leaning lean into the rust ball a lot after that, first few minutes of that starting lineup, I wrote in my notes that like a I think it was Yeah, it was a Russ Ellington, Monk, Mellow and Dwight combo, and I thought that looked pretty good. Mellow started, Mellow was on fire during that lineup. I thought the spacing was good.

It was a one center lineup. Russ was coming off going downhill, Dwight was setting really awesome screens. Uh. Even if Russ got the basket missed, Dwight was able to pin his man pin and his pin Russ's mann and get offensive rebounds. That's something they can build off of this game. But you know, the turnovers are what they are, so that that's kind of how we saw the rest game to So I'm gonna do this one last time and then I'm gonna make you hold me to this.

This is the very last time I'm going to call into question why the hell they even did this to begin with, because this is the last time. If I ever try to do this again, you have the right to tell me to shut up on on the on the live show. So yes, Russ with Lebron on the floor, A lot of this gets mitigated, right, We've seen in the few times that they've had crunch time with this group, Russ has been relegated off the ball and Lebron has

made all the decisions and it actually has looked great. Okay, uh, not great because of Russ, but great because Lebron is still the best closer and basketball in my opinion. So uh, Setting that aside, the reason why you brought Russ in, like everyone has talked about, is winning the Lebron off minutes um, you know, helping you on the nights when Lebron has to sit, you know, so on and so on and so on. You we've all heard these talking

points a hundred times over. But what I have consistently pushed back is that he is not capable of that anymore. He is not capable of being the lead man in a group um that has the amount of talent that he's been playing with in this in this season, with Lebron off the floor, is simply not capable. Why he literally cannot make a perimeter jump shot, God forbid, he makes one, he will take two or three awful ones immediately after. When he gets to the rim um. He

doesn't have the lift to finish in traffic anymore. And what you saw tonight was a great example of that. A ton of like situations where he would get into the paint, but once he got there, there were bodies around him and he just had no idea what to do and had no ability to Like these misses at the rim, I'm gonna clip some of them together probably tomorrow. I've had some time. These misses were not even close.

The we're not like, oh, I got all the way to the rim and uh, you know, like nine out of ten times I'm making that this just happens to be the one I missed. No, he's throwing up bullshit at the rim and so between. So with all of that, and then and then we saw you know, the Rust experience as a passer is what you said, this is

the Russ experience. What we saw that tonight the oh my gosh, that was a fantastic read to hit a D cutting on the backside there after after he got into the painting against his own that was a really

nice play. Or oh you know that that play where he's trying to get it into a D and then Dwight's man comes over and helps and he hits dwhite and it's a dunk like those all look great, but every last one of those is sandwiched with stupid ass passes that have absolutely no ability to lead to an offensive advantage and either go directly to the other team or go out of bounds, or, by the grace of the basketball gods, happened to bounce back into a Laker's hand.

It happens at least twice, it seems like for me every time that he makes a good read in those plays, and so the so here's the thing. It's gonna be okay because Lebron's coming back, and the truth of the matter is is he will mostly only be attacking inferior defenders in in situations when defensive attention is directed elsewhere. However, if if that to me is his his ability to have success in those positions was never enough of a

reason to get him. In my opinion, the only reason it would have made sense is if he was capable of being a lead, you know, star level player in these moments when Lebron is out, or the ability to in the pivotal playoff game go to him for a six minute stretch like do you think Russ in Game five against Phoenix in the Western Conference Finals is going to run good offense for six minutes against the Suns? Like, do you really think that's going to happen? And so

what what? What's what bothers me about this? And again this is the last time I'm saying this for the

rest of the season. I genuinely don't understand what the thought process was, because considering what the formula for winning for this team is and what Russ brings to the table in the calendar year in November, I I just don't I don't understand what the vision was because these people must have been watching way too many YouTube highlights and not enough of what Russ has actually been doing, because this is what Russ has been for several years now,

and so it's just confounding to me. And and I find him to be one of the most frustrating players to watch in my time as a basketball fan, because I've never seen a guard have this little regard for the possession of the basketball and this little care for the value of of limiting turnovers and and getting players into positions where they can actually attempt a shot. It's it's just it's been one hell been experienced. Rose. I

don't I don't know what else to say that. I swear I will never bring up the Russ trade ever again. I will only evaluate him in the scope of being a current Laker. But I just I just had to, I had to say that one last time. Well, first of all, this is Game eleven, So you're definitely gonna bring up the Rush trade again. I mean, that's just that's definitely what's gonna happen. Look, man, like, it's not

just you, not just me. Like, we were all high on this team, right, and most of the people, you know, national media were also pretty high on this team. Whether they thought they were the championship favor not favored or not, it doesn't really matter here. They were one of the people, you know, in contention for the title. And look, Russell Westbrook, he was never meant to be the sole usage player.

And I said over the summer that, like it's been clear when Russ is the full usage guy, that's just not an equation that he equates to winning, Right, You're just not going to win at a high enough level, even at his m v P form. Um, you know, Okay, See it has a ceiling on it, right, Like it raises your floor in a bit, especially when he was like, you know, at his peak athletic powers and you know, okay, see like it raises your floor, but your ceiling definitely

has a You definitely have a ceiling to that. And I think that's what we're seeing here in the idea. Look, you talked about Game five against Phoenix, could rust by himself, no, but to me, like a Russ Anthony Davis with you know, enough shooting defense around it. Yeah, for six minutes, that should be able to cover if Lebron is sitting still, even with the decision making as bad as it is. And I talked about it all the time, the season to me, has now become acquescing to Russ. And that's

not ideal. He's not even the he's not the first or second best player on this team, but that's just what it has come to his You know, his skills are so specific. They can't shape shift, they can't form, they are what they are. So when you play him next to two bigs, when you play him next to nonshooters, it's gonna look super ugly. And that compounds the turnover these decisions. Right, He's a guy that's always been high turnover, but now that his letticism has dropped a bit, it's

gonna increases. He can't get to the basket like he did tonight. You know, there was a lot of times where he'd get the switch against Mason Plumley or Miles Plumbly. I don't know which plumb Ly it is. I should know that, Yeah, one of the plum LEA sorry Miles are Mason. Uh. You know, he'd get him on a switch and he'd like, oh no, clear, tell everyone clear out, and he just can't, you know, get by him the

way he thought he could. Gordon Hayward as well. He's like, you know, I got going Hayward on me, back up, let me attack. Like that's just not what he can he do anymore. But what he still can't do. And again, I think, like with players, you have to kind of look at what they do. Take away the contract, take away what we traded for him. The trade is done. Russ, like we talked about all the time, Russ is here to stay. He's not coming off the bench, He's not

getting traded like this is the guy we have. So we have the accus to his skills what he does well, and what it is is is he's still a guy that pushes the pace. He can still get to the basket when the floor is spaced enough, and if you put shooters around, he can get them, can get them shots. And that's kind of what you have to do here and tonight, Like the Lakers don't have the bodies probably

for it for a forty eight minute game. They have it in spurts when eighties at the five and with Mellow and Reeves and you know, like that it can kind of work. And you just have to survive until Lebron gets back, until we get our wings back. It's gonna look ugly, like Russ's decision making you turn that usage up, Turnovers are gonna go high. I thought one good thing he did tonight was get to the line.

He took ten free throws, like I think that was a good thing, but five for fifteen, only two three point attempts he was over two, but twelve rebounds, fourteen assists. Again, we always talked about you can qualm about the numbers. They are what they are. He was a minus twenty one on the game, which that felt right, I guess watching it's one of the rare examples where a single game plus minus Yeah, was very accurate. It definitely felt right. His defense, again, is is probably one of my bigger

issues that we don't talk about enough. We always go on the offense, but to me, his defense, it's still a really big issue. A lot of falling asleep. Hopefully clears up as the season goes maybe, but yeah, like this is what the rest experience is going to be. People kind of have to get used to this and hopefully it leads into some wins here. But when you have him as this high usage we've seen it in the past, like that's it's just not conductive to high

level winning. And again, those turnovers you have to clean up. That's just inexcusable no matter what. And he knows that he's been the lead too long not to know those turnovers aren't there. But that's the rest experience. Man. I asked, like, we're gonna talk about this every single game because this is what's going to happen after every single game. Oh God, I hope not. Um So let's let's let's talk about Anthony Davis a little bit because I thought this was

another interesting Anthony Davis game. In a lot of ways, he's just actually, uh, you know, second tier of superstar slash first tier superstar depending on who you ask. So even his his weird bad games still come with a ton of good and and he had some awesome defensive stretches to say, we don't need to really dig into the minutia set is. However, I did think some of his body language was really interesting tonight. And I'm curious to your opinion. I have my two cents, but I

want to go after you. So did you notice anything with Anthony Davis's body rage which tonight? Do you think what do you think was causing it? And do you think it matters at all? Oh? Absolutely? I mean we talked. We talked about this in the last one too. It was gonna get uncomfortable once they start, you know, losing a lot. And I thought tonight was the most frustrated I've seen a d um I treated it tonight. He was walking to the huddle like shaking his head. I'm

not sure what that was at uh. I think it was the ugly offense, to be honest, like it was a lot of this. Russ had the ball at the top, He's kind of getting shoved out where he has to go get the ball at half court. And then try to run offense from there. It was a lot of just ugly stuff, but his body language definitely he was frustrated. You could just tell, uh, he was frustrated. And I'm sure the spacing at the defense, um, the lack of

help rotations, like, but he was definitely frustrated tonight. And again, it's so weird because it felt like he was kind of walking through the game, but then you look up at the box score and it's like thirty points, twelve rebounds, you know, five blocks, and that's just the kind of player he is. It just felt like he could have Like it felt like some of the shots he got against late in the late in the clock, like he could have got that whenever he wanted, like he had.

Gordon Hayward switched on him, Miles Bridges switched on him a ton of times where I thought he could have just been aggressive instead took some some questionable jump shots. But you know, you can't be mad at the line forty four minutes I was reading on the timeline. He threw up at halftime or in the third quarter or something like that, so he was still feeling sick. But you know, I thought he was incredible late in the fourth, especially in that lineup with the Rondo, him just running

the floor, they're controlling the defense. I thought, you know, we're kind of seeing a d pick it up. His numbers have been great every his game to game effort still kind of goes up and down on defense sometimes, but it's not I thought he was incredible for in his minutes. Yeah, So it was an interesting uh, you know, in terms of the actual play on the court, it was very typical for him at this point in the season compared to his other performances, Like defensive effort was inconsistent.

When he was trying, it was like he was just single handedly blowing up or in its place like like. But then there would be, you know, places where he would give up deep post position to Mason Plumley a few times for no particular reason, just because he's not fighting physically and then getting beaten that just like random little things like that, like typical, like he's been all season long, like inconsistent, but when he tries, it's shatteringly good.

And then you know, So there were two plays where I noticed his body language, one where he appeared to be frustrated with Russ for not getting a post touch on a on a deep seal. And then and then

there was another one in the second half. I think it was, Yes, it wasn't the second half where Russ was chest chest with I think it was Gordon Hayward on the left elbow and and just got the rush just like literally got cut through like tissue paper by uh By Hayward who finished a d had came over and actually blocked him but fouled him with the body

and and he had the same bad body language. And you know, it's interesting to me because like this is something I'm very critical about with Lebron over the course of his career. It's like it's fair weather leadership, right, like there are there are leaders that you know, keep the same even keel type of personality regardless of circumstance. Like when when your team is playing extremely well, they kind of try to keep you tempered and they're still positive,

but they never let you get too high. And then when things get really bad and really down, they stay encouraging, they stay positive, they keep good bye. Like a great example that is Steph Curry. I think Steph Curry is the best like good times bad times leader that I seen in in this era. But you know, Lebron is like such a fantastic leader when things are going good. And fortunately he's so good that things are almost always going good. So there's still a giant amount of value

in his form of leadership. But like Lebron has a tendency when things go south, to pout and to have bad body language and to perpetuate the media storm around the drama. You know, Like Lebron is not that guy that shuts that down. He almost plays into it more with like random little quotes and little tweets and and little looks and and you know, weird stuff like that, you know, And so that was kind of like a

d you're frustrated. I get it, man, you're frustrated because Russ isn't getting you the ball in the spots that you normally like, or your team is not defending or whatever that is. And you know, I'm gonna criticize him the same way I criticize Lebron, Like, dude, that's not good leadership. You know. If anything, you have to be thinking in the back of your mind, like Lebron's coming back, We're gonna get healthy. This team has a much bigger

ultimate goal than just winning this game tonight. So even if you end up losing by fifteen in the second half to Charlotte because you just don't have the horses and the guys aren't doing their job, you have to stay encouraging. You have to stay you know, there's a way to be critical of your teammates and to demand more out of them while also being a positive and engaged leader. And you know, this is something this is the last thing I'll say about it. This is something

Veneta pointed out. Our buddy Veneto has been on the pod several times. He pointed out that, uh, he thought that he was partially to blame for some of Russ's struggles for not aggressively diving to the rim enough. And

you know what, I think, I think Venet's right. Like I think that that there's a lot to be said about a d being too too quick to float around on the perimeter and to uh to try to be a pariter player instead of embracing these physical gifts and diving to the rim, which not only is good for the team, but that's what Russ likes to play with. Russ likes to get into the paint and make these little crafty drop off passes two big that's where he's

most comfortable. And so, you know, there's a lot of people when I tweeted it out about his body language, you said A D has to look in the mirror, and there's some truth to that like that, You like, that's part of why you have to be positive when things are down is because the reality is, dude, it's like if you were out there being a world beater, they probably would be winning. You know, So you've got to acknowledge your own faults and and use that to

prevent yourself from being too negative with your teammates. And I think that that is something we have to be careful with both Lebron and a D in the stretch of the season, because even when Lebron comes back, they

still have a limit at the forward position. They need to be better, they need to be good leaders, and we that's it goes from everything from their effort and consistency and professionalism all the way down to hey, dude, you can't be like shaking your head at your teammate when he gets be off the dribble again, because it looks bad. It looks bad on TV, it looks all your teammates see it, and they think that you're checking out mentally, Like it's all there's It's just bad. It's

just bad, and I relate to it. All of us should relate to it because losing sucks. It sucks so bad. No one is happy when they're losing, so we like, I'm not. It's not an indictment of like his character. It's just it's just, hey, dude, let's cut that ship out moving forward, you know what I mean? Yeah, for sure, and like you know, eighties a guy who I think he's more of like a you know, leader that shows it rather than says it, you know what I mean.

He's more of like a just follow my game. And I think he has to be the defensive leader for this team more than like, even though we'd love for I think during this strategy we needed scoring a bit more, but just like on this team, he kind of has to be that defensive leader. I saw him frustrated, but I mean, like I can kind of live with those. Uh.

I'm not sure exactly. I wonder if he pointed out, you know, in the in the press press conference or something, but he was actually really frustrated about I'm sure all that stuff was mixed in. I'm sure the losing isn't fun. I'm sure playing on a team where, you know, going from last year where you had all these defensive guards and all that to this team where you know he has to cover up for even more, I'm sure all

that's kind of baked in there, you know. But I mean his play was he picked it up with his play, and that's all you can kind of really ask ask for him. The shaking, the head stamp stuff, like I don't see it consistent enough from a d too where I think it's an issue yet. But I see your point there, Like I see that how it can kind of affect the rest of the team. Like the rust stuff is frustrating, Like I don't blame him if that's what he was frustrated about, you know what I mean.

Like the turnovers are definitely frustrating, you know. I think even someone pointed out that late in the game, he just asked for the ball. You know, he just asked you just asked for the guy. He just wanted to be the one bring it up. He's like just giving the ball at backcourt. I'll bring the ball up. But that was another big body language thing that I forgot. That was a weird play, like a because these guys are paying attention, they see the same things we see.

That's why it's so crazy when we're like, oh, don't play Rondo, don't play d J. You want to be like, dude, how do you not see what we're seeing? But like in the bath court, he demanded the ball from Russell Westbrook and then brought it up the floor, handled a little bit of all pressure from Miles Bridges up top, and then more ball pressure came and he almost was like, oh crap, never mind, I don't want to do this,

whereas Russ right right, you know, like that's gonna happen. Man, And the Lakers needed to win tonight, like they really did. Tonight was important to me, like these lease losses can really pile up if you let them. That's another game. I think the Hornets went up three or something super late like and Carmelo kind of hit a bunch of shots. But tonight, tonight was important that they got this win.

I think they play in Miami next, but you have four minutes thirty two points, like he did what he was supposed to dominate this New Leans team when it mattered. You'd like to see it a little bit more consistently. You'd like them not to blow these leads when they have them. This is just survival mode right now until we get our wings back. Hopefully PhD comes back soon, Kendrick comes back to back soon. Give a little bit more ball handling so that Rest doesn't have to, you know,

control the ball as much as he did. But you know, at least they want tonight like that's that's a that's a positive to take from this. You don't want to learn all your lessons from losses, is what I would say. So tonight's a good game for them to get depictable win. I agree. I that was something I intended to say at some point during the show. And even if it's here towards the end, it's still good. This was a huge win. Um, I didn't think they were going to

win tonight. I have some problems, the problems with the just not not problems. I have some I've come to terms with some harsh realities about this team's capability of winning games with all their forwards gone. Um. And to be clear, I think I think if if Mellow doesn't shoot the ball as well as he does. You know, we might be talking about a different type of result here tonight, but the point being, this is a huge win any of these games, especially with this tough stretch

of the schedule here. They win any of these games without Lebron, that's that's a big deal. Now, hopefully Lebron comes back soon. Um, I don't think you'll play against I, ami, but if he could come back this weekend for you know, that Spurs game or that that Timberwolves game, that'd be a big deal. Um, I think it's Chicago. Actually doesn't matter anyway. It was a big win. It's a big win, and that's worth it. That's worth acknowledging. Um, it is

twelve o seven after midnight here in Tucson. But I did promise we'd take a couple of collars. So let's take two quick ones and then let's call it tonight. So I'm gonna playing. Sounds good, Let's see you we actually have a lot of requests. But yeah, loo kid, two people and get some more people on. I think the next game was on Tuesday, so let me let me see here. Yes, we and we will go Tuesday. I just have a long day tomorrow and it is late. I need to get some sleep at some point. Uh

your average one. What's going on? Man? All right? Going once twice, also coming back and winning that in over and after the gigantic collapse that was largely fueled by Russell Westbrook and the reps, well not the reps with the players getting too into it. With the reps like it was. It was a nice little show of responding to adversity. My guy, what's going on? What's up? So I didn't thought you'll bring me here as as a

dam music question, go ahead, go ahead. If you look at the end of game patients like like Rust passing the ball to Ada and then cutting like to the M and then drifting like there's no spacing there like glasses man is easy doubling a D so there's no like how do you space rust investituations so that like you run into a little bit. But I think once

last was wide open on the rim. Maydeve just missed the past, Like how do you space that better so that like other people can get look sort of whatever, just like there's no use right now. So you're saying, like when Russ is the entry passer, right to post entry passers to and then like if you're post how do you post up a D and space Rus on the post up? Like generally that's a Gordon move right,

like like without Len that's the Gordon move right now. Yeah, which is why I'm advocating for just straight screen and roll. Like when Russ is an entry pastor there's sometimes where the guy cheats and he backcuts off of it, um and he gets like a layup that way, or he just cuts through and then just sits at the dunker spot. You know, it's it's a little bit harder to help from there. But there's no there's no like you know, easy answer to that. Like Russ's spacing is what it is.

The guy who's guarding him is told probably five times before the game starts, Um, you know, to go to go cheat off Russ. That's why I mean this, Like just go high, straight pick and roll Russ a D give him three shoot years or even if it's not a D. If you're playing these bench lineups, uh rush dwhy you know, straight screener role get Russ. Teams mostly

are going to go under that. Get Russ a head of steam going to the rim, try to chaos Craig chaos that way, What do you think, Jason, So you know, it's interesting because I think a good percentage of this lands on a d um. You mentioned to play Surron the where he missed Russ under the rim. There wasn't a single Laker fan in the entire world who didn't see Russ there, and the camera was right behind Anthony

Davis's head. He saw that too. So the harsh reality is, and this is something that Roger and I have talked about consistently over the last couple of years. A d is not really good at reading double teams, um or or defensive attention and the half court. It's not a strength of his and right now teams are extremely good at forcing him to becoming a jump shooter in post up situations, and right now he can't really make jumpshots

at a high clip. So uh, he made a few mid range shots tonight, but just in general, his shot has been super uh sketchy over the basically since the bubble. So what makes it what becomes problematic is like I agree with Russ, you gotta run high, pick and roll because that gives you at least a better possibility of of getting something closer to the rim. The problem is is actually Charlotte did this on the key possessions of

the game. They're just switching that pick and roll and so you almost have no choice but then to dump it back into the post. And again, a d is gonna because he doesn't really win those physical matchups, especially when he's fighting for position, Like he'll catch at seventeen eighteen ft turn and face, they'll double him and it's not in Russell cut or somebody will cut. Somebody will

be open, but he just won't see it. And so this is just this is one of the shortcomings with Anthony Davis is like he just doesn't have that higher end court vision, the ability to make teams pay for overloading on him. And if it wasn't Russ, it would be somebody else, you know how we no, because that's what it was the last two years. But a post ups ending in double teams and him not finding the open option. There are more options right now, right like you can I think Russ can beat this big man

if you're switching the pick and roll. I think Russ can beat that guy off the dribble and just drive. Are like if you're and one more option is like set another screen for a D, like let him dribble the ball, like he's pretty good at that, right, so given more space, like like after the ball goes to him in the post, nothing happens, no one moves, nothing happens. But you can re screen, right, I don't think. I think Adie can go through a screen dribble and get

space or drive to the rim. But there's no creativity. There's no ball movement, like there's no proper spacing even though they're shooters on the court. I I don't understand what's happening. Yeah, that I mean there's I mean, it's kind of a vogal offense. There's some kind of lack of creativity. They're kind of pet thing with that. They throw it into a D opposite cornered man kind of sets the pin screen to get the corner shooter opposite open.

That's like as far as they go, and they kind of let a D draw double and kick out from there. You're right, it's not too creative of an offense. But again, Russ, but that's a single action, right, Like why are not multiple actions? That's just not what they do. It's never been uh Voga is a very specific coach and that's just kind of the actions that they run. So yeah, and this is something that like I think is one of the core parts of Lebron's belief system too. He's

kind of partially to blame here. Um. I think there's a relationship with with Frank that he kind of has a good amount of saying and what they do here and the the broadcast from the Portland Trail Blazers game the other day specifically mentioned this, the idea that the Lakers are kind of more of a brute force offense. It's like, here's the action we're running and because it's Lebron and a d there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. And it doesn't matter that we don't complicated.

They'll do little things like when they when they were going against Cleveland, they would set a pinned down for Anthony Davis's man as he was coming up to set the screen, so there was more separation when they ran the pick and roll, which got them some good stuff

out of it. They do little things like that, But I think the I think the reality is is when you get into the postseason, um teams, these really high end defenses are too good at taking away the gimmicks and taking away some of the scheme related stuff with offense, like running multiple actions against the goods. Switching defense just is gonna end up with you on an island again anyway. And the way that I think the team sees their future potential with Frank and Lebron at the helm of

the offense is just like, who cares. You can't stop us, Like you can't stop Lebron and maybe um, regardless of whether we're on an island or we're running, or you're sending multiple bodies, you just can't stop us. And so that's kind of their approach. It's it's very archaic. I'm with you, M. I agree with you, but I just don't. I just don't. I don't see them changing that tactic at all. M. Thanks for having me up. Appreciate thanks. It's good to hear from you, man. I hope to

hear you hear from me again sometime soon. Yeah. I'm an Eastern time like it's hard for me, dude. I hear you, Bro, I hear your brother. It's after midnight over here and I'm struggling. Good night, you know what I mean. All right, let's get one more. Let's get wrote right right off. Are you there? Yeah, I'm here. What's going on? Man, I'm good, I'm good. Thank you very much guys for having me. Um. I just got like one question, like, um, I know it's a vote

Walt team. Um. And one of the most frustrating things watching this team is just like every time they score, they end up either giving like you know, two points or three points basically like right away. It's like there's not like a string of like defense where they can

like consistently get separation from the team. And this is like what the eleventh came and like of the season and they've conceded like basically home points or more intent of those games, if I'm not mistaken, So is this a reality that we're going to have to live with like until like I mean, even the guys that are out, I still don't have like much faith that the defense is gonna like you know, picked up with them coming back like offensively, we're gonna be better you know, as

you stay as you get stated. But is this an reality that we're gonna have to live with like or can things improve on that end throughout the season to certain extent? Yeah, I mean like we we. Roger and I always talked about this team going on defensive runs. There was a defensive run tonight. It was in the end of the third quarter, beginning of four well, I think it was like a It was like a to nine run or something like that, over the course of

roughly ten minutes of game clock. And the point is is, like you you want those to be more frequent and longer rather rather than rarer and shorter. And so the thing is over the course of the season that will manifest in their defensive rating. That's why Roger and I

um point to that metric often. But the bottom the bottom line is, though, is like as a team, UM, when they get to the point where they have the personnel to actually be able to cause teams problems with their length and athleticism, they're really not gonna be able to do too many of these long or have too many of these long, extended defensive runs. They just don't

have the personnel. But if you get a run like you had tonight out of a line up the head of Malik Monk in Carmelo Anthony on the floor, you praise the basketball gods, I promise you, man Like that was that was striking. That was that was lightning striking in the same place twice. You take it and you get out of the casino before where they before they come after you. So that's kind of that's kind of

the way I see it. And by the way, you did accidentally hints at one other thing I wanted to mention to to everybody about that I thought was interesting about this game. One of the big downsides of when they go big with Lebron or with Anthony Davis and DeAndre Jordan at the floor is big guys just naturally gravitate to the rim on offense, Like even Anthony Davis when he's floating around the perimeter, like when the shot goes up, he always kind of like floats into the

painted area and DeAndre Jordan's obviously down there. And almost every single time, this is another thing that Vene has been pointing out a lot over the course of the year.

As soon as that shot goes up, the other team secures the rebound and starts springting the other way, And almost every single time, DeAndre Jordan and Anthony Davis take these slow, lumbering steps to kind of get their speed to get back, and almost every one of those possessions begins as a five on three and it's actually becoming a bit of a problem. And it's one of the many reasons why I say, like, just like taking something like, oh, Anthony Davis is a help defender when he plays the four.

Taking something like that is just being the reason why you do something is so silly, because every action has consequences, and the consequence of having DeAndre Jordan on the floor it comes with all sorts of things like the slow pace I just talked about, or Russ getting off to a bad start not getting any good shots. Like DeAndre Jordan was super active to start that game tonight. He was flying around, dunking everything, getting tons of offensive rebounds.

It's very easy to look at that and go like, man, look at DeAndre Jordan's helping the starters. But it's like, oh, actually, Russ and a d had like zero rim attempts in that first shift. It's like so it's like, it's like, I got to come from art. There's always a give

and take with that stuff. And so I know, I know that wasn't exactly what you asked, but that was something that I thought was so interesting because there was a play with Terry Rosier had a huge three to I think pushed their lead up to like six in the second half. And on the play a B and and Dr George's jogging at the floor like you just can't you can't do it with the foot speed is too slow when you have too giant human being. Yeah, exactly, because like one thing, like you know, I've seen like

that's it's becoming a trend. Like this team is hard to get separation. And one of the main problems that they can you know, that pretty much like creeps up

every time. It's like every time they score or make a run, they pretty much give up that same run on the other end, and that basically basically forces the Lakers to play a lot of close games and we get a lot of those nervous moments towards the end of the game where we can't really like, you know, we haven't really had a comfortable, feel good type of win where we can just say like, okay, like we had a solid like especially like those third quarters where

we basically get ran out basically out of the out of the court. So like I mean, like we can't really have the stretch where we just like our alid defensively enough to be able to create a separation. That would be nice, huh, just to get it, just to get a solid I'm right now, every night here like a defensive point look like it's not probably gonna happen during this church that there's just not enough good defenders out there on the floor. Like again I talked about it.

I like that Russ you know, Jason, you said, praise to God's you get you know, stops with Monk and Carmelo on the floor. Wayne Ellington was on the floor too during that run. I'm pretty sure, so you got

you know, you've got stopped with that lineup. But that's probably gonna be the exception, not the rule, Which is why I'm saying lean into offense because I don't think this team right now, just as it's constructed, with all the guys out, especially with Lebron out as well, I don't think we talked about how much Lebron actually impacts

our defense. We think about it a lot of his ball ball handling and you know, shock creation, which is true, but also him being the like only powerful word that can defend at the high level, Like this team is not going to be able to get that many stocks, but they should be able to score, which is why I want them to kind of lean into that. But yeah, well we'll see. Hopefully they can get one one of these you know, wired and wired wins. I don't expect

it happening. I can believe we play Miami next, So I don't think that's the team that it happens with. Maybe maybe maybe something some of the teams after that you might get your wish, but but for now, like this team is just gonna have to you know, sneak out wins and and tonight was the first step. Well, thank you very much for having me. Guys are man than you have a good night, man, and we're gonna be back on Wednesday. So thank you very much, see

you guys. Appreciate it. Man. You know what's funny, roj is the last thing I'm gonna say before we get out of here tonight. Uh, there's a weird thing that happens when you play the Miami Heat, Like you're probably gonna they're probably gonna lose. Someone say, would I would actually expect Vegas to have Miami as an half decent favor probably somewhere four or five points ish um, but they play so hard and they play so tough and and and fundamentally sound that it almost rubs off like

it would. It's kind of like it's kind of one of those games where at the Lakers lost by ten fifteen points. It could be the kind of thing that kicks them back on the right track. Like sometimes you need to see just how good someone else is at something for you to realize how bad you are at something.

Like I I coached the high school hoops right now, and my coach told me, my head coach that I that I'm the assistant for, told me the story today that he had a group that was kind of cocky and had bad attitudes, and so he took one of his former players who was a college athlete elsewhere and there used to be a former college athlete else where, brought him in and had all the kids get in a line, and he went one by one through the kids and beat them all one on one, and and

he had them he had him do that to try to teach them a lesson about how far they had to go, that they were so far. Like, hey, like, before you guys start acting arrogant around me, you should realize just how small you are in the basketball world, you know what I mean, like that kind of thing.

And that's kind of what I see this Miami matchup as is, like the Lakers have been an inconsistent group that doesn't have an identity, that has struggled to be bad teams, uh has lost the bad teams, and and is it just just is so far away from where they need to be. And sometimes it takes a team like Miami coming in and just whooping your ass in every facet of the game for you to finally walk into that locker room and be like, guys, we're not good enough and so and so that's what I wonder.

I wonder if that's gonna be Wednesday. Obviously, I hope the Lakers went. I hope they played great, but I just don't expect them to and I expect them to be shell shocked by just how much better Miami is, not with talent, but just doing all the things that you have to do to invest. And I'm pretty sure we'll get the effort on Wednesday. For some reason, I thought it was on Tuesday. It's actually on Wednesday, So they get if you, uh, they get a game off tomorrow.

But Uh, yeah, I think you'll get the you'll get the effort at least against a team like Miami. Right against these other teams you might not get that. But definitely against Heat, I expected even if they don't win, they could get blown out by thirty. Um, but I extract them to at least play hard during that game against against a good team like that. My last question though, for you before we close this, were you able to see the Yoki kind of uh, you know, elbow to

the back of or whatever that was to Mark? Even Mark, what's your prediction for because obviously it's gonna be suspensions? Um, I think I thought I said double digit. That's probably pretty high. That's at least like six seven games though, right? Am I crazy? I am? I thinking that's too much? Because I feel like that's what we're gonna see this dispension. That's all I guess. We'll close out on this, like, what's your prediction that? Uh? If I had to guess,

I'd say five games or less. Um. The reason why is you're gonna have Yoki people insisting that that the Morris play was dirting Morris. Morris is gonna get like one or two games and Yokis is gonna get like four or five games, that's my guest. And to be clear, like this is you know, I I enjoyed rooting for Marquis Morris over the last two seasons. I thought he was a really good role player. But him and his brother are so notorious for this crap. It's the it's

the Patrick Beverley thing. And you know what, if Patrick Beverley irritates the crap out of you with dirty little you know bs basketball plays all season long and then you shove him in the back and give him whiplash, you deserve to be suspended. Like that's that is a bad overreaction, that kind of thing. It really hurts somebody to like I have I have a huge problem with you what Yoki did. But but there is there is

some truth to the fact. Now when someone is just sitting there, it's like those dudes that like are the Royal Palace and in Great Britain that they have to like stand there with a straight face all the people are screwing with them. It's like at a certain point, if someone is just screwing with you NonStop, like like I relate to the fact that you might let your guard down and and end up flashing out a little bit. But to be clear, yokis crossed a huge line. He

deserves to be suspended. I predict four or five games and more. Is not the one, right, He's not the guy exactly with exactly. Yeah, that was interesting around the league kind of thing. But yeah, we'll we'll be back again on on Wednesday to recap that one. Yes, thank you guys so much for coming hanging out. This will be on a podcast feed here about twenty minutes or so and we'll aeron dash rdy on tomorrow morning at seven am. Think he was always for your support. We'll see you on Wednesday two