Jazz/Lakers Postgame Spaces

in that playoff series, where they looked this good. But this is the best I've seen them look relative to their talent in a very probably since Game six of the NBA Finals. This was just an incredible, almost wired, a wired performance. I'm pretty stoked about it. We were texting during the game. There's so so much to talk about, and I look forward to getting to the bottom of all of it with you. But first of all, Buddy, how are you doing and how is your weekend? It

was good. I am hyped for this one. Man. This is to me the win of the year. I guess the other one could be our win against Cleveland earlier before the Calvs became who they were. But now this is the win of the year. Man, Utah is a good team. They came in tonight, I think, wanting to continue there on a little bit of a losing streak. They won their last one in Denver, second game back to back for them. But now this is a big win, man,

you go. They went up Utah, came back, roaring back, went up ten, and then to come back in that fashion that fourth quarter, I think just highlighted a lot of stuff that we can to build on here. But man, it's a really great win. I'm I'm excited to get

into this one. Yeah, So to start, I want to talk about, you know, the strategies we use against the Jazz and the reason the reason why I think they're super you know, uh, you know relative, you know, they're super important to projecting forward with this team because the Jazz do. The Jazz are extremely well coached, and they've run very difficult scheme to guard, and they have pieces that are, you know, similar to some of the things we're gonna see from other teams in the Western Conference

that we might see in the playoffs. And you know, you and I talked a lot after the last game against the Nuggets about how the dumbest thing about what the Lakers were doing with their small ball groups was playing too many small guys, and people think of small people think of small ball having to do with the center position, and it does, you know, on its surface, but the aggregate size of those lineups that succeed in the league are usually big. Like that Clippers lineup that

was so good. It's like they're getting Marcus Morris and Nicholas patum And and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. So yeah, there's no center, but everybody's everyone's huge outside of that, right,

And so that was part of it. And then also with the Lakers small ball lineups, they were trying to run traditional pick and roll coverages with Lebron underneath the basket, and one of the issues with that is that in those situations, you're asking all those guards to to run through so much contact and they're small players and they're struggling with it. So that you and I talked about how this team needs to switch more because when you switch, it allows you to make up for your size deficiencies

by stagnating the opponent. This is something that I talked about all the time on the show with you, and there's such a there's a there's a key reason why I believe in the strategy because the Lakers had, even with their bigger lineups that they played today, in terms of the size of the wings that they played, you know, a lot more Austin Reeves, a lot more Stanley Johnson.

Even with that, the Jazz were bigger, but their size wasn't able to punish us to the extent that it made up for what we were able to do to them with our speed and our versatility on the perimeter. And that's the key, because when you switch everything, you turn a ball movement offense like the Utah Jazz into an isolation offense. And they had seventeen points in the

fourth quarter, five of which were total garbage time. So you held them to twelve points in a pivotal basketball movement, one of the most dominant offenses in the league, because you switched everything shut off their actions forced them to try to create against a set isolation defender, and as a result, their offense fell to pieces that that philosophy

is modern basketball. And then on the other end, the Lakers were running a five out concept, which removed Ruddy Gobert from the equation, forced him to guard in space where he struggled with with Stanley Johnson and his low center of gravity and his ability to kind of, you know, navigate beneath Rudy Gobert with his speed and with his strength, and so we're gonna die further into it. But I think that this style, you know, it's very indicative of what this team needs to be, what we need to

be at our best. Is this a big, small poll line up that plays our bigger wings and then adapts that adopts and uses and leans into the modern defensive concepts that work in the NBA today. I don't think obviously the Jazz didn't play as well as they could have, but I don't think it was a complete coincidence that they played as bad as they did because we directly attacked their weaknesses ROJ we had purpose right with what

we were doing. Like we watched that Denver game, there was a lot of stuff that just didn't make any sense. We weren't going anything with the personnel. I thought tonight, we just made Gobert garden space and Stanley Johnson obviously a big part of that. He was aggressive. I love that, you know, Stanley, he doesn't pass up jump shots, and I think that has a domino effect to to his game where he's also aggressive with the ball, and Lebron saw that he started screening for him right he was

able to get to the basket. We started Dwight Howard in this game, and Dwight wasn't great through the throughout, but I thought him just starting kind of set a tone. I thought he played well. We had a nice coverage. He wasn't He didn't nice stop switching as well. We switched pretty much one through five. The only guy we didn't really switch with tonight was Malik Monk. But I thought just our coverage was great. We were flying around you talk, couldn't get any open shot. I thought Dwight

took the rim away. We played him. We we had a little bit of our scheme where we played Dwight against their small ball. You saw that as well, right, and like he kind of took and he took the basket away. I thought it was great to see um. And then we just went small. We have Stanley Johnson playing the five, Lebron playing the five. We found minutes without Lebron and Russ luck. I guess we'll get into later, but it was just a great energy win. Man and

Utah is a really good team. They're very similar to Phoenix to me, where they have counters to everything. Their whole offense is predicated on a Gobert screen and roll um and I thought Mike Conley kind of got going with that. He was they were kind of hunting the league monk in that way. But we just had a great overall scheme. Man and Lebron was incredible again. We had the apology right from Lebron James like I think a couple of hours earlier and he comes out tonight

with this show. It was just an awesome team win and I think this is stuff we can build on. Man. Austin Reaves I think needs to play more. Stanley Johnson needs to play more. I think the young guys are definitely showing out that needs to be on the floor. Austin Reeves THHD Stanley Johnson, like those guys need to play um if you're not gonna get effort from other places. And you know, every rally started again. He had that

big three. I thought he struggled throughout this night, but just seeing those guys kind of turned the game around. The Russell Westbrook big dunk. I know he kind of struggled throughout, but I thought that was a big momentum changer. Uh. And you know i'veen tweeting Jason, there's a good team in here, and this is kind of what I mean, you know what I mean Like this, We're not as bad as we've shown and and it's very clear when we haven't and when we don't. But we need to

play this hard like every night. I'm not expecting us to win every night. I don't even expect us to win tonight against Utah even we were up six. I was still kind of questioning it at halftime. But this is how we have to play, man. And you see the effort and you see guys flying around Austin Reason with the floater to a tip layup like those kind of stuff is you know those kind of that kind of energy is contagious. Stanley Johnson, that energy is contagious. Uh.

You know his play on Rudy Gobert. And we'll get more into that, but just a good win, man. It's it's exciting, uh, to finally have like a fun space I guess to talk about to talk about this. We get to be positive for once, and so I do want to start with Lebron, because he he was the guy who you know, may or may not bendy catalyst with his with his tweet, or at least an attitude change.

And I want to look at the box score for a second, because so Lebron has seven and seven, which is not a I popping stat line by any stretch of the imagination. It's not a bad one, but it's not ipopping really quickly, really quickly. Hints again tonight, that's fourteen straight games with at least twenty five plus. That's uh, the current record leader in the league. I heard them bring that up in spectrum as wow, that's crazy, um.

But what's interesting about it is he was below from the field, and he was below from three, and he couldn't make a free throw. But I thought it was one of his best games of the season. And this is the huge issue that I have with you know, box score watching. It's something that I get into with

people all the time when we're talking about basketball. It's like, heck, it's something I've been dealing with with Lebron fans so much over the course of the last week because I've been critical of the way he's played defense, and everyone wants to be like, oh, he's averaging thirty four over his last twelve games and saying it's like, hey, man, like, there's so much more that happens in a basketball game than it grabbed the rebound of driving kick three, or

you scoring the basket, scoring the basketball. There's so much

more that goes into winning a basketball game. Lebron was freaking everywhere tonight, on both ends of the floor, flying around, making plays, and then in that fourth quarter lineup with Austin Reeves, Malik Monks, Stanley Johnson and Thht he basically didn't have the ball in his hands and completely controlled the game because he understood that the Jazz were struggling with how to navigate a coverage with him as the screener, and as a result, Stanley Johnson kept getting ahead of

Steam because they wanted to go underneath that screen and he was the Lebron was setting it almost down at the semi circle, at the bottom of the semi circle. But again, what you saw tonight was a great example of like Lebron playing at the level of the best players in the world while having seven and seven shooting below from the field, shooting below from three and can't make a ree throw. That's the That's the idea that

I'm trying to hammer home here. Like when I'm when I'm talking about what what shows me that Lebron is engaged and that he cares. This is what I'm talking about. This is what a good Lebron James game looks like, because against the best defenses in the league, he's probably

not often going to have incredible shooting nights. You know, they're grind out games like we saw against Phoenix, They're dog fights, they're complete boxing matches, and and Lebron is such a weapon and that type of environment when he embraces that, And so I wanted to give him some some credit because he put his money where his mouth was. He he said he was sorry for the way things were going and that he promised things would get better.

And then he came out and he played, in my opinion, his best game of the season, regardless of what the box score might say. So I wanted to give him a shout out. No, he was great, and I think, you know, I love that. Frank kind of noticed that Lebron's energy was kind and we talked about this in the space as well, Right lebron Is starting that center. It was just not something probably does gonna be viable for a long time, for a long stretch, and he

did it for a nice stretch. The Lakers won like four in a row, and he was great defensively in those But I just love that, you know, starting joy allows him that to be able to kind of work through his game in that way where he doesn't have to be the full time crazy defender. He was awesome though on that end. I thought all night. There was a few plays maybe he didn't get back to transition, but for the most part, I thought he was, you know,

just a turnover creating, creating chaos on that end. And then he played the center for a few minutes, right, He played it next to Stanley Johnson in the fourth or you know with the second unit, and that second unit is really interesting. I love to kind of get into that or again th h T Austin Reeves. I believe it was Malik Monk with them as well. They yeah, they just and Stanley Johnson they just switched everything and that and they kind of gave up the lead again.

I believe in that third quarter, I thought, you know, U Tah turned up the pressure. Taylor was the only ball handler where we took Brawn out in that situation. But it's just a nice kind of change up. And I think the braun at the five being a change up instead of like our just main pitch. That makes the world's a difference. And I thought, you know, against second units, against you know, a lot of teams second units, that's a tough her and Utah was unable to sustain that.

We build our lead that way, um and I think that's the way this team has to go. Man, when both of us have been begging for more switching, we got it a ton more to night. It was really no noticeable. It jumped off the page and it just

confounded Utah. You know, like Jason, we looked like the Clippers in the playoffs last year, you know what, like like like Stanley Johnson and that Terrence Man role a little bit right where they try to hide go bear um on on a guy who's a nonshooter, and they give that guy the ball and just say, hey, you create. And Stanley Johnson has enough ball handling, you know, skill to where he can attack the basket he saw I

think you tweeted about as well. In transition he saw go bare back and he just went right into his chest and he was able to score. And I think he has that kind of you know, skill level in it. But it was cool to see us kind of out skiing Utah, I thought, in this way, and we're not gonna be able to switch against like every team like this, but it gets a team like Utah that's so that relies so heavily on screen actions to to get their offense.

They just look psottos right, and they were you know, trying to kick out when there was no kickouts there, trying to find guys on the roll. I think it's funny Bart gets seals, and I thought Stanley just a great did a great job scramming them in the post where like when Malik Monks would be down there, he throws him out and he gets back on Golbert. He was just incredible. But man, our our defense was good,

uh and we hit threes early. We went cold in the third, and to me, it's even more impressive Jason that you know, Utah went up ten and it looked like yeah, and we fought all the way back with with Stanley at the five, Lebron and I think Austin Reeves is on the floor to this is a good Utah team like this, This isn't like the Atlanta Hawks where I was saying, you know that I I think they're good, but you know, their record doesn't display that

Utah is a really good team. I believe they're twenty and ten when Gobert plays, so just that just gives you kind of a picture of what they do. But now we we confounded him. I think this is a blueprint for we can do, at least until Anthony Davis gets back. More switching, goes small, play, our younger guys, play the youth, have some exuberants there, and I think

we can kind of pick up a couple more wins here. Agree, So I think I think we need to move a little bit further to same because he was the star of the show, and ironically his little offensive flurry in the fourth quarter distracted from what would have been a good game without any of that scoring. Because the way that the way that Stanley battled go Bear physically on both ends of the floor was so impressive beyond like stuff that just goes unnoticed, like on so many of

those fourth quarter possessions. A long jump shot was going up because perimeter players and the Lakers were doing their jobs and forcing guys to take tough shots, and here come these high rebounds off the rim. And Stand is just in their fighting with Rudy, and the most important thing is in order for you to hold your ground, you can't jump. And so he kept Rudy on the ground in that fourth quarter by staying connected to him

in these box out situations. And there were there were I have to go back and watch the film, but it seemed to me like there were at least a half dozen plays in that fourth quarter where Rudy could have had an offensive rebound if literally any other Laker other than maybe Lebron was there matched up with him. And then on the weeks on the on the perimeter, those guys Austin and and Malik and t HD were coming flying in to to secure the rebound while Stanley

was down there fighting. And again Stand we we can get into it like the Lebron as a as a screener things setting that low screen there around like seven eight ft from the rim. Yet did a really good job of disrupting uh Utah's defense and letting Stanley, who's really like we've talked about, it's just a big, strong athlete letting him get a head of steam go into the rim. That obviously was working, but Stanley was just doing so much else on the court. I wanted to

give him that shot. Even early in the first half, he was doing that thing Dwight always does where when he's kind of like backpedaling against the guy driving to the basket, he's just kind of swiping down at the basketball with like good instincts without losing his balance. And he had a couple of steals in the first half like that. Just just an unbelievable game. As you know, our guy from Laker film room, he always describes Stanley as a big, strong athlete who runs around and does stuff.

And I love that just him because that's what it is. Because when you have that type of physical frame and that type of athleticism and you're playing your ass off, it's like a wrecking ball on the basketball court, and and just good stuff just follows everywhere. And we need so much more of that, and I'm hopeful that tonight is that final kick in the butt to try to get more minutes out of him. From Frank Yeah, man, he he needs to play, and I thought he didn't

play enough in Denver. I think he had like thirteen minutes in that Denver game. He's just a big small ball five who plays hard. Writing you know, everyone wonders why every Bradley starts every game, and I you know, rationale behind that that Frank is going to is every Bradley plays hard. He doesn't play well every night, but he plays hard. He has a baseline level that Frank

Vogel expects and he gets that every night. And you don't here at the ceiling that Mileek Monk brings, or even the you know, chaos to Austin Reeves can bring. But every Bradley he just trusts him. And I think Stanny Johnson has kind of proven to me that he plays hard. Pretty much every moment he's on the floor, he's always running back. There's never a time where I'm like, oh man, Stanley kind of jog back. No, He's always

in a full sprint. And he has good defensive instincts too, And I think it's unfair to just say that he plays hard. He's like, he has defensive instincts that are there that are perfectly fit to me for a small Ball five, especially next to Lebron, and there were nights like, I'm very high on Donovan Mitchell. I think Mitchell was one of the best. Like I guard scores, He's a playoff killer. Stanley was able to switch on him and stay in front of him, and he's strong enough. Mitchell

is a super strong guy. He's strong enough where he couldn't overpower him to the rim. And you saw Donovan Mitchell take a bunch of like forty footers right tonight, and a lot of that because the guy on the other end is Lebron James and it's Stanley Johnson guarding those screen actors, and that's just a lot tougher to me, and Dono Mitchell is probably gonna be can be a lot better obviously than he showed tonight. But I'm just saying, like, just in a way, I think this is this is

how this team needs to play. I love Dwight in the rotation. I think that just helps Uh, that just helps Lebron a lot. I thought Lebron looked like he had a lot more energy as well on the defensive end, not having to be the full time center. All this stuff is connected it and you saw the energy kind of just pick up and this team kind of goes as Lebron goes. I think Pete said as well in the LFR pod he saw Lebron be super energized, but just play him around the youth man. I think we

were seeing that that's so necessary on this team. This is an old team, but it has youthful players that can play, and I think, you know, Reeves and Stanley are are part of that, and I think their minutes are just gonna go up as as we go here. But Stanley was definitely the name of the game tonight. He was incredible. They put the ball in his hands. I always say that, you know, if you show aggression

to me, Lebron's gonna give you the basketball. Like Lebron can kind of feel it, right, and he could tell that Stanley was, you know aggressive. Stanley was shooting mid range pull ups, he was, you know, taking his corner threes even if they weren't going in. I just think that shows the level of aggression that has a domino

effect on the rest of your game. When you when you're a passive player, that kind of shows up in all parts and to me, when you're aggressive player, that shows up in all parts, and even though the jumpers don't go in, just the fact that he takes them to me kind of leads to the attacks at the basket that he had. So yeah, he was the star of this game for sure. Yeah, and one last on Stanley.

I think it's really interesting. He is, you know, one of the unique He's a very unique case of of a young talented basketball player because we see so many examples in NBA history of the you know, Jimmy Butler type kind of guy who, like, you have these great physical tools, but you kind of grow up as like

a forward slash center. So in the NBA you kind of turned into like a wrecking ball type of wing and then over time you get more and more skilled and then you develop into this like, you know, perimeter initiator type. That's your Jimmy Butler, like kaw while enertype. Well, Stanley Johnson's kind of the opposite because like he actually growing up was a very good perimeter player. You know.

He was one of the one of those mixtape heroes, one of the guys that was doing all the crazy stuff on YouTube that was getting millions of views, and came into Arizona as a star and then basically turned out as he got further in the game that he wasn't skilled enough to be that type of perimeter initiators. So then he defaulted it to Okay, I'll be the wrecking ball forward, you know, playing for Toronto, do it

all these defensive things. But because of that background that he has, he actually has a good amount of polish. Like that move. I think it was pretty late in his fourth quarter run there where he like switched to his left hand after gathering on that drive from Jordan Clarkson, Like Jordan was in behind him and was loading up to try to block him off the glass, and in Stanley just switched hands and went to his left finished

on the right side. Did he finish on the right side, Yeah, he finished with his left hand on the on the

right side of the room. And and then like some of the footwork stuff, the way he keeps his balance, like his his comfort level to for Lebron to be like, hey, for this matchup to work, I want you to be the pick and roll ball handler here, Like for that to work, he needed to have the background that he had as a perimeter player growing up, you know, uh, coming up through high school and so I thought that was a super interesting element there, Like, you know, will

Stanley have nights like that offensively that often? No, because he's just not consistent enough with those things. But you know that that type of you know, versatility that he has as a guy who can attack the close out and make a play for a teammate or go on the occasional offensive spurt just kind of raises the value that he brings because he always plays hard and because he does the dirty work. So I'm I'm a huge fan of his game. You you had mentioned Avery Bradley,

I'm with you. He plays hard. He needs to be in the rotation. I think he's an NBA player. I think he belongs on the Lakers. I think he belongs on the roster. However, he needs his role needs to be swapped with one of those guys that's just that's just been better than him. He needs to be the guy who's playing, you know, one shift in the first half, one shift in the second half, you know, because you understand that you can get competent, you know, on ball,

pressure defense and things like that in those moments. But he just too often is getting punished for his lack of size, and then he actually is one of the worst off ball defenders that we have on the team. He loses focus, he loses sight of his responsibility. He's on the ball and he's pressuring. He has some success there even though he gives up a lot of straightline drives. At least he's disruptive and makes it I feel uncomfortable.

He brings some value, but you know, when we're evaluating basketball players, you know, there's every player on the team brings some value, right, Like even DeAndre Jordan brings tallness, you know. But the thing is is like the guys who start typically bring more value than the guys who don't, right, And so my thing is like leaning on him so much like pulling Reeves after he had that magnificent start

to the fourth quarter. To go back to Avery Bradley, you know, even when Avery Bradley was having a rough night, that goes to show you that there's like a rotation pattern there, right, And it's like, okay, Avery starts and he closes, and then Austin kind of dispels him. That needs to be flipped, you know, Austin needs to start so that we have more consistent energy to start these games, and Austin needs to close because he's just a better

basketball player right now. Then. Don't get me wrong, Austin Avery made a huge shot rubbed into my face because I was on Twitter complaining about himselfing back into the game. But the point being like, these are these are the little kings we have to work out obviously, Like even if you can replicate this effort moving forward from the whole team, and even if you can replicate some of this schematic stuff moving forward for the whole team, there

are little details that have to get worked out. Like I actually disagree with you about Dwight. I don't even think we'll get into that tonight. But the point is is like there are little details that we still have to work out here, and that Avery Bradley Austin Reeves dynamic is one that I think needs to get worked out. Yeah. It's interesting because I think, you know, every Badley kind of fits like the drop coverage type of scheme, and

I think he fits out well with Dwight Howard. That's why I thought that starting lineup, I thought they defended at least well together. My issue with every Badley to me, he doesn't really fit a scheme when you're trying to switch everything, right, and when it's him and Malik Monks out there, and when it's him and Malik Monk out there, just there's a breaking point to when you're playing small, right, So if you're ready playing small and the guards you're

playing are small like that, that there's no advantage to that, right. Plus, Avery Badley is a shooter, but he does space the floor in the way like a real shooter does. Right, He's not dynamic as a shooter. He's like he just has to be completely wide open to shoot. And in small ball, you kind of need guys who can kind of be not three level scores, but at least can

take it off the bounce a little bit. That's why I just think it's that fit there is ugly, especially the Rust Monk and Avery Bradley kind of, you know, it was kind of like that's just really tough to me, especially defensively when you're trying to switch everything. Those guys kind of take the wrong angles on screens all the all the time, and those are guys you have to kind of cover for. And you and I always say when we have like two to three guys to cover for,

on defense. It's tough, so I kind of understand it. But you know, Reeves played eight minutes in the first half. He ended up playing thirteen in the second half. I thought he came out because he kind of played a longer shift. Like that's my you know, just glass half full optimism there why Reeves didn't close the game. I wanted to be close, but I just thought he had a long fourth quarter shifts, so I'm thinking that's why they pulled him. The game was kind of in hander.

I think we were up like six when when Reeves came out, it was like to two or three minutes left. I think, Um, and you can kind of see the game being under control. But yeah, and I think Austin eventually takes those minutes like this, it's just too loud. Um. I'm gonna ask you about HD because I think it's interesting. I think we are tell me if I'm wrong here. I think we are actively trying to find him on ball possessions, and people are telling me, are we trying

to find him on ball possessions? Are we trying to win games? Obviously you're trying to win games, but I think you have to kind of, you know, create line ups around your player skill sets, like that's just a coach's job. And I think finding a couple of minutes here where th HD can kind of the ball in his hands. And you talked about Lebron, He's becoming a full time screener in a way that I just didn't expect. And you see it also in the th HD lineups.

TC got the ball in a five out setting. We always say that, you know, we always say about Russ get him five out spacing, but th HD especially can also kind of, uh, he can kind of be better for it if you kind of put him in some spacing lineups and with Stanley at the five. Sley's not a pure shooter, but he spaces the game out for him and just screen acttionsly where you can get to the basket. I thought he was under control attacking the rim. You see he has jumper getting a little bit more

comfortable every game. I think he hit another three tonight. What you see from THHD because and his defense as well. I thought his defense on Mitchell and the fourth was was super impressive, being able to take off the drive and still I think you got a hand on the blood on the shot or not. He doesn't get it. He didn't get credit for a block. He did get a credit from for a block on it. I was wrong, But yes, I thought his defense on Mature it was good.

What do you think? It was such a classic young guy up and down type of game because he had that stretch in the third quarter where he made a couple of offensive mistakes in a row and like miss a close out in the in the in the corner for three that led to a time out. Like you know, he had some down moments, but then he also had all of these up moments, which which is typical. Now I think, I think there's an interesting dynamics why Lebron

is setting more screens. So I have a theory about this, and I'm curious to see to see what you think. So obviously, with a guy like th HT as a spot up shooter, and he has actually been shooting a little better of late, although he's still not a great

three point shooter. But what you're seeing is, you know, I think Lebron understands that, like, hey, when I catch on the perimeter and I turned and I look at the defense and th HD s on the floor, or even like some guys like Austin Reeves aren't really particularly getting guarded super close, or Russ is the same thing

Stanley Johnson. There were stretches there in that fourth quarter where I think this is the big reason why Lebron went to the screening position there is they would put Stanley in the corner and Rudy was just kind of standing at the block, you know, not really paying much attention to Stanley. So what I think Lebron is seeing there. One of the consistent themes throughout Lebron's career is he likes to be able to give the ball to someone else. He's always like that. It's I was in a discussion

with someone about this today. One of the most common misconceptions about Lebron is that he's not a ballhog. You know, when he does have the ball, he does commandeer the possession. That is true. But what he likes to do is commandeer possession. Comment here two or three possessions in a row. But then he wants to rest while he's on the floor.

And one of the ways that I think he's seeing that through taking advantage of spacing and also getting him getting himself a chance to rest, is what if I set the screen, because if I set the screen, they absolutely are going to find a way to stay attached to me. Because I'm Lebron James and th HT has the basketball. Stanley Johnson has the basketball. You have to guard him because if you don't like Stanley did, I'm just gonna go down the lane every time and lay

it up. And so it's an interesting counter to spacing issues. It's something we talked about with Russell Lot. If you get in, if you get him, either as a screener or with the ball, you're so much of a threat that you have to be guarded. And so I thought that was an interesting counter tonight, like, Okay, you know I'm not shooting the ball is especially well. I need

rests because I've been defending super hard. I need to stay effective, and I need your offense to stay effective without me staring down the defense from the rim with everybody packing the paint. So what if I start setting the ball screen? What if I take Rudy Gobert's man and turn him into the ball handler. So now Rudy freaking Gobert is guarding a Hi can roll ball handler.

If I do that, I might be able to rest on the floor while also taking advantage of some of the offensive limitations as spot up shooters of some of the guys that have in the floor. It's super interesting because I think, you know, if there's one another thing with Lebron, he doesn't he wants to win first and foremost. And I thought that that was really interesting the way that he kept spamming that Stanley Johnson actually because he

doesn't care if he doesn't touch the ball. He didn't care that he only had twenty five tonight, Like he just wanted to win, and the best way for them to win was to do something jan Kee to to screw with Utah's defense and putting Rudy Gobert in an on ball defense position completely threw them off. Yeah. Yeah, it's like throwing Gobert and screen actions right, Like that's kind of the way you want to beat them. And

I thought, you know, it's not just tonight either. Lebron has been moving towards the screener for a lot of these games. A lot of these, especially when we go small league, monkst the ball handler a lot, even like screening for th h T. I think it's just a nice wrinkle to our offense that we're finding gear. And I've always said, like, you know, the losses where what they are, but I think like we're starting to kind

of find things that work offensively. We just need to have to have like some baseline level of defense to kind of keep up with it. And and I obviously was was better than that. I don't think we're gonna, you know, play this level of defense every night, but we can kind of keep up to it because our offense has been scoring. At least for the last throw away that Denver game, but offense has been kind of scoring. And I think Lebron being a screener is kind of

interesting with it. And I guess I guess we can kind of move this to Russ because I think it's fascinating. Um, obviously, I think you think Ye had the worst game than I did. Uh, the plus minus isn't very favorable to him, but you know, I five for fourteen is what it is. Um, he's still kind of you know, in that low turnover range. He only had to turnovers to night. He's still kind of adjusting right to to this new kind of play style. And I think it's fascinating. And tell me, you know again,

if I'm wrong here. But I just feel like Russ. We are kind of moving Russ more and more off ball, and we're kind of putting his possessions in very uh, very purposeful, purposeful places, right, So we're starting to just clear the left side him and just having him is so, you know, on the left side, and we're clearing that whole side. So we just throw all the other four players on the right side. Russ has a one on one attacked the ram or get to his bank shot.

But it's crazy to me how off the ball he is. I remember watching the first quarter, I was like, man, Russ hasn't really initiated offense um in a long time. And you know, I've been a proponent of this. It's just interesting to watch it kind of play out in real time. As you know, Lebron also moves to a screener here, putting the bottom leak Monk's hand, putting the ball on Thhd's hands, just other ball handles, right. You know, we're moving more off ball. You are you seeing that

as well as we progress here in these games. Yeah, you know, in the accepting the most likely reality that Russ is going to be on the team for the rest of the season. This is the best way to use him. That goes without saying I mean, I think it's unfortunate that a guy making this much is being relegated to essentially a role player in terms of just the predicament as it pertains to the Lakers in there,

you know, circumstances off the court. But that said, like in this predicament, this is the best way to do it. I I what I what I have been calling out with Russ is like, hey, like another good team, another good defense and by for four teen, you know, like these there's a consistent theme at this phase of his career that when he plays against good defensive teams and good defensive players, he's just not as impactful, not nearly

as impactful as he used to be. And you know, and so that that concerns me, right, because you know, in order for the Lakers to win the championship with the depth that they gave up, with the hustle that they gave up in that trade, they need Russ to play like a star, right. I mean, if you're gonna beat these good teams at the top of the West, if you're gonna beat these good teams at the top of the East. I think you need more out of Russ than what you're getting, and I don't think he

can give that. So that's that's just the way that the way that I look at Russ played fine tonight. I was a little annoyed with him that he missed a box out on the first possession of the game after talking the way he did in the in the press conference, and look like, I'll never lie to you guys, Like from objectively throughout Russ's career, I've never been a

fan of his brand of basketball. So I look at this with bias and I'm you know, I encourage you to find someone else who's more of a fan so that you can get the alternate perspective, you know what I mean. But like the when I when I watched Russ, I I I his I find his brand of basketball to be way less impactful than other people think he is. I don't think it's a coincidence that the team had their best stretch with him off the floor, you know

what I mean. I think I think with I always talk about fit, you know, like when when when Lebron and a D, especially when a D comes back. But this team the best version of this team is, you know, is what you saw in that fourth quarter, like this modern switchy five out attack. And I don't think Russ is attentive to enough to the details the way that

guys like Austin Reeves are or Stanley Johnson are. In terms of their responsibilities, Like I was talking about, there's a huge difference between like loud hustle, which is loud plays, and real hustle, which is I never miss my responsibility. Ever, that's that's real hustle, and I think Russ struggles in

that area. And I think that's why the team, you know, it seems to me, at least for me personally, when I've watched this team over the last few years, they're at their best when they primarily lean into the strengths of their superstars and then have guys around them that are true hustle players, players that never miss their responsibilities. I think that's when they're at their best. So that's

just my view on that. And Russ, even though he had a bad game tonight, I mean not bad game, but even though he had a met game in my opinion tonight, even if he had a few good games in a row, I would continue to go back to that ideology because that's just the way I view the game. So that's just my take on it. Again, Like I encourage you find somebody who's more of Russ, you know, positive as somebody who's much more positive about Russ to

get another angle on it. I mean, you give some of that Raj, but I think you're a little closer to me than some of the Russ stands. But that said, like, it is interesting to see the way that they use him. My thing is like, if you're gonna put him off ball, off the time, cut his minutes, and severely limit what he can do offensively, then why in the hell did you make this trade to begin with? You know, like,

like that would be my question. But you're right, like, assuming he's going to be on the roster for the rest of the season, this is the way you have to use him, right, And I'm so far past that, right, I'm like, Okay, he's here, the trade is made. You know, I'm trying to figure out um and I can see

them trying to figure out too. Why it's so so fascinating to me that you know, we're starting to put him even more off ball than we have, Like go watch that first quarter, the first few possessions there, it's pretty much, you know, Russ on the week side while we run like little screen actions for guys to come off. Even we ran some offensive Araby Bradley, which I thought was a little weird as well, But you know, even Bradly having the ball in his hands more, Rush is

more as a cutter now. Russ is more like the set dairy attack and I think that's where he's best. And I think, you know, you can still win that way, and too me, Russ doesn't have to be a third star. He definitely has to be better than he's shown. You know, he was what do you go again? Five for fourteen tonight. I thought, like, you know, four of those misses were like bad shots, like they were just you know, pull up contested jump shots that you know, we're no reason.

I thought the dunk again tonight, that was the most That was the most athletic play I've seen from him this year, right, And I think that, yeah, yeah, And I saw him, you know, kind of jump and be able to dunk on Gobert in that way he was able to and I think some of that also, you know, we had Dwight Dwight had to be you know, guarded on the law. Gobert backed up and he got a

dunk on him. And I think, you know, playing we always think like give us space, but I think he does like playing with the traditional center as well, which is, you know, it's kind of counterintuitive in terms of spacing, but I think it's just something he's been used to, you know, playing with Steven albums for that long and stuff like that. I think he's just used to playing with traditional centers. But yeah, it's just it's interesting to me how we're kind of going in this direction. And

like I said, i'm a proponent of it. It's just fascinating to see how the team kind of working it. But putting him on, putting on there, and I think his impact can be in different ways. I think switching kind of induces a little bit of better stuff. I don't think he's a guy you want chasing around screens, you know, chasing Mike Conley around, trying to you know, pick him up in different areas. I like, you know, be able to switch, make him fight, you know, make

him win physical battles. I think that's what you have to do with him. But you know, I think he's kind of slowly getting there. Again, the plus minus wasn't great for him tonight, but that's the kind of mover going to this low turnover us. This is what you kind of get. It's not gonna be pretty, but I just think, like it's fascinating to see where we've gone. I guess with him, not just on offense, but on

defense as well. It's a it's a transition from him from the player that you know, you thought you were trading for, but this is not the guy you're kind of getting right now. You're getting more of an off ball player, even more than I even thought I would get to. So I just want to like ask you about that because I think it's interesting how the team's kind of also go in that direction. It's super interesting. But again, it's about it's about leaning and leaning into strength,

you know what I mean? Moving forward? This is the most interesting thing to to keep in mind, because you know, one of our friends, one of our followers, just shared with me a tweet that from David Mediment that said that the Anthony Davis m R. I came back clean, which is good news. So he's a ligamented heel, so that's good news, so I means he is progressing in the right direction, although I anticipate that he'll be out for at least another couple of weeks um really quickly though.

On Anthony Davis, I believe he was cleared for full contact. Yeah, so yeah, yeah, he was cleared for full contact. Wow. That's awesome. So hopefully sooner than hope. Hopefully not long. But again, so this is the thing because you know, the Lakers also pretty much took it to the Miami Heat in a very similar game without Lebron a couple

of months ago. And like you said, there was that game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, which, as we know now in retrospect, was a much better team than we thought. So you know, the key here is show me what you're about. Did you guys finally have a wake up call after forty two games of an NBA season or is this just another blip in uh, you know, in a what was basically a ship storm of the season,

you know what I mean. And so that's gonna be the the curious thing to to watch to watch moving forward in terms of just how serious these guys are. I didn't want to hit on one last thing, guys before we get out of here, because I think Raj, you and I kind of fundamentally disagree on this. So I didn't want to play Dwight tonight at all, and I'm not. I don't think it's necessarily a coincidence that he was minus nine now, or at least not in the gop Aarman as I should say. I would have

staggered him against Gobert now. The reason why because I agree with you. I think Dwight's a good player. I also think that Dwight uh is an awesome way to keep Lebron from playing center all freaking game wall, So I agree with you about everything that you say about that. I also think while Dwight was on the Florid tonight, in the twentiessothing minutes that he played, he did a lot of positive things, So I want to frame it

like that to start. However, the reason why I think the Acres went minus nine in those minutes is when you play a traditional center against the Utah Jazz, you

played directly into their strengths. The reason why the Utah Jazz has had so many so much regular season success over the course of the last two seasons is the fact that even though they don't have good perimeter defensive players like Mike Conley not a great defensive player, Jordan Clarkson not a great defensive player, Joe Angels kind of on the tail end of his career. Bogdanovitch, he's okay, He's had his moments. He can do well in certain matchups,

but he's not a great defensive player. Roy so Neil there is their best defensive player on the perimeter. He's a little bit undersized against bigger wings. Rudy or excuse me, Rudy Gay is a little bit inconsistent with his effort.

They're not a great defensive team in theory when you look at their personnel, but they've got Rudy Gobert, and so when you play into their system, they they can succeed with you with their elite defensive scheme of just chasing people off the line and funneling towards Rudy Gobert.

And one of the problems with playing Dwight Howard in those minute and the reason why I disagreed with it, is like, for instance, we were minus nine, but in that first shift that he played with the starters Lebron and Russ each made to pull up jump shots off the dribble, and Avery Bradley made it. Three our first thirteen points, we're all on threes, four of which we're contested. So there we're not on three is for all our first thirteen points, we're all on jump shots. Four of

the five were contested. So my point is is like some of that's a little bit of fool's gold. Like if two of those miss maybe the Dwight minutes instead of being minus nine or minus fourteen, and now we're

having a different type of conversation. So when when we're talking strategy, I'm really curious to look back at this game in the lineups, because I also disagreed without going with with going without Lebron and Russ at the same time, so because I know they had a little bit of success in the first stat just because they were playing so much harder than Utah, but then that same lineup was an absolute catastrophe in the second half, simply because

they just don't have any offensive decision making on the floor. You're ending a lot on th h T and he's just very young and a veteran, a good veteran team is gonna make th HD look bad. So I'm curious. I'm gonna look at the numbers later tonight or early

in the morning. But I bet you tonight, in the minutes when Dwight was off the floor and when we also had at least either Lebron or Russ on the floor, I bet you we were extremely dominant and that the only reason the game was close was because of those

stretches that I'm referring to. So again, this is a sign for optimism, because I know you've described all the things that Dwight did great, and I'm not trying to undercut that, but in my opinion, our offense faltered in those minutes beyond what Dwight does good because in those minutes we were playing into the Utah Jazz strengths and turning ourselves into a jump shooting team, which is not

what we do really well. But again, like fixing those little details, strategically playing Dwight at the right time, strategically playing Lebron at the right time, never staggering so incorrectly that we have no stars on the floor. If we can fix those things in addition to the effort, in addition to the modern scheming in addition to this engaged two way Lebron. That's when I start to get really excited.

That's when when you're saying there's a good team in there, That's what I see is like the good team potential. Get rid of some of your own you know, self sabotage stuff, and play into your strengths more. That's when you can start to see this team be more consistently good. Yeah, and the numbers, you know, support your claim here. I'm just looking at it, you know, so do I only played three minutes you know, where he was on the floor, where Gobert wasn't on the floor. So uh that he

played eighteen minutes, you know, matching up with Golbert. The Lakers aren't minus thirty two UM in that in that state. Uh, in those minutes, the Lakers had an eighty nine offensive rating. But I think, you know, a lot of that was the beginning of the third. To me, we just we stayed with that starting lineup too long to me, and I thought, you know, every I thought we missed a lot of open threes. Every badly missed a bunch of

open threes. I thought to start um that quarter, And I think that kind of you know, pushed the numbers where they were. But it's gonna be a trade off all the time. I just think, you know, do I have It's just a changeup, right, It's just being able to be versatile. It's just to be able to throw different looks. So we don't have to play Lebron at center of the whole game. We don't have to play

Dwight at the center of the whole game. We didn't tonight, Like we don't have to choose one, right, we don't have to be big and we don't have to be small. We can kind of move as the game flows. And

I thought we did that tonight again. That's why I think Dwight Howard starting was just it was great for Lebron and he didn't have to start the game, you know already the back line guy um and I thought, you know, it just kind of limited their attacks and he was good and the small ball lineup the Lakers killed those where Dwight was on the floor. It was a short stint, it was like three or four minutes, but we were like a plus twenty in those minutes.

But like it just like it took away Utah being able just attacked the rim, because what do we talk about when we went small with the teams? Do they just hunt the rim? Right? We saw Dann Box do that to us, John Morant do that to us. Um when we played less Denver, Denver just made every open three and we just quit in that game pretty early.

But you know, other guards just attacked us when we played small, and I thought having Dwight out there at least limited that just have some changeups, um, have some versatility in the lineup, And that's what I though, Uh, Dwight, you know, the numbers don't match up with him playing well, they support your kind of claim there. I didn't know we got killed that much in those minutes. Um, it didn't feel that way, I guess to me. But but yeah, it's just a changeup that we can kind of go to.

I think, you know, giving Lebron a little bit of arrest there and obviously when a comes back you can feel that role full time, which again goes to your optimistic point there. You take Dwight Howard out and you put maybe the best defensive player in basketball, Like, what can this team become if if they can kind of build on this So Dwight Lebron James on the court at center without Dwight Howard Tonight plus twenty two, Lebron j Lebron James on court with Dwight Howard at center,

minus eleven. We played eighteen point four minutes with Dwight on the floor with Lebron and eighteen point nine with Lebron on and Dwight off. Just just here, and again I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong, and and when it comes to single game plus minus two that can be weird. It's just a theory. It's a theory about the way that I think you should attack. Like Dwight is an awesome backup center because he does so well playing against backup setters right then in playing them. So I like

leaning into that one. My last note that I had, and it's ironic because you actually just reminded me of it talking about Denver's three point shooting. You know, everyone was like I saw some people on Twitter going like, oh man, like the Utah Jazz mit some shots, and because I think they went over nine from three to start the start the fourth quarter if I remember correctly. And then in the Denver game, I heard a lot of people say like, oh, like, they just made all

their shots. You know, this is my biggest disconnect with the analytic community. There is a certain amount of varying outcomes that goes without saying, you know, like, for instance, Steph Curry is randomly having a year where he's shooting poorly when he's wide open. That's I don't really know how to rationalize that. I just think it's random, you know. I don't think it's associated with anything. I think it's

just random results. But I'm a big believer in the fact that the defense actually does have a good amount of impact on three point shots going in or whether or not they whether or not they go in. And when I watched the Denver game, I saw the Lakers giving up on rotations and giving up a ton of

wide open shots. There were some contested ones in there, And whenever there is a contested one, you have a tendency as a basketball fan to be like, oh, man, like that's such bs, I can't believe he made that, And it's like, actually, over the totality of the game, those those contested shot percentages tend to kind of mimic pretty closely with the with the amount of open shots they get because they're directly related to comfort and rhythm.

If you let the team get comfortable and make a ton of wide open shots, they're probably going to have

the confidence to knock down the big ones later. And the reason why you taught me there were a couple of wide open ones in that fourth quarter that they missed, but a lot of the shots that they took in that fourth quarter where it's like oh, man like like yeah, like, oh, Lebron closed out on Jordan Clarkson and he kind of shot that from like twenty seven feet with Lebron's hand in his face, like that's not a good shot, you know, or like you know, or uh, Donovan Mitchell taking a

quick early shot clock three because the Lakers have disrupted his rhythm all night and he's frustrated because he hasn't had a good night and he's just trying to make something happen. It's like, Okay, that's good defense leading to a miss and and you know, like I said, there's some chance there, there's some relying on some luck there that that takes place when it comes to three point shooting.

But I think the Lakers, I think the Nuggets shot extremely well from three because the Lakers played a ship defensive game, and I think the Jazz shot poorly from three because the Lakers played a great defensive game. I think they're directly related. And I think when people try to gloss over that and trying to act as though like the Lakers got lucky on tonight's game or got unlucky against Denver, I think that's just a piss poor attitude. And I think it's it's deflecting and it's and it's

not taking responsibility for outcomes. And I think that defense is absolutely related to it. I think the Lakers, the Lakers earned a poor Utah Jazz shooting night tonight. I firmly believe that absolutely we are you able to rewatch the Denver game? And I'm not sure he went back and watched that monstrosity, Okay, but no, no, no, yeah no, I just hate myself. But bones, you know, bones, bones Highland, like he was contested, but not really right that dude

was comfortable on night. Utah was absolutely uncomfortable this whole game. Like I felt like every shot they were kind of there was a hand in their face, not just a hand in their face, like a guy sprinting at them, and you know you could see it the passes. I think they turned the ball over Jason like seven times in that first quarter. Like I think, like just because of the switching right and even the jumpers that they shot I thought were all contested. So I'm with you

on that. And Utah is probably better than this, right, Like, I'm sure they can play a better game. I still think they're a very good at least regular season team, will see in the playoffs. And we also get Anthony Davis back exactly absolutely, there it goes. And Utah, you know they were missing I guess hasan whiteside, but they were for the most part healthy, right, they had their full full core of of guys that are that are going to play when it matters. So, I mean, this

is the biggest win of the year. I don't think it's close. Like this is really quickly into my and he can't remember Jimmy Butler got hurt in the first half, if I remember correctly, yes, exactly. And Cleveland, you know, they were a young team by the time like that on that mobile, I think barely play at any games uh so far during his season. Now, this is the biggest win the year man Utah's legit um, and this

is there's stuff to build on this. And you know you can't say this turn the season around when you're five hundred and forty two games in, like you know that that would be kind of that'd be misguided to kind of say that yet. But I think there's stuff to build on. We play Indiana and Orlando next to winnable games like you can. You can win both of those even without a d S. So I think, you know, there's stuff to take from it. Hopefully a D comes back pretty soon on this road trip and then we

can kind of build from it. Man, this is an exciting one. I agree. Did you have anything else on your list? I'm finished really quickly. I want to ask you, Am I just seeing things? Or did a Reason move a little bit better tonight? Like did he find at least he didn't find both of his legs, but did

he find one leg tonight? Like did the right leg kind of you know, arrived to the did the did the right leg arrived to the season, Like I'm watching him, like you know, relocate Russ with driving the pain and I see a Reason sprint to the core to get to get the ball from and shoot the three, Like do you think he arrived from a little bit at least, like maybe one leg arrived, maybe he didn't get both legs back. And I seeing things with that, So I

agree with you it was moving better tonight. But that that almost pissed me off a little bit more because you know, Trevor reason just knows better. Man, He's been around the league long enough to know that this team wasn't playing hard enough to win. And don't get me wrong, I think conditioning is part of it. I think all that his age, getting into a group, getting into rhythm, I think that's all part of it. So I'm not trying to undercut that by any stretch of the imagination.

But Trevor's defensive effort in his first you know whatever it is half dozen games coming back from COVID was so poor, and in him suddenly turning it up a little bit when the rest of the team turns it up, makes me feel like it was a little more him and a little less conditioning. So that part's frustrating. But I do, you know, I'm I'm a believer in the Areasa fit. I think I think, I think you know,

when this team. If if the idealized version of this team comes to to fruition and they consistently play hard, they lean more into wings, Anthony Davis comes back, and the talent chasm between them and all their opponents goes away. In that universe, I think Trevor Rees is a fantastic fit. But if if the team trends more like they did against Denver and it turns into more of a you know, a ship show, then his lack of athleticism and his age and his lack of enthusiasm could become a like

a real negative. But I I definitely notice what you're talking about. Um, I think he I think he helps him a sense that he doesn't make mistakes, and I think he's a good I think he could when he really gets going to be a good kind of like plug in guy, as that fit starter, kind of like Wesley Matthews was for us in a lot of line ups last year. I'd look at him as kind of just like a sixth eight version of that, as long as he plays hard. Um. But yeah, he definitely played

harder tonight and I did like that. Did you have anything else on your list? Yeah? Last thing? You know, he was our starting small forward right tonight, and again just kind of feel a little bit into the Optimist Cup. We don't really get a chance to pour into that cup very often, so I'm gonna continue to do it.

He was. It was one for eight tonight, one for six from three and twenty seven minutes, So you basically got zero offense out of your small forward um and every badly I think also didn't shoot well, I don't remember what he shot, but and you were able to be a really good U TAK team. So that's just

that's the context I want to keep from here. We won this game with our defense, Like you know, we hit a couple of big, tough shots, like you said, a couple of pull up threes in the first quarter, But we won this game with our defense, and I want to kind of hammer that, and that's something you can definitely build on even when Anthony Davis, before Anthony Davis comes back, agree there's no possible way to look

at this game and not be enthusiastics. Like even if you told me like the Jazz are in the locker room, like knowing in their heads that they gave effort, I'd still be I'd still be thrilled by the outcome, because when you factor in the actual predicament, the Lakers are in with their superstar power forward not available, with their Russell Westbrook trade being mostly uh Like, I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who's thrilled with the

outcome of the Russell Westbrook trade. I mean, I think I think most of us, I think are ranging from either like me, like completely like disappointed and upset about it, to you like not liking it but at least accepting it. You know, like there's those are like the very outcomes there. Well, like when you factor that in and the fact that our our mid level exception guy hasn't played a minute, probably won't play a minute because he had another setback today,

Like when you factor all of that in. For us to handle the Utah Jazz on National TV when they were fully healthy the way that we did after giving up the lead and falling behind by ten points, I take it as a huge positive. But yeah, so that's all we offered tonight. Guys. This is gonna be on dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time. Like always, this will also be on our podcast feed here and about thirty minutes. We always appreciate you guys,

support and hanging with us. We will be back for a busy week of Lakers basketball on Wednesday. We will see you then. Enjoy the rest of your week guys, and we we can talk to you in a couple of days. Thanks everyone,