Lakers/Celtics Postgame Spaces

the second half of these games. I'm just tired of talking about a team that seems to lose the rope every single time, just get blown out for some reason. But Happy Friday, Happy Friday. Everyone. We suck man. Um we we are a shitty basketball team for lack of a better term. Um. You know it's funny. Ross texted me I was actually watching the game at my parents house tonight because it was my niece's birthday. So I was driving back and Rogers texting me like, hey, man,

what's the list of topics? What are we gonna go over? And I just texted it back. I'm like everything everybody, no one is safe, Like there's not a There's not a person on the roster that doesn't deserve to be burned down in some capacity tonight. There isn't that. There's no one on the coaching staff that is safe, no

one in the front office. This has been a disaster and it needs to be characterized as such, because the truth of the matter is is it is hard to lose basketball games with some of the talent that's on this team. It's hard, and regardless of fit and regardless of you know, some of the things on the margins

were criticized. If you've got Lebron James, even at capacity or whatever the heck he was tonight, because he definitely was rusty if you could tell he's struggling to handle the basketball even on his even on his dunk where he was cutting on that THHD post up early in the game, he didn't get nearly as high on that as he was getting when he was dunking all over Houston two weeks ago. So obviously Lebron wasn't the full

version of himself. That goes without saying. However, even taking that as fact, Lebron just being a big forward who could make plays off the dribble, who could see the floor, create for others and defend on the back line, filled so many gaps that this team needed. And you saw that just in his first stretch there when the when

the Lakers look fantastic in the first quarter. But with that and with Anthony Davis, we're gonna talk about and with Russell Westbrook, who even if you don't like him, like, that's a certain amount of talent that's on the floor. With Carmelo, Anthony and his ability to shoot, with th Ht who obviously had a real a rough night tonight, but a guy who is a certain amount of talent, it is hard to look as bad as the Lakers did tonight. And I think you know my theme for tonight,

and we're going to keep circling back to this. And I know Roj that you disagree with me, and I think that's good because then it will help us to get to the bottom of some of this stuff. But I think this team is quit on Frank. They for whatever reason, the things that Frank asks them to do in the defensive scheme, they are unwilling to do, not just unwilling to attempt. It's not even just like a physical a physical shortcoming, right like we are not physically

capable of carrying out this task. It goes beyond that. They are not even making the attempt. They are getting bullied on box outs where they're not even attempting to fight for the fort for a redounding position. They are giving absolutely no resistance at the point of attack. Not oh, I tried to slide my feet and I just got beat. No, no, no, They're giving no attempts to stop people at the point

of attack. This team is not willing to do what the coach is asking them to do, which to me is indicative of a culture of a group that either doesn't like their coach or doesn't want to play for their coach, or for for whatever reason, they do not seem intent on doing the things that he asked them

to do. And Frank has also done things on his side of like Frank has not allowed himself to be blameless because he does stupid things like Okay, we're gonna play th h T with the starters and then just bench everybody and go to a lineup centered around Rondo, Like that's just that, that's you putting yourself in the crosshairs their brother, I can't defend you when you're doing that, okay or or okay, here comes th HT back, but

we're gonna bring it back with Russ. Oh and guess what, Russ he didn't get a lot of shots with the starters, so he's going to try to control things off the bounce and so th HD can't get his rhythm. Leads to one of his worst games as a pro. The point being like there every everyone deserves to get some sort of criticism tonight. But to me, the foundational problem is this group is not bought into Frank. And that could be because Frank is trying to run a scheme

that doesn't match his personnel. It could be that Frank doesn't know what he's doing offensively. I'm not sure what it is ROJ, but these guys don't want to play for him. That's just a fact. The Boston Celtics are a team that has struggled with effort all season. It

has been the story. Their coaches openly criticized them for their effort, and they completely outplayed the Lakers today in the effort and extra effort and in intensity and ball pressure, in defensive pressure areas of the game, rebounding pressure, everything. It was a completely they were out class tonight. It's depressing. Yeah, I just want to pressace that before I go into this.

This was the first game where I watched and I was like, damn, I missed the title team, you know what I mean, Like I really haven't felt that in terms of like just personnel and the way they play. But this is the first game where I'm like, damn, that team the father we get from that, I think the more special will remember that team to be just it's rare to have seasons like that, and this is

the first game. To me, I don't disagree with you, Like, it's just if they quit on Frank is something that's hard for me to quantify, you know what I mean, because I'm still just seeing lineups that just don't make sense, and I see Vogel trying to do these you know, trade offs where it's defense for offense, and look, if they quit on Frank, we have a bigger issue here, Like that's something that needs to be solved, a lot quicker than a lot of lineup issues, a lot quicker

than the Rondo stuff. It's like, I don't even know what we're even to go with this. Like you said that they quit on Frank, but like, again, it's just this is Lebron's first game back after eight games. But I'm still do you remember when DeAndre Jordan was playing all those minutes and then everyone just said take DeAndre Jordan out, put a D at the five and that would solve everything. Do you remember that? And I was I kept saying, like, that's not a plug, that's not

a button. You just pressed and it solves everything. And our guards are just absolutely awful at the point of attack. And look, that can be effort, that can be them just being terrible. But there's a mix there that's really troubling to me. Dennis Shrewder went off, and I don't think that's an accident. I remember when John Moran had forty Honest, I said, that's not an accident. Shay went off on us. That's not act like these guards are gonna just keep on killing us. But something is happening

in the third quarter. This is where I can kind of agree with you. Doris Broke Tonight on the broadcast said we were We've been outscored by eighty points in the third quarter. That's extremely difficult to do. Just in like, that's that's a hundred percent coaching. That's adjustments not being made. That's also some kind of lack of daisical effort coming

out of the half. Like there's some nonsense of for lack of a better word, like nonsense of urgency when they come out of the half, you know what I mean, Like it just feels like they come out and they start walking. Boston went up seven, and to be honest, Jason, I thought the game was over. I don't know about you how you felt that. Oh, I thought the game was a over. Tatum hit like an open three, and again,

like some coverages made no sense. Dwight is like in a drop coverage when Jayson Tatum comes off a three, like that's Jayson Tatum. Like there's some kind of have to be some personnel decisions going on. But you're right, there was an absolute like quit in the third quarter, which is just something we talked about identity all the time. And again, I don't really like to go into those kind of things because that's stuff that's kind of off

the basketball floor. But there was definitely some quit. There's definitely some like putting your head down eighties body language, which some of it is, you know, I understand, like I wanted to I texted you and I wanted to talk about the negatives of like a d at the five.

And again this is separate from the quitting on Vogel, but there's just stuff that, like people say, just I'll put eight at the five, but defensively man, when we have four guards around him, even when it's Lebron, there eighties switches and it's like Malik Monk or Wayne Ellington or Avery Bradley or and everybody got a lot of crap tonight, and you know he wasn't great. I just

think this doesn't fit Avery Bradley's play style. Avery Bradley is a good point of attack, funneling guard like when you can when he could funnel players into like if you want a player to go left, Avery Bradley is really good at just staying on them, making them go there and making them go into a big eight at the five. Induces a lot of switching, unless you go zone, which we can talk about later, but it just induces a ton of switching. And you have all these matchups

all over the floor. But you're right, that third quarter was awful. There was some quit there was some hanging of their heads. There was there's just something going wrong third and I'm not really sure where to quantify it. I don't know if it's line up. I hated the Avery Bradley starting tonight. I said that we had to start a shooter in that spot. And I thought both th HD and Russ and Lebron all suffered from. Lebron hit a lot of jumpers early that I thought masked

a lot of ugly offense. A d hit a lot of midrange jumpers. Are that massed a lot early offense? But what do you, like, do you attribute these third quarters just to quitting on Frank? Like is there anything else? Is there? Just there's their basketball adjustment is not being made, Like what do you attribute these? Because I think the third quarter issues are huge. It was at one point game I have time, and then Celtics went up seven, and I thought the game was over. What are you

attributing these third quarters too? So fact, the title team UM in two thousand and twenty had a really good net rating in first quarters. I can't remember exactly what it was off the top of my head that I was looking at up the other day, something around like seven or eight plus seven or eight points per one prosessions, which is pretty decent um, you know, for for a

quarter of play. They were plus zero point four in the third quarters that year, and that was an excellent effort team that was very much bought into Frank and everything that he was doing. So there are absolutely so of course, I'm not going to go back and dive into a bunch of third quarter film from so I couldn't tell yet schematically off the top of my head

where things went wrong. But the bottom line is teams were able to make adjustments and limit the effectiveness of the Lakers in fourth quarters or in third quarters in that season. That's a problem. That's something that points to the coaching staff. You know, I tweeted something out in the in the middle of that huge Boston run. I said that I didn't like this team's basketball character, that they at an unlikable basketball character. The things to me

that manifest basketball character are the things that are controllable. Okay, when you have good process. If you run a good action and uh, you know, like a rust gets all the way to the rim and he just happens to miss a laya can't get too upset. That's a physically aggressive play. That's what you brought him to do, did all the right thing, the result just wasn't there. However, there are a lot of things that you absolutely can control on a basketball court. Most of them are physical

in nature. Winning battles on the defensive glass, winning battles for rebounding position, putting an extra effort as a guard on the weak side to crash when other people are boxing out. Those kinds of things are absolutely in your control. They do not depend on whether or not your shot is falling. They do not depend on your talent level.

Just asked Austin Reeves, Okay, doing things like sitting in a freaking stance and trying to offer some resistance at the point of its app that is something that is in your control. That is not a thing that depends on on on scheme or any anything along. That's not a thing that depends on your shot being with you that day. That is just a matter of giving a ship and for whatever reason, every single one of those

checkboxes Anthony did. There was a play in the third quarter in the middle of their run where Malik Monk ran a pick and roll with Anthony Davis and Anthony Davis instead of rolling hard to the rim just kind

of floating attention. I could think, is what in the world are you doing, Like, this is a team that's desperate for some rim pressure to get something going to the basket, and you're and you're continuing to just do more of the same and continuing to defer to things that are outside of your control, like is this jump

shot going to go in? And it's just frustrating to me because all of the high character teams in the league, the Golden State Warriors, hell, the Boston Celtics, who are not a high character team tonight displayed a lot of those behaviors, and probably because they smell blood in the water with the Lakers. But the bottom line is all of the controllables the Lakers mail it in on they mail it in so so then if all of your jump shots aren't falling, then guess what you lose, and

you lose big. This is the thing that this is the point that I kept getting back to when I was saying that it's hard to lose with this much talent. Boston without Jalen Brown is a middle of the pack team at best in this league. I would argue that there they could very well be in that bottom bottom third without Jalen Brown. That's how limited they are. And they beat the ship out of us tonight because they applied defensive pressure that we were unwilling to apply. They

applied rim pressure that we were unwilling to apply. They applied rebounding pressure that we were unwilling to apply. And until that stuff gets fixed, it doesn't matter what en Up Frank plays. It doesn't matter, you know, whether or not Lebron comes back into MVP form. None of that stuff matters until this team takes on championship character, a willingness to do the things that you have to do to win basketball games. It blows my mind how far back on the burn on their stove, the Laker stove.

It's on like the back burner. They don't give a damn about that stuff. They didn't even play a big in the second half. They were obsessed with creating space for us to drive, and he spent the entire third quarter taking pull up jump shots while they played a Lebron at center lineup. Because they continue to be because they're they're trying to cater to this guy. And it's

not just Russ's fault. I'm not just coming on him and the only person that you could kind of offer an excuse for his Lebron because he's a little bit rusty. But just everybody just got completely pulverized in every physical matchup on the floor tonight. And you're just gonna get your ask take if you let that happen and you did that third quarter stuff you're talking about. It's not just on the coach. It comes down to those things

they did. They get into the locker room and they go, hey, we gotta tighten up this, we gotta tighten up that. And they come out and they tighten those things up, and the Lakers come out and continue to do the

same thing and get their asket, and it's frustrating. Yeah. Again, like I always don't like to just blame defense or losses on effort and look like that there was some quit and all that, and we discussed the third quarter, but there is like lineup stuff that I feel like you you just have to do with this team and look, accuacing to Russ is just what this season has become.

Like I just didn't think you could start avery Bradley and look in the first quarter a d Lebron hit jumpers and that third quarter, they didn't like those jumpers started to miss, and then they continue to cheat off Bradley. Russ still couldn't get any space you talked about. In the fourth quarter, they went to Lebron at the five and Russ started to finally get to the rim, finally get to the basket, but we couldn't defend like we're playing.

I think Carmelo played thirty minutes again to night. I don't think he can play thirty minutes in terms of just being a guy out there defensively, we have like too many, too many players out there that just get picked on relentlessly, you know what I mean. And again, that's something where they're like, that's something they can compete and get a little better at. And look, I didn't like Milik Monk's rebounding tonight. I didn't like Wayne Ellington's rebounding.

And again I said, A d was super frustrated with that tonight, and that kind of lead into his body language, and I thought he kind of just stopped I wouldn't say stopped trying, but stopped playing with the effort it took to keep up with Boston tonight. Once that just kept on happening, we just played too many players that

get picked on. We had a line of like Monk, I think Monk and Mellow out there, and it was like Jayson Tatum at like the buffet, you know what I mean, Like he could just like Jayson Tatum can literally just pick who he wants and any miss and those Russ jumpers man just again awful decision making and he's gonna have to adjust again, I guess to Lebron being back. I think that's an excuse and a reason

in himself. But yeah, like any miss Tatum gets a rebound and it's like a one on one against Milike Monk, It's there one on one against Carmelo, and that's just again. Tatum is probably a bad example of this because he's like a superstar offensive player. But still, even Marcus Smart tonight I thought just destroyed us. Marcus Smart was like eight for thirteen or something like that. Some of them were jumpers, but a lot of them were just out rebounding,

out hustling us. We just don't have the guards for that. And then you said that's an effort thing. That's true, but there's a reason why guys like Alex Cruso go and get paid nine million dollars a year, right, because that is a skill. It's an absolute skill to have guards who fight like that, who defend like that. And again bringing up Crusoe isn't really fair here, but I think there are lineups and stuff decisions that just have

to happen. And I kept saying a D at the five is not just some you know, pretty answer that you pressed and everything gets solved. Like there's a ton of issues with that. There's a ton of stuff that teams just pick on us. Our guards get destroyed on screens, and Russell Westbrook is part of that. Russell Westbrook does a lot of this. He he fights really hard at the point of attack, then he just gets absolutely destroyed

by a screen like he doesn't see it coming. I don't know if we don't call it out, but and we just get with a switch. Russ is on a big eighties on a guard, no rebounding download, just a lot of stuff. Again, like I kind of want to move this forward a little bit onto the court as well.

Are you seeing that as well? Not figuring any I'm just saying like this is stuff that we can't control though, you know, like voge Bore being fired is something we're gonna find out, like you said by woes one day, right, Like, it's just I can't get there yet. Like and again I'm seeing Voge. I know a lot of people are there, and I don't blame them for being there. I've still like I put myself in Vogel shoes, right, Like I know I don't. I can't feel those shoes out. I'll

never know. As much basketball as he'll have, he'll forget. But like, just like Vogo won a title less than thirteen months ago with a team that absolutely fit his philosophies and what he wants to do, and it got all traded away, and look, we can't play you know, do hind sight thing? Because rob Oblinka was applauded in the off season for the movies he made like he was not just by Laker people, by the national media acres were the one to seed whatever whether you thought

they were the favorite for booking Brooklyn. So for now to go back and be like, oh, Rob Lincoln made a mist like the rest of Westbrook move was was a difference story that was a very polarizing move, but the rest of the roster was applauded, right like in a lot of ways, but you see it just on the core. There's just a lot of stuff that I see that just isn't playable, Like these line ups where we trade off defense for offense is just I don't

know where they kind of go from here. Maybe Kendrick Nunn, Austin Reaves and the reasons the answer I said, you know, THHD and those three as your prayers probably is a misguided place to praise prayers. But like, I still think

there's stuff we can do. And maybe that's just me being a hopeless optimists, but like I'm just seeing way too much stuff like we can't play these mellow and maybe we just have to because we have injuries, but like you know what I mean by there, we just have too many bad defenders playing at the same time and we can't survive. We can't survive the Rondo minutes. Those were awful. I thought that turned the game around

as well. It's just I can't just stick on the fire volgo because that's not going to go anywhere at least I don't think we're people say we're close of that. I just I'm not doing yet. So you're right, let's get let's get into some of the excess and notes, because there's a couple of there's two. There's two particular interesting phenomenon that I that I noticed in this game, and they both had to do with Anthony Davis at the five, which is something that you explicitly wanted to

talk about. So, first of all, the Lakers do a lot more switching with a d at the five, and in general tonight, although not all the time, the Celtics did a lot of switching. And so what is the general thing that happens when both teams do a lot of switching? It generally turns into a game of who can beat their matchup? Right yet one on one basketball? So the Lakers have the cure for switching defenses because

they have the capability to apply a ton of rim pressure. Right, That's just that's the way to win that type of matchup. Is like you're relying on jump shots, I'm getting to the rim every time. So just by playing the percentages, this is going to work out in my favor in the long run. That's the idea, right, Well, here's the problem. Russell Westbrook spent the entire third quarter going as defenders went under screens, making no attempts to try to cave

someone's chest in and make something happen. He was content to just settle for jump shots. Lebron James also content to settle for jump shots. When he did try to get to the rim, his handle was rusty because he hasn't been playing for two and a half weeks and

so he wasn't able to gain any advantage there. Anthony Davis still thinks he's Kevin Durant, so every single time they got a matchup that they wanted with a d in the post, there were a handful of times where he ripped through the baseline and every time he did, he either got foul or made a layup. But he insisted on taking that same jeb step jump shot or

fadeaway jump shot that he always likes to take. And guess what, when you do that, you were playing directly into the hands of the switching defense and then th ht who was supposed to be another option to help attack this type of switching defense, was completely thrown out of rhythm because you basically didn't get him a legitimate basketball touch until late in the first half because you played him with the starters, which he didn't get a shot,

which is fine, that happens. That's part of the thing that's gonna happen when you're playing with all that talent. Ever single one of those stars will have moments like that in the starting lineup. But then you immediately went to the bench and brought in a rageon Rondo lined up instead of giving th HD a chance to be aggressive when guys like Lebron and Russ went to the bench. So guess what, th HD has his worst game as

a pro. So now you're trying to attack the switching defense with four guys who should just be living at the rim, and no one's getting to the rim. And and to be honest, it was their own damn fault. None of them made an actual intentional effort to get to the rim and when until it's too late, they were there. At the end of the game, there was a bunch of sequences where Russ and th HD really put their head down and tried to force their way in there, but at that point it was too late,

and at that point it was it just was. It was super telegraphed and easy to read and react as the Celtics defense, and they were able to shut all of that down so and then moving to the defensive side of the ball. And I think this is something that you wanted to get at. When you play Anthony Davis at the five, even with Lebron James at the four, there's a lot of responsibility that falls on the guards

and in order for it to work. You know, when you play a two big line up with Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard or somebody along those lines, the what you're asking for the other three players to do it becomes easier because there's more rim protection. But when you play a d at the five, the job for those

guys gets harder. So, like we talked about earlier, if you're gonna mail in all of the like all of the uh like physical intensity areas of the game, all of the things that are controllable, if you're gonna mail all those in and Anthony Davis is at the five, it's gonna look really ugly. And that's why it just became a layup line for for Dennis Schroder and for for Marguts Smart to get to the rim. And any time they offered any help, it was just an easy

pocket pass. Nobody on the back end to help or if they did, they just committed a stupid foul and gave up an and one. But to your point, when you're gonna play Anthony Davis at the five, the job for everyone else around them gets more difficult. And and this is the last thing I'm gonna say about it, because this is the part that I think everyone is

glossing over here in this whole situation. It's so easy to be like, this is what happens when you have Mellow, this is what happens when you have Ellington, this is what happens when you have this guy or this guy or this guy who can't defend I'm sorry, man, but they had defenders out there and they still weren't doing it. Th h T can defend. Avery Bradley was literally on that unbelievable Laker defense from in years prior. Like Russell Westbrook is every bit physically capable of doing the job,

he just doesn't want to do it. And so if you can't get the guys who are physically capable of doing it to actually do it, then what are we even talking about rob For what are we talking about Rob Ford? Because if you trade th h T, if you trade one of these guys for some defensive guard. If they come in and they don't do the job, it's still gonna look bad at a certain point. This comes down to personal accountability and these guys actually being willing to do the job. Yeah, it's a similar kind

of issue. Again, Like I was trying to hammer this point the whole time when we were starting two bigs, and look, I was totally wrong that DeAndre Jordan could play a fact simile of JaVale McGee. He can't. But just the archetype of that starting lineup was a point of attack defensive guard playing a drop coverage where a D can be the romer, right, a D can stay on the corner shooter whoever that guy is, and that

he can roam and play that kind of role. When you put a D at the five, your guards have to be able to either stay with the roleman box him out unless Lebron comes down and gets the rebound. But that's the that's the whole issue that I'm seeing here, is that a D s out top And I don't know this is a guard issue. If this is a personnel issue, it's hard for me to decide because, like you said, the guards aren't doing the things that Vogel is telling them to do. But that's been my whole

issue this whole time. Look offensively, a D at the five should be the best lineup. It opens things for us. But defensively, man, we just played too many guys that just can't play the role that they need to. Carmelo Download like he's a fine rebounder, he just doesn't fight in the way I think you need to defensively, but you're right, these all they do is do one screen. I thought Dennis Shrewder was way too comfortable tonight. He felt like he wasn't even seeing a defender out there.

But when they have when they have a screen that comes up eight over eighties an over helper just by his nature, Like that's just the way he plays. He likes to kind of overhelp. But they do do a lot of switching, and you leave it with these guards down low trying to face you know, whoever the big man is, Al Horford, Jayson Tatum, got a lot of them.

Marcus Smart dominated us. Like those are the issues I see, And again, like I don't know, like the main solution for this, uh, maybe it is when a reason comes back, like that might be the perfect like three men, but again he's like thirty six. Like it's tough for me to put all our prayers um into that as a

new starter. But like that's that's the kind of conundrum that I'm seeing Vogel play as well, and we can kind of move to like the zone that they're playing, which I know, must kill, must kill fring volgo to play a zone the type of defensive coach he is, that's been our best option because it kind of simplifies the roles. The guards know what they do. But I just think NBA teams are too good to play a zone for as long as you know you would have to for it to be effective as your main option.

But yeah, like that's where I'm seeing here with the A D at the five stuff. Everyone said it would be the solution, and it is probably our best lineup in totality, but there's just a lot of problems with it when you don't have guards that can stick on stick on players at the point of attack, give any kind of back pressure. Maybe you know, I don't think

they're gonna go back to the two bigs. I don't think DeAndre Jordan's gonna play again, But you gotta find some guards that can at least fight, and maybe just having Malik Monk or Wayne Ellington. I thought Wayne Ellington like looks fine defensively, again, he's not a good rebounder in that sense, but like you know what I mean, They're like, I just don't know what the solution is to this, Like a D of the five is probably

the line of we're gonna go to. It's the conundrum, right, because you have to open things for us and you have to play scores next to him, but like the scores can't defend. And then like in the second half, we're trading offense for defense, but we scored forty one second forty one points in the second half with like three minutes left, So it's like a trade off where we're losing on both ends, you know what I mean. So like I don't know where to really go with that.

I don't know if that's just lineup stuff. All I know is like I don't think you can play two to three bad defenders at the same time. You're right, I'd like to see PhD get his own lineups. I thought we really put a lot of stuff in his way. I got again, like the teams don't play him as a shooter, and like he was. He was bad tonight, a lot of really bad decisions. But I'd like to see him get his own line up. But yeah, like where do you think the solution would go here? Because

I really don't have one. I guess like, if you're gonna defend this way, you're not gonna beat a lot of teams. Like that's just that's just the way it's going to go. It's true. And it becomes like a it becomes like a cascading effect, which is something I talked about a lot on the show, the idea that, like, you know, any one factor might not be enough to submarine your team, but when all of them kind of

come together and confluence, it'll it'll it'll destroy you. Like for instance, like like the when the Lakers it confronted the stagnation that Boston tried to inflict on them with

the switching by settling for jump shots. It led to these kind of like semi transition runouts where all of a sudden, Marcus Martin, Dennis Shrewder have a head of steam and your defense isn't set, you know what I mean, And it becomes one of those things where all of a sudden, they just scored again, and now you're even more discouraged, and they are completely set in their half court defense and they're switching everything, and they just uh

put you in another situation where Anthony Davis is posting up and guess what, He's gonna take another jump shot, you know what I mean. It's like it turns into this snowball effect and it's and you're right, like you can go to a zone for and it actually did work for a couple of possessions tonight. Like if you go to a zone just to to to disrupt somebody's rhythm, that's one thing you might be able to cause you you might be able to cause a really good basketball

player to be confused for a few possessions. But you can't lean on that full time. And you know, I said at the beginning of the show that no one was blameless at the beginning of the show. At the beginning of the game, Anthony Davis and Lebron were way more active on the back end than they were in the second half. There were actually two there were two plays in the first half where where Tatum ended up

beating somebody to the basket. I can't remember who it was, but where Lebron was able to cause him to miss layups. But with it with his uh verticality around the rim, and I remember sitting and thinking in the moment, like, this is what we've been waiting for. This is what we've been missing, instead of it being four guards in a D or three guards and mellow in a D. This is what it looks like when you have a real power forward that can rotate on the back end

and disrupt stuff around the basket. But guess what. Both Lebron and Anthony Davis, and I'm sure they were discouraged on account of the fact that every time they missed a jump shot before they could even get in a defensive stance on the other end of the floor, here comes Dennis Shrewder down the lane on a straight line drive with absolutely no resistance, and they have no momentum or willingness to to get in the way. I get why they would be frustrated, but you have to find

a way to reverse the snowball. And the only way to reverse the snowball is like, hey, maybe, Anthony Davis, when you get that post up and you're down by nine, in the middle of the third d you ripped through and you get to the damn rim because if you score, then you can set up your defense. If you set up your defense, maybe the guys can do a slightly

better job at the point of attack. If they do a slightly better job at the point of attack, maybe Lebron and Nad will have a better opportunity to clean

things up on the back end. And then maybe if you get a stop, you can score on the other end in transition, which is the foundation of your offense and what you wanted your identity to be at the beginning of the season, like the only that that's what what is so frustrating about this is as the Wheels go off with this team, it just continues to magnify their own problems and it becomes an issue where it's like now Russ, who has a tendency throughout his career

to every time the team is in trouble to take a couple of bad jump shots. He shot a jump shot of three consecutive possessions there in the middle of the third quarter when the Wheels were coming off, like it just it's it's it's there was this team just desperately needs to have some good habits that they can start to rely on when things go bad, Because, as I've always said, your habits, your identity, is what you fall back on and what you rely on when things

get bad. And so if you are a bad basketball team with bad habits, then when things start to go bad, you're going to continue to do bad things and it will compound the problem. If you establish yourself as a team with good habits, meaning Anthony Davis, a rim pressuring big, not a first like a perimeter versatility big. If you establish yourself as Russ as a guy who does not take jump shots but just puts his head down and

goes to the rim, and that becomes your habit. If you establish yourself as Russ, as someone who tries to give resistance at the point of attack. If you establish yourself as lebron in a d as guys that want to make first team all defense and be a front court that smothers everything. If you turn that into your habits, then when things get bad, that's what you will fall back on, and it will become the thing that helps you right the ship instead of the thing that makes

the wheels come off. That's how you end up with such an awful third quarter net rating because when things get bad for this team, they continue to fall back on their bad habits and it just becomes a compounding problem.

And I don't know how you can fix that until fundamentally, from the top down, you start to to change that identity and I and it, you know, it does start with Lebron and a d um and so as even though it's not necessarily their fault in a vacuum that things are the way that they are the only person capable of changing it is then that they're they're the only ones that have the the ability to inspire the rest of these guys to try to fix some of

these bad habits. Yeah, and I think it's a fair crushed question whether or not, like it's fair to ask Lebron because again, like we talked about a d at the five and the defensive issue that causes, but Lebron also at the four has to be a super defender, right like, just to cover up for all the cards that we have for the rest of Westbrook defense that we have, playing a lot of League Monk, playing a lot of Carmelo, he asked to be that super not

defensive player of the year, but all defense type of player. And is that fair to ask of him in year nineteen? And I think we saw a lot of that as well in the second half, where you know, I thought on the first half his defense was pretty good. Second half it really kind of tailed off. Um those jumpers again didn't fall. But you talked about the habits. I don't think this team knows what it is right now, and it's battling and it's having an identity crisis to me,

like they're trying to figure out who they are. And I think I think the Avery Bradley. Look, it's not even Bradley's fault, like it's not fair to blame him, but I think he kind of just represents this like, oh, to the other side, right. It's why I like, it's why I predicted he'd start tonight, because it's kind of like Vogel's way of being like, yeah, I still have a defensive first player out there, you know what I mean, even though probably in totality he's kind of hurting you

on both ends. The defense doesn't really match the style that he's really good for. Like I said before the eight, at the five induces a lot of switching. I don't think that's perfect for Bradley. That's not the type of player. That's the type of player he is. It's the reason he's on a minimum deal, right, It's the reason he was cut by the Warriors like that. There's a reason why. He has a specific skill set that's supposed to fit a specific style of play, and I don't think that

fits it. But you have to find some players here. Maybe Baysmore comes back from the rotation. You just need more size, more different defensive size there. I don't want this to be all doom and gloom, you know what I mean? Like this is this is the bronze first game back. Hopefully we get some rotation pieces here, and that's where I kind of want to go next with this,

I guess, because it's probably unfair. It's probably crazy that, you know, missing Austin Reeves, the undrafted rookie having the impact it is, but it does, right, Like Austin Reeves being out is actually a big impact. He's a guy who does fight for defensive boards. He's a guy that does rough it up inside. You talk about you talk a lot about how like fighting inside is dirty, right, it's ugly. You get elbowed in the face a lot, you gotta be willing to get elbowed and faced a lot.

Austin Reads is a guy that does that. Trevor Reason hopefully coming back. Kendrick Nunn isn't even on this road trip. We'll see when he comes act. But that's where I guess want to end here. We did. There was there was a lot of doom and gloom in this in this show, but like putting three more rotation players I think does help. But this team has to figure out who they are, like you gotta pick one. And to me,

this is a fit around Russ. Russ is not going anywhere, like we said, and this is a team that has to fit around his skill set. I thought again tonight, starting Avery Bradley just induces again. It's just one shooter, but when you put him next to th ht Lebron and a d it makes all of them jump shooters, like in a weird way, you know what I mean, Like it turns all three of them into jump shooters, which is the worst, the worst outcome. So that's why

I wanted at least one shooting in there. And maybe Wayne Ellington still gets cooked. Maybe we still get blown out from the leak Monk starts. I just like, I think we have to go all in here and not try to play these both sides having an identity that the team doesn't really know who they are right now, and I think that's troubling. But getting three three rotation players back, I think, what hell would you agree with that? Getting like a Resa None whoever else without a reasback

would kind of help some of the rotation here. That's all I can kind of think of to me. Carmel is playing too many minutes like and probably Malik Monk needs to be more of a spark plug rather than a guy you just throw out there. This long to be attacked defensively. Do you see what I'm going with that. I'm just trying to get a little positivity on this

Friday night here, for sure. So let's let's try to frame this from the from the discussion of how the Lakers can write this ship, because we you kind of you kind of have to accept things the way that they are. For instance, So I think I think Frank is weighing over his skis offensively. I don't think he has any idea how to maximize this specific set of

players in terms of their skill sets. You could tell not only with the lineups that he throws out there, but just with the way that the offense functions in terms of the the amount of motion or lack of motion that exists. He's completely in over his head. He is he is incapable as a basketball coach of solving the offensive problem. But the reality is, no coach that is currently available is capable of fixing that problem. If you go if you go to Fisdale or somebody along

the lines, you're gonna have the same problem. As a matter of fact, I think it was revealed today or the day before that Fizdale is technically the offensive coordinator of the team right now. So that tells you all you need to know in that regard. So yes, I think they need to fire Frank, but it strictly has to do with buy in. I think he's I think I think that the reality is is the team has quit on him. So if they were willing to put

because I'll give you an example, defensive rebounding. Right, Frank Vogel has been preaching about defensive rebounding from the guards NonStop over the course of the last month. He knows it's one of their biggest weaknesses. With eighty at the five, it was one of the biggest reasons why he waited so long to go to eight at the five. That's something he preaches and still on almost every possession, someone like a Malique Monk or Rajon Rondo or rust or

somebody on the wing misses a goddamn box out. It happens on almost every possession. Clearly, whatever he's putting out there in their coaches meetings, whatever he's putting out there in the film sessions, guys just aren't doing it, okay, So that that that that is step one, is they have to get this group bought into the concepts. Okay, whether that's just Lebron shoeing everybody out in the meeting or then just getting sick of losing or whatever it is,

somebody that they have to at least buy into the scheme. Okay. Two, you pointed this out. Lebron and Nadie have to be all defensive caliber players. They can't be. They can't be okay, they can't compete for stretches. They can't have a quarter here there where they look like all defensive players. They have to have a two thousand, twenty level defensive commitment

that absolutely has to happen. If that doesn't happen, this team is going nowhere and then three in terms of the rotation, and maybe time to start playing because there's an individual identity in a team identity, right. What makes Austin Reeves play the way he does despite the team lacking that identity is he has an individual identity as a guy who's willing to do the dirty work. As a matter of fact, when he's on the floor, that's

all he's the king about. Okay, so you may have to start trying to find the guys on the roster and maybe that's why they're playing Bradley, which you know what's so frustrating is he was one of the guys giving up so many straight line drives tonight. I think Jason Maple sweeted out, Like, what's the point if he's if he's if he's such a he's so trigger happy on offense and never has seen a jump shot he doesn't like. But then on the other end, he's not

doing his job. So it's frustrating. But they need to identify the players on the team that have somewhat of an idea individual identity that is catered to defense, even if that means Baysmore as crazy as all hell and he does stupid stuff all the time, But if he's at least focused on doing the job that is needed out of the position, you might it might be worth sacrificing the space and to try to recapture some of that because over the course of of of a couple

of games, if you if you cater to those guys, it might cause some of these other guys to then buy into that identity because they'll have no choice otherwise they won't play. That would be the next thing I would do, and the next, the last thing, And this to me is absolutely critical. Lebron, A, d Russ, and th HT have to buy into the fact that they

are rim pressuring players and not perimeter players. I love Lebron and Anthony Davis and th h T and even Ross on occasion taking a balanced catch and shoot jump shot when someone else just got to the rim. But outside of that specific scenario, all four of those guys have to cut way back on their jump shot hunting and get back to becoming what they are when they're at their best. Which is guys who put relentless pressure

on the rim. If those four guys put relentless pressure on the rim, it will turn around everything with the offense because it will cave everybody in and even guys like bays Moore and even guys like Avery Bradley will start to get better looks and everything will turn round offensively. But they you can't. It can't be Lebron's biggest three point volume season and Anthony Davis returning to you know, becoming Kevin Duran out of the high post, and th h t showing off all the stepbacks and oh russ

is taking four jump shots every third quarter. It cannot be that. If it's that, this is gonna blow up. But I think if they can accomplish those things by into the coaches scheme, start to favor guys who have some sort of individual identity centered around effort and focus and all of the details of that that that effect winning, and if their starting their core four players embrace pressuring

the rim, I do think this ship will turn around. Yeah, And I'm I'm just gonna like spoil something for you.

The rust jumpers aren't going away like that's just not that's just not going away like he's going to continue to It's just we have we have too much of a sample size for him throughout his career, maybe other than that one, you know season in Houston when they really had no center and it was just p J. Tucker out there at the five where he really limited his three point attempts and I think he's still took almost three a game. But but yeah, those rust jumpers

aren't going away. And again, like I think this season has just become like you have to actu as the talent to make to fit us. Like that's just what it's become is positive and negatives are too loud to me, Like like that's where I think this season has gone to. And there's stuff we can do, Like you said that Vogel's in over his head offensively, and look, Vogel is not an offensive late in coach, Like I think that's

been clear. But we did used to run sets like it used it did not used to just be these like go down, you know, throwing the post a d like we used to have these sets for do you remember these sets we used to run for KCP where like he'd started in the corner and be like a double drag into a handoff, like where is that all gone? Like? Or like what happened to all the hornsets we were running when Lebron was out, you know, with Carmelo and

a d Like what happened to all that? Like all that seems to be gone tonight was just a bunch of just isolation and maybe bosch everything, and sure, yeah, that's of it. And then like I noticed one play tonight, so like it was Taylan in that k CP spot where he was going to come off a drible handoff and then the Carmelo just decided I'm gonna go in the post and then it became just a Carmelo post up.

So stuff like that happens. But I think there is some offensive stuff there and I think he is searching, Like we talked about good process all the time. I think that fourth quarter is something to look into, like putting Russ. Lebron was at the five, you had Russ

and look didn't defend great. And I don't think this team, we talked about it before the season, could there be a top ten defense And I'd be happy with top probably fifteen right now, just the way I'm seeing them defend, but like, like this is an offensive minded team, Like I think that's where it's gonna have to lean to, and that goes against everything Vogel believes in. It's just a roster construction is made that way. And I think the fourth quarter was something to kind of lean into

there or it was Russ Lebron and three shooters. I think it was Mellow, Ellington and Monk if I remember correctly. And Russ got to the rim every time on Jayson Tatum and he got lay up after lay up and then they switched smart on him, and I think it changed a little bit it But that's where I think

this season is kind of going into. You talked about Lebron has to be this realm seeker, Like he just can't be that in year nineteen though, Jason right, Like it's just it's too much where on his body to me, Like would he rather go the rim every time? I'm sure he would, But like the jumper is kind of the fallback, you know, like it's allows him to kind of load manage while he's in games. And maybe the

Lakers aren't good enough for him to do that. That remains to be seen, but I think that's where the jumper is. I think a D is the one that falls back on that too much, Like he's the one that I would like attacking the rim more and again I swing against Al Horford. I don't think is the right idea by it. I have to go back and look, but I don't remember very many Russ a D pick and rolls tonight. I don't remember any Lebron. Do you remember any Lebron a D pick and rolls tonight? Like

I really honestly don't remember any. But again, it's sure, yeah, the switching does just take that out. But I mean, like when Russ is defended by Dennis Shrewter, like they should not be able to switch a D onto onto shoot sorry shooter onto a D. Anyway, That's besides my point. It's just like I think there are actions, but we do get into this super isolation heavy basketball. But but what used to have like plays that at least pet plays.

It wasn't a whole wasn't like like some complicated supermotion offense like the Warriors, like where the Warriors run where it's all these split action stuff, but like there was some more stuff there, but I'm just not seeing it again, maybe that's just buying stuff, but yeah, like I just don't think Lebron can be this super rim attacking guy

and you're nineteen. Th HD definitely has to be better, but I think again, lineups have to work for him as well, like the Lebron russ uh th HD didn't have a great opening start, and again it's just one game, but I would like to see him have his own line up, Like there's things that can still be improved, which is why I can't just get to the whole other side. Like again, I kept saying, once you cross the line, once you fire a coach, your season pretty

much resets. Like that's fair. I mean, that's fair. They could need a reset, But like to me, that's a that's like a panic button I'm not ready to push yet, Like it's just too much has happened, like to just fire Frank. I don't see a solution where someone comes in and can put in all their stuff and you know, the Lakers roll on and maybe they can. I just I'm not there yet. Did you just let Franco I

hear you. I do. I mean there are a couple of things, like there's a couple of basic rotational concepts that I wish Frank would figure out. So for instance, like having two creators on the floor, there's there's no reason ever to have Lebron, th HD and Russ all on the bench at the same time. And there's also no reason to not have either one of Dwight or Anthony Davis on the floor. Um, just just in general, if you the way I would look at it is you need a rim Runner, and then you need your

primary creator and you need a second side creator. So obviously th HT had been playing so well in the first three games that he needed to start, so I'm not advocating for ditching that, but what I would do is, you know, get a quick sub, get one of them out quickly. I don't know if that's th H, hear Russ, and then just really simplify things, it's Lebron and a d Lebron and either Russ or th h T on the other wing, with Anthony Davis as the rim Runner

and as guys. Sub out. If Lebron comes out, bring Rust back in and it's Russ and t h D. If th HD comes out, it's Russ and Lebron, and so on and so forth, with a d comes out bringing Dwight. Keep it simple and with the rotation and build it around those creators. It will help them all

with their rhythm. That's what I thought was so messed up about what Frank did the th HT tonight to disrupt his rhythm playing with the starters were inevitably it's a decent chance that he's not going to get a shot off, which which would be fine if, like with Dennis, he continued to get opportunities as the lead man and other lineups. PhD didn't really get that opportunity tonight. He was taken out of the game. And then here comes Rondo by himself, and then here comes th HT, but

here comes Russ as well. Russ is gonna kind of dictate the vast majority of possessions in that regard. So it's like it's frustrating because I think I think Frank overthinks it with the rotation, and at think I think he views Rondo as someone that doesn't stagnate, someone that's

more willing to try to move the ball around. But the truth of the matter is that at this phase, with what he gives up defensively and with the fact that he can't like simply finished layups at the rim when the defense does play the pass and force him to be uh, you know someone who can score, it just isn't a good option anymore. And so that that needs to be simplified down to like I would I would lean more into Russ as a primary creator instead

of into Rondo. Like the thing that's the for the record in one thing in defense of us here, like it was, it was entirely predictable that in Lebron's first game back he would have a hard time figuring out where his spots are. Right. That goes without saying so like if if I'm Russ and I just went from being the primary guy two now Lebron's that guy, there was obviously going to be a little bit of an

adjustment period and uh like that. The reality is is like I felt like everybody, especially Russ and th HT, we're kind of like hesitant about when they were supposed to attack. I think th h t S first shot, if I remember correctly, was a step back three on the left wing in the second quarter. Point being like he's just trying to fit in with the group and try to figure out where he's going to be aggressive.

I would simplify it down and I get with both of them, both Russ and th HD, and I'd be like, I don't give a damn if Lebron's on the floor. I don't give a damn if Anthony Davis is on the floor. Get to the rim. If you catch the ball and you think you can rip through and get to the rim. If you see the backside of the defense and you think there's an opportunity, go Because even if you don't finish, it just opens things up. It gets the defense moving around, It collapses the defense and

gets things going. I think that hesitancy has to be cured, you know. But but at the end of the day, like no one guy is to blame, Like I like, Lebron had a really bad defensive second half, and obviously he was very rusty tonight with his handle. Anthony Davis settled for way too many jump shots. Russ was really passive in the first half and then suddenly got jumped

shot happy in the third quarter. And I thought he was pretty bad defensively tonight, you know, a th HD struggled with hesitancy, and then most of the shots that he took when he was trying to find his rhythm. Were very difficult shots. And you know that I always preach that taking really difficult shots is a really bad way to form your rhythm. And it's almost guaranteed to start a bad night unless you get hot at the beginning, you know what I mean. So, like every everyone is

is culpable. No one person is to blame. However, I think Lebron and a b are the ones that have the capability of of playing well enough to kind of inspire some change in the habits elsewhere on the roster. Sure, and the Lakers keep making sure that my notes mean nothing after the second half, But do you remember the player where a d got a dunk tonight? Like he I think he dribbled from like the top and got a dunk over was it? Al Horford? Do you remember

that play? I don't know if you remember in the first half or not, but Ad got a dunk in this game where he dribbled in from the three pointer and it was off of a fake dribble handoff. He faked it dribble drive and went went down and dunked it.

And I just think, like, there's again. I said this in the last spaces that we did, But we keep treating a D like he's We keep playing him as if he's the archetype of Dirk, and he's not Dirk, and we keep putting him in those type of situations instead of what he is, which is a big who has guard type of handles, who can really make plays and he can push it in transition if you let him.

It's just too much like a D gets the rebound, immediately looks for a guard, immediately looks for Rondo, immediately looks for Russ, like let him push it, Like we we make things too difficult in my opinion, like we want to play fast, we want to play class. But that doesn't just mean Russ has to push the ball like a D. Should have some kind of leeway there where you can push it, run, run something, get get

something early to the basket. And I'm still just not seeing enough of that, Like that dribble drive he did for a dunk I think was the only player where like he actually dribbled in. And the point of putting a D at the five is not just to give us space, but to give a D space to write, like that's the whole point of that, is to also give him space, not have a center in the lane for to mucket mucket up for him, and I just like, like,

that's my kind of final thing I had. I guess is that, like I just want to see more A D is such a unique talent that like putting him as just as post up player. I think I saw someone tweet out tonight we had four team post ups and I think the league the lead. The lead in the league is like nine per game or something like. There's just no need to post up a D that much. First, he's not efficient enough at it. Second team's double way

too easily because of the spacing we have. I just want to see A D a little bit more on the open floor, give him some more leeway there as a ball handler, because I think there's something there to open up. Like it's year three of a D and I feel like we're still just in this super rudimentary offense with him when he has so much more skills. The whole point, the whole thing about a D is he was a guard growing up as these hard skills and we just don't see it enough night tonight other

than the mid range jumpers, the step back jumpers. Um, I just would like to see a little bit more of that, and yeah, that's I guess all I all

I had for for this one. Yeah, so for for those of you guys who missed it two nights ago, Roger and I kind of got into this more in depth to just the philosophy that the Lakers are too reliant on post ups in a league that allows defenders the most leeway in post up defense, and that even though you can't ever count on Anthony Davis to be honest, a guy that can consistently break down a defense off the dribble because he doesn't quite have the quick first

step that Janice has, you absolutely can use him as an isolation player or as a matchup attacking player and things other than post ups, whether that's getting in with a live dribble on the perimeter, starting him out with the triple threat at the three point line, doing quick pick and pops where he's almost attacking a close out, just some variety other than here's a high post touch or here's like kind of an extended low block touch.

That's pretty much all he gets in the offense in terms of isolation attempts, and it just doesn't make sense because it plays into some of the downsides of those

offensive strategies in this era. And you know, the best offenses that I see in the league right now are teams like Utah, are teams like the Clippers who just truly spaced the floor and count on guy's ability to beat people off the dribble and get into the paint and by doing that, start getting your defense and rotation and then swinging it around until there's a decent three point shot or until they screw up a rotation at

the rim and you can get a layup. Those are the kinds of things that the best offenses in the league are doing right now. Yeah, there are some outliers. You've got your teams like the Suns that run a Jazilian pick and rolls a game. You've got your teams like the Um of Warriors that run they're super super unique, you know, star off ball, tons of cutting and screening offense,

blah blah blah blah. But with this group of players that we have, we have three guys who are extremely gifted at getting to the basket off the dribble, and we've got lots of shooting, and we have this unbelievable versatile big that presents all his problems that he presents to the defense. Why are we not running a more modern offensive scheme that that gets That gets frustrating. But anyway, we did go into more detail on that on the last pot um. We're going to call it tonight for

right now, guys. On Sunday at I think three Pacific Standard time, the Lakers play the Pistons. Um. That should be a game that is a little bit less eventful, and we will take a bunch of collars. So all of you who called in, I sincerely appreciate it. I'm sorry we didn't get to you tonight. Please come back on Sunday and we will take a bunch of calls. Um. This will air on DASH Radio on Monday morning at seven am Pacific Standard time, and we'll be on our

podcast feed here in about thirty minutes. As always, we sincerely appreciate your guys support and you're coming to hang out with us and hopefully at some point we'll have some more positive stuff to talk about. But you know, sometimes it takes getting punched in the mouth and really really really hit and rock bottom before you can look in the mirror and take some accountability over what's wrong and hopefully, if we're lucky, this will be that moment

for this team. Yeah, appreciate everyone that came out Friday night. On a Friday night, go enjoy the rest of your your Friday, and appreciate every everyone coming