Lakers/Grizzlies Postgame Spaces

the first of these. I sent out a video earlier today talking about you know these little championship checkpoints, these markers, these tendencies, these games, these moments that always are like the bell weathers of the indicators of a team that has championship aspirations, And we saw so many of those with the Lakers, right like they would very rarely lose two games in a row. They would very uh they would win all the games they were supposed to win.

You know, there were be these you know that they took specific matchups personally, there were there were the day to day effort stuff was above and beyond, which you saw elsewhere in the league. They're all of those check points were met and were checked off by that team. And with this team, they've missed every single one of those checkpoints. And I thought tonight was a great opportunity for them to finally hit one of those checkpoints to

get that boat rolling in the right direction. And what's funny is Memphis. We all knew coming into tonight that Memphis was a good team. You know, we knew, we knew that even without John Morant, they defended extremely high level that we knew that they were young, that they were athletic, that they played big. We knew, we know at home they're tough to be We knew this was

gonna be a tough game. This is the kind of game that the championship teams go up into Memphis and they win, and once again, they just couldn't get it done. We're gonna get into details here in a second. Thank you guys so much for coming to hang out with us. Rose, how are you doing so far? How's your redrowing so far?

It's going all right. You know, it felt really positive after the Boston win, and again we said those those words that you know, this could be the this could be the game that turns the season around, and there's a lot of positive energy around the team. We had a super positive podcast after it. Most of the Laker podcast I listened to was was pretty positive, and you can kind of throw a lot of that out right.

I mean, there's still some good stuff you can take from it, but it's just this one just feels awful. The body language was awful. I'll just take people behind the curtains a little bit. So so after, you know, before every before we start these spaces every time, and Jason text back and forth and and uh, he said he's gonna keep this one a little bit shorter, and I said that's fine, And you said, I hate this team, and I feel like that's kind of that's kind of

the energy I see from the timeline as well. Right this it's becoming a real hate relationship with this team. You know how you say love, Hey, it's becoming a real hate relationship with this team. And we can go into x's and o's and we can go into you know, all the spacing that's awful, even though Avery Bradley actually played well Frank teasing me with the Wayne Ellington lineup, like, but the body language I thought was just awful from tonight. So that was my main thing. I hated the energy

that we came out with. Other than Lebron, we were super careless with the bat like just so many things where we beat ourselves and Memphis just punked us, Steven Adams punked us, like Desmond being punked, like everyone on the rebound, Like it was just an awful game to watch. I don't know, I don't know where we go from here. Scorings with your whole team healthy besides Trevor Reason and Kendrick Nunn is inexcusable to me, Like that's just that

can happen. So I don't know where do you want to take this, Jason, because I don't know where where do really go from here? Just just an awful game leaves an awful taste in your mouth, very little positive

to take from him. So the first thing that sit out to me was, you know, when you go on the road and you're playing against the young basketball team, you can, especially at home, you can expect that that you're there's only so much effort you can bring to the game to meet and win the effort battle, right, because the young team playing at home in front of their home crowd is obviously going to bring a boatload of effort and with how with how big they are,

they're obviously going to win a lot of physical altercations because of the young, big, strong team playing super hard at home. So how do you win that type of game. You have to be the smart basketball team. You have to be Your advantage going into that game is the veteran talent that you have on the team, the knowledge of how to win different types of basketball games and how to grind these kinds of games out. You can't go into a game like tonight and be the dumb team.

You can't be the team that goes on the road when your advantages your basketball i Q and not take care of the basketball. You can't go on the road and and in this type of matchup in miss box house, the all of the the i Q stuff, all of those little details. That's where you have to be sharp in games like tonight, because you're not gonna be able to match their effort. Like we we're gonna dig into

all the little details. And it blows my mind that Anthony Davis cannot win a rebounding altercation with Steven Adams. And we're gonna get into Anthony Davis because this was one of the most frustrating games that I've seen with him, but just foundationally from the top down, because Lebron was awesome tonight, but he wasn't even with as great as Lebron was, he didn't take care of the ball well enough.

And the point being, you can't go on the road against the young team that's gonna play their ass off and be the dumb team. You have to be the smart team. And I mean, we're gonna get further into it, but that was the big thing that stood out to me over the course of this game, was just not taking care of the basketball and making dumb guy mistakes which you which you just can't make on the road against the young team. Yeah, it felt like a lot

of effort mistakes and the turnovers are awful. It felt like we sleep blocked through a lot of this, a lot of just dumb passes, a lot of Coss corps passes that had no chance, a lot of pocket passes that made no sense. And give the Grizzlies credit like they lead the league in steels at ten a game. They had thirteen at halftime. A lot of that really felt like we just gave them the basketball. A lot just passed, We gave it, gave it to them, and they got on ran and they ran it down our throats.

They had a bunch of transition points as well. It just I just hated the body language though. From tonight it felt like we beat Boston and then we came in. We were up twenty seven to nineteen or something. We had like a nine or eight point lead, A couple of misfree throws from a D, a couple of misfre throws from Russ, all of a sudden, it's like a four point game, Desmond Bean, I thought cooked us for a lot of the night, a lot of defensive possessions where we were off. It was just a gamhere. We

didn't have focus. And the lineups kind of add into that as well. And that's when I want to ask you about to start with this, because the starting lineup still isn't great. I still don't understand it. I still don't understand Avery Bradley being you know, thrown into this. The spacing is still awful, and the body language I think goes into that as well. A D just did

not look engaged in this game at all. Like I think he's the story up tonight, even with the turnovers being awful, even with the you know, the dumb plays, like you said we were the dumpty tonight, I thought A D was the story, Like you could just tell the body language difference. He didn't look like he wanted to play tonight and that stuff that I don't really like to get into because I can't really measure that

kind of stuff. It just he just did not look right to me, and I thought that was kind of the story. Jaren Jackson Jr. Got whatever he wanted. I thought Jaren Jackson Jr. Was great. Stu kept pointing out how he was gonna he was gonna shoot every time he touches it, and he did. He took eighteen shots at fell and uh, he he hit nine of them, but he was like, he was awesome and he outworked us. But what you see from that, because I thought our body ling, which is awful other than Lebron and Rush

try to pick it up as well. Um, I just thought Ad looked. You know, you just did not look into this game for whatever reason it was. And I thought that was the story to me, even with the turnovers, even with the dumb plays like that, that was to me the story from tonight. I think India Davis is struggling a little bit with his confidence. You could tell that he just doesn't trust certain areas of his game, which is what causes him to go through these extended

stretches where he's not overly aggressive. The part that's frustrating about that is, like, if you were a basketball player that has physical tools, So if you happen to be very athletic, if you happen to be tall, if you have length, if you have strength, whatever it is. If you've got physical tools and you're a basketball player and you're struggling in some of the areas of offense, you can devote all your energy towards the effort and energy

areas of the game and build your confidence through that. Okay, Like, so you're having a hard time getting touches within the offense, Okay, your jump shots not falling, Okay, you're having a hard time reading the floor and postops. I get all of that. But find a way to get your confidence. And one of the easiest ways to do that is, instead of do what Steven Adams is doing, devote all your energy to crashing the offensive glass and just physically imposing your

will on the other team. Put all of that effort and energy into defense, into shutting everything down around the rim and just flying around and being super disruptive. From there, you'll make plays and you'll be able to build your confidence. But for whatever reason, and this has been something that's been a problem with Anthony Davis since the start. He's just not much of a self starter. He doesn't you know, he almost needs to get swept up in the energy

of the rest of the team. So in a game like tonight, when pretty much everybody not named Lebron James had a bad had a bad game. When when that kind of thing happens, there's just no energy surrounding the team and there's nothing for him to get swept up in. Like even if I mean Russ had I'm not gonna get hard on be super hard on Russ because Russ has had just a phenomenal stretch of basketball for basically a month leading into this, So I'm gonna I'm not

gonna go after Russ too much tonight. But him having a bad game too, I think that partially kind of feeds into the bad Anthony Davis thing. Like he's just he is the biggest reason why he's always going to be a number two. And this is something that I talked about in a pod last week, like Laker fans need to adjust their expectations of what Anthony Davis is gonna be like after Lebron is gone, because he just fundamentally, as as his basketball character is that of a number two,

he is a follower, not a leader. He gets wrapped up in what's happening around him. He's not a self starter. Now, if he's surround him with the right group of guys, he's such a peak alpha talent that he's going to impact the games so much that he's gonna look like the best player in the world some nights. But he's

just not a self starter. And so it blows in my mind because again, with with his physical tools, even if you're even if you're incredibly frustrated with everything else going on the floor, you should be able to impose your will just by playing hard. Like no matter how those are out of those are those are not result

based sequences. It's not like you can do like you have a really nice move and get to your shot and getting really good lift and and the result is out of your control because it happens to miss or it happens to go in. No, if you play hard, you can have a guaranteed result whatever it is that you're trying to do. Over the course of the game. If you're crashing the glass like crazy, flying around on defense, I can guarantee that will impact the game every single night.

And and for whatever reason, that fire just isn't there, and and it's frustrating. And again, like like I, we've been on this roller coaster with a d for the last couple of years. But you told us in the press conference that you wanted to win ten games in a row. I won't even say you said you wanted that. You nonchalantly said that we're gonna all we have to do is win ten games in a row and then

everything will be fine. And you're neglecting the fact that in order for this team to win ten games in a row, both you and Lebron James have to play like top five players in the league. And right now, Anthony Davis is playing more like the fifteen best player in the league, if we're being nice. So that he just has so far to go to get to where he needs to be for this team to take off.

And I hope at some point, either himself or somebody close to him wakes him the hell up, because this is the kind of game on the road in Memphis, or they needed a big night out of Anthony Davis that he could not be physically bullied by Steven Adams tonight, and that's what what ended up happening. Yeah, And to be fair to Adie, like the lineup still aren't conductive to him right there. They're not great. There's still no spacing and stuff. There's just mentality stuff that I would

I would like him to change. And you could tell he's a guy that's just trying to fit around, right. He picks his spots kind of like Russ picks his spots, right, Russ picks his spots. He likes to sometimes he attacks in the third or he attacked early in the fourth. Aid needs to be a consistent kind of score for us,

at least for tonight. And there were plays that I wrote down in my notes here like he would have Steven Adams at the top and Steven Adams would like give him like five ft of space or something like. He should be able to score on Steven Adams at least in isolation, right like that, that's to me, he should be able to score on him in those kind of actions. And again, the spacing isn't great for him.

He's still leading the league in points in the pain and all that's true, And I think some of this stuff is a little unfair on him, Like I think Charles Rodley blaming all the Lakers problems on him like probably isn't fair like that. There's a lot of issues with this team. Blame me on one person. I don't think it's the right way to go. But I thought just tonight his body language just did not look great. And I don't like to blame stuff on that, that

stuff that we can't really define. I just thought like his aggression level just wasn't there. He tried to pick his spots and this just wasn't a game for that. Memphis is missing like four starters, right, They're a good team. No Dylan Brooks tonight, no John Rant obviously, but no Brandon Clark as well. Like, this is a game you should be able to take. And after that Boston game, I thought I would see a sense of urgency that I just didn't see from him tonight. I saw it

from Lebron. I thought Stu made the best point here. Lebron had bounced to him, and I thought that was like the best description of it. I thought Lebron had a lot of bounds other than him. I thought Rush tried to get going. Rad A d just needed to be better. He didn't, just was not aggressive enough, didn't pick his spots, wasn't aggressive early, a lot of selling for jumpers, and I thought that was mostly the game tonight,

And I don't know where this changes. It looks like Voge was going to be pretty hard held on Avery Bradley. Avery Bradley played I'm not sure the minutes tonight, but it felt like he played a ton He had a good game as well. Th HD. I thought was THHD had some good cutting moments and stuff like that, but

the spacing still isn't great. I don't know where they go from here though, Like the Boston game felt like enough, but it feels like we're just gonna go on this up and down roller coaster, maybe until Trevor Reesa gets back. I just don't find that the solution to the questions of this team, Like Trevor Reasa helps on your present, he helps? Does he helped me? You know? Is he helped not get blown out to a Memphis team missing four starters. I don't know, Like that's a tough question

for me to answer. Yeah, well, with the reason again, it doesn't matter unless the basketball character of the team changes. But you know, I'm glad you brought up the Anthony Davis thon because, like I'm really thankful that Vane took the time to really go after that today in his spaces, because like, to me, the Charles Barkley thing was just

like nonsensical meandering and character assassination. Like really it wasn't really any legitimate basketball analysis, like where I'm coming out with the Anthony Davis and the and the thing that is frustrating to me is like, you know, like Molik Monk had a rough night tonight. You know, like he really he was really sloppy with the basketball. He lost the handle multiple times in transition, just gifted the gameboy possessions.

Figure's the thing. Malik Monk is a young player, he's a role player, he's a minimum contract and he's not one of the foundational pieces on the team. Is where his role changes from a night to night basis Inconsistency is part of the deal with that, I'm supposed to under like expect Molik Monk to have an off night.

Russell Westbrook, He's in a tier of star that's below Lebron in a d so I should expect that he can have an off night here there, you as Anthony Davis, as the foundational star of the team, as the guy that everyone in the in the Laker fan base views as the pillar that this team will be built on for the next at least half decade. You can't be the inconsistent guy. You have to be the consistent guy.

And again it's it's like with Lebron. One of the things you'll learn with Lebron over the course of his career, like when you're watching him, is like he'll have inconsistent parts of his game, right, Like his jumper can be hot and cold depending on the night. He has nights where he's turns the ball over too much. Uh, you know, he has a tendency early in playoff series is when he's really feeling out the situation to have a rough

game here there. But on a night tonight basis, you could depend on Lebron to at least be enough of himself in all of the other areas of his game that that he can impact winning even when he has a bad game. I've done. I did a pot a while back, like Lebron and Steph are the two players in the league that they're bad. Games still involved them usually being the best player on the floor. His Steph with his gravity and Lebron with all of the things he does on the on the floor to to impact

winning A d has the tools to do that. He has to do that. Anthony Davis has has to find a way to find some consistency within himself, and to me, the easiest way is leaving his physical imprint on the game. Now here's what's frustrating about that. We've talked a lot about how Anthony Davis doesn't look the same in terms of his mobility. He looks slower, he doesn't have that same pop, and we also talked about how he looks

huge right like he's just completely jacked up top. If he's what was the point of doing that if not to be able to keep Steven Adams off the glass. You know, I saw somebody tweets today during the game, and this is massively exaggerated. I disagree with it, but there's a kernel of truth. I can't remember who was, but they said Anthony Davis actually can't play center, and

obviously I disagree. I think Anthony Davis is arguably the best small ball center you could play outside of maybe honest, But the point is is, like a center has dirty work responsibilities that Anthony Davis is definitely capable of, but for whatever reason, he struggles with them. I mean, I literally watched Isaiah Stewart can Anthony Davis under the basket for offensive rebounds like a half dozen times in those

two matchups. Like, I like, it's for whatever reason, in those altercations, even though he has all of the tools to be the guy who wins that altercation, he doesn't win the altercation. Meanwhile, you look at Lebron and it's like he's fighting guys bigger than him all the time

because he he like revels in those engagements. He loves the idea of winning that type of engagement, snatching the ball out of the air and just like it's like a momentum regound and just looks around everybody like get the hell off of me, you know, like that we need to see more of that from Anthony Davis, that that sort of like physical aggression, if that makes sense. Yeah, and again, I don't want to blame this all onto eight because I think he's had a better season than it.

It's felt like and he has a lot of you know, defensive responsibilities on that end, like he has to cover for a lot, especially when he's the center as well. Right, And I thought him and Lebron looked good in that first quarter, like at least defensively. I think they went up like fourteen eight or something. They look active and all that. But again, it just feels like he's he

goes through the motions a lot offensively. And again I don't know if that's just a product of the spacing as well, Like I think that could be it, Like he just doesn't like where he's getting the ball, and there's a lot of post of actions and it's a lot of stuff that just wastes a lot of time. It's just like a cross screen to get eighty the ball four feet away from the free throw line, and it's just like what was the point of that? And

at least to him taking step back jumpers. But it's just an aggression that I'd like to see from him every night, Like he doesn't need to be the one that has to pick his spots, right if it's Lebron, a d and Russ on the floor, like he can he can attack every single night, especially if they throw like Steven Adams on him. He has a quickness advantage to it. I'd just like to see him go at it. And tonight I just thought the body language was really bad.

And again he's not the only one at fault. Tonight, I thought Leek really struggled Russell Westbrook a bunch of turnovers. Lebron brought it in that first quarter, but those he had a lot of turnovers as well. It's not just eighties fault. But I just thought like his body language really showed. Jaren Jackson Junior again, I thought just dominated this game went right to the rim. We had nothing for him, and it feels like every time we go up and we get punched, it's like there's no coming

back from it. Like I don't know about you, but I thought this game was kind of over when we're going into the fourth, like we were down I think seven or eight going into the fourth, and I thought that was kind of it, Like I did not see them coming back and winning this one. And that's that's been kind of the theme of this season. And you could tell Vogelos trying to experiment. He went with Dwight Howard to start to start the second half, which helped.

Like I thought, two bigs actually fakes sense. For tonight, right, the Grizzly start this two big line up with Jaren Jackson and step Steven Adams, Like tonight's to night where two bigs would actually make sense. It's just a lot of experimenting going around going on. I hated Wayne Allington got some minutes, but he would play next to like THHD and Avery Bradley, so he's the only shooters from Memphis.

Throws two at him. So you see Wayne Ellington a lot tonight, like would jump to shoot, but like there's two guys on him, so he has to jump. He has to like shoot and jump past. You saw that like three times tonight. There's a lot of lineups that don't make sense. This team is in a really weird

funk here, really weird moment. I thought the Boston game we got a lot of positives, and tonight we just kind of threw that away because there was super careless in the first half and Memphis came and took the game away. But I don't know where we go from here. They play I think Orlando to they put Orlanto tomorrow. O see okay, see tomorrow. So I mean, that's again a winnable game, but you just don't know what this team.

They've lost all the benefit of the doubt. But yeah, like I don't, I don't really know where they go. We went back to the two bits to start the second happen, but just let's let's let's stay there because you because I I thought that was the microcosm of of everything that was wrong with the situation. Because our starters looked fantastic. Yea. We literally were defending and getting out in transition and scoring. And you say, okay, Memphis plays big. Well, okay, what what happens to the Lakers

when they play big? Usually the other team inevitably just the paint waits for you to miss jump shots and tries to get in a foot race with you because they know that you're slow. You're playing too many big guys. Anthony Davis, even at as a power forward, is not super quick, especially when there's a wing across from him, and teams would just race us up and down the floor and get easy shots. And so why aren't we

trying to do that to Memphis? That's literally what we did in the first quarter and it was working, and yes, did we get killed on the glass over the course of the rest of the half, yes, But that's not an adjustment you make with the starters. That's an adjustment you make with your other lineups. That was the part that was confusing to me. In the first half. Our starting lineup was our best group. Now we can, you know,

go back and forth about Avery Bradley. To me, that's so so so far down on the list of problems. But like the starting line it was not the issue. So when I saw that, when I saw Frank make that adjustment, I immediately thought to myself, like, Anthony Davis

and Frank just can't help themselves. Like I guarantee you somewhere in the halftime huddle or in the halftime locker room meeting, either Frank brought it up or Anthony Davis brought it up, but they're like, we we need to we need to go big because we're getting hurt on the glass. And it's and it's like, I bet you there's just this big breath of you know, fresh air for Anthony Davis to be like, all right, Dwight's gonna box out. Stephen. I don't have to. And it's like, man,

that's your advantage. They're playing big. They're playing big because they lost another wing to COVID today with Dylan Brooks, like you you have. If they're gonna play big, we have to be the fast team then, you know what I mean? And it just was I hated that that ideological shift there because like again like playing Dwight Howard

alongside Russell Westbrook as a disaster offensively. Now, yes, the Lakers uh went down and got a couple of baskets to start the third quarter, but immediately after they took that two point leader, I think they were up. Immediately after that, we started losing shooters and transition while guys were jogging back. That was the inevitable outcome. Memphis was going to be able to push the pace on us.

And you know, and and one of the problems too with Anthony Davis when he goes to the four is we had actions where he's rolling to the ram or he'll crash the offensive glass. So usually when the shot has missed, both Dwight Nadine are under the rim and the other eight guys are sprinting the other way. It's

like starting behind the eight ball. I just I just didn't like that ideologically, But again, like going down the roster like and this is where it's one of those things where if you looked at this game in a vacuum and the Lakers were playing awesome all season, you might look at this and you might say, hey, is a tough road game, young team, mellow had a bad night, Malik Monk had a bad night. Maybe we just you know, Lebron was awesome. A d had a rough night, Rough

had a rough let's just throw it out. It's because of the larger picture that this is so upsetting when you're like, for instance, Golden State lost at home to San Antonio the other day, that you can totally forgive one of those every once in a while, when the character of the team has shown over the course of the season, that that doesn't happen often. But they knew coming into this game that it was gonna be tough.

They knew coming into this game that they really had to win it in order to change the perception around

the team. And they knew coming into this game and that they were going to have to bring a certain amount of effort, a certain amount of execution, like I got a conversation with Cranes about this the other day because we were talking about you know, there's there's like a there's like a spectrum of Laker fans blaming effort, and there's people on the left who are like, everything's effort related, which I disagree with, and then there's people

like Cranes, who, respectfully I disagree with. He's kind of like everything's process, everything scheme, everything is blah blah blah, efforts playing little to no role here. I'm kind of in the middle, like, I absolutely see those issues, but effort is absolutely part of the issue here, and I can't I can't continue to gloss over that. You're again, you're not gonna be able to match Memphis effort, but

you're more talented than Memphis. You have the two best players on the floor, arguably the three best players on the floor. Actually, screw that, they had the three best players on the floor. No matter how you feel about Russell Westbrook, he's better than everybody on Memphis. And so if you you just had to bring a certain amount

of thatfort and that effort also involves focus. Taking care of the basketball, to me, is an effort thing because it requires you to be alert and paying attention to what's happening around you and making sound decisions and being careful. That is an effort thing as well. To me, When the effort pulls back, the focus pulls back. When the focus pulls back, that's when mental errors start taking place.

When the mental errors start taking place, that's when you start letting this young team get out on the run. And it was only a matter of time from there. It was like hemorrhaging possessions. But yeah, I don't know how you can gloss over the fact that you know, and I'm not saying you're doing this, but I mean, I I can't. I can't imagine how anybody could watch this team and not see the serious basketball character issue that they're not willing to do the work that you

have to do to win these kinds of games. Yeah, it definitely felt like they came in tonight and thought this would be an easy one, especially when they went up nine. I just saw the total engagement drop off from everyone, and I think that's a team wide issue. But I guess we can kind of go more into the details here because I think there is process stuff that's going wrong, and and again like you said, is it you know, is an effort? Is it excell and

knows and schemes. I think it's somewhere in the middle. I think. Then they talked about it in his space earlier, which he did a great job kind of explaining how there's a human element to all of this, right, Like, you can't mix bad scheme with you can mix the best scheme and if you have no effort, then it's not gonna work. And you can you can have the best scheme and no effort, it's not gonna work. Right,

you need both to kind of intertwine here. And there's still stuff that is just really confusing me, really confusing to me, Like everything this whole night we were doing like offensive defense stubs, which which really made no sense to me. The th h t every badly coming in and out. I thought that really messed with our team. I thought the spacing again was awful. The two two big lineup, like you talked about, they did a great

job early. I thought it messed with Memphis. I thought it was a nice switch up, a nice like curveball to throw at them. And then once they went a little bit small, I think they went with Jaren Jackson at the five and that just that just run us out of the gym. We were again down like six or seven. We're doing an awful job going around screens. But again, like tonight, I don't even know where to where to go with this, Like I think it's effort

and scheme combined, and I don't know. I think Bogelo has to choose one, right, like there has to be a lineup that he has to He has to go with the lineup that makes sense. And I feel like the spacing in the starting lineup messes with the whole game. Russ plays in a phone booth. Russ place in a phone booth to start, and that just coincides with the whole game. And I feel like he didn't get going too late. Lebron Lebron was going early. But man, I'm getting lost in my words here. I don't even I

don't even know where to go with this. It spicking

in identity like that, that's the thing. Someone someone tweeted out, I think it was it was Michael Taylor if I remember correctly, but someone tweeted out after that first run, man, this is like that, this looks like Lakers and and you know a certain amount of that you can expect to see when you play a line up that literally has four guys that were on the Lakers and you know, Russell Westbrook, you know, like if it's if it's Dwhite, A d Lebrono and and and Avery Bradley, that's a

bunch of former Lakers, you know, so like that that that's to be expected. But the problem is is we don't really have the personnel to play that style for forty eight minutes. We just don't. We have. This is kind of to that versatility conversation we were having earlier

in the summer. It's like, we have groups that can play like the Lakers, but the vast majority of our groups are gonna play like a kind of like a hybrid version of that mixed with like the Los Angeles Clippers, a really slow team, excuse me, a really small team that spaces the floor and thrives on dribble penetration, which is something that that that I've been harping on all season long. And so it's that that's kind of where fundamentally,

like you were talking about, like Russ never got his rhythm. Well, does that is that related to the fact that Frank is kind of prioritizing kind of a structure that resembles Lakers probably to some extent. Although Russ has found enough openings, you know he I just kept waiting for him to have aventually kind of breakthrough tonight because that's kind of the way it's been with him all season. But for

whatever reason, it didn't happen tonight. I can't dive too much into the to the to the Russ part of it, because, like I said, it's super lame. I think I think you're gonna probably see some national media and some people who don't know any better really really go after Russ in the next twenty four hours, and that's really unfortunate because he doesn't deserve that at all. He's been amazing

as of late. Um. But again, like it's it's very possible that these things are all tied to each other, you know, Like for us, this last stretch of games has been really good in third quarters, so for you to randomly go big in the third quarter, it's very

possible that that is partially responsible for disrupting things. But it felt like there were several stretches tonight where the Lakers tried to get kick started where they did a couple of stops and they get out and transition and try to get something going, but then they would turn the ball over like they just kept shooting themselves in the foot. And you know, you talked about the body language.

I thought that in the middle of this third quarter, the belief left the Lakers, the the idea that they thought they could win, exited the building and from there it was kind of like just going through the motions and and and that and that that's really unfortunate. But again, like what's frustrating is like how many times can this happen to you? How many times can you get pumped

before something wakes up inside of you? And I really I really don't know who, don't know what what, like what it's going to take at this point, because we know what's in there. We literally saw them do it

against Boston the other night. I mean, we've had what's so bizarre about this most recent stretches, it's like unbelievable performance on the road in Sacramento, beating the ship out of the Kings without Lebron awesome like like momentous way and coming right back home to to drop one of the Clippers, uh in a game that was extremely frustrating on a bunch of different levels, and the Lakers played

huge starting lineups again and it was super confusing. And then you come back on Sunday, and you're on Tuesday and you man handle the Celtics and you look fantastic, and then you come back tonight. So I guess if you're looking for a silver lining, the good games have been coming more frequently, I guess, but they still can't string anything together. And to me, that's a basketball character thing.

And I don't know, I don't know how you fix that, Raj, Like I'd like you know, foundationally, this team requires Lebron and a D to both be top five players. Now we're coming off at two straight games where Lebron's at least in that conversation right where on both ends of the floor, he's looking like himself, but for whatever reason, a D s lagging behind. And I don't know, I

don't know what it takes. Like remember do you remember beginning of the season when I said he has never played four team games in a row since since before the bubble, Well, yeah, he's been. He's played all but one game this season, man, Like like how much more time does he need to build his rhythm? How much more time does he need to get in shape? How much more time does he need to build up to where he was? I mean, I think we're reaching a point now where we can no longer make excuses for him.

They played small for the vast majority of the time with him as of late too, So I mean, I look like to your point, I don't know. I don't know where we go from here. I don't know where I don't know, Like what else can you throw at a d right now to try to get him going? Like? Is this is? Is it as simple as Lebron has to privately like confront him, Like honestly, what do you do? Like he's had the minutes, he's had the reps, he's had the rhythm, he's had the lineups, and it's just

not materializing in my opinion. Yeah, and well, for first of all, like that stat you point out where he only missed one game game, that's the most important stat, Frady, right, Like if adis out of this team has no chance anyway, Like you can you can call him about how eighties played and you know him and even I have said he needs to be more aggressive. But if ads, you know,

not playing, then this team is going nowhere. But I just bent about Wayne Allington really quick because I know we're going to close this and about in a couple of minutes here. Um, but yeah, my my issue with this. And then again Vinet hit about this in his space as well, like I feel like he's the perfect guy to kind of fit in that starting lineup to me,

like he's a veteran, he knows his job. And I posted that clip or him and Lebron had that ghost screen right where, like that's just something that plays into what Lebron does and also it fits with Russ as well. And I'm just looking at Wayne Ellington's stats um here for the last few games against Boston twenty minutes six tonight twenty minutes, six shots, Boston fourteen minutes, four shots, Like to me, that's not enough. And I feel like

he has more gravity than we're using with him. And again I don't Wayne Ellington is in a championship life saving player. I just think like the issue with him not playing kind of fits a larger issue with this team with an identity issues that they have with the offense issue that they have, Like there's a lot of times waynel Wayne elling to me, is a gunner, right, Like, he's a guy where if you get him enough, you

get him the ball enough, he's gonna fire. And we use him as like an eighteen seventies arrow, you know what I mean. Like, we we use him as like an old fashioned arrow where we just throw him in the corner and we're like, you just stand there and wait till the hell comes and then we throw him the ball and he gets into a shet shot. But Wayne Ellington is a shooter, like a legit shooter. To me, he's one of the best. Would you agree He's one of the best shooters in the league, just pure shooters.

He can't defend, obviously, and that's why he's on a minimum contract. Go look at the prices of shooters around the league. Go look at what Duncan Robinson just got from with the Miami Again, Dugcan Robbin's a taller player, probably a better defender. YadA, YadA, YadA. Go look at what real shooters cost in this league. We have a guy on the minimum deal, and to me, his defense is never gonna be great, but he plays enough. He plays hard, enough to me, he's in the right spots

enough to me, like we just don't. We don't use the weapons that we have and to what they are, we turned them into these seventy arrows. Blake Monk, to me, shows a lot more than we we give him credit for. I think he's a better ball handler, better score than we need to like those guys need to play. And again tonight, I thought what summarized the game to me?

When Allington came in and I was all excited even though we were down thirteen with five minutes left, we had a We had him with the big three, and I thought they haven't played any minutes. Tonight I was corrected. They played nine minutes for the season. I was wrong with Yeah, I was so wrong. They played nine total minutes, not nineteen total possessions. I was wrong tonight they played

ten seconds together like that. I can't have your best shooter should be playing next to your big three, who are all guys who are non shooters, Like, I just don't understand why he can't, why we don't at least try this and again everybody they came in for defensive issues, for for defense, for offense, we got killed the Memphis. I think Memphis scored like four strade times. And again,

it's not every Bradley's fault. I'm not blaming him. Maybe proably had a good game tonight, it's just the process isn't right. Every badly hitting four threes. So the defense doesn't care like they're going to continue leave him, ok. And And I just think that's stuff that we can know. Those are fixes that we can do right. We can't change the roster. We're not trading Russ stuff. Police stop at police stop mentioning that to me, trade Russ or

you know, again, the coach can be fired. I just I think that's a I think that's a band aid on a large issue, honestly. But but still like I think those are those are things that are fixable. And the way to Ellington kind of is the face of a lot of the kind of internal issues that I see with the team where we're not picking an identity, we're trying to do both. And Wayne Ellington playing with th Ht and Avery Bradley like, you're like, I don''t know how to I don't even know analogy for it,

but it just doesn't make sense to me. So you have Wayne Ellington out there with Lebron. I believe it was Lebron. Uh, maybe it was a d Avery Bradley and th HD. So way, now that's the only shooter. They sent two at him, and you see him do these jump passes and that's not his game and we need to open the stuff up for him. Again, when is a minimum player is not going to change the world. It's just to me, he represents a bigger issue on that I'm seeing with the team. Well, and again it's

about leaning industry um. Like like we talked about, like the minute you went the route of playing Russell Westbrook, you compromised your spacing to a certain extent that made it so that your past a breaking point with trying to play Vogel ball. So for for instance, in the playoffs, you literally saw a team that wasn't playing Russell Westbrook, playing guys who were actually okay shooters like k Cpu and like Kyle Kuzman and even out even Alex Crucer

had a good three point shooting season last year. But you saw that tilt so far to where Dennis Shooter and Lebron had no ability to get to the basket. And I did like everyone was talking about how Lebron looked so bad in that series is one of the few times where you know, I just I couldn't blame him, Like I could get a touch on the wing and there were just the three bodies standing right in front

of there was no opportunity to drive. When you decided to to take on Russell us Broad, you went even further in that, in that direction favoring your physical presence over the spacing of the team. So you went out and you found these shooters. That's great. You have to play at least one of them at all times, and

preferably too. And that's where that's where with the starting lineup you just from an identity standpoint, playing Avery Bradley or th HD or both of them instead of at least one of those shooters doesn't make any sense because you're just you're you're keeping I would talking about having one ft in the moment one in the future when teams are building, and how stupid I think that is.

It's the same concept with the identity, like Frank has one foot stuck in and then he's got this other foot or it's like like remember when remember when he like started just doing that Lebron at the center lineup, which was like, Okay, it was fun, it was gimmicky. You could do that to mix things up, or as a specific matchup tool against a team that doesn't have any size when you're going super small or whatever. Yeah,

that makes sense. But the idea that would become your consistent rotation like every beginning of every second and fourth quarter when you literally have Dwight Howard on the bench like that just made absolutely no sense. It was like, it's like half a franc is like super like cool and forward thinking and progressive basketball Frank, and then the other half of Frank is like retro nine eighties, we're

packing the paint, Frank, you know what I mean. Like it just it just doesn't make any sense having those two separate identities. You, you know, picks one thing that you're really really good at and lean into it. You're gonna have enough curve balls just by virtue of how good your star players are, you know, play your shooters lean heavily into driving kick basketball, which is something that Lebron and Russ have been the best at their entire careers.

Anthony Davis is always going to be able to find a way to fit in with that because of what he brings to the table. With the skill set leaning to that, you're inevitably your defense will be good enough. Like tonight the Lakers couldn't score, and like we always say, a point per possession defense in the half court is way more effective than they are in transition, and so it has to be factored in when you're choosing lineups. When you're it's like the concept you're talking about offense defense.

The reason why you do offense defense stubs in crunch time is because you're expecting a stoppage after every play. The reason why you like like in in a game, when you choose to prioritize defensive personnel, you have to expect a great deal of missed shots that will lead to your defense being stuck in the backcourt or two or not being fully set as the other team attacks you in the other direction. By playing really good offense and scoring the basketball, you get to set up your defense.

This was what made Brooklyn so genius Brooklyn last season. They ran incredible offense, They scored on you almost every time, and then they got back on defense. They set up and they switched everything and just waited for you to try to is so one of their lesser defenders while you have all these health defenders waiting. It was genius. It was genius because it understood modern basketball like that,

that's what's killing you with Frank right now. Just like I thought in the start of the second started the second half, we got killed in transition mainly for three is. I think they got one lay up, but they mainly for threes. Guys just jogging back because you're playing a slow lineup and you can't score it. Just it like, I'll be preaching at this all season until they finally

start doing it. But this team has to lean into what they're good at and what they're good at his offense, lean into that if you score the basketball, you have a much better chance of getting stops. It's really that simple. It's really that simple. And and that's why I like when Frank is looking at the data and everyone's like why is he still playing at swy Z when the defensive ratings sucks. Frank will tell you, oh, like, well, our process is good, so we know that this number

will eventually come down. And it's like, yeah, but Frank, is it gonna come down? Is it gonna come down if you're missing jump shots every time on the other end of the floor, and your defense is never set because even if you believe in this concept as a defense, it only functions when everyone's in the right spot and no one's in the right spot in transition, and everyone in the modern NBA is in transition on every misshot. That's just how they that's just how every offensive coach teaches.

Push the ball, Push the ball, push the ball. They're gonna make you pay for that anyway. I'm done, then think, Yeah, I guess the last thing I Canna wrote down here is I think it's strange that our starting lineup is the one that has the least amount of spacing for our superstars, right, And I think that's just a process

issue that I'm I'm kind of dealing with here. Like if you look at it, like our our second unit spacing isn't bad, Like we wanted to russ d why with like Mellow Monk, and I think like Elegant or someone else, like that's that's okay. But I feel like we're starting these games the first quarter and the third quarters there are really just killing us. We're down almost every time our defense is okay, but I feel like teams start to run on us, and that's just a

process thing that I think has to be fixed. I think a D at the five is definitely a start to that. And again I've gotten into a D And I don't want to be unfair to him because I feel like he's had a pretty good season throughout. It's just I thought tonight his body language wasn't great. But I mean I thought throughout the season, you know, again he's leading in points of the paint, dunks and all

that stuff. With spacing that's not conductive to him. But but yeah, like I feel like that's my biggest issue here is this Our starting lineup has the worst spacing of any of our line ups, which I think is an issue. Like I think that's it's fundamental problem that are superstars are not in their right places and our starting lineup having a negative net rating through the season, and I think it's gonna get worse from tonight. Like

that's that's a problem that needs to be fixed. We're like, what twenties something games in now and our starting lineup doesn't have a positive net rating, Like I think that's again a lot of that is with DeAndre Jordan as well. But I think that's like the big issue that that surrounds all of this um and we'll see the season not over. Obviously tonight was a pretty healthscape type of game, but there's still a lot of games left. Tomorrow is

another game against Okay. See, we have some bad teams coming up, so we'll see if they can rack up some wins. But I think until we change that, the process is kind of the process is all messed up, and maybe that's just how it's gonna be until Trevor Resa, like I said, gets back. But I feel like him as our saving grace at thirty six year old. It's

it's also unfair to him. Like again I said last game when Jayson Tatum blew by Carmental and Anthony Staman gun and he's like, that's why you go get Trevor Reasa, I'm like, that's why you get That's why you go get two thousand nine Trevor Reason. That's not why you go get Trevor Resa. But but we'll see. I hope, I hope it wasn't too crazy events session tonight for

everyone listening. Yeah, the Lakers have had plenty of opportunity to make excuses this season, whether it's you know, the just the piling up of games over the last couple of seasons because of COVID, or whether it's you know, both Anthony Davis and Lebron nursing injuries over the summer,

or injuries derailing guys this season. We've had all sorts of excuses, and now the excuses are kind of gone, you know, like the reasons that last remaining excuse, the reason I guess and Kendrick Nunn and maybe just maybe all those excuses have have allowed some of the players

to avoid some personal accountability. And I'm hopeful that that personal accountability starts to take shape eventually, because you know, Anthony Davis at a certain point has to start getting kiste off about the fact that he's not playing the way he's supposed to be playing, you know, And I'm Lebron and Russ are both fine, But the same goes for these other guys on this team, Like at a certain point, at a certain point, like this team has to understand and that they're not going to win on

any consistent basis until they embrace the dirty work, you know, And and for all of these guys that have had offensive careers elsewhere. Yeah, like Okay, Mellow, you got to shoot a bunch of shots on a bad Portland's team, Or Malik Monk, you got to shoot a bunch of shots on a bad Charlotte team. But on this team, we need you to do X y Z better, you know what I mean, Like in Malik's getting better, but like he missed a couple of big box outs again tonight.

It's one of those things where it's just not good enough what we're it's just not good enough and it has to get better. And the only way for that to take place is personal accountability. And I think too many excuses have been made for this team. I'm thinking like Genie Bust going, Genie bus going like well, I I don't think it's fair to judge Frank until we have the full team, And it's like, um, actually, you're just making another excuse there. We have more than enough

to be much much better than we have been. Much I would have been. I would have much rather had Jeannie just say yeah, things have been rough, but we expect Frank to get it together like that. That that makes way more sense to me. And in putting your support behind the coach than than making yet another excuse. I'm sick of it. I'm just so sick of hearing about the injuries and in hearing about all the that,

Like I can't blame lineups anymore. Frank only went with two bigs for a few minutes tonight at the start of the second half. Like we can't blame injuries anymore. We have the bodies. Th HD has been so good defensively on the wing that like, I can't even blame the lack of forwards anymore. Like th h T is a defensive forward. He's proven that That's not why we lost tonight. You know, it's just it's frustrating. But I think we're gonna go ahead and call it to night guys.

Um we uh Raj. I believe is going up to talk with him after the pot. But I have a Christmas party tomorrow, so I won't be missing the game. But I think Rag is going to do a postgame space and yep, and then um and then obviously we'll

have the Sunday game as well against Orlando. I think this would be a good one for rewatch Roger, so maybe maybe let's yeah, let's dive into this one again, uh and watch it and then sometime this weekend we'll record a pod where we get a little bit different too, but hopefully hopefully they avenge the two okay see losses tomorrow go down three to okay see. That would be quite will be quite the season. All right, everybody, have

a good rest of your night. This will be on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time and on our podcast feed here in about a half hour. We appreciate your support and we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks everyone. Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss