Lakers/Hawks Postgame Spaces

Beautiful weekend, great weather here in Cali, had a nice when you like, little event last night, and wake up, wake up real early to watch this game. Yeah. It was a you know, a fun one for like three quarters, right, I think like for the first three quarters they did their job up tending going in the fourth and then kind of just collapsed at the end there. I lost the fourth I think by eighteen, so kind of like a meltdown in the fourth. But I gonnall man, how

are you? I'm doing great? Um? You know. It's one of those things where, like I think the announcers on the spectrum feed did a good job of pointing this out. It felt like one of those games where the first team to really attempt to try to play defense would end up winning. And you know, it ended up being the Lakers, ironically, who who were the first ones to try to at least take some control over the game on the defensive end of the ball. And then they

completely and utterly fell apart in that fourth quarter. Rise by my count, they took twelve They missed twelve jump shots in that fourth quarter, and attempted only four shots at the rim, which is really bad process for Russell Westbrook Anthony Davis team. Now we could talk about why in a second, because there were some line up things there that I thought were interesting. And then on the other end of the floor to give up thirty eight,

to offer almost no resistance, especially around the rim. Um. I'm gonna butcher his name, but that bad cup center that they had that played uh okay, I can't remember what his name was, but yeah, yeah, so he absolutely torched us. It was just it was one of those things where again you're looking at the game and you're saying, man, Anthony Davis looks great. That's great news. Russell Westbrook, who I've been incredibly critical of, is starting to show some

signs of life. Even though I got a couple of bones to pick with him at the end of the game, and the leak month looks incredible again, although he's been showing some inconsistency in recent weeks. But you've got all of this good baked in there, and they just can't win a game, Raj. And it's one of those things, you know, I I think, um, I can't remember exactly who it was who said this on Twitter, but someone was saying, like, hey, no more moral victories. Were out

of time for moral victories. And that's the truth, guys. When you look at the standings and you look at the situation at twenty four and twenty seven, this deep into the play in the way that we are. There's some real urgency here. We can't afford to keep having these nights where it's like, hey, we looked good, but I didn't get the win, or hey, so and so looks good, but we didn't get to win. And even without Lebron, this was another game that we should have won.

I thought the Philly game was winnable too. I thought the Charlotte game was winnable. This is it's looking pretty bleak right now. Roger. I'm not gonna be entirely bleak. But man like, at a certain point some of these have to turn into wins instead of losses. Yeah, for sure, in the season definitely obviously depends on when Lebron gets back. We're definitely running out of time. Um and we kind of you know, Lebron and E D Sat the last one. Who knows, you know how serious those where. We'll see

if Lebron can come back here soon. Hopefully the knee knee soreness isn't too serious. But yeah, like we're running out of time here. I think there's like twenty eight games left. But tonight, man, just sticking on tonight, you get third, you get eighty points combined from A D, Russ and Leak Monk. You should be able to win that game, right, Like, it doesn't matter what happened. Leak Monk was able to kind of fill the Lebron production. You get like thirty three or third four from league Monk.

A D had a really nice first half again. Russell Westbrook starting to finish at the rim. I think like seventy five or seventy at the rim in the last six games. Um, and he was I thought he had a really nice floor game tonight to me though, like the issue was, you know, I feel like there's a breaking point when you start as small as we do. Um, we started Rusts, Malik Monk and Avery Bradley, and you know it gets hidden because we were scoring at such

a high level. But I thought the fact that those three started, John Collins just got whatever he wanted right and again that kind of gets hidden. Um. DeAndre Hunter, I thought, just got to wherever he wanted in the mid range. And there's a breaking point to that. Trey Young wasn't going to be one for seven from three from the whole game. I think that's what he started. He ended up hitting for in the last minute there. And you know Atlantis the team that has a lot

of firepower. Um, they're not too complicated. It's high ball screen with Trey Young, it's him picking us, picking players apart. I thought we really broke down there. He got a lot of lobs to on Yetta, as you talked about, and he was able to take step back threes. I thought he cooked Avery Bradley tonight, like there's a little bit too too much, a little bit too much every Bradley, Um, I kept t eating that's enough, Avery Bradley. I thought there was like I thought, you know, he's just too

small to kind of contend with him. He was also physical with him for no reason. There was a screen coming anyway we were, Vogel said after the game, I was listening that the plan was to soft trap him. Well, then what's the point you know of like fouling him at half court or you know, every Radley was super ball pressuring him. And while we were in the bonus too, I thought just that wasn't smart. But what did you agree with that? Because I thought that was the breaking

point here. We were scoring so much that it was kind of hidden. But I thought, you know, you started three small guards. Um Atlanta was able to get switches where they wanted. John Collins was able to keep the Hawks really in it until Trey Young uh exploded there in the fourth quarter. When you start, you know, two small guards like that, um leak monk and you know every Monk was great offensively, but again gets picked on offensive defensively. Avery Bradley again I thought, was awful on

both ends. I let alone what he's supposed to be good defensively? You have all these Carmelo Carmelo Anthony minutes as well, he's slow on the defensive and all that combined to me, Atlanta scores one twenty nine. You you score one twenty one points, you win most games in the NBA. We just couldn't defend even with a d out there, just cannot defend them. Well, yeah, dude, you

saw it in the closing group. You're looking at like Malik Monk has to have a game like he did tonight offensively to be a positive player, because he's pretty quickly become one of the worst defensive players that we have on the roster. He gives up, you know, a lot in in conjunction with what he brings offensively, and so he he literally has to go for thirty three

in order for that to be a worthwhile exchange. And then you look at Avery Bradley, and he does a pretty good job when he's on the ball, applying ball pressure when he's not committing fouls, but then as soon as he gets involved in anything off the ball, he struggles all the tonight or all day today, I should say all morning, because this was an eleven am start here in Tucson. All morning, Avery Bradley when he would get disengaged from the ball would get lost floating around

on the perimeter. And then Russell Westbrook again like he brings good defensively, but he just has these little lapses. It tie game bad clothes out on DeAndre Hunter and ends up committing a foul. It's like, dude, you're Russell freaking Westbrook. You have to be able to keep DeAndre Hunter in front of you. That's not that especially in

a pivotal moment like that. And so when you have three guys on the floor, those three together on the floor at the same time brings so many limitations offense or defensively that it's really difficult for that to work. One of the things I had in my notes raj anytime Stanley Johnson and Anthony Davis were involved in an action defensively, they are devastating to it was it was

anything else where we were getting burned. And one of the things that I thought the Hawks did a really good job of in this game was using off ball actions to get Anthony Davis away from the basket. And

they did this a lot. By again, I'm going to butcher his name, so that that backup center that they had, they put him on the floor and use him uh and put John Collins on the perimeter, essentially dragging Anthony Davis away from the basket and putting Stanley Johnson in the awkward position where he's, you know, trying to defend

the rim. And he does a pretty good job. But one of the things that drives me nuts with Frank is he uses Stanley as like a drop coverage big sometimes instead of switching those screens, and so then he ends up having to do that no roller behind coverage where they can just Trey Young is so gifted at just placing that log pass like high above where Stanley can get it, but where his teammate can grab it and just catch it and take a power dribble and go up and finish. And at the end of the

game on the other end of the floor. This is where it gets tricky. Avery Bradley, like he shot the ball well this year, but teams don't guard him. This is something you talk about all the time, Rogs. There's like a difference between a good shooter that gets started, Like there's a difference between what you actually shoot in terms of your percentages and what defenses do. For instance, Avery Bradley knocking down shot this year, teams don't guard en.

Kyle Kuzma in the past shot terrible percentages with the Lakers, but teams guarded him. It's all about like perception instead of reality around the league, and the perception with Avery Bradley is you can leave him open. Stanley Johnson, same thing. You actually ended up making a huge three towards the end of the game, but they're not guarding him, and then they're also not guarding Russ so you find yourself

in this awkward position. We're basically it turned into a jump shooting contest except for the guys shooting jump shots for us. For Anthony Davis, who's good, you know, has been shooting the ball well this week, but overall is an inconsistent jump shooter. And Malik Monk, you know, and guess what, Trey Young made more threes, you know, just like like in a shooting contest, the better shooter is gonna win. And when when they had an opportunity towards the end of the game to make shots, the Hawks

did and we didn't. And like I said, you missed twelve jump shots, but you only attempt four shots at

the rim. I don't like our chances there We're just not a very good jump shooting team, especially off the dribble, and so I it was it was frustrating Rod because there was some good process there, like Russ was getting into the paint, Anthony Davis was having success bullying guys on the on the offensive glass he was doing he was making aggressive moves to the rim, and then we got to the fourth quarter and it just turned into let's dribble the ball around on the perimeter until we

take a pull up jump shot, which again it's attached to the fact that you have too too little shooting on the floor. And to your point, it would be one thing if we were huge and athletic at every position and we can make up for it with switchability on defense and ball pressure and rebounding and all those things that come with size and athleticism. But no, we are a jump shooting team that placed three little guards and we're just getting killed on the defensive end of

the floor. So it was it was definitely frustrating for me to watch, uh, you know, because I just felt like that I felt like it was a winnable game ras and not sure it wasn't winnable. We played well enough to win through basically three quarters and then it

was an absolute disaster class in that fourth. Yeah, and you know we had that people call it a fake come back whatever it was, to come back against the Hornets, right, We didn't get to talk about that one, but I thought, you know, that's what we kind of built on here. Russ continue to get to the rim tonight like that stuff. That's good process. That's where you miss Lebron the most. Alright, late camp stuff, game slows down. We kind of just went to straight up a D post ups. Um. I

thought he looked a little tired as well. At the end. He couldn't just get to the basket. They started zoning up on him as well. And that's where you see the effect of the Russell Westbrook gravity kind of taking taking apart. Right when you don't have Lebron on the floor, it's Russell Westbrook at the top. It's straight a D post ups. You're relying on Leak Monk, who was incredible that whole night. But you know it was pretty much on three pointers. So basically he's trying to get a

three up. He's still under size. The Hawks can kind of switch actions on him. You get a D posting up trying to get shots. He's taking mid range pull ups. That all kind of collapsed. I think we scored eighteen points in the fourth. We had like five points Jason, with like half the fourth gone. I think, uh we were you know, we were up eleven and you know that lineup to start the fourth. I really didn't. I

thought we stayed with that too long. The Carmelo Dwight Howard, you know, Front Core has been just a real rough watch recently. I just Dwight's not the same. He's not as active, doesn't jump as much. Yeah, his his feet look like they're stuck on the floor. It's just there's a there's not a bounce to him that there was. His coverage is his drop coverage. He's a second lad on all these the law passes are there for him. He's not stopping the guard either. Um. It just looks rough.

And then you have Carmelo Anthony trying to rotate right. So a lot of those plays are like Carmelos that drop big. Carmelo's the guy who's the low man who has to help, and that's just rough against like a guy O Coongo who's just who can jump off the floor. I think you have like a one handed you see that one handed crazy Dunky had that disgusting insane Yeah,

I thought trade through that. I thought trade through that pass way off and he was still able to get it and duncan he just we just had big Art too slows throw him higher. The athlete will go get the right, let him go, let him go get it. Um And you're right about a D being out of the play, and I thought a D was a little bit frustrated on that as well. I don't think we

wanted to switch. But the way that the Hawks kind of run their action, they set like a double screen where eighties now on Trey Young, and then you know you have Stanley Johnson, who's I thought great. I thought when Stanley and a D trap tray, that was our best defense really like they were able to get hands up, got some steals. But then if you don't get that steel, it's you know, Carmelo, Anthony Rotating, who I thought was closing its leak monk, it's every Bradley Russell Westbrook at

times who still kind of undersized. So I thought that's where we lost this one. No Lebron in the fourth the signing excuse you should win a game on the road where you're up eleven in the fourth, But all those things kind of melted down here, and you know, maybe Dwight looks kind of unplayable Carmelo Anthony, I feel like gives up as many points as he scores on a lot of times. Like we have a lot of just really older players and I'm interested to see how

it goes here. But hopefully Lebron gets back. We can't build anything, though, Jason. I think that's the frustrating part of watching all these games, like you're seeing a little bit, you're seeing good here. A d has a good game, that Russ has a good game, and they're all separated. Lebron has an incredible game, and now they're just all

separate entities that we're trying to put together. Mileek Monk drocks thirty four, but again you have to put him back in the six man role really when Lebron comes back. So I don't know, man, this team has like a super short window to figure this out. Have you checked the standings recently, Jason? You know, I'm not a I'm not a standings checker, Like I've I never really checked it. I just checked recently, and I'm like, we're ninth. Oh, Like I did not realize that. I was like, the

MAVs are eight games over five hundred. I did not realize that the Clippers won again today without Kwai and Paul George Um on the I'm not sure. I don't remember if it was on the road or at home against Charlotte, but they want again. So it's it's rough man. We're like, this is the extreme scenario, but we're like only four games up on San Antonio. Who's I believe out of the playoff picture? Like they just think about that from the from from how we're treating this season.

So I think it's go time. I think, you know, if Lebron can, it's a sense of urgency here. Like I get Lebron has to be healthy to come back, of course that's number one. But we need to start building some continuity here because like all these games without all three of them, is just tough to take data from here. We started DeAndre Jordan Jason in that Charlotte game. We didn't talk about this waste of joke, what a waste of like a process game? You know what I mean?

What could you take from that. I don't I don't understand. And obviously DJ's out of the rotation. Trevor Reason played in that Charlotte game. I don't think he's in our rotation either way. Ellington played in that game, and he's not in our road like he started that game. When Ellington started that game, he's not in our rotation. I don't. I don't know, but you're right, it's a sensitive urgency that we need to get to. We need to find actions that we can go to in the playoffs that

are usable. I think the russ e D screen role has to be something we can you know, us in our back pocket to deploy on other teams, and we just haven't been able to find those things and that's been frustrating. Yeah, you know Dwight, I wonder if there's something going on with Dwight health wise, because you know,

Dwight has had bad games this year. I've just always thought that Dwight's success has been more tied to like line up structure and you know, is the entire team playing hard because you know, Dwight is kind of like an energy guy in a lot of ways, and uh, he's more or less looked the same to me athletically this year as he did in That sounds crazy to say, but of light in these last handful of games, for whatever reason, it just looks like the step isn't there.

There was a play today, I believe it was in the first half where it was either Monk or Russ. Somebody threw Dwight alab and he usually would catch up or jump up and dunk it, and instead he caught it and he came down with it. He ended up drawing a foul on the play. And I remember just sitting there thinking, like, man like, Dwight looks slow, Like this is the first time I've seen Dwight legitimately look like he's lost the step since, at least compared to

this version of him. But I mean, we're four and a half games back of the sixth seed rage and I tend to I tend to think that the sixth seed is vitally important for the Lakers for a couple of reasons. One, the play and tournament is something you want to avoid at all costs. And again reminder, we barely beat Golden State on a game winning three from lebron last year. We very easily could have lost that game, ended up playing in a single elimination game against Memphis,

and that's a coin flip. With how well Memphis was playing at the end of the season last year, that could have gone south very quickly. It just so happened that it didn't, and so we there is an urgency to get up there. And then the other thing too is time, right, we need continuity. So obviously you have this thirtysothing games left. I think it's thirty one games left.

But you don't want to go thirty one games straight into a very difficult, very grueling series with Golden State or Phoenix, a team that when we're at full strength, we're probably only like we're we would barely beat them if we beat them anyway, Like we're not gonna go to Golden State smack them in five. That's not happening. We're not going to Phoenix and smacking them in five. That's probably a six or seven game series if we're healthy.

You would like to avoid that until later on. If you could get that sixth seed, then you could play either Memphis or Utah in the first round and give yourself a better chance to get a really good feel for playoff basketball. Before you roll into basically, uh, you know, a wheel match up against the title contender at that point in the second round. So urgency is a real thing here, and that's what worried me about Lebron's knee.

I got in trouble with a bunch of crazy, insane Lebron fans because I tweeted out that I was worried about Lebron's knee and they thought they basically thought I was insinuating he was sitting on purpose, which is ridiculous. But I was worried about Lebron because I'm sitting here thinking, like early in the season, he was resting because of the lack of urgency. We were in a very easy part of our schedule, you know, we were playing a bunch of games that we were like, hey, Russ and

maybe can win these games, and Lebron. Lebron was like, Hey, I don't want to deal with this abdominal thing. I'd rather get it healed. I don't want to deal with this ankle thing. I'd rather get it healed. These were three very winnable games on the road at a point in the season when we have real urgency in the standings and Lebron didn't play, which worries me about that knee because I think he would have given it a goo if he could have. So now the m R

I came back clean, so hopefully things resolve. But swelling is weird rajs like swelling doesn't happen. Swelling is usually a result of irritation or inflammation. It makes you feel like there's something going on there. I'm hopeful that that's not the case. Hopefully we're just overthinking it. You know, It's funny in that game, that last game you played the windmill. You can tell he wanted to go to his full windmill and he had to check up and

do like a half windmill on that play. And I remember immediately thinking like, oh, his need didn't quite do what he wanted it to do on that play, and I was a little bit worried about it. So I mean, are you Are you as worried about Lebron as I am? Ros? Are you pretty confident? So this is similar to me. Not to compare it, but like when we do like west or Westwood trades or stuff like worrying about Lebron his knee is like that, Like if Lebron's not healthy.

We're not going anywhere anyway, Like Lebron's not here, We're not doing anything. So I don't worry about that. This team has a multitude of issues going on. I think Lebron's health is number one. But yeah, I don't worry about that. At least other reports that have come out has said that you'll be line. I think you'll take another maybe seven days or something. I think he flew back to Hey already before the Atlanta game to get

treatment and to rest up um. So hopefully, you know, he's final, and again it came back negative, so hopefully he can come back in a week. I think he'll be back. You know, my only worry is the time, like you talked about, we have like twenty something games were already behind though, right, Phoenix and Golden State already came back with cores that they've had for years now. Chris Paul and those you know, those guys have been

playing thegether forever. Like that's my worry. Year. You want to just go in with a chance the sixth seed will be nice, Jason, But I mean, like Denver has won four in a row. The Mavericks are fully healthy now, they want like they want like eight out of ten or something like that. I don't see them slowing down, right, and so like it's basically the Clippers and the Timberwolves in front of you. Maybe you can catch those two teams,

but I just don't see them maybe catching those. I think the plane is probably are our bet right now. I would love for them to get out of that. But that's just what looks like. No, I know, it's it's not great. I mean, that's not what you want to straight years. You know, we have to kind of win again and we saw last year, like again, maybe if a d doesn't go down and you beat the Phoenix, sense that we really don't know, but you know, that's just not the way you want to go into this.

But that's the kind of situation we're in now. We'll see what the trade deadline does as well. That's coming up but here soon. Uh it's ready januaryone, about two weeks we'll get the trade deadline as well. So interesting now, it's interesting, man, I don't know what. I feel like, we can't just waste games like that. What was so upsetting to me about the Charlotte game because it feels like we just punted that one. I understand. I understand a d you know, wants to rest the risk or whatever.

It was Lebron again seriously heard, I get that, but you know there's still chances to find stuff that we can use the starting DeAndre Jordan Wayne ellingtone the offensive rating in net Ring, Oh yeah, yeah it was. It was yeah, it was negative eight eight, like you know, like that's just that's just abysmal. And that that unit got two shifts. He said that, you know, got two shifts, and you know, you just throw away a game like that.

And again the comeback was nice. You know, once you put the young guys in Austin Reeves pht not Malak Monkey sat that game, but they got on a run and Russ was able to get to the rim. I thought, you know, he kind of built on that from that one. But you know, it's just tough to me when you're just punching games because I don'tink we're in position too. You have to try to find stuff from every night, and we just we did in that game. We wasted that one tonight. You know, I thought we found some

offensive stuff. I thought, Malik Monk and Ante Davis, who we can get to next here because I thought he was incredible at first half, but Milik Monk and Adi built some chemistry as well. But it's gonna be tough to kind of build that and catch up to where we need to go for sure. Yep, no, I agree. Moving on to a D you know, there's I think I've seen enough from him this week to definitively state that he genuinely looks quicker and more out than he

did when he left. And I'm sure you know there was something going on with him before the knee injury. It was either wait or an injury that he wasn't disclosing, or a combination of both. But whatever happened over the course of this time there, I think the I think he actually came out and said that he's lost a little bit of weight and then and then he said in an interview I believe after the Charlotte or after the game on Thursday, he straight up said, my body

feels great now. So the big the big place where I'm noticing it is in his step back jump shots, which I know, our shots that we uh discussed with a D as being you know, like that we wish he'd cut back on a little bit because they're so difficult.

But the big thing I look for on a step back jump shot is how solid someone's base is, because a lot of times early in the season you'd see a D take these difficult jump shots, but he just wasn't really getting much separation and not getting much lift, which in addition to his limited touch, at least with his slump that he's been in, it's a very very very low percentage shot. But I'm seeing a lot of these moves that he was doing today, especially in straight

up isolation situations against Clincapella and John Collins. He was getting really good separation. You know, you always talk about Malik Monk's dip on his jump shot when you see him get that really good knee bend. I was, Yeah, I was seeing a lot of that from Anthony Davis today, like getting into that move, getting a really good deep knee bend and getting great lift, which is just great

to see with how good he looks. Again, talking about this, in the totality of the picture, you have all of this stuff to be excited about as a Laker fan, like a D looks great. Stanley Johnson and a D together on defense, they're a site to behold you think

about that and combining Lebron into that picture. I was I tweeted out today, like imagine trapping a screen and roll with a really good point guard like a step or a Trey Young in a playoff series and forcing them to make these looping passes out of the trap. But that's Lebron James, like hitting the hole and slight, like shooting the gap and stealing the ball and going the other way. Like there's a lot to get excited

about there. Again, Russ is genuinely trending in the right direction, and we'll talk more about him in a second, but like everything is starting, there's a lot of this stuff to point to that's good, but we're not winning games. And again, like you're right, like if we have Lebron, do we win that game today? Yeah? Probably, If we have Lebron, we probably win all three of these games.

But again, one of the like you've been big on this rage like if you're title contender, go beat the Hornets, Okay, beat the Hornets. If you're a title contender, go into

Atlanta and beat beat the Hawks. Okay, yeah, if we're in if we're on the road in Milwaukee, like I don't have a ton of expectations for you to beat that team without some of your guys, But Doude, you have to be able to go into Charlotte and go into Atlanta and get a win in an urgent situation when you need the win for the standings, when you have Anthony Davis looking this good, when Russell Westbrooks making shots for the first time in months, like, you have

to be able to go in there and win a game. This is some of this stuff is like you know again in it's just their checkpoints, rods, their checkpoints that good teams hit that we're just not hitting. And and again we can talk about these positives and yes, Adi looks great, and you know, as far as the play in goes, like if I'm Golden State or I'm Phoenix, I'm not excited about the idea of having to face

l A in the first round. But again, they probably be favored and for good reason, because they're better basketball teams than us. And yeah, there's an idea, there's a there's like a version of this that could be very difficult to be but we sure as hell haven't seen it. And it's I'm sorry to get a little bit worried man. Yeah, you know, it's been frustrating because the last two years have all pretty much been theoretical with this team. Right after a D got her on Valentine's Day, uh last

year this year and losing the trenk of time. But but yeah, when Adie got her, the team got theoretical. You're like, Okay, when a D comes back, let's add him to like Marc Resol, right, and we'll see what happens there. And then like a D went out, Lebron gets out, like okay, well wait, you know, let's add it to Andre Drumm and see how that looks. And then now they were both out. You get to the playoffs and you get a few games of them healthy, and then a D goes down again, right again this year.

You get a couple of games, but you start DeAndre Jordans with it the whole time, next to Camp Baysmore, both who are out of the rotation pretty much now. And then a D goes down. And then now you come back and the team's playing the way it's supposed to. There's small ball you're running. Let's say, all right, let's

add a D to this. A D comes back. You beat Brooklyn on the road, right, no Kate, no Katie, no Kyrie, but whatever, you get to win on Brooklyn, and then Lebron goes out the next day, so you get one game with the big three playing the way it's supposed to um and then and then Lebron goes out. So it's been a frustrating kind of back and forth.

But the theoretical doesn't work unless you get this Anthony Davis, you know, and I tweeted earlier like there's a you know, there's a pushing full, there's a line you have to you have to kind of tail where like you don't want to take, you know, for granted, or to critique a d too much. But you can also be understanding that this is not the guy we started the year with, right, Jason, Like, this is not the it's not the player that started the year. This guy has way more mobility. You can

see it on defense as well. He's been shutting off, picking rolls, doing what he can, and then on the other end, rolling to the rim, playing above the basket, playing above the rim, crashing offensive rebounds. He's getting like offensive rebound put back dunks like we weren't seeing that earlier in the year the jump shot, you talked about the step back any more separation. I think that's the difference here. I don't think we mind the jump shots.

It's the like post up contested, can't get any space on a defender step back jumper where it's fully contested, like the step back where he has space. I think I think he's a better shooter than he's shown. He hit a three again, I think tonight as well. But yeah, the jumper looks better. The jumper looks there. All the floaters and stuff are coming back, those like those like unorthodox twist shots, all stuff that he has in his arsenal.

He looks good in the theoretical you know, upside of this team doesn't get there unless we get this a D, so that box has checked. The issue only is that these boxes are getting checked separately. So you check the Lady box and then now you check and then a D comes back. Lebron goes out, so you get the Lebron box. Rush starts playing well, but it's without one of the two stars, so it's without all two of the stars back. So it's another box that gets checked.

It's been rough. Malik Monk plays well, but it's like, you know, we had don't have half the team, or we were playing well, but we don't have our wings. It's just I don't know, it's a it's a tough kind of thing to solve here. We'll see if they you know, go all in in the trade deadline, if they you know throw th H T. None in that first comeback. Yeah, and then Kendrick None was supposed to come back, right and if he got another setback. So I don't know, they still don't have a timetable on him,

which is insane. He's out like five months for a think he'll ever play in the Laker Jersey. Wow, he actually had a decent game. One other thing too, really quickly. Did you happen to notice that Anthony Davis got a little frustrated with Monks shot selection in that fourth quarter? Oh? Yeah, I think it was that final play where I really

saw it. I didn't really see it on other plays, but yeah, the last one for sure, Like he was drawing at him all the way down the floor and the Hawks were starting their possession and he was like staring the leak down Like that was crazy, Like I wanted to be like a D like he has like thirty six or thirty three or whatever it was that he had. I'm like, I would be like lost, losing, like losing causes like frustration like that. So I didn't

understand it. But yeah, you're right, and a D was taken jump shots in the fourth quarter like like the the thing ro like as far as our crunch time offense, this is an important detail. When teams put a big, strong forward who's athletic on a D, they typically can find a way to turn him into a jump shooter. A D can torch the Clint Capella types of the league, but when it comes to the athletic forwards. Bamat to Bio did a great job of doing this to a

D in the finals. But there's these athletic, strong forwards that are quicker than a D. They can really force him to be a jump shoot. Then Russ, who has had a good game. We're gonna talk about Russ in a minute, but Russ who's been getting better, they just

put DeAndre Hunter on him. And again, when you have a team like because they could put like if Lebron play tonight, what what happened is able to put a combo on probably on a D, and then they probably end up putting John Collins on Lebron because John Collins guarded Lebron a lot in an earlier matchup this year, and then they're probably gonna put DeAndre Hunter and Russ.

The point is is all of these teams, at least most of the good teams in the league have enough big forwards to be like, hey, we got one for Russ too. And Russ couldn't get to the rim either. Again, twelve missed jump shots, four shots attempted in the paint in that fourth quarter. It's just it's just not good enough. Now again, just Lebron solve that, yes, but this is that's part of the issue with having Russ in those light game situations is he can't really get an advantage

and Anthony Davis is gonna take jump shots. So it's how we lost the okay See games. We literally lost okay See because in crunch time they put a big athletic forward on a D and a big athletic forward on Russ, switched every ball screen and there was nothing the two of them could do to get to the rim. And neither of them are good enough at making jump shots in order to out execute a team at the end of the game. It's a real problem. Now, well

brawn again fixes that problem. But those are two massive shortcomings with those guys that very much limit what they can do in terms of their effectiveness in late game situations. Yeah, and you know it's easier when they can also zone up right. So again we chose with and not to

like pick on Avery Bradley Night his fault. But you know, you know you throw you threw a post entry pass into a D and then you have you know, a D maybe Bradley and the Weeks side corner like teams can just zone up and then you have a big, strong guy on him. You know, a D doesn't want to bruise all the way to the rim. Sometimes maybe it was tired or whatever it was. He was settling for sure, and our offense kind of broke down right, So it was Russell Westbrook trying to run screen action.

They switched all of that, so it's again him trying to attack isolation against one of those bigger guys you talked about, John Collins, DeAndre Hunter. Even though Kuong lu So it was a tough tough thing to watch man in that fourth quarter, and you know Lebron solves a lot of that for sure. But like, you know, I thought Bleak Monk said something interesting after the game. I kind of tweated, he said. I think he was asked by Davidmani and he's like, what do you take from this?

You know too and four road trip, and uh he said, not enough energy, not enough urgency. And he said, we didn't respond when we got hit in the mouth. And I think that's you know, you know, and I think that's interesting, you know for a team. Again, we're like, what we have thirty games left, so we played a lot of games now, and you know, that's an identity that your team kind of builds as as the season goes. And I thought you saw that in the fourth quarter,

and that's just not this fourth quarter. We've seen that a lot Lakers have a lead and they don't just blow a lead like they get ran off the floor. Jason. Like when the team, as Malik Lank says, gets hit, it hits you in the mouth, they just kind of fold, you know, like it's not even it's not even like

a fight. They get they fold. They were you know, you lose the fourth quarter by a team like that's not normal, and we don't really like to talk a lot about you know, the intelligible stuff like that, because but that's not like on the core stuff. But you can kind of combine those things and you can see like the fight kind of go away, the belief go away,

especially when trade stop. How do you give up thirty eight points and a winnable basketball game when you desperately need it in the standings and you're just not competing on the defensive been to the ball rog, yeah, you know, and it was you know, Trey Young, you know, he found that he can you know, play pick them, you know, like it was like it was like a buffet for him. He's like, all have Avery Bradley here, I have Carmelo Anthony, here, I have League Monk here. Let me just pick one

of these defenders, whoever it is. I think he'd be Austin Reeves too at the basket a few times, but just got to the rim, got to a step back three and those were always going to go in eventually, Like I talked about, he wasn't gonna go with one for seven. But that's now the here and there. It's more like the you know, we didn't switch up. There wasn't an aggression level. I thought in the fourth enough

to kind of win this one. And that you know, it's sad to see because I, you know, the fans and I like us, we feel the sense of urgency here. I'm wondering if the team you know, feels it as we do. Uh, just the way you know that they're approaching these games. But that's what I would like to see, man of these last thirty games. Build something, Build a process, build to a process. I keep I keep twinning out. Let's build, and I mean, let's build something. You know,

like you, we can't throw a games. I understand you can't win all of these. We're not gonna you know, go twenty nine and oh or whatever it is, even when Lebron comes back. But just start to build. You understand who's not going to be in the rotation. Who is? Let's stick to those guys. Deander Joinan should not be starting any more games. I don't care who's out. You should not be starting any more games. Uh, Trevor reads obviously, maybe you can try to find him a spot on

the rotation. I think you know, Reeves has to start for Bradley eventually here. I don't know when we get to that point, but I feel like that point should be coming here soon. Just stuff that I want to see. That that's good process man tonight if he didn't, yeah, and that you know that that's been trending upwards. Bradley again, Bradley playing eight minute first quarter shifts like that's too

long to me, but that's probably near taking. Yeah, but you know, you get, you get good a d. Hopefully le Bron can come back playing the way he was. Russell Westbrook starting to get a groove as a score. I thought, you know, he had some tough turnovers tonight, but he had a good floor game, like he was passing out at least offensively. I thought like he was

finding shooters in corners and stuff like that. But that's the rough part of the season when we haven't built any continuity with the team that's going to go in and you know, if the trade deadline goes as you know you think it does and a lot of people do, we might have to build this all over again because you might just have a new team by then. So I I don't know, I don't know what we're gonna

do after after that happens. But again, Ross, this is where that like the turnover that I've been talking about in terms of a mental reset for the roster, I think is so important because again, the Lakers had enough talent to beat the fellow the Philadelphia seventy sixers. They had enough talent to beat Charlotte. They had enough talent to go into Atlanta and beat the Hawks on Sunday,

and they blew all three of those games. And the and the way I look at and in all three and weird ways right like that that Philly game, it just seemed like there was no belief, remember Raj, And like then when they would make runs, they couldn't sustain anything, and they dug themselves into big of a hole. That Charlotte game, it was the starting lineup and just gifting them a twenty point lead, and then today it's blowing

the big lead. But again, the basketball character of this group of egos and personalities in that locker room is not working in terms of consistently playing with urgency, like because because we thought, okay, maybe Stanley Johnson and Austin Reeves getting more minutes, maybe it'll be infectious. No, aside from those guys, nobody plays hard enough, consistently or is willing to do the job, so that concoction isn't working.

It needs to be flipped. And so that that's why again, even if it's a net neutral exchange for talent, or even a little bit of a dip in talent that you experience over the course of the deadline, if it's a better concoction of players, because you know that that that locker room thing, chemistry thing is so it's so delicate, raj like, it's just because there's a lot of fringe

NBA players playing in Golden State. But for some reason, they keep winning even though step is playing like crap, Draymond Green's got a messed up back and isn't even playing, and Clay Thompson's coming back from two catastrophic injuries, and they keep winning. Why because they're locker room. Just that whole mix is just working in addition to scheming and coaching and a lot of different things. I'm not trying to undercut all the basketball, but there's also just a

better locker room there. And for whatever reason, I'm not even saying the guys in the Lakers locker room don't like each other. I don't even think it's necessarily chemistry based. It's like just basketball based. It's a bad basketball mix and it's just not working, and the Lakers have to do something to turn that over. I did, I did want to. I did want to talk about Russ for a second, because he is starting to trend a little

bit better. You know. One of the one of the big reasons why I think he's been better is what has kind of led to him playing better is he's starting to finish at the basket a little bit more rage. I don't know if you've noticed that, but that previous month was one of the worst stretches of finishing I've ever seen from an NBA basketball player, and a lot of them weren't even close. Like he'd get into traffic and it was almost like he was just throwing stuff

at the rim. It looked like one of those time outs where when you're watching the league pass and they stay on the arena camp and they bring the and them fan out to try to make lamps. Like that was the kind of stuff we were seeing from right from not from Rush Russ, from Ruster in that in that previous stretch of game. But he's starting to finish

around the room a little bit better. There's like some of its school's gold, like for instance, like there's a lot of talk about Russ, you know, giving the Lakers a chance to win in Charlotte. Don't get me wrong, he'd like great, But he made back to back off the dribble threes in that late fourth quarter to give us a shot to win. Those are shots he's been making at an incredibly low percentage this year, So like like some of that school's gold, but he is finishing

at the rim more and that's encouraging. Where I get discouraged, raj is again, like, dude, you on in this situation alongside Lebron and a d with these expectations, in the types of games you're gonna be playing in in lates,

in the late season and on the playoffs. You can't get beat on a close out by DeAndre Hunter because we're already relying on infurior athletes at other positions, Like we're gonna need Austin Reeves or and Avery Bradley or a Malik Monk to do something they might not be capable of on the defensive end in terms of their athleticism, but we need Russ lebron and a d to do

that job. Then on the very next possession, after he fouls DeAndre Hunter, after DeAndre thankfully miss is one of the free throws, we go down, Malik Monk misses the shot, We go down a d s barking at Malik Monk a little bit. We get into US set defense and Trey Young gets Russ on a switch. Now, Roger, what do I always say about comfort imperimeter players. It's all about ball pressure, right, Russ played way off of him, and Trey Young was able to comfortably walk into one

of his dribble rhythm three point shots. And again it's like, dude, you are the type of athlete that can play up on Trey Young and make him feel uncomfortable and and maybe you might not be able to keep him entirely in front, but he'll have to do a series of moves to get around you because you're a better athlete

than Trey Young. And that was one of those plays where it's like Russ, I think his perspective on it is like I can play off of him, I can relax, I can make him, you know, may make him take a jump shot he had just made I think you said Rodge three pull up threes in that fourth quarter. Yeah, I think I think two of them are pull ups and then another one he made in that in the short corner on that play where he got disconnected from

Anthony Davis. But again, the point is is, like, dude, like when we're with Lebron and a d and they're shouldering so much offensively, you have to be the guy that does that job. You have to be the guy that can keep DeAndre Hunter in front of You have to be the guy that can get a stop on Trey Young and a key possession at an end of a game. And I'm just like, it's that those are the things that I paid the most attention to with Ross.

Don't get me wrong. If he's gonna finish at the basket at this rate, and if he starts to make more of his jump shots the way he has in recent games, then yeah, we're gonna be able to make more of a basketball fit work here. But he has to embrace those details. Those are the thing that win and lose basketball games. They always have been. They never get talked about enough because people are so focused on highlights.

And I get that in terms of the popularity of the league, But the things that win basketball games are little details. I'll give you one last example. Fred van Vleet is very ill equipped athletically to be a good defensive guard in the backgroud. He's got quick feed, he's got a good strong basis, got a low center of gravity's strong. I'm not trying to undercut him as an athlete, because he is an athlete. But what primarily makes him a good defensive player is a commitment to the job.

And that is what we need out of Russell Westbrook because with his physical tools, even in this decline state, we need him to be or at least to make that commitment like what Fred van Vleet has made. That would Can you imagine, Roj, how much better this team would be if for us made that commitment to the defensive end, and what it would do for this team, it would it would be transformative, you know what I mean? Yeah, but I mean we're like what we're like what fifty

games in now? Like I think, like you know, you know what I mean, Like to me, like hoping for that stuff type of stuff is tough, Like I just hope like he starts finishing at the rim better, and I have the numbers in front of me. He's at you know, seventy seventy six at the in the restricted area now, so that don't get the job done right over the whole season. This is the last five games,

makes sense, That makes sense to the eye test. It seems like he's been finishing more in recent games, though, Jason is you know, it's thirty in the paint, so like that's the that's the rough part right in the paint. That's not the restricted area. So that's still rough that your point guard you know, can't finish you know at the around the rim if it's not exactly at the basket. But you know, that's small steps. He is finishing better now at the basket, but the defense stuff is rough.

He falls asleep off the ball. I think, you know, Rust fits better into a switching scheme. I don't like him. You know, top blocking guards or top blocking you know, guys who can shoot, or a guy that fights over screen in the drop coverage having to give back pressure. He just you know, he and he lends to switch to He does a lot of lazy switches where like

there wasn't really a screen, but he still switches. Do you see that a lot as well, like stuff like that off the ball, where like Avery Bradley, you know again we you know, we harp on Avery Bradley because of what he does in his offensive lack there of of offense, and you know how kind of his activity doesn't really really do anything defensively. Sometimes it's just activity

that's not productivity productivity. But still he plays hard, right, he fights so even rather we're fighting hard and you'll fight over a screen and Russ would just switch when there wasn't really any contact on the screen, and so like a guy gets open for three. A lot of that stuff happens for Uss. But to me, like where I think he can improve in this time, it's just you know, taking those physical matchups a little bit more.

I thought, you know, in the Charlotte game we were coming making our comeback, there was a lot of plays where like he would get a switch on. I forget who they're big, I forget which plumb Ly it is, but like one of the plumb least Mason there we go, Yeah, Mason Plumbly. I would get the ball in the post and Russ would just give up. You would just foul you know, because it's a switch. I'm like Mason Pubbly, like make make Maison Pubbly finish over you, you know,

and just stand your ground like stuff like that. I think you can still get get better at but expecting Russ to be some lockdown defender being some super engaged guy and day and I think, you know it is a is a you know, it's as a Pine the Sky type of stuff there. He can get more engaged, maybe Russ and eight when eighty and when Lebron are both there. You know, he can kind of feel the

feel defensive gaps in a different way. That's the interesting detail here, Dge, because those concession fouls you're talking about, I think that's all related. I think part of the issue is the team has never been healthy enough consistently enough for us to have a small enough offensive role that he can devote resources to the defensive end. I think that's a huge problem for sure. And yeah, and that offball stuff is definitely a killer though. That's something

I definitely worry about too. Um And it's interesting to see where we'll deploy him defensively when we get to the better teams. But I want to see it, man, Like I don't know. I don't know. I wanted to see all three play together. I think they're still at sixteen games played for the whole season, so I don't know. But yeah, like expecting rust to me to like all of a sudden, this lockdown, lockdown guy isn't great. Trey Young hit like two forty footers over him. Russ was

kind of playing back. That's just how he plays defensively. He's more of a guy that pertains to the paint. He steps back, He drops back on a lot of plays. Sometimes when he's engaged, you'll fight over screens and stuff, But for the most part, he likes to just switch off and that'll that will happen. So hopefully when lebron A d back, you can kind of they can kind of plug some of these issues. But I just don't

see it. I don't see him turning into that. I think him finishing at the rim though it's a great thing. I think that changes the gap between like what this team can be offensively, Like you saw tonight and these last few games. When Russ finished at the room, we can score like one twenty right, Like he's not finishing at the rim, he misses layups, you know, those are essentially turnovers because the team runs the other way. The jump shots, I think, you know, he's taking a lot

less of them. He still took a few threes tonight. The mid range contested pull ups. You know, we both classify those as turnovers as well. Some of those guys still some of those gotta go and maybe that will you know, collide when Lebron comes back. But yeah, Russ has been playing better. I just don't see a defensive uptake in the way that you just laid out there. We um. You know, It's it's so funny because you

have these two nights off here right coming up. The Lakers don't play until Wednesday, and it's a home game against the Blazers, which effectively amounts to a must win when you look at the strength of schedule coming up, and we've been on we've been on must win time for a very long time. We're we're way past that.

But it's like, it's like you'd like to be like, oh, well, if if we can just bench Lebron for on Wednesday, then he can get a bunch of extra But it's like, are you are you confident that the Lakers can beat the Blazers at home without Labron because I don't know. So it's like that's where it gets tricky, because especially since it's a back to back because we play the Clippers the very next night. But I mean, it's just

it's just tough, man. It's it's urgency time, and obviously there's some positives here, but like you said, we gotta check a bunch of boxes at the same time or this isn't going anywhere. Did you have anything else on your notes you wanted to hit on before we called it today? Not really, but like, doesn't it feel like the Blazers have had an awful season? Did you know? They're only like I think they're a game back for

two games back of us. Yeah, Like it feels like the Blazes have had just in awful uh, an awful season. But I think when I checked the standings two and a half, Yeah, isn't that an insane Like it feels like they've been just torching And you know, I'm not following Portland's too closely, but it just feels like with everything that's come out there, like they've had an awful season. You know, Dame hasn't played I think in a while CJ just got back. There's two games behind us, like

that's that's insane how this season has gone. That's just we're bad. We're bad basket alright, everybody, Thank you guys so much for coming to hang out even though the football games were on. This is gonna air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time, and we'll be on our podcast feed here in about an hour.

As always, we sincerely appreciate your support. Roger and I will probably end up doing something on either Monday or Tuesday, so stay tuned, pay attention to our Twitter feeds, and we'll let you guys know. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and we'll talk to you in a day or two. Thanks everyone,