Spurs/Lakers Postgame Spaces

care of business, beating a team they were supposed to be. Um. You know, I thought this was one of those games too where if you really kind of bottled up the moments in the game where they were you know, focused and not. Um, you know, screw it off. They played well enough to beat the team by thirty. UM. But you know this team has a tendency to let their foot off the gas every time they get a fifteen point lead. Um. They've done all year long with every

bad team they played. So it wasn't entirely unpredictable that San Antonio would make a run, and they did. But after the time out, they came out and closed the deal and actually Ransom good offense. Um. You know, I was really hard on a D on Twitter for not handling double team as well, but then he did a really good job of handling a double team in that sequence to kick out to Mellow for a three on the wing that was wide open. And you know, it's easy.

It's really that easy when you have players as good as a D and Russ. It's just about class in the defense and not turning the ball over. Just get get the ball to somebody. You've got all these people on the floor that can shoot, all these people on the floor that can make plays off of your attention. You just have to value the possession of the ball and not panic when the double team comes. Just handle it,

you know what I mean. And so it was good to see that kind of come together and that last little string of possessions as they put san Antonio away. What was your initial takeaway, rug, Well, I think this is the THHD game, right, Like that has to be where we start with It is definitely where we should start with this. I kept saying, like putting all your prayers into a twenty year old is probably misplaced. But I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe THC is just

this good. His three wasn't even going tonight. I think he was like one for five from three, but just having another shot creator next to Rus, next to a D. A guy when the ball swings knows exactly what he wants to do with it, and he's another guy that really seeks the rim. I thought he was just fantastic. His game looks like it's matured. And it's kind of crazy because he's in year three at twenty, which doesn't really happen, but just because of the COVID seasons. But

his game definitely looks more mature. He looks like he's manipulating defenses more than just reading them uh and his drives to kick out passes, his uh skip passes were great pocket passes. Finding a D on Lobs late in the game. There they gave the ball to him. They were like, here, you run our late game offense, and he did a pretty nice job. Found the a D on the lab. Like that's I guess we're gonna start with this. We'll go to his defense later. But what

did you see fro him? Because I thought his offense was just something they desperately needed and we knew that it was missed, it's just when you see it on the floor, like like comparing him like League Monk is a score like a pier score, but he's not the level I guess like shock creator type that th HD is.

Like t HC. Just looks way more comfortable with the basketball in his hands, and that was just really awesome to see him not even looked like he missed a beat the first game of the season, I believe, but first regular season game, they start him right away. It looks comfortable. What did you see from him to name?

He looks super comfortable. That was actually the first thing that stood out to me, which is interesting because if you really think about it, he basically hasn't played NBA basketball, real real NBA basketball since the Phoenix series, which was one way back in early June. So it's been a very long time since th HD has played this level of NBA basketball. So you almost expect Jetters, You almost expect him to kind of, especially at his age, to run around like a chicken with his head cut off.

But you looked very cold home and kind of was taking the game and stride at his speed instead of getting rushed and getting out of control. He looked really good in that regard. You're right, they went to him down the stretch. He was the one who scored out of the time out found a d he um kind of turned into a better option there, Um, you know, just because Russ again Russ's decision making, which is a

separate thing we're gonna get to. It's just it's it's a little bit uh, you know, feast or famine, and at least with th HT, they were getting something a little bit um, you know, a little bit more under control. Um, you know. He I'm really curious to see how he shoots in spot up situations. He didn't get a ton of spot up situations today. He had a few, um I think a couple of the threes that he made, Um, I think he actually only made one three. But he the three that he made early in the game was

off the dribble. And that's cool and you'd like to see that. But I'm interested to see, especially when Lebron comes back, which you and I both suspect he'll come back tomorrow, which remains to be seen. Um, but Rag and I have a theory that Lebron's coming back tomorrow. We're going to see him more in a situation where he's attacking an already compromise defense, which is something that I'm excited to see. But you're right. I mean, a lot of people pointed this out on Twitter, and it

was smart. This idea that having a second dribble drive creator next to us is so important because it allows Russ to not feel the burden of having to create

everything from the perimeter. Now today it happened to not help us take care of the ball, which we're gonna talk about, but the idea is put Russ in a position where he knows, if he doesn't have a matchup or if he doesn't have you know, the rhythm that he needs to do whatever he's doing, he can swing the ball around and it'll find its way to Lebron

and he'll do it, you know. Or in this case, in this case today it was HT having that second option, that second excuse me, that second dribble drive creator next to us is so important for that just making it so that that burden doesn't solely fall on us, I think that's so important. But again, it's more of what we've always seen with th HD that's so impressive. It's like when he scores, it's almost in like the in terms of the eye tests, in terms of what you're

visually seeing, it looks like an All Star. It's one like fade Away. It's it's super dynamic finishing around the rim. It's that that one that led to the time out where he comes along the right side in the second half and goes into two bodies and just elevates over the top and shoots a float or high off the glasses. Puts it in like you see, that high end scoring potential.

That is exactly what has liquor fans so excited about him, you know, because if he can find a way to manufacture easy stuff as well, which he will as he gets smarter, there's gonna be this whole other phase of th HD's career where he can be a high usage, twenty plus point per game type of score to play alongside a D when e d s in his early thirties. That what we were always looking for in that regard is that high end potential, and he continues to flash

that every single game he plays. We got talked about that a lot last year. It's like every game with HD, there's one or two moments where there's this standout play that was that just has you sit back and think about what he could be. And again it's just one game, and we're going to talk about his defense in a minute here too, But like it's if he keeps incrementally

improving at this rate, there's a lot to be excited about. Yeah. So, like I think in the second quarter, something I wrote down the game, it's it's a cliche, but you see it with a lot of young players that start to take somewhat of a leap, and I think, you know, him taking a leap changes a lot of things for the season, including the players we've lost. Like I think THHD making that jump is huge. But I said, the game has really slowed down for him, like even last year,

even at his high points, there's a lot of reckless drives. There, a lot of like driving into three people and then trying to decide where to go. Like I said before, it seems like more of like him manipulating the defense knowing exactly what's going on. I thought he was probably our best like driving kid guy today just in terms of finding shooters. He only had one assist tonight, but I thought, you know, players missed a lot of shots that that he passed to. But but you're right, and

he just looks comfortable and his jumper. He's definitely more comfortable shooting off the dribble, which makes sense for a guy that's had the ball I feel like all his life. Um, he's still trying to get used to being a spot up guy. Hopefully that comes when you know he plays

more next to us and more next to Lebron. But you talked about him attacking a compromise defense, like I'm really excited to see him playing next to Bron and Russ, just you know, him being the third guy that tries to break down your defense after the rotations already hit. But we can kind of move on to his defense

man that that Lanth is definitely a factor. His on ball defense I thought on Deonta Murray was huge, Like, especially down the stretch, he shut him down a few times players think they can get shots over him and he's able to just contest it. And his team defense as well, it was a lot better. He fits like the Vogel scheme. We always said that, you know when when guards trying to have to fight over those ball screens, and he did a really nice job of that giving

back pressure, giving eighty enough time to play both. What do you see kind of from his defense? So I thought he was he was huge. He actually led the team at night. He was a plus four team that was the best on the night took with his seventeen points. But defensively, we talked about how much of an impact that would have just not playing negative defenders. And I'm really interested in this, like th HT in Monk Combo, because THHD gives enough defense as a wing to let

Monk play that one or two guard. What do you see from him defensively? He looks great. I mean, you know, there there's different archetypes of defenders, right, Like there's position of positional defenders, guys that do a really good job of moving their feet making up for their um you know, physical disadvantages by just anticipating moves well and just trying to position their body in the way so the guys have to shoot over the top. Well, th HD is

more of like a disruptive defender. He's all about. He's all about like kind of sacrificing a little bit of position for the sake of making the ball handler feel discomfort. That's naturally naturally gonna lead to him giving up some dribble drives, and he did tonight, especially in the first half. There were a handful of place where he gave up straight line drives. And you live with that because that's kind of, like you said, part of the scheme with

Frank or you know, you can. You don't want to have too many positional defenders on the floor, guys that can't disrupt ball handlers, because if everybody is just feeling super comfortable on the perimeter all game, they're just gonna shoot your eyes out. Especially in the modern NBA, you can only have so much of that. So having having that's what I like about the complementary type of pieces

with Ellington out there alongside those guys. You know, like if you put Ellington out there with Avery Bradley and with th HT like they did with the starters, you can ask th h T and Avery Bradley to guard the more you know, dribble intensive guards, and then you can ask Wayne Ellington to chase guys off the screens,

you know. And obviously that gets more complicated when teams end up having to switch because they get lost in transition or because the team's attacking somebody in particular, they can get more complicated. But this is just another guy to have in the rotation that fits that Avery Bradley type of archetype of defender, a disruptive defender that's gonna give up some straight line drives, but in a way that kind of works with this defensive scheme because of

Anthony Davis on the back end. Um, So yeah, he he looks rate in that regard and he's gonna look better, I think. I think here's the thing that Spurs didn't have. They shot the ball well tonight, especially in the second half. But the truth of the matter is they're gonna play pretty much starting tomorrow. Um, you know with a Lonzo who has been a really high, high volume, high efficiency three point shooters Zac Lavine, really good three point shooter,

you're there. They're heading into a situation tomorrow where you know he's gonna be tested more off the ball, and that'll be the thing to watch with him. That was always his weakness, Like from pretty much from day one, TSD was fantastic on the perimeter as a point of attack defenders relative to what you'd expect for for a player that young, but his weakness has always been, you know, struggling off the ball, paying attention to shooters, and so

he's gonna get tested a lot. And uh, it's particularly on Monday. And then I can't remember if it's the Wines there in the Friday game, but the milk the Milkwaukee game, there's another one where a lot of eyes are gonna be on the honest and it's gonna be a lot of attention paid to one guy, which is going to test the focus of off ball defenders. So

we'll see, you know, obviously it's early. It's too early to say, you know, whether or not this projects well to him being a guy who can be in the starting lineup in the playoffs, a guy who can play five minutes of game in the playoffs. That remains to be seen. But it was definitely a really good first

step today. Yeah for sure, And like I thought, just watching the game after we watch it, but he seemed like a lot more focused on the defensive end, just as a team defender, and they're gonna need him, Like like League Moong, all those dudes, like they can try their best, but they're just really small. They don't have the length and thhu with his seven one winkspan, like

that just made a difference tonight. Him fighting inside. We do a lot of these four guard lineups where he's kind of like the power forward, sometimes even next to a D and they're gonna need him to be really active, and I thought he was tonight. And again on Deante Murray, I thought he was great. And just having guy like Ellen team that can chase off like I like these bench units that we can kind of build off of, and like you said, where Lebron is gonna be hopefully

coming back tomorrow. If it's not tomorrow, he'll come back hopefully this week. Just start to get the team healthy here. But yeah, t HD, that was a huge boost. And if none can give them a boost like this as well, maybe not at this type of level. And again THD doesn't have to score seventeen points every single night, But like we said, just his shock creation kind of puts guys in the correct roles, right, Like Malik Monk didn't have to be the full time secondary or backup point guard.

He could just be the score and you saw him get to be able to get in his bag in that way. I still think it's a lot of Rondo minutes that are unnecessary. But again, Rondo also allows other guys to kind of do what they do in a sense. Yeah, I thought, I thought, Taylor, this was a big boost of the team. And hopefully we when we get healthy here with Lebron back, we'll get to see more of these kind of different five man lineups, more of these,

just not as many below average defenders on the floor here. Um, did you want to go into a d next from Taylor? Yeah, yeah, so first of all, just kind of to put a bow on the t h D. Think we're gonna see a lot of him, I think personally in this next couple of weeks, just by virtue of the Aresa injury, the Lakers just need to have another real physical presence on the floor, a guy who can guard up a position.

There was a play today where he was defending t He was defending um daddy is young on the low block and enforced him into a missed jump hook and that kind of thing. That same type of matchup attacking against an Ellington or a Monk or Rondo just is

going to end in a basket every time. Um, So, getting that level of you know, defending up a position from th h D is going to make him, you know, hugely valuable in the next couple of weeks, and so I expect to see a lot of him and we're gonna we're gonna learn a lot about what th HD can do with this team in the next couple of weeks moving on to a D. So I want this to be mostly good, to be clear, because at the end of the day, you know, I think, especially with

the nature of of the injuries and this team struggles early on, we're almost a little too nitpicky with a D. But the truth of the matter is, like he he still is the most ridiculous matchup advantage in all of basketball um and early in that game, there was just nothing that Spurs could do with him. U there was a there was a random game I watched ages ago. I can't remember who this is, back when he was

in New Orleans. I think they were playing Portland, I'm not sure, but I was watching him and he ended up with like forty something in the mid forties and won an overtime game, and it was like a cheet code. It was like every time they threw to him, there was just even even in the crunch time, even in the serious moments of the game. There was just nothing anybody could do with him unless you have a specific

archetype of player like that. Young did an okay job today in a post mismatch and poached post matchups and forcing him to be a jump shooter. But like anybody else on the roster, if he got it, it was

a bucket or a foul every single time. And and that that to me is something I think like your fans take for granted from time to time, including myself, But it's just such a huge, you know, advantage to have because the truth is is with all the injuries and with Rush struggling so much taking care of the basketball, this team doesn't have a ton of talent right now, you know, relative to a lot of the teams they're playing.

But a D just levels that playing field. You can go into these games, like a game against the Spurs today, and it's like, hey, like we can just dump the ball into a D a lot and good stuff is gonna happen and we're gonna win, you know, And and it's kind of a it's it's kind of like I said, a luxury that that that doesn't need that we need to do a better job of acknowledging, and obviously there was a little stretch there in the third quarter where

he struggled with double teams. And you know, it's fascinating because he tends to when he catches the ball on the block and he turns and faces and the double team comes, he has a tendency to lean back away from the pressure. And when he leans back away from the pressure, he immediately looks behind him and tries to find somebody really close on the three point line to just get out of his hands, because at that point he's just trying to not turn it over. This is

something you and I've talked about forever. But the play, the biggest play of the game, in my opinion, was I think there were a four in the fourth quarter and he was posting up on the left block, and what they do, what they've been doing with the das doing late doubles, that was the one thing they mixed up instead of just out outright doubling him as as soon as he puts the ball on the floor, they would send the double and kind of like testing his

handle and testing his ability to make quick decisions. And they're on that pivotal play of the game. Instead of leaning backwards from the ball pressure and kind of fading from the ball pressure, he just continued to go into the lane and split the double, like just kind of steps through the double and kicked too mellow for a wide open three. And that's and and that's something I've been begging for him to do for years because doubling is a good thing. Like Lebron loves when you double

team him. He knows that's you giving up an advantage, and he knows that that's you somewhere on the floor. You have an opportunity to make the other team pay. You just have to execute and not fear. And and it's funny because it's something that people struggle with at all levels of basketball. It's amazing how much the high schoolers that I coach struggle with ball pressure like they have.

Everybody has a tendency with ball pressure to try to protect the ball, so they lean back, like I was saying, But the truth is is if you're strong with the ball and you stay low and you actually advanced positions, step into the defender and clear out space, you have a much better chance of seeing the floor, finding where the opening is in making teams pay, and so obviously it remains to be seen over the course of his Lakers career if he ever develops into someone who can

consistently do that. But he won the game with it tonight with that big play to Mellow, and I'd like to see more of that. But just just another awesome game. And then lastly, every time, every time the team needs a big defensive play, he just makes it happen. There was also right after th hts a little way up

out of the time now he swallowed up. I think it was def insal I can remember who it was, and someone drove into the lane and he got switched on him and the person tried to body him and take a little ten foot fade away and Ad blocked it and Kepta Short's like, man like, that's a huge defensive play. And so again just luxuries that I think all of us have Laker fans, as Laker fans have, you know, I've got to take for granted a lot of the times and something I would like to be

better about. Well, on that play that you were talking about, the one that won them the game. The reason I think that he was able to hit that is because we had Carmelo and Ellington at on the weak side, you know what I mean, Like that's a really tough place to double off of, and I'd like to see more of that, and we'll see defensively those lineups can

kind of stick. But that's a tough cover. Like that's not Avery Bradley or like camp Baysmore, who actually didn't play tonight, which is fascinating considering it was starting every game. But yeah, we had Ellington and Mellow on on the week side, and that's an easier read. A D kind of got in the air and he just had to pick one. Whoever they helped off of. They decided to, I believe, leave Mellow and he was able to drain

the three. Um, I don't think posting like I think a D got a lot of buckets tonight off of like pick and roll off of like law passes, dominating offensive rebounds. I just think posting him up with uh with so much non shooting around, like when Rondo is the post entry passer, like they're just they're gonna send help right away, and that's like a tough decision. That's like a lot of tough decision making for a D. But you're right. In that first half, he dominated twenty

seven points. I believe in the first half it was like ten of thirteen or some ridiculous number. Um and the second half the Spurs just decided to take him out of the game. They said, anyone else is gonna beat us, sent three people at him on the boards as well. We had a lot of small guards and they took They took his offensive rebounding away as well. I'll but yeah, just another incredible game from him, who's absolutely carrying the team. Russ I thought had an okay

game tonight minus the turnovers. Yeah, minus the turnovers. But a D is basically carrying a lot of this and hopefully Lebron comes back to kind of shoulder the road. But defensively, man, I think he's been incredible second taking out that Timberwolves second half, that first half against them. I thought he was great tonight again, just blowing up

every action. The Spurs don't have very much inside presence like you Banks, and I think Pearl didn't even play tonight, but he blew up a lot of their action Deanti Murray coming off midrange screens. They switched a lot of stuff and he was basically matched up with a lot of guards, which is why we gave up. I think the ship ton of offensive rebounds couldn't kind of a

rebound late, but he was. He was able to stay on those guards man, those those quick guards that the Spurs have basket as well as a really nice jump shooting guard. He was able to defend him. He was huge tonight. I thought he looked fatigued in the last game, right, I thought tonight it was pretty much a full, full, full game from him. And this is the cleanest his

jumper has looked in a long time. Taking out whether the shot went in or not, it just felt more on balanced, like his threes looked more comfortable his off the dribble shooting as well. And hopefully maybe this is just him progressing to the mean here. The jumper has been absolutely off off the earth for a long time. This is just a great building building block for him.

And I thought you said something interesting on Twitter. It's the first time he's played four teen games in a row or something, uh, since since the bubble um since ye, since since the playoffs, So he looks like he's at least staying healthy. And he talked about last year playing his way into shape, and I thought this year as well, he wasn't in the greatest condition to start, but it looks like he's getting his legs under him, and this is the bouncy as he's looked the most comfortable on

his jump shot. He's looked and they're gonna need that and hopefully Lebron, like I said, comes back to shot shorten that load on him. But so another dominant game from him. The second half scoring is what it is. People are gonna focus on that, and I think that was more of a thing that the Spurs did to kind of dare our other shooters to to get looks rather than an a d lack of aggression. But I

thought he was just awesome tonight as well. I thought you made a really good point about the Ellington Mellow weak side space. Yeah, there was every possession that's what they did down the stretch that that I noticed it again on the on the possession where THHD kind of lost his balance and turned it over. They're what they

would do in both cases. So Mellow would be on the weak side wing and Ellington would be on the weak side corner, and Ellington's man would basically sink to the block and then mellows man would split the difference between Ellington and Mellow and basically kind of play soccer goalie, right like because when the when the past would come and you just jump one of the guys and hope for the best is what it kind of seemed like.

And on the pivotal play of the one we're talking about, the the helper came over from Ellington and then Mellow's man jumped to Ellington on the on the on the step through from a D and a D just made an easy past. Like you said, make the reads easy, like he's he's never gonna be able to make the super advanced reads that Lebron can make out of out of the post, like Lebron can hit the dunker out

of the post. Lebron can you know, hit these crazy you know kind of arms swing shot passes over the top to catch a shooter that's opened by and you're never gonna be able to get that from a D. But if you make it simple and easy, then then he's going to be like any basketball player can you know, step through and and make a kick to a wide open shooter on the wing. So, like you said, maybe going more to a d post stuffs. When you have that kind of shooting on the floor will make a

big difference. And you know, moving on to his slump for a second, you know this is he did shoot the ball really well. Today's form looks good, he looks comfortable. He you know, I tweeted out that he hasn't played four teen games in a row since bubble and and the reason why I point that out is, I'm I'm such a huge believer in the way that rhythm effects of basketball player. You know. Uh. The story I would

share is my second year playing in college. I was playing junior college up in Utah, and I broke my foot the summer before, and so when I showed up to campus, I had actually not touched the basketball in a several months. And I was so bad at the start of the season, not just in practice, but in the first few games of the season. And I was one of at this junior college. I was out. I

was one of only two guys. I was on a full right scholarship, so there was a lot of expectation on me to fulfill the amount of money that the program had invested in me. And so my coach pulled me in the office and he actually took me out of the starting line up and benched me because I wasn't playing very well. And it had a lot to do with the fact that I was just everything that

I used to do well on a basketball court. I wasn't doing well because I was so out of rhythm because I hadn't played, and everyone else that I was going up against in practice and everyone else that was

buying for my position was in great rhythm. That season, I was an All Conference player because the second half of the season I finally regained my rhythm because I was able to stay committed to, you know, the work day in and day out and get consistent minutes that as the season progressed, especially when we got into conference play, I finally got it back. But the point is, it's like, it's really really hard to play basketball as a finesse player, meaning a guy who handles the ball a lot and

the guy who shoots the ball a lot. If you don't, if you're constantly in and out of the lineup, if you're constantly going extended stretches without touching a ball. Do you think Anthony Davis was touching a basketball a lot when he had to kill these tendonosis. Do you think Anthony Davis was touching the basketball a lot when he's

growing was pulled like that? Like? No, Like as the best case scenario, you can do some stand still shooting, but what is stand still shooting do for your rhythm when in games you're going at a certain speed and you're elevating and and you're dealing with contests and things like that. Like I you know, there's the biggest debate we have is whether or not a DS bubble shooting

was real. And you know, is he ever gonna be uh, you know, sixteen ft to the three point line guy again or fifty or whatever it was that he was in the bubble? Maybe not. I'm not sure. It was

a small sample size, so it's hard to say. But the truth of the matter is is for about for about nineteen games going into the bubble, so before in February and March, before the shutdown, he was from three that he was over those nineteen games, and then in the bubble he shot outstanding lee well from long twos and I think he was right around thirty eight percent

on threes. And then the first fifteen games of the following season when he was healthy, he was thirty eight percent from three and then as Achilles got mess stuck, and then it all fell apart because he was playing one or two games and then taking a day off. One or two games and taken a day off, then all of a sudden, it's so bad that we literally

have to shut him down for all these months. And then he comes back and he gets back in the court, and and he starts playing and family pulls his growing. The point is is like the dudes just had a nightmare time trying to stay available. So is the truth probably somewhere in the middle. Yeah, he's probably somewhere between the jump shooter that he's been and the jump shooter that he was. But he certainly is a lot better

than he's showing. And I'm really really opting is stick that if he continues to stay in the lineup and he continues to get his opportunity to play NBA basketball day in and day out for the for the majority of the season, I think he's going to recapture some of that shooting, which is why I think it's so important that he takes more threes, you know, particularly in the flow of the offense, because especially when it comes to, you know, when it comes to those high leverage moments

against the Utah with Rudy Gobert, or against the Golden State with Draymond Green, or against you know, a Phoenix with DeAndre Ayton. We need driving lanes, especially with Russ on the floor. And so when team, especially when teams starts switching and you can't run pick and roll anymore, they need to find, uh, they need to find enough opportunity for Anthony Davis to shoot and to get comfortable shooting so that their offense even functions in the highest

leverage moments. So that that's why I've been harping on that so much. But I'm a believer that a B is at least an average three point shooter, So that needs to be leaned into a little bit more, even though he hasn't shot nearly that well in the last year, if that makes sense. Yeah, And he doesn't need to become bubble a D mid range Kevin Durant, King, the Russell Westbrook, um Lebron James as well, guys who want to get to the basket, Like you need a D

to be somewhat of a threat out there. He can't shoot four from three, Like it has to be enough for the defense respects it. That's the whole point, right of having a D at the five spotes, so that teams have to kind of respect him outside of the paint. And I think he'll get to that, Like he's he's showed enough in his career that like there's enough of a sample there. Again we go to the bubble, but during that season he was starting to pick it up

from the mid range. And then also last year as well, he started the season red hot from the mid range and then he got injured. So I don't think he needs to turn into that. He does enough defensively as well. That's my biggest thing though. He's back turning into this super dominant defensive player. And we didn't get to see that a lot last year. Whether you call it excuses or reasons, you can pick one of their probably you know, somewhere in the same line, but he just wasn't the

defensive player last year. From effort to is conditioning to whatever it is, and I think he's getting back there this year. We're surrounding him out with like four small guards, you know, and the guards are playing hard and they're doing their thing. But eight is covering up for a lot um and again, like it's tough to throw a half out because it's not how basketball works. Um, the

numbers are gonna stay there. But if you just take out that second half of Minnesota, which I was sadly there to watch um in the building for, if you take that out in the body language is a team from there, that Miami team, and they played hard and they defended well. And it's not again, I thought they defended pretty well. Keldeny Johnson hit a bunch of threes to to night. He was percent from three going into tonight.

He had a bunch of contested ones. Like I thought, the rotations are getting there, and eight is a big part of this eight is we talked about it the whole time. A D is their defensive identity this year. They don't have all these defensive minded players, Like it's eighties job to kind of lead that charge. And I thought, you're starting to see it more and more. You see

him getting more comfortable. Um, today's is I think tonight's is his fifth thirty point game of the season already, which it just doesn't feel that wayhen you're watching him, but he puts up the numbers in such in these bursts right like like tonight and the first half type of stuff he gets like fifteen in the first quarter and a lot of games. But again thirty points and his fifth game tonight, and I think those will those

numbers should increase as Lebron gets back. But again the huge another huge, a D game been carrying the team for a lot of these stretches without Lebron and hopefully we'll get him back. I think th HD is a big parts as well. Another guy that can just give the ball to it. Looks comfortable shock trading where a D doesn't have to be in the post and get triple teamed the spacing on some of these. Avery Bradley is a respectable shooter in some ways, but teams don't

treat him that way, you know what I mean. Like even if Avery Bradley from three teams still dig in right away Rondo again as the post entry pastor. We talked about that, but yeah, man Adie looks like he's he's scrowing it conformed here and that's that's good to see. So wild's that for you. The today was Anthony Davis, his fifth thirty point game of the season. He had six all year last year, oh Man, six all year. So that's just that's just how much his rhythm was

disrupted last season. That's that's how that that's what he was dealing with. And so, you know, again to put a bow on the Anthony Davis thing, just he I think we take him for granted a lot of the time, and it's unfortunate for him because he came off of this title you know, uh, title winning performance where he looked like a top tier superstar and his bounce back season. Yeah, it was he lazy to start the year. He's doing a lot of popping instead of rolling, and there were

some issues there to start the year. But the truth, the truth of the matter is this has mostly been associated with injuries, and I wanted to share that story just you know, from my personal experience, just to kind of help people understand that it's never as simple as

just stepping out on the floor. It's never that simple, like you know, even for even for th HT, like you know, he looks great tonight, I don't think people realize just how hard it is for for for what t achieved did tonight, to step foot on an NBA floor and play NBA basketball. I don't care that it's the spurs like that that doing that after not playing at this level for as long as he hasn't played,

it's complicated. And the same thing goes for Lebron. There's a difference between being available and being on the court and rounding into form and really really having the rhythm, the and the and that like confidence that comes when you're really playing your best basketball. So yeah, like I I would encourage more patients with a D especially with his jump shot. Um. So before we get out of here today, let let's talk a little bit about Russ. This would be our last topic and we'll call it

a day. So, you know, Russ I really paid attention today to the types of turnovers that he had, and you know, there's there's kind of two there's two types of turnovers that Russ has. There's the I'm making a bad read of the floor and I'm just piling into bodies in the paint and I'm losing control of the basketball because it's impossible to control the basketball and that

type of crowd and some of that is unavoidable. And what you get with Russ because Russ is very you know, bull in a China shop, and some of that chaos is good because he'll on the next possession, he'll drive into four bodies in the paint and just kind of throw the ball behind him and it'll end up in

Carmelo Anthony's hands wide open. So there's a lot of good that comes from that, but a good a good percentage of his turnovers today, or like not doing basic fundamental stuff like pass s baking before you make an entry pass, or pass spaking before you make a swing pass, or not looking off a defender before you kick out to a shooter on the in. You know, when when when you're teaching defense, you know, with a live dribble, you're always arms length, but you're also mirroring the basketball

with your hand. That's what that's what ball pressure is. At every level of the game. You're going to follow the ball around with your hand. So you have to make pass bakes, you have to look off defenders in order to open up passing lanes, especially at the NBA level when you're talking about how long and athletic these

defensive players are. And so some of this is just fundamental sloppiness from Russ you know, just just not not doing the basic things that you teach guards at the earliest age to deal with ball pressure and to deal with defensive pressure, to run, to run an offense. This is stuff that he needs to cut out. And you know what's really concerning to me is he had eight turnovers last game, and he had seven the game before, and he had six the game before that. I think

he only in the box score for six tonight. But there were several plays in the second half that were as good as turnovers. And there was one in particular that would have counted as a turnover if I was running the box score. There's play where he thought he got fouled and he was driving into the lane, lost control,

but they gave him a shot at him. But like that that miss dunk in transition, that's every bit about it as bad as a turnover, because like, like, as he was going up to the rim, you knew he didn't have his steps right, and you knew he didn't have enough lift to make that dunk, and you're just like, what are you? Like as it's happening, you're like, what are you doing? That's not you anymore, man, you know

what I mean? And so I think my concern with it, you know, because again, like Russ does a lot to counteract as turnovers through activity, right, like securing a defensive rebound that no other guard would be able to secure, you know, because he comes flying in and snatches the ball away, or keeping a possession alive with an offensive rebound. He does a lot to add possessions too. But what's concerning me is like we're not really seeing any attempt on his part to try to limit the turnovers. And

that's concerning to me. Like it's not like we're see him try to temper some of that back. It's kind of like he's just continuing to be himself and just hoping that it changes naturally, which is just not how it goes. Like you say all the time, the definition of insanity is seeing something that doesn't work and continuing to do it anyway, you know what I mean. So where are you at with Russ's decision making right now?

So like the turnovers aren't going away, Like that's where I'm at with Russ, you know what I mean, Like, especially when Lebron's out, that's going to compound the issues.

Tailor coming back I think really did help. But like I said, last game, when even when the Lakers were up five at halftime, like they need his counting stats, you know what I mean, Like just in terms of production, even with tailing out with Lebron out and again fifteen points um five or seven from three, which no, sorry, that's Ellington three from five from three from russ Um tonight,

ten eleven rebounds, seven assists. Like the turnovers are just gonna be there, Like he has to be himself in order for this thing to work, and that's the turnovers are part of it, Like marginal changes I'm hoping for, and I think that's more that's going to be more of a byproduct of getting more ball handlers that he has to give it to, you know what I mean. Like that's where I think the turnovers will limit. But look, man,

these aren't gonna stay. Like it's just throughout a game, you're gonna see a lot of these plays where you go like, man, what was that? And I think the LFR pod did a really nice job of like comparing a little bit of that to Baysmore, who obviously doesn't have even close to the usage, but it has similar kind of like just these you know, forays to the rim where there's no real plan there. It's kind of just let me break down and kick it out. A lot of turnovers like that I can kind of live with.

Like the aggression turnovers, it's still like lazy, you know, kick ahead past to rondo, um that gets picked off. Like those are the ones that I think they really need to clean up. But those turnovers aren't going away, man, Like that's that's kind of how I see arrusted enough to not I think, to get to win. I think on defense, he was a little bit more focused than

than in other games. Um he did a better job tonight of kind of cracking down on the boards, uh, coming to help out on the smaller guards and getting boards there. But like the genarmers are what they are. I don't think those are going away. I need to rewatch the game to see all of them. Watching the game live, it didn't feel as they did as though they were super damaging. Like it didn't feel like they were the like turnover and then the Spurs get out

and run. Am I wrong in that? But like, like that's at least it didn't feel that way watching the game. And again plus minus isn't a perfect stat It was a plus eleven tonight. Uh, I think that's second. That was third to Wayne and th HT. But yeah, like overall, like that's I think this is the rush you're gonna

get until Lebron gets back. And do you really feel the like rust decision making when it's like half court tight game, right, especially when the Spurs time like this, When the Spurs started making the run in the fourth there, I was just like, man, this is just a perfect time to just give give Lebron the ball and just have everyone else kind of stand. And that's what they

kind of did with THHD. Funny enough late in the game there, they just you know, out of the time out, I think they just gave PhD the ball, and uh, he kind of ran everything. He ran the show. He became Lebron in a which which isn't the perfect way to say it, but like he kind of took Lebron's role there. Yeah, like Rust is gonna have the turnovers, man, but I think they need his counting stats and the seven assists is part of that. And you know he had to take seven turnovers to do it, but they

need that production at least until Lebron gets back. That's where I'm at. With rust Man. I need to see it with Lebron back and the whole team together before I kind of judge it. But I feel like this is what he's gonna be, and he's trying to fit his game into the team and that's that's kind of what they need to do, I guess to win this season. But yeah, he's not changing like who he is, Like

the turnovers are part of the package with him. Yeah, so this is the This is last thing I'll say about it, because you're right, like he has been trending in the right direction for what his final fit is with this team. Right. Um, he still takes a few too many defensive possessions often. I'd like to see that get better, but he he has a half dozen reps per game aim now where he just does a fantastic

job defending the screen and roll at the point of attack. Um, that's not the way it was at the beginning of the season. He's had some he's had twice in the past week where he's fought so hard over the top of the screen and applies so much back pressure that he was able to poke the ball free and just start and just start heading the other way. That's that's stuff we weren't seeing from Russ earlier in the season. So he's he's trending, trending in the right direction in

that regard. You know, the reason why I've been harping on the turnovers is because you have to value the possession of the basketball, like the way I look at it. You know, if you look at the later offensive rating at the end of the season with Lebron and everything, it's probably gonna hover right around somewhere between one fifteen and in one twenty with Lebron on the floor, right, So what that means is right right around. Just call it, for the sake of making the math easier, call it

like one point per possession. But that's with factoring in everything else. That's factoring in possessions where somebody else has the ball and does something stupid with it. That's factoring in possessions where you turn the ball over. That's factoring all that. The truth is is on a good possession where Lebron has the ball and he makes a good decision, or Russ has the ball and he makes a good decision, you're probably getting about one and a half points per possession. Right.

So that so the way, the way I look at it is like Russ has seventy five turnovers this year. The Lakers on the season have been outscored by two total in the entire season. So if you ask yourself, that means, you know, literally eight possessions, nine, ten possessions here or there where he stops hemorrhaging an opportunity for the team to score. Could be the difference between them having their current eight and six record or being ten

and four, you know what I mean. And and and so that that's kind of the way that I looked at it, is like it's these these these hemorrhage possessions are blown opportunities to run good offense and score. It's so different than on defense if you give up offensive rebounds, Like if you really sit down in the half court and you are dialed in on defense, you might only give up if you're the Akers and you have Anthony Davis on the floor, you might only give up point

eight points per possession. But every time you don't get back in transition and give up an easy layup in transition or an easy three in transition, or you give up an offensive rebound, you're distorting that math and you're giving the other team more opportunities to score. Does that

make sense? So, like the way I look at it is like over the course of the season, it's not as big of a deal because there's some margin for error, Like you can still get the top four seed and have home court advantage in the first round and if you lose twenty five games, you know what I mean. But there's a fine line. There's a fine line in the postseason at the highest leverage moments where you know, five or six possessions here or there could swing the

outcome of a series. It's something I've said to a dozen times on this spot, and it's something and I'm gonna keep harping on it with Russ's decision making because it could be a problem. So the way I look at it, like you said, with Lebron coming back, it's just so important for Russ in his opportunities to be more conservative because they don't need him to create everything, especially with pht you know what I mean, coming back, and and with Moe kind of rounding into form as well.

Like it's just Russ doesn't Russ can afford to take the extra time now to be more fundamentally sound. It's kind of the way I look at it. But anyway, that's that's all I had for Today's there anything else you wanted to get to before we call it a day. Yeah, there's just uh the last two things with Russ, Like I've liked that they found actions that really kind of work for him, like those little double screens with a D and mellow. I think that's something that's comfortable for him,

Like it makes it an easy decision. He's done a nice job like reading it, like the help comes on him. He can find mellow spotting up or a D diving eight. He has got a lot of buckets off that. And then I wanted to kind of turn that into just Wayne Ellington man like just I praised man. I praised him all summer and I was a little worried I said in the last few games about you know, his shot not coming to form or if his defense can be enough. They found a role for him defensively, was

just which is a on this right? That's like a cherry on top to me? Like I wasn't expecting him to be like have a defensive role. I guess, um, But like you talked about, you were higher on him defensively, he's good as a law control defender on a shoot on the shooters, which makes sense. He's a shooter himself. But that doesn't all step. But that doesn't't always work, you know what I mean. That's not always that's not

always the case. You can't just throw a good shooter on another good shooter and be like, yeah, go lock him up. It's not always how it works. But Ellington is good at that. He has good foot speed, Like he's slow in like a like he's slow in like a lateral sense, but like on defense, he has good speed chasing around screens. He doesn't even screen as easily as I think he would with his body with his body type. But just having a legit shooter, man, Like the Spurs went to zone in a possession and it

was just eight. He got the ball inside, give it out to Wayne Ellington. He hit the three and that was the end of the zone. Like that was that was it? That the end of the end of the Spurs playing zone. So just having a legit shooter on the team, He's not always gonna go five for seven and he doesn't need to. His gravity is real though, like that, like teams don't eve him, like I said at the end of the game, they're they rather you know, leave him, try to close out to him rather than

Melow and Melo got the open three. Just cool to have a legit shooter around the team, a professional shooter, as some people say, a guy that the team is actually running actions for. It's just it's just cool to see him having some success. He played thirty minutes tonight, which you know, it is probably a little high for him, but you know, it's just it's just nice to see

him starting to have success. Uh, you know, not gonna shoot seventy one percent like I said from three, but it looks like he's looks like he's gonna have a role man, and I like him. You need guys like that next to these you know, rim seeking ball handlers. Uh. And his shot just looks really pretty. It looks repetitible, repetible. Uh yeah, so he looked good. I just want to give him a shout out before we sign off here. Yeah,

don't agree. I mean, dude, Like, it's so funny because I've been kind of I had very optimistic opinions about the team this year because I saw a specific vision with the way all these pieces would fit, and so many, so many of my takes have been completely derailed by injuries.

Like I was like, oh, DeAndre Jordan's is going to be a fantastic like end of the bench center to like step in when Dwight needs a night offer, a d needs a night off to just allow them to replicate their system and and just do the best they can to kind of cover for those random nights in the season when you lose somebody, it's like, nope, tons

of injuries. DeAndre Jordan's starting, and every time he messes up, it's a tweet at me about how much of an idiot I, you know, like it's that kind of thing. And then it's like, oh you, You and I both were super high on Ellington and we thought he was gonna be a great fit, and it's like nope, Like he's getting preseason reps with bad lineups because everyone's hurt and the team isn't trying at all, and so he looks bad and everyone says, Ellington, you know, can't play,

Ellington should be out of the rotation. And then he got hurt. He got hurt, and then he got hurt, and then he got hurt, and it's like and so, and then the same thing goes with like I I believed that this team would be a top five defense again and all their defensive players got hurt. You know that that that we're supposed to slot in alongside a

d at the five to make this all work. So the point being is, like I have been waiting for an opportunity to be like this is what I've been talking about, Like this is this is how this is supposed to work. And we're starting to see a little bit with Ellington. I'm hopeful that jo Jordan's stays out of the lineup so we'll get to see that too. And then I really think when Lebron comes back, it's

gonna just get even better. And then Trevor Reza should be that final piece that solidifies the way this defense looks with Anthony Davis at the five. So I'm really excited in the long run just to see some of my predictions come to cruition. Uh in that regard, But anyway, thank you guys so much for coming to hang out today. This will air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven and Pacific Standard time. It'll also be on our podcast

feed here in about twenty minutes. We will be back tomorrow for hopefully I'll like you win against the Bulls. That one is gonna be a super interesting game. I cannot wait, and I promise you have my word, we will take some callers tomorrow. UM, so all of you who have put in requests today, we appreciate it. Sorry we didn't have time for today, but come back tomorrow, get your requests in and we will take some callers. Thank you guys so much, and we will see you tomorrow night