Spurs/Lakers Postgame Spaces

than whatever the hell we just watched there. Man, I I'm trying to you guys know, I'm trying to keep a positive attitude. But it's just it's tough. It's tough for a bunch of different reasons. Because, you know, I thought the Lakers have done a really nice job of building some good habits over the course of the previous habits that were a clear shortcoming of the team to start the season, and there was some positive results coming

that added legitimacy to those habits. And we've gone over those at length over the course of the last two podcasts. So I'm not going to get into him, but the point is is, you know, as you and I have frequently said, there needs to be, you know, a result that makes what you're doing worth it. And unfortunately, under these circumstances, you've seen a lot of players like Russ, like even Lebron a little bit and some of his

defensive attention stuff. Definitely with guys like Mellow and Wayne Ellington, you're seeing all of them massively regress. And I don't blame them in the sense that I understand the nature of the situation, and we're going to talk about the situation more here in a minute, but like, that's the most unfortunate side effect of this whole thing, is it kind of feels like progress is being undone. Does that

make sense? Definitely, It's it's felt like two steps forward and then one step back, right, That's what it's felt like all season. Losing a reason though was deflating. Man. That's just tough. You know, like he missed the whole season, already, comes back, plays two games and then he's out again, this time for health and safety protocols, and it's just tough. We have guys coming in and out of the lineup, coming in and out of the rotation. You get a

reason back. I mean, sorry, you lose a d and you get a reason back, and then you lose a reason Now you have all these kind of g leaguers. That was well mixed too into it, Isaiah Thomas playing a bunch of minutes. We just have no rhythm, and it's basically just watching Lebron still be Lebron while the rest of the team just trying to figure it out.

And that's what we're kind of we're watching. I don't expect the team to be locked in defensively every single possession, but it definitely felt like they let go the rope in this one. It definitely felt like the body language dropped, especially in the third quarter, even the end of the first quarter. Honestly, once the Spurs started to just hit their shots, run, you know, a few actions that got a couple of basket uh, and that game felt over to me, Like, Jayson, did you ever felt like this

game was close? Like I never really felt like the Lakers were that in this game, Like it felt like a twelve or thirteen point game the whole time, and I just never felt like we were coming back, even as well as Lebron was playing Lebron had like twenty three a half time, and I just never felt like

we were into it, which is really disappointing. And Russ had his crazy third quarter, right yeah, like I think seventeen or eighteen points in the third quarter, But I just never felt like we were in it, which which makes me worried about the games coming up here. Uh. And we did play a lot of players who won't be playing in the rotation. But I think there's a thin line to walk here that I don't know, like

does that make sense? Like I'm having a tough time bridging those two where you can't blame, you can't judge the team because they're not healthy, but there's also a baseline level that I expect from them as competitors, and that's like stuff that I'm battling back and forth here. You're seeing that baseline level of effort out of Lebron and Russ. I mean, Lebron throughout the game, continue to be aggressive to the rim and just take a beating

driving to the basket. I didn't even think he got as many foul calls as he should have in that game. And then and then Russ in the third quarter. But you know, again, like we said, a lot of these guys these you know, there's an invigorating attitude to the way that Mellow will approach a spot up opportunity to elevate into a three point shot that's missing on the

defensive end. And he had started to build that over the course of the season and he let go of that rope, and and Wayne Ellington was just barbecue chicken all over the floor tonight, defensively, constantly getting knocked off balanced by the bigger Spurs guards. And that was frustrating to watch. But you know, this kind of takes us into this this idea of weathering the storm. And I'm

stealing that phrase. I'm stealing that phrase from our friend Pete from like a film room, because he tweeted it out before the game when the reason news came back came out. Because the reality of the situation is is that a lot of teams are dealing with this COVID situation right now. But the truth of the matter is is that, oh, some of my guess is that by middle January, most of this COVID stuff will be mostly behind the NBA, meaning it's burning through the league right now.

They're changing the protocols they're making it so that if you're boosted, you don't have to get tested every day. So what you're gonna end up seeing is these teams are gonna end up being fully boosted, or most of them will be boosted, and then they just won't get tested anymore, and then you won't see any COVID positive tests. That's what's gonna actionably happen, and then the NBA will

mostly restore back to normal. So there's like that point there in the middle of January where things will get back to normal. But over the course of this next week or two in particular, it's gonna be weird and we just kind of have to push through it, and a lot of teams are dealing with it. That said, I've disagreed with some of the strategy stuff here because

Lebron has always loved playing with veterans. We know that there's always the joke that everyone tells about Lebron showing up to a team immediately discarding all of the young players, bringing in older guys and going on these short, you know, two or three year long championship hunts with a specific

group of older guys. That's the way he's wired and I actually, I actually liked that concept when this roster is whole and healthy, Like I like the idea of having a core built around lebron A d Russ and having six or seven really savvy veteran players mixed in with like one Austin Reeves type or one th h

t type. I like that formula. But over the course of this next couple of weeks, I'm really confused, like genuinely confused why the Lakers didn't try to load up on bigger athletic six eight six seven G League players that are obviously limited offensively, but then at the very least you can try to maintain some of the progress we've made over the course of the last month with our habits. And I was confused by that from a strategy standpoint, like I don't understand signing Isaiah Thomas, Like

I just don't get that. And you know, I'm rooting for Isaiah Thomas. I'm hopeful that he gets an another

opportunity when his contract runs out. But ideologically, what this team needs, especially in a situation, a situation like this, are guys who are fighting for their NBA lives, Guys who particularly guys that have the size and athleticism to where that you know, them selling their soul on the court on both ends of the floor in terms of their effort, just leads to this like tangible physical onslaught. It's it's the most amazing thing about the Memphis Grizzlies

right now. They just had a stretch where they lost John Moran for the better part of a month and they won most of their games. And some of it is how good Desmond Baine is and some of it is how good Dylan Brooks is, but a lot of it it's just they're big and strong and athletic and

they play hard. And the problem is is when we're missing Anthony Davis and you know, when lebron can only play thirty five minutes at night, it's there's a lot of times where we look at our lineups and it's like, well, that guy's small, well, that guy's skinny, Well, that guy doesn't move very well, well, that guy's lazy. And then you're growing away that they can't get a defensive rebound, or that they get beat down the floor in transition, or that they can't hold their own at the point

of attack. And it's like, this is kind of what you sign up for when you don't have, when all your athleticism and size is tied up in your stars, if that makes sense. Yeah, And I'm like Isaiah Thomas, like, I think it's fair that you know, the team has a lot of people out and stuff like that, But I mean, I just don't think we play a lot of lamps that are helpful to the players. Like Isaiah

Thomas had two shots in ten minutes at halftime. If he's not shooting them, he's not Yeah, he's not helping you, right, And again, playing him next to Rondo and Russell Westbrook, to me, that just makes zero like that, and then playing it next to Mellow as well, next to Lebron, like, those are four guys I think half core Hoops also tweeted out those are four defensive liabilities next to Lebron and you're just gonna get cooked that way, and you're

just putting a bunch of ball handling out there that with all these small guards makes no sense. Th HD as well, right, I still don't like his fit with the starters, even though he played well. I want to push back on this a little bit because I know you said weathering the storm and that all makes sense. Players are out, Anthony Davison is out, Trevor Reza's out,

Kendrick Dunn, whatever. But the starting lineup, Jason is players that are going to be in the rotation when it matters, right, Like are starting Laft and I was Russ, Ellington, who Blank and Lebron Lebron, yes, yes, So the all five of those guys are gonna be in the rotation when games matter, right, And the Spurs still just cooked us in that first quarter. It was simple actions. It was

a picked a role Deante Murray and No. One Taggs so Yako, Yaco Purle and I don't know if I'm saying his name right, but just hit little floaters back to back to back, and there was just we weren't competitive enough, even with the players I believe who are going to be on the floor when it matters. Which that's again to my part that I have a tough time bridging of the Yeah, let's not judge this team now, but there's also a level of competitiveness that I expect. Again,

Lebron played well. I thought Russ had a really struggling first quarter. I think his turnover has really hurt us. And I don't think we're in position to have many bad RUSS games like and again, I understand he went off from the third. I thought san Antonio had the game pretty much locked up during that time. They kind of kept us at arms distance. We were kind of

down ten to twelve that whole time. But yeah, like that's kind of Do you understand my pushback there, I guess because the starters are players that are going to be in the rotation. And I still feel like san Antonio outplayed us for a lot of that first quarter, and THHD played well. I not played well, but he played a lot better than he did in that first game.

Lebron again played well, but I'm just seeing like there's not enough execution there with the players that are going to play, which makes it hard for me to just blame us on having the league lineups. And again, lineups aren't great. I hate the I T Russ and Rondo lamps, like does make no sense. DeAndre Jordan played the fourth quarter, God knows why. Um I thought d why Howard was a lot better than him for for the most part tonight.

I had a lot of frustrating fouls as well. But you do you understand my point there, I guess in where like I still think there's a baseline level they have to reach, because we played players that are going to play when it matters, and the Spurs still kicked her as we were down nine to end the first it was like thirty three to twenty four or something. So you're you're right that the Lakers normal rotation players

also didn't play nearly well enough. You're correct about that. However, the vast majority of the Lakers normal rotation players that were active tonight, we're old guys, and old guys. They it's it's it's a it's like a it's like a risk reward occasion of equation for them. I don't think they believed they could win the game. And and you know, you're right, You're right, But what I'm saying is is, and this is a problem, but this is a problem

that comes with older guys. This is why I advocate trying at least over the course of this funky stretch of games here to end the year. This is why I would have gone with the younger players, because even if you can't win the game, at least a younger player is playing for his NBA career, his his his livelihood is on the line, and so there there's an effort that comes with that with the older guys, like they're looking at it like, well, this sucks, like that,

we we don't have any of our bodies. It's gonna be damn or impossible to win this game. Why the hell am I gonna put my body on the line to try to win this game when we can just go on and run and at the start of the year, when everyone's healthy again. Like that, That's why I would imagine that's their rationale. Now you're right, like this goes back to the conversation we've been having about basketball character.

That's bad basketball character in my opinion, And that's why you're seeing guys like Lebron, who has good basketball character, who's a winner, who's accustomed to winning, putting it on the line tonight. You know, that's why you're seeing I mean, I didn't I didn't love Russ's game tonight, and I think Russ has actually been slumping for a couple of weeks now out of nowhere. But but you're you're seeing the competitiveness of Lebron and Russ and their basketball character

coming to the surface. But with a lot of these other guys that don't have that character, they're struggling with this and that's unfortunate. But that's to me where it's like, at least I could look at Lebron and I could be like, hey, man, like, you're not gonna have a lot of shooting, You're not gonna have guys who can make plays off of you. But these three young guys I'm putting out with you for these four these three or four bs basketball games that don't even resemble normal

NBA games. At the very least, I promised these guys and put out there with you are going to sell their soul on both ends of the floor with effort in physicality because they're fighting for their NBA careers. That that's again, this is this is really all moot, because I think they'd probably lose this game in that situation anyway. But at the but at the very least, it's about

the habits. And that's the most important part because the really unfortunate side effect of all of this is there's a situation where these guys are all going to come back and be healthy and to December early January, and and they're gonna have to go through another ramp up period for another couple of weeks where they're gonna have nasty film sessions and coaching staff pointing out that they're making all these mistakes again, which is exactly what we

just went through in November at the beginning of the month. That's exactly what we just went through. And we've built all these habits back up to a passable basketball character. And then we let go the road because of the circumstances, which, again, as you keep pointing out, they're legitimate circumstances, but it's bringing out an ugly side of the of the of

this roster makeup, you know what I mean. And that's why I would have I would have been like, instead of I t let me go down to you know, some GE League team and find a six seven, two thirty pound athlete and just be like, look, man, you're up here for ten days, and I want you to grab every rebound. I want you to sprint the floor and transition on every possession. You know, set hard screens for Lebron and and and and maybe we'll be able to keep these games competitive. It's just and again, it's

it might not all have been worth anything. But that's just how I would have approached this. Yeah, and I think we saw one of those guys. I mean, Jamario Jones played twelve minutes tonight. He got run like early in the game as well. I thought he ran around, played hard. He had one rebound, but I thought, you know, he did things off the ball. It's fun. It was fun to just watch him for a little while, just

trying to cut in and stuff. And I would like to see j Huff as well, Like he made the cut and I would like to see him at least get a chance here. But you're right, hopefully they can play a couple of younger players. It's just like it's very easy to just make excuses right now. And I talked about on the last part, how this can this

can crumble? Right like this can you can break? We're a team that's under five hundred now and all that stuff you talked about how you know, maybe they didn't believe they can win tonight and all that stuff, And that's all on the human element. I mean, that's natural. I don't think the Spurs of the team that you do that with. You know, the Spurs are six game there were six games under five hundred coming in tonight.

Even with the players the Lakers didn't have, You're still starting Russell Westbrook and Lebron James, and Lebron being the guy who continues to play the hardest out of anyone. Uh, it's really strange. And the Lakers went five for eighteen from three tonight or five seven from three actually, which is probably a historically bad that's but I thought they took a lot of bad ones as well. Carmelo took

a couple of a whole bunch of contested ones. Then you need to flip this around, though, Like they gave up a hundred and thirty eight points to the Spurs. That's not missing Trevor Reason, that's not missing Kendrick Nunn. You know, that's a that's a whole different story. I'd say, I'm just not going to rotate anymore. I'm not going to close out anymore, or you know, that's that moves

into that territory. Territory when you start going into that, I think Kate's Kate, Uh yeah, job was like yeah, he was like ten for ten tonight, and a lot of those were just catch up the rim, very little resistance at the basket and layups, like that's the stuff I feel like we can clean up because you're right, eight is gonna eventually come back, but you're hopeful this team's kind of going upward. Right when that happens, they're

going in some kind of positive trajectory. Here. You can't just fall off the face of the earth because he's out. You can't fall in the face because Trevor Reads is out. Like you said, a lot of players are out. Um, and I still hate the lineups and all that stuff, But I just think there's there's something deeper here too that we can fix ourselves. Like we shoot ourselves in the foot a lot and just blame it all on people out I think. I think it's tough. I think

there's actually basketball things that we can fix. I think starting Dwight was a positive to that. But yeah, like I just have a hard time going fully in one direction in terms of just wait and you know, whether the storm is great, I think that's something we have to do, but we also have to live The storm is gonna be here for a little while, you know what I mean, Like we got to live in it

and learn how to live in it. I guess, well, and I disagree with some of the like even even just accepting the fact that the Lakers opted to, you know, kind of go with the status quo in terms of our our roster construct, even even accepting that, I would not have gone with the rotation that Fitdale went with tonight. So for instance, like me, there are we limited, yes, but there were obvious decisions, staggering decisions that would have given us a better chance to win in my opinion.

So for instance, like, there should never, ever, ever, ever be a situation, even with this roster, even under the current circumstances that Mason Jones, Rondo and Isaiah Thomas and Westbrooker all on the floor at the same time with Mellow at center, which is what we started I believe the second quarter with like that's just or end of the first I can't remember where it was, but at

some point in the first half, that's just nonsensical. Like, given the the the players that we had available to start the game, decision one should have been, Okay, are we playing one center? Two? Okay, we're playing one center. Okay, the center's d White, Okay, well Lebron's are other centers, So we're staggering them. So guess what Lebron is starting the game at the five. That should have been decision number one. Decision number two is th h T should

have been thrown in with the second unit. Not because he doesn't deserve to start in a normal world, of course he does. He deserves to start, you know, under an under normal circumstances. But we have a better chance of winning a game, especially against a bad team, if we go with a you know, Ellington, Russ, Lebron and in feerior role players to start and then bring in a lineup that's built around th HD and Dwights or at least there's a baseline level of athleticism and size,

you know what I mean. Like that to me, And again it might not have mattered, we might have lost anyway, But just from a strategy standpoint, I think you've got to try to run functional lineups. And what I thought was poor strategy was running all of our best players to start the game, our best available players, and then immediately just pulling them all and going with literally just a hodgepodge of non NBA players and Russell Westbrook and

Carmelo Anthony. Like, to me, that just was poor strategy. But you know, the reality of the situation is is Austin Reeves and Malik Monk are both going to be coming back very soon. And you know, Trevor Reas is out right now, but you know he's vaccinated. I believe, I believe he's boosted as well. I can't remember exactly, but chances are we're only gonna lose the reason for like two or three games, so you know, hopefully, I

think this won't last much longer. But that said, like going into the game on Saturday against Brooklyn, I think strategically they need to do a better job of staggering our talent. You have a better chance of pulling out a game that you have no business winning if you play a handful of good players with bad players rather than all your good players and then all your bad players.

If that makes sense. Yeah, and I thought no, so I wrote in my notes here, like the first action of the game, I guess was they ran a high ball screen for th HD, right, so they said everyone's spaced out. Th HD got a screen for Lebron. He was able to get downhill and he got fouled, and that stuff I would like to see with the second unit and like we talked about, we can't just develop th HT, but we can put him in better positions

to be successful. Throwing THD in the corner as if he's like Wayne Ellington or if he's a space or like Molik Monk like that. To me, that's just doesn't put him in positions needs. So I'm hopeful that they can kind of stagger a little bit better as well. To me, playing Rajon Rondo makes very little sense when both Isaiah Thomas um when Isaiah Thomas is in the rotation,

like that feels like nonsense school to me. When you're having Russell Westbrook and Rondo at the floor, Rondo feels like a very worst version of Westbrook at this point in his career, right, another guy who is a non spacing shooter who needs the ball in his hands. Like those two together just make very little basketball sense to me. So I hope like they can kind of stagger those lineups a little bit better. I don't think it has

to be so rigid. It feels like we try to keep these starting lineups together and keep these second in this together, and then we get these these like six to seven minutes of lineups that are gonna get actually destroyed um in their short time being. I wanna read this little quote quote here that came out just recently.

I'm kind of put you on spot on this. So Lebron James tonight was asked Anna was asked what it will take for the Lakers to be a good defensive team, and his answer was, all our defensive guys are in health and safety protocols. So what do you think about his his kind of reply there. I don't think he's wrong. I think that's just a funny reply to to come out with. Well, there's a there's a little bit of irony there because I believe coming into tonight's game, the

Lakers were top ten defense. I could I could be wrong about that, but the for the last couple of weeks, the Lakers have been hovering right around the top right around the top third, uh the you know, the right around that like border between the top third and second

third defenses in the league. So the truth of the matter is is we've actually been a pretty good defensive team under the circumstances, which is hilarious because I would argue that there's so much room for improvement on that end of the floor, even even when we're playing well, there's so much room for improvement. That said, like, you know, Lebron's just point like, you know, Lebron got a bunch of crap for uh pointing out that the Suns were

at full strength and we were not. And I saw all over Twitter, I saw a bunch of people, a lot of Sun stands, a lot of Warriors fans, a lot of which just hilarious. I was thinking about this, the Warriors fans and Lebron and Lakers fans, or rather Steph fans and Lebron fans. All they do is just trade completely nonsensical insults at each other, and nothing's fair.

Everything is just completely as It's hilarious. But anyway, like that, they were going at Lebron for that comment, and I thought it was funny because you know, the reality is is like the reporter asked him a question, what do you want him to say? You know, like there we was there was a handful of possessions there in that fourth quarter where I think it was Derek White and then I think the other guy with Murray. They just put their head down and went Isaiah Thomas and he's

just physically incapable of stopping them. He's just too small, and it's like there's no yeah, but there's no scheme, there's no rotation that there's nothing you can do about that under their current circumstances. You're right, like the starting lineup could have defended a little better. And that's a whole other thing, and we already talked about that earlier

in the pod. But the point is it's like Lebron's right, Like step one to fixing any of the problems that you're piste off about tonight's game, Step one is get guys back. It's it's really that simple, Like it doesn't get any more complicated than that. Like this team functionally, Like let's say, let's say you're down ten um, you know, trying to win a game against the Spurs, and and it's Lebron and Anthony Davis is out, but I've got Lebron, Trevor, Resa,

Austin Reeves, th HT and Russ on the floor. Like I think we're gonna be gardened just fun, you know, Like I think that lineup, I actually tweeted about that line up earlier today. That's a very interesting switchy type of line up to use with uh, with Anthony Davis out, but like he's right, Like Trevor, A Reason and Oscar Reaves right now are probably our two best defensive forwards

not named Lebron. That's probably true, right, so, and you know in Russ then A pointed this out, and I think he's correct, although I would argue that if you're gonna make defensive mistakes, make defensive mistakes. They give up jumpers, not layups. That said, um, Russ and Lebron both made a lot of defensive mistakes tonight as a result of fatigue,

which is which is to be expected. Um. But like in theory bringing like as guys come back in as Molik Monk can run some offense, you know, as things kind of get back to normal, uh, in terms of our role distribution, I think guys will be able to click it back into gear. But it's that simple. Reeves and the Reason are two best defensive forwards not named Lebron, and they're both in They're both tracked in hotel rooms right now. I don't even know if they're back in

l A yet. So like the reality is that it's just a really unfortunate situation. Actually, I think the Reason is back in l a thankfully hopefully get suspend some time with this family. But it's just it is the reality of the situation. And if people are going to be mad that Lebron asked questions answers questions honestly, then

don't ask him questions. If you don't want to hear Lebron point out the obvious realities of their roster situation, save the question, please, right, Yeah, I just think it's interesting because you know, I don't think he's wrong that, you know, we have our defensive players out. I just think but we can still play better than we did tonight, you know, and those yeah, and the starters especially, I don't blame you know, those three guard lineups unable to defend.

I just don't like that. You know, we have Lebron, Dwight th Ht out there and we couldn't stop you know what a pick and roll action that spurs went to three or four times. And that's effort stuff as well, like you said, And that's also players ball watching Russ. That's the reason another reason I don't like the Russ kind of rondo lineups that both of them are very uh,

they like to ball watch a lot. They'll do that on defense and putting those two together, it breaks down any kind of defensive kind of cohesion that you have. But I think it's interesting. I think Lebron is gonna be blunt like this for the most of his questions. Uh as we go forward. I think it's very easy to see that he was frustrated tonight as well. Right, you could tell just all night he was car ring most of the load, and you could tell it's it's

frustrating on him. And I don't blame him. It just seems like he's trying to wild the team two wins here, and I thought he's played well in every single one of these losses, right in Chicago against Phoenix tonight again, like he's in Minnesota as well. Like he's played well in all these games, and all of them have resulted in losses. And like you talked about it, you'd like to see some of the hard work kind of result

in wins. It just hasn't happened yet. But yeah, there's lineup stuff that we can fix here, there's xs and th stuff that we can kind of get into. I would like to run a couple more actions for Wayne Ellington, went some more ball screen actions for t ht but yeah, we're just short manned and hopefully they'll they can get a win on Christmas. I think Kevin Durant might be actually back for that one, so I'm not I'm not sure,

but yeah, that's that's another tough one. That and it feels like this is kind of how the games are gonna be going forward, at least until we get Reeves and a reason back um in a couple of days. Yeah, and again like who it has already had covered a couple of times, and it's like and he's again probably dribbling a basketball in his hotel room, trying to do cardio, and they're gonna throw him out there against Lebron. Like it's just it's just such an unfortunate set of circumstances.

But let's hit, let's hit one last thing and then we'll get out of here, because I know our guy Raj is just feeling a little under the weather and he could use some sleep and an hour ahead of you,

so it's almost midnight where I'm at. But um, anyway, so this was something that I wanted to keep just as as one little kernel of positivity here because I think we could all agree that the Lakers have played beneath their capability right over the course of the season, Like this is okay, are they are they a sixty win team? I mean maybe if they're fully healthy and things go right, but with the way they started the season with their habits, like even if they stayed healthy,

they're probably closer to team. But the true point is there they were not a five hundred team like we we we This is not a five hundred basketball team. This is a team that has played you know that is throw some poor play and some poor circumstances has resulted in a team that is sixteen and seventeen. But the truth of the matter is if you look at the West standings, you have these three teams at the top that are way ahead of everybody, and then you

have Memphis, who also lost tonights. I think there are only three games up on the Lakers, but Memphis is like in that second tier right like below those teams at the top. But then everyone else kind of is a five hundred basketball team. Like the Nuggets are not getting Michael Porter Jr. Back at all this season and uh and they're not probably not gonna get him all Murray back at all this season. So they're they're just a five basketball team, you know, the Clippers without Kauai

in this stacked Western conference. In terms of you know, depth of talent, they're probably a five hundred basketball team, like they might be able to get up to, you know, somewhere in the in the you know, forty five and you know, thirty seven or whatever, but they're not. They're not like a you know, a team that's gonna end

up with fifty something wins. So the truth of the matter is is if you can just just like I said, get to the point where a D comes back and you're close to five hundred, if you're just close to five when a D comes back, you can go on a thirty game run where you go twenty and ten and all of a sudden you're the four seed or the five right like that. That's the really, that's the

reality of it. So the fortunate circumstance here is the Lakers are lumped in with a bunch of teams who are kind of playing the kind of basketball that they were supposed to play, and we're the outlier. We're the team that's underperforming massively to our talent level. Obviously, injuries

played a huge role in that. So my point is is that, like, given the way the standings are shaking out, we don't have to worry about like last year, where we're sitting in a situation where there's like the sixth seed is completely unattainable. Like I don't think that's going to happen personally, Um, so there that we don't need to be world beaters over the next month. I think we just need to play five hundred basketball for the next month. If we can do that and there are

some winnable games coming up. I think we play Sacramento twice again coming up, but like, we have some winnable games coming up, So if we can get right around that five mark, there's a legitimate chance to secure one of the four or five seeds, in which case it's just beat Memphis, which we absolutely can do and then

go be Golden State. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think you know that's that's all sounds great, And again I don't want to be the one that sounds more down like I think they can they can catch up. Memphis is obviously playing probably the best basketball to the people above. The Clippers are seventeen and fifteen, but I mean right behind us is Dallas that's fifteen and sixteen, and I think they believe they're better than they are right.

They've had they've missed Luca a lot of this year already, and I think they still have Luca out and a bunch of people the colored protocols Denver's fifteen and sixteen. I don't believe they think they're under five team even with mp J Allen and Murray at with Yogurt, So I think there are still teams under us. And to me, like I can't even look at the standings yet, like we're playing ourselves, Like we need to play at a baseline level before I can even look at that stuff.

And you're right, if we can stay five, I've said that too when a d comes back. But to me, like we need to start building up to that, Like we've lost four in a row. Eight is gonna be out for another four weeks. We're gonna get a few guys back, uh, And I like the positivity there, But I still have a hard time even looking at other teams I guess are trying to figure out standings. Like to me, if we're playing well and we go into the playoffs at the sixth seed, Like I'm fine with

that as well. Like how we're playing going into the playoffs or how we're playing when a D gets back is more important to me. I guess in the actual seating. Just stay out of the seven, eight, nine, right, I believe that's the play in seventy nine, So like, just stay out of that range. And I think we're fine if you can stay at the sixth seed or if you can go up, great, Um, I would kind of

live with that as well. But yeah, like to me, we're playing ourselves like we're trying to build habits, build winning habits, like you talk about build our basketball you know, uh, culture and identity and and and all that stuff. And to me, that's separate from looking at wins and losses, like we need to be playing out a level to where we can be like, Okay, we win our next four, then you know we can jump the standings here, But

we haven't proven we can do any of that. We were in a triple overtime you know game with Sacramento like three or four weeks ago, like so that then we immediately won seven out and we're really good. That's that's true. Yeah, I'll give them that, but like it's just like I need to see a little bit more consistent consistency, you know what I mean, before I can

kind of get into that. But I hope, so, I hope you're right, Like I'm I still believe that there's a good team in here when they're healthy, and I just want to see it at least once. I think it's so tragical our guys have been in and out. But yeah, hopefully they can get to win in Brooklyn because I think, you know, going two games under five

would be tough even with the amount of games left. Yeah, again, all I'm saying is in terms of the silver because I agree with you, like none of this matters if it will play better, But like I don't think. I don't like everyone keeps saying like, are the Lakers gonna be in the plane or the Lakers gonna be in

the plant rain? I I don't think so, and and and it's because of what I just said, Like, if the Lakers were in the play in um come April, I think that would be a direct result of them not playing well after a d came back, Like it it would require them not ever reaching a stretch of

good basketball. But when when the center of the conference is all hodgepodged around five hundred, then if you then if you can go twenty and ten and thirty games with Anthony Davis, which is totally achievable to end the season, you're not going to be in the plan. Like that's just that's the reality of the situation, because they're not going to go ten games under five hundred over the next month. I don't think. I mean, crazier things can happen. Then I'll get ready for this clip to get taken

out thrown in my face in a month. But yeah, again, I'm just I'm just I'm just saying, like I don't think it's as dire as last year in terms of like, Okay, now we have to play Golden State in a playing game, Like I I don't think that will happen unless things get considerably worse, like Lebron gets hurt or a reason gets hurt again or something like that. Like I think it would require some more very unfortunate luck. But that's that's all we got for tonight. Guys, We're gonna we're

gonna call it. We will be back. Roger, You're playing on doing the show of Christmas Day. Correct, absolutely, yes, we will be here after whoever decides to play basketball wearing a Brooklyn Nets jersey decides to play basketball against the team full of unknown players wearing Lakers jerseys on on Saturday night. Uh, this is gonna air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seventy and Pacific Standard time, and we'll be at our podcast feed here in about thirty minutes.

As always, we appreciate your support. We hope you're enjoying the holidays and getting some time together with the family, and we will see you guys in a couple of days. I'd be all thanks everyone. Thanks m