Lakers FIGHT To Outlast Pelicans, Push Win Streak To 3 Games

Hello, Lakers nation. Welcome in the Lakers nation.com live post game show. I'm Trevor Lane. What a win for your Los Angeles Lakers?

What looked like should be a pretty easy cruise victory against the Pelicans at the outset did not wind up playing out that way.

In fact, once the Pelicans unveiled their starting five for this game and revealed that they have for the first time all season,

their entire team healthy. We knew the Lakers were going to be in for a bit tougher test than what you would typically see or think when you just see Pelicans on the schedule.

Final score, 110, 101, the Lakers get it done with a big fourth quarter and some absolutely massive defensive performances.

We have a lot actually to break down going into this game. You would think this is just kind of another, you know, Sacramento type game. The Pelicans not one of the better teams in the NBA.

But there's a big difference between the Pelicans, especially the healthy Pelicans and the likes of the wizards, the kings and teams like that.

The Pelicans don't have their pick. They made a huge mistake, traded away their first round pick in the draft this last year.

So it's unprotected this year. It's probably going to wind up in the hands of the Atlanta Hawks. And so they don't have a pick. They have no reason to tank.

The Pelicans went after this game with everything they had and they created some real problems for the Lakers. The Lakers had to fight.

And I'm happy to say the Lakers, they had to win this game with defense down the stretch. And man did they make some huge defensive plays.

Happy to see you all here. If you haven't subscribed yet to the channel, please make sure you do hit that subscribe button.

Let's take a peek at the box score. My goodness, LeBron James LeBron James in this one 21 points eight for 12 shooting one of five from three.

The three has looked better lately. Didn't fall enough tonight. Four for eight from the free throw line seven boards, seven assists, five turnovers, turnovers a big problem for the Lakers in this game.

They finished the game with 21 turnovers, but LeBron James with 21, seven and seven. Meanwhile, Luca Doncic, 27 points, 10 of 22 shooting hit a big three late, 10 boards, seven assists, seven turnovers for Luca again, the turnovers, a big problem.

Austin Reeves had maybe his worst game as a Laker, certainly one of them. Four for 15 shooting, two of seven from three couldn't hit anything for most of the game.

Five turnovers hit a few big shots late eight boards, two steals two blocks. He did other things to help this Lakers team win.

But man, the scoring, the shooting was not there for Austin. He was out of sorts through much of the game. Five turnovers. That was pretty rough as well.

So who is the superstar of the night? Who is it? Who gets soup LeBron, Luca, Austin Reeves? You know what?

We're going to call an audible audible here. You know who gets it? None of those three wasn't a good enough game for any, wasn't a good game by the standards of these three players for any of them.

I don't feel right given superstar of the night to a guy who played subpar based on the standards they've set. Instead, you know who's getting it? Marcus Fn Smart.

Marcus Smart and we had to add in the Fn for emphasis. Marcus Smart was fantastic superstar superstar of the night.

Make it official. Marcus smart. What a defensive performance. Four steals, three blocks, seven stocks in this game. And he didn't even get credit for all of them. There were a number of times in the fourth quarter when smart knocked the ball away and somebody else picked it up.

So the steel didn't wind up getting credited to him. Seven assists, three of nine shooting isn't great. Ten points. You look at it and you say, whole hum. But if you watch this game, there is no chance. The Lakers are winning this game without the performance of Marcus Smart, who closed out the fourth quarter with play after play after play got it done on the offensive and hit the big three late in the quarter hit a big floater shot early in the fourth as well.

And just kept getting one stop after another for a Lakers team that won this game with their defense Marcus smart was the most important defensive player for the Lakers. So not typical.

But we are going away from the big three for the superstar of the night and it's going to Marcus smart. You know, this was a game we talk a lot about the Lakers, other guys.

This was a game where the big three for the Lakers were not good enough. None of them were LeBron had a wonderful stretch at the start of the second quarter. He was awesome. He was so good. But over the course of the whole game, none of them played above average for themselves.

And for a Lakers team that I think too often is at a deficit when it comes to the other guys on their team, the other guys for the Lakers stepped up in a big, big way.

And I give a lot of credit to Marcus smart. There's other guys that I'm going to be singing the praises of as well. I thought he was absolutely fantastic in this one. I loved what we saw out of Marcus smart.

This comment said, Trev, I got to say you're wrong here. I think Luca and LeBron played good. My problem was the turnovers. Seven turnovers for Luca. And I thought a number of them were sloppy LeBron James was largely good eight of 12. You're certainly take but for evaded the free throw line one of five from three to go along with five turnovers as well.

That's not a that's not LeBron's standard and he had some great of the of the three who had the best stretches of plate LeBron LeBron had the best stretch of play in the second quarter where he was legitimately awesome for five minutes of the second quarter.

He was great offense defense. Everything. He was amazing during that stretch, but he didn't sustain that for the game and the three point shooting drop back one of five from three four of eight from the line five turnovers.

It just wasn't a great game by LeBron standard. Had he played the entire game the way you played the second quarter. He's running away with it, but he didn't.

And you have games like this sometimes. And I thought LeBron did some good things defensively down the stretch, but this just opens that it opened the window just a little bit just a crack to give it to somebody else.

And so tonight I want to give credit to Marcus smart. I thought he was absolutely fantastic in this one. All right, let me talk about some of the other guys.

Rui Hatchamura, 0-4 from three. That was a big problem for the Lakers, not just Rui specifically, but offensively through the first half of the game, the first three quarters.

Thought they did a great job generating wide open threes and just missed them could not hit their threes and Rui was a big part of that.

0-4 from deep from Rui Hatchamura, 0-4 shooting period, two of two of the free throw line, Rui played 19 minutes, but it didn't he didn't really feel impactful at all out there on the floor.

You didn't feel Rui's presence in this game. He finished 19 minutes with two rebounds, and that's it. No other counting stat. Rui was Rui played, but I mean could have fooled me.

If you just watched this game and didn't look at the box score at all, you probably did not notice Rui Hatchamura in this game.

Jake LaRavia, I thought Jake was very noticeable in this game, not that he finished with a big stat line, five points, two of four shooting, one of two from three, two boards, two assists, one steal.

Again, kind of a whole home stat line in 14 minutes, but he made some big hustle plays keeping the ball alive a number of times and helped on the offensive glass made a few of the plays that ultimately helped win the Lakers the game in terms of getting extra opportunities to score.

Luke Canard did Luke Canard things three of five shooting two of three from three had a couple of turnovers. That was a little bit rough picked up a technical foul.

We had three technicals against the Lakers in this one. By the way, Luca now has 14 technical fouls two more and he is suspended for a game.

So coming into the home stretch here and we'll look at the state. He's in just a minute. That is something to keep an eye on Luca now with 14 technical fouls, but Luke Canard had a solid performance from him.

I love seeing him knocked on those three. So he got three attempts knocked down two of those three. It's a surprise at this point whenever he misses a three and he did miss one, but he did a nice job out there for the Lakers.

He was feisty defensively still got picked on a little bit and actually he was defending when he picked up the technical values frustrated with the call that went against him there, but I left him for last because if I could not give the superstar the night to him.

It was going to go to Marcus smart, but the other guy that I really need to give a lot of credit to and I didn't talk about the Andreate and yet either I want to get into him in a minute, but I got to give a lot of credit to Jackson Hayes, who I thought the only reason why it doesn't just go to Hayes is because Marcus smart star shine just a little bit brighter.

I thought Jackson Hayes was phenomenal in this game. He came up with so many big stops late, stopping Zion Williamson multiple times. He got elbowed in the face twice in this game.

Jackson Hayes was the decisively better player than the Andreate and I didn't think DA had a bad game either. I didn't this isn't a game for me to come out of and be critical of the Andreate.

He had a few bad mistakes where he dropped the ball out of bounds a couple times, but he also played pretty well and this was about as fired up, I think as we've seen DA in a while, but Jackson Hayes was fantastic.

He was everywhere. He was blocking shots. He was thrown down dunks. His ability to defend on the perimeter and switch defensively so the Lakers didn't have to go zone was absolutely huge.

He was keeping plays alive on the offensive glass, tipping the ball. And so when you look at the stat sheet and you see Jackson Hayes 8.6 boards, two blocks.

It doesn't sound like he had a monstrous performance, but his impact in this game was massive 23 minutes played eight and six and two and similar to Marcus smart, the Lakers don't win this game without Jackson Hayes.

He was phenomenal. This was one of his best games of the season and I loved what we saw out of Jackson Hayes. I thought defensively he was locked in. He was hitting the glass. He was rebounding, getting the loose balls, doing everything they needed for love, loved, loved what we said about Jackson Hayes.

DA, I've been very critical of the Andreate and I don't like players where you know that the hustle is going to be a problem with them.

DA got fired up in this game, got a technical foul, 13 points, eight boards, two turnovers and frankly had a couple of other plays that really could have been credited as turnovers where he just fumbled a rebound out of bounds.

There were a couple of plays where the hands were suspect. He also had a few really nice catches though. Jackson Hayes, by the way, had a number of just, I mean wide receiver type catches in traffic, contorting his body in the air where he stuck these passes. He was so good.

I thought de Andreate and played his way into this game and made it had a few big rebounds in the second half, got fired up, got upset, had a big and one that he scored after the Lakers fed him the ball.

I thought this was one of de Andreate's better performances, not mistake free. There were still moments that would leave fans pulling their hair out frustration with him. He wasn't anywhere close to Jackson Hayes in terms of impact.

But I didn't think this was a bad DA. If you got more games like this out of de Andreate and you'd be pretty happy. He'd be you'd be more than fine with what you're getting out of DA.

I thought this was one of his better performances and thought he did a pretty nice job in this one. I liked what we saw out of him in general and I liked I actually liked that he picked up the technical because he was upset.

He came over, did a nice job defensively blocked Zion shot. I thought it probably was a foul, a little bit of a soft foul, but he blocked the shot and he was so mad that the referees called the foul on him.

I love I want to see more of that from DA. I want to see that passion from him. You could tell he cared in that moment and he really went after it.

So this was not a bad game from the Andreate and Jackson Hayes was just awesome and loved what we got out of him tonight. All right, a lot of stuff to get into here.

Let's get into your questions, your comments, all of that.

Here we go. Mission 86 said, OK, good win. Now we go up in the sky to play a contender. Can't let up now throttle down eyes forward. Let's get it. Come on. All right. So next up, the Lakers take on the Denver nuggets on Thursday. And obviously that is a big one.

And the Lakers schedule coming up. It's going to get very, very difficult. They've got multiple games against the nuggets, multiple games against the rockets. They've got the wolves, but we'll look and see what's on the line right now.

The Lakers just won three in a row. The Lakers are the six seed still. They're only half a game back of Denver for the five seed. So if they beat Denver on Thursday, the Lakers will become the five seed in the Western conference.

And the sons are about to get the win over the Sacramento Kings. They're still playing that game. The wolves won their game over the Grizzlies tonight as well. That's the challenge in the West. Look at the top seven teams in the West win, win, win, win.

It's hard to move up in the Western conference because everybody keeps winning the Lakers of one three in a row now. Now you get Denver.

Indiana got some games coming up against Houston. You got a game against the Knicks coming up on Sunday. There's some big time matchups coming up.

And so I thought this win over the Pelicans was important. I know people will say, again, it doesn't count. It's just the Pelicans.

I think if you are coming away from this game, saying it's just the Pelicans. It doesn't count for anything. Same way it wasn't in Sacramento.

That tells me you either didn't watch the Sacramento game or you didn't watch this game tonight. The Pelicans played at a way higher level than the Sacramento Kings did.

There was way more life in the Pelicans team that is legitimately pushing to win games because they have no, they have no reason not to. They don't have their pick. They're not taking the Pelicans had their healthy lineup for the first time this season.

And you could tell they badly wanted to win this game. And I thought athletically with the length, the way they were scrapping defensively, they created some problems for the Lakers.

I think this is a big win for the Lakers tonight. Bigger than you would think when you see Pelicans on the schedule, not just because of where they are in the standings, not just because they had to fight for it.

But you're going to have nights where your offense is not good and their offense was not good tonight. And the Lakers are going to have to largely carved their path with their offense.

But tonight it was not good. They turned the ball over a ton again, 21 turnovers in this game. And they won it with their defense. They won it by getting stops in the fourth quarter.

They held the Pelicans to 23 points in the fourth while the Lakers put up 34. A lot of that coming because they were able to get out and transition off of live balls, turnovers and live ball stops.

So I think the Lakers showed a lot of resolve in getting this win. The Pelicans through everything at them. And you could tell from the opening tip that the Pelicans came and approached this game in a way that I don't think they approached a lot of games this season.

I think it's a more beneficial win than what it would look like on paper because of the way the Lakers had to dig and the way the things they needed to do in order to come away with the win.

Now, does that mean there's going to be great against Denver? No, that is a big step up in competition. And if the Lakers turn around and they lose to Denver and they lose to Houston and they lose to New York, then we're going to be right back where we were.

And we're going to be saying the same thing. The Lakers can beat the teams that aren't playoff teams, but they can't beat the true contending teams.

Thursday's game is huge. And by the way, Denver played last night, they were unjustly given a win by the officials late in the game.

There was a clear foul on Nikola Yokech that was reviewed by the officials and overturned after they saw the foul on video, overturned it and kept Yokech in the game.

The nuggets were already up one at that point should have been two free throws for the Utah Jazz. I suppose it's possible that a free throw would have been missed or something like that, but it was a terrible look for the NBA, a horrific decision where the

officiating crew clearly got it wrong on the review. But Denver played last night.

They don't play again until Thursday. So they have two days of rest before taking on the Lakers, the Lakers play after tomorrow in Denver at elevation.

I hope this game against the Pelicans. If nothing else, battle tests the Lakers a little bit. The level, the intensity they're going to have to play at tonight is going to have to be brought over.

Sometimes you play these games against a team like Sacramento against a team like Golden State where the Lakers were able to just cruise to those wins. They won both games by more than 20 points and were up by more than 20 for nearly the entire game.

You come out of games like that and you go into what's going to be a battle on Thursday. You know Denver, the people in Denver, they hate the Lakers.

It was just as big for them to beat the Lakers in the playoffs the other a few years back as it was for them to win a championship.

Like this is their Super Bowl, right? This is going to be a very loud, very intense environment for the Lakers on Thursday.

That would have been an extreme transition for the Lakers to go from a kick back and relax. You got the little umbrella in your drink, your feet up, your flip flops on all that kind of stuff.

Type a win to suddenly go into that environment in Denver on Thursday would have been jarring to say the least.

I think this Pelicans game and the intensity with which the Lakers had to play even though they play sloppy.

I think it makes for more of a natural transition into what the environment will be like on Thursday.

But again, you've got Denver on Thursday, then Indiana but second night of a back to back with the flight in between then New York on Sunday, Minnesota, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Houston, Miami, second night of a back to back or Lando Detroit, the Lakers.

This is it, everybody. This stretch, this is going to tell us, what are the Lakers? What are they not?

This is it. Are they going to figure things out and get some statement wins or not? This stretch is their chance.

And it's not going to be easy. It's not going to be easy. New York Denver, New York, Minnesota, Denver, Houston, Houston, Miami or Lando Detroit.

That's the next two weeks for this Lakers team.

It's a packed schedule. There's back to backs in there.

And I hope that if nothing else, this Pelicans game is a appetizer is a is a warm up for what's to come here.

All right, let me get back into your questions and stuff. Seriously, do teams complain on the rafts to Adam, so yes, yes, do teams complain all the time.

All the time, the teams do complain to the league offices that they send in tapes of plays that they feel like were officiated incorrectly.

And they will let the they will let them know about it.

What has Vando done this time to get back in the doghouse, glad for the win, but geez, those turnovers, the turnovers were sloppy.

They looked again, it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing that the Lakers were turning the ball over the way that they were.

It's a bad thing. It's very bad thing. And they've got to be and they've been they were the number one team in the NBA best turnover percentage in the NBA.

Since the all start break, obviously that's not going to be the case after tonight's game, but they had been doing very well there.

The turnovers were very sloppy. It's a very bad thing, but they were able to dig in defensively and get the win another way.

And that's what good teams have to do is get wins that way. Ultimately, this Lakers team, most nights, they're going to win with their offense.

And I think the DioBrettic talked about it before the game that they are focused on trying to be a top 10 offense and a top 15 defense.

They want to be those two things. And I think those are both realist of goals for them tonight. They were not that offensively for sure, but they found a way to get the win.

As far as if they keep turning the ball over like this, they're not going to win a lot of games with 21 turnovers. That's awful. They need to be.

That's my target number for the Lakers is 14 turnovers in a game. Obviously, we'd love to see less than that, but I think they're 14 is a very realistic and achievable goal for an upper limit for turnovers in a game.

As far as what Vando has done, you know, Vando had a rough outing in the last game that he played. He got, he was knocked out of the rotation at that point.

What was that was that the Phoenix game, I believe, he got an early shift in that. Yeah, I only played six minutes and he was awful in that one. He got that early shift.

I gave up an and one on a three. I mean, he played six minutes. It was a minus 15 through away an inbound pass that turned into a son's three.

He was just bad in that that said, we also saw Vando lose his spot in the rotation earlier this season.

The Lakers defense fell the pieces and when Vando got reinserted into the rotation when injuries hit, they got significantly better.

I don't think he should be banished permanently, but Jared Vanderbilt was not part of the rotation tonight and it does appear because Maxi has been in the rotation in the last few games, but Maxi was not played tonight.

He did have a back issue before the game, so I don't know how big of a factor that was. Maybe he was just more of a despite being declared available for the game.

He may have just been a break glass in case of emergency player, but without Maxi in the rotation.

JJ Reddick didn't revert to Jared Vanderbilt being in instead, he shortened his rotation. So he lost one of his 10 wrote, he's been running a 10 man rotation the last couple of games.

When he lost one of those players, rather than that create the opportunity for Jared Vanderbilt, that just meant JJ played nine players instead of 10. That's not a great sign for Vando that.

The player fell out of the rotation tonight and JJ just played one less player, rather than put him in there.

I think there's going to be moments where they need Jared Vanderbilt.

I thought they should have put Jared Vanderbilt back in the game for the final possession against Phoenix and was disappointed that they didn't.

I like Jared Vanderbilt just being glued to the bench because I think there are games where he can make a big difference defensively where he comes in it makes impact plays.

Maybe we're at a point with Vando where it needs to be a we give him a shift in the second quarter type situation.

See if he has it if he doesn't we move on.

But I do think for a team that does not project to be a good defensive team, you're going to need the talents of Jared Vanderbilt even at the expense of the offensive end of the floor at times.

And so I would like to see Vando be part of the rotation be at least an option. I don't want to see him banished on the bench for the remaining games and that kind of feels like the way this is trending.

But Rui and Reeves have been awful after coming back. Yeah, Austin, I think awful for both guys is going a little bit far.

We look at Rui though, you know, the month because look at Rui the month of February, like that's not awful.

He's five percent from three, 52% from the field. His last two games, he's two for eight from three and two for 12 from the field, like that's, that's awful.

That's that's two games.

The last month, while he was only put up 10 and a half points and the rebounds are never he's never going to completely satisfy you on the glass.

Right, he's not going to provide the amount of rebounding health that you would want out of guy who six eight and has the size that Rui does.

But it's not like he shot the ball, particularly poorly, and that is the primary value that he's providing is as a shooter.

But the last couple of games, obviously, have not been good for Rui, Hachimura for Austin, Reeves, the usage has gone down.

And tonight again, may have literally been his worst game as a Laker, he couldn't get anything going.

So I even thought there was a moment where in the third quarter, you knew he needed to get going. He finished the night with 15 points.

He hit some big shots late for the Lakers, but there was a moment in the third quarter when he was wide open for three.

Nobody around him, and he hesitated.

Wind is Austin Reeves hesitate. He hesitated and passed up the shot and gave it to LeBron instead LeBron wound up driving attacking a closeout and turning it over.

Now Austin battled defensively, got back in a number of plays, got a few steals and things of that nature.

And a couple of times actually made up for a badly miss shot or turnover or whatever by going and getting the ball back on the other end.

But this may have been his worst game.

And after passing up that three, he rushed a three like he was trying to make up for it and rushed a three that he missed.

He missed the layup in this game where he was right at the rim. It was a very bizarre game for him offensively.

He did compete defensively, but you look at the month of February for him.

Hey, again, the shooting numbers are great. 50% from the field. 41% from three. You love that. 88% from the line. 5.8 attempts. All wonderful.

But you look in the last month, the last month plus, he's only scored more than 20 points twice.

Going all the way back, we go all the way back to December 5th.

It's March going back to December 5th. He's only eclipse 20 points two times.

He had 35 against Philly, 29 against the Clippers. Every game, every other game since December 5th.

And he was hurt for a while. We have to keep that in mind. He missed a bunch of those games. He missed the entire month of January due to injury.

But every other game that he played in, he was sub 20 points, which is not what we've seen from him.

I do think his usage has come down, and that's part of it.

I also see J.J. Reddick leaning in more to the LeBron and the Banshee's groups and then Austin and Luke on the floor.

And that's Austin's not getting the Austin Reeves by himself opportunities that we saw in November.

When LeBron wasn't back yet and Luca, when he was resting, the offense would be Austin's run.

You're not seeing those opportunities. So the shot attempts are down.

You compare it to November when Austin Reeves was taking 16 shots per game.

Look at October, he was taking 18, almost 19 shots per game.

You go here, nine shots per game right now and two games in March, 12 shots per game.

The shot attempts are just way down for Austin.

The 50%, 50, 40, you'll take that all day.

But you're not feeling the impact of Austin Reeves as much in these games.

And then again, tonight offensively was a disaster.

I mean, he competed defensively, got back in some plays.

And to finish with four stocks that that's helpful, you know, two blocks, two steals.

But this may very well have been Austin's worst offensive performance that we've seen.

This is another one where I was talking about Jackson Hayes, Marcus Smart,

the way the box scored doesn't truly reflect their impact.

15 and eight with three assists, two blocks, two steals.

I think doesn't even correctly reflect how bad offensively Austin was in this one.

Five turnovers, four for 15 shooting, couldn't get anything to go.

He looked unsure of where shots were coming from.

He had to play where it's late in the half.

He dribbled the ball down into the low post and then pump fake.

Nobody bit on the pump fake. He missed the Andreate and on what could have been a lob over the top didn't throw that.

We wound up taking a very tough fade away because he was going to get a three second violation of the paint.

Just got stopped.

Just some very uncharacteristic Austin Reeves games.

Hopefully this means that next game he's going to have a big bounce back against Denver.

But tonight I thought was legitimately one of Austin Reeves worst games as a laker.

Let's go here.

Marcus smart is a Laker him and jacks.

Look, these guys were fan testing.

I loved what we saw out of Marcus smart.

And and Jackson is they were they were great.

They were great.

Okay.

Kakashi said for two guys who like to complain about free throws.

They sure can't hit them at a high clip with Braun and Luca.

Rui is a low post mid range cutter.

And we got him spot up three point shooting and get canard more shots.

Okay, so not hitting free throws at a high clip.

That's become a problem for the lakers.

It's become more of an issue as the season has gone on.

They are one of the top teams in the NBA in free throw attempts per game.

Now since the all star break, the pelicans were actually number one in the NBA in free throw attempts per game.

It's a small sample of like six games at that point.

But nonetheless, the lakers did shoot more free throws than the pals did.

26 to was a 19.

Yeah, 26 to 19.

But LeBron four of eight at the free throw line.

Luca four of five is more than five.

I mean, that's 80%.

You'll take that.

And the season, the lakers despite being on the year a and since the all star break, they haven't gotten to the free throw line as much.

But on the season, they're one of the higher volume free throw teams in the NBA.

They're number two behind the Orlando magic in free throw attempts per game.

But the free throw shooting is starting to become a bit of an issue.

I mean, you look, they're 24th in the NBA in free throw percentage.

Now, the shooting has become so good in the league that it's not like.

There's a lot separating, right?

I mean, they're at 76.8%.

And you go look at, you know, top 10 is you're 3% higher.

You're 79%.

You've got teams that shoot better than 80% from the free throw light at the sea on the season.

Teams are getting better and better.

It's not like this is, I don't know, like the the shack makers.

I'm just guessing they're free throw percentage going to be super low back in 2000.

Backlakers where shack was getting so many free throw attempts per game.

He's just weighing down their overall free throw percentage.

Again, free throw shooting's gotten pretty good in the league.

Yeah, the Lakers were a 68% free throw shooting team back in 2000 when they had shack.

That's obviously going to pull down your percentages.

But nonetheless, it's a bit of a concern.

Anytime you're leaving points, anytime you don't have much of a margin for error.

And you're leaving points to the free throw line, especially when you're a high volume.

Free throw shooting team, it's it's going to be a concern.

As far as Rui is a low post mid range cutter.

Yeah, you're not seeing as much of the cutting.

I think part of the challenge with Rui is that he's not a great finisher at the rim when it's contested.

That's just not been really part of his part of his skill set, especially this season.

In the past, he's gotten some really open looks that have helped, but he's in the 47% tile finishing at the rim this season relative to his position.

So he's below average as a a rim finisher this year.

So I think that's part of it.

But he is legitimately one of the best three.

I mean, just cited his percentile when it comes to rim finishing.

He's in the 98th percentile relative to his position as a three point shooter accuracy wise.

He's in the 98th percentile.

So he is an excellent three point shooter.

That's why I don't see Rui as being wasted.

Being relegated to a spot up three role because it's not like you're asking him to nearly exclusively do something he's not very good at.

You're asking him to do something he is great at.

Now, is that taking away some other parts of his game?

Yes, but you're leaning into something that he's been extremely successful with and been successful with for years now.

And that's being a spot up three point shooter.

As far as getting canard more shots, he did get more looks last game.

I thought there was there was one three in tonight's game that he could have taken that he didn't.

I think sometimes he's a little too hesitant to pull the trigger, but I don't have a lot to complain about with canard.

Yes, I'd love to see more shots two of three from three in this one.

I think he was five for seven.

Last game.

Canard was no sorry three for five three for five the game before he was four for seven three for five against Sacramento.

Four for seven against Golden State.

We're back to three shot attempts in this one.

I would like.

It's tough because he's not an extremely athletic player.

He's also not the guy that you're going to have running off of three screens like coming off a bunch of curls and then come up firing.

He's not like that kind of movement shooter either.

So getting him that open look is dependent upon running something off ball that gets him a spot up or getting an offensive rebound.

We saw one of his threes was generated after an offensive rebound in this game tonight.

So I'm not expecting a super high volume from deep.

I would love I mean these the best three point shooter in the league percentage wise.

You would love to see him getting ten threes a night.

He's not just not realistic.

I think a real target should be somewhere between four to five threes per night.

That's I think what you want to average.

What you don't want to see his nights like we saw against Orlando no attempts against Phoenix one attempt.

You've got to get those looks.

He's just too good from behind the arc to not get those attempts up.

I'd like to see the team scheming more to get him opportunities because he is such a damn laser out there on the floor.

But two for three three for five in the last two games five for ten fit.

You know that's I'm sorry five for eight.

He's been fantastic.

Fantastic shooting the ball would love to see more shots from him.

I think it's just it can be a little bit of a challenge actually actually generating those rough second half.

But this team locked him when they needed to say what you want.

But there's no quit in them on to Denver.

Actually, you know, there's.

I don't want to sour the good good vibes on that at all.

But that's been one of my complaints about there have been games where the Lakers have let go of the rope.

But this was not one of them.

There've also been a number of games where they fought and they've battled to come back in games that I think they were.

They showed the proper amount of result in in this one.

So I was happy with what we saw overall out of this Lakers team tonight.

I do want to check in on some of the quotes coming out of the post game here.

JJ Reddick talking about Jackson Hayes said he's a good basketball player that frankly consistently injects energy into the group.

Absolutely right.

Jackson Hayes was fantastic.

I hope the Lakers bring this kind of fight against Denver.

I hope they bring better efficiency, but I hope they bring this kind of fight against Denver.

I think that would be a big positive for them.

Let me see what else we've got here.

JJ Reddick said Marcus smart has been great on the last.

Five to six games or no five to six weeks.

Defensively I agree.

I think Parker smart has been fantastic.

And he changed the game in the Lakers favor tonight.

Yep.

It's a reason why he got superstar the night.

He's just smart credit to the Lakers for staying with it tonight despite all of the chaos with the officiating.

I know we're going to get a lot of comments about the officials and especially when we get to the master lock of the night.

But I do want to give the Lakers credit for fighting through how many officials are going to be so quick on the trigger to give out technical files the way this crew was tonight.

It was a stranger and I'm not one who I do my fair bit of complaining about the referees.

And I do think they have very difficult job, but it was just a strange night.

The way the game was officiated.

I thought it was difficult to get into any kind of rhythm.

I thought it was tough figuring out what is and what isn't a foul.

Sometimes they were calling things really tight.

Sometimes they were letting everything go.

It was a tough game.

I think for the players to adjust to and any little thing was a technical foul.

It seemed like and guys were getting text on both teams were getting text left and right.

Marcus Mark said, yeah, you know what we played through it.

And Luca did a bit of complaining more complaining in this one than we've seen recently.

But I think there has been a noticeable decrease overall in how much complaining Luca has done to the officials.

There were a few moments tonight, but I think tonight was also an especially let's say trying night with the officials.

Marcus smart credit his instincts for the steal when he was guarding two players and also his defense on Zion all night.

He said, that's what I do.

My mind works in that way.

And I made a great play for my team.

My teammates trust me to make plays like that.

He was and this is why.

Why we've talked about whether it's here on Lakers collective, wherever we've talked about why Marcus smart makes sense in the starting lineup.

Well, long term, I don't know the Marcus smart is the ideal player in your starting five.

But the ability to make plays the way that he does.

Whether he's starting or coming off the bench is so critical for a team that's got Lebron, Luca, Austin Reeves.

Those guys are going to make most of their plays on the offensive end.

Marcus smart was very much a superstar defensively tonight.

And it was so big to have him on the team for this one.

By the way, I never made it official.

I think it kind of applied.

But let's do this star in your role.

Jackson Hayes.

I mean, easy, easy choice.

I don't think I would assume chat that nobody is going to disagree with me on that.

I thought Jackson Hayes was again, absolutely fantastic.

And this, this was one of his best, maybe his best performances of the season.

He was great on both ends of the floor, the hustle, the energy.

He was everywhere, keeping plays alive, finishing with dunks.

He's had better like highlight real dunks.

But in terms of a complete game on both sides of the ball, this may have been one of Jackson Hayes best game.

And Marcus smart got superstar the night because he was so good.

Jackson Hayes is an easy, easy choice for me in this one.

I thought he was such a difference maker for the Lakers in this one was so impressed with what he did.

Yes, I will be a dick tater in this situation.

I did not open it up for a vote or anything like I would assume, though,

that the will of the people is being reflected in this decision to elect Jackson Hayes as the star in your role.

I would assume.

Okay, let's see what else we've got.

Trev the tyrant.

I rule with an iron fist, apparently.

Lakers lose this game if they just played a below average team.

Pelicans gave this game away to the Lakers, honestly, have to be better.

So I disagree.

So the premise here is that the Pelicans are so bad that they are well below a below average team.

And I don't think that's accurately reflecting the way the Pelicans played this game.

Did the Pelicans make mistakes? Yeah, they had a bunch of unforce turnovers in this game.

They had a bunch of force turnovers too, but there were a number of times when they looked sloppy.

And they turned the ball over and trouble the ball off their foot or what have you the Lakers to plenty of that too.

But the reason why I don't count this as, oh my god, the Lakers, they beat the Pelicans because they're one of the worst teams in the NBA.

Because the Pelicans didn't just play like one of the worst teams in the NBA.

The Pelicans played the way they just played against the Lakers, even shooting 28% from three.

Their record would be much better than 1944.

They would have a much better record.

But this is also literally the first game of the season that the Pelicans have had a healthy team.

This was the first time they had played that starting lineup.

With Herb Jones, I am Williamson, Trey Murphy to John Thee, Marie and Steve Bay.

I think they essentially took their five best players, put them on the floor and said we're going to roll with that.

And that I think inherently also stylistically created some problems for the Lakers because you've got a lot of long arm,

Lanky, very switchy defensive players. They just said we're going to switch everything.

We're going to put a bunch of pressure on you on the perimeter and we're going to force you to turn the ball over a lot.

It's been one of the problems the Lakers have had on the season.

So if this were a Pelicans team that all season had this group together and all season played with the intensity they played with tonight.

And we're still just an awful team and could not hit shots and we're just hapless.

Then there would be a different story.

But the Pelicans had they played the way they played tonight would be much, much better than where they're at right now.

Even though they're offense, I thought really cratered in the second half.

I mean, they only scored what are they put up 50 points in the second half combined.

They struggled, especially in the fourth quarter.

The Lakers deserve some credit for that. They locked in defensively as well.

But the Pelicans went after this game.

The Pelicans wanted to win this game.

You could see it.

You could tell from their rotation.

You could tell from Zion Williams and staying two days ago despite missing the game before this that he was going to come back to play against the Lakers.

They wanted this game.

The Pelicans.

I'm not saying they'd be a playoff team.

But we look at this team as a bottom of the barrel team.

And they're not that especially right now.

There is separation between the pells and the other teams that are down low in the standings.

If only because the other teams that are in the standings have motive to lose to lose games.

The Pelicans do not.

The Pelicans don't get their pick anyway.

They might as well go out there and lay it all in the line and try to win every game that they can.

They had won four of their last six games coming into this one.

So they were very.

They've very much not been playing like one of the worst teams in the NBA.

There is separation between them and that other group.

I'm not saying they're a playoff team.

But they're a level maybe two levels above, you know, the Utah's of the world right now.

Marcus was seven stocks.

Don't.

Yep.

Again, he was great.

That's why he's the.

The superstar of the night.

I thought he was great.

Smart and haze were clear difference makers.

The team can't handle even point one percent of physicality not playing maxi or vando is weird.

Well.

Did they not.

There were moments in this game where they didn't handle the physicality well where they especially when we look at their turnover numbers 21%.

I'm sorry 21 turnovers.

That's not great.

So did they handle the physicality well in that regard?

No, I thought offensively they really struggled to execute the way that they needed to.

And I thought.

The concerning part.

Well, I give them a lot of credit for the fight they showed defensively.

I think the concerning part was that when push came to shove and things started to bog down and it felt like things were slipping away a little bit.

The Pelicans went on a run.

The response was largely offensively to stop moving the ball.

And that's not great because this is a team that we've seen while ball movement does not universally equate to offensive success.

For this Lakers team ball movement is the better path.

They are they are a more dangerous team when they're moving the basketball.

We've seen that from them.

So that that would be a concern that as the Pell's defense and their pressure ramped up.

The Lakers response was to revert back to very stagnant offense.

So that's that's certainly a concern.

We're talking about handling physicality.

Not playing Maxi or Vando is weird.

Again, Maxi, I can dismiss that just because he had a back issue the popped up earlier today.

And we don't know the even though he was made available.

Maybe that was more of just an emergency.

I can we can understand explain away that one.

Not using Vando in this game was it not that he would have helped them offensively.

But in a game where I thought there were moments where the Lakers couldn't match the athleticism, the length.

Sometimes the intensity of the Pelicans.

He was Jared Vanderbilt who is intensity athleticism.

Like who is those things that could counter what the Pell is bringing.

It was a bit disappointing.

Not going to lie.

It's a bit disappointing to see that.

JJ can be very set in his ways with his rotations as we saw last year in the playoffs.

He played five guys for an entire half a basketball.

Once guys are in his circle of trust as it were.

It's different.

And once that doesn't change much.

It seems like and then once guys are out of it.

It takes a lot to change that as well.

So I thought this game was an opportunity for a player like a Vando, like a Maxi to make an impact just with hustle.

Now Jackson Hayes and Marcus Smart did plenty of that for them.

And I even thought the Andrean did some things with the physicality of this game that was that was pretty solid.

But I was also surprised that JJ in this game went with a nine man rotation and didn't play Vando at least.

I want to see at least one of Maxi or Vando just to see can a guy get out there for.

Could he get a four minute shift in and get a couple of extra offensive boards and create some things that way and we didn't see it.

Master lock the ref and their power trip tonight.

That's right. We're going to get.

We're going to get the.

The master lock in just a moment.

It was.

It was a tough game.

It was a tough game.

I think for the Lakers and the Pelicans to figure out what the referees wanted in this one.

It was.

It was very disjointed game.

You know, when you hear NBA players talk about.

One of their biggest complaints about officials is not so much that officials get it wrong.

So I think it's expected that officials are going to get things wrong.

They're human beings.

It's very difficult to officiate an NBA game.

But it's more the inconsistencies game to game.

It's feeling like you have to adjust the way that you play every game.

Because you you never know what one crew is going to call versus another.

So.

I did think the refs were.

Not just inconsistent in the normal way that teams have to adjust what is a foul.

What isn't night in night out.

But they were inconsistent within this game with what kind of contact was a foul and what was not.

It felt very disjointed across the entire game.

And that's that's difficult.

I think for a team to adjust to.

And I think that's part of why you saw the frustration boil over with.

With the technical fouls.

And I also thought there was a quick trigger on the text.

Important watch smart coaching Zion after the game.

That was absolutely a moment for me.

I love Marcus.

Yeah.

He was explaining to Zion like how he was able to knock the ball away from him.

He's awesome.

Marcus smart has been awesome for this team.

And I'll tell you what I.

I think in you know, Keith Smith on the front off show has been telling me that he's kind of projecting that smart will pick up.

His.

His player option that maybe both smart and he will pick up the his player option.

I think it is fairly likely right now that the Andreate will pick up his player option for next year at 8.1 million.

Obviously that nothing is set in stone.

We'll see.

But I think it would be a really who would be a win for the Lakers if Marcus smart picks up that player option.

I think it would be a win for LA if that happens.

I hope that he does.

I hope he does pick up that up that option because I would hate to see the Lakers have to pay 10 million 15 million something like that to hang on to Marcus smart.

That's where it gets much more challenging to hang on to him and build out the rest of your roster.

That I genuinely hope because if you tell me right now that you could have Marcus smart next year at 5.4 million in a heartbeat in a heartbeat and he's not this good every game.

He has games where he'll shoot you out of it and all that.

But you know he's going to bring it every single night defensively and I'd be I'd be thrilled if he picks that up for 5.4 million.

I think he's a great value on that contract.

Byron Scott wants Braun out.

Braun eight for 12. Wow. No, son.

Yeah. Byron had his count. I don't recall the exact comment.

I think he just said it's time for LeBron to move on and the Lakers to move on from LeBron.

Something to that effect.

There's I think there's arguments you can make on either side.

And a lot of it's going to come down to what is number one to the Lakers.

What what else are they going to do with their money, right? What else can they do with it?

What are the alternatives?

It's not just do they want LeBron to they not want LeBron. It's what else can they do? What are their options are there?

Maybe there's some great options via trade or something and they're going to go add a bunch of pieces and that doesn't leave enough room for LeBron.

That's a different situation than LeBron goes and signs somewhere else.

The Lakers don't have anything to spend their money on, right?

So what is the summer look like?

But there are three choices that LeBron has to make this summer.

Number one is do you want to play basketball or not?

And if it's yes, then he has to make the choice.

Do you want to be a be a Laker or do you want to be a whatever something else?

Three choices there for LeBron.

Maybe just one if LeBron says I want to retire, that's it.

For the Lakers, they have two choices to make this summer.

They have to decide do we want to offer LeBron James a contract or do we not?

And if the answer is yes, then it becomes the question of how much, right?

And also for LeBron side, how much they willing to take.

I don't think a max salary is coming.

I thought LeBron had a moment where that stretch for LeBron in the second quarter

was the best basketball we saw anybody play in this game overall.

I thought he was phenomenal.

But he's also not a guy who sustains it for 40 minutes anymore,

even 35 minutes or anything like that.

So I think there's an understanding that he's not going to get a max contract on his next deal.

I think how this summer plays out will be fascinating.

I think personally just based on nothing more than feel.

It feels more likely that LeBron is not a Laker next year than he is.

Whether that means he retires or he plays, plays somewhere else.

But I don't think anything is set in stone right now.

I don't think anything is a lock.

I think how the rest of the year is going to matter a lot.

I can see a scenario where the Lakers, they go, they make their moves in free agency.

They're going to have probably the most cap space of any team in the NBA.

And they may have some money left over and tell LeBron, look, we went and we got this player, this player and this player.

We're ready to roll.

This is how much we have left over.

Do you want it?

And then go from there and see if he's interested in something like that.

What I don't think they can justify doing is saying LeBron, here's the max.

And that's because that that would be all of it.

That would be all their cap space to be gone.

That's the flexibility to make any other moves aside from the room exception.

And that would be that.

That's the that's the pathway.

I don't think they can travel down.

They need to keep more flexibility than that.

But I can see a scenario where the Lakers, if they're able to spend their money, whether that's absorbing salary via trade or or via free agency.

They do go to LeBron with a portion of either their cap space or their room exception or whatever.

And say, do you want to come back for another year and see where that's at.

I think it's set in stone.

But to me, it does feel more likely that we see LeBron not with the Lakers next year.

And that's not what I want personally.

I've said it for a while that I want LeBron to play his final game in a Lakers jersey.

I would like to see that.

I would like to see him play his final game in the Lakers jersey.

I think he's meant too much to this franchise.

I think he deserves to retire as a member of the all time great franchises in this league.

His jersey will be in the Raptors.

I would like to see LeBron play his final game as a Laker.

Now we have to win versus Denver because after Denver has New York, OK,

see Houston, San Antonio, us again, and Philly, all in consecutive games could really affect the standings.

So yeah, I mean, then the Lakers have a very tough stretch too.

So we're going to be watching every day.

We're going to be keeping an eye on it.

The Lakers as of right now.

Tankathon puts together the remaining strength of schedule.

As of right now, the Lakers have the 10th most difficult remaining strength of schedule.

There are effectively five teams that are competing for the three seed in the Western Conference.

Five teams competing for the three seed.

It is the Lakers, the Nuggets, the Wolves, the Rockets, and the Suns.

Those are the five teams competing for the three seed.

One of those five teams will be in the play-in, not the playoffs.

I think that's the way I don't think anything is going to change about that.

One of those five teams will be in the play-in.

The other four will take spots three through six in the West.

So this is the remaining strength of schedule.

As of right now, with tonight's games in the books, Denver has the most difficult remaining schedule.

They have two games left against Utah, one game against the Mavs, two games against the Grizz, two games against the Blazers.

So you've got five games remaining against five of their 20 games remaining coming against tanking teams.

And then you've got two games as well against the Blazers.

I don't count the Blazers as a tanking team because they're not.

But then they also have OKC twice, San Antonio three times.

You would like them to go over five in those games, Denver.

Because the Lakers aren't catching OKC. They're not catching this first.

They have a game against the Knicks, a game against the Rockets, two against the Lakers.

The Lakers can control their own destiny there.

They can beat the Nuggets twice.

And a game against the Raptors.

I don't know.

I don't see it with the Raptors.

I don't think the Raptors are that big of a threat.

But I don't pay.

Go Raptor clever girl.

Right?

Sneak up on the Denver Nuggets.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have the third most difficult remaining strength of schedule.

But again, the Lakers have a game left against them.

They also have two against the Rockets.

And you want to see is these teams all playing each other are kind of cannibalizing each other.

Because that will guarantee that one of them is going to lose.

The thing you don't want to see is the Wolves, the Nuggets, the Rockets, all playing like Eastern Conference teams.

Where you want to see them all playing each other a bunch.

Because then you know someone's going to lose.

What you don't want to see is a run of Miami or Lando.

The Hornets, right?

I mean, you don't want to see like all a bunch of those teams where they go five and oh against ever something.

And it's not helping you at all because they're not.

At least if the Nuggets play the Wolves and the Nuggets win, let's say.

At least that's also putting a loss on the Wolves record.

So.

You want to see these teams play each other as much as possible.

But the Lakers play them a ton.

The Lakers would tend most difficult schedule.

In the UKC twice Detroit, New York, two against Houston, one against Minnesota, one against Cleveland.

Interesting that Denver doesn't even make it onto the list of the best teams the Lakers are playing remaining.

Because there's only so many teams that fit in this slot here on take a thong.

And the Lakers are two games against Denver.

And they're not even that's that's the quality of teams the Lakers have to play from here on out.

Denver doesn't even make it into the toughest opponents slotting here.

The Rockets have the 11 most difficult schedule here.

And they've got two against the Lakers, one against Denver, two against Minnesota, one against New York, one against San Antonio.

Look it.

Yeah.

20 games left.

And it's anybody's guess what three through seven will look like in the Western conference.

Take a look.

Right now the Lakers are a game and a half back of the three seed.

They're 37 and 24.

The Houston Rockets are the three seed at 38 and 22.

They're a game and a half back.

Anything can happen.

The Lakers are going to matter to unfortunately the Lakers will not have the tie breaker over the sons.

But it's anybody's guess right now how everything will finish out and so much of it is going to come down to head to head.

What do the Lakers do now?

Unfortunately, the Lakers on the season have struggled mightily against teams that are above 500.

In fact, if we go, we do the expanded.

The Lakers against above 500 teams are 14 and 18.

That is the worst record of any of the five teams that are in the mix for the three seed.

The Lakers have the worst record against above 500 teams.

So that doesn't bode well for the Lakers right now.

They have the worst record against quality teams of anybody that's in the mix for that three through seven spot.

Not ideal.

In fact, they even have a worse record than.

Well, it may not be percentage-wise worse than the Warriors.

They have one less win, but a few less games than the Warriors do there.

But the worst record of any of those teams, not ideal for the Lakers.

So now's the time.

They haven't had you look at the Lakers schedule.

They haven't had a statement win since they beat Minnesota in October.

That's the last game that I look at as a real statement.

They do have a win over Denver in that stretch.

But that wasn't a full strength nuggets team.

The win over Minnesota October 29th.

That was the Reeves buzzer beater.

I think that's the last real statement when they've had this win over San Antonio.

We didn't know what San Antonio was at that point.

And when we got in foul trouble and the Lakers got the win that way.

But I thought that was the last like actual state.

Every time they played a quality team, San Antonio lost.

Boston lost.

The Clippers from the Clippers started playing better lost.

Lost to Phoenix, lost to Houston.

Detroit, that's a loss.

San Antonio lost.

Even lost to Milwaukee.

Lost a game to Sacramento.

That was rough.

Charlotte got going.

They've been good.

Lost that one.

Lost to Portland.

Lost to the the Clippers in January.

Cleveland lost that one.

You don't see the quality win here.

You played the next lost that one.

That doesn't bode well for the Lakers.

Okay, see San Antonio lost.

Lost Boston lost that one Orlando Phoenix lose those ones.

That's not great.

That's not great.

Based on that.

You would think the Lakers are more likely to finish seven than anything else.

If that trend continues.

So this is it here.

This stretch.

He's going to be it.

It's now or never.

It's time to prove you can hang with the good teams.

And if you can't.

That will be very clearly demonstrated over the next two weeks.

I mean during this.

I'm not even saying.

You have to win every like go 500 against the good teams.

You go 500 in those games.

I mean, look at the schedule.

Denver, New York, Minnesota, Denver, Houston, Houston.

I'm leaving out the bad teams, but.

I mean Miami Orlando Detroit.

Go 500 in those games.

And that's a big step forward for this team.

That's all I'm asking go 500.

All right.

Yeah, that's the other thing.

I didn't realize that till Donnie Freeman mentioned this to me today.

The Lakers are the only team in the NBA to have not played an overtime game yet this season.

Which is funny because there's been seasons where it's felt like.

They're in a ton of overtime games, but no OT games yet this season for the Lakers.

Somebody asked the question.

Why did they go away from the hot hand in the second quarter?

I thought when LeBron took his rest in the second and then came back in and then didn't.

Go get going again.

That was surprising.

I thought they needed to run something to get the ball back into the hands of LeBron.

And they didn't.

That was that was frustrating.

Okay.

We need to get to the master lock of the night.

Also have a couple more questions.

We need to get into as well.

So we're going to get to the master lock of the night in just a moment.

First, I need to give a shout out to our sponsor, which is quince.

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Let's do it.

The master lock of the night.

What was it?

The most annoying thing from this game.

What do we want to put?

In Chris the masterpiece masters finishing hold the master lock.

Master lock of the night.

Master lock of the night.

What are we master locking from this game?

Gotta be the refs.

The chat says.

Master lock this being in a dogfight against a bad team.

The Pelicans are still bad team.

Even if they're not as bad as their record.

I'm assuming that was trying to say there.

What?

Master lock gave Vincent.

Why are we master locking game?

He's Luke Conard now.

We're much happier now.

Why?

Why are we master locking game?

I wish him all the best.

In Atlanta.

It's been nice to Gabe.

Master lock Deandre Hayton.

Like hating on Deandre or you master lock in Deandre.

And just calling him Deandre Hayton.

Dylan Brooks.

Dylan Brooks always gets master lock.

Of course.

Technical fouls.

Yes.

Zion elbows Jackson.

He's got elbows in the face twice.

Jeremiah Fears got him and Zion got him.

Then elbow Scott Foster.

Master lock DA's crank juice.

All right.

Seemed to work.

He got fired up in the second half.

Ruiz needs the master lock.

He's been useless since going to the bench.

Master lock 21 turnovers.

Turnovers.

Yes.

That's mine, by the way.

My official Lucas complaining.

I thought Luke.

He complained a little bit tonight.

But I think he's telling the complaining down over the last week or so.

I think he's done a much better job.

I'm not complaining as much.

So I'm not that upset about Lucas.

I'm not going to complain about the complaining for this game.

I thought this game was a particularly challenging game, a particularly.

It was a game that would really take a lot of your patience.

So I thought Luca did.

He complained a bit, but it wasn't as bad as he's been in the past.

Master lock.

D.A.'s hands.

Luca close to being suspended.

Yeah, two more texts and he is suspended.

He got 15 texts on the season.

I was Dave McMahon to put out the count at 14 tonight.

So maybe one got rescinded, but he's good.

Dave had him at 14.

Maybe that's where I hope that's not wrong.

I hope he's not at 15.

Do I think Luca and JJ have real beef?

No, not at all.

In fact, I think they even addressed that before the game tonight.

Like it's just normal.

No, Dave had it.

Had said no, they have a great relationship.

I wasn't worried about when I saw him.

Like that, that kind of stuff happens.

That's sports.

That's competitive personalities around each other.

You're around each other nonstop as much as you are.

You're going to have moments like that.

I wasn't worried about that at all.

If it was like a consistent thing, like you're seeing that multiple a couple of times a week or something.

But that's really the first little thing that we've seen between the two of them.

And no, I wasn't.

Wasn't worried at all about it.

I didn't even think it was all that out of the ordinary or anything like it was.

If anything, you would expect at some point over the course of the season.

Some type of minor conflict to occur.

It's human beings interacting with each other.

I was not.

I thought it was nothing really didn't think much of it.

Do the text roll over to the playoffs?

No, I believe they reset for the playoffs.

I don't know if fans are seeing it as a chance to get Luca back.

Mavs fans are looking for any breadcrumb that suggests that

Luca will come back in 2028 in free agency.

They want him back to end up blame him.

I don't blame him.

But for the Lakers, it's their job to say to prove to Luca that this is his home now.

And he shouldn't want to go anywhere.

Is it a big deal for him?

The Masterluck Austin Reeves, start.

I'm not official masterluck.

It's going to be the turnover.

Especially when they were the number one team in the NBA since the All-Star Break,

in turnover percentage, they were doing great, taking care of the basketball.

Even if they weren't winning games, because the turnovers were such a problem earlier in the season.

I was happy to see that not only were they passing the ball more, moving the ball more,

but they were also turning it over less.

in the turnover column, they could not hang on to the basketball and to finish the game

with 21 turnovers, that was the most frustrating thing for me with this game tonight.

So my official masterlock, it is the turnovers for sure.

All right, let's see what else we've got here.

Masterlock Eaton's hands.

We nicknamed him fumbles.

I mean, his hands aren't great at times.

His hands are not de-hundred great.

He has times where the ball slips away.

He fumbles it out of bounds.

That happened.

It happened a couple times in this game tonight and some costly moments.

But again, I thought I've been critical of DA.

My biggest criticism of DA is the whole, you know, I'm not, they're trying to make

me a clink of pillow.

I'm not clink of pillow type comment because that's clink of pillow represents the baseline,

what you need your big to do.

And if he's not locked in doing clink of pillow things, that's not acceptable.

That's not something that you can have on the floor because it's what you need out of

the position.

It's like a running bag saying they just want to catch passes, right?

You can't have that.

You can't have them only be pass catcher.

They've got to do a number of other things.

They've got to be somebody who can pick things up and block.

They got a pass block.

They also have to be able to every once in a while, like just grind out a few yards.

And you can't have a running bag that says, oh, no, I only want to catch passes that

I'm not going to do the other stuff.

Same thing with the center and saying, well, no, I'm not, I'm not clink of pillow.

Your main job is to set hard screens, roll to the basket, protect the pain, bring physical

quality, rebound the basketball, do those things.

The other stuff that you get to do, that's the bonus.

And so I've been critical of Aiton for those things.

I didn't think tonight was a bad Aiton performance, if it was, I would say it, obviously, but

I thought the Andre Aiton was just fine.

I thought Jackson Hays was much better, but that was more because Jackson Hays was great

tonight than Deandre was, you know, not good or something.

OCC Douglas is Trev, that's not the Lakers identity.

That's what they want their identity to be, just saying.

What the offensive team?

Yeah, I mean, I think based on the skill sets of the team, I'm assuming you're referring

to them wanting to be a top 10 offense, a top 15 defense.

I think in terms of their skill sets on this team, it's, they're going to have to lean

into the offensive side of the ball, be a very, very good, very efficient offense.

If you want to go deeper into what their identity is, they've been a very, very good half-court

offense, specifically a pick and roll offense.

That's been where they've really been at their best is when Lucas has been able to handle

the ball or Austin Reeves has been able to handle the ball in those high-picking roles.

I think they need to bring and they have been bringing more diversity to their offense.

And that's coming.

That's something that I think we're seeing progress in, progress in, but ultimately, they're

going to have to be a very good half-court pick and roll offense.

That is their bread and butter.

That is the baseline of what they are as an offensive team.

That is their identity.

They are not going to be a grinded-out defense who crushes teams on the glass, think about

the Houston Rockets.

Their identity has been in not as much since they lost Stephen Adams, but their identity

has been being an all-time great offensive rebounding team, right?

That's been part of it.

They're able to crush teams on the glass and play very, very tough, very physical defense.

The pistons play super top, super aggressive, super physical defense, commit the most

fouls in the NBA.

They don't care because they're going to get the benefit of not being called for a lot

of fouls because they believe the refs won't call everything.

That's part of their identity.

The Lakers aren't either of those things.

Their identity, what this team is built to do, who's being an extremely precise high-level

offense and specifically half-court offense, even if LeBron has really been at his best

not in the half-court.

It's been on his best in transition so far this year.

EG Jordan said, go Lakers.

Yes, indeed.

Go Lakers.

Let's go, everybody.

Okay, I appreciate all of you for joining Big Game coming up Thursday.

Lakers, Nuggets, Big One.

The Lakers win.

They move up to the five-seat, putting a loss on the Nuggets to be huge, but the next

two weeks we'll test the Lakers in a major way.

We're going to find out, can this team get rid of the label that they cannot beat or

cannot hang with the best teams in the NBA?

The next two weeks will tell us whether there's anything to hope for in the playoffs or

not.

If the Lakers go in this next stretch and they lose to Houston, they lose to Minnesota,

they lose to New York, they lose to Denver, then that's just what they are, right?

And that's that, right?

That's what they definitively are.

This is their chance.

Any win against any of those teams would be a statement win for this team right now.

So I don't expect them to win all those games.

Can they play 500 basketball against the best teams in the NBA?

That will be very telling for what this Lakers team is or isn't.

So a big, big stretch of Lakers basketball coming up here.

If you have not hit the subscribe button yet, please do so.

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Thank you again, everybody, for hanging out tonight.

Oh, oh, history lesson.

I'm sorry.

I forgot.

I forgot.

Okay.

So I'll tell you guys a little, a little something here.

And it's not the time of year for it, but I'll tell you about this.

And this is not so much history, but tell you about the USS Arizona.

So the USS Arizona is at Pearl Harbor.

There is a memorial there right now that you can go visit.

I have been there.

I went when I was 14 and I went to Hawaii for a soccer tournament that I was playing in.

And I want to tell you guys a little story about this.

So Pearl Harbor is one of the most impactful events in American history.

It took us from being the United States from being a country that was determined to stay

out of a war, to overnight flipping the switch and very much wanting revenge and wanting

to be in this war.

It also was the first time that we truly saw the manufacturing power of the United States

really make this massive impact on the world stage ahead of Pearl Harbor, which was the

attack on the American fleet stationed at in Oahu, Hawaii.

This attack by the Japanese pushed the U.S. into the war.

Before that, Franklin Roosevelt was using the phrase the great arsenal of democracy in

order to describe the U.S.'s involvement in World War II.

And what that meant was that the U.S. was supplying weapons to the Allied powers during World

War II and but not actively fighting themselves because we had returned to a policy of isolationism

after World War I in which we got involved and felt like we got dragged into it.

At that point, the worst war in the world that ever seen, we got dragged into it by our

alliances with other countries.

So after that happened, we went, oh, we learned our lesson.

Forget the rest of the world.

We're only focusing on ourselves.

And that was still the attitude once World War II broke out.

We said, ah, wait, we're not doing, we're not falling for that again.

We're not getting dragged into this other war.

We get attacked at Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese ultimately decided that they were going to try to knock out the United States.

They figured that the eventual involvement of the United States was inevitable.

And so they would knock out the United States.

Their Pacific Fleet, stationed at Pearl Harbor, they were looking for specific ships.

Fortunately, most of the ships they were looking for were out on maneuvers and were not

actually stationed at Pearl Harbor.

There's a lot that I can go into of how this attack was carried out and how the Japanese

trained and planned out this attack.

How they had to use a certain kind of torpedo that ran really shallow and they could drop

from planes because Pearl Harbor was so shallow.

It's part of the reason why the United States felt so comfortable having their fleet there

because it was so shallow that a torpedo dropped from a plane up until this point would

hit the bottom before actually getting into the harbor for the Japanese to develop torpedoes

that would run shallow enough to actually carry out this attack.

But this attack saw thousands of American lives lost, shifted our history forever, put

the United States into World War II, and ultimately caused this to immediately fight two wars

at once.

Essentially a war in the Pacific and a war over in Europe where we were trying to deal

with Hitler and the Nazi party, the Axis powers and deal with all of that.

And I'm not going to go all in depth and do all of that stuff.

But I'll tell you this, I went when I was 14 and I went to Pearl Harbor and I'm 14 years

old.

I'm with a team full of guys my age.

We're all goofing out.

It's 4th of July weekend.

We're all running a muck around whenever we're not playing in a soccer game.

We're running a muck around Hawaii, right?

At that point to give you guys stylistically an idea of what we looked like.

We had pukachelle necklaces, oakley sunglasses, and bleached hair because that was the time.

I'm talking it was 1994, 1995, well maybe it was 90, it was 95 or 96 that I went.

So we, you go out there to the memorial and we're this rambunctious group of kids.

We go out there and even with all the energy that we had, we're bouncing all over the

place.

We're not very well behaved.

We get out onto the memorial and it's silence and it's a very eerie silence and even

all these years later, I will never forget it.

It's a very strange calm silence out there at the memorial.

And as you're walking along this, this memorial that is sitting on top of the USS Arizona,

which was one of the ships that sank.

It is inescapable that when you look down over the edge of the railing and you look down

at the ship that is right there, they're still oil coming up from the ship today.

You look down at the ship and you cannot help but think about the fact that you were

not just looking at a ship.

You're looking at a tomb.

There are men who never got off that ship.

And so my mindset in that moment was all about running around on the beach with my friends

and having fun and doing all these things.

And it was so powerful of a moment that that hit all of us.

I mean, we were all silenced and in awe by what we saw on one of the walls they have

inscribed the names of the men who died in the attack.

And again, this is decades later and I will never forget that.

I remember when we were told that we were going to go as a team to the Pearl Harbor Memorial

at the time at 14 years old thinking, I don't want to do this.

I want to go, let's go to the beach.

Let's go do fun stuff.

This is history.

That's cool.

Why are we doing that?

I didn't want to do it.

And now I am so glad that I did because it's an experience that I will never ever forget.

So with that being the case, I would just encourage you all that if you find yourself on the

island of Oahu in Hawaii and you have a chance to go to the USS Arizona Memorial, go check

it out.

It is very, very powerful and very much worth the trip, very much worth going and doing.

So that's my little history lesson for today.

That's my history.

This is not Lakers, but I know I've been ending shows that the Lakers have won with a little

history lesson from my days as a history teacher.

I don't remember how to even start it, honestly, but some people have been asking for them.

So I threw it in at the very end of the show and this was what I wanted to talk about on

this one.

So again, if you have a chance to go check it out, would highly, highly recommend it.

It's an unforgettable experience.

All right, everybody.

I appreciate all of you for being here.

Thank you.

Big game coming up on Thursday.

Let's get ready for that.

Till next time.

See you.

And stay safe.