Lakers HUGE Win Over Wolves To Sweep Season Series

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What a win, Lakers Nation, the Lakers, take down the Wolves 12106, they sweep the season

against the Wolves, 3 and 0 against Minnesota this season, and I got to say before we get

into the stats, before we start breaking everything down, before I start getting into the questions

the comments, all of that, you got to love the way this team is playing.

I know it is an abstract thing.

It's difficult to quantify heart and hustle, but man, the Lakers are showing a lot of

both of those things.

They are playing hard out there.

This team now, two games at a row against two quality opponents outworked them.

I got to give the Lakers so much credit for the way they're playing right now and the way

they are out working these other teams, the Knicks on Sunday, the Wolves today to very

difficult opponents and the Lakers wanted each game more than the other team did.

That is a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

I'll tell you that.

It is a lot of fun to watch a team that's competing the way these Lakers are right now.

All right.

Take a look at the numbers.

The Lakers win 120 to 106, Luca Donchitz, 31 points, Austin Reeves, 31 points, that'll

get it done.

Luca, 31, 11 and 11, Austin, 31, 7 and 8, Austin Reeves, 7 of 9 at the free-throw-line

Luca, 5 of 6, 4 for 10 from 3 for Austin, including two, four point plays in this game where

Austin hit a three and got fouled, Austin finished 10 of 20 shooting, Luca, 11 of

24 with the triple double, four turnovers for Luca, one for Austin.

I don't have anything bad to say about anybody on this roster today.

I thought to a man, well, hold up, Rui, Rui, it wasn't a great Rui performance.

Other than that, I think everybody was phenomenal in this game, Marcus Smart.

Marcus Smart, again, a stat line that you look at and you go, eight points, two rebounds,

one assist, two steals, but Marcus Smart was everywhere, making big plays, no LeBron

in this game, no Jackson Hayes, no Maxi Cleba, how crazy is that?

No LeBron, no Hayes, no Maxi, you're undersized against a very big Wolves team and the Lakers

won the offensive rebound battle, 14 to 8, they won the rebound battle, 47 to 43, that's

just pure evidence of how much more the Lakers wanted to win this game, undersized and they

out rebounded the Minnesota Timber Wolves, no Hayes, no LeBron, no Maxi Cleba, the Lakers

had a lineup where Jake Laravia was the biggest guy on the floor and they were just beating

the Wolves to the ball.

What a great performance.

Marcus Smart, again, was phenomenal, DeAndre Aiden, DA, welcome back.

This is the DeAndre Aiden, we've been wanting to see the hustle, dive in hard to the basket,

fighting for rebounds, out working Rudy Gobert, 14 points, 12 big boards for DA, 7 of 11 shooting

and he did a really nice job in this game.

The energy was there, the hustle was there, he didn't block any shots, but DA, man, if

you've been watching him, you know what a difference, this version of DA is versus the

guy we saw, we were seeing a few weeks ago, the guy we saw for a while, this was the exact

kind of a performance that you needed in a game like this out of DA, it's why he was

my ex-factor coming into the game.

DeAndre Aiden, I've been very critical of him, only fair that I sing the man's praises

right now when he turns up like this.

I thought this was a great DA game and he did a really nice job battling on the inside

against the Minnesota Timber Wolves.

Off the bench, we saw Jared Vanderbilt, four points, four rebounds, picked up a technical

foul, had a really nice finish in traffic on an alley that he was able to guide home,

did a great job there, but did pick up a technical foul, worried a little bit that might

fire up the Wolves midway through the fourth quarter.

Jake Laravia continues to be perplexing with his lack of ability to shoot, missed badly

on two layups in this one, one of seven shooting, oh of two from three, did some great work

on the offensive glass, tied DeAndre Aiden for the team high, five offensive rebounds

for Jake Laravia, played 25 minutes due to so many players being out for the lakers

tonight, seven boards overall, four assists, two steals, he's doing everything else, but

just can't seem to score the basketball and then when he shoots free throws, he's cool

as a cucumber, gets up there, no problem, like nothing's going on whatsoever.

And then in the game, live ball, it's like he just loses his head and just can't put

the ball into the basket, had an amazing wraparound pass from Marcus Smart, and he just missed

the shot right at the rim, and then he's walking up and swishing free throws, six of eight

from the free throw line, it's bizarre, I don't know, Jake Laravia, Luke Goodard, ten

points, two rebounds, two assists, I thought he did some really good things off the bench,

and very smart plays, I love that the lakers ran a nice play for Canard to start the fourth

quarter that saw Luca get the ball at the elbow and then just kind of shuffle a little

pass off to Canard, Luca waited, even paused for a moment while he waited for the play

to develop, and then Canard came around and took a 15 footer, just like a layup for him.

My only complaint with Luke Canard is Luke, shoot the damn ball, Luke Goodard had multiple

threes that he turned down, he was over two from deep in this game, and that's it, only

two attempts, had seven attempts last game, I want to see those higher numbers, and he

could have had at least four three point attempts in this game, but he turned down shots

that he needed to take, including one late in the game where he funneled a pass over

to Jared Vanderbilt in the corner, I was late in the third who hit the ball off the side

of the backboard when it should have just been a Canard attempt. So I'm sure the lakers

are going to be in Luke Canard's ear after the game. Yeah, we need you to shoot the basketball,

but when he did shoot, he was fantastic. Four of eight did a nice job getting the ball

to the rim a couple of times as well. The pull up 15 footer was working for him, just

didn't get the three ball to fall. Drew Timmy played three minutes. It was effectively

an eight man rotation for the lakers tonight with Vando, LaRavia and Canard off the bench

and then Rui Eaton, smart Luca and Austin in the starting lineup. Once again, no LeBron,

no Jackson Hayes, who was dealing with the back issue and no Maxi Cleba and yet the

lakers come in and get a big win over a Western conference playoff rival. So now because

unfortunately the Houston Rockets did win tonight, but guess what? The lakers are now the

foreseed in the Western conference. They are moving on up right now. It's still a very

close race because as always in the West teams around them keep winning. The Rockets won.

The Phoenix Suns won. Now the nuggets have lost a couple, the wolves have lost a couple

of that helps, but the sons have now run one three in a row. So the lakers are still only

two games up on Phoenix out of the seven seed. No room to exhale here. The lakers, they're

the foreseed for now, but they're only two games up on the seven seed. The important

thing though, they're also only half a game back of the three seed currently and they've

got some more matchups with the Rockets coming ahead on the schedule for the lakers. It's

the bulls coming up on Thursday, then a rematch with Denver on Saturday, then they hit

the road. Oh boy, look at that road trip. Denver at home, then Houston, Houston, Miami

second night of a back to back and Miami's been playing well or Lando Detroit and then

Indy. So the schedule not getting any easier for the lakers, but the way they're playing

right now, they keep up this hustle and they are a much more dangerous team playing the

way they are right now. All right, let's get into some of your questions, your comments.

Bravo said, most physical and active. The defense has been all season beat the wolves

at their own game. Yeah, to be more physical than the Minnesota timber wolves. Now some

of this was and we have to we have to acknowledge this Anthony Edwards had a terrible shooting

game, two from 15 shooting, one of 10 from three. It was a 14 points. That's not going

to happen very often. Some of that, of course, is credit, the Lakers defense, the Lakers

defense really locked in, did what they needed to do. And I thought executed their defensive

schemes very, very well. They were five guys on a string for most of the game. So some

of that, you give a lot of credit to the Lakers defense for some of it though, we also have

say, hey, and had an offshoot tonight, right? That's that's part of it too. But it certainly

wasn't a game where the Lakers got outworked. It wasn't a game where the Lakers were giving

up open looks for lack of trying. That was certainly not the case and that makes it a lot

more fun watching this team play. Have we finally figured out the wolves with the series

sweep? I don't want to go that far because the playoffs are different animal. You know,

some of the some of the free throws that Austin Reeves got tonight. Does he get those in

the playoffs series? So I don't think we can immediately jump to you. Okay, the Lakers

just fine come playoff time. I still need to see that in the playoffs. But I think the

good thing is for Austin Reeves who got shredded all summer for not playing well against

the Minnesota Timberwolves. He's played very well against the Minnesota Timberwolves

this year. 31 points in this one tonight. And in the second game against the wolves had

the game winner to beat Minnesota 31 seven and eight for Austin Reeves in this one. And

then against the wolves earlier on in the season. Second game of the season Austin Reeves

had 25 7 and 11. And then the game he hit the game winner had 28 16 assists and hit the

game winner didn't shoot particularly well that game. But 28 and 16 and got himself to

the free throw line was seven for seven there. So good to see after Austin struggled against

the wolves in the playoffs last year. Really good against them this season. And again,

three and only against the wolves on the season. Hello, four seed. Yes, indeed, Lakers

of the four seed right now. I love it. I love it. We're coming together. Still maybe

not champions. No, they they've got a ways to go to get to that tier. But we're demanding

respect. That's all I ask. Now considering what's coming, do we think about resting the

next game? Master lock the first boy, that first quarter was ugly. Nobody could score

on either team just missing shot after shot after shot. The Lakers were 0 for 15 from three

at one point. Ultimately, some of the numbers started to come back around. But yeah, that

was an ugly for the score at the end of the first quarter was 21 16 and both sides were

just missing open shots. As far as resting for the next game, I think every game is so

important right now with the playoffs coming that you got to play your guys. You got to

play your guys. And especially with the rhythm, the Lakers are in currently. You want to keep

that rolling. You want to keep that rhythm. It's not like it's the second night of a back

to back or anything like that. Better without LeBron with or without LeBron, don't care.

We're winning four seed. Yeah, we've had the LeBron conversation. I don't want to devolve

into that. Every time the Lakers win without LeBron, it's either better. Every time they

lose without LeBron, it's either not they're not better. And when LeBron plays, it's the

opposite conversation. Look, LeBron is a Laker. When LeBron's on the floor for the Lakers,

I hope he is awesome. And I hope the Lakers win and they look great. And we'll see what happens

this summer. That's the conversation for for this summer. It's on JJ to figure out getting

LeBron, Luca Austin, all to play at this level. But I do think a big part of it of what

we've seen in the last two games, it's not just Luca and Austin playing well. It's

that everybody has been so bought in. And that includes DeAndre, and that includes

Jared Vanderbilt. Everybody who was getting onto the floor, he was really playing their

role well. It's great to see. You missed my super chat at the end of playback. What

was it? I didn't that didn't see it. And it's gone now. No matter what with AR and

Luca moving forward, we're in good hands. So Luca, after the game, said this, I'm paraphrasing

here because I didn't quote him directly. I didn't go word for word. But after the game,

Luca was asked about the game Austin Reeves had. And he said Austin makes the game a lot easier

on him. And he thinks they are a great duo. So I mean, again, for a Lakers team where there's

questions about should they build around Luca and Austin as a duo, Luca seemed to be

speaking to that a little bit, saying, Hey, I think we're a really good duo out there

on the court. And certainly after a game like this, it's easy to be positive about that

pairing. Speaking of which, who's the who's the superstar of the night? You guys are going

to have to help me out. Austin with 31, 7 and 8, just one turnover, Luca with 31, 11

and 11, but four turnovers. Austin for a 10 from three, Luca for a 12. I mean, both guys

were awesome. Let me know, chat. Who is it? Superstar of the night.

The night. Who is it? Who is the superstar of the night? Luca, Austin,

Aiden, D.A. was, I loved what we saw at a D.A. But I can't go D.A. for Superstar the

night. Luca also had two steals. Yep, fair point. Luca had two steals. Austin didn't have

any. Austin Reeves, 100%. Both of them. Luca, A.R., Luca, A.R. started hitting when

half the game was done. Should we just do both? Should we do a combo award? Let's go

both of them. Why not? I make the rules. I can do that. It's allowed because I'm going

to allow it. Both guys, Luca and Austin become superstar of the night. Why not? Why not?

All right. As Jason sat on Lakers collective, defense is more than schemes and physical

tools. It's communication and effort. Yep. Bullseye. This is why their defense has improved.

Shout out to A.R. for turning it up. Yeah. A.R. Aiden. I thought Rui was getting worked

over a bit by Julius Randolph. Now that's a tough matchup. But still, I thought it was

a tough night for Rui. Five fouls was in foul trouble. Most of the game was one of four

from three. But defensively as a team, they've been, this is now two games in a row. They've

been very locked in. And we talk about five guys being on a string. You've seen the

communication. You've seen them executing their schemes, flat out hustling. How many times

did we see the Lakers making the second effort in this game? It was constant. It was way

more often than the wolves were making the second effort. And that makes such a difference.

We saw there was a play where Marcus Mark came flying in to get a fingertip to an offensive

rebound, knock it out, and it turned into a bucket for the Lakers. That type of play does

not happen a few weeks ago. Not that Marcus Smart isn't always going a hundred miles an hour,

but that was very representative of the way the whole team was playing. The extra effort

they were putting in. How many times did I see Luca battling in the paint, grabbing a rebound

to make sure the wolves didn't get a second opportunity? Luca Doncic was excellent on the defensive

glass. All 11 of his rebounds on defensive boards. And in a game where you were missing some of your

size, Luca really took it upon himself to finish possessions with a defensive rebound. And that's

so critical against a team that's got size on you. LaRavia hitting the floor after the loose

ball. Marcus Smart hitting the floor after the loose ball. The Lakers hustling everywhere all

over the court. How many times do they get into passing lanes and get a deflection in this game?

Six turnovers on the night for the Lakers. 11 for the Minnesota Timberwolves, which 11 is pretty

good, but the Lakers played a very clean game. Didn't turn the ball over much. I mean, just played

fantastic high effort, high intensity, but also smart basketball all game long. Really, really

exciting stuff and just fun, fun basketball to watch when you've got a team playing the way the

Lakers have played right now. Fans make a big deal between Luca A.R. Braun, but you can tell that

relationship, relationship is great. Oh, LeBron was having a good old time over on the bench,

loves seeing LeBron hyped with the squad, LFG, great win. Yeah, LeBron, it's not like LeBron

sitting over on the bench, sulking like, damn it, the team's winning. And I'm not in there.

That's no. LeBron wants the team to win, wants the team to do well. And he's going to be excited

for the guys. Just even if the fit is a little clunky on the floor at times, which I think it is,

that does mean they have a bad relationship. It doesn't mean they don't get along. They definitely

get along. When we get this version of DA Minnesota doesn't have a shot against us.

I wouldn't go as far as to say they don't have a shot against the Lakers because we saw what happened

in the playoffs last year. But this version, if you get DA that outplays Rudy Gaubert,

and frankly, I thought DA did three points, 12 rebounds for Gaubert in this one.

If you get a, if you get DeAndre Aiden, he's better than Rudy Gaubert game. That's a big step,

that's a big step towards getting a win. And that's what the Lakers got tonight. And frankly,

that's what the Lakers have gotten in all three games. The Lakers are played against the Wolves.

DA has outplayed Rudy Gaubert. And that has mattered a ton. Again, give DA credit. He has been

great last two games. He's been exactly what you wanted to see out of him. And very happy

for DeAndre Aiden, the way he's playing. I hope he keeps it up. But he's been excellent.

The evidence is screaming. LeBron, Mr. Team Player, Mr. Don't cheat. The game needs to listen

to what the game is yelling. Come off the bench, please. So I don't agree with the LeBron needs to

come off the bench stuff. And it's not so much because I think LeBron and Luca and Austin need

to share the floor all the time or anything like that. I just think we make too much out of who

needs to come off the bench, who's starting or whatever, because JJ is going to stagger the

rotations anyway. There's never a full bench lineup. It's like, well, but then LeBron's going to

get a chance to just play against Bench units. He's doing that already. Just by the way, JJ handles

the rotation. And LeBron coming off the bench, is he going to be happy with that? And if you're at

a point where you can't play him with Luca and Austin, then you're in big trouble anyway.

Because you know, they're going to be on the floor to close games. They're going to have to be,

and even over the course of a game, when we get to the playoffs and Luca and Austin LeBron,

they're all playing upwards of 40 minutes. They're going to be sharing the floor a lot. If you

can't be successful with the three of them on the floor, you're kind of dead in the water.

So I don't think you have to bring LeBron up. But now, if you want to capitalize on the

LeBron to the bench units, yeah, you can still do that. And they are doing that. But I don't think

you have to move LeBron to the bench. If the goal is to separate LeBron, Luca and Austin as

much as possible. Yes, you can lean into those lineups. But ultimately, you're going to have

to get the three of them playing well on the floor together. And they have been playing well

together since the, since the all-star break. But you're going to need the three of them playing

well together on the court. So I don't have a problem with starting the three of them on the floor.

I just think you're going to create more problems than it'll benefit by bringing them up the

bench. I mean, LeBron, when's he been a bench player over the course of his career? Is he even

comfortable with that role? And then that's going to create a big every media session. There's

going to be talking points about that. I think you can execute the same stuff

without bringing LeBron up the bench. Or Austin or Luca or any, I've seen people say,

bring Luca off the bench, bring Austin off the bench. I just don't think it's necessary.

Nor is it realistic. Like, realistically, you're not moving one of the three of them to the bench.

It's just, it's just not going to happen. So I don't know. And I know people will say,

but, but, but, but, but, but, but, manage, nobly, but, manage, nobly. There's a reason why you got

to go back decades to find a team that took one of their top three players and brought them off the

bench. There's a reason for that. It's not the norm in the NBA. You're picking out one outlier

team that happened to have a all-world Danny Green setting the standard for 3&D guards.

It's, it's just not going to happen. They're not going to bring one of the three of them off the bench.

Lakers won offense and defense showed up. The offense, the offense was generating good shots even

when they couldn't hit in the first quarter. And then finally, the shots did start to fall.

Everybody enjoy the win and start bashing our player. I just hope LeBron is preserving

himself for the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, is it reasonable to think LeBron's going to have a higher

energy level? Because I think the, the core of what's happening, the, the crux of the matter.

Why have the Lakers looked so much better last game and this game compared to before?

Is it LeBron's not out there? I think it's the energy level is higher, the commitment to defense,

the extra effort. It's all higher and it's all getting rewarded. When they're making the extra

effort, they're getting rewarded for doing so. They're getting extra buckets because of it.

They're getting stops because of it. Can LeBron be part of that movement? Can LeBron be part of

the energy increase? Yes. I think it's realistic to say that come playoff time. LeBron will up

his energy output. That said, is there a version of this Lakers team that looking past this season

can get better without LeBron James simply by having more young legs that can fly around the

court? Yeah, I could be talked into that. You could have players who are not as good as LeBron James,

but ultimately wind up helping the Lakers more. There is a version of the Lakers that could look

like that. I don't think that's ever been true for LeBron James in the past. This is 41-year-old

LeBron, but that's not the version of the Lakers that we have right now. We've got a version of

the Lakers with LeBron James. I think he can very much be part of this high energy team. Now,

if I'm JJ Reddick and I see the energy at the center of this recent success, do you even consider

bumping down LeBron's minutes and say, look LeBron, we're only going to play 25 minutes tonight.

Okay, that's it. 25 minutes and we want you just to burn out everything you got in those 25 minutes.

Don't reserve anything. You're not going 35 tonight. Burn out whatever you got in those 25 minutes

and we'll stick to that. Maybe that's a path. I don't know. That's me just spitballing.

Trev, I'm too old for games this late, but man, the energy they had out there make it worth it.

Yeah, the latest start time in the NBA this season or tied for it, I guess 8 p.m. Pacific time

start. Love AR showing the fire. It's smart and vando mucking it up. Yeah. It makes it a little

easier to stay up late or get up early or whatever depending on where you're at when the Lakers play

with this kind of energy, doesn't it? Doesn't it? It feels awful when you're staying up late and you're

exhausted and then the team just kind of craps the bed. That doesn't feel so great. A game like

this, yeah, is a is a fun game to watch. That's for sure.

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

What do I mean? It's 2 a.m.? 1 a.m.? Yeah, look, this is the latest start time in the NBA.

The latest start time in the day. Pacific time.

Player, player stands are miserable supporting the team as secondary to them.

Need this level of shotmaking from AR every game. His shotmaking was fantastic and he started

off slow. He started off struggling and then he really came on once he got into a rhythm in the

second half. Yeah, that's that's the part where I really dislike it. I will not go down the whole

path of player stand them and get on my soapbox again. I've done that plenty. But I don't like the

if you're a LeBron stand and LeBron's not playing, then you want the Lakers to lose,

right? Because then that proves that they need LeBron. Or if you're a Lucas stand and Lucas

not playing, then you want his team to lose. Especially when the guy himself is having a ball

watching his team play and play well and he's so excited for his guys to have fans of that

player rooting for the team he's on to lose. To me, that's just it's madness. It's absolute madness.

But again, I'm not going to get into all of that. Luke wanting to be a point guard is good for

him and bad for the Lakers. So Luke and Ard, did he have a couple of shaky plays with the ball?

Yeah, maybe. I mean, he didn't have any turnovers in the game.

As far as his ability to attack closeouts, yeah, sometimes it's a blessing in a curse, right?

Because Luke and Ard does a really good job with the ball in his hands attacking the closeout.

When he gets into space, he reads the floor very, very well. And that 15 footer is such a dangerous

weapon for him. It's effectively a layup, right? I mean, a Luke canard 15 footer has just about

the success rate of a layup for just about anybody else. I mean, it's absurd here. I'm going to pull

his stats. We look at the shooting accuracy for Luke canard right now on the little free throw line.

He shouldn't 67% on those shots. 67% on that little free throw line jumper. Like a guard probably

isn't going to finish at the rim at much higher of a rate than that. He's 82% at the rim as a

laker. So he's fantastic. But sometimes he attacks the closeout and puts the ball on the floor

because he is so good at it. He can get to that shot. He's also a really good passer in those

situations. He's a ball mover, not a ball stopper. But sometimes he does move the ball when he

should shoot the three. He does attack the closeout when he needs to shoot the shot. And

you know, the lakers have talked about it already that they need to be in his ear about taking

those shots. And that was also his MO coming over like that's not something new. That's not

something we didn't know. That's been one of the knocks on Luke canard for a while is that sometimes

when the three is there, he doesn't take it. And he needs to take it more often. I think the

lakers just have to be in his ear. Look, we want you aggressively shooting the three. He was

owed for two tonight. That's not enough attempts. That's not enough attempts, especially coming

off of a seven attempt game. My my target for him is four. Four attempts should be the average

amount of threes that he attempts in a game. And there's going to be some above that some below that

depending on how the game plays out. But I want to see at least four attempts from three each

game for him on average. If you can get to like four and a half attempts per game on average,

I don't think it's realistic that he shoots seven every game or some people have said he needs

to 10 every game or whatever. He's not a movement shooter. The way you're going to have him come off

of a bunch of curls and then come up firing all game. And teams stay glued to him so much on the

perimeter. And that gravity has value. But teams stay glued to him so much on the perimeter that

there's not always attempts there. He doesn't have a super fast release either, which doesn't help.

But two is not enough, right? There's a bar that needs to be met and two of them two attempts

is just simply not enough for him. You look at what he's done recently two attempts in this one.

He I can think of two specifically he should have taken that he didn't so that he could have

at least had four seven attempts last game five three three five seven against Golden State.

But then one against Phoenix zero against Orlando two against Boston three against the Clippers.

I think there is a world where we can see higher volume from Luke Canard.

Some of it's on the Lakers running things to get him open looks. Some of it is on Luke Canard.

He's just got to pull the trigger. And I don't think he played a poor game. I thought he had some

really good decision making, hit some big shots that were inside the three point line for the Lakers

tonight. But he's got to be more aggressive pulling the trigger. And I think the Lakers are

just going to have to stay in his ear about it and say, Hey, we need you shooting these shot.

We are a better team when you take these threes and don't attack the closeout so much.

If the closeout is there and it's going to affect the shot, yes, attack it, maintain the advantage,

either move the ball or get the shot for yourself in the paint. That's fine. He is hyper efficient.

They're doing those things. But if the shot is there, take the shot. I had somebody in the shot

on the live play by play who made the point said, I would rather Luke Canard shooting a contested

three than Jared Vanderbilt shooting an uncontested three. And I agree. Luke Canard is the best

three point shooter in the NBA. You got to know your personnel. And a Luke Canard contested three

is more valuable than most of the team shooting an uncontested three. It's just the way that it is

because that is his specialty. So much going on this super chat said so much going on in Lucas

life. And he's been going through it for a few months, but he still comes in and gives his best.

Today, starting you could watch his face smile as he went off. Nice win. I saw Luca kind of having

fun with the officials too in this one where there was a play where the ball went out of bounds off

of Luca. And he was trying to convince the officials out off of Anthony Edwards. And after

a second or two of like being real serious, then he just broke it cracked into a smile and was like,

ah, you know, I try to get you. Um, yeah, Luca, obviously, we saw the reports that came out

today. The one from TMZ gave him a minimum at that point had some stuff from ESPN. I think

what's TMZ got a hold of it? It was like, okay, let's acknowledge this and get this out there.

Um, Luca going through a tough time family wise. Um, that's rough, especially to have not seen

the article mentioned how long it's been since he's seen his kids. Like that's, that's rough.

That's really rough. Um, does that maybe explain part of why Luca was not as good for a bit there?

Was was struggling a little bit? Maybe, maybe, I mean, that's, that's a lot going on in your

personal life to deal with. And I don't want to spend a bunch of time delving into it.

Um, that, that kind of stuff is not really what I want to spend our time talking about. But

I think we do have to acknowledge that that's a, that's a tough thing for anybody to go through and

difficult. And, uh, I obviously wish him the best and hopefully that, you know, the team is

there to support him as much as possible. And, um, hopefully basketball can be an escape for him

and can be a source of joy for him.

DA in three games versus Minnesota, 15 points per game, 67% from the field, 10 rebounds per game,

and the most unquantifiable impact effort. Yes. Yes. DeAndre Clint Capella,

eight and starting your role. It's funny because he did kind of play Clint Capella role a little

bit. Didn't he? Uh, is he starring your role? Let's talk about it. Let's do it. Chat, let me know.

Is DA the star in your role? Star in your role. Who is it?

DA. Yes. Somebody said, Vando.

DA. Yeah. I'm not, yeah, the chat is in a group. Somebody said Clint Capella.

I'm going to go DeAndre eating. And I got to tell you guys, I've, I've been critical of DA.

Um, I love. I don't want to be. I hate having to be critical of a Lakers player,

criticize a Lakers player because they're playing so poorly. I would love it if every night,

all I get to do is talk about how great the Lakers played. That would be awesome. And I am so

happy to get to say positive things about DeAndre. And again, he was awesome. Uh, again, he was

fantastic in this game. The energy level was there. It was there against the next two. We saw

the extra efforts. We saw him even I, there was a play where I believe it was, it was, he ran a

pick and roll with Austin. And he paused for a split second, just enough to provide the right

angle for the past for Austin to slip the past to him. Then was able to finish. Um, it was just a

very smart role. He's been much sharper, much crisper with his roles to the basket defensively.

He's fighting for everything. He's fighting on the boards. There was one rebound that he just flat

out took away from Rudy Gobert. Rudy Gobert had all the rights on that rebound. It was coming to

him. And D.A. just reaches out a long arm, tips the ball once, twice secures it. Ah, I love what we

saw out of DeAndre in this game. And very deserving of starring your role. This is exactly the

version of DeAndre that we need to see the version of DeAndre and that gets people so frustrated

when you see him not play this way because he shows you that he can do these things that he can

have this kind of an impact, um, just an excellent performance. And again, this is two excellent

performances in a row from D.A. against two big frontlines against Kat and then against Gobert.

And it was Kat and Mitch Robinson. And now against Gobert and, uh, D.A. was excellent. He was

excellent. Loved it. Loved what we saw out of him. And I thought he really did a nice job

defending on switches and things like that. There was even a play. I think it was Nas Reed.

Drove on D.A. And, um, got the whistle. Got the whistle. And it was a split second thing,

but D.A. didn't stop. He stayed with the play and blocked the shot. No, it was Randall.

It was Randall. Drove on him. Got the whistle driving into the paint. And Aiden stayed with the play,

kept going through the whistle and blocked the shot. And that robbed Randall of what would have

been a three point play. And it was just that it was little things like that where a lot of

guys in that moment will stop. And I think Aiden, when we see the lower energy version of him,

probably doesn't continue through with that play. But in that moment, you went, oh, D.A. is locked

in. He went all the way through that play, blocked the shot. Anyway, even though he knew he got

called for a foul and made sure that the three point play wasn't happening. Good attention

to detail game for Deandre Aiden. The little things mattered a lot in this one. He outworked

riddy go bear. And I love love being able to say positive things about D.A.

Better win this or the next. Oh, I mean, both obviously good wins. I'm going to say this one

because the Lakers were even more short handed in this one. And specifically short handed with

size in this game. And we're able to outwork a team that plays very big and very physical.

So I'll say this one. But if you told me it's the next game, they're both very good wins against

similar quality level teams. These are the types of teams the Lakers have not been beating.

When we look at the Lakers, when we talk about above 500 wins, a lot of those wins were coming

against teams that are like just barely above 500. You know, like I don't recall if Golden State is

above 500 anymore or not. They were maybe they're at 500 now. Do they lose tonight? They did lose

tonight. So they're now one game below 500. But they've been getting wins over teams that are

just barely above 500. And that's been kind of inflating their above 500 numbers. When they've

played teams like the pistons, the Celtics, the Knicks, the Caves, the Thunder, the Spurs,

the Rockets, the Wolves, the Nuggets, even the Suns, they've really struggled. And so to get

two wins in a row against that quality of team, they love it. They love to see that. That gives you

at least some hope that, hey, come playoff time, this team can compete with some of these better teams.

Now have they locked that in? Have they carved that in stone that look out the Lakers are here to

stay? No, the next game they could go back to playing poorly. You know, we don't know. But we

hadn't seen them play at this level yet. We hadn't seen them do this at least since early in the season

when they beat the Wolves a couple of times early on. We saw them win games, but it was largely

games against teams that were just not this level. So part of the reason why so many there was this dark

cloud hanging over the Lakers just and everybody was doom and gloom was because we didn't get games

like this. We didn't get games where there was any indication that they can still step up their

level of play and take on some of these upper tier teams. It doesn't mean suddenly the Lakers are

flying through the playoffs and everything is now sunshine and rainbows and totally fine. They've

a long way to go. And I don't think they've definitively proven themselves yet as this force to

be reckoned with, but it's still nice to see them play at this level and get statement wins

over quality opponents. We didn't have these through much of the season. And so that's why Lakers

fans were so consistently down. Even when they got a win, it would be, oh, they got a win, but it

was against the Wizards. Oh, they got a win, but it was against, you know, it was against whoever

it was against the Hawks, which is a fine team. But is that impressing anybody? No. No, they got

a win, but it was against the Grizzlies. Okay. You know, oh, they played, they played, they played

the spurs and just didn't look like they're on that level. They played the calves and got blown out.

That's that's what we were seeing. So this gives you some quality wins now with this win over the

next and the win over the wolves. See comments like this. I'm not even going to address this.

Pre LeBron leaves this ungrateful organization. LeBron's been very successful with the Lakers.

The Lakers and LeBron have been a good pairing for a long time now. I don't think anybody in

the Lakers is ungrateful. I think it is what it is. Even LeBron has said to the Lakers,

have to build this team around Luca. It's that that's just sports. Players age out at times.

That's it's the way that it goes. It's what happens. Karim was the man for a long time.

And eventually it had to become magic steam. The way it goes, players get older. It happens.

Honorable mention Jake, ultimate utility guy, plays hard, whether his shot shot is falling or not.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm frustrated with Jake's shooting. I think he is too.

I think Jake is probably frustrated with the shooting as well. But he is doing everything else well.

Right now. He's defending, hitting the floor, going after the ball, doing all that stuff.

So I've been I've been happy with everything else Jake is doing, but ultimately he's got to get the

the shot to start falling. He's got to get that shot to start falling.

And it'll it'll get there. Do we buy that he simply is a guy who just can't shoot at all?

No. No. What happened with DA's interview?

Man, a few words.

What happened? DA had a two minute post game interview?

All right, all right, all right. Let's watch that together. Two minutes.

Let's watch this together. I'm curious what happened here.

All right, all right. So here it is.

A two minute post game after he was awesome, I would think he would want to talk a lot.

All right, let's see what what DA had to say.

At January 1st, just what did you make of the team's defense for the whole game?

Especially back it up the way you played against the next two good wins,

led by defense against two good teams. It's a good good communication.

Well, what about the communication that kind of stands out the most?

It was just the terminology. You had a double double in the first half of the night.

Did you brace the energy on both ends? So it was anything that you that you saw or was it

just kind of playing hard in the results game? I just played.

What the heck?

Those responses are short and there's more here. We'll play.

But those are short. I don't want to talk responses. That's saying the message.

That's, in case anybody doesn't know, that's Mike Trudell.

That's asking those questions. He works for the Lakers.

He is team up DA to

rave about how well they just played. That's what he's doing.

He's team up the Andreate to say positive things right now.

Let's keep going.

DA, your first thing to start the second, you were getting a lot of, you know,

offense rebounds and kind of the game that put backs.

But then he was looking at all sorts of things. You know, some of the roles. Could you

feel like I guess the trust built in those moments after they saw, I guess, how you opened up the

second quarter? I mean, they just had something in. They found the areas where, you know,

I was open and putting pressure on the room, you know, teams got to decide where they want to

corner through you or the percentage basket. DA, when Jackson and Maxi go out for the game,

do you feel like an extra responsibility to make sure you bring a little bit more energy or

are a little bit more productive for the team and your guys are able to join Andreate for the

position? Most definitely. I know I'm the only big. So, you know, I try my best to stay out there.

As long as possible, especially down the stretch.

Right. And, Andre, that's now a two wins in a row against some of the better teams in the league.

Do you kind of start feeling the momentum building for you guys?

Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. From two big wins in a row.

Wow. That was that was editor extraordinaire Daniel Stark in. I was going to say the two questions

previous to that. DA, he got, he explained a little bit more credit to Austin, credit to Luca

for getting into those spaces and putting teams in positions where they have to decide if they're

going to give up the lob or the open corner three. Like that's, that's fine, right? That's,

that's elaborating a little bit more, talk a little bit more about what you're seeing out there

out there on the floor. Then he's, he doesn't know what he means about momentum.

That like just, and then Daniel try, I think Daniel was caught a little off guard. I'll ask him,

but I think Daniel was probably caught a little off guard when he kicked it right back to him and

said, I don't know what you mean, because then you're, you're like, how do you explain momentum?

It's momentum. Like, do you feel like, I guess it could have said, do you feel like the team is

starting to play consistently better or something like that? But it was it like early on, even when

it was Mike Trudell basically sending him softball questions saying, hey, here's your, say a bunch of

positive stuff about the team. It's a great win. Give us some great quotes about how much you love,

love this game. And it was just short to the point answers like a two-minute post game presser when

he just played well. That was, that was odd. That was, that was, that was strange. I, hopefully there's

nothing to it. Like, he did elaborate more on those middle questions. And so it wasn't like he was

just completely sullen and quiet the entire time. But that was a little weird for a guy coming off

of a great performance, a big win. Based on his body language and everything, you would have

thought they just lost. You would have thought he just, he just lost the way he was acting. That,

I don't know. That's, that was interesting. That was interesting from DA. I mean, who knows what

else was going on? I don't know. Maybe he just really didn't feel like talking. Maybe he was

annoyed that tonight he has talked to the media, whatever. I don't know. I'm just guessing.

As long as he keeps playing with effort on the floor, that's all I really care about. And he

played great tonight, played with wonderful effort. If he wants to be quiet and give like

eight-word answers, hey, you play hard on the floor, whatever. That's fine, man. But, uh, but he

did see that this is the kind of game where when you're asking those questions, you just want to,

you just want to give the set the guy up to come in and say a bunch of positive things about

a certain topic because there's a lot of positives to go around. This is your chance to

rave about your team, about your game, about your teammates, about your approach to it. And I like

that he said when he answered the question about, um, about, did you knowing that the other guys were

out? Did you have to step up your game? Most definitely. Yeah. I knew with those guys out. You know,

I would have to do that. That's the kind of stuff that you wanted to hear.

Hopefully, I'll just a little bit of a weird interview from DA, a little strange. And hopefully,

hopefully he's good. And I can't even say like, like, it's a beef with Mike Trudell. Like,

I don't think anybody's got a beef with Mike Trudell. Mike Trudell is awesome. And then Daniel

Starkan, nobody hates Daniel Starkan, right? Cause he got like, kind of the, though, what do you

mean momentum? What, uh, that was just a little, a little strange. Anyway, um, interesting, weird

interview from Aiden afterwards. But, uh, hopefully, you know, hopefully that's all just much

to do about nothing. And for whatever reason, he just didn't feel like talking much. And like I

said, as long as he keeps playing well, uh, I'm, I've got no complaints. Okay. Let's get back

into it. I'm glad we were able to, uh, address that there. Uh, honest thoughts on Bams 83.9. Crazy.

Almost half of it was from the free throw line and a blowout doesn't come close to the impact

of Kobe's game. So I've talked about this and I talked about on the basketball bulletin a

little bit. I talked about a little bit on the live play by play. And the problem is, I think if

you have any kind of real comments about it that are anything other than yay, hooray, BAM,

let's celebrate, then it's just immediately whatever you say is dismissed as hate. And that's fine.

If people are going to say I'm a hater, say I'm a hater. I, I'm very happy for BAM records are made

to be broken. It's a historic night in the NBA. My gut reaction as it was happening, though,

was I thought it felt a little inauthentic. I, I, if it happened in a, in an organic way,

I'd be more than fine with it. Celebrate the hell out of BAM. And I'm not saying you shouldn't

celebrate them. But in the moment, I couldn't help but feel like it was kind of wrong the way it

was they were going about it. So if anybody's unfamiliar with what happened, the heat were up big,

big on the wizards, not a surprise in the fourth quarter. Now the heat were missing players,

BAM had to have a big night. But once it became clear that he could potentially get to the record,

to get him there, the heat started fouling up big in the fourth just to stop the clock and get

the ball back so that BAM could get extra attempts up. They started fouling up big again, not down,

not down. And they're trying to get back into the game and stop the clock up big. The game is

in hand. The game is done. It is over. And they left BAM out on the court to continue putting up

shots. And again, you mentioned this and it's, it's all you're a hater. No, that just

this kind of leaves you with a little bit of a strange feeling about it, you know,

because it was in a way manufactured. And to me, it was a step above like Ricky Davis shooting

at the wrong basket to try to get a triple double, right? Like you were trying to make something

happen by just funneling shots there. And people say, well, Kobe took all the shots when he

went for 60 to spot. Yeah, that was also in a game where the Lakers came back and won and it was

a close game. And it was the final game of Kobe's career and all of that chasing down a record

like that by intentionally fouling a team where you're up 20 plus just to funnel extra shots and

get extra opportunities to get it there. I don't know. I think it cheapens it a little bit. It's still

an insane. I mean, 83 points is 83 points. And that's incredibly difficult to do. That is so

hard. It took you in an NBA game. Whether you do that or not, it's historic for that reason.

I just couldn't help but feel like, you know, I was I was a little disappointed

that it was bam doing that. It was like a Kobe fan. And it was Eric Spolstra and his

understanding of NBA history and all that like I was a little disappointed in those guys in that

moment. I'm like, this is how you want to do that. Like he will go down in the record books at

forever, having broken that record, having now being second all time in the NBA in points in a game.

But I think it's a relevant part of the conversation around this accomplishment is how it occurred.

If it occurred just in the flow of a game, the heater down and they've got to come back in order

to win it. And they're going to get extra shots for for bam that way or something. And bam's

going to make these big plays. That's fine. Of course. And it's still an incredible accomplishment

and should be celebrated. But I just didn't like the way it happened. You know what I mean?

I hope that makes sense. I do not dislike bam. I think he's one of the good guys in this league.

And I'm happy for him. And it's an incredible accomplishment for him. Just not a big fan of

the way they went about making it happen. Like where do you draw the line on something like that?

If a player has 60 at the start of the fourth quarter, for example, do you then start fouling

to get the ball back with the player at 60 so they can gun for 83 now? Do you spend the whole fourth

quarter just funneling shots to that player to break that record? What if you did it for the entire,

what if you did it for an entire half? Is that okay? Right? I know everybody will just say,

oh, it's just hate. It's just hate. It's just hate. There's got to be a line somewhere where you say,

okay, that that they went a little far in order to make that happen outside of what you would

typically do in a basketball game. And that's not say the Lakers didn't get the ball to Kobe

a bunch late against the Raptors. They also needed him to go nuts against the Raptors in that game.

And I do try to take the Lakers piece of it out. I'm really curious, though, because the Lakers

are so polarizing and it's a Lakers player and people will see it as Lakers fans are upset or

Kobe fans are upset in this moment. I really wonder what the reaction would be because there's very

very strong and very loud group that I've seen out there in social media that anything that is

not praise bam. He's amazing, right? All that is, oh, you're a hater. If you say anything other

than exactly what they want to hear, it's you're hating. I wonder what if this was a record that

had been set by a Portland Trailblazer that was being broken by an Orlando Magic player?

I wonder what the reaction would be then. I think we would get a much more honest reaction

from around the leagues. I know a lot of people that are out there are more seeing as a negative

for the Lakers and jumping on the Laker piece of it. Or at least there is some element of that.

But anyway, that's my opinion. My gut feeling in the moment was I thought it was a little

inauthentic. That doesn't mean it doesn't count. That doesn't mean it's not 83 points.

But I was also a little disappointed that Bam and Spulstra went to that level just to break Kobe's

record. Somebody had somebody put out a tweet that was just going viral and everybody was

retweeting it. That said, Jason Tatum would have stopped at 81, pulled himself out of the game

and gone and texted Kobe. And I'm like, you know what? He's a Celtic, but that's probably true.

That's probably true.

All right.

Let's go here.

LeBron isn't the issue. It's his negative effect on Reeves, Eden, and Rui. You get better

versions of them without LeBron. Tari and Kessler are better fits. Well, I do think it's

going to be difficult to get both Tari and Walker Kessler. That is not going to be an easy thing

to do. Both of them are restricted for agencies, so landing even one of them would be unusual,

right? But LeBron is a negative effect. So the issue that I have with that is that is making

the assumption that it's LeBron's fault that Austin Reeves isn't playing as well,

that it's LeBron's fault that DeAndre Hayden isn't playing as well over the last month plus.

I think we have to acknowledge that Austin Reeves also had a cash issue.

Maybe that there I think would be reasonable to think that he is playing his way into shape.

And so I think that's that could be a factor. As far as Rui goes, I didn't think Rui was particularly

good tonight, even though LeBron didn't play. I do think the stats will show you that you get a

better lineup in general. If you put Austin Smart, Luca, Rui together, that lineup has worked.

Whereas with LeBron, Rui, Austin and Luca, that has not worked when you pull

Marcus Smart from the group. Part of that is credit to Marcus Smart. But I don't know that LeBron

directly has a negative effect on all those players. I think there's important context around that.

I think it's more than just LeBron makes people around him worse.

That's the way I see that. I think there's important context to remember. I also put

responsibility on the players. It's not like DeAndre Hayden suddenly was unlocked tonight by

Luca and Austin in a way that he just isn't with LeBron. I didn't think Luca and Austin did a good

job finding him. But part of the reason why Hayden is getting shots and Hayden played well was,

he played really hard. That was regardless of whether or not he was getting the shot.

There's nothing that says Hayden can't play hard when LeBron is on the floor.

I have a tough time just landing on. It's all LeBron's fault. The Lakers are better out without

LeBron and it's all LeBron's fault. I don't think I can get there. Do the numbers say the

Lakers are better without LeBron? Yeah, they do. They do. That's what they show right now.

Now they have been better since the All-Star break with Luca LeBron and Austin on the floor together.

I think we also have to remember they had a softer schedule to start the year so that pumped up

some of the non LeBron numbers. There's a big argument you can make back and forth and back and forth

between LeBron and the other groups and all of that. Ultimately, what you have to get is the

positive games out of Reeves, out of Hayden, out of Rui with LeBron also playing. That's your

ceiling play. He's figuring that out. And again, I don't think it's as simple as LeBron causes

everybody else to be worse. They've got to get to a point where you're playing, you're getting

positive value out of Austin Reeves, you're getting positive value out of Hayden and LeBron's on

the floor. That's where you're going to need to get. That's the reality of the season. Now

some of it is on those players individually. I think some of it too is just tweaking some things.

I think less of LeBron offense, LeBron led offense and more of Reeves led offense.

Maybe the way to go because getting Austin going. I think of the three of Luca LeBron and Austin,

LeBron is the most capable of being an off-ball, roller, rebounder, defensive servant,

like those types of things. LeBron is most capable of those three of taking on that kind of role.

Maybe that's something we see as we get closer to playoff time. But again, ultimately,

we jump too quickly to LeBron is the problem banish him. When ultimately the goal needs to be to get

to the highest level play with the talent that LeBron brings.

Alan Lifer said needed to win to watch the sham of 83 out of the mouth. I get it. I get it.

Off topic, but you said the Lakers need to get to the line more. How can we control

whoever we play, getting us there, more foul baiting? Getting to the line more means attacking the

paint means getting into the bucket. A big part of what I've talked about with the Lakers offense

has been the very simple strategy of paint degree. I thought they did a wonderful job at that

against the mix. That's getting those paint touches because everything is going to be created

from there. Whether that's an opportunity to get to the free throw line because you're taking a shot

at the rim or that's going to be a driving kick turning into a three. That oftentimes can lead to

wild closeouts as we saw a couple of times tonight where Austin was able to hit a three and get

fouled. I think he even got fouled at the beginning of the game shooting a three. It didn't hit the

shot, but the one up going to the free throw line for it. It's getting those paint touches

and creating those shots organically. I'm not talking about just you need to foul grip more often.

It's more about get the paint touch, get the defense rotating. That's where the defense is going

to make mistakes and you're going to be able to capitalize on those and that's going to naturally

lead to more free throw attempts when you're putting the defense in situations where they either foul

or they're giving up an open bucket or at the very least where they're scrambling and that makes

them more prone to making mistakes. It's more about finding an offensive rhythm and basing everything

on a paint touch and then letting things go from there. I'm okay with Luca taking the step back

three now and then I think sometimes he can be a little overzealous with it, but in general,

I don't want to see a lot of guys taking difficult step back threes not coming off of a paint touch.

Increasing three point volume is fine, but ideally you want to increase that three point volume

off of a paint touch, a driving kick scenario where you force the defense to collapse and you're

getting them into rotation, you're creating an advantage and then you can maintain that advantage.

That will inherently increase the number of free throw attempts that you're going to get.

And yes, some of it does come down to the officials. Are they letting things go or are they

calling the game very tight and obviously it's going to favor the lakers when they're calling a

tighter game. Though I think the last two games, they've played very well against physical teams,

but in general, it's about getting those paint touches and basing as much of your offense as you

can off of that. What will cap space look like this summer? The lakers are projected to have perhaps

the most cap space in the NBA. Maybe the bulls will wind up having a little more depending on how

all that breaks down, but they should be up there in cap space. The lakers probably have somewhere

around 50 million or so and then it comes down to what is what is Marcus smart decide to do? What is

what does Deoundary Eden decide to do? Those guys have player options. Austin Reeves has a player

option as well, but his cap hole is going to be at 20 million. So that'll be that's what he's

going to take off in terms of eating into the laker spending power regardless of what they pay him

this summer. Does Marcus smart pick up his player option? I think that'd be wonderful for the lakers.

Does DA pick up his player option? That could also be a pipe we get this version of DA. That's a great

thing. What about what about the lakers draft pick? Do they use their draft pick? Do they trade it?

That a matter too. They use it that draft picks going to be on their books. So there's a lot of

variables still in here. What do they do with LeBron? What happens? That's a big one, right? What

happens with LeBron James? So there's a lot to figure out still, but generally speaking,

the lakers are projected to have a lot of cap space this summer. Now they still have to use it wisely

because Ruby Hutchimer is a free agent. What if they want to bring him back? Okay, that's going

to eat into it. What if Marcus smart ops out? Now you got to pay something to bring him back.

That could eat into it. There's Jackson Hayes. It'll be a free agent this summer. You want to

bring him back. I think he and Luca probably want to continue playing together. He may want more

than a minimum. And frankly, Brian deserves it. What do you do there? That can eat into it too.

So you're going to have to be very careful with how you use your cap space. Even though the

lakers are projected to have a lot of it, they have a lot they need to do too. And that money is

going to go fast. They're not better without LeBron, but play better. Well, I do think too,

there's an element to that where how much of it is mentally, the lakers go, oh, no, oh,

we don't have LeBron. Everybody better step up. We see that effect sometimes with teams. We see

that where a team sees their star player goes down. And next thing you know, everybody's going

100 miles an hour because everybody feels that loss and says, I got to step up. I got to up my

game and they do. No, oftentimes that is a shortened effect that only lasts for a little bit. And

then over the long haul that you feel the effects of missing a player, but it's not uncommon for a

team to lose a star and then go out and win the next game, even when you wouldn't expect them to

because everybody else steps up over the long haul, missing that star player. You start to feel

it more, but there can be a short term boost. It's not all that dissimilar from a team after

firing a coach, right? You fire a coach and then suddenly the team looks drastically better for a

game or two or three. And then suddenly they look like themselves again.

Can we keep Luke in the office? Yes. Yeah. I didn't mention Luke Canard. He's also scheduled

be a free agent. So like you want to keep Canard? You want to keep Jackson Hays? You want to keep

Marcus Smart like that may eat into your cap space, but he is a free agent this summer. He's

signed a one year deal with Atlanta. So all you have on him is non-bird rights. Now that may be

enough to still do something. Non-bird rights make it a done. I don't expect them to go out there

and get 20 million or something, but he'll be a free agent this summer. So the potential is always

there that they could lose him. I wanted to ask if you think Luke Canard passes up too many open

three. So I did address that earlier. Good example. It's the last play of the first half. He needs

to take those not found out. Oh, yeah. Was that the end of the first? I think I said it was the

end of the third. Maybe it's the end of the first half. But yes, Luke Canard does pass up too many

threes. That was that was known before he became a Laker though. That was his MO before he became a

Laker. So yes, I think he needs to be more aggressive shooting. DeAndre the X Factor Aiden or

the Ace Factor. We call him the X Factor. We'll bust out some really old WWE theme music.

I think that was from like Uncle Cracker or something way back in the day. Like early 2000s.

X-pop and is that Albert and just incredible? Most you probably don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

AR needs to stay aggressive even when LeBron comes back. Yes, he needs to be our permanent second

option. There could be a world where Austin out there's going to be games though where the ball

just flows and LeBron winds up being the second guy offensively. But yeah, I mean, I think

LeBron would have an easier time being the third guy than anybody else skill set wise because

he can do more of the other stuff than the other guys can. So I can see that. But that would have

to be a conscious choice to get into that kind of role. Is DA like AR playing better because

no LeBron and the court more touches? It's not even, you know, it's not even really the points

for DA that are the big thing like they certainly held. But it's the energy is putting in everywhere

else. It's the rebounds really. That was the big part of the game for DA in this one. So if it's

if he's playing better because LeBron's not out there and he's going man, I really need to step

it up. He needs to have that mentality when LeBron's there too. There's no reason why he can't

play hard when LeBron's on the floor as well. If DA plays like that and Rumi and Jake make threes,

we're set. Yeah, I mean, Rumi didn't shoot particularly well in this game. But if and Jake

has not shot well from three at all lately, it's think it's in his head a little bit. He's not

shot well, period of missed shots at the rim tonight. But yeah, that that would be very helpful.

If you get this version of beyondriate and then the other guys can hit shots.

Mama mentality said great show. Trev the goat. Well, thank you. Two things. Second win versus 500

above team. In my opinion, we're a dark horse. I'm not going to go that far just yet. I know these

are two great wins, but there's still a long way to go. Is Jake going to get his shooting back

or is this who he is? I tend to think the shot will come back around. This has been a rough stretch.

But we're also talking about a guy who etiquette his shooting 10% from three for the month. It's not

great. It's not a good thing. But he was 33% last month. He was 37% the month before that.

We know he can be a better shooter than this. He's 26% the month before that. He's not

been great shooting the ball this year. But he can shoot better. I mean, you saw last year,

he was a 42% three point shooter last year. Like there, this is the worst three point

shooting season of his career. And people will say, oh, of course, because he's a Laker, right?

He had a 44% three point shooting season. Now it's on low volume. But I

I tend to think the numbers will ultimately find their level. Hopefully it happens this season.

And it's not he goes through like a season long slump or anything like that. But talent-wise,

I think he's a better three point shooter than what we're seeing right now. I do think part of

it's mental though. And so it's a matter of getting himself on track.

Keith the DA is Austin Reeves rim pressure and slashing opens up so many opportunities for him.

It does help. It does help. It helps quite a bit when Austin is able to get into the paint and

then force the defense to make a decision. And he's got a burst of speed that's been really useful

when he's since he's come back. His ability to get to the basket has been important.

Oh, is that why D.A. had the under on BAM tonight? That's funny.

If we keep Reeves and Luca, what's our target this off season besides Yannis,

love for Australia. Welcome in for Australia. Happy to have you here.

The target is Tariessen, Peyton Watson, Walker Kessler. There's a number of players

that we'll talk about. It's not a great free agent class. So there's a lot that the Lakers

may have to do. Some of it may have to be on the trade market. They may have to use their

cap space to help facilitate a trade. But yeah, look, they've got to add some wing help.

They need athletic defenders that can also shoot. That's been their big problem forever.

It's been that they have too many one-way players. Luke Conard was a nice addition,

but he is still of that mold. I think he competes defensively. But you need guys that can be

not athletically at a disadvantage. I'm not saying get rid of Luke Conard. No, I think they

should absolutely keep him. But they need to add a guys that are switching defensive players that

brings athleticism out there to the court. So anybody they could find in that mold,

it may have to come be the trade market. There's not a lot out there in free agency. It's a difficult

free agent market. Maybe it like an Isaiah Heartstein or something could be a target at the big

position. But they've got their work to do. They've got their work to do. That's for sure. Because

if you're going to keep Austin and Luca, if you're going to keep Luke Conard, everybody around them

has to be positive defenders that can bring some athleticism to the floor. And finding those

players has been a challenge for the Lakers. I don't think we're better without LeBron. This

comment says we're simply playing harder without LeBron for some reason, especially last two games.

They've really been playing with maximum effort. I mean, this is the, this is, it's not a

sort of coincidence that the highest energy and effort games we've seen from the Lakers arguably

of the season have also been the most fun, right? I mean, it's fun when you're watching your team

outwork their opponent, play harder than the opponent, want the game more than their opponent.

Those are fun games. Those are games where you're like, yeah, that's, that's my team, right? That's

my team. My team's out working somebody else. They are playing harder. And I don't know if that's

LeBron is out. And so they're saying we need everybody looks around and says we need to step it up.

I don't know if that's, hey, we're, we're getting close to the playoffs. We got to really start

hitting our stride. We really need to win. That's, we're playing the team that beat us in the playoffs

last year. Whatever the reason is, they've got to find consistency with it. They've got to play

like this all the way through the home stretch. It's probably hard for, for the, for Reeves to say,

hey, LeBron, I know you're an all-time great, but I'm the second option. I do think there is a

degree of that, right? Where it's Austin on the floor. He needs to go into attack mode. But that

dude over there is LeBron James. He's one of, if not the greatest players of all time. Now Austin has

said in the past that, you know, LeBron to them is a guy who's kind of goofy and jokes around a

lot and everything. And whereas a lot of other people look at him and people that don't know him

and stuff, look at him and go, oh my gosh, that's LeBron James. They're kind of awestruck, right? They're

star struck, I should say. And Austin obviously is not that he's played with LeBron for a long time,

played with LeBron for his entire career in the NBA. Austin has. But I do wonder if there's,

if he's deferring a little bit too much. And that'll be on, if he is, that'll be on J.J.

Rhetic to tweak that dynamic.

Let's see what we've got here.

Imagine being on the biggest revenge tour in history. And you have the goat on the longest

coming biggest retirement tour on history on the team, totally different vibes,

polar opposite. It's not personal. We're talking about Luca and LeBron. Yeah, I mean, there's

that's been the biggest challenge, I think, has been the difference. Why is the team because on

on the surface, you would say, well, the Lakers, they should be awesome on offense.

And when LeBron, Luca and Austin are on the floor, they should be amazing on offense. And if

they're going to get hurt anywhere, it's going to be defensively. And you dig into the numbers and

you find it's actually the opposite. Why? Well, LeBron has mostly been successful this season

offensively. And in part, because the three ball has not been following the way it has in the past,

he's mostly been successful in transition. Luca has been masterful in the half court and not

been as successful in transition. So there is a way where LeBron handles transition play,

Luca handles the half court and off you go. But that also only works if LeBron is consistently knocking

down the outside shots on driving kicks. And he's not even getting a lot of those opportunities.

It's part of the reason that it worked. I think better last season than it did this year,

still bronze three balls and not been following as well. And he's not getting as many of those

spot up opportunities to drop. But I think that dynamic LeBron largely being successful in transition,

Luca being successful in half court is as created a mismatch with the two of them that we wouldn't

have foreseen coming into the year. So even in that way, it's just different vibes. Now you're

talking about Luca, the revenge tour, all of that versus LeBron, maybe a retirement tour. I don't

know, I think LeBron should have some revenge in mind as well, just given the way the last few

seasons have gone. But yes, Luca got exiled from his team. They called him fat on his way out the

door. And he had a lot of, he has a lot of reason for revenge this season. That is a different dynamic.

LeBron in no identity versus out, they play more team ball. I do think the ball is moving more.

Some of that is also credit to Luca and JJ Retic has been very

over the top about his praise for Luca when he has moved the ball. I think JJ wants to see the ball

moving more and they've done that. But you just see more team efforts right now, the last couple of

games. And again, the key will be getting there with LeBron on the floor as well.

It's scary that we can beat a really good team and we shot bad from three and one by 14. If we

shoot 37% plus from three and defend, well, yeah, but you beat a really good team who also shot

very poorly from three. I mean, the wolves shot 25% from three, they on the season are a better

three point shooting team than Lakers are, Lakers shot 29% from deep. So it would be a different story

obviously had the wolves. The wolves were 10 for 40. If they were 15 for 40, this whole game is

different, right? I mean, they would they would win. They would win by one, right? Just based on the

math. So it's not just, oh, you know, had the Lakers had the Lakers shot even better, they would have

just blown them out. Yeah, it don't get wrong. Give the Lakers credit. They played great tonight,

even though they didn't shoot well, they they still took down the wolves. They wanted the game

more. They deserve the win more than the wolves did. There's no question. But the wolves also shot

poorly from three. It's not like the wolves were shooting great and the Lakers still won by 14.

The wolves shot essentially as bad as the Lakers did.

Rosemary says, I get the numbers say AR and Luca work, but I still don't feel they work. I also

find the bromance stuff really cringe. I want to like them. Any advice? Well, I mean,

what's the alternative? They hate each other? You know, I would I would rather they be friends than

than dislike each other. I think they there's a kind of brotherly vibe in that they're constantly

antagonizing each other and trying to get under each other's skin that I think is kind of funny.

The way they go back and forth, it's a very dry kind of deadpan sense of humor.

So that part is kind of funny and they seem to be just on the same wavelength, but that kind of

stuff. As far as them working, it's working because they're both awesome in the pick and roll.

They're both awesome in the half court defensively. Are there going to be some concerns? Yeah.

But essentially, for 48 minutes, you get a player that can absolutely dissect you in half court

play. And that was what made the Lakers strong at the beginning of the year. That's part of why

the Lakers were strong tonight and why the duo can work. You do have to have very specific pieces

around them because neither one is this hyper athletic player. Neither one is a lockdown defensive

player. I think both, frankly, are probably a bit better than defensively than what they get

credit for. But that doesn't mean either one is a plus defender. It doesn't mean either one is a

lockdown defensive player. So you have to be careful with the pieces you put around them. You have

to be very precise with who you put on the floor with them. But the numbers right now have said

they work. Luca has said they work said Austin makes the game easier for him. So I think this is

what the Lakers are going to roll with moving forward. As far as the bromance stuff, I can tell you,

it's just their personality. That's that is their personalities. They like messing with people.

They like messing with each other. I was at a game last year. We were doing a scrum with Dory and

Finney Smith and Luca sat just off camera. And the entire time, every time Dory and Finney Smith

is answering, Luca's saying stuff, trying to get him to mess up. That's that's that's just kind

of their temperament, right? It's just it's the it's the way these guys are.

Can we sign Peyton Watson and Daniel Gafford to start for us? You'd have to trade for Daniel Gafford

and with the maps trade with the Lakers. I don't know. Peyton Watson is a restricted free agent.

You can sign them, but you have to hope that the nuggets would blink in a situation like that.

And remember with the restricted free agency, the challenge is always that you could offer the

guy a contract as soon as the buzzer sounds on June 30th. You could offer a contract to Peyton Watson.

And Peyton Watson can say, yes, I want to be a Laker deal and sign that and not sign the thing,

but say I accept word of a break. Peyton Watson is going to sign with the Lakers. Peyton Watson

can actually put pen to paper nor can anybody till July 6th when the moratorium lifts every contract

that you hear agreed to before then is not officially done until they put pen to paper and they

can't do that till July 6th. So that means the Lakers, let's say they gave Peyton Watson, I don't know,

25 million just throwing a number out there. So that 25 million would now have to be set aside

from the Lakers cap space, right? Can't spend that. All right. You go through June 30th all the way

to July 6th. Most of the free agency is come and gone. Most players have agreed with teams.

Now Peyton Watson puts pen to paper July 6th. Boom. Now the clock starts. Now Denver has 24 hours.

So July 7th sometime Denver weeks until the last minute and says, oh, you know what, we're matching.

Well, now you don't have Peyton Watson. Now you've got that 25 million to go spend,

but everybody's gone off the market at that point. Everybody's agreed to other deals.

You got nobody's spend it on. That's the peril that comes with restricted free agency. And it's part

of why teams don't touch restricted free agents. So last summer, look what happened with Kaminga,

Quentin Grimes, Josh Gidey, would teams like to have those players? Yes, they'd like to have those

players. Nobody went near them because restricted free agency. Nobody wants to tie up their cap space

and just give the incumbent team the ability to match. So I would be very,

we really need to not look at restricted free agents as realistic options.

If it happens great, but it's very rare in today's NBA. And remember, you have to overpay

to get a restricted free agent. Otherwise, the incumbent team will just match. Now maybe Denver's

situation is so tough that they decide not to match, but that's a rarity. If it's a good contract,

most teams will just match and say, hey, even if we don't want the player, if it's a positive

value contract, we'll trade the guy. We'll get value for him rather than let him walk for nothing.

So restricted free agents, you inherently have to turn them into a bad contract in order to get

the player or at least turn them into a contract that the incumbent team thinks is bad.

Maybe you value the player at that and you believe the player in your system is going to be

better. That can be a thing. But you need to sign them to a deal that the incumbent team thinks

is bad. Otherwise, they'll just match it. So restricted free agency is very tough road to go down.

That's the bottom line. It's very tough road to go down. But could they go get go target

Peyton Watson? Yes. I think it's more likely what they would do is say, hey, Peyton, we want

you to come back to LA. Let's let's talk to the Denver about a sign and trade. And that way,

we avoid all of the perils of restricted free agency. And let's see if we can get a sign and

trade done. That's probably the path to go down for a restricted free agent.

PGA Washington, Naji Marshall of the bench. Well, we're getting crazy now. Keep Rui Canard's

Spartans. Have Peyton as a third string center. If Peyton's going to be a third string center,

why would he stay? Wouldn't he just say, I'm out. And these guys are not free agents anyway.

At least not PGA Washington. Naji Marshall, I don't remember. He may be. Let me see.

Yeah, PGA Washington is under contract for four more years. You just signed a new deal.

Naji March. No, even Naji Marshall is under contract next year, nine and a half million.

So yeah, we'd love to get all those guys, but can't re-sign LeBron or sign and trade to calves

for Alan. The problem with that is the calves can't do it. They're a second apron team right now.

And if you accept the player via sign and trade, you automatically trigger a hard cap at the first

apron. So they'd have to shed more salary. Now maybe James Hardin, you know, they move on from

him or something. He's only 13 million in dead money that would be on their books.

Should they not pick up the next year? So you could do that. But I think the goal would be to

have Hardin with LeBron. Now maybe they can come to terms on a new deal or something.

But the calves, I think the calves would have it would find a very challenging to be hard

cap to the first apron. I think what the calves would try to do was try to sign LeBron maybe with a

taxpayer MLE and then be hard cap to the second apron if they can shed some salary or in an ideal

calves world would be to sign them for a veteran minimum. Now none of that results in things coming

back to the Lakers. But I just I don't think it's likely that we see a sign and trade with LeBron

with the cat unless they were saving significant money elsewhere. I just think it's it's too hard for

them to get hardcapped at that first apron. And who knows, maybe they could

work around some things. Maybe there's some flexibility they could find. But on the surface,

it's required some maneuvering to make it happen. I'm tired of Bron Luke and AR bashing from

our own Lakers fans. Lakers played better without him. He's old, and what I'm gone. So-called Lakers

fans and haters said the exact same thing about Kobe back then. Well, also keep in mind. When

we're talking about LeBron specifically in Lukatu, they are very polarizing. They have very large

fan bases who are strongly in support of the player or strongly against the player. Right?

So that and that may not even mean Lakers fans. Don't I'm saying? Like there are

LeBron stands that will come in. There are Lucas stands that will come in. That they may not

actually be Lakers fans saying some of these things. That's something to keep in mind. So you know,

that's just, for example, like if you are saying, man, I hope the Lakers lose because LeBron's out.

And I don't want to hear, you know, they're better without LeBron. Well, you're probably more of a

LeBron fan than a Lakers fan. And that's okay. That's fine. Be whatever kind of fan you want to be.

But I'm going to take that with a grain of salt. Right? I'm not going to worry too much about

people that are that are saying that because their interest is LeBron, not so much the Lakers

themselves. What's Detroit's cap? Any chance we can steal Jalen Deren. Jalen Deren's like he's

so critical to everything they do. I have a hard time buying that the the pistons would move on

from him or let him go. He can be an RFA. Look at their cap. They are, they got plenty of flexibility.

Yeah, they've got plenty of flexibility. And that deal they signed Duncan Robinson to provides a

lot of flexibility here. There's he's only got two million guaranteed. And then Kevin Herder,

Tobias Harris, they're both free agents. So I don't think Jalen Deren's going anywhere. I think

they've got plenty of flexibility to keep him. And that's that's probably what they're going to do.

They're probably going to keep him. Okay, we never got to the master lock of the night. I should have

done it a while ago. So let's get to that. Not a lot to master lock from this game. But let's do it.

What was the most annoying thing from this game? Let me know in the comments section.

Master lock of the night.

The master lock of the night. What are we master locking?

That Jake Laravia. Bam. I mean, bam, he had a phenomenal game.

You know, a career game. The first quarter. Yeah, Dylan Brooks. Yeah, always.

No, the Pistons are not letting Jalen Deren go. Yeah.

O of 15 from three, the Lakers did start O from 15 from three. Bones Highland getting into it

with Jared Vanderbilt. Austin Reeves risked. He did seem like his wrist was bothering him.

Hopefully he's hopefully he's good to go. The second challenge where they gained nothing.

They won the challenge, but the ball was out off the Lakers. So rather than go bear free throws,

the wolves inbounded it and turned it into a made three. So it would have been rude to go bear at

the free throw line. Instead, it wound up being so winning the challenge actually wound up hurting

the Lakers. Fortunately, he didn't hurt them winning the game. Aiton's interview.

Canard not shooting threes.

The late game for Midwesterners, it is late.

It is late.

This is this is I was just talking about the dry sense of humor for Austin Reeves and Luca.

This is this is it in a nutshell. Dave McMendman tweeted out, it was Austin's post-game interview.

Austin was asked, is that accurate to four point plays tonight? That's the first time in your

career. Austin said, I wouldn't know. I couldn't tell you. The reporter then said,

JJ Reddick told us he's done it four times. And Austin said, yeah, well, nobody cares.

I love it.

Yesterday, JJ was going back and forth with with Luke Canard in interviews about who's the

better three point shooter. Gas prices in L.A. Master locked. Yeah. I'm just going to master

lock the first quarter. They're shooting in the first. It was atrocious. That first quarter.

As fun as this game wound up being, I'm master lock in the first quarter. For sure.

Do you think the A's post game interview with anything? In fact, the 12 and 11 at the half

and only finished with 14 and 12. No, I mean, I thought he's still hustled in the second half

and turned into fine performance overall. That he had a really good game.

Yeah, the first quarter was rough. It was rough. Okay. Everybody, I appreciate all of you for

joining excellent, excellent win for the Lakers. Again, final score 120 to 106.

History lesson. History lesson, history lesson, history lesson. What do we want to talk about

for that?

We're talking about the Voyager, the discs that are sending, that are on board them,

giving information about Earth to any kind of alien life form that may come across,

either one of the Voyager space probes that are still sending back from the 70s. I believe

they're still sending back information. That was kind of cool. Although I haven't dug into

those in a while. So I'd just be pulling that from memory.

Oh, okay. I talk about, oh, I actually have a good one. This is a good one.

Ooh, a pro wrestling history lesson. I'll have to do that at some point too. I'll have to do

that at some point. But this is a good one. Okay. Prohibition. So I got a great story about that.

So the prohibition era was an era which it was decided that in the United States that alcohol

was an evil and that it need to be gotten rid of. Now, obviously, the prohibition era was not

something that lasted. It was later repealed. But during the prohibition era in the United States,

we saw from 19 to just get the exact years. 1920 to 1933. We saw the 18th Amendment

created prohibition which made alcohol illegal. And the 21st or at least illegal to sell alcohol.

The 21st Amendment repealed that. Well, people still wanted to drink. Still wanted to drink,

shocking. I know during the prohibition era. And so they created these species, they were called

species, place where people were going out and secretly they would serve alcohol. And that

often meant that in order to avoid the attention of the police, they would have like a password

or something to get in underground systems, things of that nature. It also is part of where

like car racing and that culture comes from because oftentimes bootlegers who were

illegally creating alcohol would need to be able to outrun the police. They would in cars

were becoming more and more of a common thing for people to have at that point. And so they would

need to work on their cars and make them faster than the cars that the police have. So people would

start working on fixing up cars and make them faster than the cops cars. So they can get across

state lines away from their jurisdiction, all that kind of stuff. But here's why what I always

think of when I think of the prohibition era. So when I was a teenager, my great-grandmother

passed away. And she was this very sweet old lady would occasionally speak words in German

because she was, she had a German background. But she would occasionally dip into German or whatever

and say these funny old things. But I always remember I would go over to her house when I was a kid and

she had these little metal cups and she would always have a cherry coke for me and these great

those Kebler elves fudge stripe cookies. I would always eat those that her as a super sweet old lady,

right? Well, my great-grandmother passed away. My dad and my uncle and I, we went to her place and

were cleaning things out and cleaning out her place and all of that. And we found an old picture

of great grandma from the prohibition era with a shotgun boots on an address and her foot up

on a whiskey barrel. And we found out that great grandma was a bootlegger during prohibition that

this sweet little old lady that served me cookies and always had my favorite drink there for me

was dodging the cops and all of that. So I always think of great grandma whenever we talk about

the prohibition era. Dictator Travis, his German side. Yeah, probably, probably. All right,

anyway, it was funny. It was definitely funny and something I always think of when I think of

the prohibition era, again, prohibition ultimately repealed in 1933, but there it is. All right,

everybody, I appreciate all of you. Lakers get a big win. 120 to 106 over the wolves.

Till next time. See you. And stay safe.