Lakers vs Bulls! BIG Injury Update, Standings Watch & Keys To Victory

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Hello Lakers Nation, welcome in to thelakersnation.com podcast, my name is Trevor Lane, and it's

game day, Lakers, Bulls, 730 PM Pacific time tonight.

We'll see if the Lakers can make it four in a row.

I'll be live tonight on the YouTube channel at 730, breaking down the game.

Is it happens doing a little play by play, taking your questions, your comments?

It's like a party.

Come hang out.

Lakers Bulls tonight, 730 PM Pacific time.

All right.

As always, today's show, we're going to get into the injury update.

We'll take a look at the standings.

We'll get into the keys to victory for tonight's game and the injury update.

Well, there's some stuff on here.

Let's get into it.

So Jackson Hayes, welcome back, Jack.

He is probable to play in tonight's game after missing the Lakers.

Last one, dealing with back soreness again, right now, probable.

Keep in mind, we have seen some Lakers day of the game now, changed their injury status.

Jackson Hayes was one such player just last game.

So just kind of take it with a grain of salt.

But LeBron James, right hip contusion and left foot arthritis and Maxi Cleba are both

listed as questionable.

Maxi's been out for a bit now with a lumbar back strain.

Will either one go very much up in the air, particularly against a Chicago Bulls team

that it may make a little bit of sense for the Lakers to try to get their veterans some

rest here as well and be a little bit cautious because the Bulls are not not a very good

basketball team.

But as we always say in the NBA, you never know what's going to happen on any given night.

And if you mess around, you can wind up accidentally getting a loss in a game that you really

should be winning.

So the Lakers got to be careful with this one.

But maybe there's some opportunities here to get guys a little bit of rest, particularly

given how difficult the schedule is and we'll take a look at the schedule in just a minute.

Marcus Smart, this one does hurt or smarts, I suppose.

He is doubtful for this game tonight with a right hip contusion.

So Marcus Smart has become incredibly important for the Lakers.

He's been very impactful, even when the shot is not falling, when he's done defensively,

has been phenomenal.

Per cleaning the glass, Marcus Smart is the biggest difference maker in terms of plus

minus on the floor right now for the Lakers.

And I really think he goes a long way towards setting the tone right now.

He's a plus 10 for the Lakers in net rating, really impressive tone setter on the defensive

side of the ball.

He's been fantastic.

He's just been so good for the Lakers defensively.

There are the 95th percentile or he's in the 95th percentile because the Lakers give up

8.3 points per 100 possession of the less when Marcus Smart is on the floor.

And that's in nearly 1,600 minutes.

So the sample size pretty decent.

So that'll be tough for the Lakers without Marcus Smart tonight.

But again, the fact he's listed as doubtful right now suggests he's probably not a go.

Now again, against the Chicago Bulls, you should still be able to get a victory, get

away with the win.

The Bulls are effectively a tanking team.

The Lakers as of right now, as I'm recording this, even with this injury report, the Lakers

are 10 and a half point favorite for tonight's game.

So that's a pretty heavy favorite.

And there's a lot of belief that the Lakers will be just fine, even with Marcus Smart looking

like he's out in LeBron James and Maxi Cleba up in the air.

But again, you never know what's going to happen in the NBA.

Meanwhile, looking over at the Bulls side of things, the Bulls, well, part of the reason

why the Lakers are a 10 and a half point favorite.

This is a long, my goodness, this bulls injury report.

It is lengthy.

Monis Busella, so at 41 last game in an overtime win over the Warriors, Monis Busella, he's

a lot of fun.

Obviously, not as much fun to play against, but he's got this flair to his game.

But he is probable.

Zach Collins is out Noah Senge is out.

Josh Gidey, probable with an ankle spray.

And so you've got a couple of guys there in Busella's and Gidey that are probable to

play.

You know, they're just, they're listed anyway.

You know, Jay Nivey, Mac McCleung's with the on a two way contract.

Isaac Coro is out or he's questionable.

I should say Colin Sexton is questionable.

Ampere assignments is out.

Jayla Smith is probable.

So Patrick Williams is questionable.

Gershane Yabaselli is questionable.

That's a lot of the Bulls roster that's questionable.

If the Bulls decide, you know what, we're just going to sit a bunch of these guys.

We're going to continue to tank.

That could very heavily swing this in the Lakers favor.

I mean, Yabaselli, Patrick Williams, Colin Sexton, Isaac Coro.

All those guys are questionable for this game that, you know, they're, if they're not

able to go, that would obviously move things even further in the Lakers favor.

But the Bulls are going to be shorthanded no matter what.

No way.

And for assignments, no Jay Nivey, they're, they're going to be missing some guys even

with Josh Gidey.

We all remember the games against the Bulls last year and what Josh Gidey did and modest

Busella's can be dangerous again, drop 41 in his last game, which was a win over the

warriors.

Still, the Bulls are going to be pretty shorthanded here against the Lakers.

In fact, if we look, the Bulls there are three and seven in their last 10 and you take

a look at the games that those losses have occurred in.

Well, I mean, they're, yeah, they had a long losing streak there in February.

They've got wins recently over, I mean, they got a blowout win over Milwaukee.

They lost to OKC.

They got a win.

They got a very much Chicago over Phoenix.

They got a win over Golden State.

I mean, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Golden State.

So you never know, but they also lost to the Sacramento Kings.

They had the big losing streak before that.

And again, the Lakers are a heavy favorite for this one.

So Lakers have to take care of business.

They will, the Bulls will get the Clippers second night of a back to back.

So this is the first leg of a back to back for the Bulls as well.

I do wonder if that will be a factor in their decision making in terms of who plays and

who doesn't.

While we're at it, though, let's take a look at the standings.

For the Lakers and where things currently stand after Wednesday night's game.

So the Lakers needed to get a little bit of help.

And frankly, they got it.

The Minnesota Timberwolves lost again, lost to the Clippers.

Kawaii Leonard was absolutely lethal.

Kawaii dropped, I believe it was 45 points is what he finished with on just insane

efficiency in that game.

And they absolutely blew out the wolves.

That's now three losses in a row for the wolves.

Yeah, Kawaii 45 points on 15 to 20 shooting, six of nine from three, nine of 10 from the

free throw line, five rebounds, five assists, two steals.

He went absolutely nuclear.

Darius Garland, the news clipper had 21 points, 22 for Ben Mathering off the bench as well.

And 153 to 128, man, 153 points to Clippers hung on the wolves.

Of course, the Clippers got the wolf's second night of the back to back after the wolves

played the Lakers the night before.

But the wolves shot 60% from the field, but they also turn it over 21 times.

And the Clippers shot at 63% for the field and 51% from three plus got to the free throw

line at a higher rate and only turn the ball over 10 times.

So that put the game very heavily in the Clippers favor both teams shot well.

And funny because the neither of the wolves know that nor the Lakers shot particularly

well the game before, but nonetheless, the wolves pick up another loss.

So the Lakers now half a game up on Minnesota, half a game up on Denver.

Denver did beat the Houston Rockets and beat them substantially.

That was not close.

129 to 93.

The Denver Nuggets blew out the Houston Rockets.

Now the Lakers are the four seed, but technically they're tied for third record wise right now.

The Houston Rockets are 40 and 25 as are the Lakers.

The Rockets beat the Lakers Christmas Day.

So right now they have the tiebreaker over LA.

So again, we've talked about it, but the Lakers, their range of outcomes, it's three through

seven.

They are still just two games up on the Phoenix Sons who have won three in a row.

I don't see the Clippers getting into the mix to catch the Lakers in this because there's

a seven game gap between the two teams.

There's not enough games left here right 65 games played out of an 82 game season.

So three through seven very much in play right now the Lakers are sitting tied for third record

wise the Rockets win the tiebreaker for now.

The Lakers and Rockets play twice in a few days and we'll take a look at that in just a minute.

But a lot on the line in all of these games and you just in the West, you got to keep

winning.

I know I'm in a soda loss three.

I know Houston lost one, but I mean, you look at Denver, they just won Phoenix's one three

in a row.

You got to keep picking up wins and stacking them up if you're going to move up in the West.

So the Lakers currently the four seed tied for the third seed right now.

A win tonight would move them ahead of Houston unless Houston plays tonight as well.

They do not.

They play, but they play the Pelicans next and you look at the Sons schedule two.

They have the Pacers coming up like there's some definite wins that are going to

be put on the Pacers or on the the Sons here.

They get Toronto, which I think the Sons will win that game, but Toronto can at least,

they can be a challenge any given night, but then Boston, Minnesota, that'll be a big

game.

Minnesota Sons San Antonio Milwaukee, Toronto again, Denver.

The Sons don't look at the schedule.

There's a lot of windable games remaining on the Sun schedule.

So the Lakers are going to keep pace.

They got to keep winning because the Sons are going to try to do everything they can to

move out of that six seed right now.

Minnesota and Denver below the Lakers.

Here's the Lakers schedule coming up.

Obviously tonight's game against the Bulls, not the most formidable opponent, but again,

you never know any given night in the NBA, but then look at the schedule from there, Denver

on Saturday.

And the Lakers get revenge.

The final game of the home stand, Denver on Saturday and then at Houston on Monday,

at Houston again on Wednesday, two games in a row against the Rockets.

Those are important games that will ultimately decide the season series of the Lakers have

to win both of them in order to win the season series against the Houston Rockets.

If Houston wins one of them, then they win the season series because they already beat

the Lakers on Christmas Day and the two sides are only playing three times.

But that's second night of a back to back in Miami.

That's going to be rough.

You got to fly from Houston to Miami.

Then you're playing against Orlando or Lando's been playing much better basketball lately.

If we look at what they've been doing recently or Lando, they've been, Desbain had 30 points

last night.

They beat the calves.

They were great.

Maybe at 31.

He had a great game.

I have to double check.

I know it was more than 30, but they've won five in a row, the Orlando Magic have.

That's the, the point here.

The Orlando Magic won five in a row and all right, Desbain was even a little better than

I remembered.

I'll top my head.

35 points for Desbain on 12 and 19 shooting.

He was great.

The Orlando Magic.

They are surging one five in a row.

And so that's another team that the Lakers are going to have to deal with here coming up.

Again, it is a, a difficult schedule for the Lakers, Miami or Orlando, then Detroit, the

number one seed in the east.

Then you get Indiana to finish out the road trip.

Then you, that's a nice little cushion right there, Indiana, Brooklyn, Washington.

You get almost a full week of playing those teams.

Now then you do get Cleveland second night of a back to back.

You play Washington the night before.

And then we get to the true home stretch in April, OK, see at OK, see at Dallas, OK, against

OK, see again, why at Golden State Phoenix, that could be, there could be a lot on the line

in that game April 10th.

And it's the second night of a back to back against Phoenix.

And then hopefully my hope is that for the final game of the season, April 12th against

jazz, my hope is that nothing matters, that that game does not matter at all.

And the Lakers can just rest everybody and get ready for the playoff.

The goal for the Lakers right now, in terms of the standings, the goal for the Lakers

right now has to be the main focus is just don't be in the play and don't fall to seven,

stay above the plan because right now everything is so congested that trying to game the system

and go after one particular team and try to get the first round matchup that you're looking

for.

It is all but impossible.

Everything is just too tightly compact, even if the Lakers decide, I don't know, Houston

or, and you can make arguments for any of them, if you decide Houston or Denver, Minnesota

is your preferred first round matchup, trying to manipulate the system into getting the

matchup that you want.

That's a fool's errand right now.

All you can do is win as many games as possible, focus on staying out of the play in and

then go from there.

You don't want to tack at least one could be two if you lose the first play in game,

but you'd at least be tacking one extra game on your schedule.

You really don't want to do that.

So six seed or better, that needs to be the focal point for the Lakers.

After that, you let the chips fall where they may, I mean, you keep it the way San Antonio

is playing.

You would even normally we talk about staying out of these thunder side of the bracket,

but San Antonio is playing so well, either way, you're going to have to play a very difficult

team, regardless of which side of the bracket you're in.

All right.

So that's where we're at in terms of the standings and for the Lakers, it's very important

that they pick up as many wins as they can and that means they have to get the job done

in a very winable game against Chicago tonight, given how difficult the schedule is going to

be here.

Three, three wins in a row.

The Lakers would love to keep it rolling.

All right.

We're going to get into the keys to victory for tonight's game in just a minute.

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Okay, before we get into the keys to victory, just a little fun here, a do-theorough.

This highlight coming from the South Bay Lakers last night, did it again, threw down another

very impressive dog.

This kid's athleticism is insane, gets out on the break here and then watch what he does

to this defender.

I mean, just goes right up over and through the defender and throws it down.

So strong and the leaping ability is incredible, a do-theorough.

I'm excited for what this kid could ultimately be for the Lakers in terms of the skill set.

Important they continue to develop.

I'm Jay Georetic talked about it the other day that minutes are going to be hard to

come by with the Lakers team as they're relatively healthy right now.

But if there's a number of guys out for tonight's game against the Bulls, if there's an opportunity

to get to do some minutes at the NBA level, it would be great to see him get that experience.

For the time being though, he's tearing it up in the jeep league.

By the way, you know, who else is playing really well in the jeep league?

It's Brony.

Brony's done some good things and there's a fluidity to his jumper, particularly the

step back jumper that is, you know, it's impressive.

It's impressive.

Let's be honest.

It's, Brony's looked pretty good and he's thrown down.

Some dogs as well.

So some good things happen with the South Bay Lakers in the jeep league and we'll see where

things go.

Okay, let's get into the keys to victory and number one, control the tempo.

The Chicago Bulls, they are, they're playing at the fourth fastest pace in the NBA since

the all-star break.

And in fact, they're also the fourth fastest team pace wise during the regular, during

the entirety of the regular season as well.

It's not just post all-star, but so controlling the tempo is so important because the Bulls

want to really fly up and down the floor.

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They're appropriately running with the bulls.

But the Lakers, meanwhile, have really slowed down after the all-star break.

And some of that we can say maybe is LeBron related because LeBron's been such a weapon

in transition and LeBron's been out for the last three games, so that's going to pull

the Lakers pace down.

But one of the things the Lakers have also done is they've done a much better job taking

care of the basketball.

Right now, post all-star break, the Lakers are 24th in the NBA in pace.

So some of this game tonight is going to be about playing the game at the tempo that

you want to play at.

The Lakers want to play at a slower pace, and Luca and Austin Reeves are going to execute

in the half court, and that's the way the Lakers want to play.

The Chicago Bulls want to run up and down the floor and blitz everything and fly all over

the place.

That's the tempo they want to play at.

It's on the Lakers to force the Bulls to play in the half court and play their style

of basketball.

So controlling the tempo is going to be incredibly important.

In fact, it's so important that when we look at the Lakers numbers over the last two games

against the Knicks and the Wolves, again, quality opponents that the Lakers have beaten,

the Lakers are actually getting three more shot attempts per game over their season average,

despite slowing down the pace.

Because they're taking care of the basketball more, they've cut their turnovers by nearly

four per game over these last two, and we'll talk more about the turnovers in just a

minute.

And also doing a much better job on the offensive glass over the last couple of games.

So what that meant is that the Lakers feel goal attempts are going up.

Even while the Lakers continue to get to the free throw line at a high rate over the last

few games, their feel goal attempts are going up because they're doing two things.

They're not turning the ball over as much, and they're doing a better job on the offensive

glass.

And that offensive glass, let's give a lot of credit to Deandre Aiden.

He was fantastic against the Wolves.

In general, I loved Deandre Aiden's game against the Wolves, but he really did a nice job,

especially in the first half on the offensive glass.

So we look at what has been the secret to the Lakers success of late part of it is just

the math of their getting up more shot attempts because they're not turning the ball over as

much and they're generating extra possessions on the offensive board.

So controlling the tempo is so important.

It does appear that slowing the game down a bit has helped the Lakers not turn it over

so much.

And do we want to put that as a LeBron related thing or not?

LeBron has had some high turnover games.

I do think it's critical that ultimately the Lakers get LeBron and Austin and Luca working

well together, but the bottom line, the Lakers recently, they've slowed down and pace.

The turnovers have dropped.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls, they want to fly up and down the court.

It's on the Lakers to force the Bulls to play their style, their pace of game.

Speaking of which, the Lakers need to put forth some defensive pressure on this Bulls

team because as I said, they want to fly up and down the floor.

But guess what the Bulls also do?

They turn the ball over and they do it a lot.

In fact, they do it more than anyone else.

The Chicago Bulls dead last in the NBA in turnover percentage post all star break.

So this is a team that gets sloppy with the basketball.

They will turn it over a lot.

The Lakers defenders, and this is where disappointing that Marcus Smart is doubtful to play in this

one, but this is where defensively, the Lakers can really create some havoc.

If the Lakers can enjoy a big turnover discrepancy, this is what we typically see with Oklahoma

City, where they typically turn their opponent over a lot and then don't turn the ball over

very much themselves.

So if the final tally in the turnover column is, I don't know, 17 turnovers to 11 or something,

so that the thunder or plus six in turnovers, that often means they're getting that many

more shots than they're opponent and that helps them math wise to get the win.

So for the Lakers, it's about putting some defensive pressure on the Chicago Bulls, staying

sharp, staying focused, and that will lead to turnovers that'll lead to transition opportunities

for the Lakers, but more importantly, it'll lead to a win.

If they're getting the Bulls to cop up the ball a lot and the Lakers, meanwhile, are maintaining

their diligence that we've seen and their, their carefulness that we've seen with the basketball,

their valuing possessions more lately, it seemed like if they continue doing that and they

enjoy a big turnover discrepancy, that could potentially help them not just win the game,

but maybe comfortably win the game.

And that's where you can get into in a long season, maybe even getting some rest for some

guys in the fourth quarter, but as I've been saying this whole show, you have to maintain

a certain level of play.

It is Chicago and the Lakers coming off of big wins against two teams that are much better

than the Bulls in the Knicks and the Wolves.

There is going to be a tendency to maybe take your foot off the gas a little bit to not

be quite as focused as you were for those previous games.

So the Lakers have got to battle that they cannot play down to their competition in this

situation because the Bulls as fast as they play, there's always the chance that they

come out hot.

They knocked out a bunch of shots.

Again, Chicago, they had their big losing streak, but they do have some good wins under

their belt recently.

Again, they've got to win over Milwaukee.

That's a team that's been trying, I mean, they're not good, but they're trying to make

the playoffs.

Phoenix, they've got to win over them, got to win over Golden State in overtime, the Lakers.

They have to be sharp.

Otherwise, Chicago has the ability to, because they play so fast, to put up a lot of points

in a game and then come some problems.

So if you're the Lakers, you've got to come out, play your game, do not play down to

the level of your competition.

It's much easier said than done.

And it happens all the time where teams come out and they underestimate their opponent

or they think it's going to be an easy game and they don't play with the requisite level

of focus.

The next thing you know, I always say it, but the worst thing you can do is give a bad

team hope.

Don't want is Chicago.

At some point in this game saying, we may do this.

We might win this game because this is a game against the Lakers.

This is a game that will have a lot of eyeballs on it for a bull's team that's not had a great

season.

And there's going to be a lot of attention there, which you don't want to Chicago thinking,

hey, we're in the spotlight right now.

Imagine how cool it would be to get the win and thinking they've got a real shot.

The Lakers need to come out, hit the bulls early and let them know, hey, we're the better

team.

We're going to be getting the victory and there's nothing you can do about it.

But that's going to require the Lakers to be locked in and focused.

And that's why my X factor for this game, it is JG reddit because ultimately we're talking

about level of focus and not playing down to your opponent.

Yes, that's on the players.

These are professional players and they know what they need to do.

But ultimately, how a team is locked in mentally tends to fall under the coach.

I will say I like a lot of what the Lakers have been running both offensively and defensively

lately.

I think JJ has really started to come into his own in terms of what he's got this team

doing.

We're seeing guys bought in, we're seeing the extra effort that's being made.

I've been so impressed with the way this team has played the last two games.

Is there a little bit of lock built in there with the nicks and wolves both shooting poorly?

There is.

There is.

But that's also credit to the Lakers defense.

I think both things are true.

The Lakers have been playing very hard, been defending at a high level.

They've been making the extra efforts and they've also enjoyed some off shooting nights

from their opponents as well.

Both things there are true.

But the Lakers cannot come out flat in this game.

JJ reddit has to have these guys locked in.

Clearly they're playing basketball at a very high level right now, especially if you're

reintegrating LeBron into things and you're already going to have probably a different

starting lineup with Marcus smart out Jackson Hayes getting back in the fold.

There's going to be a little bit of turmoil just in terms of rotations.

There's not going to be any stability there.

So the Lakers mentally have to really come out for tonight's game and be ready to go.

All right, Lakers Nation.

Give me your thoughts in the comments down below.

Lakers take on the bull 7 30 PM Pacific time tonight.

Can they pick up a fourth win in a row?

Come hang out right here on the Lakers Nation.com YouTube channel.

We break another game as it happens.

Till then, everybody, see you and stay safe.