Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Can Adversity Ultimately Help the Lakers? Maybe! Plus, Reaves Off the Bench?

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Following Monday's disappointing loss in Orlando, Dorian Finney-Smith made a very solid point about the Lakers, where they are now, and where they want to go. Ultimately, he says, adversity helps a team with championship aspirations. You have to go through it (to use JJ Redick's phrasing) in order to truly see the flaws and fix them. Coming through adversity is the hard thing. Great teams must be able to do hard things. So while professional athletes have a remarkable capacity to believe that whatever situation they're in is the one that they need at that moment, DFS is speaking truth, here. (And, side note, it reinforces why the guy is so universally popular with every teammate and coach he's ever had.) Obviously players need to be accountable, and on that front Luka Dončić took some responsibility for the second half drop in communication Monday, noting he has to do better. He and LeBron, Luka said, have to set the tone and the example for the group. That's a great start, but the list of things the Lakers need to get right extends past the players. Yes, they need to pull their weight, but the team is also being schemed against in different ways—fewer double teams against Luka, for example, which has caused the team to get stagnant as possessions get iso heavyand have to make the appropriate adjustments. That, to be sure, puts a burden on the coaching staff to counter the counters. So everyone from the stars to the role guys to the coaching staff has work to do in order to get this thing aligned. If they can't, the playoff run won't be nearly as fun or as long as fans have come to hope. But the good news? Lets say the Lakers can find a way to create better space and movement while everyone is being single covered. Let's say they start generating that same volume of high quality shots and assisted baskets as during the best runs of the season. Now they're even more dangerous, because it's one less tool in the opposing coach's tool box. The Lakers don't have a ton of time to figure it out, and no matter what happens, the summer will provide an opportunity to fill some holes the roster obviously has. But there's enough time, and the Lakers are led by a couple of basketball supercomputers in Dončić and James. So ultimately, there are still more reasons to be excited than despair.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: Luka takes some blame.  SEGMENT 2: Balance, balance, balance.  SEGMENT 3: Reaves off the bench?  Your favorite podcast now has a newsletter! In One-stop for ultimate team and league coverage delivered right to your in box. Sign up for free now, at lockedondaily.com.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Wednesday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Komeneski. J.J. Redick says the Lakers are, quote, going through it a little bit. Facing some adversity, is that a blessing in disguise? At least one Laker thinks so. We'll explain next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcasts network.

Your team, every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. First, listen to every day Monday through Friday, no matter how we're which podcast is always free, never behind paywall. And of course, locked on Lakers, Andy on YouTube. It's where over 34,000 subscribers are all hanging out. And they are wondering if maybe tonight, Andy, is the night in Indiana. Things get better for the Lakers.

They have, in the words of JJ Redick been going through it, meaning it's just, you know, it's a slog. Everything is off. They are facing adversity. And nothing is coming easy for them. they are out of sync. And it doesn't get any easier. Schedule is tough basically through to the end of the season.

And the Lakers are playing some seriously high leverage games. We've got to get things back together quickly. Can they do it? We'll talk about that as the show goes on. We'll let everybody know that today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code locked on NBA, $20 off your first purchase. Getting the team on track, at least one player. thinks this adversity is

potentially a good thing, and we'll talk about that as the show goes along, Andy. But the responsibility, if you ask Luk Adanjic for getting this team on track starts, doesn't end, but starts with Luca Donchich, taking some responsibility for the poor performance on Monday.

Well, he said, quote, obviously, I've got to do better. I've got to talk more. I talked in the first half, then kind of let my voice down. I shouldn't do that. But he also said, I think me and Braun think we should be the guys to do that. And I thought it was interesting the idea that Luca both put that on himself as one of the stars of this team, but also set it up as, you know, a co-star partnership and responsibility with him and LeBron. That didn't feel in any way like trying to slough off some of this to LeBron. I think it's an acknowledgement of the setup with this team and Luca's respect for LeBron.

Like that both of them are going to play an equal part in this. I also think, you know, you certainly don't take, I mean, even if you try to tilt the on-floor product to something that is more built around Luca than it is LeBron, and I think the Lakers are certainly trying to do that, you're not removing LeBron's voice and leadership from the equation, and nor would you want to. LeBron's voice matters a lot with this team. Like we talked about during that period when LeBron was hurt early on, the communication was lacking.

JJ Reddick talked about that. Other players talked about that. And it is in part because, not entirely, because the other guys, there's an onus on them to do better. But LeBron is the best communicator on this team, Like particularly on the defensive end, he is a better communicator than Luca. Like he's a better defender than Luca. And he knows the intricacies of defense better.

And this is not, by the way, meant to be a dig or, you know, a detraction of Luca as a defender or whatever. He's never been asked to be a defensive quarterback the way LeBron is. And LeBron's voice just matters, period. Like it may be Luca's franchise now, like big picture. As you said, he's the guy the offense runs through. But LeBron is still, even if you think Luca is the most talented guy on this team overall, he's still a guy that looks up to LeBron. And like from a gravitas standpoint, with all sincere respect to Luca,

he ain't at LeBron's level yet. And I think Luca knows that. Yeah, I don't see this sort of balancing act as really a purpose. problem for the team. I think it's just, I think it's no, and I wasn't, I certainly wasn't trying to imply that you did. I just what, what I think is is kind of fascinating here is this, there's a, there's a balance here between the stuff that is sort of controllable, its attitude, it's mental, it's investment, all that stuff. And then some of the physical stuff. And they, JJ said on Monday, they look tired. And I think they, you know, the second half results, what they

in the third quarter coming out of the break. Just terrible third quarter on both sides of all, 18 points offensively. I think they gave up certainly more than 18. I think it was closer to 30. 34, yeah, on the other side. You know, that plays a role. You talk less when you're tired.

And you brought up the point and emphasized that we spent a few minutes on it for Wednesday's show, we're just talking about the tradeoff of, yes, when you can play defense of that elite last. level. It's great. But that was defense that was based a lot on effort. And efforting like that in every game takes a toll. So they need to find balance. We talked about, you know, the league adjusting back to the Lakers. You know, Orlando didn't double. Chicago didn't double. They're making the Lakers a more stagnant team by basically daring them to play one-on-one. and make like a single pass at the end of a possession. And, you know, it's lesser of two evils to say the least if you're a Lakers opponent.

That is impact. So that's something that the coaching staff has to work on. There are pods of things that are sort of out of sorts and need to get back in alignment. It starts with, you know, Luca and communication and all these other things. But it's, that's one of five or six or seven things. I think that need to get fixed. Well, DFS after the loss in Orlando, said that, quote, we let our offense mess with our defensive energy.

And that tracks with a lot of what we were talking about last night, with your turn, my turn between Luca and LeBron into a lesser, but I think still tangible extent, Austin, and how all three of them really deteriorated into a lot of iso ball. a lot of just seeking out mismatches, seeking out just at times very difficult shots with very little ball movement. And when we were talking about the lack of production from anybody other than DFS in that game, and I remember you brought up Jordan Goodwin.

Among the supporting cast, yeah. Right, the supporting cast. And like I talked about how with Goodwin, I couldn't imagine that Goodwin. You know, his usage was at three, I believe it was 3.7%, which is shockingly low for a guard, a point guard at that for 13 minutes. And I remember I said like a little bit offhanded, I would be shocked if he, you know, he might have touched the ball five times. I got the tracking numbers for touches.

I was not that far off. He got 10 touches in that game. He had almost as many passes as touches. There's a reason he scored one point. Like Rui, for example, he had 22 touches in this game. I looked up the averages basically from February Luca's arrival on. Rui's averaged almost 40 touches a game. And it makes no sense to have Rui on the court if you're not going to get him a certain amount of shots,

like Jackson Hayes even had lower than he's averaged over this period. And the other three guys weren't necessarily at their averages either. They were slightly below. But it was just very out of whack and very dominant towards those three. And it reminded me a little bit of Brian Shaw back in the day during the Kobe Shack three Pete era. You know, there would be those times where Kobe and Shack would make those pointed comments about the other guys needing to step up more. and needing more production from Fox, Shaw, or a Fisher, or Devin George, those guys.

And Brian Shaw used to say that, you know, this is back when 100 points, 95 to 100 was a big night offensively. He would say, like, we'll give you your 30. And like laying out, that's their responsibility. It's on them to give 30 for Shaq and Kobe then to combine for anywhere from 60 to 70. and he was both laying out their responsibility. But there would be times, I remember this, paraphrasing a bit, when you'd hear Kobe or Shaq grumble a bit,

and Shaw would say, man, we gave you the 30. And the inference is like either give us more involvement, give us more shots, and it's on us to connect, or you guys average 30-ish a night. But you can't have this both ways. You can't expect us as a supporting cast to shoot 75 to 80% collectively. Like, that's not a formula.

Right. And to the point we were making for Tuesday, to the point we were making earlier in the segment, there's something about that, you know, when you, to how it looks like teams might, when possible, approach the way they'll defend the Lakers and the allotment for this group. We'll get into that next.

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fact that people love subscribing to this show via iTunes or through Spotify or wherever we get your podcast. They like watching it on YouTube at the Locked on Lakers YouTube channel. And increasingly, Andy, people are also love subscribing and getting the show via newsletters. Who doesn't like getting mail? My six-year-old loves getting mail. You can be like her and get mail every day delivered to you from this show new school mail we're not writing letters just so it's not you i'm not your damn pen pal no i mean but your your daughter does not like getting emails she's sick she likes getting snail mail no she doesn't like you know junk mail like emails and stuff like she doesn't like sorting through her inbox any more than the rest of us uh i'm kidding she doesn't have an inbox she's six

right i'm clarifying to people that the mail is arriving in their email box so it's not a snail mail newsletter Good Lord. Anyway, LockdownDaily.com, click on Lockdown Lakers. Things show up to you five days a week. The comparison you are just making with the Lakers and the Three Pete era is essentially what team, the bet the teams are making now. We will bet that between Luca LeBron and Donchich, I'm sorry, Luca LeBron and Reeves, that you guys won't shoot. 55% as a as a as a as a trio if we just make everybody play straight up defend you as best we can don't give you the outlets don't give you the easy lobs off of motion to jackson hayes don't get the swing swing so that you're open

three is an even more open three and an even more open three after that we're just going to be like okay like if lucca can give you 35 and do it on pretty good efficiency and lebron can give you 27 and do it on pretty good efficiency and Reeves gets the line eight or nine times and hits a few threes, whatever, but. Or, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, what, whatever it is, you know, if they end up, you know, we do this and they draw enough files, you guys get to the line and, you know, your efficiency is good. They put up 90 points. The rest of the team does their 2530. Okay. Lakers win. Like, that's what we're, that's the, that's That's the bet we're making because the alternative is to, you know, we throw doubles at Luca,

throw doubles at LeBron, whatever it might be, start tilting the floor and all of a sudden, the ball is flying around. Guys are happy. They're touching the ball. The defense, as DFS noted, when more people are touching the ball, when the shots are better, when guys aren't standing around, offense impacts defense. This is not a new story. The Lakers need to figure out a way to counter.

that so that they are not reliant on on that sort of equation because I mean I haven't looked at it. If they had 19, I believe 19 assists in in the game on on Monday, I don't know exactly what their record is when they're you know, 22, 23 assists are below. I think they average a little over 25, you know, close 26 for the year. I bet it's not very good. You know, when that ball doesn't move around, it's, you know, assists are an imperfect measurement because they are, not, they are subjective stat, especially on the road. But as a shorthand, when the Lakers roll in with 19 assists, I'm pretty sure that that was a bad offensive night. Well, what's also interesting about that, too, like the idea of taking the supporting cast out of this to some degree. And daring,

I think the three guys universally considered your best three players, you guys go off as opposed to often you'll see teams try to put it on the supporting cast in this game in Orlando between Rui DFS, Jax, Gabe Vincent, Dalton Connect, Goodwin Vando. They shot 12 of 23 from the field. So 52%. Like they didn't put up many shots at all, like 23 shots between seven guys just equaling what Luca put up. And that doesn't even count the amount of times that he attempted. to put up a shot, got filed, got sent to the line instead. Those guys were 52%. LeBron, Austin, and Luca together were 44%.

And some of that was- Significantly higher volume. Right. And significantly higher volume. And some of that was Luca being very inefficient anywhere from the line. But the truth is, none of those three guys individually shot 52% either. And while you don't want to make too much out of one game, I think the game that we saw in Orlando is like a great example of the worst,

the worst way the offense can devolve and the thing they really need to be on alert to avoid. And I'll make one more point about this because it's not just, okay, you're letting LeBron go. When you, when the Lakers can't create that motion, can't create the more favorable matchups, force double teams, make teams pay more. more consistently if you don't double, whatever it might be. It's not just, you're not getting the most dangerous version of LeBron, for example. Like the one that's been flying around the court that gets the ball and the move and, you know, off an extra pass because the defense is caught in a rotation,

good luck stopping that LeBron. It is not possible. The LeBron that you force to square up and put the ball on the floor, and kind of old man at the YMCA his way to the basket, he still might score, but it's less of a given. And in the meantime, it limits the Lakers offense to,

okay, finally the help comes and maybe there's one kick, maybe two, but then you're out, you're out of shot clock at that. It truly becomes a make or miss league. Like the cliche, like if it's one guy gobbling up 85% of a possession,

and then the shot, it is truly a make or miss league at that point. Yeah, and those guys, it's like you've got to choose like who, you know, somebody's going to take the make or miss. Like, you know, Luca Doncha, it's not a bad choice. But it's a question of are you mag? Look, this is not, we're not dying. The off, the, the, the,

JJ Reddick does not want the game to be, you know, nothing but a little bit of screen and roll. And then a lot of isolation and guys trying to break down. That's not what he's trying to do. That is where they've gone to. in the last couple games. But I am I am fairly sure he and the coaching staff are not sitting in their meetings that's going, got him right where we want them. Like that's not how this is. So in, you know, you mentioned that quote from DFS. I think what his he's correct. But there is always a

tendency for athletes to be like, whatever we're going through is exactly what we need. Like it's, you know, that's just how these guys operate. It's the best of all. possible worlds. It's just the mental games that they play. What he is correct about, though, the part that he's really right about is the when you're winning, you don't see as much. You don't see as much of the stuff that maybe ought to prevent you from winning. You don't feel it as much because you can kind of be like, yeah, you know, that three minutes at the end of the first half wasn't great, but like it didn't ultimately matter. Like, nope, go back to the Orlando game. They were up by nine. If they hold that lead,

That third quarter looks an awful lot different. They're being punished for their mistakes right now. And that changes behavior. It changes tactics. It changes strategy. So in that sense, I think DFS is exactly right. That is where adversity can be important because it reveals more. You learn faster.

And this team needs to learn quickly. They don't have much time. Yeah, absolutely. There is, they need to have some irons. sharpening iron, but they need to get to the sword really damn quick. You know what they should do, Andy? They should refill their cups. I think this is more than refilling cups. No, no, this is not anything that a refill, a good cup refilling can't solve.

Speaking of, I guess, approaches to solving. I don't mean to pick on Darwin. I just, of all the things to, to that we, that are fun to make fun of about the Darwin era, refilling our cups is always going to be my favorite. That and it's a hell of a team over there. Speaking of approaches that could be employed to fix the Lakers, we've been seeing a lot of in the chats of late calls for Austin to come off the bench. Darwin would do that.

Not only would he, he did. I know. It's not going to happen, but coming up, I'm going to explain, why I understand where these calls are coming from. So that's coming up next. Real quick, before we get into this thing with Awesome, I want to let people know that we have a three-part interview with Tim McMahon from ESPN. He wrote a really good and very intensively researched book called The Wonder Boy, Luca Donchich, and The Curse of Greatness. It was released on March 25th, and part one of our interview actually came out on the 25th.

there will be another installment of the interview sometime today, Wednesday, and then the third part will come out either Thursday or Friday. It's a lot of great, great details about Luca. And the interview was long and we ultimately decided we didn't want to cut any of it. We wanted to include it all. But to make it fit in the format, this is the way we did it. But definitely check it out. You guys are going to enjoy it.

You know, that is, Andy, it's extra content for people. It is. For free. It remains free. Yeah. So it's more stuff. don't want to stop doing regular shows right now with

all the games and the playoff implications and stuff like that. But it really is. And I know a lot of Dallas fans and Luca fans may have a love-hate relationship with Tim McMahon. No, it's more hate than love. I haven't heard much love. Love hate. Tim will tell you.

Tim will tell you there's very little love. It's got to be a little love somewhere. But the content of this stuff and the insight into Luca and really how it'll fit here, what the future might hold. Part one, which is up now, really focuses on young Luca and where this sort of guy that we see now came from. So if you're not totally familiar with Luca's background and story, there's a lot of good stuff in there and we'll get into plenty more over the course of the rest of the interview.

Darwin Kemenitsky, you were going to explain why Austin Reeves should be coming off the bench. First of all, you should have set it up as Darwin Hamanetsky. That would have been, Oh, it was right there. That would have been, I am going to be mad at myself for the rest of the day. You really, you misspelled, you misspelled rest of your life.

Oh, there have been a lot of, over the last couple of games, but even before then, seen a lot. Worst day ever for Brian. Similar to the Lakers, Brian's really going through it right now. There's been a lot.

Adversity is what I need heading to the playoffs. Indeed. You should hang out a little bit with DFS. He can talk you down from this. But it's so bad. Even when things were going better for the Lakers, we heard from a fair amount of people in the YouTube chat and even sometimes on Twitter at Cambrothers saying that they thought Austin should come

the bench. But then these last couple games where you've gotten LeBron, Luca, and Austin together, and things have been going rather poorly, those calls have been increasing and more frequent, more loud. To be clear, I would be stunned if this happened for a variety of reasons, including Darwin ain't walking through that door. That, but I mean, look, what do they have? Like, 11 games left. Like, there's only so much tinkering unless things are just continually going to bleep. Like there's only so much massive tinkering you want to do. So there in some respects, there's only so much you even want to delve into the pros and

cons because again, both of us, I think I speak for you, would be pretty stunned if this happened. Oh yeah. That being said, though, I'm going to lay out, though, why I at least get where this is coming from. right now LeBron, Luca, and Austin together. It's not a massive sample size because LeBron has been hurt. Lucas missed a couple games.

Austin missed a couple games. But in their time together, they have a net rating of minus 5.1, which is obviously not ideal for the three players that are supposed to be your three best. I took a look at some of the three-man data involving Luca. Luca Austin and DFS plus 10.8. Luca LeBron and DFS plus 1.9. Luca Reeves Jackson Hayes plus 13.8. Luca Reeves Gabe plus 5.5.

Luca Reeves Rui plus 13.1. Luca LeBron Rui plus 5.3. This one was interesting. Very small sample size, but I found it intriguing. Only 96 minutes. Luca, Rui, and DFS. plus 25.4. But the common thing here is there are a couple of exceptions,

but some of the worst three-man data involving LeBron, Luca, and in the Luca era is LeBron, Luca, and Reeves. So I get where this is coming from. And, you know, there can be, and this is, I think, something the Lakers need to figure out. There can be a fine line between our three best scorers and creators on the floor together. That's going to be impossible to guard. And our three best creators and score on the floor together, there's too many cooks in the kitchen.

And if there are too many cooks right now or if they're dealing with that issue, the Lakers need to figure out the right balance between those three pretty quickly. Otherwise, again, while I don't think Austin is going to get moved to the bench, whether you think it should or shouldn't happen, I will keep understanding why people are calling for it. Because so far, the returns on those three together have not been great. Right. And, you know, some of that is the last two games. Of course. The sample sizes are get, you know, when you have the kind of results that they've had.

in the last couple games. It's going to skew that. The only of the, if you break it down to two-man combinations of the, in the three stars, the only one that has a positive net rating is Reeves and Luca together, which makes sense because they were the ones who were playing while LeBron was hurt and they were winning all those games. Yeah. Or winning some of those games. Yeah, Luca and LeBron as a two-man is basically neutral. It's right. And the and the other, LeBron and Reeves, I think, is a little, underwater as well. I forget exactly what it is. But the only one that's, that's clearly positive is

Luca and and Reeves. And so, you know, when they had some of those other losses, remember, too, either Luca was sitting or Reeves was sitting or both were sitting. So, you know, the thing about it is, the only way that could you bring Austin Reeves off the bench? Sure. You're going to play him, there is no formula that you do this where you don't play Austin Reeves as you get down the stretch and into a playoff series 35 to 40 minutes a game. You just don't because you're not going to study. He is one of your three best players and it's not even close. And so he's going to play like you have to figure out in the NBA how to make it work for your best players. You are not going to come out ahead by sitting your best player, your third best player,

for an extra 10 minutes because you're trying to make the other two. He's like not going to work. So essentially what you're doing is shuffling the deck chairs. If a guy's going to play 35 minutes a night, if you want to take him out of the starting lineup, it's window dressing at that point because all you're doing is changing the order in which guys are are playing. I can guarantee you the actual allotment of floor time that the three of those guys spend together wouldn't move.

you know, they've already got this figured out. And so probably true. I sympathize, but I think that, you know, it is, it's only, it's a problem if it's not the three of them. Like, you know, when they need the defense, you know, they need Jacqueline Hayes to be able to play. They need Jared Vanderbilt to be able to defend at a high level. They need Rui available. Like the, the context around this matters. but ultimately what they need to do is figure out how to make the offense work when essentially now,

really, Luca and LeBron are both out there, but needing to create space around the floor without leveraging doubles. Does that mean they got to run more off ball action to get the defense moving more? Does that mean they got to figure out new and different screening combinations and spots on the floor to do it from and get a little more creative and. country, probably. I'm not going to pretend that I'm like an X's and O's guru over here. But like, that's the issue. And so if they, when, when they were, you know, those four three, four whatever games, when LeBron's flying around the floor and Reeves, like, and their shot quality is incredible.

All, it look fine. Like, it can work. They just need to get better results. They need to have a better game plan. They need to execute it better. Yeah, absolutely. And all of this, I think, gets back to everything we saw against Orlando that was just so incredibly out of whack. And I'd like to think that if we can recognize it, they can recognize it. And then they start figuring out the ways to alleviate it. And, you know, the upside is you're talking about three talented players. And if three talented players find the ways to make it work, then all of a sudden it does start tilting back in that direction of good luck guarding this.

And the better the offense is, as we often talk about, the better their defense is going to be. Here's the thing, too, if they figure it out, you know, if they don't figure it out, then the playoffs aren't going to be nearly as fun as I think all of us hope they will be. They're not going to have the deep run that the Locked on Lakers channel really wants the Lakers to have. But if they, you know, if they do, and then they'll go fix it in the summertime. They'd be like, you know what, this is the kryptonite. We're going to fix it with X, Y, and Z. They obviously, even if I love what Jackson Hayes has done, they need more center help.

Like that's just, it is, it is true. They got by with it for a little while, but they need more center help. They'll fix a lot of this stuff in the summer either way, but they'll either find out how bad the fixes need to be. Or they'll fix this. They'll get, they'll find the solutions. They'll get the unlocks. And that will make them even better. If you thought they were pretty good, if you know, now there are two things that they know how to

really exploit at a very high level and create the kind of shot quality that people expect with this sort of lineup. So, you know, if they figure it out, it's that much more dangerous for the rest of the league. And there is time to figure it out. You know what they need to figure out tonight, Andy, in Indiana? How to beat the Pacers? How to beat the Pacers.

Just win, baby. That's it. We will, of course, be back. Likeers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 34,000 subscribers through the channel. We'll see everyone after the game tonight.