Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Can the Lakers Keep Their Momentum on the Road? Is Everyone Too Focused on Rudy Gobert?

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

The eye test said the Lakers did a lot of things better in Game 2 than in Game 1 (beyond just winning the game). The difference in physicality was particularly visible on the defensive side, where LA was, for the most part, pretty suffocating all night. But it also showed up on offense, even though the Lakers only scored on more point on Tuesday compared to Saturday. They ran more action, set considerably better (and more frequent) screens. And it bears out in passing data, too. The Lakers passed more frequently, particularly the big three, all of whom threw more of them in Game 2 than in Game 1. And all of this stuff is related. More urgency getting into the offense gives more time to throw more passes. More, better run actions create more opportunities to make good passes. Better spacing. Harder cuts. And so on. It's an energy the Lakers will need to sustain heading into Friday's Game 3 in Minnesota. One more thing that might help? Paying less attention to Rudy Gobert. The opportunity to light him up seems to pushing LA's offense off the rails, at times.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: The Lakers moved the ball more effectively in Game 2.  SEGMENT 2: How physicality helped them on offense, too.  SEGMENT 3: Should everyone—players, media, etc.—be focused less on Rudy Gobert? 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!Amazon Fire TV Stick 4kDid you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Door DashSign up for DashPass and when any player scores 50+ in a playoff game, DashPass members can grab a free 3PC Crispy Tenders Combo from Wingstop the next day, with a $20+ order and code WINGSTOP50. That’s DashPass: your door to more savings, more flavor, and more ways to win. Terms apply.Valid only at participating Wingstop locations. Fees (including service fee), taxes, and gratuity still apply. Orders must have a minimum subtotal of $20, excluding taxes and fees. Offer valid on 4/15/25-6/22 /25 or while supplies last. Valid for one (1) promotional redemption per customer. DoubleDash promotions apply only to your DoubleDash add-on order, not your primary order. DoubleDash orders are not valid for the purchase of alcohol. No cash value. Non-transferable. Discount applies to subtotal only; does not apply to fees, taxes, and gratuity. Not valid for pickup. Limit one per person. Not valid for the purchase of alcohol. Fees, taxes, and gratuity still apply. Must have an active DashPass account. Use promo code WINGSTOP50 to redeem. See full terms and conditions at drd.sh/qnAXuU 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 AND FIFTY 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 Thursday. Brian Kemenatsky, Andy Kaminatski, the Lakers, picked up a huge win in game two. Can they carry the momentum into game three? That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Lockdown Lakers.

First listen to every day Monday through Friday, no matter how worried you get your podcast. This one's always going to be free and never behind. Paywall. And of course, Andy, Lockdown Lakers. on YouTube is where you can go hang out with about 35,000 subscribers to the channel, all of whom are pleased the Lakers have a couple days off between now and, between, I'm sorry, Tuesday's win and Friday's game three in Minnesota,

time the Lakers are going to need, because as we will discuss, they have not played well in Minnesota over the last few seasons. And certainly the Wolves fans are going to make that a very hostile environment. I want to let people to know that today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create account, use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. So one of the things, Andy, we talked about at length following Tuesday's win was just sort of how much better the Lakers moved, how much more force they played with, how much more physicality they played with. And while that didn't necessarily translate into points per se, it did translate into better offense.

And you found some interesting numbers. Kind of back that up. Yeah, there were a few different ways. First of all, in talking about the offense and the physicality and some type of connection, the force they were playing with, before I even get into those numbers, we talked a lot about physicality in the, the postgame show and one element that didn't come up that I just thought was worth mentioning,

the screening was so much better in game two. And in particular, LeBron, Rui, and DFS, I thought were standouts. This was the best I can recall ever Rui consistently screening throughout a game. But then as far as the ball movement, I think actually, though, what you're talking about, the physicality those screens and all that stuff actually is related to some of the stuff that you're you're going to get into with the ball movement and passing and things like that. Yeah. And comparing just the amount of ball movement from game one to game two, there were 253 total passes in game one and 266 in game two.

And I imagine that it would have even been higher if the ball movement had not regressed some in the second half. I tried to compare first half and second half numbers for passing in game two, but unfortunately, NBA.com does not allow you to break down passes by quarters or by halves, and I couldn't find it anywhere else. But then you start getting into, you know, like I said, more total passes in game two. But then game one, Luca had 49 passes, LeBron 47, Austin 46. In game two, Luca 53, LeBron.

38, Austin 57. So all three of them were passing more in this game. But what I found really interesting about that, though, is the effects that happened and didn't happen. Game one, their total touches, Luca 83, LeBron 70, Austin 67. Game two, Luca 88, LeBron 83, Austin 79. So as each of those three move the ball more, their individual touches actually increased in the aggregate. Like they got the same opportunities upped even a bit, but likely, particularly during the first half when the ball was really whipping around from a better place of advantage. And also their usage evened up a bit. If nothing else between Luca, who's went down a little bit in game two and LeBron's that was slightly up, the biggest beneficiary. share in terms of involvement in this game was actually Gabe Vincent.

Like his touches jumped from 16 to 32 from game one to game two and his usage from a little under six to a little under 12, which is not massive on either end. And it didn't lead to a real jump in his stats. But what I think did matter is that becomes the difference between basically doing nothing tangible while you're out there as a ball handling guard off the bench. and being semi-involved like you are making the defense pay even a modicum of attention to you as opposed to game one where Gabe like a lot of guys not named luca ron and austin were kind of bystanders and you know we talked a lot about how like the physicality is not just a matter of

you know harder screens you know grabbing guys clutching guys things although there is some of that putting up just a harder wall against, against a physical opposition in Minnesota. It is moving with urgency. It is getting to your spots faster. It is having better spacing. It is setting better screens. And the numbers that you're looking at there,

both the increase in passing, the increase from the three stars and all that stuff, the increased recipients in a guy like Gabe Vincent, all of it's related because the Lakers did a much better job of getting to where they were. going faster, particularly again in the first half yesterday. If you are using 22 seconds of your shot clock instead of functionally 14 seconds, well, that's going to be two or three extra passes over the course of possession.

If guys are setting hard screens away from the ball, you have better action, a little more organization, a little more play calling, guys are going to be open to be able to pass the ball. Guys are going to get downhill into the paint and put themselves in a position, to be able to make a pass. And then you get the, you know, the bang, bang, bang. There were a couple of plays, you know, the ball kicks out at the end, you know, pass, pass, pass to, you know, you get an open shot on the perimeter. So I just, I think, you know, it's not a perfect measure because turnovers and this and that

and whatever, all kinds of stuff played in it. But those numbers reinforce what it looked like, you know, sort of like when the, when the data kind of backs up the eye test, I think everybody can kind of agree. okay, that is what we were looking at. And it's a trend the Lakers are going to have to carry into game three. And they're going to, in some ways, almost have to double down on the intention

of that stuff, because doing it in another team's building is harder than doing it in your own. Absolutely. We talked about how JJ mentioned during Monday's practice leading into Tuesday's game that he thought maybe they should have done more live scrimaging during the long week they had leading up to game one, which before JJ had even said that, I'd mentioned that I thought that maybe this team with their collective personality that can be, I think, pretty laid back,

which is not the same thing as it doesn't care, not competitive, yada, yada, but they're not an intense group, I think at the top, at least with the guys we know. I don't think either one of us can say we know Luca well enough to make a judgment one way or the other, but the other guys who've been around a while, I think that is fair. And LeBron mentioned after the win on Tuesday that they had had a really hard practice on Monday and that that was something that he felt was really beneficial for them, that they really needed, that it brought out a lot good in them that I think helped set a tone leading into that game two,

doing the things that, frankly, they all knew they needed after playing so badly in game one. They did not practice Wednesday. Maybe they practiced Thursday before getting on a flight, but they are going to have to be mindful of how do we go about maintaining that edge,

maintaining that mentality heading into, like you said, a building that is going to be harder to win it. Yeah, I don't think they, I certainly don't think they should have practiced on Wednesday. No. Given the physical nature of that game, I think they'll do a workout.

They'll walk through some stuff. It ought to be the sort of thing that once you, like once you kind of turn, like game one, I think that that practice undoubtedly helped. Everybody was talking about how it was a refocusing. But once you get to that space, you ought to be able to stay in it. I think. You know, I don't think, you know, because you're just. deeper into a series now where the Lakers are essentially playing six and a half players,

you know, in their rotation. You know, Jackson Hayes played nine minutes. Probably would have been more if Jackson would have allowed it, but, you know, Vanderbilt didn't play very much either. And that's, you know, so that's sort of your seventh guy there. Jordan Goodwin's a bit player at this point. Right. And like, so that, you know, you, you barely played seven players, you know, for, you know, for all intents and purposes. as you're playing with six, everybody's got, you got to rest and, you know, walk through, get people off their feet.

But I do think once you turn that stuff on, it ought to be able to say, the Lakers have found the level. They know what it feels like, they know what it looks like, and now they can go match it because, like I said, and we'll talk about this next, they have been really bad in Minnesota

over the last couple of years. So we'll get into that. And the Rudy Gober question. Next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Amazon Fire TV. Did you know your team? Fire TV is also an Xbox. Turn any TV into a gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV stick 4K devices.

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Okay, so anybody who listens to our show on a fairly regular basis and getting around playoff time knows that one of my favorite things to watch in the playoffs is this notion of making changes, like changing the recipe, changing what you're cooking in the kitchen for your playoff series versus just, you know, tweaking the recipe and trying to just do it better. And the Lakers, I thought, robbed themselves of an opportunity to learn a lot in game one

because they didn't kind of bring it the way that they needed to to find out what works and what doesn't. And so in game two, they were in a situation where they, according to Luca, didn't make a whole lot of adjustments. This from Yoban Buha at the athletic, there was no grand adjustment. The Lakers just played harder. This quote from Luca, we did the same game plan. We didn't really change much.

It was just a question of whether or not we're going to be more physical or not. I think we showed that and we were there for 48 minutes. One of the things I was thinking about, though, Andy, is like as you go into Minnesota and you get deeper into a series, you do start to have to figure out, okay, what can we change, what can we do? You don't want to keep showing the same looks over and over. and over again to a good team. I do have a little bit of a concern as to whether or not the Lakers are somewhat limited in the adjustments that they can make in part because they are playing such a short rotation. Like you, there are only sort of so many things you can do with some of the

players that they have. I mean, I wonder, there's probably more that they can, more levers that they can pull in terms of sets and things like that. But it does seem like at the very least, If the Lakers make changes, if they make big adjustments, it's not going to be in personnel. I don't know how much they can change in personnel other than playing Dalton Connect. Don't play Dalton Connect. I think that's really the one change that they can make. Like, Jake Milton is not going to all of a sudden enter the rotation. Brony is not going to all of a sudden enter the rotation.

Alex Len is not going to automatically just enter the rotation. Alex Lenn is not walking through that door. No. I hope. Lens sanity is not actually good. They give him excellent seats to watch the game. That should be enough. You know what I mean?

Like I doubt Markief Morris is going to all of a sudden enter the rotation. Even if, say, Jackson Hayes started really getting phased out, I think they would just go with the guys that they have just getting more minutes. And again, I think it's really a question of Dalton or no Dalton. I do think we talked about this after. the game two victory, I think JJ entered that game intending to play Jackson Hayes more. And Jackson made it very difficult to keep him on the court because he kept picking up fouls. And his performance was generously a mixed bag. And, you know, maybe that changes.

If he plays better in game three, I think JJ would be more unhappy to keep him on the court more. Just to provide more of that size, more of that athleticism, you talk about opening up the playbook, you can just open up the chapter entitled Lobbs if Jackson Hayes is out there. You know what I mean? Like that's one part of the playbook that you have with Jackson Hayes that for all intents and purposes, you do not have it all if he's either not playing or if he's sitting. It's like talking about the Raiders. You're going vertical.

Exactly. The other thing that I wonder too, and we'll see it. in the games three and four like Minnesota has one game. I'd like to see Van. I'd like to see Vano get a little more time. I would like to see him out more. I think it's interesting. Like that he's been limited has been interesting.

Like you know, in game two, he didn't match up much against Anthony Edwards, for example, just one of the things you sort of would expect him to be doing. Except the Lakers didn't, you know, they allowed 85 points in the game. They didn't need to unleash radio. So that mitigates too. also too, like if the Lakers are really playing well defensively, and also and they're struggling to score a little bit, it does mitigate sometimes the ability to use Vando effectively. Just for the fatigue fact.

I mean, putting aside what I think Vando can bring to the table. And I think where you'll see it is Sunday because, you know, you got the extra day off between Saturday and Tuesday. You get an extra day off between Tuesday and two days, in some ways, compared to the later rounds two extra days because you know this Tuesday all the way to Friday before they play again you you can go back to I think it's part of the reason that JJ was able and willing to play his guys other than they had to win that game as many minutes as he did

is because they know they had the three days off between games but Friday is a five whatever something start locally or six o'clock start locally you know eight something in Minnesota But then they play in the afternoon on Sunday. It's a much shorter turnaround. And so I think Sunday is the day you might see more guys deployed for the Lakers. That's something we can talk about. Minnesota's had one game where they really, you know, they shot the lights out, obviously.

They had one game where they were terrible shooting. Their reality is probably somewhere in the middle. The Lakers are yet to crack the 96 point barrier in this series. They're averaging 94.5 points a game. And I think one of the things I'm looking forward to, I'm curious what you think, is finding out kind of Saturday, is this because they just kind of haven't hit shots yet,

and AR is a little bit cold, and LeBron was cold in game two from three-point range and all that? Or is it that Minnesota is really just going to make it too hard for them, the Lakers are going to have to hold the wolves to 105 points or less to have a chance to win these games? I don't know the answer. of that yet. I think it's a combination of both, at least so far based off what we've seen. Like, Minnesota is a very, if you were constructing a team to try to take out the Lakers, I think

Minnesota is constructed extremely well for that assignment in terms of the personnel that they have. They're very big. They're very athletic. You know, Ant is a hard cover for any team in the league. you mentioned Austin not getting going. Austin is a big part of their offense. If Austin, I mean, LeBron's been below his averages, but it's really been most stark with Austin. Especially from outside. Yeah, I mean, he just,

he really has not been able to get going. You know, Rui missed a chunk of game two because he was dealing with his like broken face and also seemed to be passing up some shots, I think, because he might have been having difficult gulty vision-wise. And we saw earlier in the season when Rui had to play with a mask because of the concussion and the nasal fracture, he hated it.

And I don't blame him. And it was clearly bugging him. And it was a less effective version of Rui. It would be helpful if DFS and Gabe got more shots and I think made more, although DFS, I think, was 50% from the field in game two. He just didn't get a ton of shots. And again, if you want to get some of the cheap points that the Lakers have counted on have been from Jackson on Lobbs.

And if that is not there for them, we're starting to just run into different ways that the Lakers offense has not been there for them in this series in the way that it's often been when their offense is really clicking. Yeah. And one of the things, and we'll maybe can talk about this for a minute or so and then get into it more in the next segment is like Rudy Gobert is becoming a fascinating focal point. Like when you look at the national coverage, the local coverage, like what gets people excited inside the crypt?

Like anytime Luca or really anybody was matched up against Gobert, it's like time time stops. And like you can tell the Lakers because probably because they like everybody else don't like him, get really keyed up and focused on the opportunity to isolate and cook Rudy in space. And there are a couple moments where it worked, but it's, it's, I know you and I were texting back and forth earlier on Wednesday, just like different stuff in the national media where people are talking about Minnesota's Rudy problem and this and that, whatever. I'm curious when we get back if you think, not just the Lakers, but like everybody, is over-focused on Rudy Gobert.

I certainly have my thoughts, so we'll get to that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by game time. There is nothing like the atmosphere of an NBA playoff game. Every bucket, every defensive stop, every moment feels huge. It is electric in the arena. And with game time, you can be a part of it. Without the stress of last-minute ticket hunting, game time makes it fast, easy to get playoff tickets.

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Terms apply. Again, create an account. Redeem the code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-B-A. $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. So I know we talked about this. It was like sort of the only flaw in Luca's performance I thought on Tuesday. It was a little bit too much of the excitement at the one-on-one with Rudy. Overall, what do you think of how the Lakers as playing? I don't even talking about the coaching staff because I'm not sure totally. if the Lakers are attacking this exactly as the staff would like. But where are you on this sort of notion of Rudy Gobert in this series,

how he's being talked about how the Lakers are treating him, all this? I think this is my hot take. Rudy Gaubert has been fine. He is not the problem. He is not the solution. He is not as good as Minnesota, I think, hopes that he would be. he is not as bad as the Lakers have hoped that he would be. He has been fine.

I don't think he has been dominant in ways that maybe he could be given the lack of size that the Lakers have to directly match up against him. I also think that every time he has been isolated in space, there have been times that it's worked for the Lakers, times where I think the Lakers have gotten unnecessarily caught up in it. you know, you can find different stats that will explain why the Lakers exploiting Ruda-Gobert has been good. You can find some stats that say they're focusing too much on it.

It hasn't been particularly effective, particularly if you look at individual matchups, like the matchup numbers, however, NBA.com, for example, defined matched up. Luca versus Gobert, LeBron versus Gobert, Austin versus Gobert. Those numbers say that it actually has not been particularly effective. efficient for the Lakers. But he clearly is not hurting the wolves. He is clearly not hurting Minnesota's defense, lest anybody forget what you said earlier. They are holding the Lakers to an average of 94 and a half points per game. Like he can't by definition, he can't be hurting that much. And it's a lot of this is just like you said,

He is a magnet for polarization, not just among media and fans. I think it's players within the league. If you ever get to like anonymous, sometimes even on the record comments from players, they think he is overrated as defensive force. I think they think it's inexplicable that he's won as many defensive player in the years, or at least undeserving that many of them. But I think a lot of this is just it's Rudy. go bare and there are probably still people who blame him for the pandemic.

All of it, the whole thing. My only concern with it is because I do think obviously there are things you can do against him. There are times when the right player can, you know, we saw AR, for example, a couple of times do a good job of creating a little spacing, just getting downhill, which is something he's very good at with, isolated against Gobert. LeBron has struggled a little bit more with it. Luca, I think you can get a little bit tunnel vision on it.

My only real concern with it isn't that it's not something the Lakers can try to exploit, but it needs to be kind of in the flow of things. And so where it doesn't stop, like, oh, we've got three more actions. We can go here. But, oh, we got somebody isolated on top of the top of the floor with Rudy. Let's let everything else stops. Let's go. That to me is not a recipe for building.

consistently good offense. Plus, too, I think the Lakers have had more, if you're going to attack someone, you should think they've had more luck and success attacking Randall than they've had attacking Gobert. So, you know, it's a matter of picking your spots. We all want to light up Rudy Gobert. It's human nature.

But you have to do it smart. Well, you know, it's interesting what you just said about, like the best way to create more effective offense I might feel better about it if the Lakers' offense had been better in general. And this just felt like one of the things that they are doing as part of what's been, I don't know if you could be a juggernaut against a wolf's defense that really is pretty good. I mean, it's been very good all season. I mean, on paper they profile is a very good defense.

So there's only so much you can expect to light them up. but if the Lakers' offense had been better in general, then you might look at this as more of a wrinkle. But like what you said, the moments with Gobert, whether they work or whether they don't, they feel representative of the Laker offense stopping. And the Laker offense stopping is generally speaking, independent of Rudy Gobert.

That's usually when it's at its worst. So it feels like a reflection of when, it's not working, even if on a possession by possession basis, it might work. Like in a vacuum, fine, overarching worrisome. And there can be times when it's in the flow of stuff and like, you know, guys pick up Rudy on the move and the spacing's good. It's like, go, attack. Awesome.

It's just, it's something that really has caught my eye only because it's also being like, I hate when people make me sympathetic to Rudy Gober, but like people, people, People are picking on him nationally in ways he doesn't deserve. And it just, it's representative of him being, I think, too big a focus, no pun intended, of what's going on in this series. So we'll see what the Lakers do in game three here. But one of the, I mentioned the Lakers have struggled in Minnesota. They've lost four straight in the regular season. I believe it's seven of eight.

So seven of their last eight, including four straight. I knew they'd kind of struggled there. I'd forgotten kind of how bad it's been. And they go back and look at it. And a couple of those are old-fashioned booty kickings. They are, but it's very, it's very thematic with one of the things that we talked about heading into this series when we were looking to preview it. And we were saying there is just so little information to go on. I don't know how much of anything we've seen leading up to this actually matters.

Because three of the four games they played against Minnesota was pre-Luca trade. And then the one post-Luca trade, Minnesota was missing a bunch of guys, including Ant who got ejected. Right. And does it matter like if to three years ago they lost one? Okay. You know, you're leading me where I want to go. In 2025, the two times they played in Minnesota,

one of the losses was with no Austin Reeves, no Vanderbilt pre-DFS trade, second end of a back-to-back. The other one, no LeBron, no Vando, no Jackson Hayes, pre-Dorine Finney Smith. 2024, one of the losses, no LeBron. The other one, full slate, but it was the LeBron A.D. All Wings starting five with Torian Prince, Jared Vanderbilt, Cam Reddish. Tori and Prince playing 33 minutes. They did only lose, though, by two. Then, 2023, like, one of the games, forget you hadn't gotten Rui at that point.

Like, Russell Westbrook is still on the team. And, like, the other one, you know, Carl Anthony Towns had a pretty big game. Change the complexion of what's happening. What I'm saying? Like, the other one, like Carl Anthony Towns had a pretty big game. I'm not worried about that. You know what I mean?

Like, I don't know what you can extract from any of it. Like, there's, I'm not saying, I think the thing that would have me worry worried about the games in Minnesota is just that the Lakers have not been a great road team this year. But like the idea of what they've done in Minnesota's building of late, I got to be honest, I don't care. Like there's that information I just laid out like it's only six of the eight games you've discovered, but you want to get into like what Lonnie Walker did in one of those games? Like you know, Kendrick Nunn, who cares? I am a little bit of a big game from Harry Childs.

Like, who cares? I'm a little concerned as to how Russ is going to perform in game three. I don't know, man. But DeAndre Jordan splits, though, against the wolves have been great. So they should think about dusting him off. Yeah, and the Lakers were a-fo in this. The Lakers were a better road team towards the end of the year than they were at the beginning. And Minnesota is, Minnesota is an interesting team in the sense they were about the same, no matter where they're.

played. Their home and road differentiation isn't significant at all. It was, you know, they, they were one game better at home than they were on the road. Whereas the Lakers, by comparison, were 11, 12 games better. The Waves are a really good team. I mean, they just, I'm just saying, like the Lakers splits between their home and road were yeah, far more stark. Um, they, I, that, that was sort of my feeling, too. But it is one of these things that kind of gets thrown out there where, you know, people talk about, oh, my God, I'm one in 10 years in this place. Well, I, it's a road crowd. That's that's a challenge.

Josh Hart had a bad game in one of the like I, what am I supposed to do with that? Who cares? Yeah. And yeah, it's it's a road crowd. It's over with the flip side is like the Lakers between. Jeremy Lynn's never been good in Minnesota like going back 10 years. Gives a bleep. They're running an entire ad campaign about, you know, right now about how Luca Donchich,

that's built around like Luca's love of quieting and and saddening opposing fan bases. Like he is not somebody who's going to get all shaky in on the road. And LeBron obviously is not going to be shook playing on the road. AR is fine. And they're only playing like four other guys, three other guys. So it's like, you know, that whole notion of role guys not doing as well on the road, I guess it's true. But the Lakers are barely playing any role guys.

Is Jackson Hayes going to be worse on Friday than he was on Tuesday? I am more confident in that stuff and their ability to essentially go and win one of these games. I think, you know, it'd be great if they won two. They need to win one. And I am pretty confident their ability to do it. And if they don't, it's not because, like, there's some sort of hoodoo going on in the, in the target center that they just can't handle. I don't know. Anyway, Lockdown-Lakers on YouTube is where you go hang out with 35,000 like-minded folks, all of whom are super duper excited for game three and what the Lakers going to produce.

Obviously, more time to prepare for that game. We'll be back to do that with you tomorrow. See everyone then.