Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Can the Rockets Make LeBron's Life Harder in Game 2? Can the Lakers Cut Down on Turnovers?

Starting point is 00:00:00 LeBron dominated game one without having to score. Can Houston come up with a solution to a growing LeBron problem? 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 everyone for stopping by Lockedon Lakers, Brian Komenetsky, Andy Komenetsky. Plenty to get into as we continue to break down what happened in game one.

Starting point is 00:00:36 and try to see what it might hold for game two. On Tuesday at the Crip, the Lakers obviously taking a one-zero advantage into that second game. No word yet on whether or not Kevin Durant will play. Obviously, that has massive implications for how the game will play out, what each team does, how they match up, and so on. What to let everyone know today's episode is brought to you by Fandall. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $200.

Starting point is 00:01:06 $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Head to fendool.com to get started. We'll get in a minute to this question about LeBron James. So I think this was the ideal version of a LeBron game in this series for the Lakers in which he is able to exert control and kind of guide the shape of the game for the Lakers, but do so in a way that doesn't require him to put up 25, 30, 40 points in the process. And so what Houston does in response to that is going to be going to be interesting. But like the people are still talking any about Luke Kinnard.

Starting point is 00:01:45 People are still talking about the way that the Lakers overcame that sort of the possession battle. There's still a lot to try to figure out from game one about how things played out and what those adjustments then would look like for game two. I think, for example, like the possession battle is going to be, you know, it's going to be another number that people look at from game one to game two. How efficiently can Houston convert the second chance opportunities that they get? Do the Lakers defend equally well this time as they did on Saturday? Like there's even if the same stuff happens again, Andy, like do you get the same outcome? two games in a row.

Starting point is 00:02:32 Fun stat from Varun Shikar, Shankar, who covers the Rockets for the Houston Chronicle. The Rockets are just the fourth team in NBA history. And first since 1985 to lose a game where they took at least 27 more field goal attempts and at most one less free throw than their opponent per sports ref. There's a Celtics game here from 1962 where they show. 29. Like I said in our immediate reaction. Yeah, obviously. I mean, you were like 10. As I said in our immediate reaction to the game one win, like I know the Lakers gave up 21 offensive rebounds. I know they had 20 total

Starting point is 00:03:20 turnovers. That stuff that has to be cleaned up, like they, particularly the turnovers, which I think is far more within their control and reasonable to get their hands on than the offensive rebounding because they've got to do their best, but Houston is just that, like historically elite. But I would argue the Lakers did an amazing job mitigating the damage from both of those factors. And for Houston to have that many extra possessions and still shoot below. 40% from the field, it is horrendous. Like, if the Lakers had just been decent at the free throw line as opposed to merely awful,

Starting point is 00:04:06 they win by double digits, that is staggering when you lose the possession battle by 20-eff seven. That is nuts. It's not good. But I will say, like, the question is that I've been thinking about this a lot over the course of the day and following the game. I'm like, that's not normal. You know, that is really bad.

Starting point is 00:04:32 And, you know, I understand Houston's offense is not great. You know, and they, that they gain a lot in terms of their overall production based on offensive rebounding and then the sort of the conversions that come off of that. Now, in the playoffs, I think your ability to capitalize on second. and chance points goes down a little bit just because teams in the regular season may not contest those second chance opportunities quite as hard. You kind of concede a layup or you don't, you're not as attentive to closing out, whatever it might be. In the playoffs, you don't get those benefits. But even with that caveat, the Lakers still, you know, you could argue there's an element of luck and variance and all that other stuff. The same with Houston shooting, that, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:23 there's an element of luck in that. It's not entirely. Defense plays a big role. But where I think the Lakers can be kind of encouraged, especially if Durant doesn't play in game two, is that even if thing, let's say Houston is seven buckets better in game two than they were in game one,

Starting point is 00:05:43 whether you're talking about like second chance points in shooting, whatever, however you want to break it down. Say, you know, there are 15 points better, you know, an extra seven buckets. that's a lot. It's a big difference from game one to game two. It still leaves them in the mid-1-10s in terms of the number that the Lakers have to hit

Starting point is 00:06:04 to try to get over. Because I do think with the Lakers' offense, asking them to put up 125 every game to try to win, that's probably not a winning proposition for the Lakers over the course of the series. but if they have to come up with 118, 117, 112, 113 to win some of these games, that I think is doable. And Houston, there's a gap right now between Houston and 115 points.

Starting point is 00:06:36 And there is also a pretty clear blueprint here for nights where it could be hard for them to crack 100, or hard for them to crack 105, you know, 108, 100, 100, when Durant doesn't play. I think if Katie plays, obviously, the analysis. changes. But if he doesn't play in game two, you know, I think all this stuff holds. Yeah, you could just see. It was interesting. I was thinking about that. I rewatched the game one and I've got some observations, things that jumped out of me that I either didn't notice as much the first time around or just we didn't have time to get into it. But particularly without Durant, Houston starts becoming a better matchup for the Lakers defensively in terms of

Starting point is 00:07:21 of not exacerbating some of their weaknesses. Like, for example, they don't have the type of elite quick guard, either point or shooting, that can often give the Lakers a lot of trouble, given they only have really two plus point-of-attack defenders in Marcus Smart and Vando, in terms of the guy that you would have that as their main gig. And even some of their, you know, some of their high, you know, 20 point per game scores like Amman Thompson and. Alpern-Shingon, like, they're obviously a handful, and they're talented, but they're not guys that can really stretch the floor, and they're not true three-level scores. They're very good at the things that they do, but they're not guys that particularly

Starting point is 00:08:07 scramble a defense and really have you with your head just spinning on a swivel because you can't keep up with what they're doing. Not individual. Like they can in combination with a guy like to rant, but you're right. That's what I'm saying. Shangoon's passing ability when Durant is playing is monumentally problematic. But when he's sort of not the,

Starting point is 00:08:30 you know, when you can put all eyes on him makes a big difference. Yeah. And it just, it starts becoming, I mean, with Durant, if Durant is back,

Starting point is 00:08:40 then obviously, as you said, the math on a lot of this changes. And the Lakers are going to have some things to figure out, including perhaps even their own rotation, starting lineup, things like that to match. size, but as long as Durant isn't there, or if Durant is there, but he's compromised,

Starting point is 00:08:58 they just become a fairly ideal, I think, matchup for the Lakers to defend just because they don't really pick apart the Lakers' biggest defensive weaknesses other than defensive rebounding. And a lot of that isn't even so much the Lakers are awful on the defensive boards. They're not great. They're not terrible. they're pretty mid. It's just Houston is amazing at it.

Starting point is 00:09:24 But beyond that, they don't really pick apart a whole lot of the Lakers' biggest trouble areas. And like, you know, if you look at, you know, the numbers from NBA.com, and I know some people take issue with the way they do defensive matchup data and whatever. But, you know, D'Andre Aiton was, he held Shengun in individual matchups to four of 11 shooting, Rockets were 9 of 24 when Aiton was the primary defender period.

Starting point is 00:09:56 Rui, for example, spent more time than anybody else as the primary defender on Amman Thompson or spent more time in possessions involving Thompson defensively. Thompson with Rui directly on him, three of eight from the field for six points. He had five assists, but also two turnovers. Rui had a block. That's good work from Rui. And certainly, obviously, one more bucket and you're four of over. The point is it's not seven of eight.

Starting point is 00:10:23 It's not. It's fine. Yeah, it's good. He's also, he's not getting to the line. Like Rui wasn't following it, following him for Thompson to get his points. You know, one more bucket. Yeah, sure, he's at 50%. But that's basically Amen Thompson's averages.

Starting point is 00:10:39 He shoots like 52, 50%, 53% from the field. So at that point, you're basically holding serve against Amen Thompson for a guy like Rui Hachamura, who you always have defensive concerns about for the most part, that's pretty good. And then in the meantime, Jabari Smith was the guy that he spent the next amount of time on. Smith was one of four for five points and got blocked with Rui's the primary defender there. And like, Vando really did a number on Reed Shepard. Like, there was just a lot really good in these matchups. There's a lot. And I want to, um, there's a couple other things that I think, you know, when, especially

Starting point is 00:11:18 when Katie doesn't play, just favors the way the Lakers can do stuff and gives them an enormous opportunity if Durant is still out in game two. And let's get into some of those things next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by game time. There's nothing like playoff basketball live, the intensity, the crowd, the rivalries. It's a completely

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Starting point is 00:13:31 when durant doesn't play or at least when durant didn't play it you know there was at least some conversation going into the series um would the would the rockets start reed shepherd where they bring him off the bench um i assumed they would start him But like it's the way it worked out with Durant that, you know, he didn't play. And then now you're definitely locked into Reed Shepard. And, you know, our friends, it's like Franco pointed this out. They played a lot of Jayshon Tate as opposed to Tariiessen in different spots. Like when that happens, it's like you noted they don't have those attacking guards and stuff like that. teams generally speaking try to punish the Lakers for playing Luke

Starting point is 00:14:24 Kinnard heavy minutes because you can see what he does for their offense even if he isn't going five for five from three point range. It's just he is such an incredible asset, especially to this version of the Lakers offense, that you would want to try to make him leave the floor because you can punish him defensively. Everybody still has flashbacks to what the like the Mavericks did and all that kind of stuff, just hunting him all over the floor.

Starting point is 00:14:52 Houston really struggled to make that work. And the Lakers were kind of able to hide Karnard, I think, a lot on Josh Kogi. But when there's just a lot of different ways. And it doesn't even like tax LeBron too, too much. Like there's just a lot of ways to kind of hide it that advantage, give Lakers advantage to being able to play a guy like Conard. And so that was a big deal. The size

Starting point is 00:15:20 gets mitigated. It is really stunning. Just what the difference in the way the matchups play out in this series look like when Kevin Durant can't play. Well, I mean, also too, like the three-point shooting, so much of that is

Starting point is 00:15:36 centered around Durant. If Durant's not there, it really then comes down to Reed Shepard. And you know, Jabari Smith, Javar Smith Jr. is a good but not great three-point shooter. So that allows the Lakers to sag off and, you know, be able to really play someone like Amman Thompson who's more of a driver with, you know, with that type of space, daring, daring him to take jumpers. Same thing with, like, the more guys that are back, the more you're getting in the way of Alperin Shengun,

Starting point is 00:16:09 who is not a floor spacer at all. And like, uh, Varon Shankar again, from the Chronicle tweeted out after the game, quote, Schengun said he didn't want to post up that much because the Lakers flooded the zone. Emey said Alpe could have been more patient, face up to invite double and then fight teammates. Don't go away from being a facilitator in the post. Yodoka said. Shangoon said, L.A. did a good job closing off the baseline pass. And anyone who flashed middle, he said his only option was to pass back to the player who fed him in the post,

Starting point is 00:16:38 and needed the ball movement to get more open shots. Some of that is the Lakers defense, to be sure. reading well what Houston was trying to do. But some of that was also, it's easier for them to stay back when you look at the personnel that Houston doesn't have without Duran. Again, you're basically at that point, you're worried about Reed Shepard and you are conscious of Jabari Smith, you don't want to just leave him open. He's too good of a shooter for that.

Starting point is 00:17:05 But there are a lot of other players on this team who either don't take threes or, you know, Josh Okie, you'll take. your chances with him. You know, if he makes three or four, break his rhythm. But until then, like, so again, there is a lot right now defensively

Starting point is 00:17:24 that is just working matchup-wise for the Lakers all goes out the window or at least on the window still. It changes significantly. It's like, it's like, the Lakers shot quality obviously improves, like the shot quality data when they play with Lucas is insane.

Starting point is 00:17:41 And so that changes when Luca doesn't play. But the other thing that really did come through, and you alluded to this in the first segment, was the Lakers without, maybe this is an experience thing, maybe it's a skill set thing, maybe it's just the Lakers, you know, even somebody like Marcus Smart, who wasn't great offensively in game one. But, you know, led this. This was the rare game where the Lakers lost their minutes pretty significantly when Smith was on the floor. So, but like you have, but he still got to the line a lot and he had some assists. Like there was, he was still doing a lot. Like they had his presence there and all of that. The Rockets, the Lakers just seemed far, for whatever reason, far more comfortable in how to execute in with the personnel they had available. The ball movement was good.

Starting point is 00:18:34 The player movement was good. Obviously, the shot making was unusually good and probably, you know, can't be counted on. at exactly that level for game two. But Houston just seemed much more tentative in how they were going to execute in the half court. And the Lakers turned the ball over a ton, and they need to cut that down in game two. But in those ways where the Lakers can keep the rockets in the half court, I think they've got a pretty decent formula.

Starting point is 00:19:05 And then look, if Shepard is a really good shooter, he's likely to shoot better in the series. but you can make and make shots like make it make a few you make Javari smith make a few and don't you don't have to you know panic if those guys hit a couple shots in a row don't let Amman Thompson have an easy path to basket don't make Shangoon's life easy at the elbow or down in the block where he can pass or shoot or whatever cut off those driving lanes all that kind of stuff and it will make an enormous difference I do going to mention too. I tell you, make sure we leave it with a time to talk about LeBron because I know, Andy, when we kind of drew up like what this could look like, what's the best way

Starting point is 00:19:53 to navigate LeBron through a series like this, it kind of looked like what happened in game one. Like that was damn near perfect, I thought. Yeah. I don't know if they can rely on winning games with LeBron scoring just 19 points. I think that will be on generally speaking the low end of expectation. Not that

Starting point is 00:20:19 LeBron wasn't aggressive or anything like that. You had Luke Kinnard putting up 27 and DeAndre Aitin putting up 19 and Rui was very, Rui had some really key baskets in this game, really efficient and Houston

Starting point is 00:20:35 couldn't crack a hundred. So there's a lot of, only so much you need from LeBron at that point. I think he's going to read these things out exactly as needed. And in a lot of ways, it feels like first and foremost, he wants to make sure that everything stays on the rails and that the offense is moving well and that guys are getting good shots. I thought throughout this game, like you could see it most often with the baskets Luke Conard was getting. But the offball action in this game from the Lakers was superb all game.

Starting point is 00:21:12 Like it showed a lot with Conard, you know, with these curls he was running, often going into DHOs and stuff like that to get these shots. But they had a lot of guys just continually moving. There was very little standing around in the game. I don't know how much of that is the byproduct of, this is going to sound like a shot at Luke and I don't mean it this way. Marcus Smart and Luke Kinnard are not as capable of doing some of the things that Luca, or to a lesser of a tangible degree, Austin Reeves can do.

Starting point is 00:21:44 So in a lot of ways, they have to give up the ball quicker than the way. 100. And everybody else has to, like, you need to do. Luca. Luca can bail out. Luca forgives a lot of sins offensive. Right. Luca can bail out stagnant possessions, even if you think at times,

Starting point is 00:22:04 the reason they're stagnant is Luca. Luca can bail it out in ways that Marcus Smart and Luke Kinnard cannot do. But just everybody was really moving and relocating extremely well. Before we go to break, just really quick, the turnovers that you mentioned, the Lakers need to do better. The good news is so much of this came rewatching the game again when they would speed themselves up. And like the biggest culprit in this was Marcus Smart.

Starting point is 00:22:33 Like there were many times in this game where he just became too frantic. But, you know, they want to be moving with precision and crispness and making, you know, fast decisions. But they need to make sure they're not sped up. If they're not sped up, I think they'll be fine. Yeah. And, you know, to your point, like, what was it? Like, eight of them came in the second quarter. Like, there was a big run of turnovers in that one part of the game.

Starting point is 00:23:00 But like, so, like, if you're the Lakers, you obviously. I obviously love this formula with LeBron. I agree with you 100%. You know, the second half, there were some moments where they needed some buckets. And you could tell that where LeBron was like, I'm going to go score. I'm going to do it. But early he was like, I'm going to make sure that our offense is moving,

Starting point is 00:23:19 that people are moving, that there's not that level of stagnation. And that's when the eight assists came in the first quarter and 10 in the first half. If you're the rockets, what do you do? What is your response? Let's assume the lineups are the same in game two. What is your response to the way that LeBron played to try to change that dynamic? We'll get to it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul.

Starting point is 00:23:53 The NBA playoffs are here where every possession matters. Every matchup is magnified. Every game can swing a series. The Lakers play the Rockets game two on Tuesday. And right now, Lakers are four and a half point dogs over at Fandul. maybe the expectation is Kevin Durant's going to be back or Houston just adjusts with a couple days of practice. But just saying if you feel good about the Lakers, right now, Van Duel getting points to boot.

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Starting point is 00:26:48 and can exert control over the game without having to score. That's exactly what happened in game one. So if you're Houston, I have some thoughts on how I would do it. What would you do try to respond to the way that LeBron was able to play in game one? I would probably try to make him more of a score if for no other reason. then it likely tires him out more. And if it tires him out more, it could weaken his performance over the course of four quarters, not to mention it prevents some of these other guys from getting into an early

Starting point is 00:27:28 rhythm. Like, I doubt it is a coincidence that there was 46 combined points between Luke Kinnard and DeAndre Ait, and they both got involved super early. Like, both of those guys, whether you're because, whether because we know that Aiton, often early action, early success can build a full performance for Aitin. No question. Luke Conard is still the new guy on this team. He's been very good, but he is still in a lot of ways in a feeling out process.

Starting point is 00:28:02 So I think it helps him a lot to get going that early as well. Aggressiveness is something all of his coaches have tried to coax out of him over the course of his career anyway. So I would try to make LeBron more of a score. It'll be interesting to see how they go about trying to do that. Like, do you try to force him into more isolation? You know, what happens if the Lakers counter by having, say, Marcus and Cunard bring the ball up more to initiate actions? LeBron starts getting himself into the post.

Starting point is 00:28:42 Like, do you start setting a double? They did. I mean, there was a lot where those two guys were, you know, kind of the primary ball handler in terms of just getting the ball up over half court. Right. You know, they did a lot of, like you say, like that puts LeBron in a position where he can theoretically get a catch, you know, in an advantageous position for sure.

Starting point is 00:29:03 Or I mean, I mean, I guess you could start looking to, you know, pressure, Carnard, pressure, Marcus, like start sending double. early in their possession as they're instigating, I mean, as they're initiating, but then the flip side is, if they manage to beat that double and you're all of a sudden now looking at possessions where you can get the ball to LeBron, where the Lakers are on a four three power play,

Starting point is 00:29:27 then I think Houston's defense really starts becoming compromise. So I mean, in a lot of ways, if I'm Houston, I might focus more on getting their bleep together offensively, more than I would really worry about what do we do with LeBron. Like, LeBron had a really good game, but at the same time, the Lakers scored 107 points. That's exactly what I was going to say. I think that's a great point. I mean, I said I would probably look to make him a score,

Starting point is 00:29:56 but the reality is I probably wouldn't change a whole hell of a lot other than maybe some of the individual coverages probably on everyone else or whatever. I would worry about trying to figure out of a score. I think that is a great point. And I am thinking along the lines in terms of like if you do want to try to change the LeBaron dynamic, what you had said, you and I completely agree. It's how do we make him into a score? How do we load up the scoring burden? I think that is trying to punish the Lakers for starting possessions without him.

Starting point is 00:30:33 So the LeBron didn't get the ball. And so that either means making it, you know, putting the Lakers, in a position where you end up kind of needing LeBron to initiate possessions, or doing a really good job with ball denial so that when you are trying to do the thing where the Lakers have done a really nice job of, which is somebody else triggers the offense and they run an action. LeBron ends up getting the ball either on the move or with a good switch in the high post, whatever it is, and now he can kind of cook without having to do some of the heavy lifting.

Starting point is 00:31:06 Can you deny him the ball so that the Lakers have to. change up what they want to do so that LeBron can even touch it on a possession. Easier said than done. Some of the best clips from game one are the ones where LeBron is directing traffic when you can see him reading the coverages that Houston's throwing out kind of as fast as Houston can do them, rearranging players on the floor and the Lakers end up with good, with good possessions out of it. like you know canard and smart are also pretty smart guys like no pun intended like they they're

Starting point is 00:31:43 going to read the floor well they're not luka in the sense that they can read and do things to you to you defensively that are just absurd um but they'll see what's going on these are smart players so i think you're kind of right like the rocket's probably going to give you two with the idea of They shot 60%. They shot 50% from the floor. We were really bad, like, all that kind of stuff. And all that stuff happened. They still only scored 107 points.

Starting point is 00:32:18 Luke Kennard's not going to score 27 points again. They did all that. We kept them under 110. I wonder how they'll do that. Like, it's a really good point. Like, do you just ignore some of that stuff? Let the Lakers kind of do what they were doing anyway. and just play better.

Starting point is 00:32:40 I mean, one of my favorite things about the playoffs is like, when do you change things? When do the adjustments happen? And when is your adjustment like, you know what? Our game plan was fine. We missed too many shots or we miss coverages or we did it wrong. Let's do our game plan better. That's often the adjustment coaches need to make. Well, and look, a lot of the game plan adjustment, and I'm sure the Rockets had been planning for the idea of Kevin

Starting point is 00:33:06 to rant not playing in this game, but he didn't get hard. Even had Doka said after that they had a pretty good idea for a couple days that he might not play. Right. Right. But the point is, though, only a couple days. Like he heard himself either Wednesday or Thursday in practice, they only had a couple of days to game plan for not just their best player being out, not just their best scorer being out, but their best score on an offense that often is shaky with him and ugly with him, much less without him. Like, they often looked like they were unsure of themselves out there and how to generate. You know, they had some good looks that they missed, but it was often just really clunky.

Starting point is 00:33:51 I think a lot of what they need to figure out is just, okay, if KD can't play, how do we do this better? Like defensively, I mean, one thing that really jumped out of me, if I'm Houston because like I said, the Lakers only scored 107 points. Some of that was the Lakers lost so many possessions with turnovers. So had the Lakers done a better job, you know, like turn the ball over, say 13 or 14 times, which is not great, but it's at least in the realm of acceptable, the Lakers may start hitting 115 or something and it looks different.

Starting point is 00:34:27 But an area that I would look at more defensively for Houston rather than what do we do with LeBron or should we approach Luke Kinnard differently, whatever. Okay, the Lakers shot 26 free throws in this game without Luca and without Austin Reeves. That's their average on the season. They averaged, in the regular season, they averaged to shade under 27. 17 of those are Luca and Austin, and LeBron only took two free throws in this game. Like, that to me is something that if I'm Houston, I'm looking at and saying, okay, how did that happened? How did Marcus Smart

Starting point is 00:35:04 get eight free throws? How did Luke Kinnard get six? I think Aiton got six. Like, I want to say Jake LaRavia got four. Like, how did that happen? Like, as opposed to trying to dissect an offense that, I mean, I know it shot at a

Starting point is 00:35:22 super high clip, but they, unless they really feel like it was fluky, they probably feel like they did something to generate some of those. turnovers. You know, there are adjustments they want to make or whatever, but the biggest thing is, particularly if KD can't play, they got to figure out how to score. Yeah. And I look at the, from the Lakers perspective, you look at it and you say, well, you know, yeah, we knew we were going to give up a lot of offensive rebounds to the Rockets. Like, that's going to be an issue all series.

Starting point is 00:35:52 We understand it. Our job is to mitigate that, not worry about ending it. Like LeBron has pointed out a few times. Like a historically good rebounding team. That said, the Lakers had three offensive rebounds in that game. Like, can you make that

Starting point is 00:36:09 six? Like, three is a very low number of offensive rebounds for an NBA basketball game. If you make that six, which is also not a really big number, eight, you're eating into that

Starting point is 00:36:25 possession disparity in ways that I think people may not, so that there are ways the Lakers can kind of mitigate this stuff as well. And that's what's sort of what's the sort of fun about the chess match. It's funny to say this really quick. Like it's funny to say this with LeBron because he had a, I mean, he had a masterful game in terms of control. Like LeBron's control of this game was masterful.

Starting point is 00:36:54 You know, 13 assists against just two turnovers, set a career playoff. off high for first quarter assists, tied for assists at a half. But his overall line, like if you look at the damage, if say you were told you're Houston and you're told heading into this game, LeBron's going to have 19, 8 and 13, you would probably say we'll take that. Like, we'll take that and we'll assume that Kinnard doesn't go crazy or Aiton doesn't go crazy or that a couple other guys. Right, because you're doing it onto the assumption that if LeBron doesn't score 30, the Lakers can't win.

Starting point is 00:37:33 Right, exactly. But if you let him control a game the way that he did, he doesn't need to. It's tough to keep LeBron from controlling games. Dirty little secret. It is, and this is, but like, we'll quit here because, I mean, the LeBron aspect is, this is the one part of the reason the Lakers operated better, And, you know, no KD. Why is that such a big deal?

Starting point is 00:38:02 He's an old guy. He doesn't play it like wrong. Kevin Durant played 78 games this year. The Lakers have far more experience playing without Luca and Reeves this year with their mix of players than the Rockets have playing without Kevin Durant. Durant was very, very durable over the course of the season. And so, you know, that's a thing. And like LeBron is just going to process everything that's happening.

Starting point is 00:38:28 happening faster than the guys in the Rockets will. And so if you can't make him work harder, you know, whether that's ball pressure, whether that's making him face up to try to score against the defense, whatever it is, he's going to be able to continue to dominate in this way. It really is a matter of trying to put him in less, in more stressful situations that tire him out, that make each possession harder. And all that. So he might still burn you, but it'd be harder for him to do it for six more games.

Starting point is 00:39:04 So lots more to unpack. The NBA has its finalist lists for postseason awards. And the Lakers have some interesting matchup things coming. There's just a lot in this series still obviously yet to play. We will cover some more stuff for you Monday afternoon and be back for you for Tuesday's show Monday evening. So coverage, coverage, coverage. of this playoff series. And thanks everyone for stopping by.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Can the Rockets Make LeBron's Life Harder in Game 2? Can the Lakers Cut Down on Turnovers?

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