Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - More Lakers-Rockets Game 5 Scouting! Can LA Close Out? Houston Gained Momentum?

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

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Can the Lakers close out the Rockets in game five? What difference will Austin Reeves make to the offense? Will it hurt them on defense? What can the Lakers do to get some points? We discuss that and more with Jackson Gatlin of Locked on Rockets. 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 stopping by Locked on Lakers, Brian Keminence. Andy Kemenatsky, we've had a great series of crossover episodes with this Lakers Rocket series with Jackson Gatlin of Locked on Rockets. One more of those where we break down what might be coming in Game 5 and whether or not Jackson believes the Rockets can extend this one well beyond Game 5 to Wednesday night. Get to all of that and more next. All right, guys, Game 5 between these two teams, two teams that have become intimately familiar, with one another across the first four games of this series. And it's now, I mean, every game since game four is bit.

It's a do-or-die game for the Rockets, right? If they lose, it's end of the line. They're looking for a way to keep their season alive in this one. Finding some success over the final, you know, these last, you know, five to six quarters, especially defensively figuring some things out for this Lakers squad. And that's where I'd like to kind of start things off here. Just your thoughts on specific. specifically the turnovers in game four,

24 turnovers from L.A. leading to 30 points for the Rockets. I just kind of, what were you guys seeing as far as what the rockets were doing to kind of force the issue with some of those turnovers? And how do you expect J.J. Reddick, LeBron, the Lakers, to try to clean some of that up moving forward in game five and potentially further in this series?

I mean, for me, go ahead, Andy. I think a big factor in game four, just overarching with anything. thing we may talk about is fatigue. I think the Lakers were absolutely exhausted from that game three overtime, the quick turnaround, and then being the older team. I don't say that to detract or take away from things Houston did well, because I do think there were several things that they did to help win that, like help win themselves that

game. But that being said, I think fatigue led to a lot of bad decision making. I think fatigue led to a lot of bad execution. I think fatigue led to being not on the same page very often. And I think fatigue prevented the best version of the Lakers from presenting themselves, even acknowledging Houston has been, I think, over the last six quarters the better team. Yeah, and I look at it from the perspective of, you know, I think ball pressure was really big. I think different people pointed this out in different ways,

sort of the crews who break down these games and stuff like that. And I think it's true that the rockets gummed up, I think, some of what the Lakers were doing by being just like the screens were less effective or harder to, you know, some of the action the Lakers were doing didn't really work as well. They couldn't get bodies on bodies. They couldn't, you know, things just weren't as crisp. And the Rockets did a better job. I think fighting through stuff.

But generally speaking, you know, they just, I think they pressured guys like Kinnard Moore. I think they pressured Marcus Smartmore. You know, we talked in the first part of this, like they made it harder for LeBron to operate in space where he, you know, could move without a little less opposition, whether that's the elbow down on the block or something like that, where it's just, it's harder to turn him over. If you make him put the ball on the floor, it gets, he is more turnover prone.

What's he got 16 in the last two games, I believe it is? I think Tari Isson's defense against LeBron as the primary defender or part of the action has been terrific. Like, LeBron is shooting 30.4% in this series when Tari Yason is either the primary guy or involved in the action, he's been really good. Tari is the one rocket that feels the most physically equipped to deal with LeBron. You would think maybe Amin Thompson just because he's such a defensive phenom, but Tari's a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger. He's got that crazy wingspan, huge hands. And, you know, the one thing that holds Tari back at times is he can make some kind of boneheaded plays at times.

You know, just poor decision-making defensively. He gambles sometimes. But, you know, I think he's shown some discipline, you know, when guarding LeBron. one-on-one so far in this series. Outside of just like, I guess, the individual kind of, you know, efforts of Tari and I guess others when trying to slow down LeBron, I know you guys are kind of hinted on, or hit on the fatigue angle of it,

but is there something that, I guess, the rockets have kind of figured out, I guess, is just, you know, limiting the Slakers offense, getting LeBron out of those spots. And, you know, what can we expect from J.J. Reddick, I guess, as the adjustment to that, right? Do you expect more involvement from Luke Kinnard, Marcus Smart, more of them being on ball and LeBron possibly being off ball to maybe utilize as a decoy?

Like what do you guys expect JJ's counter to be seeing the high turnover numbers for LeBron these past couple games? For starters, I think they need to find more ways to get ball into the pain. I mean, I'm not talking about Brony James being any kind of savior in this series. And with Reeves presumably playing in game five, we may not see much of Brony at all. But in his minutes in game four, and certainly in game three, he was able to get into the pain a little bit. And he teed up a corner three for Jared Vanderbilt, who airmailed it. But like, you know, like he forced the rockets to move around a little bit.

And I think there is a little bit of a template in there for Austin Reeves because Reeves is great at getting the pain. It doesn't do it with extreme quickness, but changes speeds well, has tremendous angles and a good handle. And so I think that will be one of the things the Lakers try to do is just get the ball into the pain and force the rockets to move around a little bit more.

Now they're going to make the Lakers make shots. And that was part of the problem, certainly in game four. I think that will be it. It's trying to find ways to get a little bit of dribble penetration or clean avenues to get the ball down in the block. But the other thing is, and I'll credit our friends at Laker Film Room, Darius and Pete, it may just be a little bit more just standard pick and roll. Like instead of trying to run actions that the rockets were spoiling,

just you stick DeAndre Aitin out there. He runs a screen for Austin. He runs a screen for LeBron or Marcus Smart. And you go. Like kind of get even a little bit more basic. It could be one of the responses. This actually gets to one of the things I was going to mention is with LeBron in particular, they've got to get him more screens.

Like when he is operating without some type of either screen or another Laker to further occupy Houston's defense, make Houston's defense guess a little bit more about what they're going to be doing, that's where LeBron, I think, has been least effective where he's been getting stripped more. When the floor is spread and it's LeBron, the further from the basket, the worst the returns have been for him. I would actually like to see some action where he's the screener. And then maybe he slips a screen, gets himself into the paint. They get the ball to LeBron. And then once LeBron's posting up, I think he's going to be able to get a lot of what he's looking for,

just because he can overpower or get fouled by just about any. one on the Rockets. But the more he's faced up by himself, the more, I think, particularly with the wrinkle that Adoka threw in for game four that I thought was clever, with putting Reed Shepard on Rui, like, you're giving up obviously some size in that matchup between Shepard and Rui. But the flip side is Shepard's giving up size in pretty much all of the matchups, and you're not going to feel confident with anybody he's defending. But the flip side is with that as the primary, it frees up the three best defenders, Thompson and Smith and Easton to really be able to hound the Lakers three main ball handlers.

And then if you see something you don't like, Houston's switching so much anyway. But I think that adjustment, it might seem a little bit counterintuitive on the surface, but I actually think it was a pretty good one by Eme. The switching certainly feels like it kind of flattened some things out for the Lakers' offense. And weirdly enough, I almost feel like the answer is kind of, you know, a, you know, a combination of y'all's points and just that, like, they might need some creative actions to get LeBron to those spots, right, where he can get to some elbow touches, some post-up touches. But also just like, I mean, the Rockets have struggled to guard the basic pick and roll in this series as well when they have, you know, if you have DeAndre Aten and Jackson Hayes rolling hard to the rim and you, you know, you're guarding LeBron or Luke Canard going downhill or Marcus Smart. Rockets have kind of struggled to contain that very simple action at times. So it might just be, you know, go back to basketball basics and run some more heavy pick and roll. I do want to ask about just kind of the some of the expectations for Austin Reeves coming back into the series,

expected back into the series here in game five. And if it's maybe showing a little bit of desperation, possibly on the Lakers behalf, that they feel that they need Austin Reeves to beat this Rockets team in this series, despite having gone up 3-0. We're going to get there in just one moment. First, today's episode of Locked-on Rockets and Locked-on Lakers is brought to you by Kalshi. The playoffs are here, and it's the most electric time in basketball. And Kalshit, you can trade every single playoff game, every series,

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about it in the episode description. All right, guys, Austin Reeves expected to be back for Game 5. No Kevin Durant on the Rocket side. Kind of burying the lead here in this show. Oops. No KD in Game 5. But with Reeves coming back, I do want to ask, just on the

surface, right? You would kind of expect and think that a player like Reeves, obviously he's so important to what the Lakers have done this season. He's a big part of everything they do. I kind of wonder why, you know, this Lakers team has shown that they can beat the Rockets, right? They went up 3-0. I kind of wonder if there was, you know, some debate, some internal calculus about maybe potentially trying to wager one more extra game of rest for Reeves rather than bringing him back here in game five and what some of that calculus kind of shows us about how the Lakers internally are feeling about this series. I think what you're talking about happening in game four.

I think if the Lakers been up to one in game four, I think Reeves would have played. And it was sort of that, you know, you remember, it was questionable for. Assuming he's okay to come back. Assuming he is. Medically cleared. Yeah. He was questionable for game three. And so there was at least a chain.

He went from out to questionable. Skip doubtful. And so I think there was at least possibility. They're not changing that designation unless there's at least a possibility you can get on the floor. Sat him out, obviously listed initially as questionable for game four, did the game time thing and was still out again. But if they were up, I think they would have pushed, he would have pushed a lot harder in game four. The fact that they were up three, nothing made that a little easier. Game five, though, we talked about it in the first part of the crossover.

If you lose game five, series is still advantage Lakers. They have two more games to win. They only need to win one. One of them would be at home. But you get nervous time because this is not a juggernaut team that went up three nothing in this series. They still have the same vulnerabilities that they had before game one when you thought it would be a cakewalk.

And so I look at it and think, you don't want to extend this series any longer than they have to. It just turns out Houston's a little more flawed than we thought, and obviously without Kevin Durant. So I don't see it as an admission of anything other than we want our best players to get back on forward as quickly as possible. Yeah, I mean, I don't think you necessarily need to overthink the idea of a team bringing back their second leading score. Like, you would do that if you could. Also, as well, like, if the Lakers are confident about winning game five, and I think they are confident, like, they shouldn't look past Houston in this series for what I'm about to say.

You have to win the game. But if they are confident about winning game five, I'm sure they would like to get Austin some game reps before getting tossed into the fire against Oklahoma City and that series. It's not, I think, the primary reason to do in this. Again, they're not looking past Houston. You have to win this game. And I think Austin will be helpful for winning this game because there's a lot of things that he brings, whether as a ball handler, whether as a guy that can get to the line, whether somebody that can add more variance to the offense,

somebody that can be more comfortable running sets or bringing the ball up than, say, Jake Loravia or Rui or whoever. He brings a lot of elements that the team has been missing while their offense, even in, you know, their offense in game one and two, I actually think was better than the score. And I remember we actually talked about that in our reaction shows to game one and two. I actually thought that the Lakers percentages were really good. Their biggest problem was just they were losing the possession battle, whether because of their own turnovers or Houston getting so many offensive. defensive rebounds. The last six quarters, the Lakers offense has been flat out lousy. Like, they can use a lot of what Austin brings. So I don't see it as a desperation play or anything like that. I see it as a practical way of trying to address needs while you're looking to

close out a series. You know, you mentioned a moment ago there, Brian, right, that this, this Lakers team, it's not, you know, some juggernaut team, right? I do wonder if the perception of the series, through just like the lens of, oh, they went up 3-0, right? They had the rockets on the ropes, that kind of deal. The actual scoring margin of this series is so razor thin through these four games. Lakers currently have 416 points scored. Rockets have 415. So rockets are only minus 1 through these four games, which is kind of absurd to think about.

And then building off of that, I wanted to hit these numbers because I find them so interesting, right? of the 159 playoff series that started 3-0 in NBA history, 97 of them, so 61% ended 4-0, which is already off the table, right? Another 47 of them ended 4-1, so that's 29.6%. 11 of them finished 4-2, which was 6.9%. Nice. And then four of them went to a game 7 and ended 4-3,

so the team that was still up 3-0 ultimately won. We've never seen a comeback from down, 03. But does that play at all, to y'all, do you all think about that as far as just how thin the margin is between these two teams? The margin for error for the Lakers, period. Like we entered this series talking about without Luca, without Austin, the Lakers margin for error is going to be small because everybody, including LeBron, from what he, what his role had been with Luca and Austin to where we are now, everybody's station has been elevated. And everybody's being asked to do a little bit. bit more than in a perfect world they would be, which can create mistakes and problems and expose weaknesses. So the Lakers always had a low margin for error in this series. Brian and I talked a lot before game one about how execution would be at a premium for the Lakers. This doesn't necessarily have me worried about getting stretched to game seven. But I do think the numbers that

you mentioned, Jackson, do speak to the idea that the Lakers have a much lower margin for error than most teams up 3-1. Yeah, I don't think there's any question. You know, we were just talking about there. They're very, they're not, you know, a lot of those teams, the other series talk about are sweeps because it's a one versus an eight, a two versus a seven. This is a four versus a five, which would have been a difficult series anyway. And it's a four versus a five where the Lakers playing without their two best,

two of their three best players. We want to argue about where Austin and LeBron are. You can do that. Not why we're here. So, yeah, they're vulnerable. So there is a bigger chance that the historical thing that's never happened could happen here. Because the weird part about this series was that the Lakers got up three nothing. Honestly, it's not that I think the Lakers couldn't win or the Lakers wouldn't win a game or two in the series.

I did. I picked Rockets in six. But I don't think anybody, even the most optimistic Lakers people, thought they'd be up three-nothing. And so it's a, you know, the first ten quarters of the series and then the last six quarters of the series. I think are really what we're talking about here. The bigger question I think is, are the rockets good enough, especially if Durant doesn't play? are the Rockets good enough to do what they did in game four three times in a row from here? And I just don't think they are. I don't think they're going to shoot the same way.

I don't think the Lakers will respond defensive to their defense the same way in game five and in game seven as they did in game four. I just I don't see those things playing out the same way. So it's not just the Lakers that are vulnerable. Houston's vulnerable. I think if you didn't have the introduction of Reeves back into the series, then I think there'd be, I feel more confident in saying that the rockets might be able to pull it off just in the sense that, you know, and we talked about this in our in our other podcast, but just that, you know, how many more levers does J. J. Redick have to pull, right? And by introducing Reeves back in the series, even if it's on a minutes restriction, even if it's only 15 minutes in game five, that's 15 more minutes of an actual rotation player.

Does he, does he have, do you guys know it? Does he have a minute's restriction? I don't say anything. It will not be 15 minutes. I can, I, Andy and I don't entirely agree on whether he'll start, what the minutes restriction would be,

all that kind of stuff. I think if he has a minutes restriction, I would be stunned if he's not coming off the bench because JJ has played every player on a minute's restriction off the bench. So I don't know if he would do it here, though. But either way, I don't think, I think if they,

I think if he can play, He's, you know, it's 30 minutes, you know, maybe 30, you know, maybe they don't push him. It's not high. We'll see. Maybe they don't push him to 35. But I think part of holding him out of game four is in part so you can come back and play as close to a normal game as possible in game five. Coming up, I do want to talk about how have our perceptions of any of these two teams and of any of the individual players in this series changed over these first four games and what? What can we expect, you know, out of these final three, out of any of these individual performances.

We're going to get there in just one moment. Final segment here at Locked on Rockets and Locked on Lakers. Thanks for making us part of your day every single day, whether you're listening on your way to work, on your lunch break in the gym. Thank you so much for being one of our amazing everydayers here at the Locked On podcast network, the number one sports podcast network in the nation. All right, guys, I am very curious your thoughts on just, and this could be about anybody. on the Lakers, the Rockets, just have your perceptions changed at all about any of the players from where you were about the Lakers as a team, the Rockets as a team, or any of the individual

players in the series, have your perceptions changed it all after these first four games? Given all the infighting we've heard about and reported with the Rockets this season, and, you know, some of that swirling around Kevin Durant and Burnergate and, you know, his very loud, non-denial Sort of denial, but not really. And the vibes watch that this team has even been on in the playoffs, I've been really impressed with their last six quarters in terms of after half time of game three, the Rockets were down 12. And they had been down at 1.15 in the first half.

They could have decided, man, we don't have it. We haven't seemed to enjoy each other's company this year. We don't have Kevin Durant. This ain't going to happen. And instead, they fought their asses off in the second half of game three. They ended up collapsing. And it's one of the most spectacular collapses I think any of us are going to see for quite some time. But it doesn't change the fact that they fought.

And then after that collapse, being down 3-0, knowing the historical odds against them, I had been extremely curious how they were going to respond to that. And, you know, there had been even more questions about Kevin Durant and why he wasn't on the bench, during the game. Was he really getting treatment? Naman Thompson saying he didn't know what Katie's mood was, which made it seem like, has anybody been talking to the star player on this team? And that could have felt like a formula for a team deciding, we're done. And instead, they responded in the way you hoped a team would down 3-0,

which is, if we're gonna go down, we're gonna go down swinging. And I've been impressed with the Rockets that way, just because it goes against a lot of, lot of what we've seen or heard about with this team. I mean, I haven't been surprised necessarily, but I am curious. Like, you know, because Tara Easton, for example, is a name that pops up. And I did our show, our short show on Tuesday, our afternoon show, on Tuesday afternoon was all about, you know, how the 26th playoffs might be changing the 26 offseason.

And, you know, Yasson is one of those guys. who kind of pops up periodically. It's like, would he be a target for Gnathlakers, for someone else? How much would Houston spend to keep him and all these other things as an RFA? And, you know, he's had a bad year. I think that's generally the consensus. Well, no, he had a good year and then a bad second half. He had a bad two months where he like,

overall, I mean, trust me, as Atari-Eason drafter in his fantasy league, I would, you know, I am intimately aware of these swings and, you know, got off to a good start and the injuries and this and that, whatever, and then just catastrophic ending. I'm interested in like what does the offseason look like? Does the market change for Eason? If the Rockets lose in five, does that change what they think about doing this off season, who they trade, who they can keep?

Are they going to spend money on Eason? They let him walk. All of these things are, like there's been no clear cut like, oh, okay. Well, Houston can't. that guy walk. So that's the kind of stuff that I'm interested in when when you could get a series like this that just doesn't play out the way it's supposed to. Yeah.

Sorry, that's a dodge, but that's, yeah. Not, not at all. I mean, and I think it's,

I think it is interesting thinking about kind of the grander, I guess, kind of ramifications that this series could have. I mean, I don't know if either of you happened to tune in for the opposite perspective, but I had a pretty generational crash out after the game three loss. I did. Listen to that show, Jackson.

I told you, actually. I let you know. I had been really curious. You made it clear this team has tested your patience. And frankly, your love of basketball. So I really wanted to hear how you reacted in game three. And quite frankly, nobody was safe. Just winning game four has taken some of the sting out of that.

Right. Like getting swept, especially by this Lakers team, would have been just a very damning indictment on everybody top-down. organizationally winning the one game and and potentially putting up a competitive fight in game five even if you ultimately lose and you get you know it's a gentleman sweep at the end of the day i i don't know that there's going to be wide sweeping organizational change top to bottom the way that it would have been or possibly could have been you know justified had they been swept um so that that that ship might have sailed just based on the performance what if the lakers what if the lakers just smoke the rockets in this game because i am interested The Lakers got a lot of work. I realize, you know, this series notwithstanding, Lakers got a lot of work to do this offseason. The more players and the more teams that are doing stuff, the better. So, I mean, would things explode?

I'm really just the point in the way Orlando has made this a series because I thought the Lakers could maybe pick apart some of those players and, you know, have a buffet line in front of them. All of a sudden, they're winning games. Right, but now Jalen Duren, to be honest. The chatter is that Jalen Duren could be available because he's been bad in this round. So like the I we need overlocked the Lakers.

We need we need some things to shake loose from some trees. And death taxes and the Lakers eyeing everybody else's players and doing photoshopps of them in their own jerseys every off season. It's, it's a tale as old as time. It's summer break. And what do you want? Yeah. What's your point?

One more deciding factor here looking at this game five that I did want to bring up is even though I think coming into the series, right, we looked at and, you know, things have changed, right? Kevin Durant only played one game and he's not likely to play any more games the rest of the series. We came into the series thinking the Rockets had a clear talent advantage

over the Lakers. And we were all three kind of in agreement about that. But I think now that you're looking at it, the Rockets might still have some of the top end talent in the series. LeBron is still far and away the best player now with no Kevin Durant in the series. And there's a, there's a pretty wide gulf between LeBron and the next best player in the series in Alper and Shingoon now with no KD out there. And so, but then, you know, you got Shingun, Amin, maybe Jabari or how read, however you want to look at it.

But I do think that kind of an element of the series that we've seen play out is that the Rockets just do not have any serviceable depth whatsoever right now. They've been so ravaged by the injuries, you know, no Fred, no Stephen Adams, Dorian Finney Smith has been a bust of a signing. now no Kevin Durant. So, I mean, when you looked at game at game three, that loss, there was a fan who hit the half court shot, you know, during one of the timeouts. And that fan matched the rockets in bench scoring in that game. And now with the return of Austin Reeves to the series,

whether he starts, whether it comes off the bench, the Lakers actually have more serviceable depth than the Rockets do. And I wonder how much of that does factor into not just this game five, but any potential games as we progress down the series because EMA has to lean on his five starters so much. I know they're younger. They've got fresh legs. They're 22, 23, 24. But that still factors in when you think about the kind of war of attrition that a potential seven game series could come if this does extend past five. Well, this actually gets into heading into this series.

I have labeled Jabari as the X factor from our perspective. of a Lakers perspective for the Rockets, because if you were thinking about the top five players in the series, before we knew about injuries or anything like that, LeBron and KVee were one and two, rank them however you want, not interested in that debate. But then three seemed like Shingoon, four seemed like Thompson. And I said, if no Laker can emerge as better than Jabari Smith, Jr. who to me seemed on paper like the fifth best or either the fifth best or the most reliable to be fifth best. I didn't think the Lakers really had a chance in this series because I'm like, that's just too much to put on LeBron. In games one and two, you had a few Lakers better than Shengun,

better than Thompson, better than Smith. And it seemed to flip a lot on its head. That has started to even out more in three and four. And we're starting to see more of, if nothing else, the top end hierarchy shaking out as expected. But to your point, Jackson, the depth for the Lakers, even as a team that has struggled with bench scoring all season, it's still better than Houston's. And then if you add Reeves to that mix, then, A, you know, in a perfect world, maybe Reeves has an incredible return and is in that top five players on the court mix.

But if nothing else, you just start narrowing the margins in ways that can be beneficial for the Lakers. And it's like where is equilibrium in this series? Because for the first, for game one, the Lakers shot making was, I think, sort of unsustainable. It's where you've seen. It's not been sustainable. It was unsustainable until they did it in game two. Well, yes and no. They, in game two, they still shot the ball well, but they didn't shoot 61%.

You know, like, it got a little bit more normal. It was still good. It's still very good. Don't get me wrong. And, you know, but they, they turned the ball over less in game two than in game one. They did a better job generating their own offensive rebounds to kind of even the possession battle a little bit. So, like, they mitigated some of the decline in shot making.

And we saw what happened in game three in the second half, particularly in game four, it kind of cratered out. So like what's equilibrium? The rockets were kind of the opposite. Like games one and two, like it's hard to be that bad if you're trying to miss. Like, you know, if you're the wizards and the jazz and these teams that were trying hard not to win games down the stretch, we're still hitting more shots than the rockets were in those games.

But then in game four, particularly the shot making and the conversion improved. And so, you know, I think those kinds of things, like at one point we're going to get a game where everything kind of goes the way it's supposed to for both teams. Curious to see you wins. Like, you know, I think the rockets are somewhere between game two and game four. I think the Lakers are somewhere between, you know, know, game two and, you know, maybe the first, you know, the first half of game three, you know, the second half of game three, whatever it might be. I just don't know which teams are going to show up.

You don't need much bench production from either team to categorically outscore the other. Like, neither is particularly proficient. We, we, I know we made our picks in the first part of this crossover, but for people, But for anybody who is not a true every dayer, let's run through them really quickly here at the end. I'll go first since I'm hosting on this side of things. I predicted that I think even though I was kind of battling against maybe some of my better judgment here, because my gut is a little scared of this game five. I think the Rockets have a lot of momentum built off that game for it.

Even going back to game three, playing a good enough game to win the game, just losing in a catastrophic fashion at the end, they played well enough to win that game three. and there's a lot of good that they were able to build off of in those two games. I think the Rockets sneak a game five and at least force it back to game six for Houston. I don't know anything else past that. And I will say, well, I'll take that back. I will say if they force the game five win, I do think it's going to go game seven. That's actually, I'm sticking true to that take.

So I'm going game five win, maybe a little bit of copium, hopium at play. I'm going game five Rockets win. You guys drop your predictions. I've got the Lakers winning this one. I think they're going to sell out hard to make sure it happens. I think they will be, they will tighten up. I think they will have better legs underneath them. And obviously the presumed return of Reeves makes a big difference.

I also have the Lakers winning. And it's going to be really interesting. The extra day of rest should benefit LeBron a lot. I am going to be watching just to see what he looks like. Because if he still looks gassed, even with that extra day, if the Lakers managed to win in spite of that, going to be concerned moving forward if these opening four games and the remainder of the regular season while LeBron was elevated without Luca and Austin have just taken a lot out of him.

But either way, I think the Lakers are going to win. I think I'm going to be concerned no matter what happens about the second round. If the Lakers win, I don't care how LeBron looks. Congratulations. You beat the Rockets without Kevin Duran. Here's your gift. You go against the buzz saw that is the OKC Thunder. They beat the Rockets without Kevin Durant without Luke Donchich.

So, I mean, winning this, I was, I mean, I know where it's rings culture. Semantic, no. 17 rings and all, you know, and all they did, the titles and this and that, whatever. Winning this series would be a big deal, and quite an accomplishment, especially winning it in five. And so, you know, I understand that it might, is particularly if Luke is not back, it might end in the second round if they get through the first but i don't want to just gloss over what it would mean and you know for this group to win this series conversely on the same it kind of you know uh the other side of the same coin here is you know i think coming in with kevin durant

it felt like the series was you know on paper the rockets were supposed to win it was like all the pressure was on them all this you know they were the heavy favorites but without kevin durant you know, now this series actually does mean something in the grand scheme of things for the Rockets because now it's, it's their young talent, it's the talent that they tanked for years to acquire. And every game that they battle, every game that they win from here on out without Kevin Durant

speaks volumes about this core group of guys and whether or not they should stick together, trust this group moving forward, the brightness of the Rockets future, all that stuff because there is a future, you know, in the not so, you know, whether it's two, three years from now, or potentially this off season,

And if they cut ties with Katie early, like, who knows, like, what is this group capable of doing together as a very young, exciting group? And so I do think this series also, like, every game, whether they win game five and lose in six or force it all the way to seven, whatever, this series is now telling us a lot about the Rockets Young Corps. And that will probably inform some of their decisions this offseason, whether it's Tari Isson or some of the other names on the roster. But from myself and the Kamenetskis, thank you guys so much for tuning in. to our locked on crossover edition episode. Be sure to like, comment, subscribe, all that good stuff on both platforms. If you like the audio side of things,

go subscribe to the audio platforms as well. But we will have you guys covered for all the Game 5 action, the recaps on both of our feeds, all that good stuff. But thanks for tuning in.