Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Fight Hard, but Still Lose Big in Game 2, 125-107

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

On the one hand, the Lakers played very hard, and they made a good game of Thursday's Game 2 in Oklahoma City.  On the other, in the end, the Lakers still lost by 18. Again. Final score, 125-107.  T...he game was more competitive than the final score would indicate, but the final score still indicates the Thunder won pretty comfortably. For the Lakers, there were some genuine bright spots. LeBron James again had an efficient evening, finishing with 23 points on 9-18 shooting. Rui Hachimura's playoff shooting heater continued, hitting four of his seven 3-point attempts. Deandre Ayton had 10 rebounds. And critically, Austin Reaves bounced back with a 31-point, six assist effort, and hit three of his six triples. It wasn't perfect -- 5 TOs including a couple particularly ugly ones -- but overall this was a fine effort against a brutally tough Thunder defense.  LA again did a good job on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but once again OKC's bench was excellent. That's depth the Lakers simply can't compete with.  All in all, the first two games went as expected. The Lakers are playing hard, doing a lot of things well, but aren't nearly equipped to deal with the Thunder.  We'll see what they can do Saturday in Game 3.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky    SEGMENT 1: The Lakers fight, still lose.  SEGMENT 2: Austin Reaves bounces back.  SEGMENT 3: Any hope coming home?    Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGY Get candy-flavored chaos with Fruity Rainbow 5-hour ENERGY®️ Shots - available online at https://5hourENERGY.com or Amazon   KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDON to get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything.   DoorDashFrom tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.DoorDash. In your bag all season long.   RedditReddit is where the real fans hang out. Download the Reddit app and dive into your favorite team for hot takes, fresh memes, and the group chat that never sleeps. QuoMake this the year where no opportunity - and no cutsomer - slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnba. Betterhelp This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.Sign up and get 10% off at https://BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDONNBA. Rugiet Get 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhl Rugiet. Performance medicine for men. PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use codeLOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNBA Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins.Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   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.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Lakers fight hard in game two. Austin Reeves bounces back and they still lose by 18. Is there anything they can do to get back into the series? 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 stopping by Locked on Lakers, Brian Kaminetsky, Andy Kaminetsky.
Starting point is 00:00:31 Game two in Oklahoma City tonight. hard to fault, hard to fault the effort, Andy. The Lakers made a game of this. It was a closer game than the, and a more competitive game, the final score I think would indicate. But ultimately, the final score indicates the Thunder win by 18 again.
Starting point is 00:00:54 And 125, 107 is the final score. Lakers were within five in the, I think they, five or four, I think in the fourth quarter. but just couldn't stay with that sort of last push from Oklahoma City. And they are down 02 and they're heading back to L.A. And this series is more or less kind of going how people feared that it might if you were rooting for the Lakers.
Starting point is 00:01:23 Yeah, it's a situation we talked about a lot. And there were things that went better in this game that hopefully the Lakers can carry over into game three. They made more shots. Austin Reeves in particular, as you mentioned, had a very needed, not just for the team, but I think for Austin's own confidence, had a really good bounce back game.
Starting point is 00:01:46 But we're going to talk about there are areas in which the Lakers did not execute well, namely the turnovers, which has been a problem for them this entire postseason, but other areas as well. and just they do not have a margin for error. Like we saw in this game tonight, we'll talk about it as well. The Thunder still have not truly brought their A game, I think, in either one of these games.
Starting point is 00:02:17 And they just have much more of a margin for error, more wiggle room, more cushion. Like in both of these games, Shea Gilgis Alexander has had a variety of issues, even picking up an early fourth foul and it's become clear the more time Shea spends off the floor, the more time the Lakers are getting killed. I mean, they just, they have to be on point with everything. Yeah. And that's really difficult to do. I mean, the turnovers, some of them are turnovers of commission.
Starting point is 00:02:57 Some of them are turnovers that happen because. you know. Explain what you mean by that. Explain what you mean. Turnovers of aggression. You're trying to make something happen. You know, you're splitting a double team. You're trying to get to the basket.
Starting point is 00:03:11 You're making an aggressive pass to try to create maybe an easy basket inside, whatever it might be. I mean, those happen in part because you are trying to, you've got to play right on the edge against Oklahoma City. Like you're not as good as they are. And so you have to force some things to try to create opportunities. That's going to happen. Some of them are just, you know, I think Marcus Smart was actually the worst with this in many instances on Thursday are just passes that are careless.
Starting point is 00:03:48 Too slow, not, you know, just kind of going through the motions where you're just dropping the ball off. And in a regular season game, the ball gets where it's going in a playoff game against Oklahoma City doesn't. So there's some of that. So it's a mixture. But at the very least, the ones that are of the most careless variety, you got to cut those out. Yeah, like I remember there was an example in the first quarter where Marcus Smart threw like a pretty long over the top
Starting point is 00:04:19 semi-lob to LeBron who had a deep seal. And the lob honestly was too slow. And LeBron had to basically come back down to the ground. to gather it. And then upon going back up, he got blocked by either Hartenstein or Chet. I don't remember which. But the point being like, everything has to be timed perfectly. And like, everything just has to be done with precision against this team because they're really good at capitalizing on mistakes. Like, again, I thought the Lakers did a lot better, a lot of different things better in game two than they did in game one. And I talked about how I wanted to see them
Starting point is 00:05:06 just moving more in general offensively, moving off ball, creating opportunities that way. Like, and there were at least, you know, four or five possessions where guys got open shots that they hit specifically because they were relocating off ball. And, you know, I remember that happening once with Rui. I remember happening once with Kinnard. Like, these are really good things. And as you said at the top, you can't, you can't fault the Lakers for a lack of fight. You can't fault them for a lack of effort. And they're not rolling over against this Dean, but they just have so little wiggle room. And you're going to end up making mistakes that the thunder will force you into, but you have to avoid the ones that they don't. And they're
Starting point is 00:05:56 not doing a good enough job of that. Right. You know, and the officiating in this game is going to be a story. And, you know, we'll get to it at some point over the course of the show. I mean, the bottom line here is. And I mean, I don't want to be totally reductive here and just be like, you know, whatever. Oklahoma City is significantly better.
Starting point is 00:06:23 And the depth, question is particularly problematic in this series because, you know, Austin, you know, we'll spend I think we'll talk about Austin a lot over the course of the show, I think played overall really well. It was a really good and important game for all the reasons that we've talked about leading up to. And people saw, if you've watched the last two or three episodes that we've done. We've focused a lot on why this game and the rest of the, not just this game, but the rest of this series matters so much for Austin and the Lakers. Austin did his job. I think LeBron, you know, certainly got off to a really nice start. They tightened up on him a little
Starting point is 00:07:08 bit in the second half. But overall, you know, 9 of 18 from the floor, 50% shooting. Ruiz hit four of his seven, three-pointers. Guys were sort of doing what they could do. But you get down into the bench. And, you know, Oklahoma City is running out, you know, Kaysen Wallace and, you know, Jared McCain, who was insane in this game. Jalen Williams had seven. Alex Caruso had five. Like, you know, they had, I believe, 42 bench points, 44, if you, I'm sorry, 48, if you include garbage time. And the Lakers, among their regular bench players, Kinnard had 10, but that was front-loaded. And that's basically it.
Starting point is 00:07:59 Jackson Hayes had a couple buckets. They just, there's the level of perfection that is going to be required of the Lakers if the thunder don't make their sort of do some of the work for them. The level of perfection that is going to be required of the Lakers to beat this team is is hard to ask for, to be perfectly honest. Like, I'm watching the game in the first half, Andy. I think I tweeted it out at Cam Brothers. It's like, I don't think they're going to be,
Starting point is 00:08:34 I don't know if they're going to be able to hold on to a lead. But like a team can't play harder than the Lakers played in the first half. I mean, they could maybe play better or a little more perfect, but they can't play harder. And like, but that's hard to do with two halves in a row when the other team is cycling through wave after wave of good player. Yeah, I mean, I'm seeing comments right now in the YouTube section, essentially saying that we're being negative about what the team is doing wrong,
Starting point is 00:09:07 or not acknowledging that they don't have Luca or that the Thunder are defending champs. Like, all, we're acknowledging all of this. We're very aware that they don't have Luca. We've said since the beginning of this series that the Lakers are in an, uphill battle, which is why we both predicted the thunder to win the series. What has happened that we also predicted was the Lakers would fight their asses off and try to make, try to make as credible a case for an upset or however you want to put this. But at the same time, they are trying to win these games. So you have to judge them on what they're not doing well,
Starting point is 00:09:50 because those are the things that they have to make damn near perfect in order to put themselves in a position to win these games, which is their goal. We're not calling the Lakers trash for losing these games. We're not, to be totally honest, being highly critical of them at all because we recognize they're at a massive disadvantage to begin with. But at the same time, we can't just say, well, they don't have Luca,
Starting point is 00:10:14 so what do you want us to say? Anything knows. We're getting into what is happening. Yeah, I'd be honest with you. I mean, I think based on the way that the teams played in the regular season, the way that this series has gone to this point. I mean, even with Luca, Oklahoma City would be the favorite in this series. And, you know, probably pretty definitive favorites. They won. They're favorite against every game this year. I mean, they're going to be the favorites against everybody. Like, pretty heavy favorites. I don't care who they play. And so, well, next we'll get into. sort of what else maybe they can try to do. But also talk about what was different, I think, about Reeves in game two versus game one, what went better.
Starting point is 00:11:06 And there's one particular element that I think was really good to see. and we have a, I may be an unusual person to thank for it. Talk about it next. Lakers is brought to you by Quo. Spring is a natural reset point. And if there's one thing that can quietly cost business money, it's messy communication missed calls, scattered text, no clear threat of who said what.
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Starting point is 00:13:31 Quick mention of the everydayer club Lockedonlakers.com. You go there, check it out, see if the features are for you, the commercial free broadcast access to the Discord channels that you can talk to other Locked on Lakers, listeners, talk to other NBA fans from
Starting point is 00:13:47 the Locked On network around the whole Discord channel. It's $5 a month, 50 bucks a year. See if it's free. you. If it isn't, do nothing. And we'll love you just the same. Austin Reeves, 31.6 assists. A couple ugly turnovers. But again, like some of it was Austin, I think really trying to push the envelope and the team needing to be aggressive. Overall, this was exactly the kind of game. I think the Lakers wanted to see. Certainly Lakers fans wanted to see and Austin badly needed.
Starting point is 00:14:23 And the one thing that I think we can thank the referees for, in the first half, Reeves absorbs what looked on television like an obvious foul. And this was, I think, the second straight time he'd been just hammered on the way to the basket, no call. This one, the floater goes in, and you can just see him turn to, I forget which referee it was and just say, that was a, foul, like, you know, call the foul. I think that those plays were actually the things that helped get him out of his own head and so angry that it kind of refocused him. And we got the performance from Austin where he was felt a little freer. It's what it looked like to me.
Starting point is 00:15:17 And I'm obviously playing armchair psychologist here, but he was pissed. and angry Austin was a lot better than I'm not sure what adjective Austin in game one, that's for sure. I mean, it's certainly possible that played a role, although I will say a little may have gone a long way because after that the refs started calling like everything and sort of called everything. They didn't, okay, they did not quite literally call everything, but they over-officiated the hell. lot of, they managed to over-officiate this game without making it clear how they were calling the game, which in its own right is pretty impressive. Like, you really got to work to insert so much main character energy into this game that Joey Crawford would blush by some of what they were doing. And yet, it was still completely unclear what the F they were looking for in this game.
Starting point is 00:16:19 And I want to make it, it's funny because I know JJ after the game, he, first of all, he acknowledged that earlier in the week when he said that the Thunder, they're an amazing defensive team that never files, he was being sarcastic, Brian. He wasn't being star. I know. Boy, went over everyone's head. But that they have too many guys who are allowed to foul on every single play. And, you know, the Lakers aren't getting the same whistle.
Starting point is 00:16:49 LeBron doesn't get the same whistle. LeBron doesn't get a good enough whistle. There was a lot in there that he expressed frustration with. And what was interesting about is Mark Dagnall after the game also expressed frustration with the refs. Not as specifically. He said that he spoke with the refs after the game and wanted to keep what he said to them between them.
Starting point is 00:17:14 But it was very clear that both sides were. highly dissatisfied in a game where, again, over-officiated to the point where there were 48 personals called in this game. There were 30 called in game one. Like, there was absolutely zero flow. It was difficult for the players to get into any type of rhythm. Every review took five times as long as it needed to. Like, the one review they had where they were trying to figure out a clear, not flagrant foul against Austin Reeves. Like he was following Shea Gild's Alexander
Starting point is 00:17:53 on Drive. He actually he hooked him, I guess, a little bit in trying to wrap them, but then prevented, tried to prevent SGA from hitting the deck. Ironically, because it took longer for She to actually fall, it led to LeBron
Starting point is 00:18:08 in, you know, as a trailer, getting caught up in Shea. They both fall down, hit the deck hard. Austin almost killed LeBron accidentally. It made the foul look actually worse. And ironically, if Austin had just let Shea hit the deck, I don't even think the thing would have been reviewed in the first place. Yeah. It's just, you know, but like for, I agree with you. It was over-officiated, but then there are plays like the LeBron gathers, gets checked, hits the shot, and it's called a foul on the floor.
Starting point is 00:18:42 Like, even there were so many times, even a prime booth kept expressing on both sides, confusion over why are they calling this? Why are they not calling this? And this is not the, just, just caveat. Referees didn't. They didn't. Right. That's not why the Thunder Law won.
Starting point is 00:19:04 Just made it a very unexpected. It made it just a very unpleasant game. And I think a very frustrating game for. both sides to play. But I feel, you know, I feel other than, I think, helping Reeves just from a mental standpoint, almost refocus that energy because he was very effective getting into the paint. Again, just my opinion, very effective getting to the paint.
Starting point is 00:19:33 But there's a clip going around of him, you know, laying into John Goebel, you know, late in the game after that jump ball fiasco in the fourth quarter and then he actually met with the officials in the entire team. Post game like before ever the players left the court he stopped to talk to the officials which never happens like I I cannot remember a time when I've seen that you're not supposed you're not supposed to talk about I was going to say the reason it doesn't happen is there's actual rules against doing that. But like my point is like you and I've watched a lot of professional basketball. I've never seen that happen.
Starting point is 00:20:17 So like the frustration levels there's not what cost in the game. But I think you know, from the Lakers perspective, it's like the what we're trying to do here is hard enough. And you know, JJ said as much and you know, the players were just trying to avoid the the issue. It's it's not the the, the, the, the, thunder don't need the lake, the, the, the, the, the, the referees to give them the game. They could take it themselves.
Starting point is 00:20:44 It's just if you did, if you're trying, you're trying to do something. I think for the most part, the Lakers played through it. I don't think this was a game where there were tons of plays where they weren't getting back on defense. I can count a couple.
Starting point is 00:20:58 But they played through it. And I actually think in a lot of ways channeled the aggression pretty well. But it's just like from a mental standpoint, it's like what we're trying to do here is really, really hard. And it would be helpful if we understood what a foul was. And I think it was equally frustrating to the thunder.
Starting point is 00:21:20 It just didn't matter as much to them because they're better. Let's talk a little bit more, a little more Austin, and look forward to game three in Los Angeles. Is there anything the Lakers might be able to conjure to try to steal a win at the crypt. We'll do it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by DoorDash. The season's heating up.
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Starting point is 00:23:39 Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast, terms and conditions apply. Need to hire this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. So look, I mean, I think first and foremost, it doesn't answer the question because you need to see it more than once. But, you know, we talked a lot about how significant this game was. I mean, I called it the most important game of Austin's
Starting point is 00:24:15 Lakers career in terms of framing. I didn't entirely agree with that, but I understood. I didn't. Right. You don't, you don't, you know, but, you know, I thought it was a little much, but I get what you mean. In factually, you know, in terms of framing what is coming this offseason and the potential challenges that it can create for the Lakers, it was really important. And I think this was the type of performance where you look at it and you say, okay, because, you know, there are, there are moments in this game where the Lakers are generating switches and you're Austin Reeves and you're on the top of the key and you generate a switch and you go from having Alex Caruso guarding you in space to Kaysen Wallace. Like that's not, that's not great. Like from an offensive player's standpoint, you're not getting much benefit. from the switch. That's not hunting for the matchup that you want. And the Thunder have depth like
Starting point is 00:25:17 that around all these guys can defend. AJ Mitchell's a good defender and, you know, Jalen Williams, you know, both of them, but the one who was available is a good player. Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren were insanely good on the interior in this game. I thought all game long, those guys were just spectacular around the basket. And I think D'Andre Aden would agree. But, you know, this is a good game really quickly. To your point of how well Hartnstein and Holmgren and in general, the Thunder did on the offensive glass and also just indicative of how, if it ain't one way, it's another.
Starting point is 00:25:56 They'll find ways to create advantage. They had 17 second chance points in this game. They're not really an offensive rebounding team or a second chance points team. But on a night where they needed to be, they were. like he also had 14 fast break points despite all the athleticism and youth on this team they're not actually a particularly fast-paced team they're much more of a she probing in the lane a lot of people just assume that they run all the time because of roster because they're young and athletic and good right they don't um they and we mentioned before the the stretch where sGA picked up
Starting point is 00:26:34 his fourth file that was that was um Austin, I believe, drew it. I can't remember if that was the one that they reviewed the flagrant on or not. But either way... I think his fourth was the charge. It might have been. Yes, Austin drew a charge on SGA. So either way, he sat for a long period.
Starting point is 00:26:55 And during that period, these are numbers provided by JJ, the Thunder outscored the Lakers 34 to 14, and the Lakers turned the ball over seven times. J.J. said they're going to look at some lineup data, try to come up with some better floor combinations for those stretches. But it's the second straight game where, and this one was worse than game one, but it's the second straight game where they did not capitalize on SGA sitting. And the Thunder won the minutes pretty decisively when he sat.
Starting point is 00:27:30 Like it was a big game for A.J. Mitchell, Jared McCain, who the Thunder managed to get somehow for like coupons is just, roasting the Lakers from deep and they've got to find a way Darryor Mory didn't cover himself in glory with that trade, did he? No, well, I mean, he said he thought Jared McCain had peaked.
Starting point is 00:27:52 Like, they were trading him at his low point. It turned out they just priced him too low. But do you think you were the way there, you know, with what they need right now offensively, they might, could use a guy like that. I will continue to say, I think Darry is one of the most
Starting point is 00:28:08 overrated execs over the last several years. Yeah, certainly has, if he was properly rated before, or, you know, he's, he's gotten overrated over the course of time. But like, I just, I loved what Reeves was doing in terms of getting into the paint, of trusting the floaters, of moving the ball of, you know, it's, he's always an interesting guy, you know, and Van Gundy, who I think calls a really nice game, Stane Van Gundy, talked about Reeves getting sped up sometimes. and I think he did.
Starting point is 00:28:38 Some of it is Oklahoma City makes you play a little faster because it's really good. If you want to try to do something, you've got to do it quickly. But also too, Reeves is just an interesting player because he's always like the line between like crafty, effective Reeves and too fast, ugly Reeves is often pretty thin. Like, you know, his worst sequence of the game was in the first half when he tried to foul bait a three on Kason Wallace and that was it was just a terrible shot missed by a mile led to a transition
Starting point is 00:29:14 play and then on the subsequent playback and tried to split a double which he did and I think he actually got fouled but and then at that point kind of lost his handle everything was going through fast that and then loses the ball that that play goes and they score there that was his worst sequence
Starting point is 00:29:31 of the game but it was just to to see the confidence kind of reappear And I mean, I do not believe the Lakers are going to win this series. It's pretty clear. But another two games, hopefully three, you know, craziness. Maybe they push it to game six and there's four of this. Two or three more good games from Austin in this series.
Starting point is 00:29:56 I think both helps the Lakers feel very comfortable. Like, look, defenses do not get better than this one. That, okay, you know what? if we scheme right and all these other things, Austin's going to be okay. But I also think it helps Austin, because the more times you go into the playoffs and fail under the same circumstances,
Starting point is 00:30:17 the more you start to press, the more you start to try a little too hard, which I think Austin is prone to doing. And, you know, sort of the effort and the desire becomes counterproductive rather than sort of confidence that you can go in and believe in. So I hope that he's
Starting point is 00:30:41 I don't mean he has to score 31 points for the rest of the series. But just go play a couple more good games. And I think a lot of the stuff that I was talking about can at least get dialed down. I thought they did a better job in this game. I mean, I guess some of the credit goes to Austin
Starting point is 00:30:58 for reading it better, but I also thought it was a conscious effort of getting him more screens to help spring him, help find more opportunities to get him a running start going downhill, as opposed to having to create advantage off the dribble isolated. I thought they helped make it more relatively easy against this team. I mean, nothing's ever easy. But again, it's all relative.
Starting point is 00:31:29 It's a sliding scale. As far as things they need to do better, like keep pounding the table on it, but it's really true. They have to control the controllable turnovers. And I remember we had talked before about that sort of risk-reward ratio of trying to make some things happen, but knowing that you are potentially putting yourself at risk, they got to use outstanding judgment with that. I mean, like just truly outstanding judgment. And in a lot of ways, I think they are better off just continually moving, continually forcing the thunder defense to be occupied by defender,
Starting point is 00:32:14 by by themselves, just who they're guarding. Then if you're going to try to finger quotes make something happen, you got to be really damn sure it's right there because, you know, everybody Austin had a couple of these Marcus had a couple of these like you know they the lob passes that aren't perfect that the you know the thunder
Starting point is 00:32:38 between Hartenstein and Chet have a pretty easy time breaking up anyway you know they the pocket passes in a crowd like they just I know they're looking they're trying to be opportunistic and you obviously need to be but
Starting point is 00:32:56 I think they have to try to create opportunities more than find them if that makes sense. I think so. And it makes sense to me. And it's, we'll talk a little bit about this in the, in the short show. And,
Starting point is 00:33:14 but like, JJ said they were going to try to go nine deep in this game. And they ultimately really didn't. Thero basically got the Vanderbilt minutes. and you know you can see jumping around running all that kind of stuff and he was fine but you're playing four on five you might soon get the lorabian minutes but but that's kind of getting so it's like you know how many it's hard to say and they're sitting on the bench and that splint looking over at jake and looking at jay jang going you you trust this dude more than me like really really you trust him more
Starting point is 00:33:49 than me um and so like you know i i watch this going like you know i'm trying like i'm trying to figure because like canard i think over the was managed kind of get free a little bit in the first half some of it is the lakers in the second quarter shot about 65 percent and i you know i think hit you know five or six threes something like that so like that loosens up the defense you know guys are moving and getting in the lane players are closing a little harder everybody like all that stuff your you know teams were in the blender in the second half i think they did a you know they did a much better job of bottling up canard but i also think canard gets worn down by you you know, the nature of what Oklahoma City does defensively.
Starting point is 00:34:30 It's like, do you need to try to replicate something like that with Dalton Connect, who at the very least is a good athlete and run around, run off the screen, all that kind of stuff. I don't think they're going to guard him. That's part of the problem. I, I, but like, Robb is a lot of Dalton. The navigation isn't very good. He's no.
Starting point is 00:34:46 Right. And that's where it kind of why I was going. Like, I think JJ looks at it and be like, you know what? We got to counter the depth. I'm going to play a lot of guys. I'm going to try to. give guys, but then you actually get into the game and you realize you can't because the quality of the guy that you're like one of the guys you need to play, Jake LaRavia, is barely playable as it is.
Starting point is 00:35:13 They have to play Jake, putting those guys out. They have to play Jake, I think to some degree, particularly with Bando Hurt, just because they need the size. And the fact that JJ was even open to the idea of a Duthyro, given his lack of experience even by rookie standards, speaks to, if nothing else, what he's not getting from La Ravia, but they need his size. And I think he does a decent job defensively, at least in certain matchup and stuff, but they need more than just the hustle from Jake and they're not getting it. As far as what you were talking about with- And they need one of those like random seven of nine, eight-
Starting point is 00:35:56 you know, seven of 11 from three canard games, like they, you know, which is a volume thing, which is hard to produce against a team like Oklahoma City. As far as what you were suggesting with Dalton, if they were looking to do that, I've said it before, say it again, I'd rather do it with Nick Smith, because I think he'll be better moving around off the court,
Starting point is 00:36:16 probably will end up in the right places. I think more than Dalton, obviously he's giving up a lot of size. He's got, you know, yeah, he's got defensive. issues, but frankly, so with Dalton. I just think Nick would be more likely to thrive in that sort of role than Dalton. Sure. And that's fine.
Starting point is 00:36:34 I'm just sort of pulling out, you know, I was thinking of the size question with, with Dalton just because it's a little bit bigger. But, you know, but like, but that, those aren't. I'm not wild about either option. And that's why I think, you know, we talk about like, are they going to get weird or not? And I think JJ would like the opportunity. But especially when the team is playing pretty well and they keep getting games close. They keep getting the game close and all that.
Starting point is 00:37:03 You don't just turn to the bench in a six point game and say, all right, Nick Smith, go do your thing. Like, you know, they actually were almost too competitive in this game to try to do weird stuff. other than stick Thero in for Vandos minutes, which isn't weird, it's just Next Man Up kind of stuff. So I was really, I had a lot of respect, like a tremendous amount of respect for what the Lakers did on Thursday night, and how hard they played.
Starting point is 00:37:36 And the way Austin Reeves bounced back and, you know, the character that they show as a team is just there's nothing you can really do here. Like Oklahoma City, you mentioned at the beginning of the show, and I think some of the OKC fans that might be checking it or were offended by it, they haven't played their A game. That is a compliment to Oklahoma City. Yeah, I don't know why any of the OKC fans in here. They've won both of these games by 18 without playing what anybody who watches them regularly would say is,
Starting point is 00:38:08 like they're high, like they've played well, but nothing special. Yeah, seriously, the OKC fan. Yeah, the OKC fans in here, A, you're welcome as long as you're not rude to the Laker fans. They're being very nice. But I'm just saying, rewatch the show, not just because we get another few, and really listen to what I said and really think about what I said, and I think you'll be less mad.
Starting point is 00:38:36 One thing I want to talk about, maybe we'll carry this into the short show because we're out of time for this one. No, we'll probably maybe just look at it at the short show. Rui Hachamura is making the conversation about the summer of Rui. Very, very interesting because he, it is official, is a big-time playoff performer. So we'll look forward to that. We'll look forward to, of course, to game three. I think the Lakers on the home floor, home crowd behind him,
Starting point is 00:39:04 given how they're playing, very easy team to root for, come out, hit some shots early, keep the crowd into it. We'll see what happens. Locked on Lakers on YouTube. It's where you can hang out with over 38,000 subscribers. to the channel. We'll see everyone next time.

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