Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Turnovers Kill the Lakers in a 117-114 Loss to Detroit Pistons

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

The Lakers offense has been stuck in the mud for the last few weeks. Monday at the Crypt against Detroit, the Lakers shot 54% from the floor, including 47% from 3-point range. They hit 20 of their 25... free throws, a perfectly solid 80%. The Lakers got a triple-double (28/11/11) from LeBron James. Max Christie chipped in with 17. So why did they ultimately lose 117-114 to the Pistons? Turnovers, plain an simple. After a strong start, the Lakers simply couldn't handle the physicality and aggressiveness of Detroit's defense. The blitzed ball handlers, especially Austin Reaves, who had six turnovers on his own. That meant not only that the Pistons could get out and run for easy buckets, but that they simply got more shots than the Lakers. Like, a lot more. 92 field goal attempts vs. 74. Even accounting for the disparity in free throws (which impacts the FGA count), the Lakers surrendered too many opportunities to score. It's pretty clear that the Pistons play in a style that's hard for the Lakers to handle, but it seemed on Monday that LA couldn't come up with anything consistent to counter what Detroit was doing. The Pistons, meanwhile, played a pretty clean game up until the last couple of minutes, when their turnovers gave the Lakers a chance to finish off a double-digit comeback and send the game to OT. But a clean LeBron 3-pointer bounced off the front rim, and that was that. On the heels of a great set of games in Sacramento, this one stings, and reinforces that the Lakers simply cannot afford to be loose with the ball. It's been an issue all season, and cost them a game on Monday. The bigger question now—because teams, particularly the more athletic ones, see the blueprint and will try to repeat it—is how do they fix the problem going forward?  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: The Lakers turn the ball over and over and over again, losing to Detroit. SEGMENT 2: A massive missed opportunity. SEGMENT 3: Did the Lakers disrespect their opponent, or was Detroit exploiting weaknesses?  Your favorite podcast now has a newsletter! In One-stop for ultimate team and league coverage delivered right to your in box. Sign up for free now, at lockedondaily.com.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Skylight FramesWe've got the perfect gift for you! Skylight Frame is the touchscreen digital photo frame your whole family will love. As a special, limited-time offer for our listeners, get $20 OFF your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go to SkylightFrame.com/NBA.BILT RewardsStart earning points on rent you're already paying by going to joinbilt.com/lockedonnba.Rocket RXRight now, our listeners can get 40% off your first order when you use code LOCKEDONNBA at RocketRX.com. Terms and Conditions apply.Rocket RX: Better sex, made simple.RobinhoodRobinhood Gold provides the privileges of a high net worth for any net worth. These generous benefits are now available for only $5/month. The new Gold Standard is here with Robinhood Gold. Sign up at robinhood.com/gold.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelThe NFL Playoffs are almost here, but it’s not too late to get in on the regular season action with FanDuel because right now, new customers can finish the season strong with TWO HUNDRED and FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins.Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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 Hey, everyone. Welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Tuesday, Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, the Lakers turn it over and over and over and over and over again and have a bad loss against the Pistons heading into Christmas Day. That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Lockedon Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen of every day. Monday through Friday, no matter how are. or where you get your podcast. This one's always going to be free, never behind a paywall.
Starting point is 00:00:38 Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where over 26,000 subscribers, are Andy are all wondering why so many turnovers on Monday. The Lakers, as a team, turn it over 20 times, and the Pistons take advantage. We'll go through some of the numbers. It really is one of these nights where you can point to one category and say that is why the Lakers lost. and on the heels of some really nice wins,
Starting point is 00:01:08 this one stings. So we will unpack all of it here momentarily. I want to let everybody know that today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. The NFL playoffs are almost here. It's not too late to get on the regular season action with Fandul because right now new customers can finish the season strong with $250 and bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Visit fandul.com to get started.
Starting point is 00:01:31 So some fun numbers here, Andy. The Lakers, as a team, shot over 50% from the floor, 54 and a half percent, 54% I should say. That's pretty robust. They shot almost 47% from three point range. They made 80% of their free throws, 20 of 25, and took 13 more than the visiting Detroit Pistons. So why did they lose this game, Andy?
Starting point is 00:02:08 Those 20 turnovers. You can draw a straight line, 20 turnovers, lose the game. Yeah, Austin Reeves, who led the team in turnovers, not a category you want to be leading in, had six on the night. He acknowledged afterwards that he did not handle Detroit's Blitz as well and that he needed to be better in general. he was not alone.
Starting point is 00:02:33 Every single Laker except Dalton Connect turn the ball over at least once. Like, again, Reeves was six of them, and, you know, Reeves had five, I believe, with... At the half.
Starting point is 00:02:51 At the half. I mean, he just, bad combination of not being able to handle the blitzes. A few times, he just made some bad passes. And again, he is not alone, but he was sort of the embodiment of a Lakers team that we can get into some of, I think it was more than just simply not handling the blitzing and that physical and athleticism from Detroit well. I think there were times where the Lakers made it even easier for Detroit to capitalize on that. But, you know, JJ said after the game that this was something they talked about, like you should be expecting. protecting Detroit to be defending us like this and to be sending those blitzes looking to trap,
Starting point is 00:03:36 really be aggressive on it. And the Lakers simply just did not respond well to this at all. They didn't. And, you know, there's 20 turnovers. I mean, he, Reddick went through sort of the list of it. And there are always going to be some careless ones, you know, guys dribbling off their foot. You know, there's, I think it was a lazy pass inbound, you know, goes to the ball, goes to Beasley. he's score, you know, hits a triple, stuff like that. You know, a sequence in the second half, you know, where DeAngelo Russell clearly miscommunication with LeBron where he thinks LeBron is going to pop out off of the, you know, the elbow, you know, area.
Starting point is 00:04:15 LeBron stays where he is. The ball just, you know, it's an easy bucket the other way. I believe that sequence got Deelow yanked. I think it did. Yeah, I don't, I don't think Deelow played again after that. Yeah, he was It's like the Who's the guy in the Godfather?
Starting point is 00:04:32 You know, you won't be seeing him anymore. It was a little bit like that. Yeah, it was Paul. Speaking of Paul, this game, I tweeted out at Cam Brothers.
Starting point is 00:04:39 It felt like the inverse of Michael Corleone's iconic line in the Godfather 3. You know, just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. This game and these Lakers at times can be just when I thought I was in, they pulled me back out.
Starting point is 00:04:52 Like just the run that they've been on of late to then turn around, and not just lose this game, but lose a game that despite all of the issues they had was still winnable. But I think that was one of the things that was so interesting about it and really drives home the transformative impact of turnovers in this game is Detroit was really clean for about 95% of the game.
Starting point is 00:05:23 The 5% came in the last minute and a half, where they had, I think, three turnovers that gave the Lakers a chance to have a game-tying three-pointer, which they actually got a very nice look. And as good a look as you're going to get with a catch-and-chute three, with three and a half seconds left, LeBron just missed the shot. Like, it was Detroit's turnovers that allowed the Lakers to even be in a situation where they could try to win the game. And so, like, this was a game that was about turnovers. And I think the Lakers, Redick said, and I agree, that this was different than the loss in Detroit,
Starting point is 00:06:03 where the Lakers sort of rolled into that one. And I just don't think ever took that game seriously. Should have, obviously. And I think we do need to recalibrate a little bit our perception of what the Pistons are, because while they are not a good team yet, they've already won more games or as many games this year as they did all of last year. So like more. And they're nearly 500 on the road.
Starting point is 00:06:32 Yeah. So they're not a trash team anymore. Like they've got, you know, picked up some smart veterans. And it's a little like the St. Antonio model in the sense of good young players surrounded by maybe a little more stability, guys like Tobias Harris, whatever, whatever. You still should beat them on your home floor. They're not that good.
Starting point is 00:06:50 But what they do is they play in a style that is problematic. for the Lakers. And I think, you know, as we go on throughout the week and talk about games, that to me is the bigger issue because in this game, I think they were sloppy at points, but I don't think they were dismissive. I think what they struggled with, whether it was LeBron, whether it was Austin Reeves, you know, Gabe Benson a couple of times just had turnovers where like the pistons were all over some of their ball reversals and, you know, they the gaps that the Lakers normally fit balls into on the pick and roll and stuff like that. And particularly when they were aggressive physically, the Lakers really struggled.
Starting point is 00:07:37 Even long after they knew what the Pistons were doing. They just, from a physicality standpoint, struggled to respond, which kind of makes sense, to me at least, based on their roster because they are not an over. overly athletic team, you know, with a ton of extra strength and a ton of extra dynamic athleticism to counteract some of the stuff that Detroit was doing. Well, I think it's more about the lack of athleticism than the lack of physicality or potential physicality at the very least because the Lakers, particularly with Christy now in the starting lineup and Christy, for what it's worth, I think was one of the bright spots of this game.
Starting point is 00:08:22 He played a great game. Max Christie had 17 points, which I believe is a career high for him. I thought he was part, he was 6 to 10 from the field, three or four from behind the arc, made both of his free throws, had a couple steals. I thought he also was part of a defensive effort against Kate Cunningham that held him to a very inefficient night. Cunningham had 20 points, but 9 of 25 from the field, had five turnovers. you know, at 10 rebounds.
Starting point is 00:08:52 And Cunningham is just, he's a big guard and he's, or excuse me, at 10 assists. He's difficult to contain. He's a good player. I mean, like, certainly like the idea that a, I want to talk a little bit more about the defense and Christy, for that matter, in the next segment. But the idea that, you know, how you define a good defensive game, like if a guy like Kade Cunningham has a good number in their box score, like that's going to happen. He's really good.
Starting point is 00:09:20 But I want I made him work. They made him work though for it. Right. I agree with you. He was not controlling this. He controlled it as a playmaker, but they took, they made him be one or the other as opposed of both. And I want to get your thoughts, though, on the defense itself.
Starting point is 00:09:36 Because, you know, you look at some of Detroit's percentages and you might say the Lakers weren't very good on that side of the ball, 117 points, and they were over 50% and all that kind of stuff. I'm curious what you think about how they. actually played on defense as opposed to defense that was created by bad offense. We'll get to that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Robin Hood with Robin Hood Gold. You don't need a silver spoon to eat up the financial favors of the 1% Robin Hood Gold allows others to get the rates and perks usually reserved for the high society. Now the resourceful individual with Robin Hood Gold can
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Starting point is 00:10:50 Gold membership is offered by Robin Hood Gold, LLC. see. I mean, if there's if there's one more number, Andy, that really sticks out in this game to me, and certainly it was to JJ Reddick, it was to the studio crew with Spectrum Sportsnet or and down the line. It's 18. That is the disparity in field goal attempts between the Pistons and the Lakers. Obviously, you know, it's totally apples to apples because, you know, the Lakers got the line more so they did have a couple more shots, don't show up in the box score. But you're talking about 14, 15, 16 more opportunities to score for the Pistons than the Lakers had. And on a night where you're shooting 54% and making 47% of your threes,
Starting point is 00:11:45 I think that if the Lakers had half of those possessions back, even if they don't walk over the Pistons in a way that people think they maybe should, I do think they win the game. If you get those possessions back, in the half court, when they weren't giving the ball to the pistons, how do you think they played defensively? Again, they kept, Detroit only went to the line 12 times. And while they, and they did shoot over 50% from the floor. But a lot of that, to me at least, was fueled by the Lakers offensively, as it was giving
Starting point is 00:12:21 them the ball, opportunities to score. I think for the most part again, I mean, it begins with what you do against Cade Cunningham because he's the guy running their offense. And I thought they did a very good job of making Cunningham work and at the very least turning him into a more, a relatively more effective playmaker than score. But even then, he had 10 assists against five turnover. So it's not like, you know, one of those nights where Chris Paul has like 17 assists against three turnovers. I mean, they were able to get Cunningham out of rhythm, I think, on a lot of different counts. And if you, if you do that to Cunningham, you're going to mess up Detroit's offense. I don't have the numbers in front of me that I would want in terms of like how, how efficiently Detroit scored off turnover opportunities.
Starting point is 00:13:20 You know, like they had, but they had 20. I believe is the short answer. I think they had 28 points off turnovers. So they did a lot of damage and were I to guess the majority of, I mean, it certainly felt this way in real time. And, you know, if I was able to go back and watch the game, you know, Detroit had 24 fast break points. I imagine a lot of those were points directly off turnovers.
Starting point is 00:13:48 And, you know, JJ said it after the game. And they really just capitalized well on Laker mistakes. You mentioned before, like Daniel Russell, for example, I think he got benched after that sequence we described between him and LeBron, that miscommunication that looked in real time like it was more Deelow than LeBron. There was a sequence, I want to say. It's a bad looking pass.
Starting point is 00:14:14 It's a one-handed little layoff. It's just kind of a lay. And Delo was not having a great game. No, well, I was much by putting him on the bench. Other than having a guy who could respond a little more effectively, perhaps as a ball handler to some of the, the ball pressure. But I was going to say in the first half,
Starting point is 00:14:34 in terms of like an example of Detroit capitalizing off mistakes, and this one just also happened to evolve DeLo, the pistons missed on a possession and the Lakers were pushing. DeLo put up a quick three in Transatlantic. basically one-on-one with nobody close to around him. You could have just waited a little bit, resettled, or even driven in. They ended up missing. And Malik Beasley, who might, this was the best show Malik Beasley ever put on in Los Angeles,
Starting point is 00:15:08 unfortunately, he was with the other team. But they ended up scoring a three on this scrambled defense that the Lakers had to play as a result of just Delo making just a really poor choice. And most of the time, I think when the Lakers made a poor choice, Detroit capitalized. And, you know, it's that calibration to recognize who you're playing and what the strengths are of the team that you're playing. And I just don't think they adjusted to that well. But, I mean, in terms of what's annoying to me about this,
Starting point is 00:15:46 other than the obviously the result. You know, this is, it doesn't matter to me that Detroit's not a terrible team. It's a game on your own floor that you ought to win. It's that when they didn't give the ball away, one of their better offensive games in a while. Like they actually shot the ball well. They generated some good shots. They were, and you tweeted about this, way too slow getting to their,
Starting point is 00:16:16 offense, which I think the other byproduct of what Detroit was doing other than turning the Lakers over is it was slowing them down in a big way to try because they couldn't get guys off of screens. They couldn't get, like, they couldn't get moving in ways that, you know, so it wasn't just the turnovers if the physicality hurt them. It was the motion of their offense. And I think that got them stuck in the mud led to a lot of late clock threes, but they still got a lot of good shots, converted at a high rate and all that kind of stuff. Well, you led me to one of the things I wanted to bring up. Part of the reason I think that the pistons were able to be so successfully physical
Starting point is 00:16:59 against the Lakers when they were on offense is because the Lakers were taking so long to set up in anything that it actually allowed the Pistons, I think a lot of time to just set up what they were doing to get to a good spot to either front a Laker that you might want to pass to or just basically get to the spots of the Lakers wanted to and just set up shop because the Lakers were taking so long to just set up anything. Like there were so many times where, and I think LeBron and AD were probably the biggest culprits in this where he didn't even see them start running some action until 17, 18 seconds are off the clock.
Starting point is 00:17:47 And then, you know, there was one sequence where LeBron had spent a lot of time dribbling out the possession. Then he ends up giving up the ball to AD. 80 only has like two seconds left. He passes off to DeLo in the corner. And Deelow tried getting a shot up, but he didn't have enough time. There's another time where LeBron. Yeah, LeBron did give ball Deelow, you know, basically the buzzer went off.
Starting point is 00:18:09 Right. There's another time like that, too. And when you give a team that definitely. has an athleticism advantage over you and at worst is a physical push that much time to set up defensively they're going to be able to be really disruptive because you're making the work easier for them by not by not moving around by not making them ever have to adjust to anything not have to react anything they just it almost got me wondering if the lakers like particularly this made me wonder about it with LeBron.
Starting point is 00:18:45 If expending this energy on defense, LeBron's now doing the reverse of what he used to do, you know, like sometimes getting his rest back on defense. It's like he's getting his rest back on offense, bringing the ball up slowly. No, I, I, it's hard for me. I'm not saying it's what it's doing.
Starting point is 00:19:04 I know, I understand what you're getting at. I just, I think it's one of these things where you go, you know, I'm sure the, and the coaching staff obviously is going to go back. I can look at it, but it's like, what is the ratio between the Lakers weren't moving and that made it easier for the Pistons versus the Pistons were making it hard for the Lakers to move and the Lakers didn't respond? Well, I suspect there's a lot of overlap in that diagram. I think it's much more the Lakers being slow. I mean, there was a lot of time.
Starting point is 00:19:32 They have a habit of going slowly too much anyway when their offense isn't working very well. But I think it, like I said, I just think it was all of it was made worse by the style that The Lakers were really uncomfortable at moments. And Dan Wakey at the times asked a question of Redick after the game, which I think is kind of the crux of this. Like the Lakers, they got to go play Houston. There are other teams that will body you up and are young and athletic and run around a lot and forced turnovers and all that teams that are going to be
Starting point is 00:20:09 on the schedule coming up or maybe that they've already played. we'll see again, that will do this to the Lakers. This is a blueprint that the Pistons have now used twice to beat the Lakers. It's not a secret. You know, people understand the Lakers are not an overly athletic team. So at some point, the Lakers can have to figure out how to respond effectively to this style of play. What are the counters? What are the, you know, what actions can we run?
Starting point is 00:20:43 to lighten the impact of this kind of thing because you can't allow it to force you into this amount of mistakes and this amount of disruptiveness in your offense. It's got to come up with something better. They did at the beginning of the game, and then it just got stuck in the mud. So let's talk a little bit more about Christy, though, because this game to me was a great, example of, I think, what the Lakers
Starting point is 00:21:15 were looking for, not just defensively, but what they think he can do on the other side of the ball as well. So I want to mention that next. Lockdown Lakers are brought to you by Fandul, and you can tackle the NFL action with Fandle, America's number one
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Starting point is 00:22:13 Fandul.com never waste a hunch. Make every moment more with Fandle. an official sports book partner of the NFL. Real quick before we get to Christy, as far as that idea of what the Lakers can do to counter some of this, I really do think a lot of this can be alleviated, if not solved,
Starting point is 00:22:37 by really making a point of just getting into your action quicker. And by doing that, A, I think it just gives the defense less time to just set up shop for what they want to do against you, but also like similar to the what I didn't like about the automatic switching that we saw in the way they did it earlier in the season defensively. I feel like offensively, the slower that they go and the more that they just kind of crawl the ball up court, you know, pittle away 14 seconds before they even sort of do something, the more it creates a permission structure to freelance because they're out of time to do anything. and the more this team freelances, the more their offense sucks. And I think also, too, the less action they're actually running,
Starting point is 00:23:30 the more you start relying on guys like Delo and Austin who aren't great at breaking guys down off the dribble to have to do that because you don't necessarily have enough time to pull up a screen or really run something complete. Or LeBron can do that, but he starts getting more tired. and it starts to take out of them. He gets, you know, I mean, LeBron did it really. LeBron, look, LeBron had a good game overall. I mean, I think, you know, his, you know, strong triple double, you know, he was active.
Starting point is 00:24:06 I think, you know, he had, he had some of the turnover problems that the rest of the team did. But, you know, 11 assists against two turnovers, you know, there could have been a couple more bouncing balls and stuff like that that, you know, Detroit didn't come up with. He didn't turn the ball over a lot, but I think he was very guilty of a lot of the slow offense though. Right. And I think what is will be, what the coaching staff is going to go back and look through is like,
Starting point is 00:24:33 I think LeBron, I think the team was a little, I get why you want to, well, you don't want to be running up and down the floor with Detroit. And like sort of speeding the game up to play at their pace and why you want to slow it down a little bit. I just think they were, you know, a second or two, too slow in that.
Starting point is 00:24:52 And that's something that's happened to them, you know, periodically. That's not a brand new problem. Like get into your offense faster. Stu Lance's favorite thing on the broadcast is to comment on, okay, it's five seconds. It's four. It's like, you know, this is absolutely recurrent. That's why I don't think it was so much about Detroit as it is about them. No, but I think the problem is the outlets that they would normally have, like,
Starting point is 00:25:16 you know, the action that you do end up running, whatever, whether. it's a freelance action off a read or whether it's a set, you know, play or whatever it is, it's mucked up. And so it takes longer. And so, you know, if it takes, if it takes everybody a quarter second longer to come off some sort of back screen or come around a pick or something like that, and you've got like five of those, you know, in any given possession, and I'm just making up numbers here, obviously. But that, that's two seconds. That's three seconds. And it doesn't seem like, but like now what's too slow anyway is catastrophically slow. And so I think that was part of it. So I mean, I'm not here to complain about LeBron's game. Again, 2811 and 11 against two
Starting point is 00:25:58 turnovers and all that. I thought AD was active. 19. He didn't score a ton, but 1910. Lakers scored if they weren't giving the ball away, the Lakers would have scored enough to win this game. They've got double digits from all five of their starters. They got nine points from Gabe Vincent. Dalton Connect kind of, you know, he hit a three. He was more productive in his 16 minutes in, in this game on Monday than he has been in a lot of others. He had seven points. Cam Reddish gave you seven.
Starting point is 00:26:32 Like they got enough from around that if they got half of those possessions back, yeah. They put up 120 and they win the game. So, I mean, I'm not 54. 4780 splits should be good enough offensively. It should win you the game. Yeah, exactly. So I know listeners and stuff get, and viewers get some of the times get, you know,
Starting point is 00:26:58 you're blaming LeBron, you're blaming this guy, you're blaming that, not blaming LeBron. I just think it was, it was part of the problem the Lakers had in terms of the pace of their offense. And I'm willing to give Detroit some credit for this. but it's again it's I'm more concerned I'm less concerned I can't fix the Detroit game but you can't fix the next one this is not going to be the last time the Lakers see an active young team you know I suspect the rockets are going to try something like this when they get down to Houston on that little mini road trip an active young to Portland's going to try this
Starting point is 00:27:32 and I don't think it'll be very good at it because they're not as good as Detroit but what do you do what is your response to the next time this happens because it's going to happen over and over and over again until teams don't think it's going to work as effectively. Well, I mean, and so that's all I'm not. I'm not blaming anybody. No, I know you're not. I'm looking ahead to see what the next response is going to be.
Starting point is 00:28:00 Again, the piece of advice I would have would be don't don't do the work that makes it easier for them. Yeah, I agree with you. The Lakers were crawling the ball up court. I mean, forget, like we talked about it, it's been a habit of theirs. They were crawling it up court well before there was anything you were looking at and saying, like, wow, Detroit's physicality is getting to them. Don't use all eight seconds to get the ball over the mid court line.
Starting point is 00:28:28 Use six of them. You know, just a little bit more intentionality and pace. This was, this is, and it's not like Phil used to talk about the Lakers. taking too long. It's not a matter of running. It's not a matter of playing fast. It's just starting your stuff four seconds earlier, five seconds earlier in a possession.
Starting point is 00:28:51 Well, again, it gets back to also what this offensive sluggishness and that lack of pace reminds me of with the Lakers' former problems with how they approach defense. Again, with that switching, it just feels like a lack of intention. And before the way they were switching, you know, so excessively, you know, without ever switching back or, you know, like trading off assignments, anything like that, just sort of content to stick with a mismatch that was killing them defensively.
Starting point is 00:29:26 When they run their offense like this and it eventually just sort of pittles into freelancing because you've run out of time to do anything else. It just feels like them running offense with lack of intention. And for all of like the basketball IQ that they have on this team with like LeBron, with AD, I think, you know, Austin can be a smart player. I think Gabe can be a smart player. DeAngelo Russell is a very smart player at the top of his game. But they can fall into a lot.
Starting point is 00:30:03 of bad habits and a lot of, I think, I don't know if disinterest is the wrong word, but I would agree. But I can't think of a better one. Like, I don't think, I think disinterest is the wrong word because disinterest is a, is a very pointed criticism. I don't think it's, I don't think they lost this game because they were disinterested. That's not what I think either. They seem, but I understand why you're seeing disinterest. They don't seem disinterested in their opponent. They don't seem disinterested in the game. They sometimes seem disinterested in the steps and just following process.
Starting point is 00:30:46 That's the thing I think they feel disinterested in at times. And again, I think if you ask them, it's a lack of, I think it's a lack of awareness. To me, is there's just this sort of, it doesn't say like collectively. they get into these stretches where that whatever that balance is because again, you're taking the ball out of your own basket a lot. The Lakers didn't generate a lot of turnovers to get going the other way. They didn't give up a ton of offensive boards or whatever. Generally speaking, the Lakers were operating in a half court setting while the
Starting point is 00:31:23 pistons were the team that was getting the easy buckets out on the run, the stuff that really elevates your energy and does all that stuff. So, you know, you have to generate those things yourself. over and over and over again in a half court setting, which is harder to do. And so I think it's, maybe awareness is the right word, because I agree with you disinterested that, that implies certain things that I think like they were disinterested
Starting point is 00:31:54 when they went in Detroit. Like you can compare the game tape. I don't think that was so, but they got to fix it. And like you just, you can't fall into that the wrong side of, the balance between we don't want to speed this game up we don't want to run up and down the floor and try to do
Starting point is 00:32:14 that with the pistons and we also even if we did we're not giving ourselves those opportunities we're not turning them over but we also don't want to go too slow they were on the wrong side of that on Monday and they've been on the wrong side of that a lot especially since
Starting point is 00:32:35 they you know especially since they had you know this downturn in their offense after the good start so I mean JJ we don't want on time really to get into it but Redick will maybe we'll do it for you know after the Christmas year other we're going to
Starting point is 00:32:50 I don't think we're going to do a show on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day but obviously we'll do one following the Warriors game on Christmas Day but it's something to get into this week Redick had some really interesting comments about what's been going wrong with the Lakers and what kinds of shots they ought to be taking to get back to what they were doing before, which we can cover over the course of the
Starting point is 00:33:10 week. But anyway, disappointing loss for the Lakers turns Wednesday's game much more into a must win than it otherwise was. Lakers need to get this thing back on track. And that means winning a high profile game on somebody else's floor. Against a struggling Warriors team. They know, right, but it's still a high profile Christmas Day game on the road. And so it's not going to be easy, but the Lakers need to win this one. So we will be back after that one. I hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve and a great Christmas day. And first night of Hanukkah,
Starting point is 00:33:46 the Lakers are going to spoil a lot of holidays if they lose that game on Wednesday. So don't do that, Lakers. We will be back after that game. Everyone have a great day. We'll see everyone after the game Wednesday.

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