The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Lakers Tonight with Jason Timpf - How LeBron let the Lakers down

Episode Date: February 26, 2022

Jason dives into how LeBron fell short in a heartbreaking Lakers’ loss to the Clippers, how the good outweighed the bad with Russ and how the 76ers stood out in Harden’s debut. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, welcome to Lakers tonight, presented by Fanduel here on the volume. I'm Jason Tim. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope you all had a great week. That was a heartbreaker. Holy cow. We are going to talk about every single thing in that Laker game.

If you stick around for the end, I will also give my first impressions of the Hardin and bead pairing, but not until the end. We're going to talk lots of Lakers here at the start. That was probably the most heartbreaking loss of the season I can think of because it was one of the best Laker efforts in terms of the things that haven't gone well for the most part this season that went well tonight. You know, I talked a lot last week on the show about how much this next stretch of Laker games, this next 24 games, was going to really test their medal. Because under the circumstances, where they are in the standings, their situation with how much talent they have and how poorly they've played all season, and with the Anthony Davis

injury, that there would be kind of a loss of hope. Like, what's the point of us putting in all this work if there's not something achievable at the end. I had a feeling that that type of test would come several times over the course of the next month and a half. And it came early in this game when the Clippers shot incredibly well to start the game on difficult shot profile while the Lakers were doing their job on defense. And then meanwhile, on the other end of the floor, you keep seeing like wide open three for Malik Monk, Clank, wide open three for Camelo Anthony clank. And next thing you know, you're down 49-33 after, you know, Luke Kinnard makes another crazy contested 30-footer. And I'm like, here you go. Here's your first test. Here's your first

opportunity to decide whether or not you really want to do this. And they did. They decided they wanted to do it. And that effort in the second half down the line was probably the best that I've seen this entire season outside of LeBron. And I have to start with LeBron here. because this is one of the most unusual stretches of games from him that I can remember seeing. I would say that he was number one to blame for losing against Golden State a couple weeks ago before the All-Star break. He was horrific in the fourth quarter on both ends of the floor. Defensively, he was throwing the ball away on offense. He couldn't finish around the rim.

He was really struggling with Golden State's length. And we all threw it away, right? You're like, that's weird. LeBron doesn't do that very often. That's just an outlier performance we move on. And we were all proven right when all of a sudden against Utah, he reaches deep and just pulls out one of the best performances in the fourth quarter that we've seen from him in recent years.

I think he had 15 in the fourth and basically carries the team to a victory against Utah. And then here we are against the Clippers. As a second half run from Malik Monk and Carmelo Anthony and Talen Horton Tucker and Dwight Howard has amounted to a lead. in the fourth quarter. I believe they were up six at one point, and it's just teed up there for LeBron to carry him home, and I tweeted out, they just need to get something from him. They don't need a lot. They just need something. And they got almost nothing. I tried to look at it. There were a couple of contested defensive rebounds he got, and then there was that one pick and pop where he hit Carmelo Anthony for the three.

Outside of that, it was a lot of missed defensive assignment team. It's back-to-back switches on the perimeter, one that gave Robert Covington a wide open three and then another that gave Lou Canard or coffee a wide open three at the top of the key. He had a play where he like kind of got out of his rhythm and started talking trash to Robert Covington and then just lost the handle and gave up a foul the other way. Like it was just, it's a real, I can't remember a time that I've seen LeBron have two this bad fourth quarters in such a short period of time. And it's really unfortunate because down the line,

everyone else on the roster, we're going to touch on them all at some point tonight, everyone else on the roster did everything necessary to win that game, not just to win that game. If they shoot a little better and they get more out of LeBron, that group can be above 500, even with this intense schedule without Anthony Davis over the course of the next month. That's how well they played tonight. That's how well they did their jobs in the varying lineups that they went with tonight.

And so I feel bad. I feel bad for the team and I feel bad for the fans because, you know, they could have let it go and they went for it tonight and LeBron just wasn't there. And again, like you got to give LeBron a huge amount of benefit of the doubt because his resume is so extensive and even his recent resume, he's still one of the top two or three players in the world. But this was bad. That was a game where if you get even 10% more out of LeBron, you win. And instead you lose because you get nothing from him. And that's really discouraging. I was talking with one of my producers before the show. I would have gone to Russ on that last possession. How wild is that? Like that's the type of night LeBron was having. He wasn't dribbling the ball well.

He wasn't shooting the ball well. He wasn't making reeds well. He was all over the place. And Russ had it going. In the fourth quarter, he had a couple of drives to the basket. He had a mid-range jump shot that he made around the foul line. He had a little floater that he made. Like Russ, Russ had it going.

I would have gone in that direction. Now, that was, it ended up working out fine because the clippers ended up sending a double at LeBron, but they just didn't execute well out of that. And obviously you're not going to love a contested 30-foot-3 from Mello. But at the end of the day, if you want a silver lining, LeBron's not going to play that bad. And they didn't shoot particularly well. And everything that they did from top to bottom with the role players is replicable. Those are things they can continue to do.

do moving forward. And so I want to go piece by piece through some of these guys just to talk specifically about what they did so well. So I want to start with Dwight. I talk to a lot this season. Like Dwight is a good backup center. And a lot of the issues that have come with him this season have had to do with circumstance. Injuries have forced the Lakers to lean more on him than you'd want to. Instead of using him sparingly as a bench big, he's been forced to play big minutes on a lot of nights, and as a result, he's looked old, which is something that happens when you don't have that type of gas in the tank to carry you through those stretches. But tonight, I don't know if it's the All-Star break or if he just was showing some fight or what the deal was. That was as

dominant a defensive performance from Dwight that I've seen in a long time. And he was killing on the offensive glass, doing some catch. He had bobbled a few passes around the rim, but he was really good on the offensive end as well. And so, you know, particularly in the first half when the wheels were coming off when the Lakers were missing all their shots and the clippers were hitting everything, that could have just as easily been a 25-point game at halftime. And Dwight Howard was a huge part of why they were able to stay competitive. One of my favorite things about Dwight is he's active in drop coverages. I hate drop coverages when you're doing them with someone like D'Andre Jordan,

where he's kind of just waiting around the rim and it's like, yeah, if you drive right into me, I'll block you. But if you take anything from 15 to 5 feet, it's all yours, bro. Like, I'm not even going to go out there. That's kind of the D'Andre Jordan approach. What Dwight Howard does that I love is he's active and he's up on the ball handler, and he got a bunch of strips tonight where he's so crafty with his hands. People forget that's part of what makes him such a good defensive player in his prime.

It's not just that he's a freak. It's not just that he's Superman. It's because he has amazing defensive instincts. And those defensive instincts showed tonight throughout the game. And he got a lot of cool strips and things along those lines. Mello had another kind of similar game like that, particularly in the second half. You know, he, they use, the Lakers use him too much in drop coverages. I prefer to switch him because it's just, he's just not quick enough to cover ground the way they need him to.

But he did a lot defensively in the second half to stay active. He also had a bunch of strips and had a couple of key strips down at the end of the game to get stops. Those are, those are veteran players on this Laker team that are going to need to step up moving forward. And if that can be continued, mellow particularly on the defensive end, and Dwight Howard, Dwight Howard just night in, night out, doing what he does as a backup center. If they can get that moving forward, it gives you a better chance, especially if LeBron can play a little bit better. The next thing I wanted to hit on was this idea of Malik Munk and Carmelo Anthony and

what you do when they're not shooting well. Because, you know, in the first half, Malik Munk and Carmelo Anthony were bricking everything, including wide open shots. But what's important is like when you're coaching other players, like if you're coaching Avery Bradley and he's missing everything and his head's not in the game offensively, you need to bench him. If you're coaching Stanley Johnson and he's doing the same thing, you need to bench him. With Mello and Malik Munk in particular, I think it's so important for the Lakers to give them a super long leash to shoot through their slumps. Because when they get going,

that is what makes the Laker offense so dynamic, is what those two bring as those lethal shooters and Malik Monk even getting to the rim. Malik Monk got his rhythm tonight just putting his head down and going to the basket. So I'm a big believer in letting him shoot through that. The same two guys that weren't making anything in the first half and were part of the reason they were losing were the same two guys who got hot in the second half and allowed that run to Kindle and get going for the Lakers and actually get them to a position where they can win the game. So with those two guys in particular, I'm a big believer in letting them have a long leash. For those of you are just joining us, this is Lakers tonight, presented by Fanduel here on the volume.

We're just breaking down the Laker game right now. Stick around at the end. I'll be talking a little bit about James Hardin and Joelle Embed as well. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all,

embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. Yep, that's me, Clipper Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told,

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Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down,

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I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. So, oh. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes.

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Join me, Kear Games, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. I wanted to talk about Russ for a second. So Russ is on a three-game stretch here where he's starting to play pretty well. And I don't think it's a coincidence because it doesn't really have. have a whole lot to do with what he's been doing in the box score. You know, that's an easy place

to get distracted. You hear way too much the season like, oh, Russell Westbrook is shooting a higher field goal percentage than Steph. Don't care. He's not been nearly in the same stratosphere as a player as Stefan Curry. I don't care about what he does with his field goal percentage or what he does shooting threes or what he does rebounding or even with his assists. All I care about with Russ is, is he impacting winning? Is he making more winning plays than he's making losing plays? And as long as he's focused on all of the things that Frank needs him to do in his role, then he has a lot of leeway to miss the occasional pull-up transition three or to smoke a layup. Like he missed a fourth quarter layup tonight. He got all the way to the rim and he missed a left-handed

layup. I don't care. I thought he played great tonight because he had more good plays than he had bad plays. a huge part of this has been one, him buying into the role and putting in more effort defensively, but two, he's playing slower, which again, we talked about this a couple weeks ago. I have no idea why it was Shaq of all people that got through to him, but Russ specifically told us, like, I was told by Shaq to slow down, that's what I've been trying, that's what's been working for me. And it's not coincidence. Like, when you're flying into the lane at full speed, it's difficult to finish. Like just go up to your local LA fitness or something and take a layup underneath the rim,

then go back to half court and sprint as fast as you possibly can and try to lay it up. It's just tougher. Like, yeah, if you're a good basketball player, you can do it, but it's tougher. And Russ, in those NBA settings in traffic, would just throw a bunch of junk up and he'd miss everything. So him slowing down and being more methodical, doing more jumping off of two feet instead of one feet, that's more of a balanced takeoff as opposed to a, you know, off balance, one-foot, you know, line drive type of deal. kind of thing has really, really helped him. He's also been more selective with his jump shot.

I only counted one jump shot tonight that I didn't like. It was a transition pullup that he took in the first quarter. All the other jump shots he took made sense. They were against drop coverages when the big was sitting under the paint and the guard tried to go under the screen and he found himself there around 15 feet with a lot of time for him to settle into a nice balanced 15 footer. Those are good shots for Russ. He's actually shooting a decent enough percentage this year on those that they're fine. Where you don't want Russ is the isolation, I'm staring a guy in the face, and I'm just elevating over him and throwing it into the corner of the backboard. Those are bad shots. But Russ in general is starting to round things out

with his game. It's only three games. Plenty of time for him to slip back into what was not working for him earlier. But if he can recreate this and he can extend it forward, there's a good player in there. And that was always my take with Russ was never he sucks. It was that he's playing poorly because he's stubborn and he's not embracing what the team needs him to do. He was sucking in the way he was playing, not in who he was as a basketball player. That's an important distinction. And I don't know if there was a wake-up call in there somewhere or what the deal was, but we're starting to see some signs of life. I wanted to give to him just a little, little bit of a shout-out. The last thing I wanted to hit on was the Young Lakers. I did a video

on this a couple days ago with the help of the crew at the volume. Special shout-out to them. those guys are amazing and I couldn't do anything I do without them. But in this video, I was talking about why it was so important for the Lakers to play their young guys moving forward. And I pointed out through net rating, if you just go to NBA.com and you look up the best Lakers playing alongside LeBron in order of net rating, it was basically the four young guys, Malik, Monk, Stanley Johnson, Austin, Reeves, and Taylor Horton Tucker, and Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo Anthony, it's not a coincidence that he's in that list. It's because he still has an elite skill. Carmelo Anthony is such a good spot-up shooter, and he's still a pretty good rebounder, and he's still a smart, savvy player.

That elite skill, though, that shooting allows him to succeed still in the league. A lot of the old players that the Lakers are playing. Guys like Trevor Areza, DeAndre Jordan, they don't actually have an NBA skill anymore. Like Trevor Arisa had a wide open transition layup from LeBron, and in his prime, he'd still be hanging on the rim. And instead, he looked like his knee gave out a little bit. He just looked a step slow. he airballed a three out of the corner. He was missing by a lot. Like that guy, there's just not a whole lot he can bring to the table at this point in his crib. Maybe it's the ankle injury. I don't know what it is, but he's not that guy anymore. Mello is a vet that's still giving you something. Dwight hasn't been an every night player yet this year, but he gave you something tonight.

That's something you can look at. Outside of those two guys, it has to be the youth. It has to be Stanley Johnson. It has to be Austin Reeves. It has to be Taylin. It has to be Monk. And all of those guys, gave you something tonight in some area of the game. Taylin, I talked a lot in the video about how he's starting to come into his own as a playmaker. In the previous seven games, he had 26 assists to just 12 turnovers. That's incredible for a 21-year-old guard. Young guards are always a step behind with efficiency and limiting mistakes. And Tht's starting to show signs that he's kind of on the other side of that hill, which is exciting. He was amazing in that second half on both ends of the floor. Countless steals and stripaways. He had his entire

offensive repertoire working. He was scoring at the basket. He was making three-point shots. He was making contested turnaround jump shots in the mid-range. He had everything going. He looked like the player that has had me so exciting, so excited all season. And this is, again, an extended stretch. This is eight games from Taylin now where he's looked really good. I went on the favor. It's another volume podcast on Monday or Tuesday this week. And on that show, I said, the only way that the Lakers can have enough talent to win a championship this year is if someone like Tainlin takes a massive leap. Now, in order for this to be a leap, Tailen has to stay good for the rest of the season. So there's a long way to go in that department, but this is a good first step in that direction.

Austin, third quarter, especially in the first quarter and third quarter in particular, the clippers went out of their way to try to attack Austin. And as I've kept saying, every possession that the other team goes out of their offense to try to isolate Austin Reeves is a win for the Lakers because they're not scoring very often. They're inefficient in those possessions. And the other four Lakers get to stand around and just watch. And then as soon as the shot goes up, they crash the boards and they're running the other way. And the Lakers were getting a lot of good stuff on possessions where the clippers were foolish

attacking Austin Reeves as if he was some good option to attack. So in summation, like, it's really unfortunate because the Lakers played well enough to win this game. It just so happens that the Lakers have played two. They've put together two really good basketball games in their last three against the Warriors and Clippers and come away with two losses because their leader, who's been amazing all season, who's been amazing for three seasons, their leader couldn't come through. And you just have to chalk it up to bad luck. It is what it is,

but the overall package of what the Lakers put on the court tonight with the LeBron that we know, not the one we saw tonight, but the LeBron that we know, that group can win enough games to make a run at the seven or eight seed and get Anthony Davis back and try to get into that seven spot

to try to avoid Phoenix. That's a formula there. And so that's what I wanted to stay positive on that front as unfortunate as this loss is, the Lakers are starting to behave and show some signs of being a good basketball team. For those of you are just joining us, this is Lakers tonight presented by Fanduel here on the volume. We were just breaking down the Laker game. I wanted to take just a couple of minutes before we get out of here tonight to talk about James Hardin's first game with the Philadelphia 76ers. First of all, I was joking with my producers. This, it's the least shocking thing in the

entire world was that James Harden looked fantastic tonight. Because of course, because of course, James, as soon as he gets his head space in the right space, he's got it all figured out, and now he's playing basketball again, and he's playing well. What he did in Houston to try to force the trade, what he did in Brooklyn to try to force the trade, it's just really ugly stuff. It's not a good look. You can blame it on injuries all you want, but, dude, when you walk into Philly and you're you're looking super happy and all of a sudden you're making all your step-back threes and you're getting to the basket again and you're starting to draw free throws that's that's an indicator of the fact that you were you know we were bamboozled for lack of a better term you were leading the

way and uh you were basically trying to manipulate the situation into your favor there were a couple of interesting things that stood out to me so for starters that team is ridiculously talented And it was something that didn't really click for me until I saw it all put together tonight. But they have this luxury because of how much offensive creation Joelle Embed and James Harden bring to the table. They have this luxury of being able to allow their role players to focus on the defensive end of the floor. And so now you're asking Tyree Smaxy, who's a very good point of attack defender who moves his feet really well, has good size and strength at the guard position, and then two really good wings. Tobias Harris is a really good wing defender.

And Matisse Stibel is one of the best wing defenders that we have in the league. The dude's going to be a perennial all-defense selection. When you put those three guys next to Joel Embed, who's an awesome drop coverage big, then it just makes James Hardin's job easier. One of the things I noticed is they were switching everything one through four, but then they were running traditional drop coverages with Embed. But then when Hardin would be in the screen with Embed, a lot of times Embed would switch that one too.

They're making things very easy for James. And so his defensive shortcomings are just not a problem alongside this group, which allows him to stay focused on what he does best, which is score the basketball and create shots for his teammates, which is something he did really, really well all night long tonight. One of the interesting dynamics that I was looking at is I was like, I was thinking, you know, Joe L. Embed has never really played with a really good pick and roll threat in his career. not one that dictates the type of attention that James Harden does. He's played with guys like Tyrese and he's played with guys like Ben Simmons

and he's done dribble handoff stuff with guys like Seth Curry. But he's never played with a real pick and roll threat that forces you to chase over the top and offer help from the big. There's only like a dozen of them in the entire league. And Joe Ellenbyte's playing with one right now. And one of the things that I noticed was Embed, who's not a great rim runner. He's not your Clint Capella, you know, Nick Claxton. I'm going to roll to the rim and just jump, and my elbows will be above the rim,

and you just throw it up there and I'll dunk it. Joe Al-Mabed's not that guy. And so I was really curious to see how that dynamic would work. And basically what he did is every time he'd set the screen, they'd send two at James Hardin, and Embed would just roll to the semicircle. It's kind of like a short roll. And then Hardin would just throw him a baseball pass, and he'd just catch and he would do Embed stuff, right from the,

the semi-circle, just one dribble, spin, layup, just quick turn and finish. And he was getting all sorts of fouls and all sorts of stuff right at the rim and scoring easy. And, you know, when you're, one of the things that sucks about being the only star, something that LeBron's dealing with right now, something in B dealt with all season, something Yokage dealt with all season, when you're the only star, you don't get easy shots. So everything you do is hard. And as a result, it's difficult to manufacture the offense that you manufacture over the course of the game. When you play with that other high-level player, that's what allows you to supplement your offense with easy stuff. Joel Embed is going to have fewer bad nights because he's going to get

more easy shots early in the game operating as a short roller off of attention that James Hardin gathers. And as a result, he's going to get a lot of easy finishes, a lot of trips to the free throw line that will allow him to build his rhythm and allow him to get it going. That was a really impressive win. Minnesota is good. They were 18 and 11 at home coming into that game. They were 12th in the entire league and home net rating. That's not an easy game. And Philly just went in there and whoop their ass. And again, you never want to overreact to one game. They could lay down and take a bad loss in a couple nights here. But as far as first showings, that's as good as it gets. And I have one last thought because we did experience the all-time

foul-bating type of game from James Hardin and Joel Embed. I can't remember exactly how many free throws they shot, but it was a million. We had our classic James Hardin three-pointer on the right wing where as soon as he elevates to shoot, he just literally allows his feet to swing like four or five feet out in front of him and he's literally fought. Like there's a still shot of James Hardin before he lands on the defender where he's straight up falling. Like the dude is just falling for the sake of falling because he knows the foul call is coming. But one thing, I'll say that, I hate it. It's basketball blasphemy. It's not good for the game. It never gets any easier to watch. But if there's one silver lining, it's that we know that doesn't work. We have decades and decades of

evidence that that style of basketball does not work in the postseason. So if there's one vindication in all of this, it's that if James Hardin and Joel Embed win a championship this season, they're going to have to do it with the old-fashioned way by putting the ball in the basket and stopping the other team from putting the ball in the basket on the other end. All in all, though, I was impressed by the whole dynamic and the way that it worked. A team makes sense in a lot of ways. I'm still not sure if James Hardin and Joe L&B

can out-execute Janus and Kevin Durant in a seven-game series, but they're going to have their chance. And as far as first impressions go, that was about as good as it gets. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys' support. Lakers play the Pelicans on Sunday night

at 7 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. I will be going live immediately after that game. See you guys then. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman

help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor. It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.