The Ringer NBA Show - Lakers Poke the Grizzlies Back and the Kings' Shocking Warriors Domination

Episode Date: April 29, 2023

J. Kyle Mann and Tyler Parker return to talk Friday night's Western Conference playoff showdowns. They talk the Kings beating the Warriors in dominating fashion to force Game 7 and the Lakers crushing the Grizzles in Game 6 to end their season. Hosts: J. Kyle Mann and Tyler Parker Producer: Jade Whaley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, it's Ariel Hawani, and I wanted to let you know that each and every week, I'm part of a great program called The Ringer MMA Show. I hosted alongside two absolutely brilliant minds. Their names, Chuck Mindenhall and Pizzie Carroll, and every Thursday, a new episode drops where we preview the weekend in mixed martial arts and react to all the biggest news. Plus, after every UFC pay-per-view, we give you a post-fight show. So this is what you have to do. Just follow the Ringer M-M-M-A show on your Spotify app.

So you don't miss an episode. We'll talk to you then. It is so very good. It continues to be good, unfailingly, wonderfully good. And this morning, we're going to do some reacting to the NBA playoffs. We had a couple of games. Sixes last night. One went one way.

One went the other. I'm joined by Tyler Parker, writer, actor, general muser. You got to stop doing that. You got to stop doing that. Once he reacted, I had to say it again because I was like, what was his reaction to that? No, you're an actor, man. You're funny. Throw in General Muser after that.

General Muser. Man, I got to go into, if I ever become a country musician, I think that might be my name. General Muser. General Muser. That's incredible. No, yeah, man, like the beam. Let's go.

Do you think they have, like, wire? Is the beam, like, is it on some kind of a Wi-Fi thing, or is it, like, a remote thing? Or do you think that they, like, dug cable all the way from San Francisco down to, or from the Bay down to Sack? Like I wonder how, you know, what the setup is there. I'm not sure how firm a grasp I have one. As I understand it, it's just, it's all done, you know, spiritually, basically.

It's sort of in the cosmos. The way that I've been experiencing is it's just sort of, there's something happening in space right now. The heavens, the heavens are alive and it feels like that they're Kings fans. Yeah, no, I mean, like the beam, it's, it is my favorite. It is unbelievable how good just the bit is. Yeah, I don't even think, I don't think we've ever gone out of our way to try to like rank MBA bits. Like we don't do this. Yeah.

I mean, I'm not even trying to have recidivice here. I mean, what could, what could possibly be better? It should be cheesy. It should be stupid. It should make you roll your eyes so hard. It doesn't. It's awesome. It's awesome.

It's awesome. It doesn't matter who lights it. It doesn't matter if Vivek hits the button. Doesn't matter if it's some sacramental person I never heard. of. It doesn't matter. It's, whoever it makes me happy every time it's fun to say. It's fun to think about. Beam is a good word. The purple. It's a perfect purple. It's a perfect purple, Kyle. It is perfect purple. Last thing I want to say on it is that like people often think that the beam, you were talking about that it's spiritual. People don't realize this. But the people think of the beam as going up. It's actually coming down.

It's sort of like a spiritual lightning. People don't realize that. They think it's going up. It's actually, it is the heavens coming down and reaching out to us like God and, you know, and Adam and the finger touching. Yeah, I think much in the same way that God sent, you know, his only son down. I think in the same way he sent the beam down too. I think we can equate the beam to Jesus. I don't have any problem with that.

All right. My abs. Sorry, we will keep it moving. The beam is Jesus. Any sentence on an NBA pod that starts with just like God sent his only son. I was just like, what is happening? So the Kings, the Kings waltz into, waltz into the Chase Center last night. And, you know, Clay Thompson put it, put it well in his postgame presser.

He was saying that, you know, game five was the best win of the season, he thought, for the, for the Warriors. Game six, we turn around, and he said it was the worst loss of the season. Is there a starting point? Is there a, is there a sort of wave your hand over the sort of burgu of this game? And what's the broad takeaway point for this Kings? huge Kings win for this young team. They go on the road and beat the defending champs. What do you think the bullet, the first bullet point is, Tyler?

What was your main takeaway from this game? The main takeaway has to be the kings and the poise and the toughness and the resolve that they showed. You go into the champs building, you know, with a chance. to get closed out, right? And they don't blink the entire game. Whole second half, you know, the Warriors keep it around 10. You keep expecting one of these, you know, warriors, you know, runs that just,

where they just kill everything in, you know, three minutes. And then all of a sudden they're up seven, right? Like, it never happened. Yeah, I mean, the thing with this King's team is just like, it's just, I think it's uncommon toughness for a team that has zero, postseason experience, not just the organization, but the players on the team, right? It's not some situation where, you know, the, they're just shock full of guys that have been through a bunch of. Yeah, they're not hard. This is, this is a young team for sure. You know,

the flow of this game was interesting because a lot of, a lot of things went right for Sacramento, but I do think it's more about Sacramento seizing the moment. I mean, they really had a focus and, you know, they said this and you could observe this, that like, pace was a focus in this game, that if they were going to have Kavana Looney on the floor, that the kings were going to try to spread the warriors out and attack them. In this game, I pointed this, or I charted this, that the warriors actually gave up 34 transition points, which is one of the higher numbers for the Kings this season on a team who gets out and runs a lot. And this is for a lot of reasons. You know, first of all, I mean, like they were running off misses pretty much at any chance that

they got. And they were running off makes in some situations, which is something that Fox is kind of done over the course of his career, but not a good game for Clay. Not a good game for Clay today. Minus 28 in this game. He just, he took bad shots. There were some moments there where he hit that little baseline drift jumper, which was pure. And you're just like, all right, Clay's locked in. Here we go. But it didn't really turn out that way. It seemed Malik Monk really brought the funk and got the best of him today. Yeah, I mean, my side. Clay looked outmatched. I mean, he just, he, he looked in over his head athletically in a way that, you know, I mean, he, you know, he hasn't been the point of attack defender that he was, you know, for a little while now. It's, you know, hard to expect

him to be all the injuries that he's dealt with and everything. But there was a play, there was a play late, you know, probably like a little under four left or so where, you know, Fox has the ball up up around the half court line kind of in the corner. And Wiggins is kind of trying to kind of trying to keep him to his left hand. He's really sitting on his right hand. And they're trying to kind of keep him against the sideline. And Clay's kind of in, you know, sort of in help a little bit. He's not too worried about Monk.

It gets right back to Monk. And Clay, it's not like it's a lazy closeout or anything like that. But it just doesn't have the same kind of like burst or just like there's not the recoil there used to be. He just, the springs aren't really there to get back and then be able to stay with somebody. and Monk just, you know, just torched him off the line. And Clay couldn't do anything. And it felt it felt weirdly telling. I mean, Monk did whatever he wanted.

He looked like the, I mean, he got to the line. What, he get to the line nine times or something like that. I mean, he was, he did. Monk got the line 10 times. And he was nine for 10. Yeah. And so it felt, I don't know. It was, it was interesting to see the warriors just kind of, you felt like,

they a little, I don't know if entitlement is what it was or just kind of like, oh, we'll turn it on. Like, we're the warriors. Like, we've, we've kept it close enough. You know, I'm sure Steph will go on one of his heaters here soon. And, you know, it'll sound like the Thunderdome in here and they'll get scared and we'll just go in. That's what happens, right? We're the warriors. And it, you almost felt like some of those clay attempts were sort of like, you know,

they felt like covers of like the old warriors or something like that. Oh, yeah. It was a tribute band kind of a thing to get the Lucas Mattson. Yeah. And so it was, it was, Steph had some of those shots where you just sort of felt like he was just trying to will the run into existence, but hadn't done any of the work otherwise to make that happen. You know what I mean? He's got the five turnovers. He was kind of slinging it around a little bit the way Steph can do sometimes in some of these playoff situations. Yeah, it was just, I mean, if I'm a Warriors fan, it would be a super duper disheartening game to watch. They just, I mean, just kind of ineffectual across the board when it mattered. It just wasn't, they didn't have the, it was one of the first times you watched the

Warriors and you were like, I don't know if they, like, I don't know if they have the horsepower to be able to get to where the Kings are, you know what I mean? Like, the Kings, like you mentioned earlier, the king's running off a make every time, and I'll stop rambling after this, but them running off a make every time, it felt like a way to also not let the crowd get into it. Oh, yeah. It kept them tamped down. It kept the warriors tamped down a little bit, just like, you know, Steph can't kind of get into his bouncy, priney stuff.

Pool can't kind of get into that kind of like, you know, his rhythm if after a layup or something like that, you're just trying to run it back down their throat. And that felt that felt super intentional. Yeah, there's, I've heard, like, I've heard this talked about in the soccer world that the best time to attack is right after your, your opponent has done something well or succeeded that they're vulnerable. And that's the thing that the warrior, it kind of has that like Wolverine fighting X23 thing where it's like he's, you know, you're seeing a younger version of yourself or sharks. I remember last year was talking about, I even wrote down to my notes before the game started tonight, I was like, could a changing of the guard be coming? because these two matchups, you had the established LeBron versus the up and the up and comer, the Grizzlies and John, all that.

And then you had this Sacramento Golden State thing. And quickly, I wrote underneath that, I could maybe take a picture for you. I know nobody gives a shit, but I just wrote no in bold letters. That did not happen. But Charks used to talk about that scene in cars where McQueen got beaten by Jackson Storm. You know, McQueen is fading. It kind of felt like that with Clay a little bit at times. But I think something, the way the Kings play,

is they seize available space. And that is a thing that the warriors used to do. And the warriors used to be able to blitz people with this. And now they're kind of, they look tired at times. You know, there are a lot of things that are going to like buckle down. I think the turnovers, obviously, I think that the small lineups that the Kings ran out there, I think that they're going to, I think the warriors are going to make an adjustment. I love Kavon Looney.

But he got targeted a lot last night, you know, whether it was Monk, whether it was Fox. And something that I really think that we need to point out here is, is you talked about sort of the laid back, you know, entitled is a strong word, but just kind of thinking it's going to happen. I wasn't saying, I'm not, I'm not ready to say it felt exactly like that, because I don't think it felt exactly like that. It just felt like, just. This is when it usually happens. And if you, you know, it's and it has continued. And you don't blame them per se for feeling that way because it has happened a lot over the past decade. You know, I would probably think it was going to happen too if I were there.

Right? Like, you know, if you, if, if every record you've ever released is a number one album, if the next one's not, you're like, well, what? Hold on a second. You know, this is what I, that's not part of the deal. Got to reevaluate some shit. But I, I need, we need to point this out is that like Jordan Poole played one of the worst playoff games that I have ever seen from an NBA starter that, like on a defending champ specifically. I mean, I'm not saying no, no player out there has played bad games. But, I mean, Pool was. lost a lot of the night. And I talked about the transition stuff. A lot of the time, it was,

you know, several times. Pool drove into traffic and just took a terrible angle on a shot or threw up a shot where it seemed like he didn't have a plan. Coming back in transition lazily, putting extra stress, you know, you always talk about like IDing in transition. And that's the biggest thing about transition teams is that they force, they put stress on your communication, you know. And like, if you have somebody like Poole who is not, getting back, you're stressing that communication even more. And they punish the Warriors with that throughout the night, whether it was, you know, Fox getting all the way to the baseline or monk driving into the teeth of the defense and kicking out. I made a note that like spraying out,

have you noticed how spraying out has kind of become like the, it's like one of the hot jargon words, I feel like, especially around the king's team. There's something with the like, I don't know if it's just like a thing that Sabonis likes to say or something or what it is, but it's, or if it's just, Maybe it's a, maybe it's, uh, Mark Jones. Maybe it's Mark Jones thing. Maybe it's a Mark Jones, you know, he, you know, I mean, he's, he's got a lot of pull quotes for Mark Jones. But yeah, it's, it feels like the Kings are taking advantage of Jordan Poole, to be honest with you on both ends. Like they, I mean, you, you, you talk about his inability to ID people in transition. It feels like that that's, you know, not just like Luni kind of, you know,

having some issues a little bit in transition, but also just pool generally being lost. Clay having lost a step or two, right? Like some of these shots that the Warriors have fallen in love with over the years, once they stop going in with the regularity that they were, and once the dudes that are taking them, like Clay or Pool, aren't as adaptable getting back in transition and stuff like that, right? Like, that was part of the reason that those shots could work is because Clay was a monster and could get back, right?

and get back and kind of guard wherever. It wouldn't matter if maybe he wound up on somebody that wasn't him. He had the size and the foot speed. Like, he'd be fine. If he's got to wind up on LeBron or something, right, like, you'll be all right. But that's not the case now. And, I mean, like you say, Poole just looks like a toddler out there sometimes. I mean, even on the false.

It's the pop-op thing. You just look like a turd out there. Remember that rest of development part? I mean, I was just thinking about, I was thinking about him falling there, that slow-mo kind of toddler fall that you see where there are seven seconds from hitting the ground, but you see, oh, no, there went the balance. We're gone. And then they're just, and it's, you know, they're going to take their time on the way down, but they're going down. And it. That play was baffling.

I don't even, he had so many. I said he, I said he looked like he was like existentially. contemplating the ball as he was following. He was like looking at, he almost looked like he'd taken an edible and he was just like looking at the ball and slowly coming to the ground. I just don't know where Bull's head was. It was like he was about to grab up, but then

there was like something yucky on it. He didn't want to touch it just yet. He wanted to keep rolling. He just wanted to keep rolling so it could not be. It's like when the ball would get you know, when you're like, you're playing outside and it's been, it had been raining or something like that and it rolls into the street and it gets a little wet and muddy

but not all the way around the ball and you've got to carry it back. And so you're carrying it back kind of on the parts that aren't dirty. It was like the ball was like that for him. He didn't want to quite get his hands too messy. Yeah. Well, they need to get their hands messy if they're going to win this if they're going to win this game seven. Do you have a, do you have kind of a prediction for what you think is going to happen? Do you think I honestly think that like audiologists should be on alert because there's going to be some tinnitus, I feel like in Sacramento. This is one of the most insane game seven environments. I'm so excited, man. I'm so excited.

I'm so excited for that fan base just to like get this kind of stage for them to flex a little bit. You know what I mean? Because to go and other people have mentioned this, but to go from really probably thinking they were going to lose that team. And for it to come all the way back around to this and to get this moment against the defending champs in your arena with every, like, and everybody knows it's going to be. an awesome environment. You know what I mean? It's not like it's it can be so explosive in there that it's yes, the kings have an awesome crowd and it's not that's not even like a boring fact, right? Like sometimes with the MSG stuff is like, yeah, we get it. MSG is going to be awesome. Like it's going to be rocking. It's going to be great. I think the thing that I'm, I'm so impressed

by shifting away from just the like kind of environment and stuff. Like I've just been super were impressed by Mike Brown, the strings that he pulled with the small ball lineups, the Liles minutes, the Davis minutes. Liles was great, too. That's a great point. He had a lot of great shots in that game. Liles was huge and was a big part of why they could spread Luni out in the way that they did. He rebounded the ball well.

Like, you know, he handled his business when he got into the lane. Like it was, Liles was great. And Brown making that move was just, I think, brilliant. the, like you say, I don't think there's going to be a ton of loony in game in game seven. I think I'm going to pick the Kings. I like everything in me says I should pick the champs and pick Steph. I don't know, man. There's something about that, something about game six.

It was kind of like the teams sort of showing us who they had been all year. And, you know, the Kings had had the second best road record in league all year. in the West. Good point to bring up that this game will be on the road and the Warriors have struggled on the road all year. Yes. Warriors have been a disaster, you know, on the road. And, you know, nothing would surprise me either direction really. I think maybe like a Warriors blowout would surprise me. But other than that, I don't think that anything would just shock me. Like, if you came, if you told me that the final for that game was similar to the final for game six, you know, I'd be like, yeah, I could buy that.

You know, I could also buy, you know, Steph going for 50 and Clay shoving it in all our faces and somehow going for like 37 on two dribbles. You know what I mean? Like anything is possible with these guys, they'll be ready. You know, Kerr's going to shorten that rotation. And I think it'll be just a, you know, I don't know if they'll, well, they start Draymond at the fight? What do you think they'll do?

Well, I was going to wrap up this part of it with this. You mentioned, you know, that move that Mike Brown. made. And I think this was a key thing that, you know, the Warriors do have things that that can clean up. I think their transition effort was just dog shit. They can do better on that. If they take better shots, if they get back, I think they can clean up on that. Missed a lot of free throws had weird live ball turnovers that I think that they can cut down on and keep this closer margin. But in second quarter, yeah, I mean, like Monk had a pick and roll. He attacked Looney and scored. Monk had another one in, let's see.

We should, we should mention that Clay. Yeah. That Monk sequence, that Monk sequence kind of with around four minutes left in the fourth when he hits that big three. Then he, I think he blows by Deben Chinozio on the very next possession and gets to the rim and then kicks it out to Fox for a three. Then he blocks pool shot on the other end and then comes back down, hits another three. That was. And it was just one of those things where it was like, hey, all you people who thought that this is how I would be when it got, when the lights got bright, you were right.

Like I, you know what I mean? Like, it felt like he was, it felt for Monk, he was almost like, finally. I'm finally like back playing in these big, big game. You know what I mean? Like what he was in college. Like there was some, you know, he had, he had that like that confidence, that bounce of a dude who was like, no, this is where I'm supposed to be. Like I'm supposed to be here. You know what I mean?

I was smiling. I was a smiling so big, man. He was one of the most fun players I've ever watched at UK. And I like, yeah, I mean, he and Fox. They could be very up and down, but it's really wild. We didn't say enough about Fox. Yeah, Fox was incredible. Yeah, I mean, even with the broken finger, he basically put pressure on them.

He didn't even have to really have a big scoring night. I mean, he put transition pressure on them. Keegan Murray was incredible. We should note. Murray was amazing. Dude, 45 minutes. 45 minutes for a rookie on the road and a closeout game. against the defending champs, 45 minutes to go from, you know.

12 rebounds, yeah, two assists. He just, he fit in and he compare that with like Coominga, not even being able to get on the floor for the Warriors. It just kind of goes to show you that like drafting players who can shoot the ball and who are like high and feel and things like that, they picked a player that was ready to go. And the Warriors, they could barely, I think we're probably going to see more Moses Moody in the next game,

maybe less pool. Mooney gave him, you know, decent minutes. It, it, I mean, yeah, I'm, Murray, I'm so impressed by Murray, dude. Fox, Fox in, I mean, the, the, the, to do all that with a broken finger and to almost kind of change the way that Fox almost sort of changed the way that he would shake himself free a little bit. It wasn't as quick twitchy. It was a little bit more sort of kind of up and down, north, south. You know what I mean? Like, it's, it, it, it, and you can, you can, you can, you can feel how much the finger's bothering. him on his handle and stuff like that. You can see it almost feels like it's maybe affecting it there a little bit more than with the shot. But yeah, to go out and do that in that situation with a fractured finger is just unbelievable. The Murray stuff, he's even doing like the little things where, you know, there was some,

you know, herder hits that, hit a big three with like, it was like a little under seven minutes left, I think in the fourth or something like that. And it was off a Murray assist. And Murray had, you know, you talk about getting it sprayed out to him or whatever. They had hit Subbonus on like a Fox has a bonus. I think on like a little short roll got the middle line. Looney might have stepped up or so I can't remember. But they kick it out to Murray on the left wing.

And Murray's got a shot. Draymond's, you know, getting there. But Murray's, you know, he's made four at this point. He's, you know, he's playing with confidence. No one would fault him for shooting that. The guy that's a pass away is Herder. Herder has, he's made, I think, one three at this point, but shot like shit otherwise, right? Just been a disaster offensively.

And it, but still makes the right extra pass, kicks it to Herder, Herder hits it. Then because of that, maybe Herder is, this is probably giving Murray too much credit and Herder not enough. But then, I don't know if it's the next possession down the floor, but like a minute later, Herder gets Looney in a switch and kind of rocks them back and forth a little bit and hits a little step back three on him, right? And so it's, you know, like, who knows if he's got, if he's comfortable enough, you know, and he does that kind of in a late shot clock situation too, I think.

There was at least like under seven when he let it go, I think. But like, it, who knows if he's feeling himself enough at that moment to take that shot unless he gets the one that Murray gets to him? You know what I mean? And so it, yeah, I mean, I just, I can't say enough about the Kings and that, that, that performance. I was, I was, it was impressive. It was impressive. It was, yeah, it was cool. If the Warriors win, I won't be surprised, but I'm, I'm going, I'm going Kings because, I don't know, I have a death wish, I guess. Let's, let's move on to the second game of the night. This was another

opportunity for there to be a changing of the guard that fell flat emphatically. The old guard, if you want to say AD is old at this point, the love of God, he's been out of college for over 11 years, which makes me feel incredibly old. But the Lakers basically came out and imposed their will. Now, Memphis is down. They're down some guys. Okay, they don't have Stephen Adams. They don't have Brandon Clark. Luke Kinnard has a shoulder injury that came off of a collision with LeBron in the last game. And that hurt them. We could have a discussion about, you know, Kinnard's impact on them. But I think the big takeaway in this game is Anthony Davis. You know, I think we saw sort of a vintage, you know, what we thought Anthony Davis was

going to be coming into this league during his prime. When we've gotten a lot of glimpses at it, it's just like it's been so up and down. I feel like we kind of do this back and forth conversation where we're just like, well, this is the Anthony Davis. It's like we all, we all know. We all know. But I mean, how did you, was that your big takeaway from the game? What did you, or what did you see from Anthony Davis in this game that caught your eye? Cartoonish rim protection, I guess, right? Like the five blocks, the, but just also like the shot quality. I mean, smarter people than me, you know, we're sharing that stuff on

on Twitter. He just, he had everybody shook coming in there. And it was one of those sort of, it was one of those special games where all of a sudden someone with superstar abilities is, you know, playing like the madman energy guy.

You know what I mean? Like it, where you, you know, you have some marriage of like, you know, prime for reed, but like, prime for reed. Prime forreed. Right.

It's like prime for read energy where it's just like they're just like everywhere and then and but then in the body of someone with the skill set and the you know fluidity of a guy who if he would stay

healthy and you know stay locked in regularly would be a league MVP right like it I think we just don't consistently enough I wanted to ask you something about you know what does it do you know you've played against, I know at, in college, you probably, you guys probably played up and played some like

pretty good competition at times. You told me about playing Oklahoma State at one point. Is there something, is there something, tell me from somebody who's played up against, you've probably played against some bigger rim protectors. Who is probably the biggest rim protector you played against in college? Oh, in college? I don't know. I mean, I, who was the, I mean, they, we played against some footers and stuff like that. Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what, what is it, do? to you, like, what is it due to your mental process? Because, you know, you're probably not seeing those guys on a consistent basis, like, in your world. When you guys play up, you're playing,

I'm just saying, what is a guy, what is, like, true rim protection like that do to you mentally? What does it do to your defense, your offense mentally when you know that, like, there is this, this, they're lurking in the back of your mind. There is this, this length that maybe is a little bit longer than you're used to. Yeah, I think it, like, puts up, like, kind of invisible fences in the lane in a weird way. You start to feel like, well, I can't get too deep. You know, if I get sucked in too far, I'm going to get swallowed. And then, you know, like, there's there's something to the,

you feel the impact on the shots that aren't taken, I guess, right? Like, it's the stuff that doesn't happen in there when typically, you know, jaw would come in and let a floater go. or maybe try to take off, right? He's just got it in the back of his head. I mean, you saw, you know, the horrifying things that Anthony Davis was doing to Jaron Jackson Jr. I mean, he just kind of, he had that whole front line in hell.

I mean, you know, you look up there at one point late and, you know, dueling front lines, it's like LeBron and Anthony Davis versus Santi Aldama and Roddy. You know what I mean? It's like it just, I think if you're the grizzlies in that situation, you come out there and you see the, the, you see that the activity from Davis is like intense and it's immediate and it's all over the place. It's not just at the rim. He's getting to shooters. He's, he's, you know, like showing a body and then getting back and stuff like that. He's, he's everywhere, right? And so it, I think you just start to feel like, well, we're going to have to shoot it well tonight. And then, you know, in a game like that, like, in order to, for them to open things up, like, you know, they need Jha to be able to be getting to the rim, being effective, guys getting downhill, you know, like, then able to, let's use it again, spray it out to shooters, right? A lot of spraying. Yeah. And if at a certain point, you know, the drive is futile, right?

Like it just sort of, things become a lot easier for a defense. Yeah, I think another thing too is that like AD, I think that there's only so much like I've made this point a lot on various pods that this is just something that I think about when I watch basketball. But like there's certain type, your brain, your basketball brain only has if you, if you open up like the CPU usage like on your computer and you see how the pie is divided up, you can only focus on so many things at once. And AD being there, I think, is something that just kind of eats up a lot of space in your mind. And I think that that allows guys like Jared Vanderbilt to play insanely aggressively. But I want to give AD credit here and just spell out the fact that, you know, he had five blocks, 14 rebounds in this game. He contested and bothered way more.

Like if you, I was telling you, I was like, if we had the tracking ability to like watch, like, movement paths towards the lane, it's a pretty hilarious, almost like a magnetic thing. where, like, you just have this polarity that's pushing players away from the lame just because they're afraid of him. No, it was, it was just like we were a long way from him getting blocked by John Conchar. You know what I mean? Like, not taking things with Conchar. Conchar's a good player.

But, like, it, sometimes you see Anthony Davis playing and you just sort of like, like, like he's like leading with his knees or something like that, just sort of his, like, he always, not even talking about the falling, right? But just that he's always fading. that he's all like, you know, he's popping, whatever, they're floaters where he's, where, you know, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, talking about running backs, right? Like, he's not like falling forward, right? When he gets, you know, like, it's, uh, yeah, it's a good illustration for it. And last, last night, it would just, you know, he's rolling to the rim. He's being aggressive once he gets it, you know, it, uh, chucking guys on rebounds and stuff like that. I mean, it, it, uh, it was one of those games where, it, it was one of those games where, where, where, you know, I'm sure if you're a Laker fan, you're like on a lot of levels, it's extremely validating and it's probably simultaneously very maddening where you're just like, man, just turn it on like this, you know, and we won't be the seventh seed. But it, I know he's, you know,

dealing with injuries and, you know, hip and foot stuff. It makes, you know, it makes the performance all the more impressive considering that he has been dinged up, I guess. But yeah, it was, yeah, It was everything, everything you could want. Like, it was Bubble Anthony Davis kind of without the jumpers, right? Like, it was just like he was just. He didn't even have to. It was interesting, too. LeBron's similar thing, but this was domination around the basket.

It's interesting to think about, you know, how much different it would be with the Grizzlies had had some of their bigs. But they dominated this, the points in the paint, the 52 for the Lakers and 32 for the Grizzlies and second chance points, similar thing, 20 to 9 in favor of the Lakers. And they got out in transition. I mean, that's just kind of the thing. pace forward from forcing teams to take uncomfortable bad shots. It was basically like a title wave in this game.

Once the Laker, you know, starting to the Memphis came out early in the first quarter. And then the second quarter, it just got out of control and it's steamrolled forward to sort of rolled forward. I was going to ask you, I mean, like, one of the big takeaways for me, you know, the Lakers are moving on. I think this was a really tough matchup for Memphis in general.

But in a year's time, it kind of feels like I just want to quickly touch on like just the vibe shift with the grislies. Right. Yeah. It's interesting how quickly, and you and I've kind of talked about how like, you know, expectation can kind of be the death of the good times, of the carefree, you know, house money times. And I feel like the Grizzlies are over that point. After taking the Warriors to the brink last year, the vibe is very different. Do you think that how worried are you if you're a Grizzlies fan? Do you think that this is a quickly bounce back situation or or is this critical flaws exposed kind of situation?

I don't know that it, I mean, I think flaws were exposed. I don't know if I'm a grizzly fan if I'm worried exactly. I mean, they're still, well, they're the, there's still the second youngest team in the league, right? Or something like that. Very young, very young. Like it, I think that, you know, these these young exciting teams like, you know, they go through these life cycles, right? And it's, it's, it's all gravy for a while. It's just like, like young, explosive, talent, highlights. You know, like, hey, these guys, you know, scrappy stuff, they, you know, they maybe skip a developmental step or two along the way, right,

get to the two seed. So the expectations get a little bit, maybe a little bit too outsized too quickly because of that. and then, you know, lights get brighter, lots of scrutiny, and, you know, it's just easier to see the flaws there, and they're an imperfect team that sort of would handle themselves like maybe that wasn't true. And so it, you know, I think that they invited the, they will, I think they welcome the spotlight like a lot of teams do. and I think that they probably needed to be, I mean, Taylor Jenkins said as much, you know, in the post game, but I think they needed to be humbled little, I think it's just part of like, this is just part of the NBA, right?

Like, I think it's, I think that, you know, they've had, they've, they've had enough injury difficulty over these sort of, you know, couple kind of contending years to know that it's a fragile thing. And so sort of to kind of conduct yourself with that kind of like, I'm fine in the West vibe. As much as I like some of the jaw audacity, right, as much as I like some of the bravado and stuff like that, I think that, you know, getting 40-balled in front of Jack. Let's talk about Jack. Let's talk about Jack. We can talk about the beautiful maroon cords we can talk about. But why not up on the gris?

Like I just, I think this is just something that it was, seeing it now, like, of course it happened this way, you know what I mean? Like, it was just sort of seems like it was kind of like this was kind of where we were sort of headed, especially considering the injuries to the front line. And then Conard goes down, you know, a team that has, you know, such little shooting already. That's the reason they traded for Conard at the deadline, right? Like it, the result in a way kind of makes sense.

You'd like to have seen them show up more than they did. But it, you know, you're not necessarily blown away by it. Yeah. The Lakers, I mean, just to give them credit, they upgraded their talent. They have 10 top 20 RSCI guys on their team. They got a bunch of first round picks. They've reclaimed guys from other teams that were in tough situations or just not being utilized or not developing properly.

So, you know, and this was a kind of a LeBron coast. in game weirdly and he still was effective in the way that he, you know, 31 minutes and he still managed to give him 22 points and six assists and two for, you know, he just, he kind of, he kind of covered. But they also, I think, you know, for the DeLo hive, we've got to give them credit. He was going wild 12 for 17, 70% for the field, 31 points, uh, and feeling good. They, I mean, if he's like getting up nine threes, they're probably feeling pretty good about every, you know what I mean? Like it, like it, uh, yeah, I mean, Reeves was again, just like how much LeBron trusts him,

how much they're comfortable putting the ball in his hands and just letting him and AD work in the pick and roll and stuff like that, how effective that is. Yeah, it's, I think for a while, like the Reeves stuff, everybody would get a little pissy about it because it's like, well, what's he getting all these foul calls for? You know what I mean? And I think that that I totally get that and kind of agree,

but it also sort of just, like that discussion point distracted from the fact that the kid can just play, that there's like some, there's, there's a lot of feel there and there's some ball skills and some, and some, uh, grimyness and like desire for like the moment, right? And like, yeah, no, I, you can tell, you can tell, um, how comfortable they are with the ball in his hands. I mean, they give it to them for long stretches and, and, and, and it, uh, it's, yeah, It's just a testament to everybody involved over there that that's like, you know, I think if you said at the beginning of the year that for some important possessions in the first round of the playoffs, it's going to be Austin Reeves running the show with LeBron off the ball. You know what I mean? Like people would have. Who to thunk it? Who to thunk it? Yeah. Well, I'm excited to see. I was wondering if we'd be doing like some game seven preview so much as game six recap here. But we'll see. We'll see what happens tomorrow with the Kings. and the Warriors and for this matchup.

If we get a Steph LeBron second round series, oh my God, I can't wait. Any outcome here is going to be really fun. You get to get the joy of the Kings, but or the defending. Yeah, yeah, me too. Well, I'm going to go out and try to find some wine colored corduroy pants. I don't know what else you have planned for today. But Tyler, it was good to see you.

Check out the rest. Thanks to Jade Whaley for producing us today. Yeah, and check out, you know, we're covering on a daily basis, just the NBA playoffs. There's something for everybody. There's always something coming at you. So good to see you. We'll check you out next time.

Later.