Latest / Bleacher Report / LeBron James & Luka Doncic Talk Lakers Game 2 Win vs. Timberwolves _ 2025 NBA Playoffs

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LeBron James & Luka Doncic Talk Lakers Game 2 Win vs. Timberwolves _ 2025 NBA Playoffs · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But you know what clearly what you needed to do
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: after game one, and it seems like you did that
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: with the physicality in the upper nine defense. Is there
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: anything execution wise that stood out to you on that end.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: You're talking about defensive offense. Oh, no, we did the
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: same game plan. We didn't really change much.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: It was just the question of if we're going to
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: be more physical or not. And I think we show
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: that and we were there for forty eight minutes and
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: we got bigging up first quarter. I learned from the
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: last game and we just stick to it.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: You you, of course, have experience with Minnesota from last year.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: You know what it's like as they go throughout a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: series of what playing in that building. How do you
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: feel like that energy is going to be as you
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: go there one to one?
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: Oh, it's gonna be high high. I remember that they
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: have amazing fans and they're very loud.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: So from the first moment, Uh, you know they're gonna
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: make at some point, they're gonna make a run. But
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: we got to say together, it's against the whole arena,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: so it's going to be very tough.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: I experienced that and it wasn't easy.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: So we got to get.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: We gotta stay to that no matter what.
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: Look at they cut it to eleven, and the third
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: you guys were able to push it right back I
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: think at ten to two run then they got it
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: denied and the fourth again able to hold them off.
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: What were those moments like for your group? How do
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: you feel like you leaned on one another to make
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: sure that it didn't get any closer?
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, they have a great team, so at
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: some point they're gonna make a run, just the matter
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: matter how we respond, and we responded by being who
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: we are, and I think I look like I said,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: you know, I think we responded very well in from
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, to win a game scoring thirteen points in
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: the fourth quarter, it's not easy, you know. It was
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: from defense, and then going on from there.
• 1:42
  Speaker 6: It seemed like the team as a whole did better
• 1:44
  Speaker 6: with getting deeper into the pain and that kind of
• 1:47
  Speaker 6: helped get Minnesota into rotation. The kickouts were there, you
• 1:50
  Speaker 6: kind of let the charge and that was that a
• 1:51
  Speaker 6: talking point over the last couple of days. And how much,
• 1:54
  Speaker 6: if it was, how much was I emphasized coming into tonight.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I think when we touched the pain, you know, a
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: lot of great things happen gets them in the blender,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: and we just got to do that more.
• 2:05
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Obviously we talk about it got to touch the pain
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: no matter what. So that's what we're trying to do more.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: And I think we can still do a lot more
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: than that.
• 2:16
  Speaker 8: Hey, looka, you obviously played a lot of playoffs before
• 2:20
  Speaker 8: you even playoff games, before you even got to the NBA.
• 2:23
  Speaker 8: But now that you've had enough NBA playoff games under
• 2:26
  Speaker 8: your belt, what have you sort of learned about when
• 2:30
  Speaker 8: to stay calm and still versus when to really panic
• 2:33
  Speaker 8: or why not you ever panic? But you know what
• 2:34
  Speaker 8: I mean?
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean obviously not panning. But you know, as
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: me and Braun leaders of the team, you know, we
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: got to keep the team together. Like I said, going
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: into the two, Minnesota is going to be a war.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: The fans are going to be cheering like crazy, So
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: no matter why, we can't panning and we got to
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: stay together.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: And that's so me and Braun to keep the team together.
• 2:58
  Speaker 9: LOOKA, you guys are only had fifteen assists as a team,
• 3:01
  Speaker 9: and in Game one twenty three tonight, you, Lebron and
• 3:05
  Speaker 9: ar each had five or more. What did you see
• 3:08
  Speaker 9: in terms of just the ball movement, the playmaking, and
• 3:11
  Speaker 9: and just the way that you guys were organized offensively.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: JJ had mentioned that is a big thing. Yeah.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I think, like like when he asked about the paint,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: you know, when he returns the paint a lot of it's.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: A lot of openings. And like I said, we got
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: to do that more.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: And I think we shared the ball great today and
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: we got to keep doing that.
• 3:30
  Speaker 10: Look at and to cele gie.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Us and pros.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: And starting partio he.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Partido look not just a American Victoria Aura approximal p Minnesota.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: Voc commerial Hawaii, going to Luca two experience.
• 4:28
  Speaker 7: Yeah, and playoffs contrally, keep it the Minnesota.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: Let's get to it.
• 4:35
  Speaker 9: The Lebron James comments James twenty one eleven and seven
• 4:39
  Speaker 9: assists tonight and a huge steal in pocket.
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: Place after game one, And sometimes it takes a game
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: or half a game to kind of recognize what you're
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: in in a playoff series. When did you know tonight
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: that the team was going to be have having the
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: requisite response?
• 4:56
  Speaker 7: We knew yesterday I practice, we are a we had
• 5:00
  Speaker 7: a tough uh practice yesterday and we went at it
• 5:03
  Speaker 7: yesterday and one of the one of the best practices
• 5:06
  Speaker 7: we've had all year. So, uh, we kind of knew
• 5:09
  Speaker 7: coming out of that with type of disposition we had
• 5:12
  Speaker 7: to play with. We watched film before practice. It wasn't good.
• 5:16
  Speaker 7: Game one was not good at all. So, uh, we're
• 5:19
  Speaker 7: all competitors and uh, you know, so that's what it took.
• 5:23
  Speaker 11: What did involve our first and then helping to everybody.
• 5:26
  Speaker 12: Else aperient colleges.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: The offensive organization was something that JJ talked about a lot,
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: uh quite a bit actually coming out of Game one,
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: even yesterday. How would you rate how you guys performed
• 5:39
  Speaker 6: in that area tonight?
• 5:41
  Speaker 7: We could say we be better offensively. You know, I
• 5:43
  Speaker 7: thought at times we were very sharp, but at times,
• 5:47
  Speaker 7: you know, we weren't. And I think, you know, we
• 5:49
  Speaker 7: could do a better job on the offensive end. But
• 5:51
  Speaker 7: we're gonna continue to get better, continue to watch the
• 5:53
  Speaker 7: film sea ways we can you know, kind of break
• 5:55
  Speaker 7: down the defense and continue to good good looks. I
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: thought we had some great looks tonight. I know a
• 6:00
  Speaker 7: lot of my shots in the fourth quarter were great
• 6:02
  Speaker 7: looks that just didn't go, you know, And if we
• 6:05
  Speaker 7: can continue to you know, get great looks like that,
• 6:09
  Speaker 7: I think we believe in our in our percentages. So
• 6:11
  Speaker 7: we got to continue to work the habits, and we
• 6:13
  Speaker 7: got to continue to work to work the habits, you know,
• 6:17
  Speaker 7: and continue to shoot the ball.
• 6:18
  Speaker 9: Conference Lebron that they only had six fast break points
• 6:23
  Speaker 9: today after having twenty five in game one. What was
• 6:26
  Speaker 9: the biggest difference there in terms of transition?
• 6:28
  Speaker 7: Uh sprinting the hell back, you know, giving up fast
• 6:32
  Speaker 7: break points. Obviously, sometimes it's nothing you could do about it.
• 6:36
  Speaker 7: If a long rebound happens, you got four guys on
• 6:38
  Speaker 7: the baseline, long rebound happens, they able to sprint out,
• 6:40
  Speaker 7: we'll get it. But you know, most of the time
• 6:42
  Speaker 7: with fast break points, you know, it's to buy energy
• 6:45
  Speaker 7: and effort. And I thought, I thought our attention to
• 6:47
  Speaker 7: detail and our attention to the effort that side of
• 6:49
  Speaker 7: the floor was. It was very we was very in
• 6:51
  Speaker 7: tune with that, you know, like I said, game one,
• 6:55
  Speaker 7: you know, giving up twenty five fast break points and
• 6:57
  Speaker 7: all four was not an ingredient for winning.
• 7:00
  Speaker 11: Hey Bron. On Mind the Game pod, he talked about
• 7:03
  Speaker 11: how you live for TI this time of the year,
• 7:05
  Speaker 11: calling it a drug. Obviously, you always talk about how
• 7:08
  Speaker 11: important it is to stay even killed. You've taken teams
• 7:11
  Speaker 11: to the finals ten times, won four championships after going
• 7:15
  Speaker 11: down by as much as twenty seven points in game one.
• 7:17
  Speaker 11: What was your message to the guys.
• 7:19
  Speaker 7: I think you just said it, just staying even killed.
• 7:20
  Speaker 7: It doesn't matter if you lose by one hundred or
• 7:24
  Speaker 7: you lose by one. I mean they both.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: They both hurt. You can't sleep.
• 7:28
  Speaker 7: So it's about how you stay even killing and how
• 7:30
  Speaker 7: you make the adjustments going into game two, you know,
• 7:32
  Speaker 7: or game three, whatever the case may be. So you know,
• 7:35
  Speaker 7: I thought, you know, we we looked at what we
• 7:37
  Speaker 7: didn't do so well, which was a lot of things
• 7:39
  Speaker 7: in game one. We took that the heart. We hold
• 7:41
  Speaker 7: each other accountable. We make the adjustments in and we
• 7:44
  Speaker 7: had a better hour tonight, and now we have we
• 7:47
  Speaker 7: need to be even better on Friday, you know, you know,
• 7:50
  Speaker 7: going into Minnesota. So that's what the playoffs is all about.
• 7:53
  Speaker 7: But you gotta be able to stay even killed.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: No matter what's going on.
• 7:57
  Speaker 13: Lebron uh JJ said he hasn't done it a lot
• 8:00
  Speaker 13: this season, maybe about five times or so, but Minnesota
• 8:02
  Speaker 13: cut into eleven. He called that time out, and he's
• 8:05
  Speaker 13: very upset. He said, he wanted you all to tap
• 8:07
  Speaker 13: into your your your sense of urgency. How much was
• 8:09
  Speaker 13: that needed in that moment? And what'd you think of
• 8:11
  Speaker 13: the response?
• 8:13
  Speaker 7: I thought, we responded, you know, well, you know just
• 8:16
  Speaker 7: from the time out, you know, we know JJ is
• 8:20
  Speaker 7: gonna spas out from time to time. That's yeah, that's Jaja,
• 8:24
  Speaker 7: And uh so it's at this point for us, it's
• 8:28
  Speaker 7: you know, I would say, we we need to listen
• 8:30
  Speaker 7: to the message and not the way how he's delivered it,
• 8:33
  Speaker 7: you know. And uh for me, as you know, my
• 8:36
  Speaker 7: my high school coach my freshman year was kind of
• 8:39
  Speaker 7: the same way. You know, he was spas out on
• 8:41
  Speaker 7: this and uh, you know you have to be able
• 8:43
  Speaker 7: to understand about It's not how he's saying, it's about
• 8:47
  Speaker 7: what he's saying, you know. And uh, I thought we
• 8:49
  Speaker 7: responded after that, Wow.
• 8:53
  Speaker 8: JJ said he's only cursed a few times this season,
• 8:55
  Speaker 8: So I don't know what to tell you talk about
• 8:59
  Speaker 8: the love and how you get excited and up for
• 9:01
  Speaker 8: every playoff for all this time. Is there a point
• 9:04
  Speaker 8: with the body though, where it's just sort of you
• 9:06
  Speaker 8: got to tell yourself, okay, we're doing this again.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 9:09
  Speaker 7: Absolutely, I mean I think I've up there with them.
• 9:15
  Speaker 7: I don't know if I'm one or two or three
• 9:17
  Speaker 7: or whatever like in most minutes in playoff history and
• 9:20
  Speaker 7: the amount of games and my playoff series, and I
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: know I'm number one in minutes. I think are two
• 9:25
  Speaker 7: in regular season minutes or whatever. So yeah, I mean
• 9:29
  Speaker 7: I'm forty years old, I'm a year twenty two. I've
• 9:31
  Speaker 7: been in the postseason way all over half of my career,
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: you know. So the you know, I listened to the body,
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: but it's about taking care of what I can take
• 9:39
  Speaker 7: care of, control of what I can control, and that's
• 9:41
  Speaker 7: about getting to sleep and you know, getting you know,
• 9:43
  Speaker 7: the right food in me, and you know, and keeping
• 9:48
  Speaker 7: my mind sharp. Obviously the body would do what the
• 9:51
  Speaker 7: body do, but you know, as long as the mind
• 9:53
  Speaker 7: is in tune, and I believe that, you know, you
• 9:56
  Speaker 7: could take it even further. So just trying to get
• 9:58
  Speaker 7: my teammates what I got offensively, but more importantly defensively,
• 10:04
  Speaker 7: going down there, helping, rebounding, crashing, being physical, Also using
• 10:09
  Speaker 7: my mind to be able to call out a lot
• 10:11
  Speaker 7: of things that teams are doing so we can be
• 10:14
  Speaker 7: you know, ahead of ahead of a lot of players
• 10:16
  Speaker 7: as well, so we're not surprised by a lot of things.
• 10:19
  Speaker 7: So I'm just super super happy. And you know, I
• 10:26
  Speaker 7: don't take it for granted just to be able to
• 10:27
  Speaker 7: play this game still. You know, I said, I don't
• 10:30
  Speaker 7: know how long I'm be able to do it, so
• 10:33
  Speaker 7: just try to take advantage of every moment you get.
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: Wow.
• 10:38
  Speaker 12: You've talked about how belief is so important when it
• 10:41
  Speaker 12: comes to this kind of thing. And obviously you yourself can
• 10:44
  Speaker 12: get that belief from many years of experience and proof
• 10:47
  Speaker 12: that you can do it. How do you instill that
• 10:50
  Speaker 12: belief in your teammates who have less experience.
• 10:52
  Speaker 7: Than you do by going out there and showing it
• 10:55
  Speaker 7: by example. I mean it's easy to go out and
• 10:58
  Speaker 7: just like talk about it. Hey, I've done this, well
• 11:01
  Speaker 7: this is what I Yeah, but you also have to
• 11:03
  Speaker 7: go out and lead by example.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: Listen.
• 11:05
  Speaker 7: And I wanted the guys that if I'm gonna talk
• 11:07
  Speaker 7: about it, I'm actually I'm actually gonna do it as well.
• 11:10
  Speaker 7: You know, I think that's a great way to be
• 11:14
  Speaker 7: able to, you know, hold yourself accountable.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: You can't.
• 11:18
  Speaker 7: You can't ask of your teammates or or people that
• 11:22
  Speaker 7: are going to battle with you or do these things
• 11:24
  Speaker 7: or whatever the case, make sacrifices all those things if
• 11:26
  Speaker 7: you're not gonna do it, you know. And I think
• 11:29
  Speaker 7: I've always kind of had that mentality, like whatever I
• 11:32
  Speaker 7: asked of my guys, whatever I ask of my teammates,
• 11:36
  Speaker 7: they can ask of me, and I'm gonna hold myself accountable.
• 11:38
  Speaker 14: Anyways, Broun, on that note on leadership, in the fourth quarter,
• 11:43
  Speaker 14: you got to steal in what was a nine point game.
• 11:46
  Speaker 14: How much was that athleticism being in the right place
• 11:48
  Speaker 14: versus I need to make a play at this.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: Point, Well, they had numbers.
• 11:53
  Speaker 7: I don't remember what happened, you know, but I knew
• 11:58
  Speaker 7: they had numbers, and I was being there. I was
• 12:00
  Speaker 7: crossing the floor and I seen I think I think
• 12:02
  Speaker 7: Jada mcdaniell's passed it to Ant at the time when
• 12:06
  Speaker 7: he got to the half court.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: I think it was him.
• 12:08
  Speaker 7: But I was coming across the floor, and I mean,
• 12:11
  Speaker 7: obviously most dangerous find the most dangerous a hand. So
• 12:15
  Speaker 7: I was able to kind of sneak in through the
• 12:17
  Speaker 7: through the rear view, through the right side.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: And.
• 12:22
  Speaker 7: You know, and was able to just kind of use
• 12:24
  Speaker 7: my I guess, athleticism and smarts or whatever the case
• 12:29
  Speaker 7: may be. It's kind of you know, if I wasn't
• 12:31
  Speaker 7: able to steal it, at least I could make him
• 12:33
  Speaker 7: change directions, you know, and I was able to reach
• 12:36
  Speaker 7: for the ball before he kind of you know, see
• 12:39
  Speaker 7: me in the blind spot. I was able to steal
• 12:41
  Speaker 7: it and and go coast to coast to to you know,
• 12:45
  Speaker 7: it wasn't about the points, I think at that point,
• 12:47
  Speaker 7: it was about the momentum. You know, that type of
• 12:49
  Speaker 7: stel that type of you know player to be able
• 12:52
  Speaker 7: to finish, you know, in that moment, because they could
• 12:55
  Speaker 7: have cut it to six or four point play, they
• 12:58
  Speaker 7: could cut it to you know, to five. So for
• 13:02
  Speaker 7: us to push it back to a double edit lead
• 13:04
  Speaker 7: at that point, what a lottle over two minutes.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: I think that was. That was very key. Appreciate it, guys,