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The Lakers Take Game 2 And Stay Alive... · Kenny For Real

0:00
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Game two of the Lakers versus Wolves.
0:03
Speaker 1: I mentioned before the game number two is my favorite
0:05
Speaker 1: of every series, and it's because it really showcases how
0:07
Speaker 1: much of a chess match playoff series can be between
0:10
Speaker 1: two teams that are closely matched up. And that's how
0:12
Speaker 1: I feel about the Wolves and the Lakers. The Lakers
0:15
Speaker 1: go in and win a pivotal pivot Game two. The
0:18
Speaker 1: numbers say that if you go down three, you lose
0:20
Speaker 1: that series ninety three percent of the time, and that
0:22
Speaker 1: doesn't account for a team that had home court advantage.
0:24
Speaker 1: So if they would have went into Stables whoever the
0:26
Speaker 1: hell they call it nowadays and lost to oh I
0:29
Speaker 1: would never publicly say that the series is over because
0:30
Speaker 1: they got Lebron James Luka, Doncas, But damn it, this
0:33
Speaker 1: numbers say that series is probably gonna be over. So
0:35
Speaker 1: JJ Reddy gets his first postseason win of his coaching career,
0:38
Speaker 1: shout out to him. And I thought that the Lakers
0:39
Speaker 1: did a lot of things better in Game number two
0:42
Speaker 1: versus Game number one, and I want to talk about
0:44
Speaker 1: that first. I thought that in gameuble one, they didn't
0:47
Speaker 1: make the Minnesota Tembules think on either side of the floor.
0:49
Speaker 1: But talk about defensively first, Even if you did not
0:51
Speaker 1: watch Game of one, you with just a box go watch,
0:53
Speaker 1: you could just see right here that the offense didn't
0:56
Speaker 1: have the Minnesota timbles in rotation at all. Luka Donta's
0:59
Speaker 1: final stat line his thirty seven, eight and one assists
1:01
Speaker 1: in gameuble one, Lebron James had three assists, of the
1:03
Speaker 1: lowest amount assists he's had since I think they said
1:05
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen on the broadcast. They had thirty three main
1:08
Speaker 1: field goals and only fifteen of those were assisted. So
1:11
Speaker 1: even if you did watch this game, you can kind
1:12
Speaker 1: of think about who Luka Dantis is a player, and
1:14
Speaker 1: who these players are. I'd be like, hmm, they must
1:17
Speaker 1: have really been match up hunting for the entire game,
1:19
Speaker 1: and they did. It was good enough to get Lucadnta
1:21
Speaker 1: scored thirty seven, but it didn't have people in rotation
1:23
Speaker 1: enough to get the open three point looks that Lukadncis
1:26
Speaker 1: generates on a nightly basis. They played exactly the type
1:29
Speaker 1: of game that the Minnesota Timbles wanted them to play,
1:31
Speaker 1: and the Timberwolves took advantage of that right. They did
1:34
Speaker 1: not make them think. And in game number two, it
1:37
Speaker 1: started off very early on Luka Doncis and both of
1:39
Speaker 1: these games would come out in the first quarter and
1:40
Speaker 1: set the tone offensively. And in this one, the ball
1:43
Speaker 1: was swinging, it was driving, and it was kicking, and
1:46
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, Minnesota did not have an opportunity to
1:49
Speaker 1: have many mental lapses in game number one because the
1:51
Speaker 1: Lakers weren't doing anything. And in this game it was
1:54
Speaker 1: a few times I'm like, Damn, Julius, you gotta be
1:56
Speaker 1: back door there. Damn Mike Conley, I don't know if
1:58
Speaker 1: you can play in this game. So it just in
2:00
Speaker 1: time and time again, and that is a huge step
2:03
Speaker 1: up from Game number one, and even only the fenser
2:06
Speaker 1: side of the ball for the Lakers, I didn't think
2:07
Speaker 1: they made the Minnesota timist to get all. One of
2:09
Speaker 1: the biggest X factors I had for the series was
2:11
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards when he saw multiple bodies, and I feel
2:14
Speaker 1: like they just been throwing enough different looks at man
2:16
Speaker 1: in game number one, and when they did throw some
2:18
Speaker 1: of these different looks that I thought that in this
2:20
Speaker 1: one or in game number one, Anthony Vers was pretty
2:23
Speaker 1: quick and I mentioned in after Game of one it
2:24
Speaker 1: was one of the more mature matchups I've seen him play.
2:27
Speaker 1: A games i've seen him play, they're pretty quick and
2:28
Speaker 1: it led to a nas read open three or a
2:31
Speaker 1: Jada mcdaliel's open look. In this game, they was kind
2:34
Speaker 1: of smothering, made him think, really made him think by
2:39
Speaker 1: throwing late help by sending them early before even a
2:42
Speaker 1: screen came. They really made Anthony Edwards thinking this one.
2:45
Speaker 1: And that's really what you have to do, because what
2:47
Speaker 1: we're seeing through these first couple of games is a
2:49
Speaker 1: guy like Mike Conley, who in theory is perfect for
2:52
Speaker 1: a matchup like this on the offense side of the ball,
2:55
Speaker 1: just can't really play that much. So they're asking for
2:58
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards to be this primary ball handler. And guess
3:01
Speaker 1: what in game number two, I didn't even realize this start.
3:03
Speaker 1: I'm just looking at it right now. He has zero sis.
3:07
Speaker 1: It's crazy. It's actually crazy. Now. One thing that you
3:10
Speaker 1: can if you're a Minnesota Timbules fan, you're like, okay,
3:12
Speaker 1: I need something to grasp too, because again this series
3:15
Speaker 1: is up for grass to get anybody serious. It's the
3:17
Speaker 1: shooting variance between Gainable one and game number two. Game
3:19
Speaker 1: Umble one, you could not miss. You hit twenty threes,
3:21
Speaker 1: you shot whatever percentage from three, and in this one
3:24
Speaker 1: you're only five of twenty five. So I think that
3:26
Speaker 1: a lot of this series might boil down to somebod
3:28
Speaker 1: that shooting variant. So like again, the series is far
3:30
Speaker 1: from over, but I thought the Lakers did a pretty
3:31
Speaker 1: amazing job there. I can't wait until the morning where
3:35
Speaker 1: my Super NBA status nerds have these numbers. But I
3:38
Speaker 1: will say this publicly, and damn it, I'm not afraid
3:40
Speaker 1: to say it. I don't think that Luca Dohnton's hunting
3:44
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert is really great offense for the Lakers. Yesterday,
3:49
Speaker 1: after Game Umble one, I was like, yeah, do a
3:50
Speaker 1: time and time again. But after what I've seen today,
3:53
Speaker 1: I thought they looked dramatically better when they were just
3:56
Speaker 1: playing just I don't know if it was freelance basketball.
3:59
Speaker 1: It probably was more set oriented when they were moving
4:02
Speaker 1: that ball instead of letting Luka doncis. I saw gins
4:05
Speaker 1: Rudy go beert. Luka doncis one of the greatest ice
4:07
Speaker 1: OH players of all time, and he got Rudy a
4:09
Speaker 1: few different times. But I think that for what is
4:11
Speaker 1: worth in isolation, Rudy Gobert held his own pretty well
4:15
Speaker 1: in this one. I thought that the Lakers' best offense
4:18
Speaker 1: was outside of that. Ostar Reeves got him a few
4:20
Speaker 1: from times, and I think most of that is because
4:22
Speaker 1: Aster Reeves is faster than Luka Doncis r getting around
4:24
Speaker 1: that corner or Rudy Gobert's just easier if you're Alster
4:26
Speaker 1: Reeves versus Luca Doncis. But I feel like Minnesota felt very,
4:29
Speaker 1: very comfortable with saying, Luca, you want to you want
4:32
Speaker 1: to switch on to ridgo Beert. That's amazing because we're
4:34
Speaker 1: gonna stay home all these other places. Now, there were
4:37
Speaker 1: times in this game they didn't stay home, and Luka
4:38
Speaker 1: Doncis generated a couple during Finney Smith Open look. Some
4:41
Speaker 1: of them he made, some of him them he didn't make.
4:43
Speaker 1: But I think that Minnesota their game plan going into
4:46
Speaker 1: this is like, we're allowing you to do that. There's
4:49
Speaker 1: other times when they've seen Lukadancis or Riteobert seeing Lucadontis
4:52
Speaker 1: and they kind of steered away from it. They're okay
4:54
Speaker 1: with it now. There are times so they did what
4:56
Speaker 1: the there's like a real technical term for this Rudy go,
5:00
Speaker 1: I'm not. Damian Lillard and them did this a lot
5:02
Speaker 1: today as well, where it's like a lake switch or
5:06
Speaker 1: a quick switch. There's a real technical turn for where
5:10
Speaker 1: you would run a pick and roll and you would
5:12
Speaker 1: think you have a switch on to Rudygo Beert, but
5:13
Speaker 1: you have an offensive player that's close enough to Luca
5:15
Speaker 1: Doncons where they could quickly switch on the fly, like
5:17
Speaker 1: Damie Little did that a lot where he was put
5:19
Speaker 1: in the action and instead of being a part of
5:21
Speaker 1: the action, he says, you come get it and I'm
5:22
Speaker 1: just gonna get your guy. That happened a few different
5:24
Speaker 1: times in this one, and I think it was pretty
5:26
Speaker 1: successful as well. But they really got the team to think,
5:29
Speaker 1: and I thought that was amazing. You got a better
5:32
Speaker 1: Lebron game, you got a better Austin Reeves game, you
5:35
Speaker 1: got some more shoots. I will say, I know he
5:38
Speaker 1: will have to play at least a few minutes in
5:39
Speaker 1: game number three. I'm over the Jackson Hayes minutes. Dog. Oh,
5:42
Speaker 1: I'm completely over it. I'm just I'm done. I'm done.
5:45
Speaker 1: I'm done. He had the most obvious goalten of all time,
5:49
Speaker 1: and I don't know if he was more upset with
5:50
Speaker 1: himself or upset with the referee, But it was the
5:53
Speaker 1: most odd that ball was so damn close to coming
5:56
Speaker 1: or already coming down, and so damn close to the
5:58
Speaker 1: rim that I don't know how anybody could be like,
5:59
Speaker 1: oh my god, he was pretty pretty bad today. Jared
6:03
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt Also, I said that he was going to be
6:05
Speaker 1: an X factor is I didn't know where he would
6:07
Speaker 1: be able to fit on this team in this series.
6:10
Speaker 1: In today's game, he only got eight minutes played. Mike
6:14
Speaker 1: Conley all, this is something I wanna say for the
6:16
Speaker 1: Minnesota Tembules. Sometimes in the playoff series, offensively, you're only
6:21
Speaker 1: as good as your weakest player, right, Rudy Gobert played
6:27
Speaker 1: twenty nine minutes a day, and like I mentioned, I
6:29
Speaker 1: thought he did a pretty damn good job in isolation
6:31
Speaker 1: versus Luca all things considered, because it's fucking Luca dogs,
6:33
Speaker 1: there's only so much you could really do. But on
6:36
Speaker 1: the other side of those things, again, sometimes you are
6:39
Speaker 1: only as good as your weakest offensive player. And one
6:43
Speaker 1: of the things that I thought was so successful in
6:45
Speaker 1: Gain of One for the Minnesota Tembules was when Rudy
6:48
Speaker 1: Gobert was in foul trouble and Mike Conley there was
6:51
Speaker 1: no need for him be on the court because if
6:52
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert can't play or isn't playing because of foul trouble,
6:55
Speaker 1: then there's no reason to have Mi Conley. We'll just
6:57
Speaker 1: rather go with the bigger players and the keyl Zella
6:58
Speaker 1: Walker and Dante di Vincenzo. So having that five out
7:04
Speaker 1: space and having basically really five offensive threats on the court,
7:09
Speaker 1: what's good for Minnesota in Game of one? And today
7:12
Speaker 1: they play basically thirty minutes handicapped offensively because not only
7:16
Speaker 1: does Rudy Gobert have like the worst hands in NBA history,
7:19
Speaker 1: nobody pass him the ball because of that. So it's like, yeah, offensively,
7:24
Speaker 1: teams are just completely okay with not guarding him or
7:27
Speaker 1: not using a good defender on him. They're running small,
7:30
Speaker 1: I mean, they're not gonna put a six foot guy,
7:32
Speaker 1: but like they'll have a Ruie or they'll have a
7:34
Speaker 1: dough And as long as you get a solid box out.
7:36
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert is not or has not been, the offensive
7:40
Speaker 1: glass beast that he could be, So just an okay
7:43
Speaker 1: box out on him nullifies all of his abilities, like
7:47
Speaker 1: the screen is this thing is cool and all, but
7:49
Speaker 1: right now it's not really working. So sometimes you really
7:52
Speaker 1: are only as good as your weakest offensive player. But
7:57
Speaker 1: the two size of these things because in this game,
7:59
Speaker 1: Nasrik could he couldn't stay on the floor. You know,
8:02
Speaker 1: he got into very early foul trouble. Same thing with
8:04
Speaker 1: Danti di Vincenzo. And you know, this is the tough
8:07
Speaker 1: thing about being a coach. You have to try to
8:09
Speaker 1: find a way to managsee these things, right, can we
8:11
Speaker 1: still find a way for nas Reed to get to
8:13
Speaker 1: twenty eight to thirty minutes if he can't stay out
8:15
Speaker 1: of foul trouble? Can we save some of these opportunities?
8:18
Speaker 1: And they ran out of opportunities eventually a Dante di
8:21
Speaker 1: Vincenzo came in and just start beating people over the head,
8:23
Speaker 1: got in some foul trouble very early on as well,
8:26
Speaker 1: and he was I think he was as bad today
8:27
Speaker 1: in general. But like after game number one, you want
8:30
Speaker 1: to see what is able to be done there A
8:32
Speaker 1: nas Reid and Jada McDaniels had phenomenals gainable one and
8:35
Speaker 1: they couldn't miss in this one. Jada McDaniels was with
8:37
Speaker 1: three of eleven from the field, zero for three from three.
8:40
Speaker 1: Just one of those things. Like I mentioned that shooting
8:42
Speaker 1: variance is gonna matter a ton, and if I'm Minnesota,
8:45
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out and I would have to
8:46
Speaker 1: rewatch this game in the morning, which I will do.
8:48
Speaker 1: Go go listen to small Ball Kenny Beach and where
8:50
Speaker 1: I'll go through all of this stuff again in more depth.
8:54
Speaker 1: I would have to figure out what can we do
8:58
Speaker 1: offensively if we are running our true starring lineup against
9:03
Speaker 1: this team, against this unit that's not playing a true center,
9:05
Speaker 1: that's really going small for I don't know, forty two
9:09
Speaker 1: of the forty eight minutes of the game, because Jackson
9:11
Speaker 1: Hayes kind of stinks. Either way, I want seven of these.
9:15
Speaker 1: I thought this was pretty cool. These two teams don't
9:17
Speaker 1: like each other, which I think is great. Julius Randall
9:20
Speaker 1: had a pretty good game today, other than again him
9:22
Speaker 1: falling asleep on defense a couple different times where I'm
9:25
Speaker 1: just watching somebody baseline run like he's Amin Thompson or
9:28
Speaker 1: Chris Done. And it's not even guys that normally do that.
9:31
Speaker 1: This is like Julius Randall just ball. Watch him at
9:33
Speaker 1: the end of the day, but I thought offensively, I mean,
9:35
Speaker 1: it was really just him and Anthony Llward Sive. Third
9:38
Speaker 1: leading score was nasrid at nine all Terry Shannon Junior
9:41
Speaker 1: gave them some really good minutes with the foul trouble
9:43
Speaker 1: of Nazi Vincenzo. I don't know if that's something you
9:45
Speaker 1: go to in game number three if Nanti di Vincenzo
9:47
Speaker 1: is not in foul trouble. But you know, I've liked
9:50
Speaker 1: Terry Shannon since his college year or so, and even
9:52
Speaker 1: when he got some burn irlin season, like, yeah, that
9:54
Speaker 1: guy's a real NBA player. I just don't know if
9:55
Speaker 1: he's ready for these big moments, but like real NBA player, Okay, cool,
9:59
Speaker 1: let's go to somebody these games. I hated that we
10:02
Speaker 1: got two games tip off like right after each other,
10:04
Speaker 1: thirty minutes later, and then they had the wrong game
10:07
Speaker 1: on national TV. The thunder dominate the Grizzlies. People are
10:09
Speaker 1: tweeting me like, am I worried about Shay Not even
10:12
Speaker 1: a little bit. There's no reason to be worried about Shade. Yeah,
10:14
Speaker 1: you took twenty nine shots to get twenty seven points.
10:16
Speaker 1: This team is sodemn talented that he probably don't even
10:18
Speaker 1: have to play the rest of the series and they'll
10:19
Speaker 1: be okay, So I'm not worried about it. I think
10:22
Speaker 1: we're gonna have some broader conversations about the Minnesota Timbles
10:25
Speaker 1: very soon about what happens with their big big three,
10:28
Speaker 1: because they're helly expensive, just not talented enough to do
10:32
Speaker 1: the finishing thing. And I just don't know what else
10:35
Speaker 1: you could really do if you're keeping that big three
10:37
Speaker 1: and also trying to win a championship, Like It's not
10:40
Speaker 1: like combining Santi Aldama, Lukenard, and Marvin Bagley can get you.
10:44
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant to add to that core three. We might
10:47
Speaker 1: see some real big adjustments once they lose, but again
10:50
Speaker 1: that's a conversation for a future day. Damian Lillar was back,
10:52
Speaker 1: and I want to before we even talk about this game,
10:54
Speaker 1: I want to tip my cap, not in a literal
10:56
Speaker 1: sense because I need to shape up real bad, want to.
10:59
Speaker 1: I want to tip my cap to Damian Lillard because
11:01
Speaker 1: he just did something that I wouldn't have the balls
11:04
Speaker 1: to do. I don't care if I was medically cleared.
11:06
Speaker 1: He just played thirty seven minutes in a game three
11:09
Speaker 1: weeks after being diagnosed with a blood clot. The man
11:11
Speaker 1: is a fucking super soldier. Shout out to Damian Lillard. Unfortunately,
11:14
Speaker 1: it wasn't a very good game for Dame, and it
11:17
Speaker 1: makes sense he hasn't played basketball in three weeks and
11:19
Speaker 1: they were talking about his conditioning and stuff. I feel
11:22
Speaker 1: for Giannis because you got a beautiful Bobby Porter's game.
11:25
Speaker 1: I think he was one point away from his career
11:27
Speaker 1: high in the postseason. I feel like every time he
11:29
Speaker 1: took a shot it was going in. They gave him
11:31
Speaker 1: so many different open looks. He had twenty eight and twelve.
11:33
Speaker 1: You also got ky cools from providing twelve points, which
11:37
Speaker 1: is twelve more points than in the last game. I
11:39
Speaker 1: just thought that, like, if you're gonna have this and
11:41
Speaker 1: you could say, like, oh man, just if Dame have
11:43
Speaker 1: a better game, we win this one. Maybe, but like
11:46
Speaker 1: they're kind of dead in the water in a way,
11:49
Speaker 1: and maybe I'm jumping the guns just a little bit,
11:51
Speaker 1: but the Pacers have looked like the better team and
11:53
Speaker 1: now they played what ninety six minutes against each other
11:57
Speaker 1: in this two game series. I would say the pace
11:59
Speaker 1: of like the better team ninety three minutes of that
12:02
Speaker 1: ninety six minutes because the places and both of these
12:05
Speaker 1: games had like a three minute stretch, four minute stretch
12:07
Speaker 1: where they just couldn't score. It just shows up have
12:09
Speaker 1: not had a field goal in four minutes. Other than that,
12:11
Speaker 1: the most overrated player in basketball, Tyres Haliburton, had a
12:14
Speaker 1: really good game. So let's see if that's about. Pascal
12:17
Speaker 1: Siaka continues to be really good them hard is great.
12:22
Speaker 1: I feel like every time they go through that drought,
12:24
Speaker 1: Miles Turner is the one to really get them out
12:26
Speaker 1: of it. But they again just picked the pick the
12:28
Speaker 1: part this team. You want to know how insane this is?
12:30
Speaker 1: The Bucks shot fifty percent in the field in forty
12:34
Speaker 1: from three on thirty five three point attempts. That's pretty
12:37
Speaker 1: fucking good, right. It just didn't matter. It didn't matter.
12:42
Speaker 1: They had a really efficient offensive game, but they can't
12:45
Speaker 1: stop anybody. And I wonder if Doc Rivers will come
12:50
Speaker 1: to the realization about his start in five unit because
12:53
Speaker 1: in theory, like like this game started off with Miles
12:55
Speaker 1: Turner and Pascal scoring like the first ten of twelve
12:59
Speaker 1: or something along those lines. Theory running this big man
13:02
Speaker 1: lineup what it is brooken and it is Gianni's and
13:05
Speaker 1: it is you know, Torrient Prince like some bigger bodies
13:08
Speaker 1: alongside Damien Little. It makes sense because the Pacers are
13:11
Speaker 1: a bigger team. But that lineup through the first two
13:14
Speaker 1: games has been like the best, I mean the worst
13:16
Speaker 1: lineup they have put out on the floor, not equating
13:19
Speaker 1: for like like garbage time. Their starting unit has not
13:22
Speaker 1: been able to get a stop. Offensively, it is fine,
13:26
Speaker 1: but they have not been able to get a stop
13:29
Speaker 1: and teams are okay with loading up on Gianni's and
13:32
Speaker 1: allowing oh no, this is this is outside to sorry
13:34
Speaker 1: five at this point, But teams have been able to
13:37
Speaker 1: or the pace specifically, have been able to just load
13:39
Speaker 1: up on Giannis and Yannis again his spider style ltis
13:42
Speaker 1: thirty four eighteen to seven. He was amazing again. I
13:46
Speaker 1: just don't think even though Koolsman had twelve points, he
13:49
Speaker 1: can play much with Gianni's. He's just not being guarded
13:54
Speaker 1: and they don't really have a better alternative. That's the
13:56
Speaker 1: one thing I can say for Doc Rivers, like, if
13:57
Speaker 1: we don't play KOLs Ma, who we're gonna play? Are
14:00
Speaker 1: we gonna put Pat Coinson out there? He's a little
14:01
Speaker 1: bit undersized for that. We're gonna put Pete nance in
14:03
Speaker 1: the game. No, so I guess I can understand it.
14:06
Speaker 1: But like if you were the coach, if you were
14:08
Speaker 1: Rick Carlisle, you are also selling out on yan instad
14:11
Speaker 1: saying Kuzma hit a shot and Kousman had a couple
14:14
Speaker 1: of good finishes in this game, but he ain't hit
14:16
Speaker 1: a three. Just shit, I don't know if he's hit
14:17
Speaker 1: a three since January. I ain't gonna look at the stats.
14:20
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it. I'm gonna say it, but I
14:21
Speaker 1: don't think he's hit a three cents January. So it
14:24
Speaker 1: just becomes tough, and I think overall it may be coaching,
14:27
Speaker 1: it may be roster construction. It's just not looking amazing.
14:31
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that we at least get a Dame game
14:33
Speaker 1: because there's, in my opinion, there's only a few players
14:35
Speaker 1: of basketball that are better to watch when or hot
14:38
Speaker 1: the day Maen lither, So maybe we get one. He
14:39
Speaker 1: did hit a big shot in this one. They were
14:41
Speaker 1: on their little run, but ultimately, you know, was it
14:45
Speaker 1: all right? Shout out to the Lakers for that wins
14:46
Speaker 1: out to the Pacers, and shout out to the thunder
14:49
Speaker 1: who might be able to rest their starters for the
14:51
Speaker 1: rest of the series,