35 Burst results for "Lakers"
Latina to Latina
A highlight from How Lisa Guerrero Learned to Be Brave
"Whether you know Liz Guerrero from her work as a correspondent on Inside Edition or her time as a sideline reporter on Monday Night Football, a job she calls both a dream and a nightmare, you know that she will go toe -to -toe with anyone. Now she's exploring where that empathy and courage comes from in her new memoir, Warrior, My Path to Being Brave. Lisa and I talk about everything from the experience of suffering a miscarriage on live television to her decision to pose on the cover of Playboy. Lisa is sharing it all in the hopes of helping us reimagine what it means to be brave. Lisa, I was such a fan of yours before the book. I am a bigger fan after. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me, Alicia, because I watch you. I'm such a fan of yours. So thank you for having me. Mutual Admiration Society, I would imagine that for a lot of our listeners beyond your work at Inside Edition, you are best known for your work at Monday Night Football. You write, it was both a dream job and a complete nightmare. Tell me why. After 10 years of working as a sportscaster, I had been a beat reporter for the Dodgers, the Lakers, USC, UCLA, the Kings, the Chargers. I was the first female anchor at Southern California Sports Report. And suddenly I'm on Best Damped Sports Show period, a big national show on Fox Sports Net. Which is to say you have your credentials, right? I want to just put a pin in this to say that you know your stuff inside and out. You have a resume that proves that, and yet. And yet, I get hired by Monday Night Football on ABC, the biggest job a woman could get in sports broadcasting, 40 million viewers every Monday night, an incredible amount of attention, an incredible amount of exposure, and I was really excited to get this job. But before I ever pick up a microphone for ABC, I start seeing these articles about me that were calling me a bimbo and that were pointing out the size of my breasts or the length of my hair or my last name before I ever report from the actual sidelines. And I realized that a lot of the criticism had nothing to do with my ability, but more to do with I wasn't the type of woman that the sports media, I guess, elite felt should be covering the sidelines, meaning I didn't come from ESPN, I hadn't been a sports columnist, I had been an NFL cheerleader and a swimwear model and an actress. So therefore, I must not be a very good sports reporter, right? I must have only been hired because I was cute. And they ignored the 10 years of sports casting that I had just done. I started to get a lot of anxiety, I started to become nervous. And my boss, who this was now only his second year as the executive producer of Monday Night Football, realized that I was coming under this intense scrutiny. And he started to get nervous, I think. And he began to be pretty cruel to me and verbally abused me. He would constantly be yelling at me, screaming at me. He took all of my reports and rewrote them in his voice because he was so nervous that if I went live, who knows what I would say. He started to control what I looked like, put me in dark blue suits and make sure you can't see any cleavage, make sure she's covered up to here. So I realized that I was going to get fired. I knew I was going to get fired before the very first game. And then at the end of the first regular season game, I misspoke on the air. And I immediately corrected it, but at least it was too late because it gave my critics the opportunity to say, see, she doesn't know what she's talking about. And she doesn't deserve this job. So I got very depressed. I really sank into this extreme, I don't know what else to call it. It was a very traumatic experience for me because I had always been known as the sports chick. I knew my sports. And to have this narrative now be that I didn't know sports and that I was just a model or just a cheerleader, I didn't know how to combat that. And the powers that be at ABC wouldn't let me do any interviews. They wouldn't let me speak for myself. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I was throwing up before and after every game or after every interaction with my boss who was screaming at me in my IFB during live interviews in front of 40 million people. And I just thought, I'm not going to make it. I don't know how I can get through this season. And finally, I found out I was pregnant. I had just gotten engaged and I was excited about it, even though I thought I would never have children because I was in love with my fiancé. And I thought, maybe I do want to have a child with him. But I was so overwhelmed with anxiety and depression over this job that I couldn't eat or sleep.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A highlight from Part 1: USAs World Cup Collapse, Basebrawls, Jets Optimism, Life in The G-League and The OC 20 Years Later | with Gabe York and Zoe Simmons
"Coming up, an unexpected two -part podcast cameo from me. It's next. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where we turned over Sean Fennesey and Amanda Dobbins' big picture feed to Brian Raftery. It's a narrative podcast called, Do We Get to Win This Time? How Hollywood Made the Vietnam War. You can find it on the big picture starting on Tuesday. And it is an idea I'm really excited about because it came from a class that I did as a senior in college in 1992. Me and my friend Horgs talked a movies professor into doing a special Vietnam War movies class where we watched basically every Vietnam War movie that had been made up to 1992 and then tried to write a big picture term paper about it. And the thing that was really fascinating about that class and something that stuck with me was just that whole concept of Hollywood reinventing the entire Vietnam experience under the premise of, Did We Get to Win This Time? So we got Brian involved and he turned the idea into an awesome, awesome podcast. I even went and dug up the term paper that I wrote 31 years ago. I thought it was gonna be horrendous. It wasn't bad. I was kind of proud of myself, retroactively 31 years later. Anyway, Do We Get to Win This Time? How Hollywood Made the Vietnam War. It is gonna be in the big picture podcast starting on Tuesday. So that's one piece of business. Second, new rewatchables on Monday night. It is the 300th movie that we've done. It's a special one. We're doing National Lampoon's Vacation. It was time. Meet Chris Ryan, Van Lathan. Yeah, and Van was pushing for it because we wanted to do Christmas Vacation during the holidays and you can't do Christmas Vacation. If we do National Lampoon's Vacation, super fun. Can't wait for you to listen to it. And we'll be running the video at some point on the YouTube channel, youtube .com slash Bill Simmons, where we put up a whole bunch of rewatchables podcasts in case you missed it. Boogie Nights is up there now. Goodfellas, Independence Day, just a slew of them. So if you're bored and you wanna throw on some rewatchables and watch us make fun of each other, there you go. Last but not least, I don't wanna say this is the most important, but it's certainly the thing I spent the most time on. Our documentary that we did about the G League with Religion of Sports and Ringer Films, we combined, and it is premiering on Tuesday, August 8th. It is called Destination NBA, A G League Odyssey. It's really good. We immersed ourselves into the G League season. We followed Scoot Henderson, Gabe York, Ryan Terrell, Mason Jones, and Denzel Valentine. And the big question was, what is this world like? What's it like to be in the G League? And I am really proud of where we landed with it. And we even have, much later in this podcast, Gabe York is gonna come on. He's one of the five that we followed, and he's gonna tell us what it's like as you're holding on to your dream in your late 20s. We try not to spoil the doc too much with Gabe, but I really liked him. He's probably the guy that jumps out of the doc in the most sympathetic way. So look forward for you to watch it. It is prime video, Tuesday, August 8th, Destination NBA. A G League Odyssey. You love basketball, just watch it, it's good. So there you go. This is gonna be part one of a two -part podcast. Gabe is coming up later. My daughter Zoe Simmons is coming up later because we did a whole bunch of OC stuff on the Prestige TV podcast. I was even on two of the episodes. But I ended up watching season one of the OC. And my daughter was watching with us and loved the show. And she was born a year and a half after it premiered. So me and her broke down season one from the perspective of what is it like when somebody 18 watches the OC, a show that is now two decades old. The anniversary was actually August 6th. And what she liked, what she didn't like, what people aren't doing anymore for her kind of audience. And we just dove into it. So that is much later. First, coming out of the gate, I'm gonna open a six -pack because we have a lot to discuss over the past three weeks, all the stuff I missed. So that's gonna be part one. And then part two, which is gonna go up later on Sunday night, me and Rossello doing this evergreen idea that we've always wanted to do. And this seemed like the perfect time because nothing's happening in basketball. So that's gonna be part two later tonight. Part one coming up. First, our friends from ProJax. What's up? All right, I'm taping this. It is Sunday afternoon Pacific time. And I'm gonna open a six -pack. There's a bunch of stories in sports and culture that happened over the last three weeks. I was just writing stuff down, things that would have been fun for podcast segments. I was just like, man, I wish I could have given my thoughts on that. Just gonna rip through them. So I have six and then maybe a couple bonus ones at the end. The first one, the biggest one, was the US women's soccer team, which lost today in penalty kicks to Sweden, scored zero goals in the last two games, scored one goal in the last three games, and that was off a corner kick. You could feel from the beginning that something was off with this team. It was all the ways. You knew in a checklist of what are the red flags? There were just red flags galore. And the only person who was really calling it out in time over and over again was Carli Lloyd, who was doing the Fox studio show. And she was the one person in the horror movie who knows the house is haunted. And everyone's like, shut up. You're not being patriotic. You just wish you were still on the team. She was right. She was right from the get -go. This team, you could see it before the Vietnam game when it was like, look at the new Nike suits. Look at these new suits. And they're all like styling as they head into the locker room. And they're running commercials. And every player has a commercial. There's players who've never done anything of that commercials. And the vibe was just off. They only beat Vietnam three -nothing in a bracket where goal differential was gonna be super -duper important. And that was a huge red flag. And we did the usual thing that we've been doing since 2019, 2015 of, oh, well, they almost scored a bunch of times. Oh, well, if that had gone in or some bad luck. There was just an arrogance to this team. Like they were carrying themselves like the defending champs, the same way like the Denver Nuggets would go into next NBA season. Like we're the champs. I was like, yeah, you are the champs because the season just happened. The World Cup happened four years ago. Everyone's four years older or wasn't on the team. And you could see they wanted to build the team instead of around the identity of, here are these new up and coming awesome stars that are gonna be in your life. They were really latching on to Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe. Alex Morgan's 34, Megan Rapinoe's 37. I think one of the differences between the discourse with women's sports and men's sports is that in men's sports, we grasp for angles. And if somebody is disappointing in some way, we really go nuts. Like think of how James Harden's been treated over the last 12 years. So he's one of the 35 best players ever and has taken just an incredible amount of shit. Oh my God, the playoffs, look at his game log. Oh, he choked again. Alex Morgan, who scored twice in her first two games in the World Cup in 2011, she scored once in 2015 in seven games. She scored six times in 2019, five against Thailand in a game that was 13 to nothing, one in the other six, and then scored nothing in the four games this time around. If you take away that Thailand game, she has scored two goals in the last 17 World Cup games. This is the striker. This is the one who's supposed to be the most dangerous player in the field, who's supposed to produce goals. And she hasn't produced goals since the mid 2010s on the national level. And yet it's Alex Morgan. She was supposed to be the next one. We got to keep propping her up and pretending she's a superstar. She's not a superstar. She's really honestly never been a superstar. She certainly hasn't been as impactful as somebody like Abby Wambach was. So you have the team built around her. She's got to play. They play her the entire game, game two, the entire game, game three. She plays like 95 minutes in this game today, and they don't score goals. And the announcers just won't talk about it. It's like being on an AYSO team that your kid's on, and the coach is playing somebody at striker, and everyone's like, why don't they play Sally at striker instead of the coach's daughter? It's like, oh, you know, the coach's daughter. She's got to play there. So you have that, and then you have Rapinoe, who's 37 years old, who's just, unfortunately, great career, legendary, true legend, huge big time player. And when you hit your late 30s in soccer, it's a wrap. She looked like Yudana Rapinoe, not big Rapinoe, and comes out for the last 25 minutes of this game and can't do anything, and then misses the penalty kick. That's the thing. If you're beholden to past performance, you can't expect to succeed in the moment. And I did feel like, what were this team's strengths? Speed. They had Sophia Smith, who really was bad the last three games on the left wing. Like, she just, she couldn't even connect passes. Trinity Rodman, who's a beast. Lynn Williams, who's super fast and athletic and had some really nice moments the last two games. And then Alyssa Thompson, who's the prodigy, who's the, you know, potential tiger or LeBron of this team. 18 years old, best high school player I've ever had. They won't even throw her out there. But this was not a team that could connect passes. They weren't, like, especially creative. The coaching was just bizarre, and we'll never see that guy again. But it was like, the one thing they did have was speed, especially the forwards, and they just threw that away. And Alex, you know, couldn't do anything. So now they're out. It's the most disappointing finish of the last 25 years for the women's team. And it reminds me in a lot of ways that 2004 Olympic basketball team that we had, the USA team. And I tweeted this, I think after the second game, because that was a team that was between eras, like this one was, where all the best players on that 2014, the ones in their primes, weren't that good, except for Duncan. And Duncan was completely banged up. He'd played so many NBA games the last couple of years. I think his knee was hurt. But, you know, it was Iverson and Marbury. The talent, it just was a between eras. And you had guys on the bench, like LeBron and Carmelo and Wade, who were four years away. Kobe wasn't on the team. And it just felt generationally, like we caught that team in the wrong time. The style was wrong. And we learned all these lessons and we moved on. 2008, we win. There's a documentary about it. But this team felt like it was between eras. The Alex Morgan, Rapinoe era, which was basically done. And then you have this era coming up with Rodman and Sophia Smith and Alyssa. And, you know, it's just four years from now, we'll probably be fine. But they need to re -imagine this. And I think if you're gonna learn any lesson from this, it doesn't matter what happened four years ago. It's the World Cup. It matters what's happening now. So that's one thing. Second thing. So Jaylen Brown gets this huge contract, $304 million. Some people seem surprised that it was that much money. Chris Ryan even took a shot at it when we did our library watchables. Hurt my feelings a tiny bit. Mainly because I didn't really have a comeback. Rosella did something on his podcast about how this actually makes sense. This amount of money, when you think of how the salary cap has climbed just since 2015, and it's gonna keep climbing. And there's this world you can go into where you think about just how much everything is gonna cost in the NBA four or five years from now, that Jaylen Brown at $70 million isn't actually gonna be that intimidating. The same way we feel about Tobias Harris for $40 million now, or Klay Thompson, $40 million now. Yeah, you don't really wanna pay $40 million for Klay Thompson, but you can survive it. And I think that's gonna be where the Celtics land with Jaylen. Here's why they had to do it. They're the favorites on FanDuel right now. They're plus 470. The thing that made them the most special and has made them the most special for the last five, six years is the Jaylen Brown -Jason Tatum combo. They've been incredibly successful. The team itself has made five conference finals in the last seven years. They came super close to making the finals last year. I have now gone into the what if zone with that Celtics team where what if Tatum doesn't hurt his ankle on the first play? Do we beat Miami? They were close is the point. And when you're that close, you can't fuck around. This is not Bradley Beal resigning with Washington for 50 million a year when everybody knows you can't get past the eight seed with Bradley Beal. This is different. You're trying to win a title. You're trying to keep all your optionality open. The thing that's a little scary about it, nobody seems to totally know if he wants to be in Boston. This is something we've discussed on this pod. It's been floating out there. The fact that he wasn't happy about landing in the Kevin Durant trade rumors a couple years ago. And just in general, where the league is now, where as Woj called it, the transfer portal, where people get their contract first and then they decide what they want to do. And I think for the Celtics, they know they bought themselves a year with Jalen and they are still one of the favorites to win the title. And a lot of it's going to depend on health and Porzingis. You could also, I don't want to make the case, but you might be able to make the case that Brown had a fucked up hand last year. Cause he did. Cause he sliced his hand open. It was bleeding even during the Philly series. And maybe that was why his ball handling went sideways. Listen, you got to do the contract. It just breaks your brain. I remember a million years ago, Sports Illustrated and Inside Sports say every year they would have like a salary issue. And they would talk about these guys are making $1 million a year. And it seemed like so much money. And now where we're heading with the money, plus the NBA is the meteorites deal. The moment any of these guys becomes unhappy, what do you do? Because you're paying Jalen, let's say you're paying him 55 million a year. Plus he is the trade kicker, which the team has to pay. Right? So if he decides after a year, you know what? I'm tired of being the scapegoat. Everybody loves Jason. I'm like the middle brother of this team. I want my own team. I want to go to Houston or Atlanta. You got to trade me. What are the Celtics going to do? On top of who would want out, you don't have a lot of options and you turn into what the situation Portland's in with Deem. And then on top of it, it's so much money. It's impossible to get any sort of a fair trade for the guy. So they had to do it. And optionality the that comes out of it is frightening. I remember in the early 2000s, when the first time the contracts kind of went nuts and you would see that people get signing like six -year, $100 million deals, seven -year, $110 million deals. And the Celtics really, really stupidly traded for Vin Baker. One of the worst trades of the last 30 years for Boston Sports. A trade so bad, you knew it instantaneously. And I wrote a piece that you can probably find somewhere in the ESPN archives about it, where I compared it to the end of Thelma Louise when Harvey Keitel is running toward the cliff trying to stop the car from going off the cliff. That's how I thought about the Vin Baker trade when it happened. Then it happens and you just had this salary albatross. It's a salary cap league. And you're like, wow, we just threw away 20 % of our salary cap on this trade. There's going to be a couple of those that are just franchise killers. And whether that leads to them bringing back the amnesty clause, who knows? I wish, I've made this, I've had this idea before. I wish that they had a rule in there that if you drafted a guy, every year that he stays in the team, you get rewarded in some way from a salary cap luxury tax type thing, right? So Jaylen was 2016 draft, this would be his eighth year. Maybe like after the seventh year, because that's usually like the third contract. The guy stays in the team, maybe each year after that, he doesn't count for 2 % of the luxury tax, up to like 30%, something like that. The point is the Warriors should be rewarded for keeping Draymond and Klay and Curry from a tax standpoint, that they were that smart to draft those guys, keep those guys together. They should be incentivized, the players, to want to stay with them because there's some luxury tax stuff that the team gets. And the team should want to be incentivized to take care of those guys because it's also beneficial to them. I just wish they figured out some version of that rule. Anyway, Jaylen was always signing for $304 million. Talk to me in a year, I'll keep my fingers crossed. Next thing, I missed the running back pity party. This was crazy. The running backs all got together and they were really upset about how much money they made. And I don't know what to tell you. There's too many running backs and not enough running back spots. And I don't know if you're trying to build a responsible salary cap team in a collectively bargained era, why would you spend $30 million over two years on a running back unless the running back was awesome? Nobody even wants to spend more than $11 million on running back. So I knew that this was crazy when Damien Harris, who was on the Patriots, who I thought was really good. He's maybe not an elite running back, but a good running back, right? Somebody that if he had been on the Chiefs, he easily could have started for the Chiefs. And he signed with the Bills for like one year, 2 million. And when that happened, combined with Pacheco on the Chiefs' seventh round pick, they won the Super Bowl with him. It's just, this position's devalued. I work on this player, I've been actually working on it the last couple of weeks where I try to rank the players for blue chippers, red chippers, pink chippers, honorable mention, and have this whole point system. And so quarterbacks, Mahomes, who's the alpha of that position, he's worth 10 points. And you could even see this in the point spread. If Mahomes gets hurt, the Chiefs are 10 points, nine points, whatever, less than what they would be as a favorite. They'd switch to an underdog. And you go on down the line. Jalen Hurts, I had him as an eight. I had Joe Burrow as a nine. And you go on, you keep going down, and it's like, Geno Smith's probably a two. But then you look at some of the other positions and you have to value them the same way the salary cap values them and teams value them. Guards, they aren't worth that much. Running backs, sorry, they're not worth that much. My top running back was three points because ultimately running backs don't really matter that much. In the last like five, six years, I would say Derrick Henry was the only running back that you could definitively say, this guy almost won the Super Bowl. Like he was that good. Other than that, you know, it's plug and play, quarterbacks, it's receivers. It's much harder to find the number one receiver. Every team needs one. It's much more tangible if you don't have the number one receiver. And it's much easier to just kind of scrap together the running back position. And yet people went nuts about this. We ironically had this in the NBA with centers. You know, Vucevic, who's a really good offensive player, he signed for 60 million for three years, 20 million a year. And Jaylen Brown's going to make $52 million a year. Is Jaylen Brown two and a half times better than Vucevic? No, it's just, he plays a way more important position. You can only play one center at a time. You can patch together the center position. You could have like Isaiah Hartenstein for $8 million. You could, you know, get Robert Williams for 16. You don't need to spend what Phoenix did on Eaton where they're paying $8 and $30 million a year at center. And you don't really need to do that. You kind of feel obligated if you don't want to lose the asset. But I think the NBA is going to go this way eventually where unless it is Jokic or Embiid, the center or Bam Adebayo, it's a bonus. You could argue that was already an overpay. They gave him a huge extension. The Lakers just gave Anthony Davis $60 million a year as an extension. I would argue that's a little frightening. I feel like you could patch together the center position. What really matters in basketball is having the creator. And this was the argument five years ago with Luka versus Eaton for the number one pick. And I made this argument. It was like, go look at who wins the NBA title every year. It's always the people who have the creator. There's somebody who's on the perimeter of the ball in their hands. Even Jokic, who wins the title this year, he was a creator. He's not a typical center, right? He's basically their point guard on offense who could post up. So this happened in the NBA. Nobody went nuts. And this is happening in football. And is this where football is. If you want to make the most amount of money playing in the NFL, I don't know why you would be a running back. I would be a cornerback. I would be a wide receiver. I'd be an edge rusher. But if you're a running back, you know your shelf life's probably like five, six years. You know the money is not totally gonna be there. Now they're in this, like you have people like JK Dobbins, like, I might hold out. It's like, really? You didn't barely even play in the field. Barkley said he was gonna hold out. And then, you know, probably looked at it. And the money for Barkley is like 10, 11 million. That's unfortunately the market. So you can't fix this. They collectively bargained it. And until we get to the next CBA, I don't know how you fix it. I thought it was really weird. It felt like people had nothing to talk about. And it was like, ah, let's feel bad for running backs. All right, let's take a break. And then I'm gonna finish the rest of the six pack. All right, picking up on the six pack. We're gonna talk a little more football. I talked about the running back pity party. This is a different kind of party. The Jets optimism, which has just been stunning to me over the course of July. I have Jets fans in my life. These are people that usually have no hope and are very reminiscent of the pre -2004 Red Sox fans, just assuming the worst at all times. Why does God hate us? All that stuff. And now they have this crazy optimism based on the fact that they brought in Aaron Rodgers, who I did not think was very good last year, just throwing that out there. I wouldn't say he was bad, but for Rodgers, he was bad. I mean, we thought Rodgers was, he was the reigning MVP and we thought he was still one of the five or six most impactful players in the league. And I don't wanna read stats to you for the next six minutes, but deep balls, he was bad. Turnovers, he was bad. Leadership, he was bad. And the case for Rodgers coming back would be, well, he's gonna be rejuvenated. The Jets, New York City. This is his team. He got away from Green Bay. He's got Hackett back. I get it, but he's also at an age where we've really only seen Tom Brady succeed at a high, high level at the age that Rodgers is at. I was trying to figure it out. I have my QB ratings and I had, you know, the top tier is Mahomes and Burrow and Allen and Herbert and Hertz. Those have to be the top five. Then it drops off and it's Lamar Jackson and Lawrence. And then Rodgers, probably a hair underneath him with a chance to play himself up with those guys. But from what we saw last year, I'm not ready to put him there. So he's the 10th best quarterback in the league, probably. 10th or ninth best quarterback in the league, probably. Well, they have no offensive line. And I don't understand why people keep glossing over this where it's like, hey, Rodgers and Garrett Wilson, he's one of the best receivers in the league and Breece Hall's going to come back and the defense is really good. And it's like, yeah, the offensive line is terrible. Beckton and Dwayne Brown, sure tackles again. And then you have Robert Salah as the coach, who I cannot say I thought that Jets were crisply coached last year. Whatever he was doing with Zach Wilson was insane. No idea if that guy's even a decent coach. So I'm already worried about your offensive line, the age of your quarterback, and the competency of your coach. And that's before we get into the hard knocks curse, because for some reason they're doing hard knocks, the incredible Super Bowl hype already. And then we have the schedule, which is the AFC East has just got screwed by the schedules this year. The Jets, just for quarterbacks in 17 games, they got to play Josh Allen twice, they got to play Mahomes, Herbert, Hertz, Dak Prescott, and Deshaun Watson. And then they also have to play Miami twice. We'll see what we get out of two this year. And then a really good Pats defense. And then Denver, who knows, they might be rejuvenated. So Danny Dimes, they have to play him. It is a brutal schedule, so you have that. And then on top of everything else, you're the Jets. I was there with the Red Sox before 2004, and this is probably just as bad, where you just think the worst possible things can happen is all the time. You're not allowed to have optimism when you're Jets fans. You can be cautiously optimistic. There was an entire Curb Your Enthusiasm episode once, season 10, episode seven, about being a Jets fan. And it was called, I think, the ugly section. Nick Kroll was the maitre d'. And part of the episode was about, he would put these people in different sections of the restaurant, depending on how attractive they were. But there was this other plot, Larry's buddy who loved the Jets, kills himself. And Larry becomes convinced it was because of the Jets, that the Jets killed his friend. This was only a couple of years ago. So now they get Aaron Rodgers, and everything's good. And they're gonna win the Super Bowl. I don't see it, guys. I don't wanna step on my football stuff too much, but I'd be shocked. And Lombardi points out the defense that everybody's ready to compare to the 85 Bears. Lombardi said they had two turnovers over the last eight games last season. So that means something too. I am dubious, to say the least. If you're gonna tell me a tortured franchise actually turns it around this year, I want a tortured franchise that doesn't have expectations. Because the Lions are another one. Everybody's ready to put them in the Super Bowl or close. And the only case for them is just pretty explosive offense. They couldn't stop anybody last year. And the NFC is terrible. But that's another one where is that a fan base that should be super excited and have a ton of hype? The one that's kind of lurking that fits in this group is the Browns. Because the Browns are actually super talented. They're in a winnable division. Burroughs already hurt. And I think they're four to one to win the AFC North on FanDuel, something like that. Their over -under is, I think it climbed up.
AP News Radio
Butler, Jokic lead Heat, Nuggets into a NBA Finals after unconventional paths
"This is the first time the nuggets have ever played in the NBA Finals. And the team's first time in a final series since the last year of the ABA in 1976, that means the dearth of experience for nuggets players this deep into a season. One Denver player with finals experience is kentavious Caldwell Pope, who was on the Lakers 2020 title team. Just trying to keep him calm knowing that and the first couple of possessions are going to be a lot even for myself, you know, I'm feeling anxious right now I'd even get out there. The nuggets have rest on their side, having polished off the Lakers last Monday in a four game sweep. The heat will have had two days off since winning game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. I'm Dave ferry
AP News Radio
The NBA Finals are set: It's the Heat and the Nuggets for the Larry O'Brien Trophy
"The Miami Heat champions of the Eastern Conference even after getting in only as the number 8 seed will take on the top seeded Western Conference champion Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals. The heat got there by winning game 7 of the east title series in Boston Monday night. It came one year to the day after the Celtics won a game 7 on Miami's floor to claim the east crown. Meanwhile, the nuggets swept the LA Lakers in the west finals to claim their first finals birth in franchise history. The series opens Thursday in Denver. I'm geffen coolbaugh.
AP News Radio
LeBron posts historic first half, questions future after Lakers eliminated
"LeBron James 20th NBA season came to an end after his Los Angeles Lakers were swept by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals. Afterward, the NBA's all time leading scorer hinted he might be contemplating retirement. We see what happens going forward. But I don't know. I don't know. I got a lot to think about, to be honest. The 38 year old James had a personal playoff best with 31 of his team high 40 points in the first half. James is under contract for a $46.9 million next season with the Lakers. I'm geffen coolbaugh.
AP News Radio
Jokic leads Denver Nuggets past LeBron's Lakers 113-111, into their first NBA Finals
"For the first time, the nuggets are going to the NBA Finals after beating the Lakers one 13 to one 11 to sweep the series Jamal Murray scored 25 points in the game for clincher. It has been nice enough to finally reach this point and just be the first this be the first team the nuggets history to do. Nicola jokic finished with a 30 point triple double as Denver overcame a 15 point deficit at halftime the Lakers LeBron James came out on fire, scoring 21 first quarter points and finishing with 40 in a losing effort. Mark Myers, Los Angeles
AP News Radio
AP News Summary at 1:00 a.m. EDT
"For AP sports on geffen cool bar, the Denver Nuggets rolled to a three O lead in the Western Conference Finals with a one 19 one O 8 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. Jamal Murray scored 37 points and Nikola Jokić added 24 for Denver, Anthony Davis totaled 28 points and 18 rebounds in LeBron James scored 23 for the Lakers. In the Stanley Cup playoffs, Matthew kuchak was the hero in overtime again, scoring one minute and 51 seconds into OT to give the Florida Panthers a two one win over the Carolina hurricanes and a two O lead in the Eastern Conference final. At the Preakness stakes, Bob Baffert's national treasure crossed the finish line first, Kentucky Derby winner mage finished third in the Preakness, meaning there will not be a Triple Crown winner for a 5th consecutive year. And in golf Brooks Koepka fired a second straight four under 66 to surge into the lead through three rounds at the PGA Championship. Victor Holland is won back at 5 under following a 69 alongside Corey Connors who shot 70. I'm geffen kobach for AP sports.
AP News Radio
Nuggets on brink of NBA Finals with 119-108 win over Lakers in Game 3
"The nuggets now need just one more win to reach the NBA final for the first time after beating the Lakers in game three one 19 to one O 8, but coach Michael Malone says it's no time to relax. I'm proud of our group, but we're not celebrating. We have to get another win and to close this thing out. Jamal Murray scored 31st half points and ended with 37. Nikola Jokić battled foul trouble and finished with 24 Anthony Davis had 28 points in 18 rebounds to lead the Lakers. Mark Myers Los Angeles
AP News Radio
Murray's big fourth quarter propels Nuggets past Lakers 108-103 for 2-0 lead in West finals
"The nuggets lead the Western Conference Finals two games to none after topping the Lakers one O 8 one O three. Jamal Murray dazzled with a game high 37 points, 23 of them in the fourth quarter. Once you see a couple go in, you know, I can get a role in. So I was able to just find a little separation and just rise up over the top and make some shots. The nuggets were down. 11 in the third quarter before taking over in the fourth, hitting 5 consecutive three pointers. Game three is Saturday in Los Angeles. Bruce Morton, Denver
AP News Radio
Nikola Jokic leads Nuggets past Lakers 132-126 in West opener
"The nuggets hung on to defeat the Lakers one 32 one 26. As usual, leading the way was two time MVP Nikola Jokić with 34 points, 21 rebounds and 14 assists. We need to be in a game. So I think it's being aggressive. It's a normal right now. Denver was up by 21 and the third quarter only to see LA pulled it within three with one 12 to go. However, the nuggets held the Lakers scoreless the rest of the way, running their home court playoff record to 7 and O. Bruce Morton, Denver
AP News Radio
LeBron James, Lakers eliminate champion Warriors with 122-101 victory in Game 6
"The Lakers have landed in the Western Conference Finals by trouncing the defending champion warriors one 22 one 21 in game 6. It was a vintage performance by LeBron James who delivered 30 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists for the 7th seeded Lakers. I just want to try to come in and make some plays and be efficient and defend out of high level help 80 rebound. Help our team make winning plays and I was able to make a few of them. Anthony Davis had 17 points and 20 rebounds for LA, Austin Reeves chipped in 23 points, including a 54 footer at the halftime buzzer. Steph Curry led all scores with 32 points, but missed ten of his 14 three point attempts for Golden State. I'm Dave ferry.
AP News Radio
Stephen Curry, Warriors stave off elimination, force Game 6 by beating Lakers 121-106
"The warriors kept their season alive as they beat the Lakers one 21 one O 6 6 player scored in double digits, including all 5 starters. Stephen Curry scored a game high 27 points from the jump the way we did handle their run the way we did and then close out fourth quarter strong was exactly how we expect to play in just a matter can we take it on the road and win a must win game on Friday? LA still leads the series three games to two. In the loss of LeBron James with 25 points and Anthony Davis had 23 game 6 is in Los Angeles on Friday night. Ryan leong, San Francisco
Dennis Prager Podcasts
The Truth About Stanford Students
"When I spoke at Stanford many years ago, I've spoken since, but many years ago, I spoke at Stanford, and I had Stanford students and faculty on my show. I was there for a number of days, the Hoover institution invited me. And I remember thinking, wow, the only clear thinkers I'm having here are the guys in the athletics program, I specifically remember the football players. They were the only conservatives. They were the only ones who made sense. Now, obviously a lot of athletes have been poisoned now, like LeBron James. I live in LA and I'm not rooting for the Lakers because he's not a good man. But nevertheless, a lot more wisdom from this football player than from the prime minister of New Zealand.
AP News Radio
Lakers rally past Warriors 104-101, take 3-1 series lead
"Lonnie walker the fourth came off the bench to score 15 points all in the fourth quarter as the Lakers rallied to beat the warriors at one O four to one O one. The greatest villain you can ever have ever imagined. You know, as a kid, this is something I've been dreaming of doing, not just being a part of the playoffs, but impacting it. LeBron James finished with 27 points, as LA takes a three to one series lead. Stephen Curry had a 31 point triple double for Golden State, who now face a winner go home game 5 on Wednesday. Mark Myers, Los Angeles
AP News Radio
LeBron's Lakers rout Warriors 127-97, take 2-1 series lead
"The Lakers steamrolled the warriors in game three one 27 to 97 D'angelo Russell had a big night scoring the Lakers first 11 points. He finished with 21. For me, it was just scoring tonight. Next night it might be passing. So just taking advantage of what they're allowing us to have. Anthony Davis had 25 and LeBron James who didn't score until midway through the second quarter ended with 21, Stephen Curry led Golden State with 23, Lakers now lead two games to one with game four Monday back on their home floor. Mark Myers, Los Angeles
AP News Radio
Thompson scores 30, Warriors adjust to beat Lakers 127-100
"Game two was a lopsided win for the warriors as they beat the Lakers one 27 to 100 to even the series clay Thompson played a starring role with 30 points. He's always fun when you shoot the ball well, but it's even better when you couple that with a win. Golden State hit 21 three pointers with Thompson making 8, Stephen Curry finished with 20 points in a dozen assists, LeBron James led the Lakers with a team high 23 points while Anthony Davis was held to only 11. I am Mark Myers
AP News Radio
The latest in sports
"AP sports I'm David Schuster, it's round two for both the NBA and NHL playoffs and Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. It was game two between New York and Miami and Tom Marion was there. The next show some heart when they needed it most to beat the heat one 11 one O 5 and game two to tie their Eastern Conference semifinal series at a game of peace. The Knicks already down a game where down 6 points of the heat with 7 minutes remaining, but outscored Miami 24 12 the rest of the way, as Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart combined for 20 points down the stretch. Jimmy Butler missed the game for the heat with an injured ankle, but Julius Randle returned from his ankle sprain to score 25 for the Knicks. Brunson let all scores with 30. Meanwhile, out in the Bay Area, Anthony Davis had 30 points at 23 rebounds. The Lakers taking game one against Golden State one 17 one 12. Over in the NHL, it was game one between Florida and Toronto and John leatherbee has the details. Part of her hanky scored the tie breaking and eventual game on a goal in the second period as Florida doubled up Toronto four two at Scotiabank arena for hanky took a breakaway pass beating Ilya Samsung for his third goal of the postseason. Nick cousin Sam Bennett and Brandon montour also scored for the peppers, while Matthew nyes with his first NHL goal and Michael bunting replied for the buns. Charlotte widow for four on the power play at Sergei bobrovsky made 34 stops for the win. Game two is Thursday night. And down in Dallas, Yanni gourde scored the game winner in overtime Seattle prevailing 5 four over the stars, turning the baseball, the Yankee snapped their four game losing streak forward to over Cleveland, Gary Cole, with another good outing. It was a good punch and counter punch and I was glad to be able to get deep enough that, you know, we could use our guys, you know, and leverage if we did indeed get the lead, which we did. In Tampa, the rays improved to 24 and 6 with a four one victory over Pittsburgh. Elsewhere, Ryan monkcastle hit two home runs Baltimore 11 7 over Kansas City, and Connor Wong had two home runs, Boston 7 6 over Toronto and back in pro basketball, Joel embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers named the league's MVP. I'm David Shuster, AP sports.
AP News Radio
Lakers obliterate Grizzlies 125-85, advance to 2nd round
"The Lakers advanced to the second round of the playoffs after crushing the grizzlies by 40 in the game 6 clincher, one 25 to 85 D'angelo Russell made 5 three point buckets and finished with 31 points. Definitely a big game, so anytime you can make big shots and a big game, it's going to be a good feeling. LeBron James had 22 and Anthony Davis pulled down 14 rebounds, Memphis star John Moran finished with just ten points on three of 16 shooting. The Lakers will now await the winner of the warrior's king series, Mark Myers Los Angeles
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"Andrew Miller, Trevor, do you think the Lakers can run the table, lose the last 7 games and help the capella can secure a better pick? I don't think they want to do that. I don't think they want to do that. I don't think they want to want to help the pelicans at all, just like the pelicans didn't want to help the Lakers. Dame blaze, if the Lakers got rid of rob palinka, who do you think would be a good replacement? I volunteer his tribute. No, but seriously, I think that there would be if it's me trying to find somebody for the Lakers. I'd be looking for an outside voice. I've been saying this for a while. I wouldn't necessarily look just at the Lakers family tree, which is what they tend to do. They tend to look at their family tree. People who are already know the organization who have already had a role in the organization and that's who they bring in. I don't think they're going to get rid of rob blanket. I think if they do anything, it will be bringing in another voice to take over that kind of Magic Johnson role, the role that magic had previously before he left. Maybe you do that. But again, I'm looking at an outside voice, and I want somebody who is very salary cap focused. I want somebody who is very understanding of the cumulative effect of the minor moves run government and I talked about this on the previous podcast. The minor moves that the Lakers made mistakes on. Taylor Horton Tucker's contract, Austin Reeves contract, things of that nature, these little things weren't financially, they could have tweaked things a little bit more and put them in a much better position. Those are the kinds of people that I would try to bring in. Somebody who's really going to see that and understand how that one move might not matter that much, but when you've got 5 of those moves adding up, then it does become a bigger issue. So that's what I'm looking for. Somebody who really understands that who understands the value of in trade situations, I feel like the Lakers have been that team for a while, particularly under rob pelinka, who will, they get in trade negotiations, they never really seem to win the trade. Do they? They always seem to get the deal done, but it's almost like they're that guy in your fantasy league that will toss in an extra pick or whatever just to make sure they get the player. And sometimes like when you're contending for a championship, that's okay. That's okay, but you also have to be at some point conscious of the value that you're getting. And I think there's been times where the Lakers haven't appropriately valued the assets they do have, whether it's the young players, picks, things of that nature. So I would like to see that change a little bit as well..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"A little bit. And also, as you mentioned, the Lakers guy down to four in the early beginnings of the fourth quarter, cat makes a tough shot, and then LeBron gets called for a movie screen. I think it was. And then they go down, they hit a three when he Gabriel misses the three, and then after Avery Bradley lay up or whatever, they go ahead another three LeBron hits a three day come right back or whatever. And it's a ten point game now and the cat gets a few free throws in a row and all of a sudden you look up at 14. So that was kind of the way this game went and the movie screen was a big call. Because DJ Augustine played really well up to that point. And they hit the three too, so just chewing themselves in a foot at the worst possible times. I feel like that just encompasses the Lakers season so far. Donna Daniel espinoza said Trevor, where do you rank this season? Is this one of the worst seasons in franchise history? What do you think? Yeah, I think it is. I think it is. This is, this is there's a difference between the rebuilding teams and this team. In terms of the disappointment factor and in terms of how poorly this team is represented, the fan base, if we're being honest, right? I mean, this is a team that really hasn't shown the heart or the fight or the hustler or anything that you would expect out of a professional team, right? Whether it's the Lakers or otherwise. It feels like they've kind of checked out to some degree. And that's, I think, what gets fans extra frustrated and makes it that much more of a joyless season. You go back and you look at the rebuilding. I mean, people were talking about this on Twitter today. The Lonzo, Brandon Ingram teams. They played harder than this team's playing right now. And part of that is human nature. Part of that is, man, we just keep getting our teeth kicked in. How are we supposed to continue playing hard when, gosh, I've been doing this for 19 years or 17 years, however all these guys are veterans. That's a factor here. It's a little different when you're a rookie and it's your first season and you're going on here trying to prove yourself every single night to continue playing hard this late in the season. So I'm not saying it's the same thing. I'm not saying there's not a reason why these guys would have trouble focusing and locking in on a game, but from the fan perspective, yes, I think this, this is, it's crossed the line, I believe this is the worst. I think this is the most disliked Lakers team that we've seen. Somebody asked on the our live broadcast that we did of the game, somebody asked, is this team or who wins basically this team or the 2012 13 team?.
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"So that's a problem, but no, no denying it, it's been brutal. It's definitely been brutal. And that's why you need just a second guy and I keep talking about it. That's why losing Jared Dudley was so huge. Just as a locker room guy, because respectfully, there's nobody on this team. Absolutely nobody. That's going to call, like you don't have a unicycle anymore. Jared Dudley was your downsides on who's just respected that probably won't play much, but you know, we'll just casually throw a chair in the huddle every now and then to tell get your star's attention and those players are also more than likely the only guys on the team outside of the stars that can kind of call the stars out. And because now like and that's why I think part of the reason why is that while LeBron, the team is so reliant on Lebrons energy. In Afro. If he's bringing it, okay, LeBron's bring it. I'll type a few games. You're probably going to win. Right? But if he's not, that's why it's so rare for the Lakers to win games to see win games this season, Les Lebrons bring it. I mean, it takes LeBron having a really, really exceptional game in order for them to get wins right now. Lakers are in trouble YP hustle said Lakers are in trouble. We could end up going another 5 game losing streak with no Kendrick nun update in the Lakers just keep getting embarrassed. I think it's not fun. And yes, they are in trouble. They understand that. They know. They know the things are not good. Things are not good right now, and we'll see they have the most difficult schedule down the stretch of any team. They squandered the early schedule that the NBA gave to them full of just easy matchups. And they took too many nights off where they just said, no, we're not going to compete tonight. We're going to wait for the other team to beat themselves. And that didn't happen. And they're paying the price for it right now. We said it at the beginning of the season, that these losses to teams that they should not lose to will come back to haunt them, and now is when you're really starting to hurt from not putting those wins, just taking those wins saying thank you, stacking it on your record, and then having that to buffer the tougher stretches of the season. Well, here we are now. And it makes it makes it that much more painful. So Trevor, apparently the chat saying not going to stay. San Antonio, there are really climate on the Lakers. Now the Lake is I think are only one game up on the ten sea now. But you have one that you have a one game lead for the Tennessee for 9 seats or pelicans only one game back, the blazes are only two and a half back of 9 in the spurs are only three and a half back. Of 9. So the Lakers are going through a brutal stretch right now. The spurs have lost their last two and the blazers lost tonight. So yeah, look, they are creepy a little bit closer. If they go on a win streak, okay, but like the Lakers are two and 8 in their last ten, the blazers are three and 7, this version of three and 7. The pelicans are 5 to 5. The pelicans are the.
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"You already know what to expect. The Lakers found a way to lose to the Houston Rockets, just when we thought that we had hit rock bottom when they got blown out by the pelicans and we wondered, could there be another low can it get lower? The Lakers said yes. Yes, we can give you that. We can knock you down a little bit further. And we can lose a game to the Houston Rockets. We've got a lot to talk about in this, what a lot of things to break down, unfortunately, I can already see in the chat. A lot of people upset. And rightfully so, you've got plenty of reason to be upset after this game, we'll talk about it. We'll vent the very least. We will get through it together. Joining me is Sean Davis from Lakers nation dot com. Sean, I don't even know what to say. This was, that was brutal. That was awful, awful, terrible. And all I can do is laugh. Yeah, you laugh to hide the pain, but I wanna really quickly applaud all of Lakers nation, the fans are great staff for somehow managing to get through the season because it's been rough men and guys are real ones for stick it through I can't see right now how many people are in here live with us, but you guys are all real ones because if I have to do this I wouldn't be here right now. It's rough on for sure. Yeah, this is this has been really, really bad. This is particularly when you look at this game and I guess here's going to be my big picture point for this. My take away so when the Lakers when the score was tied and the Lakers had the ball and we're heading into the final play of the game, I'm thinking, okay, the Lakers they're going to get the last shot. And I was thinking, all right, even if they score here, the discussion isn't necessarily going to be, hey, the Lakers won this game. It's not going to be a celebration, really, because we all know what we saw. We all know what we saw the Lakers do in this game. We saw them not play basketball. Not put forth much effort, not really look like they cared to be out there. It looked like the worst parts of an All-Star Game. Frankly, to me. And the rockets have an excuse. It's a young team..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"It would be like putting hamburgers in front of the hamburglar or something like that. Yeah, I will say this. I would be okay with any move as long as they're not making a desperation THT trade sure. Oh, here's one more super chat came in. Vogel makes changes when things are running fine, but will not make changes when things are not running fine. What's the logic there? I understand the frustration with some of the changes that he makes. And remember what we said, anytime that it makes sense for the Lakers to do something they won't do it. We do need to finish with a master lock, though. We didn't get to that yet. And I know we're running along. But if you were to master lock any for anything from this game, what is it? Me texting you that I was going to come on the show. Oh, that's a good one. The chat has a point that they think it's you. I'm not going to be on the show Monday, so if they win, which they probably will, you know, we'll keep that right. We'll keep the wave going. I won't hop on until they lose without me on the show. Okay. Let's see. If I were to masterlock anything from this game, it would be sticking too long with the rotations that weren't working. I think they need to be a little bit quicker to change. Yeah. So all right. Appreciate everybody for joining us. Rough night, Frank Vogel will endure. He will coach against his old club, the Orlando Magic next game. We'll see if the Lakers can pick up a win. They better pick up a win in that one. They certainly need it. Until next time, everybody stay safe. They see you..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"They needed more big wings that could do things, like rebound, like defend on the perimeter, do that sort of stuff. He was hoping Trevor ariza could do it. Stanley Johnson I think could do it at a higher level right now than ariza can, but then that begs the question when you go and you look at the game, ariza is playing 15 minutes, Stanley Johnson's playing 16 minutes, the gap between those two should be larger, which we should see a lot more Stanley Johnson admits than Trevor a recent minutes right now. I think that and I've been saying this all season, so I hate to keep repeating myself. But I think a lot of the Lakers issues are personnel based. And for the umpteenth time now, Trevor, and I've talked about this a lot, is that there is just not a lot of lateral or quickness along lateral foot speed or quickness along the perimeter for this Lakers team right now. There just isn't. And I don't want to sit here and bash Trevor ariza all night because that's still my guy. But at this point in his career, he is a step slower than most guys that he is trying to guard. And so that compromises your defense, stresses it out. You've got people scrambling and rotating all over the place. And before you know it, someone else has an open shot on the other team. I don't think it's a surprise that when Vogel goes to THT monk Reeves, Stanley Johnson and a 5th guy that the Lakers defense suddenly looks more competent is because there's not as many leaks. Guys aren't getting beat as easily. You've got guys that are able to recover a lot quicker. You're contesting shots a lot better. And then it's fueling your transition attack, which is where the Lakers are at their best. And that's another thing too. You know, a lot of these Lakers offense is based on early or semi transition opportunities. And they're just not getting a lot of those because they don't get as many stops. And that was what we said coming into the season. We looked at this roster put together. We said, this team can be really good in transition if they can get enough stops to get into transition. That was going to be the big question mark. And that was going to be kind of a tipping point and so far they haven't been able to, and that didn't allow them to transition opportunities. The pacers were scoring so much in the fourth that the Lakers weren't able to really get their offense running off of missed shots and turnovers..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"It's a rough one. The Lakers fall to the Indiana Pacers, the lowly pacers that a drop ten of their last 11 games one 11 to one O four before they head out onto the road trip. Sometime we see those games as trap games, but still against the Indiana Pacers, the Lakers should not be losing that game Karis levert goes Berserk in the fourth quarter couldn't miss a shot it felt like he ends up with 30 points on the night and 8 boards at the Lakers get the laws leaving a lot of questions about what's going to happen now with head coach Frank Vogel, where we go moving forward here. Joining me is Matt, the optimist Peralta optimism prime. We might need it tonight. How are you doing? Obviously not great. Losing to a team like the pacers at this point of the season really hurts. And all the goodwill that had been built up after the Utah Jazz wood is now gone, Trevor. Yeah, that's for sure. That's the way you erase this, right? The Lakers, they already burned all of their bad losses and then some in the first half of the season. So their margin for error, it's gone. It doesn't exist. So you can't lose a game like this. You can't come out here and get this result. And I felt like the Lakers came out with the energy they needed to have in the first quarter. Things look good. And as we got into the second towards the end of the second quarter, that energy waned. And then it was kind of downhill from there, especially into the third quarter. You just didn't quite feel like they had that intensity. It felt like they thought they had the game in the bag until suddenly they didn't anymore and they just couldn't quite get it back. Yeah, I don't know what happened, but it just felt like they took their foot off the gas pedal. They stopped trying nearly as hard. They came out with the first quarter really well. I thought, oh, hey, look, this is carrying over from the last game. I think, you know, all things can consider if they had up that pace up throughout all four quarters. This is probably a blow out the other way. For the Lakers. But lo and behold, Indiana fights back. They punch back a little bit. They start to get going, they see shots going down. Malcolm Brogdon in the third quarter, I thought really sparked them and then carries the root. And the fourth quarter, not having to deal with foul trouble anymore decided to make up all the points that he was supposed to score in the first three quarters in the fourth. And Lakers had no answer for it. And the lineups in the fourth quarter were very suboptimal to say the least..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"It's a Boston Celtic, I don't care if it's a clipper. No. You don't wish injury on anybody on any of these players. That's just these are real people guys. Yeah, that's just to me that's just a line that you don't cross. And then but then from there, as far as as the other piece which Schroeder has been the better option, when you add in contracts, sure, like 6 million for shorter versus 44 for Russ. Okay. But I also understand why the Lakers did what they did in making the move. It just hasn't quite worked out the way they hoped it would. I don't know if I want to say this out loud, but I think that's probably true. Okay. Well, well, look at it. Okay, I get it, and this feels so gross saying it. But defensively, who would you take right now? Schroeder or Russ? I'll be honest, I haven't watched a lot of shooters defense this season. I'm sure Celtics fans would tell me a little bit more. But you've seen a lot of Russ. I've seen a lot of Ross. I mean, based on what we saw from shooter last season, at least he's more of kind of a high effort guy on the defensive end, even if the efficiency isn't always there. So defensively, I think you probably give the nod to Schurter. He's a little bit more willing to sell out. Although, you know what? Russ is a force on the defensive glass. Russ helps you out quite a bit there, especially when the Lakers are playing small. Yeah. Right. I mean, the fact that you're debating it says something. But I don't think it's like an easy, definitely Dennis Schroeder. Spot. No, I think the contract part is really, because if you're told me I can get shooter for 6 mil, then I consider this a lot more. But if you told me that we were supposed to reassign them for the number he was asking for, absolutely not. Right. Yeah..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"They're not doing that. Can we all do a fundraiser for the Lakers for whatever they need to free us from rusty? I don't think the Lakers need a fundraiser. All right, let's do a couple more. And then we'll call it a night here. Westbrook isn't just a problem now, doesn't he also have an option for 47 million next year? Yes, he does have a player option that he is likely to pick up next year. Trevor, when can we have an honest talk about Ellington? 7 for 22 from the field over the last four games and other ways of assigning CRISPR a shooter Wayne Ellington has not been shooting the ball very well. And he's had moments where even defensively. I went, yeah, that's better than I expected out of him, where he's been one of the guys to hustle back to get into a play or to make the extra effort. I've seen some things I've been pleased with. But the Lakers really signed him to be a consistent shooter. And unfortunately, he hasn't really been that. But it seems like everybody, when they put on a Lakers Jersey, they're shooting ability to just seems to fall by the wayside. But I've heard you make this argument before too. So if you got a guy like Ellington, who is not a defender, per se. And you know, like, yeah, put in some effort, but really he's one of those guys where if he's not pulling his weight offensively, he's kind of a net negative still on the floor, I think. So like, I don't know, unless maybe he's played better defense than I either know about or remember. I know he had a previous thing with us, but I know Ellington's been mainly regarded for his offense, so I don't know, man. It's the list just keeps going. I feel like we could just put anybody on this list with a question mark, like, what did we do with this? Why is this guy playing like this and like, you know what I mean? Like, Ellington's just another one. Just to add to it, you know what I mean? Everybody hasn't been terrible. I mean, granted, you know, I don't know. I mean, it's honestly I'm scatterbrained talking about all this at this point. I need you to make sense of it. Well, it's because.
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"Overall, big picture, they spent more of the game as the good version of the Lakers than as the bad version of the Lakers. And it's amazing the contrast between those two things. But overall, this game featured more good stuff from the Lakers than bad and the more as games go on. I feel like we're seeing a higher percentage of quality minutes from the Lakers than just tripping over their own two feet. We've seen sets where the Lakers look like they don't know what they're doing. Where defensively, they're completely lost on the rotation, where offensively, they get mixed up and guys are looking at each other, trying to figure out where they're supposed to be. We're starting to see that less and less, which should be the case, as the season goes on, but it's still good to see. We're starting to see more positive minutes from the Lakers..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"And the quickness to go chase smaller players. You can't ask Carmelo Anthony to defend Paul George. You can't ask Carmelo Anthony to defend any of the high scoring wings in the NBA. That's not what he can do right now. So again, nothing against Carmelo. He made his shots. He's been great for the Lakers this season. I think he's been a great signing. But he still not that big, three and D style player that can really shoot the ball. But like I said, a lot of teams are looking for that right now. All right guys, let's do let's do one more. Reminder, reminder, the Lakers have a really weird schedule right now. Really weird, which was we thought it was pretty fortuitous when we saw LeBron get in health and safety protocols that they have this weird stretch of the schedule where it's super light. So they have tonight's game. They have tonight's game against clippers. They don't play tomorrow. Then it'll play Sunday. They don't play Monday. They don't play again until Tuesday against the Celtics. So now they've got some time to go, hopefully recover a little bit. Work on some things in practice and they won't play again until Tuesday. So got a little bit of a break here in the schedule, which is rare. Most of the time, through most of the season, you're playing every other day. Sometimes you play back to back. Occasionally you get two days off. So if you play Monday, you'll get Tuesday Wednesday off then play Thursday. That's considered a break right in the NBA, because typically you play every other day. The Lakers have this weird stretch of the schedule where they've got a few breaks here. They don't play that often. I think they had what two days off before this game. Now they have three days off before their next game. Hopefully they rest up and recover a little bit. But like I said, let's get into a couple more questions and then we'll call it.
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"They just need to go on like a three or four heaven forbid a 5 game winning streak where I'd have some quality wins. Sprinkled it in there. And I think that way you'll start to see the confidence back. Because I think that's another thing too. The Lake is we haven't really talked about too much. There doesn't seem to be a lot of confidence in the team right now as a group. And I think that's just coming from a place of when we get down like who's really going to step up. We're not really too sure yet. We don't really know how we want to play yet either, especially with LeBron James off the floor. I think those are all factors that we need to consider here. But again, for the alms time now, if the Lakers are healthy and they've actually had time to practice and get to know each other better on the court. I think you'll start to see them playing a lot better. I mean, of course, they're still going to have losses here and there. But I don't think the losses will be this egregious. At least I hope not. Jesse Taylor said, you guys helped me through a lot. Thanks for everything while you're welcome. Thank you for the super chat. We appreciate it. You're welcome. And this is an opportunity look at. I don't take the stuff you guys say in the chat to personally or anything like that. I know a lot of I know a lot of it is people coming in inventing and hopefully by the end of the night, we all feel a little bit better. I gets a vent a little bit, Matt, the optimist, even gets to vent. So his optimism meter gets to refill just a bit. So this is if you guys don't know. This show first started. The first year we did this was when the Lakers had Lonzo and BI and all those guys. Like back then, when the Lakers were getting just annihilated. And it started off as a way to kind of vent after games and really just let loose a little bit and commiserate and it was a rough season and they lost a lot of games. And so that gave us a lot of opportunity to do just that. As the years have gone by, obviously they've gotten better. We've spent more time celebrating wins and things like that. But this still holds that purpose as well. It gives everybody an opportunity to kind of vent a little bit after a tough loss and get out some of their frustration and then hopefully feel a little bit better. By the end of the whole thing. So that's definitely part of this here too..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"Was a clippers fan came in here. What are the other 11 clippers fans doing right now? They must be missing you. Some people said, some of them couldn't play with the pressure of being a Laker. Yeah. Yeah, that can happen. That could happen where sometimes the bright lights of LA can be a bit too much. That does happen. That's the thing. Kobe talked about that. Being a Laker isn't for everybody. It's not. And so you do see guys that when the pressure is off of them, they go somewhere else. They thrive. And I'm not saying that these guys were bad Lakers or anything, but sometimes having just there's a little bit more of a freeing sense when you're able to play somewhere else where the microscope isn't quite on you, the way it is. In LA. Okay, this is a good comment here that I think gets into my big concern here with the Lakers. For a veteran team, we sure know how to be undisciplined, get taxed backcourt violations and sloppy turnovers. That I know a lot of people are upset with Westbrook upset with Vogel upset at a lot of things. My biggest concern with the team right now is that we're seeing them make non veteran mistakes or mistakes that you would not expect a veteran team to make. And we've seen a number of guys do it. Carmelo Anthony with the 5 second violation. Russell Westbrook with turnovers. OKC looking like the poised and steady veteran team down the stretch in two games against the Lakers while the Lakers made a mistake after mistake after mistake. Some of this is teams having just good nights against the Lakers. Some of this is, hey, everybody gets up to play the Lakers. Everybody knows this is going to be the most eyeballs they're going to see. Throughout the entire season, they know like the wolves. They're looking at this game thinking, man, how many people are watching this game because we're playing the Lakers. So you're going to get everybody's best shot. Part of it is that. But part of it is also the Lakers shooting themselves in the foot. And for a team that's this veteran heavy, you wouldn't expect that. You expect chemistry issues. You expect there to be some speed bumps you expect them to have some growing pains and things like that because they only brought back three players from last season. It's going to take time for them to gel. So you can expect those things. But making mistakes that veterans don't make or don't tend to make? That's a little bit of a concern. When we're seeing some sloppy stuff, I wish I had a better word for it, but just dumb plays. Plays that a young player would make and you would say, oh, that's just a young guy making a young guy mistake. But these are veteran players that we've seen do some of that stuff. That's probably my biggest concern with the team right now. Beyond, you know, Westbrook, is he a great fit beyond some of the other stuff. It's not really looking like veterans..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"Some people saying, embarrassing season, it's gonna be worse than last season, stuff like that. Did we forget last game? Just last game, the Lakers beat a really good team in the Miami Heat and everybody was feeling good. Let's not try not to ride the roller coaster too much, right? Yes, we celebrate a win. Look, there's some definite concerns we can get into here with the loss. If this was a ten point loss, if this was a 7 point law, something like that, I think we would feel obviously that wouldn't be good. I know a lot of people would still be upset, but it would be a little bit more understandable. I think where people get truly upset with this kind of a loss is how bad it got. It really shouldn't have gotten as bad as it did. But you could see where maybe a game like this was kind of coming, where it was in the cards. I had hoped that they would be able to stave this off and in particular was hoping that they would show some of the improvements that we saw against the heat. They would prove that those things were sustainable that those things were now locked in that were those were now part of their identity in terms of the defensive rotations the extra effort they were making. The offense of execution, unfortunately, I don't think they were, but it's hard to say a lot of those shots that they missed, were wide open. It reminded me of Lakers sons last year in the playoffs where the Lakers were just getting all of these wide open shots and just missing and missing and missing. Well person said I'm so confused on why Westbrook, the most explosive garden in the league doesn't continuously attack the paint consistently. Well part of it, Westbrook is seeing defenses that are completely collapsed into the paint and that's part of why the Lakers went small in this one, and I want to get into that too because the Lakers did have a starting lineup change in this game. But Westbrook is consistently seeing teams that are just packing the paint. So all he's seeing is a wall of bodies..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"Don't get me wrong, but if you want to look at the glass half full here, the Lakers didn't give a 26 point lead up this time. That is not glasses have full at all. I know, but Trevor, come on, man. All right, let's you know what, let's do let's get into one thing. That's a positive, especially to deal with the game like this. If you guys haven't heard yet Lakers nations releasing showtime logger that's coming up this Saturday 6 o'clock we're releasing it too specific locations in the Los Angeles area. We're going to be at LA draft in Santa Monica again starting at 6 p.m.. That's when it's going to be released. And we'll be at Indy brewery in Los Angeles so you can join us at either location, Matt's going to be at one with Ron gutterman myself and Chris masters will be at another one and you guys can come hang out with us. We will stick around, watch the Lakers take on the Portland trailblazers there and we of course will be debuting showtime lager. In fact, I do happen to have a little commercial for it right here. So check it out. All right. And once again, we're going to have two locations because there was a lot of demand so we're actually doing two locations for this. Again, one is indie brewery in Los Angeles, the other one. We're going to be out in Santa Monica at LA draft and they both start 6 o'clock. That's when it officially releases and then the Lakers take on the Portland trailblazers at 7 30 going to be a lot of fun. This night would have been a little bit easier to deal with. If we had some showtime logger. Yes, absolutely. And I have a feeling that because let's back up a little bit here. A little bit having a little bit of a rough shooting stretch to start the season here. But he's played the Lakers. So that's obviously the best medicine. So I'm going to need quite a few showtime loggers to get through that probably..
Lakers Nation Podcast
"lakers" Discussed on Lakers Nation Podcast
"Dot com live postgame show the Lakers did pick up the win over the rockets a close one. They almost lost at the buzzer. Too close for comfort, not what we were expecting from a Lakers rockets game but got the win nonetheless. That's the important part. We're gonna break down the game here tonight. Quick reminder, if you're not already subscribed to the Lakers nation YouTube channel, make sure you do subscribe and don't forget to turn on those notifications as well. If you're coming in from YouTube from Facebook from Twitter, welcome in, we'll be taking your questions and comments. If you're listening to the podcast version of this, make sure you do follow us over on Apple podcasts Spotify wherever it is that you listen to podcasts. Joining me tonight is Matt the optimist Peralta. Matt, how are you doing, man? How stressful was that? Was that game? I am never going to be able to watch a Lakers game this season in peace, Trevor. This one was way too close for comfort, as evidenced by the last couple of minutes. Of course, the wind is nice, but it's one of those wins that doesn't feel too great. It shouldn't have gone disclosed and to be honest, the Lakers should have even been in this position to begin with. But, you know, the Lakers move to 5 and three, which is I believe good for third, now in the Western Conference and this early part of the season. So that's good. We're now 10% of the season away. So all things considered, things could be worse, but again, it's just one of those things where you wish the Lakers played better and didn't have to tried this hard toward. I think the frustrating part for me was it felt like against the calves and then again against the rockets, the Lakers had taken some steps forward, right? Like the last game against the rockets, there was never much of a doubt about who was going to win that game..
The Showtime Podcast with Lakers Legend Coop
"lakers" Discussed on The Showtime Podcast with Lakers Legend Coop
"Welcome to another Edition. Showtime with two insightful vs with my liquor friends and NBA legend today, we are without anybody or it's just going to be you. And I talking about, let's just put the put this way, clean up on aisle number one, which is the Lakers mess that they have up their page. And then we will discuss a little bit about the current playoff situation that's going on. Now, the Clippers and the Phoenix Suns, that's actually a great series. Turn out to be a good one, tough game for the Clippers Thursday night. And I finally came out of the closet cuz I'm a Clipper fan. So I'm rooting for l a, whatever they're going to do win or lose. I'm jumping right back on that Lake Katrine, I'll be in the Caboose ringing off the Lakers. So is it doing something that's dear to my heart? All right. Which is the big three baby. We're about to get started ice cubes, Jeff started a fantastic, three on three, basketball league going into Iraq. Fourth season, but we'll get to that later. So first The love of my life. The Los Angeles Lakers. What are your thoughts on the Lakers? All right. Well, you know it's interesting cuz I remember last year after they won the title you were talking about you know they need to bring Dwight Howard back. They need to bring Javale McGee back the importance that those guys had allowing them to play. You know, different styles play small-ball but also play Big. Nobody can really match up with that and I said, you know I I think they were certainly you know missing that component of their T. I mean they just you know, they just really never I think established, you know, secondary scores. But I mean I definitely go back to what you said after they want the title last year which was they, they got to figure a way to keep these guys and they obviously didn't And I think the biggest thing that you said there was the style of play and I liked that cuz I thought the Lakers still had that, but I think the biggest reason why they couldn't let Miggy home and how we get out of there because believe it or not, the longevity, they were able to afford a d cuz they could put him on the bench and he didn't have to play, you know, and be that ultimate shot. Blocker, that's what happened..