Nick Wright (2:26)
Welcome in what's right with Nick Wright, a quick Monday morning pod after what was a remarkable and unbelievable weekend of NBA basketball and also the weekend that almost assuredly marked the end of the Los Angeles Lakers season. And that's not even because I think necessarily they are drawing dead to execute a 31 comeback. They're obviously drawing very slim, but I don't think they are at 0%. However, the present they will get if they somehow do execute a 31 comeback with a rotation that clearly only has five players the head coach trusts is either going to be the Golden State warriors or the Houston Rockets, both of which present massive problems for this team in this moment. And if you were like me and you really thought this team's high end was not just conference finals caliber, not just NBA Finals caliber, but championship caliber, this weekend was a hard punch in the face about that. And if you want to chalk up Friday to man, Luca was sick and played like it and didn't have it and they ran out of gas on at the end, fine. But then Sunday presented far more problems, issues, concerns that obviously as they now face elimination games for the rest of their season. If and the only way to not face elimination games the rest of their season is to win three straight elimination games and then get a fresh start after a seven game war, then you've got to be honest about what we're seeing. And I want to be, I want to give credit where it's due. Anthony Edwards is having his moment and I know people here want to hear probably you know me talk about LeBron and Luca in the end of that game and we will. But Anthony Edwards 43 points, 43, 9 and 6 going to war with LeBron throughout the game suffering what the broadcast seemed to think was a catastrophic injury. And Anthony in the moment reacted like it was a catastrophic injury. Everyone's heart sank when they saw it and he pops up, it doesn't matter, he plays 44 minutes, is brilliant in the fourth quarter and that has been the key to this series. And obviously the key to game four is the Timberwolves, a team that was not good in clutch situations closing out games. It's really where you thought the Lakers were going to have a decided advantage in this series was let it be close late and have LeBron and Luca take over. The opposite has happened. It's been close late the last couple games. LeBron and Luca have been absolutely out of gas and Anthony Edwards has taken over Julius Randall exercising some playoff demons. And now you're in a spot that I don't think anyone anticipated, even the most ardent Timberwolves fans, even after they took game one, I don't think thought it would be three one in this fashion going back to Los Angeles. And so let's get into game four. And by the way, we'll talk. Steph was played one of the most remarkable playoff games of his career this weekend we'll get into that dame, sadly, I mean, tragically, Torres Achilles, that's probably. We're going to get into that more tomorrow. And obviously Nuggets Clippers with a finish for the ages. So we'll try to quickly hit on all those. But we're where we have to start is with J.J. redick. And I, I am not going to act as if JJ hasn't been awesome this year. He has. And I'm not going to act as if the, you know, that J.J. redick is the problem for the Lakers. Far from it. However, when a rookie head coach does something that according to, you know, the stats and information folks, no coach has ever done in modern playoff history, maybe in all of playoff history, which is play the exact same five guys for the entirety of a second half of a playoff game and then those five guys are totally, absolutely, unequivocally out of gas at the end. That's going to be a story. And JJ was left without a lot of great options. He decided after the opening couple minutes, understandably, he couldn't trust Jackson Hayes. I thought he would try to steal a few minutes for LeBron or Luca with Vanderbilt or Gabe or even Goodwin. He decided not to. And he was in a weird spot because the Lakers had that great third quarter which allowed them to go into the fourth with a lead, a position they have been brilliant all year. I don't know what the record was, something like 45 and 4 or something outrageous going into the fourth quarter with a lead. They outscore the terminals by 13. And I think JJ's thought process was if we can in the opening few minutes of the fourth, hold or even push this lead a bit, then maybe I'll steal a couple minutes of rest. But that's not what happened. Ant kept coming down and making plays. The Timberwolves stayed right in that down four to down seven range. And JJ never felt comfortable taking those five off the court. And by the very end of the game they were all on fumes. LeBron somehow found a couple bursts of energy on the defensive end, the steel and the block. And I thought that was going to be the story of the game. That LeBron, after his I think 104th career playoff 20 point half plays a wildly efficient game 27, 12 and 8, and then makes the key defensive plays down the stretch to turn a four point deficit into a six point lead after the huge Austin Rui threes. But of course that's not what happened. And you saw the fatigue kicking in at various moments before the final couple minutes. Luca. God, I Think it was Jaden McDaniels on his hip or maybe it was Julius. Had a layup, missed it. LeBron out of a timeout, great play, had a layup, missed it. And, and I said it was Austin and Rui, that the three was Austin and Dorian Finney Smith that hit the threes. But despite all of that, It's Lakers up two with the ball after the the LeBron block with a minute 10 left. And yeah, if you, I mean this is a keep you up at night, restless, bad sleep game because there's so many moments that you just wonder, man, if they just do this a little bit better change one thing. And by the way, those moments existed in the first half. I was watching the game with my best friend and co worker at FS1, Danny Parkins over at his house. And the whole first half, even in the first quarter when they were leading, I, I was, I said to him, four minutes left in the first quarter, man, they should be up 13, they should be up 15. And this is going to end up being a situation where they're up seven and you feel sick about it. They were only actually up four at the end of that quarter. You then the second quarter, the Timberwolves go on their run. All of a sudden you're trailing at the half. Then they do have that great third quarter. And now to get back to where we were, the highest leverage possession of the season for the Lakers ends up being no real ball movement. Guys standing around, Luca dribbling the ball up. Two minute left finds LeBron. LeBron takes an exhausted three. And I understand like there is going to be carve out of folks that either why doesn't he drive there or that focus on LeBron's fourth quarter. Zero points with and the turnover, which I'll get to in a moment, which I understand, and I'm not even saying that's totally unfair. I am saying that when the last two games LeBron has played are the two greatest playoff games by a super old guy in league history, I'm gonna have a little bit of grace. But the LeBron 3 with 54 seconds left in that spot, you wonder when JJ sees that possessions going nowhere and sees how dead everybody is, is that a time to use your final timeout? Probably not. You probably don't want to use your last time out in that spot. But if you get a basket there, you win the game. Then next time Timberwolves ball the up to 40 seconds left. The Lakers understand, just can't allow a three. You don't allow a three, you're going to be in great shape. Tied with the ball with a two for one opportunity. They don't allow a three. And Austin makes his biggest mistake of the season, fouling Jaden McDaniels on a no hope to alter the shot foul. Jaden, to his credit, makes the free throw. And now all of a sudden you're trailing for the first time in basically the entirety of the second half. After the opening few minutes when you took the lead in the second half. Oh, that's not true. You were trailing a couple minutes earlier, but you're trailing with 40 seconds left. Down one with the ball, Luca gets tripped. I don't think I, I'll be honest, I disagree with jj. I don't think it was a foul. I think it was fine that they didn't call that. LeBron with the bad inbounds pass. And then this is the one I just hate. I the, the challenge, the out of bounds call that now can retroactively turn into a foul. All of a sudden, Anthony Edwards going to the line, he was a killer. He makes both free throws. And then the Lakers, I thought got lucky that the Timberwolves didn't foul Luke in the back court or foul LeBron as on the catch. Austin got a decent look, he missed it. Now you're down 3:1. And you still see moments, flashes from this team that show the highest end. And I understand some folks are going to say, listen, we knew this was a mismatched roster when you traded for a guy at mid season that you, you need an off season. I, I don't buy all that. Or maybe I should buy it, but I, I knew all that going into these playoffs. I thought they got the perfect draw. I thought the Timberwolves would be athletic and feisty, but I did not think that in close games late they would have the edge. And they have. And I looked at the Lakers path and I said, okay, you have the Timberwolves in round one with home court. You have been dominant against the Western Conference this year. You have been dominant at home this year. Then in round two you're going to have either a young Rockets team that doesn't have a go to scorer or a Warriors team where again you have home court. And the warriors will have just been coming off a seven game absolute war with Houston. It's all real path, a real path. And instead Friday night they waste a LeBron masterpiece with a where they can't finish at the end, a 13 to 1 run. Luke is sick and pretty ineffective Ant Is once again awesome. Another eight assist game for aunt Friday night. Jaden McDaniels has the game of his life, almost all targeting Luca Julius has another good playoff game. You lose that fourth quarter by 10. LeBron seems gassed the final few minutes there despite giving you 38, 10, 4, 2 and 2. And then Sunday afternoon. JJ goes for it. The smallest interval between games. They'll have all postseason from a Friday night to a Sunday afternoon. JJ understanding we have two days off before game five. Gotta win this. Goes for it. Plays Austin, Luca, LeBron, Rui and Dorian all 24 minutes of the second half and they can't hit the tape. And can they win Wednesday? Yeah, they should. And if they win Wednesday, will I be on here Thursday feeling like, well, you know, you got a shot Friday and then it's a game seven in your building? Yeah, maybe. But if the goal for this Lakers team, and this was the goal when you have LeBron James, I don't care that he's 40. He is still unequivocally, what top eight playoff guy right now, this moment. Like, I'm not. I'm not sure the. What's the full list of guys this postseason who you'd say either have been better or you'd rather have. In no particular order, just going through the series. Tatum, Giannis, Ant, Ants, earned it. Joker, Steph, who I'll get to. There's an argument for it. Fair is fair. Kawhi, maybe. Maybe Jalen Brunson. So what's that 7, 6, 7, 8 when you have. I don't even at his age, a guy who's still a top eight. Let's go. Conservatively playoff performer this moment. And Luca getting bounced in round one when you're a minus 200 favorite is a disaster. And even if somehow you are able to dig deep and overcome and come back from this deficit, what legs are you gonna have going into round two when the series basically start going every other day? I don't know that you're gonna have them. And so that's why started the pod by saying the season ended on Sunday. They needed the round one to be done in six or less and they needed to demonstrate to themselves and their team that they had at least seven guys they trusted. Even if you don't trust Austin or I'm sorry, Jackson Hayes, who I wouldn't. You got to at least trust Vanderbilt or Vincent more than you have. And they haven't. They can't steal minutes. It's why I thought Kerr as brilliant. And I'll get To Steph shortly. As brilliant as Steph was this weekend, all the games are running together. Was that Saturday? Was that Friday? I don't even remember Friday night. Saturday night. Kerr deserves massive credit himself for finding his way through without Jimmy Butler, for massaging the rotation the way he did. And the Lakers didn't think they had that luxury. They play four guys, 40 plus minutes. They play Luca coming off whatever illness he was dealing with, 46. They play LeBron in his 284th career playoff game, 46. And they don't get to the finish line. And it's just a damn shame to waste. And this is. And then I'll get to ant. We're all focus on LeBron. Every single one of these, man. Every single time we're watching, we might be watching the final great playoff game of the greatest playoff performer in NBA history's career. Like Friday night. The odds are. The odds are that's the most points LeBron will ever score in a playoff game. Again, all the. None of the records at this point are, oh, it's just. He's just passing his own oldest ever records again and again and again. But 38 last or on Friday night, that's like a minus 300 favorite to be the most points LeBron ever scores in a playoff game the rest of his career. Sunday afternoon, 2712, 8, 3 and 3. The best Laker on the defensive end and arguably the best Laker on the offensive end. And it's wasted. And listen, the LeBron missed the three. LeBron turned the ball over on the inbounds and I. LeBron, I suppose you can say fouled Anthony Edwards. I'm that. That one. I'm not going to kill him on. I thought that the. The U.S. going to the Zapruder review and the Timberwolves challenging the out of bounds, not even hoping to get the out of bounds, but hoping to then retroactively get the foul. I don't love any of that, but rules are the rules. And so now we see. And the other story here is of course, Anthony Edwards. And Anthony Edwards, who is putting a whole lot of pelts on his wall at such a young age. We have now seen Anthony Edwards, not Kevin Durant and Devin Booker out of a playoff series, Nikola Jokic out of a playoff series, then get bounced by Luca and say I was out of gas. And he now is this close to knocking LeBron James and Luka Doncic out of a playoff series in a Postseason where through four games, he's averaging 38 and six on 43% from three. 45, 43, 83 splits. Listen, he can say all he wants about not wanting to be the face of the league. And the fact of the matter is, as long as LeBron and Steph are playing, that spot is probably not really open. But his charisma, his style, his competitiveness, his athleticism, his ferocity, his fearlessness, all of that, all of that is face of the league stuff. And it certainly doesn't hurt that folks in the media seem convinced he looks like and reminds them of Michael Jordan. And so it's a huge moment for Ant and Ant. Then I just mentioned beat Durant, beat Joker, is this close to beating LeBron and Luca and then in the next round would have a chance to beat Steph. Now I still think Houston has a shot in that series but obviously Golden State's in great position is the favorite right now. He's building quite the resume at 23 years old and it's really, really impressive. And credit to Chris Finch and that ENTIRE Listen. Jaden McDaniels has been awesome. I it they have, I think Rudy, Rudy has had his moments on the offensive, I mean on the defensive end more than his moments. He's been good on the defensive end, but he has been. His total inability to take advantage of the Lakers lack of size has been a little embarrassing. And I understand he's not an offensive player, but he's not a four point a game guy in the regular season. He's a dozen points a game in this series. He's been a zero on offense. It hasn't mattered because Ant's been that good. Julius is exercising some playoff demons, Jaden's been great. And then Nas, they, they've had different role players step up and so they, they've gotten away with the fact that Mike Conley was about as unplayable as I thought he would be. That's the crazy part to me about this series. A lot of my pre series analysis of Gobert's not going to take advantage of their lack of size. Conley's not going to be playable. You can pencil Luca in for 30 a game and LeBron will be great. They've come to fruition and it hasn't mattered because the Lakers have been the fourth quarter margins in this series have been mortifying. Game one, 23 to 17, so the Timberwolves are plus six. Game two, the Lakers won it, but it was 20 to 13. So now the Timberwolves are plus seven. Game plus seven there, so plus 13 overall. Game three, 30 to 20, so now the Tim Rolls are plus 17 game four 32 to 19. So now the Tim Rolls are plus 30. You lose the fourth quarters by 30 points in an otherwise tightly contested series. You're in terrible shape. And so shout out to the Timberwolves. This was truly a wake up in the middle of the night think about it game and it is obviously a think about all off season game. If this series goes the way one thinks it's likely to go, I mean I'll look right now the series odds they've got to be like minus a thousand right? Series markets minus 500 minus thousand I guess was too strong that and then so that means the Lakers must be big favorites. Let me check with our friends at DraftKings and then I'm going to tell you about DraftKings Lakers five and a half point favorites game five. Yeah, but Lakers who went into this postseason with 17 to one to win the title now 40 to one. And honestly that feels a little strong because even if they were to execute the 3:1 comeback, what legs are they gonna have for round two, much less round three and four, which doesn't seem to be it's gonna be a problem they have to deal with. The 82 game grind is done and now the real fun begins. 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