[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, welcome everybody to the Lakers Legacy podcast where fools gold how about fouls gold because so far that's been the Thunder's biggest ace up there sleeve.
[SPEAKER_00]: outside of having the MVP, Alex Caruso, Great Depth, and TikTok Curry, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, the Lakers just got called for another foul.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host Jonathan Hernandez, and your Los Angeles Lakers are now unfortunately down 02 after losing to the Thunder 125 to 107, their second straight game losing by 18 points.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second straight game where, through three quarters, the Lakers were actually hanging in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seemed like the Lakers had really found something, and were within 2 to 5 points if not delayed, especially in last night's game.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were pushing through the BS calls and inconsistent refring, inconsistent refing, but as usual, they just hit that wall, ran out of steam, turned the ball over, and honestly never had the benefit of the whistle the whole night, and I'm sure that can get
[SPEAKER_00]: draining on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you're already down, you're best player in Luca Donchich, and you're trying to tape together a rag tag group of dudes around a 41 year old LeBron.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need every advantage you can get and the fact that the thunder are already so good in their own right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they have the benefit of the doubt of the whistle and the raps on top of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: This series was already over, but it's never been more over over after watching the first two games, at least in my opinion, unless something changes with how these games are referred.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the one word that comes to mind is just how frustrating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only has a fan, but can you imagine how the Lakers players themselves must feel?
[SPEAKER_00]: Going through this, they feel like they're getting gas lit every second down the court, because on one end they see, okay, you just call the Tiki Tech foul on Shagotus Alexander who was driving to the rim and elbowing dudes off.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was apparently a foul, but on the other end, I get hacked all the way to the basket.
[SPEAKER_00]: I lose the ball, I turn it over.
[SPEAKER_00]: no foul is called and so yeah it's it's the gaslighting Olympics here in this series against the Oklahoma City Thunder and so yeah welcome to the show Jonathan Hernandez if I could please ask you guys to like this video comment down below and most importantly please hit subscribe I would greatly appreciate it
[SPEAKER_00]: My voice is kind of, it's probably going to dissipate at some point, haven't been feeling too well, so I'm going to keep this short, and honestly, I might just keep rambling about the refs and yeah, just speak in general terms, but I also want to point out and highlight some specific players as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, please do all the things most importantly, you know, subscribe, also consider becoming a member to the Lakers legacy YouTube channel where you will get access to my members exclusive videos planning to Eventually once I get over this cold pump out some more cap sheet specific stuff including what the I know I've been teasing this for a while now, but I definitely will have a video out soon for members.
[SPEAKER_00]: detailing how the Lakers can quote unquote run it back, and still have enough cap space to do something of something worth note this summer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, consider becoming a member.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, let's talk about the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lakers lost 125-107.
[SPEAKER_00]: They lost by 18 points again, but in this game, in the third quarter, after Austin Reeves sort of found a groove for himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: The lakers are up by five points.
[SPEAKER_00]: And against this Oklahoma City Thunder team, you always have to sort of buffer that or you always have to caveat any sort of lead you have against them because one, again, they have great depth and they are very good.
[SPEAKER_00]: They punish you for your mistakes, but on top of it, again, they have the refs on their side.
[SPEAKER_00]: handicapped at being a five point deficit really with the refs the way the the refs have been refing these games and so
[SPEAKER_00]: right off the bat.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to point out that this is not about the Lakers winning last night's game or having a shot at winning last night's game.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not about the Lakers having a shot at winning the series.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is all about just principle and making sure that we can get through these games in one piece and not wanting to gouge or eyes out.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is less about the Lakers having a shot in this series winning this series.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more about how do we get through
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we get through them just how are we able to watch these games with some level of sanity?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you just want to pull your hair out, watching the inconsistency that's going on from one end to the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it's, you know, favoring the lakers as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like these, these refs are all over the place, and I understand they're human.
[SPEAKER_00]: We go through this every single year, but there's no coincidence that the OKC Thunder
[SPEAKER_00]: Time and time again are the number one culprit in all of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but you know This is our first series in a while playing against OKC Thunder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe Dallas fans will have more insight into this when Luca played them two years ago but
[SPEAKER_00]: Apparently, like, nuggets fans, wolves fans, other teams who have faced the KC Thunder in the playoffs, like have been harping on this for a long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are now just getting a first-hand look at just how
[SPEAKER_00]: Ridiculous and gaslighty and inconsistent and frustrating this whole or deal is having to go up against a team that already doesn't need the ref's help like what is going on what really is going on here, you know
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, yeah, you know, I had to use the Austin Reeves, you know, finger pointing at the ball boss baby ref last night as my, you know, poster board for today's episode because I feel like that was a great encapsulation of last night's game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just all of that frustration boiling over and Austin wasn't really even complaining about a foul call.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was just complaining that the refs are the ref during that ridiculous jump ball fiasco where everybody was moving around and.
[SPEAKER_00]: The refs were yelling at everybody and nobody knew what stands they were supposed to be in and inevitably the jump ball went, the OKC Thunder's way, case on Wallace Knox down at three, the Lakers are down by double digits.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Austin Reeves was just pissed off that the ref was yelling at him for no apparent reason and talking down to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the disrespect, not only from that, and I think Austin obviously, it wasn't just that one show of disrespect, it was probably the entire game, and the overall notion of feeling disrespected by getting hacked on your arms all over the place, and Austin almost got his arm socket ripped out by Shay Gilgis Alexander on that one play, thank God they called a flagered foul, because the OKC Thunder challenged it and were like, there's no foul there whatsoever, incidental, marginal contact, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on,
[SPEAKER_00]: You could say that for a lot of the Lakers plays at the rim last night, a lot of Jackson Hays' verticality plays.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other situations, the refs would have called that marginal contact.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you guys remember that marginal contact call against the Lakers versus the Nuggets like two years ago?
[SPEAKER_00]: Those shouldn't have been called fouls, but again, Shay Gil just Alexander.
[SPEAKER_00]: not only are those fouls, but that will give you a ten year sentence in a Guantanamo Bay apparently.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so it's just, yeah, last night's game was eye opening, the last two games have been eye opening because I feel like the Lakers.
[SPEAKER_00]: have come out with the requisite amount of energy, physicality, locked inness, at least on the defensive end of the floor, at least for three quarters last night, but it's just an uphill battle having to go up against such a better team, just flat out, but then also having to go up against the reps on top of that and then trying to wrap your head around how they are officiating this game because again, I feel like the Lakers had no sort of
[SPEAKER_00]: footing because it was inconsistent like LeBron James is getting like thrown to the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do it on the other end and you know, it's a it's a foul call for shade Gil just Alexander.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shet home grin is flopping all over the place and getting phantom punched in the jaw and like Alex Carruso is stepping into LeBron James pathway and then flopping
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's how it's Caruso, you know, like, what do you do in fam?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, it's crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's crazy to the amount of contact that is happening on the Lakers end.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when the Lakers try and punch back, the refs aren't allowing the Lakers to punch because the OKC Thunder apparently have to be protected at all costs.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just, I don't know, it's, it's unnecessary in my opinion.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I hope we have a little bit of a course correction at home in game three.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even care if it's unfair.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't care if okay C fans call foul.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can throw that LeBron meme at them where he's like, anybody else but you, you can't talk.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody else can talk but you when it comes to fouling because
[SPEAKER_00]: it's getting out of hand and I can see how for the players, how do you play through this stuff, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, yeah, frustrating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let me pull out some stats here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll get into this, maybe I'll get into the stats.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll just pull this this up so that you guys have something to look at while I continue on my monologue, but
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm actually really proud of this Lakers team for fighting the way that they have fought.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their game plan has been very sound the last two games, and that's the only reason why, through three quarters, they've either been tied, only been down by three, or actually had the lead as was the case last night.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first game, they held Shay Gilges to a season of 18 points.
[SPEAKER_00]: first time in a while that he scored below 20, season high seven turnovers for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then last night, he barely passed the 20 point mark until he came back in the fourth quarter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And their defense on Shay has been tremendous and their ability to sort of rotate and recover has been great as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you look at
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, how the Laker starters have faired against the OKC Thunder starters.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually 87-77 in favor of the Lakers.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so clearly they're doing something right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at least to the first three quarters, at least definitely through the first two quarters.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Laker is resiliency, fighting through the bad refereeing, fighting through these crazy 14 to two runs that the OKC Thunder are throwing their way and being able to punch back.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just by the end of the third quarter, fourth quarter, they just lose absolute steam, but at least for the first two and a half quarters or so, I've been really impressed by J.J. Rayx game planning.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Laker is locked in this and executing that game plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yesterday, it was more a case of we finally found our offense, especially in that second quarter, when Luke Knard was zipping all around the court, route running, opening up the floor for Austin Reaves and the Lakers to get themselves going.
[SPEAKER_00]: Luke finally hitting his 3 point shots once again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like that really opened up the game for the Lakers and greased the wheels that offensively for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what last game they only scored 90 points.
[SPEAKER_00]: This game they scored 107.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I don't know, I, I, I, I felt like the, the makers have done most of what they could can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: The makers have done what they can in the last two games, essentially, to the best of their abilities.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing that I would say that they, you know, could have done better is one, just like the turnover is it continues to sort of stop pile against them, but at the same time, some of these turnover should be called fouls, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: because they're getting called fouls on the other end, and so again it goes back to the fouling inconsistency.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the other biggest thing outside of the fouls is just the bench discrepancy and depth currently.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now if Luka was here some of that would be solved because then you'd really hutch more and down to the bench and you'd have like a
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, 10 to 15 point score on the bench helping, you know, grease the wheels in that respect.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Luke is not here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So without that, our depth has sort of bottomed out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then on top of it, you know, JJ Reddit doesn't want to play any of the young guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: He played a due last night for a couple of stance, which was encouraging.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's too few and far between with regards to, you know, expanding our roster.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it hurts even more to see a guy like Jared McCain, who was
[SPEAKER_00]: absolutely bomb it from three for the okc thunder in limited minutes and then you look at Dalton on the other end these two were neck and neck i feel like for like the first half of last season and the rookie of the year race and Dalton can't even get off the pine i mean part of that is because he can't play defense and this would probably the playoffs would probably be way too fast for him um in terms of just processing speed and whatever but
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the discrepancy in seeing Jared McCain on one end drop 18 points, and Dalton can actually be a DNP until garbage time.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's tough to swallow.
[SPEAKER_00]: And last night, the thunder actually made their biggest run with Shay on the bench in foul trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that really hurt the leakers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, so just to give you an idea of how crazy the disparity is between both benches, Tik Tok Curry, as I like to call Jared McCain, through the first two games, has scored 30 points.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lakers benched with the first two games, with regards to the rotational players, I'm not talking about Dalton Connector, whatever, Dix with Jr. has scored, the Lakers rotational bench in the last two games have only scored 31 points.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Tik Tok Curry,
[SPEAKER_00]: is almost scoring as much as the Lakers rotational bench in the last two games alone and he's only averaging 14 to 15 to 17 minutes a game.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's not even playing that much either.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just when he's coming into the game, he's bombing and he's hitting and he's hurting the late careers in such a huge way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they have no answers for Oklahoma City's bench.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because yeah, the Laker starters have outplayed the OKC starters 87 to 77 through the first two games and yet,
[SPEAKER_00]: It hasn't seemed to matter just because she's out.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got Isaiah Joe.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got case on Wallace.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got AJ Mitchell.
[SPEAKER_00]: I kept saying a guy or a Jay last couple of episodes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got AJ Mitchell.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lakers on the other end have Jake LaRavia who's still who looks like a baby trying to walk for the first time.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's playing hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's playing good defense, but it's just like the Lakers need so much more from all of their bench guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at least Luke Anard came alive a
[SPEAKER_00]: It just happened to be the case that last night DeAndre 8 and turned back into Kwamehands Brown couldn't handle the ball, kept bringing it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: That offense of interference calling him though was ridiculous.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was clearly a pass and clearly he guided the ball in another one of those frustrating plays that just sucks the momentum out of your team completely.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the lakers had anything going for them, once those refs make those calls and it's ingrained in the lakers' heads that they just can't even get over this hump, like it's hard to play through.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't blame Austin Reeves and LeBron James for just, you know, being absolutely beside themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't blame JJ Reddick for charging at the refs and just throwing his hands up in disbelief because
[SPEAKER_00]: yeah it's it's hard to overcome um okay really quickly let's take a look at the stats the link is shot 50% from the field which is which is pretty good they hit 113 is on 38% from 3 which is also very efficient unfortunately the thunder shot 55% from the field
[SPEAKER_00]: 37, wait, what is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: 39% from the three, you're knocking down 14, and then of course, free throws, they went to the line 26 times.
[SPEAKER_00]: The lake is 21, they hit 21 of 26.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like that's a lot closer than how it felt just because some of these calls were so egregiously bad on the lake
[SPEAKER_00]: Asciss, the Lakers ball movement last night was actually pretty encouraging, especially in the second quarter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Asciss, the Lakers had 24, the thunder had 26.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, the thing that really killed the Lakers was the turnovers.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had 21 turnovers.
[SPEAKER_00]: way too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did turn the thunder over 14, but still 21 to 14.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's your difference right there outside of like the bench discrepancy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the point soft turnovers.
[SPEAKER_00]: The thunder had 26 points off of the lakeers turnovers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's...
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just way too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fast break points, the Lakers only had four to the Thunder's 14, and for a team that already struggles to score, the Lakers need more than just four points in transition.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if anything, that should be flipped if the Lakers want to have a chance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second chance points, Thunder's 17 to six.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's nasty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well clearly you can see why the Lakers lost a part from the refs but again the refs They're not helping the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not helping give the Lakers any sort of baseline to work with on how physical they should continue to be how aggressive they should be it's it's honestly the wild wild west out there when it comes to these games
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, before I talk about some of the specific Lakers players that I want to highlight and move forward, let's first talk about today's sponsor, Underdog Fantasy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This week on Underdog, I'm looking at the Lakers vs. Thunder Game 3 on Saturday, and I'm looking at LeBron higher than 21.5 points, and AR higher than 21.5 points.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because these dudes are pissed, they will force the issue, be aggressive, and force the reps to call these fouls by hook or by crook, especially at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: so expect LeBron AR to make up half their points from the line alone and if they don't then let's just pack it up, let's not even play game four, let's protest against Adam Silver.
[SPEAKER_00]: We won't even bother, you know, but I expect things to turn around for them and I expect the refereeing to be a little bit more favorable in game three because it's just...
[SPEAKER_00]: the noise has gotten too loud.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyways, so yeah, LeBron higher than 21.5 points, AR higher than 21.5 points for tomorrow's game.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, let's pitch it to a couple more sponsors, and when we get back, I want to highlight a couple of
[SPEAKER_00]: Austin Reeves.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know Austin has been getting a lot of flack the last couple of games and since he would turn from his hamstring entry, which makes sense, you know, and given his playoff performance last year.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do want to give Austin his flowers and his props for last night's game.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh, he really pushed through and found a way to be effective for the Lakers, especially because I felt like he started off pretty rough again, turning the ball over.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had that one play where he was just like driving into oblivion and turning the ball over.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there was some,
[SPEAKER_00]: Play is where he was getting hacked, but the obviously the refs weren't calling it for him But anyways, he did not have a great start to last night's game as well, but he put his head down Push through that brick wall and end it up with a career playoff high 31 points Also had six assists was efficient from the field 10 of 16 knocked down his three-point shots as well Especially in the third quarter got to the stripe eight of ten from the line
[SPEAKER_00]: And so yeah, I felt like it was a very gritty, resilient performance from Austin Reeves last night, especially given how much How loud the fans had gotten on him, you know, not deserving His max contract, which I also don't think he deserved as well But I think people were starting to talk crazy People were talking crazy when Austin wasn't here, you know, and Luke Kanard had his little Luke sanity run of like two and a half games of
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, pretty brilliant offensive play and people are like, oh, we don't need Austin because we've got Luke and Art.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's give Luke and Art $15 million.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought that was always insane.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I don't think Austin necessarily deserves 38 to 42 million.
[SPEAKER_00]: His first year would be his like.
[SPEAKER_00]: max for his first year in his next contract.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could we, I think Austin is deserving of 30 million.
[SPEAKER_00]: 30 to 32 million, and it still makes me a little bit queasy, but honestly, Austin's a gamer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he's being sped up in this series.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he does not do well with physicality, but
[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually he'll figure things out.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will struggle.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will have periods where he really struggles, but so far in his Lakers career, he's always found a way to improve and progress.
[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of how long it may take, whether it's like one season to the next, but even from Game 1 to Game 2, we've seen Austin sort of
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a this is a banged up Austin too who's only what operating at 70% and I know people don't want to hear that but honestly it's still very impressive that he was able to you know take all the criticism understand that he just had like the lowest fuel go percentage and lakers franchise history in the last 30 years or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know he digested all that came back even stronger like with withstood his own like sloppy first quarter last night and came back swinging you know second quarter was great for him He found a rhythm with loop canard helping him space the floor third quarter was even better.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was getting into the lane.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was hitting his scoop to do lay ups.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was hitting his three point shots The three point shot for us and will be the biggest thing for him if he can sort of
[SPEAKER_00]: Keep Oklahoma City's defense honest, but yeah, I just want to give Austin his flowers because Yeah, the Lakers fans were kind of hammering him pretty relentlessly and Austin came up big if he had done what he did
[SPEAKER_00]: Last night in game one, the Lakers probably would have won, but obviously we don't play that game.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't play that jigsaw game.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, it's nice to know that Austin can have these sorts of games against Oklahoma City Thunder.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just requires a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Want it requires some benefit of the doubt from the refs, because Austin's not doing anything different than what Shay Gail just is doing on the other end.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, for the first time, it feels like Austin is like having to put on these Herkulean efforts just to get a basket or to get a foul call, you know, from Austin's and everything Austin is doing is regarded as a flop in the ref size.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the other end, all of the flopping that Shay Gyojus is doing, that's clearly a foul.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the most frustrating part about the game last night was it almost felt like
[SPEAKER_00]: At one point, it seemed like the refs were blowing the whistle before the foul happened, at least in my eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: In my head, I was like, wait, am I crazy?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or did the whistle sound before the actual contact happen?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was almost like preemptive fouls being called by the refs.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: when that's happening, you know you're already toast.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a true DOA series, a true DOA series, dead on arrival, and I think that's why Austin was so frustrated the entire night, not only the inconsistency of calls, but also the fact that he's getting hacked, he's not doing anything different than Shay Gilgers is doing, and then for the refs to have that crazy like
[SPEAKER_00]: you know show of disrespect towards him treating him like he's a kid and yelling at him and I don't know I don't even know what the rap was saying but you know Austin was very very
[SPEAKER_00]: fired up at the end there saying I was I've been respectful to you guys all game I've been taking the punches but for you to talk to me like that and Austin had his finger pointed in that dude's face uh that's BS like I'm proud of Austin honestly for sticking up for himself sticking up for his teammates and I felt like I mean you saw that it's become a meme now LeBron James just nodding his head in the background to Austin Reeves spitting some bars but
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I felt like Austin spoke for the entire Lakers team.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, he was just in a vacuum speaking about that jump ball where he felt disrespected.
[SPEAKER_00]: But clearly, there was more to it than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he almost kind of put the team on his shoulders in that final, you know, after the buzzer confrontation with the refs and was just saying, like, dude, just treat us like men here.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're going to call those things fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: just call it consistently on the other end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like don't give us this BS and own up to your own mistakes, take accountability for your shit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so yeah, I think I was even more sort of endeared to Austin after that play and just
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Austin's a dog, you know, he's, he's not the, the most athletic player.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not the most physical player.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's very sloppy at times, and he can get sped up against these types of physical teams.
[SPEAKER_00]: But one thing that I will never discount Austin for is,
[SPEAKER_00]: working hard, trying, and sticking up for his teammates.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, um, yeah, proud of Austin for bouncing back in like a tangible way, but also intangibly for, you know, he's, I feel like he's really grown into a leader as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: would I pay him $42 million?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, but he probably deserves, you know, 28 to 32.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk more about what Austin deserves and the coming weeks after we get outstead by the stupid Oklahoma City Thunder and Refts team.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so that's Austin Reeves.
[SPEAKER_00]: AR great bounce back game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please carry it through to Game 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to need you to do this exact thing, but get to the stripe even more.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's really force the issue, Austin Reeves, 13 of 16 from the stripe game three, calling it right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, let's move on from Austin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rui Hatchimura.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Rui outside of Lebron has been like the steadiest Lakers playoff player and who could have thought that we'd be saying that about Rui.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been so reliable, so consistent and another 16 points felt like you should have taken more shots.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was only 6 of 10 from the field, 4 of 7 from 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: What Ruby is doing from three point land in the playoffs in the highest of stages has been incredible in his playoff career.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ruby Hatchimura is shooting 51.1% from three, knocking down 1.83s a game, nearly 2.3s a game.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in this season through
[SPEAKER_00]: Eight games really shooting 57.1% from three knocking down three threes a game last season in those five games versus Minnesota 48.4% from three knocking down three threes a game.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now we can't even knock really for being a low volume sniper.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got the volume folks three threes made per game at 57% is ridiculous and at this point
[SPEAKER_00]: you just have to give him his props without any of the caveats, without any of the butts that then proceeds into talking about everything he can't do, that he still didn't rebound well enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: His defense still sucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're still saying that really sucks on defense, then you clearly have it been watching this play-offs, because yes, on an island, maybe against like the Denver Nuggets, there will be times where really space is out.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in the scheme that the Lakers have set up, Rui has done his freaking job, and at times he has held up and stood up against a lot of these bigger full-rits and really walled them off.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't know if you saw that play.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Chet Home Grant is a stick, so maybe this is in a great example, but there was this one play in the triple threat position in the post where Chet was trying to gain an advantage on Rui, and Rui just bumped him back, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Chet had the settle for like a bad turnaround fade away jump shot and missed.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to understand why, Rui is a playoff riser and why he's not just a spacer or a shooter and why he's more valuable than just that, why he's more valuable than the NBA's highest 3.fuel group percentage leader of all time, it's because he's also 68 and he's built like a slab of rock and even though he's not the best defender out there who not the most intuitive defender with the best feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he's that size, you can position him in the right places and he's mobile enough, he's competent enough, he's strong enough to do an adequate job, adequate to good job, and in some cases be really good for you if you have the right guys flanked around him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we've been seeing from Rui.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why he holds up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I don't know what's going to happen this summer, but all of a sudden Rui may actually have more of a market than we thought, because he could help out a lot of teams, and he could specifically help out a team like the Detroit Pistons, who they have to decide on Tobias Harris's next contract, who, by the way, Tobias Harris is also killing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: averaging nearly 20 points of game this playoffs, but he is also going to be 35 years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, if you're the Detroit Pistons in your wing, who do I pay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do I pay the younger Ruihatch Mora who's still only 27, 28, or do I commit to Tobias Harris at 35?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, Rui Hachi, more could continue to rise and progress and become like a better version of Tobias Harris.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we're talking about a player who's like six to seven years younger, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I don't know, Rui has just been very impressive and I will continue to, you know, praise him and just continue to shine the light on this dude because
[SPEAKER_00]: 4 months ago, this season alone, Lakers fans were absolutely continually on this dude, scapegoating the dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were fans at the trade deadline, who are pissed off that the Lakers did not trade really much more and get something for him because he's an expiring contract.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was bad asset management.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not bad asset management if the dude is the...
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one three point shooter and be history and he's doing that for your team like what are you guys talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not bad asset management if we actually have the inside track to re-sign this guy and at this point We should heavily consider re-signing Ruby because it seems like out of any of the Lakers players even Austin Reeves He's been the most playoff consistent and most playoff ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what are we doing here guys?
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope we don't have a short Memory when it comes to Ruby hatching more annexies and and he's pissing pissing us off because
[SPEAKER_00]: He is like missing his defensive assignments and not rebounding the ball on the regular season, you know It's so funny how we do this stuff with players we like or we don't like it, you know, and it's like Ruby has just been steady steady steady.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could he be better in some areas?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does he have flaws?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not an all-star
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to be appropriately slotted in that $15 to $18 million range, and he should definitely get that.
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, I also want to be surprised if a team gives him more, and then the Lakers have to decide.
[SPEAKER_00]: How much do we value Ruby?
[SPEAKER_00]: Ruby?
[SPEAKER_00]: You love Los Angeles?
[SPEAKER_00]: You love Luka, Luka loves you, show Hayo Tani is playing over there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like how about let's keep things status quo and meet each other in the middle.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope that's where things will stand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know the Guggenheim group and Mark Walter value very greatly the Japanese market.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think the Lakers will be able to come to some sort of agreement for their very versatile
[SPEAKER_00]: sniper mid-range 99-forward in really hatching more of that honestly they have helped sort of grooms since they traded for this distress asset from the Washington wizards and I've been proud of really his development and I have continued to try and trump it patience with this dude because just like Austin Reeves
[SPEAKER_00]: in much smaller segments.
[SPEAKER_00]: This dude has shown progression every single year and it's progression that I don't feel like a majority of Lakers fans have taken note of until it's just hit them smack dab in the face and it's like, hey, Ruby shooting 50% from three you bum M.F.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, anyways, I'm glad Ruby is finally paying things off and
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's a, he's a sponge, you know, he's a slow sponge, but he's a sponge he will absorb and he will do what you want him to do and he'll be humble doing it as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there is really Hachimura, another standup performance against Oklahoma City Thunder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, one of the only guys, one of the few guys outside of LeBron and smart who can sort of stand up to this team physically, but then also on the other and just absolutely
[SPEAKER_00]: space the floor for you and give you that injection of offense that your team so desperately needs like Rui has been so important.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he gets slotted down when Luca comes back and, you know, he's less effective off the bench, whatever, but like you need these types of depth pieces on your team.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oklahoma City has a ton of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rui could be that for us coming off the bench in the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Rui, I want to see on the next contending championship-lakers team because I think he has that in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyways, that's all I'll say about Ruby, let's end this show talking about Lebron James.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Lebron, I mean, Lebron has been so locked in this playoffs, another 23.6 assists, three steals.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the way that Lebron's been jumping in the passing lanes after a trap.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where the lakers have been so in sync and coordinated in these last few games, and Lebron has just been
[SPEAKER_00]: hitting that nausea button, you know, putting pedal to the metal and leaving it all out on the floor.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just so unfortunate again that Luca isn't present because this type of Lebron, this one that's locked in for the playoffs, this is not the Lebron that we saw for a majority of this season.
[SPEAKER_00]: We saw it in spritz, obviously, but you're getting a glimpse of just like how good this lakeers team can be when you get this version of Lebron.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now,
[SPEAKER_00]: The one thing that LeBron hasn't put all together is his three point shooting.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did hit that one, three, to cut the lead down.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe in the fourth.
[SPEAKER_00]: But so far, his shooting has been inconsistent, but it's understandable because he's really giving his energy and hauling ass like everywhere else, like defensively and body-ing dudes offensively trying to be aggressive and take it to the paint while not getting fouls called against him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, LeBron's like getting himself banged up to, I was worried when he got his wrist rolled on or he fell on his wrist last night.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, you know, I just want to give my flowers to LeBron again because this is a 41 year old who Honestly, should have been semi-checked out when he found out that Luka wasn't going to return managed to drag this team out of the first round and through two games honestly.
[SPEAKER_00]: If his teammates had just all come alongside him.
[SPEAKER_00]: We might have stole one of these games.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know we lost by 18 points in both games, but LeBron has been the leader in the captain of spearheading JJ Reddick's game plan and executing to perfection.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just needs a couple more guys to come alongside him to help pull this out, but these last two games, it's kind of felt like the LeBron James to JR Smith meme, where he's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: what the hell are you guys doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing everything I can here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need more people to follow me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Marcus Smart is doing it in some aspects.
[SPEAKER_00]: Austin Reeves did it in some flashes.
[SPEAKER_00]: DeAndre 8 and did it in the first quarter of game 1, but so far it hasn't all come together.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've only got in like snippets and fragmented pieces of Lakers players doing what they should do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And outside of Rui, LeBron's been the only consistent force here that's pushing this team along, and so if we could get one game where everybody's firing on all cylinders and not turning the ball over and doing what they're supposed to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can finally pay off these great LeBron James performances because I don't think he's getting the credit that he deserves that one left handed bank shot that he hit in the third quarter was insane reminded me of Kobe Bryant when Kobe Bryant decided that one stretching his career that he wanted to start shooting left handed shots and so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I continue to marvel at LeBron's sort of longevity, but also shoot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, locked in LeBron.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next year, if he comes back, can we just like, I don't know, not play him to like the last month of the season or something?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, if you can get this type of LeBron that clearly takes your team to another level.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I know that if Luke had done it, which was alongside him right now, the Lakers would, the Lakers would have stolen one game in this series.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's I think the most,
[SPEAKER_00]: sobering and unfortunate part about all of this outside of the refs being so frustrating.
[SPEAKER_00]: The most frustrating part is knowing that if Luka was here, him and Lebron would be sinking up and they would be cutting this thunder team apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: But right now it's just Lebron on his lonesome trying to use his mind to dissect this team and right now his body can only do so much and I know his body wants to do more, but
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'll just give LeBron props for, you know, doing the utmost that he can to help this team not be embarrassing on the floor in the first two games and I think that's the one thing this like the moral victory that I take away from the last two games.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though it says at the end of the day that we lost by 18 in both games, I feel like the Lakers win both of them and the Lakers like did not embarrass themselves given the context of everything and a large reason and a large part of that is because of LeBron James.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyways, that'll do it for this episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to go rest my voice and I also got to get back to my actual work work.
[SPEAKER_00]: So thank you guys for watching.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please remember to like this video, comment down below and most importantly hit subscribe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also consider becoming a member to the Lakers Legacy YouTube channel.
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been Jonathan Hernandez of the Lakers Legacy podcast and I will catch you guys next time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peace.