“The Lakers fooled us!” — Paul Pierce reacts to Timberwolves winning the series in Game 5 | SPEAK

“The Lakers fooled us!” — Paul Pierce reacts to Timberwolves winning the series in Game 5 | SPEAK

As I would like to say, we are gathered here today. The King ain’t going to rise today. Cancel your flight to Minnesota already. That was done in the third quarter. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. The Lakers looks like something they wasn’t. And I like to call them Instagram models. They wasn’t who we thought they was. They fooled us. You know what I’m saying? Welcome to Speak. I’m Joy Taylor here with Super Bowl champion and sad Lakers fan Keshan Johnson, NBA Finals MVP Paul Pierce, and Fox Sports senior NBA analyst Rick Buker. I am uh wearing black today. Morning. Black. Well, yes. Always got to stay that way. But also, it’s, you know, the end of the Lakers season, so I wanted to be respectful. How you feeling? Told y’all. I mean, shoot. I told you. I told you. Told y’all. First, first of all, so I called it first. I’m a man with many words and few words at the same time. Of course. Yeah. As I would like to say, we are gathered here today to bow and respect what just happened to my Los Angeles Lakers last night at the hands of Rudy Goar. that we had an opportunity to do some great things once we acquired Luca. But that wasn’t the case to the Minnesota Timberwolves. They said, “No, no, the king ain’t going to rise today.” So, what we will do now, what we’ll do now is lay our heads to rest. Get rid of these and get ready for next season. We’ll get rid of these as it comes up on us fast. We’ll throw these in the trash. Throw them damn things in the trash. That’s very nice words, Kan. Well, these are still going. Still going. I didn’t realize you were a a Timberwolves. Great. He is. Any dynamic. I’m just Whoever, you know, whoever beats the Lakers, I’m just helping I’m just helping out the Minnesota Pawbearers, you know. I just want to be dressed appropriately. All right, Rick. You know, we’ve got sad Lakers fan, floating Celtic great. Uh, you are a reasonable senior NBA analyst and Laker hater. Not Laker hater. And Laker hater. I got a feeling he up to something. I can feel it. What? Yeah. I got I don’t know what it is. My intuition is strong right now. What was that? Spidey sense is tingling. Spidey senses. He about to say something. I’m telling you. I’m feeling pocket. What was the biggest reason for the Lakers loss? Uh, Chris Finch. I knew he was going to do that. I knew he was going to let the Lakers off the hook for Chris Finch. Yeah, Chris Finch. Rudy go let you finish and then you wear it. You want if you want them to get credit, you wear taking the gloves off. The gloves is coming off. I can’t believe he LeBron JJ Reddit. Luca Don is off the hook. I am totally what? Like cuz because going into it took me one game. Yeah, Mizo Timberwolves were simply better top to bottom. No, they were. They were better top to bottom. Oh my gosh. It took me one game. One game convinced me of that. And I wasn’t sure. Look, going into the series, one game. I wasn’t sure going into the series only because I didn’t know if I could trust the Timberwolves. I didn’t know if I could trust the way they finished the season. I didn’t know if they were going to be different from the Timberwolves that I saw at the end of last season and the way they lost to the Dallas Mavericks and the way they played the better part of this season. That was the only reason that I wasn’t sure that I thought I could trust the Lakers a little bit more than the Timberwolves. To your point, I wasn’t sure that they were the Timberwolves were ready to take this step. Yeah, but they’ve been they’ve been moving in the right direction the last couple years. Yeah, but we’re talking about knocking off Luca Donuch and LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, a couple names. Well, that’s what it proved to be. And it took me one game to realize that. And it took the Minnesota Timberwolves one game to realize that because this really was this whole thing was decided by by the uh by the Timberwolves in terms of how they were going to play. But when you think about it, look, there was JJ Reic is no match for Chris Finch as a head coach. LeBron James and Luca Donuch proved to be no match for Aunt Edwards as a two-way star. And the Lakers bench in no way was a match for the Timberwolves bench. So that’s three primary parts of this matchup that were all in favor of the Timberwolves. In fact, when you look at it, oh my god, Paul, this is Tell me tell me what part what what did the Lakers have over the Minnesota Timberwolves? Two super duper stars. Did they were they champion stars? They play like I got two of the top 10 players in the world on my team. I don’t care who else is on the squad. Carrie, go ahead. Finish. I want to wait you to finish. Go ahead. Finish. You go. You finish. You gave me superstars. No, you ask me and I answer. So, and they didn’t play like super duper stars. So, what else did they have? What was the biggest reason that the Lakers lost? All right, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Yes. At the top, we going to JJ Reic. He failed to make the adjustments. He played his superstars guys to where they didn’t. No, listen. To JJ’s credit, he made us feel like the Lakers looks like something they wasn’t. And I like to call them Instagram models. You see him on the you look. Oh, I like like like then that first date. That first date you get you. Wait wait wait. Was that that’s not that’s you that ain’t you? I’m confused. So when we actually saw them, they wasn’t who we thought they was. Okay. And he they did a good job regular season at covering up all that, you know, putting all the glitz and glam on it, all of that. And they fooled us. They fooled us. They got everybody excited. And when it came to light, key, you know, two o’clock at two o’clock when the lights the club is closed, the lights come on. Different. It get different. The lights came on on the Lakers and everything though. But I understand JJ Reic and you know what JJ Ready, this is his first time in the playoffs. He can get a pass, but you got to take some blame, too. You know, you you got him up to the third seed. Luca all world player got his Dallas team with less talent to the finals then we got LeBron man we all know LeBron we it’s just like we can’t make these though you’re making that up I really don’t think the Dallas team is less talented better suited this team and it’s better suited for Luca that team was built for Luca this team was not built for Luca this team was built for LeBron I said more talent on this team you think so than the Dallas scene where we have Austin Reeds is better than everybody on Dallas not named Kyrie. Okay. But but Kyrie was there. No. All right. But you got LeBron, Luca. You got Luca. Luca, Luca, LeBron, Luca, Kyrie. Well, I mean, come on. So, Luca, what did Luca do? Luca, he did all he could do. I don’t expect then we hear all this stuff like he’s out of shape and Luca’s gonna be Luca. I didn’t like you got to take him for what he is. He’s not going to be in LeBron James shape. He’s not going to be in Westbrook type of shape. He’s going to be who he’s he’s going to be. Take it or if you want. He averaged 30. What else you want from him? That’s like asking Shaq, make your Shaq, we need you to make 90% from the line, bro. You have you’re not doing enough. Luca is not going to become a defender. So now you got to build around his deficiencies. I agree with that. And so it goes down the line. It’s first is JJ, then it’s on Luca, then it’s on LeBron. So you’re not crediting the Minnesota Timberwolves at all. This is all the Lakers fault. The Lakers should have won this year. There’s a a upset 3C versus 6C by by one. But in all honesty though, Paul in all honesty is we were really a fake. We were really a fake three seed. Who was the favorite? Cuz we could have been cuz we could have been in the playin. We really a fake even though it was the same. We could have been stop trying to make this smoking mirror. Stop trying to cover up. No, I ain’t covering up with this. I just I just I just realized we going to the finals. Joy. Joy. I just realized I realized what this is. This is the Boston Celtics. What are being able being able to just shame the Los Angeles Lakers? You guys in no way are like the the proud never bowing Boston Celtics. So Paul, you you feel like this was uh more of a Lakers collapse than a Minnesota? Yes. because I saw a Laker team that didn’t make the adjustments and they look like a different team from what I saw in the regular season. Regular season, they was making extra passes, moving the ball, setting screens for each other. Then they get to the playoffs and start playing one-on-one. That’s not what got them there. We know that it looked like a whole different team and JJ emphasized that coming to the season. We’re going to make the extra pass. It turned into a Dallas Luca team in the playoffs. Yeah, we we didn’t have some of that during the race. We had zero center presence. That doesn’t help. No rim protection at all. But I mean, you think about the rebounding was crazy. The fact that they shot 14% from three wide open threes. I mean, like 14% from three and still beat us. Yep. Think about it. Ant-Man was 0 for 11. How does that happen? I I I just in, you know, some of it is some of it is our stars. We got four points from our bench. I didn’t even look at the total numbers of points we got from my We or they. Well, I mean they they I’m a little bit of both right now. Call the Lakers day. Yeah. I mean, you know, you know, hey, you catch me every now and then. You know, they they But you we got four points from them last night. You know, you just start looking at what this team is in terms of roster construction. Yeah, Paul is correct. We did get fool’s gold because we thought, okay, we’re going to be all right. We straight, it’s cool. You know, everybody seemed to be for the most part healthy, you know, for the most part. And that hadn’t been the case in the past. And it didn’t look like, other than the other night, it looked like they wore down because he had them out there the whole fourth quarter with no no substitutions. Outside of that, throughout the course of the playoffs, they looked like they can run in the fourth quarter. That was the one game that looked like they were worn down in the fourth quarter. They didn’t I mean the game was just last night was just I don’t I don’t even know how to explain yesterday. Rudy Wilt Chamberlain goar it was out there looking like Robert Parish hideous game of basketball on from both teams. Agreed. Both teams that I couldn’t wait my eyes h I couldn’t wait for that game to be over. Put us out of our misery. 14.9% from three. The Timberwolves shot seven of 47. I didn’t realize they shot 47 times. And the Lakers still lost. Still lost. They shot If I told you before this game that the Timberwolves were going to shoot the worst three-point percentage in a playoff game in NBA history with a minimum of 40 attempts. They were going to shoot 15 bleeping percent from three. Hideous. We had to watch that. We had to watch every second of that last night. Awful. and that Ruie was going to give you 23, that LeBron was going to give you 22, and Luca was going to give you 28. Would you bet your mortgage that the Lakers were going to win that game? Of course you would. No, I would. I would. Of course you would. They shot Oh, that that the Lakers win. The Lakers would win that game. And they still found a way to lose it. Where are the adjustments? Okay, so you went with shooting because you have no size because Rudy is supposed to do something with Rudy. Okay, Rudy Gobar is out there looking like Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Yeah, that’s part of the problem. We have no length. Where’s Where is the stat line? Rudy had 24 rebounds. That’s That’s a career playoff high. He looked like he was playing against me. He was holding the ball like this. Trying to get rebounds. 24 rebounds. He was just going to He didn’t even have to jump. Just just bouncing it back in. He had no lymph. Everybody we were small. Okay. But so you’re going with shooting, right? Because you have you have no one to play against Rudy. You know Rudy’s on the team, right? Like you got the scouting report, so you know he’s going to be out there. former defensive player of the year. Right. Whatever you think of Rudy, he can do what he did last night to you if you don’t put any size on him, which he chose not to do. Then you’ve got Austin Reeves. At one point he’s one for one for eight. No, he was Kean one nine. One nine. Yeah, he’s went two for 10 for three. That’s the shooting. What at what point do you say this is the season’s on the line? But let’s move it around a little bit. Austin Reeves. Well, he did. He brought in Max. been playing since January and he played four minutes though. It wasn’t like he played a whole bunch but for whatever reason that was the magic. Listen, it was what are you doing? It was an absolute That was the adjustment. young kid. We were bamboozled. We were hoodwinkedked. We were led astray. When when Luca first came, I don’t think that the expectations were that this team was going to do it. They were not. Everyone was excited. No. We first when the play happens before they played admitted because everybody was saying they they it’s a duplicate of LeBron and their defense was going to suck defense. We we were like they’re going to lose AD so they have nothing for Rudy. Like they have no height, right? We’re just going to be patient. This is really a move for like next year. We tried to get but it didn’t work out. And then they started to do a little something. They did a little face tune. You know what I mean? Smooth little Photoshop. Filter filter. Filter. Got the filters going. We were like hold up now. Yep. Little sparkle. Might be working with a little something out here. Sparkle. Little sparkle. Yep. Little shading, you know, the right lighting, the right angles. Does wonders. It does. And then we all got convinced that this was a Lakers team. I mean, Lakers Celtics finals. We were talking about the thrilled. Imagine. Oh my god. Unbelievable. Sitting up here with y’all though. I can’t take this. Western Conference was wide open. You know that you were walking into this and the Western Conference was wide open. I I can’t go too hard on JJ Reic. He’s a first- time head coach and his first time in the playoffs. But this this I can’t give this game I can’t I can’t give this game to the Timberwolves. They played awful. They did. Rudy was incredible. Rudy Rudy was big dog out there. But as as badly as they played, they were still better. Yes. Yes. But I can’t give it I can’t give it to them. They shot historically bad. I don’t know if you heard me. They shot seven of 47 from three. But Rudy Goar is on their team. You do get credit. I’m saying what Rudy Goar did. You guys can you guys not you’re you’re be every time in the fourth quarter. You have nothing in the fourth quarter for anyone. No, that’s true. Your two stars have nothing in the fourth quarter of throughout the entire series. And you’re not even Put Rooney in foul trouble. Go at him. At least try to get to the basket and get him out of there. You’re just settling for these the these backup threes. You’re just throwing it. If Listen, I never say things like this. I never say things like this. But you also believe I never say things like this. Okay, hold on. I gotta hear this because she never says things like this. I got to hear what she’s got to say. I because I don’t I just don’t believe in doing this. Paul does this a lot, but I don’t do this. Paul does it a lot. If you gave me 47 chances, Oh god. to make seven threes from an NBA three. I I think I could do it. Like I think I could just like use all my might and manage to make seven. I think I can make seven. Okay. I think I can make seven. A golfer can make sevens. They still won the game. Yeah. We don’t have the size. Julius Randle did his too. Coach, you didn’t have the size. You didn’t have coaching. You didn’t have the bench. Coaching is is And you didn’t have the two-way players. Coaching is young. And what you got to realize when you say all we doing is backing up and shooting threes. Well, you got to also realize the coach’s philosophy and who the coach is. That’s what the coach does. It’s like football. When you have an offensive coordinator that was a quarterback, all he wants to do is throw the football. This is the same thing with JJ Reic. He wants threes. He wants to rain threes. That’s I I understand that that was the game plan going in. But that’s what adjustments are. Like when you’re you’re watching that game last night, Paul, and they’re they’re chucking these threes up. Everyone’s just throwing the ball in the air everywhere, both sides, and Rudy is eating everyone’s lunch. Do you not try and penetrate and get in the paint and get him in foul trouble? Like, do you not try to do you not try to mix it up? You just continue this all the way through the fourth quarter until your season’s over. Well, the the ma mistake the Lakers did, they went small, but they didn’t play fast. That’s how you negate Rudy because he was he’s only good in the half court. How you how you going to play fast, but they didn’t rebound. But how you going to play fast when Luca bringing the ball at the court like a old Mark Jackson back he he dribbling with his with his back to the to the rim. This was you know what I said this before the playoffs because everybody was so close. You know, like you said, the Lakers was one game from three to six and all of that. This was about matchups. This was the worst possible matchup for the Lakers because I do believe if they had have caught another team at at the six spot, I think the Lakers would be rolling. But this was a bad matchup for the simple fact they’re young, they fast, they can shoot, and they finally got healthy at the end of the year because we didn’t know what Minnesota was after the trade. We thought New York Knicks won the trade with getting, you know, cat out of there. And then now we got Deenzo. Now you got Deenzo. Your bench got moististered up your bench. Mhm. You got Randall gave you some toughness. Randall was out there looking like a young Zack Randolph. He led them to that win. If anybody played well, it was Julius Randle. Aside from Rudy Rudy. Yeah, man. It was it was a joy to watch. But Antman didn’t need to play well. He just was out there with the the the inspiration and the hype. Antman was just out there just inspiring them. I guess. Yeah, the Lakers show no toughness though because I look I’m like I just had I turned the volume down and I was like, “All right, I’m not going to listen to the announcers or whatever.” It just looked like the Lakers was getting beat up from the beginning. Like it just looked like they somebody just kept going to the ground, foul, elbow to the face, hard screen, Luca got tackled. It was just like the Lakers kept going to the ground and just looking at I was like they getting beat up out here and they didn’t show any physicality. So that’s something they gonna have to dress. But Paul, I would say from the beginning, uh, Joy, that they didn’t show that and that I listening to their pregame comments and the tone of voice and the lack of emotion or drive, I feel like this game was lost in game four when they when when JJ did what he did. Yeah. And played those guys the entire second half and it didn’t work. They all came into this game like you know what like we don’t know what that was. That was the concession. I just made me think this game was lost in the summer. And I’m going to tell you why. Ant-Man went to to the uh to the Olympics. You know what he did? He got up under AD. He got up under LeBron. He studied them. He not only studied their work habits, he studied their personality. You know what I’m saying? This game was lost. So now if I got to see y’all, I I I know how I can attack you. Now I I I see the mental aspect of the game. I see how LeBron work. I admire that. I see how KD work. I see how Steph work. It’s going to Okay. Why you think he was comfortable enough to get in the game and just shove LeBron like that? I got comfortable with him. This game was won in the summertime, learning the tendencies, learning their personalities. This game cuz if he didn’t know Brown from nothing, he wouldn’t have did that, I don’t think. And since he had a chance to know him in the summer, get under him and Oh, like Yeah, Brown. Yeah. Yeah, that’s how you do it. Okay. Oh, okay. Okay, cool. Playoffs come, I know. I know what I need to do. Where do the Lakers go from here, Keith? Other than vacation. Well, first of all, I think we got to figure out how to get a big that makes sense for us. We needed some sort of rim protector. Jackson Hayes, cool kid. I appreciate his efforts and everything. But it’s been nice knowing you. Yeah, but I’m just glad to hear you back to we. I’m glad to hear the Wii again. But we do have to get a big man. And then don’t be afraid to shop somebody. Don’t be afraid to package who you can package Austin Reeves up. Austin Reeves gave me nothing these playoffs. Well, him and connect. You can package. Yeah, you can package maybe connect. You But but I don’t I don’t know enough about Dalton to really say that he should be on the move as a young dude. Maybe somebody else contract. Yeah, you put a big contract. Yeah, with a rookie contract to figure it out. Um, but Austin Reeves, one thing that Paul beat me across the head uh multiple times as I tried to sell Austin Reeves to me myself, he kept telling me, “Nah, that’s that that’s cool and cute, you know, but he really a 78 guy. He not a three, which means that he’s our top three when he’s really supposed to be somebody’s seven and eight on a real team.” Mhm. And so we got to just figure out how to find a real superstar, so to speak. If LeBron James stays or not, I don’t know what LBJ is going to do. We don’t know. He’s going to talk to his family and sit down and they’re going to discuss it over Taco Tuesday, I’m sure. Um, but you know, or even think about him. Maybe it’s time for him to say, you know what, I played enough. I’m out of here. And give us some salary cap relief and give us some of that money. I mean, maybe that’s something that, you know, the conversation might have to have. It’s tough conversation because it’s one of the best to ever do it, but you may have to have that conversation if you want to get back to something because if you don’t get a third real superstar to come in, which would be a second superstar, cuz now LeBron will move to the third spot opposed to the two spot. We’ll be back in the same position again, having dudes like Paul poke fun at us and Rick poking fun at us down the stretch about, “Oh, y’all gonna be the tent seed if y’all get fun or just kind of telling the truth?” Telling the truth, huh? Well, I mean, you can call it what you want to call it. I’ll call it poking fun. Okay. Cuz you he’s up right now. So, he feels good. He’s going to the second round. He feel good. The Cavs, but that’s a whole another kind. Go on. I don’t even want Where do the Lakers go from here, Rick? Uh, they rebuild around Luca and no one is untouchable. I mean, no one is untouchable. See, you said it cleaner than me. I tried to be nice. Huh? Say it. I said it, but he said it different. Say what? Say it. Really? Who s? Say it. Trade who? Where do the Lakers go from here? Everyone and anyone. You can’t trade LeBron. You cannot. You’re not going to get LeBron. LeBron has an option for a $52 million contract this year. I think it’s 52, but this is what needs to happen. Any case, it’s 52. Lakers want to get back in championship contender moving forward. You have to get out of the constraints of the LeBron era. You have to let they have to find a way to just like, all right, he’s had a grasp of this Laker. He just had a grasp of the whole organization bear hugging him for so long now. He’s done some wonderful things for the Lakers organization. No, no question. We would have 100%. They’re probably gonna build a statue of LeBron in front of this the crypto or the staples, whatever y’all call it, the forum. You know, Jo ain’t gonna look at me. But I’m just saying they have to say, “Von, we appreciate your services. I think we should move on.” Tough conversation. Tough conversation. It’s time for the Luca era now because I don’t know if you can play them together moving forward because you have to have a certain type of team around Luca to win and him with LeBron you won’t be able to create that because there’s still going to kind of be like a just so LeBron retires. I don’t know if it’s retire but Rick, you don’t think we can move it? You can’t. No, I First of all, I don’t think he wants to go play someplace else. I don’t think he wants to move. Okay. and for $52 million like making look here’s the reality and this is to to Paul’s point he’s not a $52 million player anymore maybe from a box office standpoint but not as far as on the floor and you’ve got like Luca Ruie Dorian Finny Smith Austin Reeves Gabe Vincent they’re all extension eligible like you have a ton of guys on this team Jackson Hayes Alex Len you’re out the door right you’ve got to find your Daniel Gaffford and your Derek Lively for for Luca, right? You’ve got to find your PJ Washington, which may be Ruie Hachamura is a is a close uh comparison. You need to find your Kyrie Irving. You need to find your second scorer. And the problem is, and this is why, you know, Paul is saying you you got to move on from LeBron is essentially it’s it’s not faulting LeBron for where they are. No, it’s that his shadow is so big organization that there’s no way that you can still have him there and think that he’s going to play like a role or you can move him to the side. He just takes up all the oxygen. Even if we even if we found that second guy, he couldn’t be pushed down to the third. So, he’s just a progress stopper at this point. His presence has been so large for so long. I understand. I I just I think it’s a challenge to turn this over and say and and here’s the thing. By moving LeBron, you now put the pressure on Luca to be everything that you need him to be. He’s now Look, Luca, you’re the guy now, which means we need you to be in shape. We need you to be a two-way player. We need you to This is We’re making you as far as the two-way thing go. This is the ideal scenario. I don’t give up on anybody. Find a way for LeBron to opt out. Wherever Braun go, you got to take Braun. They find a way to get to Cleveland for his farewell tour in Cleveland. I think that’ll be a story book right there. He’s going to have to opt out of his contract. Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. Opt out. Cleveland can sign him this off summer. Bring in Bronny with him and he announced this is my last year. Cleveland’s going to be really good still next year. Yeah, but he don’t want to blaze his own trail. He don’t need to be running around with his daddy. He trying to get his own way more years. Bonnie’s not blazing his own trail. He’s trying to as I’m saying not blazing. I’m just saying he want to do his own thing. He don’t want to keep bouncing around with his father. It’s going to get really interesting though cuz they they have to build a Luca team. Subscribe here to get the latest from Speak and go watch a few segments from our other shows on FS1.

Joy Taylor, Keyshawn Johnson, Paul Pierce, and Ric Bucher react to the Los Angeles Lakers being eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5. Paul says “The Lakers fooled us!” as the crew breaks down the biggest reason for the loss, LeBron James’ postgame comments, and what’s next for L.A.

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“The Lakers fooled us!” — Paul Pierce reacts to Timberwolves winning the series in Game 5 | SPEAK

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