Lakers-Rockets Game 1 Reaction | LeBron Masterclass + Game 2 Adjustments
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#lakers #lukadoncic #ayton
Welcome to the Lakers Collective ā a weekly Los Angeles Lakers roundtable featuring NBA reporter Jovan Buha (host of Buhaās Block), Trevor Lane (host at Lakers Nation & The NBA Front Office Show), and Jason Timpf (host of Hoops Tonight at The Volume).
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41 Comments
Lerbon = goat and it ain't close
People are pissed lol
hi from Bosnia
Love the lakers collective thanks guys!
48:14
Other guy-ism
An ailment that makes some fans think the guy not playing is the answer
Chill people, those guys are buried on the bench for a reason
Well, to be fair, Rui is kind of consistent on defense
Consistently terrible
Can Jason stop "passive-aggressively" hating on LeBron? I don't care that he claims to be a LeBron fan, there are many times when he's being unfair to LeBron. This time he goes with LeBron "not being a good leader" on the team with Westbrook, so now we're going with gossip here ??? šš„±
If they attack Luke we use Luke to attack who attack him. Letās go to war
55:08
Edit- he kind of addressed that by the end
Gotta have form as well. All the reps in the world without form limits your ceiling
55:52
Jason's expression says it all. No need for me to comment on that SC
Jovan too
š
LeBron gonna take round one, with or without Luka/Reeves, or KD. We'll, possibly not if Luka comes back, and is given the green light to take all the shots and hold on to the ball the whole game. Just my dumb opinion, as I am not proficient in basketball, but just my personal "eye test", which my eyes are kinda jacked up anyways…..lol. Kennard needs to shoot more too. Jackson Hayes needs more time, and Ayton needs to get a bit tougher. I would rather them play Hayes over Ayton to be honest. He seems to give way more effort, and can catch a pass, smh. Rui is an automatic bucket. Marcus doing his thing. We got round one for sure. Now that playoff LeBron smells blood, it's gonna be tough for the Rockets to come out of this first round. LAKERS IN 5 šŖ
The Lakers play at a high clip when others get to touch the ball,especially Da Rui
AR would never sign to be traded to the Bucks. Cleveland maybe but only if LA severely lowballs him on the max and that was the only way he could get it
Austin has Mamba Mentality…and still the haters want him gone
LeBron rubbing off on Trevor, he keeps saying āthings of that natureā š
I can never understand why fans would want to part with AR?!
If AR signs his new contract at close to $40M per
then it's fair to discuss against his production and compare to other similar players.
I'm just starting this episode. But I sure as heck hope they don't duck and dodge confronting the nonsensical hype about the Rockets so-called talent gap. Jason in particular was trying to tell us Rockets got 6 out of the top 7 BEST PLAYERS IN THIS SERIES. I've disagreed the whole time. I have said it in comments and videos. Ox from Players Choice been saying it too. It is JUST Amen that you can put over the nonBron Lakers outside of KD. Sengun is up and down. Nobody else on the bloody Rockets is clearing Smart, Rui, Kennard or Ayton.
was watching Spurs vs Blazers
saw David Robinson and Tim Duncan court side with Wemby playing.
who's Lakers' last HOME GROWN (super)STAR ?
after Kobe Bryant, then who ??
Lakers have won the last three meetings with the Rockets now what happens if they win game four will it start to get in the Rockets head?
You can 100% outwork a bad diet. You just better be between the age of 14-21 š. All those kids grow up on McDonaldās.
Gianni is LA is the worst idea everā¦ can we stop this now. Thanks
Yeah no that "Austin has no elite NBA skills" SC is ridiculous. He's literally won us games by carrying us, not to mention having players with ONE elite NBA skill is what gets us shitty rosters with only one-sided players. Would much rather have players that can do a bunch of things kind of well than a player that does one thing really well, especially since we have Luka. And come on now, physical defenses give most teams/players issues. That's why they're mostly considered good defenses
Since when is ball movement a bad thing? These games show that guys can actually play and play harder when they touch the ball in the 1Q. Luka makes the Lakers easy to defend and keeps guys fresh on defense because heās chucking shots, even when they go in, itās another possession where the defense isnāt expending energy. Lakers have some talent and it took injuries to prove it
Can we talk about how lebron rarely takes 3s now? šš½ I wish a reporter would ask him why that is
55:53 Jovan trying to hold back his laugh to Jasonās reaction to that ridiculous take has me dying
1:00:12 These emotional appeals are a joke at this point Austin isn't our friend he's a pro basketball player and a second option of team with championship aspirations should be criticized. And Tyler Herro plays for a mid Heat team that has no direction. Not a Lakers team that has Luka Doncic.
No one's saying Austin isn't an all star or doesn't deserve to be paid max money. We're saying if Luka is the first option on an NBA team his second option can't be both defensively limited and athletically deficient to have the best chance to win against most teams.
Luka had to shoulder Kyrie's burden in the 2024 western conference finals and the finals when he was being shut out by athletic defenders. Doesn't make sense to have Luka fight an uphill battle in a conference that has the Shai all time defensive Thunder, the Wemby all time defender Spurs, and Jokic all time offensive Nuggets.
This is how I feel about the AR situation:
1. I do think he can make 6-7 all-stars in his career if he stays healthy and is a #2. How does that #2 role look? If he focuses more on being an on ball/off ball floor general and tighten his handle, his athletic shortcomings won't be used against him as much. I could see him in a John Stockton or Steve Nash role, where he could have the highest impact on the team using his skills and IQ, but because he'd be primarily setting up more athletically gifted and dominant scorer alongside him, he would give a bit less reason to draw the opposing team's best defender, maybe. Like I said, Steve Nash would be a great comp, because he wasn't the most athletic, but he is a bit faster than AR and had a terrific feel for running offense. Regardless, Nash won multiple MVPs. This is how I think AR reaches his absolute ceiling. I saw flashes of this earlier this year when Luka was out. So make no mistake, just because some of us are saying the Lakers are better off trading him, doesn't mean we don't think he's good. I even said at some point this year that I like how AR runs the offense better than Luka. The thing is, Luka is the far better overall talent, and with the ball more so in his hand, AR never reaches his ceiling, and with both of their overlapping weakness, and diminishing returns due to overlapping strengths, I don't ever see the two of them winning a chip together. That's not a knock on AR, that's just pattern recognition of many great star combos that came before that never panned out for those reasons. Now could AR and Luka be the ones to defeat the pattern? Possibly, but not likely. This leads to my next point
2. To build a team that could give AR and Luka the best chance to compete for a title would likely mean giving LBJ the boot, and you'd be losing a superstar without getting anything back for him, making it even more difficult to replace him with a star or 2-way front court beast in the front court that better fits beside Luka and AR. Even with the 3 of them as it is now, LBJ took a back seat to let AR handle the ball more and be his best self, but everyone can see that with LBJ taking a back seat, he's still better than AR, so do you really want to give LBJ the boot to make an optimal team around Luke and AR, and at best have a similar ceiling, but AR can't raise a play-off ceiling more than LBJ, but LBJ's replacement in the front court boosts it up a bit, ultimately with it ending up in a lateral move? Then, do you resign LBJ and AR, but can't make any more moves to make the roster better than it was this year, because you are paying AR almost triple what he is making now? You may want LBJ to take the pay cut to make it work, but lets be real, he's probably not the one that should be asked to make that sacrifice, because he can pack up and go somewhere else, and a few teams would love to have him, and it would bite us in the butt, especially if he went to GS. AR coming back on a team friendly deal is the best way to keep AR and LBJ, with some room to retain some pieces, but even then you may lose some decent contributors from this year, and have less depth, and the same issues, with having 3 stars, 1 coasting during the regular season, and the other two having athletic limitations being exploited by high pressure defenses.
3. If AR went somewhere else, he'd definitely blow up, but what y'all have to understand is that AR will never blow up next to Luka. They literally want to do the same thing on ball, and both can't play well off ball, so they can't play their best game at the same time, meaning statistically and in measure of when they can have bust impact, they have to take turns, and cannot do it at the same time. I would expect AR to blow up wherever he went, just as Julius Randle and Brandon Ingram blew up when they were out from LBJ's shadow. Its just the law of nature. Beneath a great tree lay tons of dead baby trees, and when a baby tree is strong enough to grow in the shade of the bigger tree, eventually it competes, and both stunt each other. So here are the 3 flavors of cake, and you can't have cake and eat it too, which never makes sense, but if you can only take one cake, here are the options.
a) You pay AR what he's worth, and keep him, and you stunt your ability to fix the roster issues you currently have, unless you kick LBJ out, which is at best a lateral move, granted you can find a player near as good, while also taking less money, and being younger, which would want money, unless the bright lights of LA are motivation enough. AR gets his value in this scenario, but he likely never wins a chip nor reaches hi full potential next to Luka.
b) You sign and trade AR, giving him his worth, but send him to another team for a star level player in return, say for example a Kyrie. You have a much better back court fit with Luka, as Kyrie can handle playoff ball pressure, and is a good 3 point shooter to play off of Luka, and has a higher defensive ceiling than AR in the playoffs, and is proven to be effective even when LBJ retires. In this scenario Lakers might win a chip without AR, but AR doesn't get to stay on the team he wants, but he turns into a borderline superstar and will make a lot more money on his next contract extension 3 years from now.
c) You sign AR to a team friendly deal, possibly have him be your long term 6th man to minimize diminishing returns between the back court pairing of him and Luka, and he can be your 3rd best player on the team, and you can make some, but not all adjustments to the team, since he is your best trade piece you aren't putting on the trade market. In this scenario, AR might win a chip with the Lakers and gets to stay on the team he wants, but he doesn't get close to what his value is really worth.
See, I know fans of AR want it all for him, and he deserves it, but that's not going to be the reality. Perhaps my predictions of all these routes are all based on false assumptions, and AR can get everything, but I doubt it. If y'all were betting men, would you put your house on it that I'm being unreasonable? Respectfully, I don't think so. Situations like this happen all the time. Good players leave teams all the time. If Lakers want to prioritize winning a chip, they are going to make hard decisions in the Summer. You could argue, "why does AR have to be the one sacrificed?" That would be a good point, because it may not just be him, it may be him and Rui, and maybe even Smart or Ayton. However, because AR has been hyped up so much, he's been made into the only real trade piece the Lakers can use to fix most of their shortcoming. So I just want y'all to know I'm not an AR hater. I watched Randle go and thrive elsewhere, and while I would have wanted for him to never leave the Lakers, I know he could never have proven the haters wrong unless he went elsewhere and spread his wings to soar, so know that I'm not hating on AR. I'm just being realistic in my eyes.
52:55 Errrā¦. We are all thinking it, but donāt want to wish a player harm.
Shootout to JJ heās been coaching his ass off all season excited to see what he cooks up for the playoffs
The Austin argument is 2 straight first-round exits, 2-12 record last 14 playoff games, 1-11 vs Top 4 teams this season, for a franchise such as the Lakers?
Trade him ASAP for his sake and the Lakers. Itās time to reconstruct this backcourt with Luka, Smart, Kennard, and another defensive guard. šÆ
AR no elite skills??? cmon guys… he is an elite playmaker and getting to the rim. If you don't see that I can't help you lol EDIT: and WHEN he takes the next step, as Jason mentioned in big games, he will be All NBA. He literally has continued to develop as an UNDRAFTED player and would have been an All Star had he been eligible.
Almost every player that Lakers let go…..wanted to stay with the Lakersš¤¦š¤·
Stop hater on the laker
You guys just have an obvious obsession with AR. Just admit it, and move on bc he can do no wrong for you guys. He's great, but not worth $35+ million so you can't build out a contender for years to come, thinking past this cap hold cop out argument
We're not confused about anything. Luka hasn't won sh!+ & won't win anything with his style of play. He's Harden on the Rockets. Kobe already told everyone, you're not winning anything with anyone who plays like that. Bron needs to run the offense & Luka needs to figure it out or take notes & learn how to move the damn ball. Dallas built around Luka & they Lost. No one will win with Luka running the offense & the rest of them team just standing around watching him take step back 3s. Then add in the other Ball Hog Austin, we're not winning anything with that duo & their lack of defense. One of them has to go.
If Rui was a consistent rebounder (6-7 rpg) & defender, along with still being an efficient 3pt shooter, heād basically be OG Anunoby
Basketball IQ is such an advantage in the playoffs. However Rockets will have a chance now to see all the things they did poorly and all the things they did well (which is a big list surprisingly) and will have a chance to make adjustments, maybe even adding KD back into the mix. It's up to the Lakers to readjust to their adjustments and a lot of this will be on individual players to recognize during the game and these kinds of adjustments favor the high IQ player over a player with raw athleticism. Without KD this Rockets team is very very young and they rely on their athleticism heavily… Ime Udoka isn't a cerebral guy either so it's just an emotional athletic team.
Average age Lakers starters (playoff games total): 31.4 years old (509 playoff games)
Average age Rockets starters no KD (playoff games total): 22.6 years old (36 total playoff games)
Adding KD would improve their average age to only 25.2. Lebron, Smart, and Ayton all individually have more playoff games than the young rockets starters do combined.
The gap is massive and no amount of old vets sitting on the bench is going to make this development happen overnight. Even with KD I don't see him being a big enough factor for enabling his teammates. I really like the Lakers in this series with or without AR, Luka, or KD.
They should sign and trade Reaves tbh I got a feeling this season was his peak and will be his highest selling point. Reaves is a great player but him and Luka will absolutely not work when it comes to winning a chip unless they get lucky when it comes to the best teams getting injured
Surprised this doesnāt get more views this the best
LeMAESTRO whenever he handles the ball there is way more ball movement and everybody eats
Im not saying the Lakers are better without Luka. Iām saying can Luka challenge himself to play off ball within this ball movement heavy system that LeBron brings for some plays during a game?
Can we add versatility to our offense and give the other guys confidence? Or should we stick to dribble dribble luka chuck shots, every now and then emergency corner 3 pass and lob pass for a dunk.
Hey haters AR gonna get 35m to 42m. Take that and some dirt in your eye.