Rafael Barlowe from NBA Draft Junkies, and Sean Grice and LakerTom from lakerholics.com stop by to talk about the Lakers 110-100 victory over the Houston Rockets, plus previews of BOS-TOR game 7, and game 5 of DEN-LAC.
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Presented by our friends at NBA Draft Junkies, lakerholics.com, Pop Culture Cosmos, Zero Cool Films, the novel Congratulations, You Suck (available for purchase HERE), and Retro City Games!
Great podcast dudes, was hoping to be able to hop on but the early start time + 2-and-a-half year old made it difficult.
Spot on in regards to the Lakers defense being the star tonight. They showed up big.
I think the way they’re minimizing James Harden is threefold: taking away his step-back, forcing him to play a lot of defense resulting in wearing him down and giving Russell Westbrook license to shoot. Even if he plays as well as he did tonight Russell can’t kill you like James can.
I think the Rondo doubters can be forgiven for a few things: to measure a player solely in the playoffs or the regular season just isn’t how things are measured, it’s not really in a fan, media member or anyone’s DNA to say ‘he was crappy during the regular season but watch out now…it’s the playoffs!’ Yet there is a plethora of examples, especially in baseball, where some guys just lock in better with more on the line. I also think Rondo is, by nature, a gambler but that he plays a steadier game in the playoffs. Doesn’t try as ridiculous of passes, doesn’t jack up shots early in the clock, sticks to the defensive plan rather than just go for hero steals. All of that adds up to a less effective player in the regular season. #playoffrondoisreal #choochoo
LOL!!! The apology letter line is a classic.
If Houston can get both Russ and James to go off (efficiently), they get to the line like they did last night, a couple role gys do well, and they come out with the energy they ended with they can win games against us. But it’s hard to see all of that happening for three games in a row.
To magicman’s footnote on why it works for GS but not H-Town. The Rockets don’t have skilled size. Dray and Durant can both do it all, LT touched on that, but they also didn’t wholly move away from the low-post big man. They use a center, a true center, and they use them well. They can adapt. I think the true lesson Golden State (and Miami before that when LBJ was there) is that the ability to adapt is the key attribute to playoff success. You’re super-powerful single-use weapons is great in the regular season but you need to adapt to different looks in the playoffs. Sometimes you need range, other times you need to close for melee. Rockets have no adaptability.
Another thing to consider: the Rockets ought to come out really loose on Saturday, they could just be hitting some ridiculous shots and push it to 6. If our D is stout we’ll take it in 5. I called 6 games in both series and I couldn’t be happier to be wrong.
Playoiff Rondo always makes a Gerald Glassford and the Lakers Fast Break a fun podcast. The truth is I’ve gone up and down on Rajon during the regular season but when I took time to review his playoff stats vs. regular season, it was obvious the legent of Playoff Rondo is the real deal and he’s proving it every single game, even after not playing for six months and suffering a thumb and back injury. How crazy is that?