Nick Wright reacts to LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and the Los Angeles Lakers' 113-109 overtime win over Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks for their 8th straight win. Nick discusses how the Lakers have been the best team in basketball over the last two months, and why he's all in on LA's NBA Finals chances. Later, Nick reacts Charles Barkley's recent takes on the Lakers and shares why he thinks Chuck has been unfair to LA. #Volume
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in What's Right with Nick Wright the rare emergency pod.
We might do more of these come NBA playoffs as
the home set up allows for a little more flexibility
here and Lakers one thirteen Knicks one oh nine. As
the Lakers right now flatley look like not a contender,
(00:22):
but the contender. I understand that Charles Barkley tried to
minimize and we'll get more on Chuck in a bit
of what the Lakers have done to a good two weeks.
It's getting close to a good two months. From the
midway point of January to right now March seventh, this
has been the best team in basketball, and last night's
(00:44):
game against the Knicks was not even close to their
best game during this stretch, which is what made it
so impressive set on TV yesterday that this felt like
a game that the whole world was going to be
betting the Lakers. They were oddly only three and a
half point favorites. The everyone had caught up with the
(01:05):
fact that the Knicks were zero to eight going into
this game against the top two seeds in the East
Boston Cleveland and the top two seeds in the West.
The Lakers in the thunder, and there was real questions
about whether or not the Knicks could beat good teams,
the Karl Anthony Towns coming off missing the game for
personal reasons, the Lakers flying high, getting Austin Reeves back.
(01:29):
It felt like the whole world would be betting the Lakers,
and I said, ah, feels like a game the Lakers
can lose, especially with the Boston game coming up on Saturday.
And through three quarters it looked like a game the
Lakers were going to lose. And then in the fourth quarter, yes,
the Lakers hit some shots, but they only scored twenty
(01:50):
three points. The story of the game, and Lebron said
it afterwards, was going into down thirteen late in the third,
down eight going into the fourth. The Lakers held the
Knicks to fifteen fourth quarter points and that was before
Jalen Brunson. Story on the Knick side is Jalen Brunson
(02:10):
suffered a bad ankle injury in overtime and you worry
about him for the Knicks purposes for the next few weeks.
Luckily for the Knicks, and they have a decent cushion
on Milwaukee up you know, three and a half in
the standings to where they could maybe give Jalen some
time and still hold on to that three spot. They
(02:31):
were never catching Boston as the two. They probably won't
drop to the four, so they should be able to
be cautious with Jailing as long as the injury is
not you know, a month, six weeks, something like that.
But the story for the game for the Lakers is
the defense was brilliant in the fourth quarter and they
held the Knicks to ninety nine points through regulation. They
(02:55):
then end up winning an overtime and a lot of
tentacles to this basketball game, but Luca going thirty two,
seven and twelve and Lebron going thirty one twelve to eight,
where they have almost identical points thirty one to thirty two.
(03:15):
Lebron twelve rebounds, Luca twelve assists, Luca seven rebounds, Lebron
eight assists, the both taking twenty three shots, both hitting
their free throws, both struggling a bit from three. Somewhat
mirror image games, except Luca's got the ball in his
hands more so he's gonna be doing more distributing. Lebron
(03:38):
guarding carl at than he towns. More on that in
a second, and getting clutch rebounds late hitting his free
throws again, the Lebron free throws are a thing. They're
like a leap year. Once every three or four years,
when he misses a big one, we talk about him
the whole rest of the time. It's not a concern
(04:00):
for anybody made all four down the stretched dice the game,
and this Austin Reeves was shaky. He was russ. He
was two of thirteen worse than shakey Dalton connect was
the only Laker other than Lebron and Luca in double figures.
You Jackson Hayes came back down to earth after his
(04:20):
really good stretch, gave Vincent eleven minutes, zero points, zero's
across the stat board except for one rebound and one foul.
Jared Vanderbilt didn't do much for you. He played some
really good defense to his credit, but I'm talking offensively.
None of it mattered because Lebron and Luca were that
good on offense and defensively. The Lakers once again were great.
(04:46):
And before the game, if you were watching inside the NBA,
and like I said, we'll get to the Chuck piece
of it in a bit. But Kenny Smith smart said
what he was most interested in was when the Knicks
played a center and Lebron was matched up on Carl
(05:10):
Anthony Towns. Would the Knicks be able to take advantage
of Karl Anthony Towns having a size advantage being guarded
by a forty year old And the answer to that
question was no. Carl Anthony Towns finishes the game three
of thirteen from the field two of eleven. I believe
(05:32):
on possessions where Lebron James was the primary defender and
Lebron as he has his entire career from year two
to year twenty two, what do you need from me tonight?
I got you? And this all of this stuff I've
(05:53):
heard for years about the questions about, well, when you're
talking about the greatest players ever, what about the defensive
gap between Lebron and It is a defensive gap between
Lebron and Michael. It's a significant one in Lebron's edge
because he is and continues to be truly the only
(06:16):
superstar in league history who can credibly guard all five positions.
Whether it was the Eastern Conference Finals a deck more
than a decade ago guarding League MVP point guard d Rose,
or whether it was the first round of the playoffs
(06:40):
last year guarding Nikola Jokic at times when no other
Laker could deal with him. Now, obviously Lebron struggled with
Jokic as well, but Nikola Jokic, you know the peak
of his powers. The Lakers game plan yesterday was have
the forty year old at seventy thousand minutes guard Karl
(07:01):
Anthony Towns, and it worked. And I the JJ Reddick.
I continue to be wildly impressed by every time we
hear Reddick, even in those cliche in the huddle moments
when he's just telling the guys essentially what you want
(07:22):
to hear. Candae Parker said on the broadcast to what
you want to hear from the coach not getting spooked
by missshots instead saying they're good looks, We're gonna make
the shots. We gotta get the stops, and they got
the stops. They got the stops down the stretch. That
there was a play that would have thought that would
(07:42):
have been incomprehensible for any time really in Lebron's career
since Kyrie left the Calves, so since twenty seven team
where a critical possession down the stretch, Lebron is standing
(08:06):
as a floor spacer in the corner and Luca is
out there cooking, draws a double, makes the pass. Then
I forget we passed, or I think was Austin, It
might have been Gabe. Vincent finds Lebron alone in the corner,
and all of a sudden, Lebron James down for critical situation,
(08:29):
has an open corner three, the best shot in basketball,
the type of shot he truly has not gotten throughout
most of his career, but certainly at almost any time
in the last decade, because he's been the guy drawing
the double team, he's been the guy creating the offense
that leads to someone else's open corner three, gets it,
(08:52):
nails it, Lakers go on to win. Jalen gets hurt
in overtime, which is a huge bummer, but healthier. No,
the knick side of this is very simple. Despite trading
for McHale Bridges and despite trading for Karl Anthony Towns,
this team is not a real contender. This team does
(09:14):
not live with the big boys of the rest of
the league. Right now, I would put the contenders into
three buckets. Oh my god, are the really this good?
Is okac in Cleveland? The record says they are the
(09:35):
advanced metrics say they are, you still feel like you
need to see either of those teams as currently put
together go on a real run in the postseason. And
that might not be fair, but in the NBA in particular,
it's just really hard to believe a team is gonna
(09:56):
win four rounds before you've even seen them in three
rounds or in Cleveland, Oklahoma City's case, even seeing them
win two rounds. So that's bucket one, are they really
this good? Bucket two is nobody wants to play them?
Probably the two best teams Boston and the Lakers. The
(10:20):
Lakers right now have the two smartest offensive players in
the league, two of the three. I gotta include Jokichen
that the right now in my opinion. Yeah, with respect
to Tatum, the two best wings in the league. I
(10:42):
don't consider Shave, you consider Shay a wing or more
of a guard. I in Luke and Lebron and a
great coach. And the rest of the lineup is busting
their ass on defense and hitting threes. And then there's
one more bucket to contenders, and that is can this ow?
(11:07):
This is not a really catchy title, but the argument
for these two teams, the Bucks and the Nuggets are
we have a top twenty all time player. Can he
go on a run that puts himself closer to ten
than to twenty all time, meaning Yannis and Jokic and
Yiannis has kind of been the forgotten guy having an
(11:28):
unbelievable season and having the Bucks right there. Can one
of those, either of those guys go on an all
time six week run like we saw them each go
on in twenty three and in twenty one, where they
(11:50):
were just for the better part of a couple months
thermonuclear weapons en route to a championship. No one else
is a can The Warriors, God loves Steph and he
is playing out of his mind and continued it last night,
are not contenders. The Knicks obviously are not contenders. And
(12:11):
I don't think there's anybody would even argue for Memphis
or Houston or Minnesota, which has taken a huge step
back this year, for anybody else. So that's Lakers Knicks
the basketball game. We'll get to Lakers Nicks the event
(12:32):
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(13:17):
over hit by fourteen and a half. I also gave
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have hit. He finished with eight. So gave you two
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(13:39):
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For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dking dot
co slash b ball. All right, so I sent out
some tweets yesterday about Barkley. So Barkley went after Kendrick
(15:30):
Perkins bad in the pregame show, and you know that's
Perkins fight to make, you know, to have that's not
so much my business, and I, you know, Perkins then
basically was like, I'm easy to find. I'll stay out
of that one. But what I won't stay out of
(15:52):
is the hypocrisy of how some and again everyone loves Chuck.
Everyone loves Chuck hand up myself included. He is one
of the most universally beloved and hilarious, successful, awesome sportscasters
(16:19):
in history. All that is true. What's also true is he,
like a lot of others, has a real blind spot
if you want to call it that, when it comes
to lebron and in Chuck's case, more specifically, when it
comes to the Lakers. And I'm not some lifelong Laker fan.
(16:43):
People can criticize me for this, but I've always been
transparent about it. I'm the same high school class as
Lebron high school basketball team. My senior year, we would
all get together at my house and watch Saint Vincent
Saint Mary's play because we thought it was whenever they
were on ESPN. Because we thought it was so cool
that guys our age were on ESPN playing. We even
(17:06):
tried to like, like, maybe we can run some of
the plays they're running. Turns out, having you know, seventeen
year old future goat allowed them to run some offense
we couldn't run. For small, small Midwestern private school, I
went to neither here nor there. The reason I bring
that up is can'tsedon have basketball team. I actually grew
(17:27):
up as a little kid a Knicks fan because my
mom was from New York. But by the time I
was in high school, I didn't really have a team.
And I just said, at that moment, listen this guy
on Saint Vincent Saint Mary's, Lebron James. He's my favorite
player and wherever he goes is where all go. So
I have been one of those people who do I
(17:48):
root for whichever team Lebron's on, and people laugh at that, whatever,
say it's bad fandom. I don't care. I just my own.
What I owe the audience is honesty. Why did oh yes,
I was saying he had a blind spot for the Lakers.
The reason I even mentioned that is I'm not some
lifelong Laker fan, but I've been a Laker fan the
last seven years since the Bron's been there. And Chuck
(18:13):
all year long has said, basically, the Lakers are a
non story. The Lakers are you know, they are discussed
because they're the Lakers and because the media is obsessed
with Lebron and for no other reason. And listen, when
the Lakers started four and four, it's like, ah, maybe
(18:38):
he's gonna be right. And then when they were thirteen
and twelve, it's like, Okay, it's probably just a mediocre team.
And Lebron wasn't really at the first month the season
wasn't playing great. But then by before they traded for Luca.
The day they traded for Luca, they were twenty nine
(19:00):
nineteen and on a nice run. And that was with
Anthony Davis having been out some games, and the narrative
was still the Lakers are not to be taken seriously. Fine,
they weren't a championship contender before they traded for Luca,
But then after they traded for Luca, some folks, none
(19:22):
louder than Chuck doubled down on it said the MAVs
would be better this season. The Lakers should consider for
as much as Chuck killed ESPN for nothing just talking
about the Lakers day after the couple days after the
Luca trade, Lebron went on or Sorry, Chuck went on
(19:44):
ESPN and started talking about that the Lakers should trade
Lebron to Golden State or to San Antonio, just fan
fiction Laker trades, but again set that aside, doubled down
that this team still was not a real threat. And
then last night before the game, when he's ripping Perk,
(20:08):
he says, because they've had a good two weeks, we're
all falling over ourselves about the Lakers. Guys. They have been,
by a record standpoint, off, by a defense standpoint, the
best team in the league for six weeks. They went
(20:30):
from twenty two to eighteen to forty and twenty one
in that stretch, beating Boston, Golden State, the Knicks, the Clippers,
Golden State, Denver, Minnesota, the Clippers, the Clippers, the Knicks.
(20:53):
Ten teams that are definitive playoff teams. I'm not even
including Dallas in that because Dallas. I shouldn't include Dallas
in that. So ten wins, their only losses. One was
to Philly, got beat badly, and then the loss right
before the break against Utah was and in just a
(21:16):
brutal game for the Lakers where Luca really struggled and
Lebron really struggled. And then the unforgivable game right after
the break to the Hornets. But they're eighteen and three
in the last six weeks, and so before the game
it was they've had a good two weeks. At halftime
(21:38):
it was a damn party. They're gonna be crying tomorrow
about the Lakers. And then after the game looked like
someone had just repossessed his car. And Kenny is trying
to talk about how the Lakers potentially match up up
(22:00):
against the Thunder and Charles won't even let him do it.
Charle's like, well, they got to get there, and that
is true, they got to get there. But it is
pretty common practice to talk about how the one seed
and the two seed would match up in the conference finals,
(22:22):
and folks can have wanted this to not work. Folks
can have just been loud and wrong. Again, Gotta be
fair here, even though I love him, as Chuck was
the loudest and wrongest about Luke and Lebron fitting together.
(22:43):
Everyone's wrong on stuff all that. You know. I said
Jason Tatum was the fifth best player in his draft class,
like people are, and that's just one of a hundred.
But to in the face of being that wrong, to
not give an inch and to just keep moving the goalposts.
It's transparent and people do start to wonder what I
(23:10):
understood you saying. And one other thing I gotta say,
Chuck being like, we need to talk more about the
thunder and the and the Calves. I that's probably a
fair point. It's a weird messenger. When does anyone? Does
anyone really think that he's watching a ton of thunder
(23:34):
and calves? Like? Does? That? Does? Does? One of the
reasons everybody loves him is because things like who he
played for are so hilarious. Does anyone really think he's
naming more than four thunder or calves? Like it? Just
I it It feels disingenuous. And before I go, one
(23:59):
last thing. I mentioned this on Thursday's pot I'll mention
it again because the other thing Chuck did was rip
anybody who's engaging in the Lebron Jordan debate. You guys
have noticed, right, you guys have noticed how much ground
has been seated to where now people are just like,
(24:22):
I don't want to have the fight anymore. No, no, no,
let's just you know what, they're both great, not that
long ago from these same exact people. This is what
you heard Lebron versus Michael. When did Lebron pass Kobe?
A right? Five to four? You guys are putting them
(24:44):
against Michael. Whindy passed Kobe? You heard that. Then little
time passed and it became this. Listen, Now it's hating
on Lebron to call him the second greatest player ever. Yes,
we all know he's the second greatest player ever, but
(25:05):
he's no Michael Jordan. And now two different things have happened.
One is this, you know what, Let's just not have
the argument anymore. They're both great. You know, it's too
hard to parts. Let's just agree to disagree. That's happening.
(25:26):
And the other thing that started with the Steph conversation
is trying to muddy what. You know what, everybody's a goat.
STEP's a goat, Kobe's a goat, Lebron's a goat, Kareem's
a goat, Michael's a goat. They're all goats. They know
they've lost the argument, and so they're trying to say
(25:50):
now that I lost the argument. The argument's dumb, and
in fact, everybody, everybody's a winner in it. We see
what you're doing. Lakers might be the most dangerous team
in the NBA right now, and got a really tough
road trip in the next eight days at Boston, at Brooklyn,
(26:15):
at Milwaukee, at Denver, at Milwaukee at Denver as a
back to back, and at Boston it's a huge game.
It's a potential finals preview. The Lakers beat them the
last time. The Lakers coming off an overtime game, that's
gonna be a tough one. But they're in great shape
(26:39):
right now. And I'm really interested in how the Western
Conference playoff bracket's gonna shake out, because the only thing
we know is OKC is the one. I understand folks
really want the Warriors to move up to that four
(27:00):
or five line, so the Warriors don't have to deal
with Oka. See the Lakers are Denver in round one,
and we could potentially get Oka. See Lakers Denver and
Golden State is the fourteens remaining in round two. But
Golden State right now is a true three back of
the five line and only a half game up on
the seven. So Golden State's got to keep rolling and
(27:23):
hope Minnesota doesn't get hot. With that said, Golden State
is about to enter as easy as tough as the Lakers.
Next week is Golden State's next week is Detroit, who's
actually pretty good. Portland who's playing better, but they should
be able to beat Sacramento and then the Knicks and
all those games at Golden State, so they should very
(27:46):
least stay the six, which could make the two to
three between the Lakers Nuggets all the more important. Who
can hold onto that two line. But all of a sudden,
nobody wants to play that team in purpland goal, and
it is very very difficult for me to see them
(28:12):
not playing in the Western Conference finals, and in those
conference finals having the greatest playoff performer of all time
in Lebron James and one of the most prolific playoff
scorers ever in luk Adncic, playing against the youngest team
(28:37):
to ever make the conference finals in the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Tough matchup. Talk about it more, see you guys on
TV shortly What's right
Welcome in What's Right with Nick Wright the rare emergency pod.
We might do more of these come NBA playoffs as
the home set up allows for a little more flexibility
here and Lakers one thirteen Knicks one oh nine. As
the Lakers right now flatley look like not a contender,
(00:22):
but the contender. I understand that Charles Barkley tried to
minimize and we'll get more on Chuck in a bit
of what the Lakers have done to a good two weeks.
It's getting close to a good two months. From the
midway point of January to right now March seventh, this
has been the best team in basketball, and last night's
(00:44):
game against the Knicks was not even close to their
best game during this stretch, which is what made it
so impressive set on TV yesterday that this felt like
a game that the whole world was going to be
betting the Lakers. They were oddly only three and a
half point favorites. The everyone had caught up with the
(01:05):
fact that the Knicks were zero to eight going into
this game against the top two seeds in the East
Boston Cleveland and the top two seeds in the West.
The Lakers in the thunder, and there was real questions
about whether or not the Knicks could beat good teams,
the Karl Anthony Towns coming off missing the game for
personal reasons, the Lakers flying high, getting Austin Reeves back.
(01:29):
It felt like the whole world would be betting the Lakers,
and I said, ah, feels like a game the Lakers
can lose, especially with the Boston game coming up on Saturday.
And through three quarters it looked like a game the
Lakers were going to lose. And then in the fourth quarter, yes,
the Lakers hit some shots, but they only scored twenty
(01:50):
three points. The story of the game, and Lebron said
it afterwards, was going into down thirteen late in the third,
down eight going into the fourth. The Lakers held the
Knicks to fifteen fourth quarter points and that was before
Jalen Brunson. Story on the Knick side is Jalen Brunson
(02:10):
suffered a bad ankle injury in overtime and you worry
about him for the Knicks purposes for the next few weeks.
Luckily for the Knicks, and they have a decent cushion
on Milwaukee up you know, three and a half in
the standings to where they could maybe give Jalen some
time and still hold on to that three spot. They
(02:31):
were never catching Boston as the two. They probably won't
drop to the four, so they should be able to
be cautious with Jailing as long as the injury is
not you know, a month, six weeks, something like that.
But the story for the game for the Lakers is
the defense was brilliant in the fourth quarter and they
held the Knicks to ninety nine points through regulation. They
(02:55):
then end up winning an overtime and a lot of
tentacles to this basketball game, but Luca going thirty two,
seven and twelve and Lebron going thirty one twelve to eight,
where they have almost identical points thirty one to thirty two.
(03:15):
Lebron twelve rebounds, Luca twelve assists, Luca seven rebounds, Lebron
eight assists, the both taking twenty three shots, both hitting
their free throws, both struggling a bit from three. Somewhat
mirror image games, except Luca's got the ball in his
hands more so he's gonna be doing more distributing. Lebron
(03:38):
guarding carl at than he towns. More on that in
a second, and getting clutch rebounds late hitting his free
throws again, the Lebron free throws are a thing. They're
like a leap year. Once every three or four years,
when he misses a big one, we talk about him
the whole rest of the time. It's not a concern
(04:00):
for anybody made all four down the stretched dice the game,
and this Austin Reeves was shaky. He was russ. He
was two of thirteen worse than shakey Dalton connect was
the only Laker other than Lebron and Luca in double figures.
You Jackson Hayes came back down to earth after his
(04:20):
really good stretch, gave Vincent eleven minutes, zero points, zero's
across the stat board except for one rebound and one foul.
Jared Vanderbilt didn't do much for you. He played some
really good defense to his credit, but I'm talking offensively.
None of it mattered because Lebron and Luca were that
good on offense and defensively. The Lakers once again were great.
(04:46):
And before the game, if you were watching inside the NBA,
and like I said, we'll get to the Chuck piece
of it in a bit. But Kenny Smith smart said
what he was most interested in was when the Knicks
played a center and Lebron was matched up on Carl
(05:10):
Anthony Towns. Would the Knicks be able to take advantage
of Karl Anthony Towns having a size advantage being guarded
by a forty year old And the answer to that
question was no. Carl Anthony Towns finishes the game three
of thirteen from the field two of eleven. I believe
(05:32):
on possessions where Lebron James was the primary defender and
Lebron as he has his entire career from year two
to year twenty two, what do you need from me tonight?
I got you? And this all of this stuff I've
(05:53):
heard for years about the questions about, well, when you're
talking about the greatest players ever, what about the defensive
gap between Lebron and It is a defensive gap between
Lebron and Michael. It's a significant one in Lebron's edge
because he is and continues to be truly the only
(06:16):
superstar in league history who can credibly guard all five positions.
Whether it was the Eastern Conference Finals a deck more
than a decade ago guarding League MVP point guard d Rose,
or whether it was the first round of the playoffs
(06:40):
last year guarding Nikola Jokic at times when no other
Laker could deal with him. Now, obviously Lebron struggled with
Jokic as well, but Nikola Jokic, you know the peak
of his powers. The Lakers game plan yesterday was have
the forty year old at seventy thousand minutes guard Karl
(07:01):
Anthony Towns, and it worked. And I the JJ Reddick.
I continue to be wildly impressed by every time we
hear Reddick, even in those cliche in the huddle moments
when he's just telling the guys essentially what you want
(07:22):
to hear. Candae Parker said on the broadcast to what
you want to hear from the coach not getting spooked
by missshots instead saying they're good looks, We're gonna make
the shots. We gotta get the stops, and they got
the stops. They got the stops down the stretch. That
there was a play that would have thought that would
(07:42):
have been incomprehensible for any time really in Lebron's career
since Kyrie left the Calves, so since twenty seven team
where a critical possession down the stretch, Lebron is standing
(08:06):
as a floor spacer in the corner and Luca is
out there cooking, draws a double, makes the pass. Then
I forget we passed, or I think was Austin, It
might have been Gabe. Vincent finds Lebron alone in the corner,
and all of a sudden, Lebron James down for critical situation,
(08:29):
has an open corner three, the best shot in basketball,
the type of shot he truly has not gotten throughout
most of his career, but certainly at almost any time
in the last decade, because he's been the guy drawing
the double team, he's been the guy creating the offense
that leads to someone else's open corner three, gets it,
(08:52):
nails it, Lakers go on to win. Jalen gets hurt
in overtime, which is a huge bummer, but healthier. No,
the knick side of this is very simple. Despite trading
for McHale Bridges and despite trading for Karl Anthony Towns,
this team is not a real contender. This team does
(09:14):
not live with the big boys of the rest of
the league. Right now, I would put the contenders into
three buckets. Oh my god, are the really this good?
Is okac in Cleveland? The record says they are the
(09:35):
advanced metrics say they are, you still feel like you
need to see either of those teams as currently put
together go on a real run in the postseason. And
that might not be fair, but in the NBA in particular,
it's just really hard to believe a team is gonna
(09:56):
win four rounds before you've even seen them in three
rounds or in Cleveland, Oklahoma City's case, even seeing them
win two rounds. So that's bucket one, are they really
this good? Bucket two is nobody wants to play them?
Probably the two best teams Boston and the Lakers. The
(10:20):
Lakers right now have the two smartest offensive players in
the league, two of the three. I gotta include Jokichen
that the right now in my opinion. Yeah, with respect
to Tatum, the two best wings in the league. I
(10:42):
don't consider Shave, you consider Shay a wing or more
of a guard. I in Luke and Lebron and a
great coach. And the rest of the lineup is busting
their ass on defense and hitting threes. And then there's
one more bucket to contenders, and that is can this ow?
(11:07):
This is not a really catchy title, but the argument
for these two teams, the Bucks and the Nuggets are
we have a top twenty all time player. Can he
go on a run that puts himself closer to ten
than to twenty all time, meaning Yannis and Jokic and
Yiannis has kind of been the forgotten guy having an
(11:28):
unbelievable season and having the Bucks right there. Can one
of those, either of those guys go on an all
time six week run like we saw them each go
on in twenty three and in twenty one, where they
(11:50):
were just for the better part of a couple months
thermonuclear weapons en route to a championship. No one else
is a can The Warriors, God loves Steph and he
is playing out of his mind and continued it last night,
are not contenders. The Knicks obviously are not contenders. And
(12:11):
I don't think there's anybody would even argue for Memphis
or Houston or Minnesota, which has taken a huge step
back this year, for anybody else. So that's Lakers Knicks
the basketball game. We'll get to Lakers Nicks the event
(12:32):
in a moment, But first, who's scoring big in the
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(13:17):
over hit by fourteen and a half. I also gave
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have hit. He finished with eight. So gave you two
dead on winners yesterday. So we're two and zero. Since vacation,
we're three and three overall. After a little shaky start,
(13:39):
We're gonna keep track of these. I'm gonna if I'm
gonna give out. You guys know this from listening to
the NFL Gambling Show. If I'm gonna give out any betting.
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For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dking dot
co slash b ball. All right, so I sent out
some tweets yesterday about Barkley. So Barkley went after Kendrick
(15:30):
Perkins bad in the pregame show, and you know that's
Perkins fight to make, you know, to have that's not
so much my business, and I, you know, Perkins then
basically was like, I'm easy to find. I'll stay out
of that one. But what I won't stay out of
(15:52):
is the hypocrisy of how some and again everyone loves Chuck.
Everyone loves Chuck hand up myself included. He is one
of the most universally beloved and hilarious, successful, awesome sportscasters
(16:19):
in history. All that is true. What's also true is he,
like a lot of others, has a real blind spot
if you want to call it that, when it comes
to lebron and in Chuck's case, more specifically, when it
comes to the Lakers. And I'm not some lifelong Laker fan.
(16:43):
People can criticize me for this, but I've always been
transparent about it. I'm the same high school class as
Lebron high school basketball team. My senior year, we would
all get together at my house and watch Saint Vincent
Saint Mary's play because we thought it was whenever they
were on ESPN. Because we thought it was so cool
that guys our age were on ESPN playing. We even
(17:06):
tried to like, like, maybe we can run some of
the plays they're running. Turns out, having you know, seventeen
year old future goat allowed them to run some offense
we couldn't run. For small, small Midwestern private school, I
went to neither here nor there. The reason I bring
that up is can'tsedon have basketball team. I actually grew
(17:27):
up as a little kid a Knicks fan because my
mom was from New York. But by the time I
was in high school, I didn't really have a team.
And I just said, at that moment, listen this guy
on Saint Vincent Saint Mary's, Lebron James. He's my favorite
player and wherever he goes is where all go. So
I have been one of those people who do I
(17:48):
root for whichever team Lebron's on, and people laugh at that, whatever,
say it's bad fandom. I don't care. I just my own.
What I owe the audience is honesty. Why did oh yes,
I was saying he had a blind spot for the Lakers.
The reason I even mentioned that is I'm not some
lifelong Laker fan, but I've been a Laker fan the
last seven years since the Bron's been there. And Chuck
(18:13):
all year long has said, basically, the Lakers are a
non story. The Lakers are you know, they are discussed
because they're the Lakers and because the media is obsessed
with Lebron and for no other reason. And listen, when
the Lakers started four and four, it's like, ah, maybe
(18:38):
he's gonna be right. And then when they were thirteen
and twelve, it's like, Okay, it's probably just a mediocre team.
And Lebron wasn't really at the first month the season
wasn't playing great. But then by before they traded for Luca.
The day they traded for Luca, they were twenty nine
(19:00):
nineteen and on a nice run. And that was with
Anthony Davis having been out some games, and the narrative
was still the Lakers are not to be taken seriously. Fine,
they weren't a championship contender before they traded for Luca,
But then after they traded for Luca, some folks, none
(19:22):
louder than Chuck doubled down on it said the MAVs
would be better this season. The Lakers should consider for
as much as Chuck killed ESPN for nothing just talking
about the Lakers day after the couple days after the
Luca trade, Lebron went on or Sorry, Chuck went on
(19:44):
ESPN and started talking about that the Lakers should trade
Lebron to Golden State or to San Antonio, just fan
fiction Laker trades, but again set that aside, doubled down
that this team still was not a real threat. And
then last night before the game, when he's ripping Perk,
(20:08):
he says, because they've had a good two weeks, we're
all falling over ourselves about the Lakers. Guys. They have been,
by a record standpoint, off, by a defense standpoint, the
best team in the league for six weeks. They went
(20:30):
from twenty two to eighteen to forty and twenty one
in that stretch, beating Boston, Golden State, the Knicks, the Clippers,
Golden State, Denver, Minnesota, the Clippers, the Clippers, the Knicks.
(20:53):
Ten teams that are definitive playoff teams. I'm not even
including Dallas in that because Dallas. I shouldn't include Dallas
in that. So ten wins, their only losses. One was
to Philly, got beat badly, and then the loss right
before the break against Utah was and in just a
(21:16):
brutal game for the Lakers where Luca really struggled and
Lebron really struggled. And then the unforgivable game right after
the break to the Hornets. But they're eighteen and three
in the last six weeks, and so before the game
it was they've had a good two weeks. At halftime
(21:38):
it was a damn party. They're gonna be crying tomorrow
about the Lakers. And then after the game looked like
someone had just repossessed his car. And Kenny is trying
to talk about how the Lakers potentially match up up
(22:00):
against the Thunder and Charles won't even let him do it.
Charle's like, well, they got to get there, and that
is true, they got to get there. But it is
pretty common practice to talk about how the one seed
and the two seed would match up in the conference finals,
(22:22):
and folks can have wanted this to not work. Folks
can have just been loud and wrong. Again, Gotta be
fair here, even though I love him, as Chuck was
the loudest and wrongest about Luke and Lebron fitting together.
(22:43):
Everyone's wrong on stuff all that. You know. I said
Jason Tatum was the fifth best player in his draft class,
like people are, and that's just one of a hundred.
But to in the face of being that wrong, to
not give an inch and to just keep moving the goalposts.
It's transparent and people do start to wonder what I
(23:10):
understood you saying. And one other thing I gotta say,
Chuck being like, we need to talk more about the
thunder and the and the Calves. I that's probably a
fair point. It's a weird messenger. When does anyone? Does
anyone really think that he's watching a ton of thunder
(23:34):
and calves? Like? Does? That? Does? Does? One of the
reasons everybody loves him is because things like who he
played for are so hilarious. Does anyone really think he's
naming more than four thunder or calves? Like it? Just
I it It feels disingenuous. And before I go, one
(23:59):
last thing. I mentioned this on Thursday's pot I'll mention
it again because the other thing Chuck did was rip
anybody who's engaging in the Lebron Jordan debate. You guys
have noticed, right, you guys have noticed how much ground
has been seated to where now people are just like,
(24:22):
I don't want to have the fight anymore. No, no, no,
let's just you know what, they're both great, not that
long ago from these same exact people. This is what
you heard Lebron versus Michael. When did Lebron pass Kobe?
A right? Five to four? You guys are putting them
(24:44):
against Michael. Whindy passed Kobe? You heard that. Then little
time passed and it became this. Listen, Now it's hating
on Lebron to call him the second greatest player ever. Yes,
we all know he's the second greatest player ever, but
(25:05):
he's no Michael Jordan. And now two different things have happened.
One is this, you know what, Let's just not have
the argument anymore. They're both great. You know, it's too
hard to parts. Let's just agree to disagree. That's happening.
(25:26):
And the other thing that started with the Steph conversation
is trying to muddy what. You know what, everybody's a goat.
STEP's a goat, Kobe's a goat, Lebron's a goat, Kareem's
a goat, Michael's a goat. They're all goats. They know
they've lost the argument, and so they're trying to say
(25:50):
now that I lost the argument. The argument's dumb, and
in fact, everybody, everybody's a winner in it. We see
what you're doing. Lakers might be the most dangerous team
in the NBA right now, and got a really tough
road trip in the next eight days at Boston, at Brooklyn,
(26:15):
at Milwaukee, at Denver, at Milwaukee at Denver as a
back to back, and at Boston it's a huge game.
It's a potential finals preview. The Lakers beat them the
last time. The Lakers coming off an overtime game, that's
gonna be a tough one. But they're in great shape
(26:39):
right now. And I'm really interested in how the Western
Conference playoff bracket's gonna shake out, because the only thing
we know is OKC is the one. I understand folks
really want the Warriors to move up to that four
(27:00):
or five line, so the Warriors don't have to deal
with Oka. See the Lakers are Denver in round one,
and we could potentially get Oka. See Lakers Denver and
Golden State is the fourteens remaining in round two. But
Golden State right now is a true three back of
the five line and only a half game up on
the seven. So Golden State's got to keep rolling and
(27:23):
hope Minnesota doesn't get hot. With that said, Golden State
is about to enter as easy as tough as the Lakers.
Next week is Golden State's next week is Detroit, who's
actually pretty good. Portland who's playing better, but they should
be able to beat Sacramento and then the Knicks and
all those games at Golden State, so they should very
(27:46):
least stay the six, which could make the two to
three between the Lakers Nuggets all the more important. Who
can hold onto that two line. But all of a sudden,
nobody wants to play that team in purpland goal, and
it is very very difficult for me to see them
(28:12):
not playing in the Western Conference finals, and in those
conference finals having the greatest playoff performer of all time
in Lebron James and one of the most prolific playoff
scorers ever in luk Adncic, playing against the youngest team
(28:37):
to ever make the conference finals in the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Tough matchup. Talk about it more, see you guys on
TV shortly What's right
Host
Nick Wright
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