Full Transcript for Lakers Win Without Luka! | Reaves Drops 43 | Kessler Dominates Defensively | Lakers 9-2

walking around in this game as if we don't have a legitimate chance of winning? So I watched this game tonight, and for me, like I said, it was one of the more enjoyable games that I've watched of the Lakers ever. Because of how they approached the game, how they played the game, how they started the game, what their mentality was. And did they barely just hold on in the fourth quarter? They did. Who cares? It doesn't matter how they won this game. What matters is at the end, they won 121 to 116 because it would have been disappointing. And I think you guys would all agree with this is you built that 20 plus point lead. You did all that work. You had all these guys contributing. And then you ended up losing and you're like, oh, well, at least they fought. I don't think anybody would have said that. So that to me, I want to make sure that I get out the gate because as I start getting into some of these individual players, I think it's important to point out that that's a special type of win when you could do that without Luka Doncic on the road against a team that's 6-2 and the Lakers were able to do that. All right, now we start getting into some of the individual players as well. Let me see here real quick. Team stat perspective. Pistons ended up shooting 45%. They got to 40% from three. They had some dudes just absolutely firing from three in that second quarter on that kept them in this game. I just want to see a couple things on the rebounding. Lakers actually ended up out-rebounding them 44-43. 16 turnovers for the Lakers. A big block of those in that second half. Some of them just coming consecutive after consecutive where it looked like the Lakers were going to blow this lead. and then points in the paint, Lakers ended up winning that. 97% of this game, the Lakers led. The Pistons never had a lead, so something to keep in mind. Let's talk Austin Reeves. Let's talk Austin Reeves here for a quick second. 43 points for Austin Reeves, 14 of 27 from the field, five rebounds, and four assists. By the way, one turnover for Austin Reeves in a game where... I was a little surprised, actually, the Pistons didn't blitz him more. I would think that they would have blitzed him more just because you take the chance with some of these other players. Reeves was hitting tough shot after tough shot, making bucket after bucket when he needed to. A big time three to close out the game, kind of that haymaker, that uppercut to close out the game. And he, you know, in a sense, kind of played Luka's role tonight for the Lakers. And he was able to do it against the Pistons. The number one defensive team in the NBA against the Pistons. I mean, what's there to say other than give him his flowers? What's there to say other than give him praise for what he was able to do tonight? It's an interesting relationship with Austin Reeves because, and I only saw a couple of the comments, but we'll look at some of the comments. If anyone has something negative to say about Austin Reeves tonight, I'm not really sure what our conversation is going to be. I think there's going to be plenty of times where you can be critical of Austin Reeves. I think there's plenty of times where you could say, all right, I need to see more from him, or he got too many turnovers, or he didn't shoot efficiently, or he doesn't look comfortable, whatever the case is. There would be plenty of days that you can do that with Austin Reeves. If you're trying to do it tonight, then you're probably just never going to give him a compliment. Reeves was phenomenal tonight. And like I said, I'll go back to something Robert Ori has said a couple of times. Mark Medina joined me for a postgame show. I think it was after the Lakers lost to the Warriors a little bit over a week ago, maybe a week and a half ago or so. It was on a Friday night. And Mark Medina said the conversation that he had with Robert Ori was saying something to the effect of it's never easy for Austin Reeves. Like every bucket is a challenge. It's tough. Today was no different for Austin Reeves. A lot of these buckets that he was ending up with were challenging, were tough, were not easy. It was with a hand in his face. It was... a miraculous shot. He banked the three. He had some buckets where he was smart enough to draw a foul and he was smart enough to do some certain things. But Reeves played 37 minutes and had 43 for the Lakers and shot over 50% from three and was 4-6 from the three-point line. I got nothing but praise for what he was able to do today. And I'm not going to jump to, well, can he do it in the playoffs? Just relax for a second. If people are going to be as critical about Austin Reeves as much as they are, well, when he has a night where he goes off, should we not just pause there for a second and say, damn, the man went off tonight and, again, give him the proper credit and do? I think we should. He was phenomenal tonight. He was really, really good tonight. And without Austin Reeves, the Lakers aren't winning this game, and it's probably not even close. Now, he had a lot of help, too. I want to give credit to a lot of these other players. They did put up 121 points, so that was obviously phenomenal to see. That was great to see. So clearly there were a handful of players that produced for the Lakers, but this all kind of started with Austin Reeves. I'm going to jump here real quick to Walker Kessler. 12.16 rebounds, four assists. Did have a few turnovers. Three block shots for him as well. I love the four assists because he had a couple of plays where he kind of became one of those touch passers where a pass came off a screen and roll, and then he quick touch pass to Zyre Williams cutting. He had a couple of really, really smart, good possessions Walker Kessler did, and he is doing everything the Lakers are asking him to do. Again, I'm going to say this. I said it in that last– I don't know if I said it yesterday or I did a video yesterday– Um, or maybe it was the

game before that. I can't remember which game it was, but this dude eats up everything in the paint, everything. And there are a lot of times where there are a lot of guys that think, I think it was a sir Thompson tonight that thought, Oh, I got a clean dunk. I'm good to go. And out of nowhere, here comes Walker Kessler, or there's a possession where it looks like someone's got a clear path to, uh, to the basket and out of nowhere comes Walker Kessler. He doesn't even block the shot, but he might, he might, uh, deter someone from wanting to shoot, or they end up taking a much tougher shot than they thought they were going to have. And he doesn't get credit for a block shot or anything like that. Um, Walker Kessler has been phenomenal. He's got something that, you know, it's like the difference. If I, if I'm, if I'm thinking back to the days when it was, uh, if I'm thinking back to the days of when Deandre Ayton was here, the thing I like most about him and his game is And it's pretty simple, to be honest with you. The thing I like most about his game, he's. 00:12:52 Speaker 2: Got a motor, a motor, truly, truly a motor that any game, any possession, you don't got to worry about Walker Kessler and his motor and his effort and everything else that. 00:13:08 Speaker 1: Comes with a 48-minute game. Where with DeAndre Ayton, it was like, so which Aiden are you going to get tonight? Which Aiden are you going to get this possession? I mean, even if I go back, I mean, obviously Anthony Davis was much more skilled than Walker Kessler. And he had just a natural feel for the game of basketball. His skill set of being able to hit 18-footers, 20-footers, hit from the free throw line, his back-to-the-basket game, his footwork, all of that stuff. Kessler's got– there are not too many 7'2 guys that got that type of a motor and can impact a game even though he's only putting up 12 points. 16 rebounds and another three blocks. I think he had four blocks, four or five blocks against the Portland Trailblazers. So another big shout-out to Walker Kessler because it's another great performance for him. So this Lakers team kind of went on– the shoulders of J.J. Redick starting out the game of basically that mentality of we got a chance to win this game, act like it. And then it was the Austin Reeves kind of completely leading the way for the Lakers from an offensive perspective and then Walker Kessler being that defensive anchor. Those were the three pillars for the Lakers tonight. And don't get me wrong, there's plenty of other people that we'll get into and we'll talk about and we'll spend some time giving some praise on. But those three are the three that completely, completely jump out to me. How your coach has you ready for a game where nobody's expecting you to win. How Austin Reeves plays without Luka Doncic, and he acted like Luka Doncic tonight. And Walker Kessler, can you continue to hold your own on both sides of the ball, but predominantly the defensive side? And all those three, all three of those things checked off. And because they all checked off, the Lakers are now sitting at nine and two. And I believe, I didn't see the Spurs and the Thunder if they played tonight, but should have the best record in the Western Conference. We'll check that out here in a little bit. All right. All right. Enough of me. It's a lot of talking from Slee here. I'll shut the hell up here for a little bit. Not technically, because I got to read your comments. And we're going to take a look at your comments and we will go from there. All right. Let's see what we got here. All right. Shout out here. Jose, shout out to you, brother. Slee, what's going on here? Do we actually have a chance to win 60 plus game? I'm super impressed with this start. First off, shout out for the super. Thank you very much for supporting the channel. Thank you for the love. Do they have a shot at 60 wins? I would lean towards no. And I think, you know, listen, maybe they do end up with a really, really high win total. And we've seen that before. That's two straight years where they were 50 plus. Maybe they are in that 50 to 55 range. Maybe it's somewhere there, especially right now because of the Western Conference. I mean, let's be honest with each other here. There are some significant, significant injuries in the Western Conference, and the Lakers honestly just got to capitalize on it. There's nothing they could do. Nobody wishes any injuries upon anything, but Anthony Edwards isn't healthy. Just trying to think here off the top of my head. Obviously, we know all the injuries to the Oklahoma State Thunder. Don't sleep on the Thunder. They're still finding ways to win. I think I saw A.J. Mitchell drop 35 or something like that in their last game. So they got guys. They'll figure it out. The Jaron Jackson Jr. injury, the John Morant injury. I'm just kind of naming a couple off my head. I know there's some others, but those are in the East. Tyrese Halliburton, Kawhi Leonard. So I don't know how many wins the Lakers are going to have. But what I do know is, stylistically right now, the way they've got off to a 9-2 start, the teams that they're beating, beating teams that they're supposed to. They're giving themselves some cushion here, which is, you know, obviously very, very impressive. And I'm sure for J.J. Redick, like I said, he's got this mentality where he's not making excuses. That's two games Luka has missed. Lakers won both of those games. You figure how that happens. You know, I don't think anybody was expecting that. So thank you again, Jose. I appreciate you very much. Thank you for the super. If you guys do send in a super, we'll get right to you. Let's just put it that way. Right to the front of the line and also 100% I'll read your comment. All right, let's get some more in here. Kessler should be doing great. All right, and he is. Don't worry about Vando. I'm coming back to Vando. I'm going to get to all the role players

because I thought Vando played a real role for the Lakers here. Let's see what we got here. I've seen this AR script too many times, but I'll give him his flowers tonight. He still flop and complains after every shot. You're not giving him his flowers. Don't say you're giving him his flowers as you step on the flowers. Okay? You can't just walk in with a dozen of dead roses and say, I got somebody some flowers. That's not how that works. You didn't get flowers. I mean, you went on. You found ways to give three or four complaints in the process there. I'll shut the hell up here for a little bit. It's a good quote. I thought it was a good quote. All right, let's see what else we have here. I'm proud of these guys. Step up when needed. I think that's a very good comment and a fair comment here. AR puts more expectations on himself than we do. I'm going to just focus on AR here for a quick second. Let's see here. Um, AR strives with no pressure or expectations. Well, I mean, you know, here's kind of what I'll say is, doesn't, what expectations does he have when Luka's out there? I mean, you know, there's a lot of pressure more really on Luka Doncic. Um, AR's just got to be himself. He doesn't have to drop 45. So, I don't know. I'm not 100%. I'm not 100% sure about that one. Let's see. Let's see. Why are you even watching the regular season if that's what you believe? We are 11 games in the season. You're already talking smack about AR and bringing up playoffs. Go to sleep. I think you're responding to somebody else. Listen, guys, I'm not here to try to pretend. I'm not here to try to pretend that AR doesn't have issues. They're showing right now on SmackDown. the Western Conference standings, Lakers sitting at 9-2, best record in the West, Thunder are 2, and then I think the San Antonio Spurs are there. Timberwolves still 8-3. Timberwolves winning, Warriors winning, Rockets 7-3. I mean, everybody's right next to each other. Grizzlies, I know they've lost a couple in a row here. Here's what I'll say about, um, here's what I'll say about, about Austin Reeves here. I am, I completely understand the concerns people will have on Austin Reeves. I get it because I share the same concerns, but if he has games like this and he does it without Luka Doncic, I would then wish that there'd be more people that say, damn, that's a That was great to see Austin Reeves step up like that. Look how the rest of the team kind of helped carry the rest of the team. The other team, other teammates kind of did their job and went on and ended up with a tough win against the Pistons. I would just wish that through this process that we also give some love when it's necessary. Is Aaron All-Star to you yet, Slee? No. No, I don't think so. Not through 11 games. And maybe there's some of these other guards that are going to be injured and maybe has an opportunity to get in there. I'd have to look, but I would hesitate. Now, Lakers keep winning. If you got one of the best records in

the Western Conference, you might have to throw two all-stars on the same team. So maybe it is more, let's say you're about 35 games in and you got one of the best records in the West. Luka's doing what he's doing. AR is certainly finding ways to contribute. then maybe there is some opportunity for him to be an all-star, but still too early for that. All right. I want to get now into some of the other players here. So I did mention, you know, I think it's important. They're replaying the game here on spectrum now. So they're just getting ready to start the game over. Looks like they just finished posting. I want to talk about some of the other players that continue to kind of do their job. All right. Let's start here with one of them off the bench. Let's start with Jared Vanderbilt. Only played 14 minutes for the Lakers. Had 10 rebounds, three assists, couple of turnovers. I thought he brought great energy to start out that game. I thought Vando was really good. And for a player that has absolutely no idea what his role is and how many minutes he's going to play and what he can do for the Lakers on a night-in, night-out basis. And is he going to be at the end of the bench or is he going to log 15 minutes in For a player like that, that again is just waking up every morning and has no idea probably what his role is and if he's going to get an opportunity, good for Vando to obviously make that happen and find a way to contribute there. Let's go to some of the other players here. Zaire Williams tonight had 17, 5 of 10 from the field, 4 of 8 from the three-point line coming in off the bench. I mentioned I was doing that live stream for the first half with members, by the way. Would love for more members to join the show. Great way to support the channel. I work creative in kind of some different ways. Sometimes I do shows before the morning show. This was the first time I did a live stream. Somebody had mentioned to me, hey, let's give love to Zyre Williams for being out for a few games, coming back and not complaining about coming off the bench for the Lakers. And that's exactly what he's doing. He's coming off the bench for now. Now, whether they roll with that or they end up going, you know, keeping Jake LaRavia in the starting line, whatever the case is, I don't think anybody cares. And I think that's the good thing. I think this team's got a little bit of that mentality of who cares, who cares if, uh, who cares if I'm getting 25 minutes or I'm getting 15 minutes or I'm getting 10 minutes or I'm starting or I'm coming off the bench. At least I have not seen that these players have cared about that. And maybe that goes back to the JJ Redick stuff and the continuity and the guys fighting, pulling the rope in the same direction. Um, There seems to be a connection with these players, which is obviously very, very important. Williams had some clutch shots for Zaire. 17 points, 4 of 8 from the field, 6 of 10 from the field, and 4 of 8 from the three-point line. Colin Sexton, look at his night. 17 points for him, 24 minutes. There were a couple of different times and possessions. Austin Reeves was on the bench. This is in the second half, I think in the fourth quarter. And you just assumed, you thought for a second there, I'm like, I think the Lakers are going to end up blowing this game. And Colin Sexton hit a couple of big buckets, getting to the basket, hitting some free throws. Where'd he go from the free throw line? Did he take free throws? Seven of eight from the free throw line for Colin Sexton. And I was complaining about him in the first half. I thought he was too offensive focused and really wasn't allowing the game to come to him. I wanted him to be a little bit more of a natural point guard and kind of just play better team basketball. And he wasn't. I thought there was a lot of selfish possessions in that first half. Second half, he kind of had some of the bigger plays that will not be remembered strictly because the Lakers were, um, you know, their lead was dwindling and there were moments in this game where you thought, all right, Pistons are going to eventually take over. And then all of a sudden Quinn Grimes would hit a, or Colin Sexton would hit a big shot. So shout out to him, what he was able to do. Quinn Grimes. I know it was more in the, in the first half where really in the first quarter where he had his main contributions, 12 points for him. Um, Jake LaRavia, here's another player too that we're not going to talk all that much about, but I love Jake LaRavia's energy. The dude's all over the place. He's kind of fighting whatever he can to help the team. And his stats, I don't think his stats are ever going to really say how much he benefited the Lakers, but I thought he certainly did. Then look at Matisse Theibel with four steals for the Lakers. So again, that's what I mean by just a straight team effort. There's no other way to put it. You look at this team right now, You look at all the guys that are a part of the squad. You look at all these guys' roles. They're being asked to come in, and a lot of times, you know, they're watching Luka Doncic. They're watching the Luka Doncic show, and I'm sure for them, they don't know when they're going to get their opportunities. Maybe they're not fully aware of what the timing looks like or anything like that. Let me just move this up a little. Maybe they're not 100% sure what the timing is going to look like, but I think at the end of the day, if there's one thing that these Lakers, what these players are doing, None of them are bitching and complaining. They're just taking their role and saying, whatever it is that you need me to do, I'm in. And for the Lakers, I think that's a big reason why they're sitting at 9-2. I mean, you guys watched the buzz around Luka Doncic right now. You guys saw him hit a three-quarter shot to end the half against the Portland Trailblazers. You guys see the numbers that he's putting up to

start the season. You guys see that he's averaging 10%. 40 a game so far this year, plus seven and a half and seven and a half and rebounds and assists. I think a buck and a half, one and a half steals as well. They played without Luca tonight. They went on the road to Detroit and, and, and picked up a W they're as impressive as any team in the NBA, in my opinion. And tonight they do it with, they did it with arguably the, without arguably the best, best player in the world. Okay. Um, Lakers got another game coming up tomorrow, so they're going to go up against the Atlanta Hawks. That's an early tip off, 4 o'clock. I probably can't do post-game show. 7-ish, somewhere around there is when I'll be able to do post-game show. So something to keep in mind there. And what was I going with that? I think I was basically saying that's the next game coming up for the Lakers. We're going to get into the next game. That's where I was going with it. Plus, we'll look at the NBA scoreboard. Plus, we'll look at standings around the NBA. We'll do all that. But we got plenty of time before we get to all that. I do want to continue to look at some of the comments here. We'll get what people are saying, get a little bit of a pulse of how people are feeling about this Lakers start, about some of the individual players, certainly some of the players that I was just mentioning right now, some of these different role players. And I want to spend some time on some of the comments. Before I do so, shout-out to Brad Walsh and the Wallace Firm, wallacewins.com. Wallacewins.com. Shout-out to the Wallace Firm, just a phenomenal partner of the channel, somebody who supports the channel, big Laker fan, can help anybody in the state of California. If you need an injury attorney, I hope you never do, a serious injury, a wrongful death case, maybe something happened while you were in your car, maybe something happened at work, whatever the case is, let him guide you. It's almost like you take your car to a mechanic because the mechanic is supposed to guide you. Here's what's wrong with the car, and you should do this, and you should do that. You kind of put your trust in them. Same thing here in this industry. You've got to find the right attorney that's trustworthy, that's been in the business for a long time, and has got one of the best reputations in the game. If you're in the state of California and you need an injury attorney, wallacewins.com slash sliwa, wallacewins.com slash sliwa. All right. Let's do comments. We got plenty of time here, and let's go. Most of the league underestimates Lakers team defense. There is at least one lockdown rotation. You know what? I don't know if I completely disagree with that. Let's look at some of their players here real quick. I think Grimes can lock up a little bit. I know Theibel can lock up. I think Zyra Williams, there's an effort to his defense and his wingspan. I think Jake LaRavia is going to give you a shit ton of effort. And I think Walker Kessler is arguably one of the best defenders out there, right? The top three to five big men defenders in the NBA. So the question is going to be, how can they all do it together and how can they do it consistently? I did a show yesterday. I did a show yesterday and I was not kind of saying pump the brakes, but what I was saying was as good as the Lakers are offensively, you can't be 21st in the league defensively. Tell me a sport where your defense is 21st and you, you just have a ton of success in the playoffs. And what I'm referring to there is if you're an NFL team, you better get stops in the postseason. You better be able to run the ball in the playoffs. You better be able to limit turnovers. And you probably walk away with a win or a long playoff run. If you're a baseball team, you ain't scoring five, six runs in the playoffs. So you better have good pitching and a good bullpen and your defense got to be on top of things. So That's what I mean by that. The Lakers will eventually have to be a team that is more consistent on the defensive side. So 21st defense is where they are. They got some work to do on that end, and I'm not here to argue that they don't have some good individual defensive players, but I think at the same time, it's obviously got to be a team. All right, let's get some more comments in here. Reeves with one turnover, nice. Yeah, I think for me, there are two things I usually look at for Austin Reeves when it comes to his stats. Turnovers is definitely one. I think you guys all know that. We're all on the same page. And number two, the other thing I look for, maybe I look for this too much. I like seeing Austin Reeves the facilitator because I think Reeves has got a natural, natural tendency to see the game. High IQ player. And I think there's a really good job of distributing. But I don't think that's his kind of calling card right now. So naturally, if it's not that, then you got to look at his efficiency. A lot of people, we come on here, we do post-game shows. Of course, there's a lot of conversation about, hey, Lakers aren't, he's not doing enough defensively. Or I'm sorry, he's not doing enough with protecting the ball. And teams are blitzing him. And big guards are going out and guarding him. And wings are guarding him. And you look at Austin Reese, and it's like, geez, he's got how many turnovers? In a game like tonight, to just have one turnover against the league's best defense, I mean, that's his impression. And you're going to have the ball the entire time. I think sometimes he can hide a little bit behind Luka Doncic because he's Luka Doncic. And tonight he couldn't hide, and he still was able to do what he did. Let's see what we got here. Looking worth that contract to y'all now. That's not how contracts work. You can't pick and choose one game and say, hey, is he worth the contract? And then pick and choose another game where he struggles and say, hey, is he worth the contract? Got to take the

totality of the season. You don't make four years $ 180 million in a game on November 8th against the Pistons. You make your money when it's the postseason. You make your money when Luka Doncic is out there. You make your money Round after round in the playoffs. That's when you're supposed to make your money. You can't make your money on November 8th on a 3 p.m. tip-off in Detroit. That's not how it works. All right, let's get some more in here. I like Vando's defense and rebounding. We should find him more minutes. I think the nice thing with Vando, and maybe this is the relationship that... Maybe it's the relationship that... That J.J. Redick has with him. Maybe there is this understanding of like, look, when I can use you and I feel like it's the right time, I'm going to use you. Take advantage of it. Because I don't know how many times I'm going to use you. And maybe there's an understanding between the two of them. All right, I'll be ready whenever you need me. Check's still coming in the mail for Vando. He'll be fine. But yeah, there are times where I think it makes sense or there's a player that's out or something like that. It makes sense to kind of throw Vando out there and say, go to work. And Vando certainly found some opportunities, I thought, in this afternoon's game to help the Lakers out. 10 rebounds in 14 minutes is a little absurd. Was that what he ended up playing? Is that what I said, 14 minutes? Vando, 14 minutes. That's absurd to have that many rebounds. So good for him for doing that. All right, let's get another one here. The fact that they're learning how to close games this early, uh, in the season can't be downplayed. This is shaping up to be an outstanding season and I'm here for all of it. All right. I asked this question when I was doing the live stream early, I asked the question to Laker fans that do they enjoy this roster more than last season's roster? And maybe I already know the answer, but I think part of the idea there and the conversation is, um, I feel like, you know, it had become stale and you kind of already knew maybe exhausting of what the Lakers had before. And primarily, obviously everything built around LeBron. So I think there were a lot of Laker fans that were ready to move on myself included. And, uh, and this is fresh, it's new and it's, you know, it's like, you're not a hundred percent sure what it's going to be. And it's got potential. And you know, what happens between now and the trade deadline? Are they able to add some pieces? Like, I think It's interesting for all of those reasons. So I think for a lot of Laker fans, many of them, when I asked that question, I'm sure there'll be the similar theme here. There's a lot of Laker fans that were ready to start something different. All right, Lakers were like killer bees in that first quarter. Great defense. They made a pro team look really bad. They have 24 by the end of the first quarter. 24 by the end of the first quarter. And, you know, again, like the whole Lakers barely held on. I don't think anybody has that theme here. I don't think anybody's saying, like, these should have won by more. Like, obviously, I don't think anybody really thinks that because, if I'm being frank with you, it would be kind of a dumb perspective. They didn't have Luka, and they were on the road against Detroit. A couple more here. By the way, listen, this is just, this is how a lot of people feel. It's the truth. Thank God LeBron isn't with my beloved Lakers anymore. Yesterday, I was doing some work for San Diego State University. They had a game, Colorado, San Diego State. And there was a guy that I ran into and anyways, blah, blah, blah. He knows I do all this Laker content. He's like, you know, I just, I just couldn't do it anymore with LeBron. A lot of Laker fans are like that. Now, I didn't, Always see it that way. I think I was happy and ready to see the Lakers move on. I mentioned it last year, and it probably wasn't the most popular opinion at the time, but it was the truth. And I think if the Lakers were struggling and they weren't playing well, maybe people would feel different about that. But they got Luka Doncic, and they're 9-2. So I think that's why some people feel like that. Reeves is averaging 25, shooting 51-41-91. I need someone to explain how he's not an all-star with those numbers. He's the only guy in the NBA with those numbers. I think you'll have to just, and I don't know this because we're only 11 games in, so I'm not going to try to pretend. You're going to have to count out all the guards in the Western Conference, and then that's going to give you your answer. If there are a lot of guards out there, let me just off the top of my head, right? Luka, Steph, Shea. I'm not watching the San Antonio Spurs, so I'm not 100% sure if any of their guards are, you know, all-star players. all-star worth, if you want to call it that. I know Minnesota's now eight and three or something. Is LaMelo playing all-star? I don't know. I genuinely don't. Is Devin Book, I mean, their team's struggling. Is he an all-star? I think it's going to come down to, well, you only got so many spots. And guys, we're only 11 games in. So I think you got a long way to go before that's the case. The inside is not the same with Kessler waiting. Kessler's been a beast. Kessler's been a beast. I mean, he's been one of my favorite players to watch on this team, no question about it. People hate watching the Lakers, must hate watching the Lakers. Got a bar right there. You working in the lab there? You got a freestyle coming? Relax, man. Freaking phenomenal line right there. We got Harry Mack here. I don't know if you guys ever watch Harry Mack. That dude is just amazing. the YouTube space. So I get, end up sucked into all this YouTube stuff. Um, all right, SK, wonderful. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. Yeah, listen, there's certain franchises out there where, you know, you're, you're rooting for them to lose.

There's a lot of, there's a lot of people that watch the NBA that, They've seen how much success the Lakers have had, and they're rooting for them to lose. That's okay. It comes with the territory. It's a compliment. It really is. It's a compliment. I'll tell you, there's not a lot of people hate watching the Sacramento Kings, right? Because there's, you know, there's certain franchises out there that don't have that, they don't have that certain amount of success. So it's completely, I think it's a compliment for that to happen. All right. Let's do this here. Let's get a couple of these supers in here. Shout out. Thank you very much. I appreciate you. Got a few of these jewels here. So thank you very much. I appreciate the supers here, guys. Thank you very much. All love from here. Let me see if I can get a few more in here. Slee thinks AR. What was the fan and AR argument? Um... Well, I think the AR argument is always the same. The argument is when he plays well, people are saying, yeah, but he's going to eventually play bad. And then I could tell you, I told you he played bad. And when he plays poorly, they're waiting at the front of the line to remind everybody that AR didn't play well and that his contract is bad and he's not a good fit with Luka. And he can't be the second best player on the championship team. And frankly, the Lakers have not won a championship. This is the first year with him and Luka together. It's the first time that AR is the second best player on obviously on a hopeful contender. So I think there's a lot of these questions that aren't answered yet. Shout out to you, brother. Thank you for the super. Thank you for all these as well. I'm pointing these out here. I want to make sure I give some love here. Thank you for some of these supers here. Okay, let's do this. Think JJ and Luca knew they were talking about. Yeah, I heard a lot of things that when Lakers were putting together this roster with J.J. Redick and Luka, that they had a big piece of the type of players that they wanted to play with or they wanted to coach, or the players that J.J. wanted to coach. And this was supposedly of what was available, what the roster had, what they felt like they could have the most success with, at least here in the media. Guys, Lakers didn't wait long to make all their moves here to start the offseason. We weren't too far into July before the Lakers just rattled off all their, you know, the sign and trade for Walker Kessler, the Mamu, the Grimes, the, you know, Lakers went to work right away. So clearly they had a vision in mind and they were able to execute that and make that happen. All right. Appreciate all the comments here. A lot of good comments here. A lot of good conversation starters on here as well. Let's keep things moving here. I want to point out what the Lakers got coming up next. So next game for the Lakers is the Atlanta Hawks. I'm going to share my screen with everybody. We're going to look at what the hell the Hawks are doing. You might be shocked by this. I have no idea what the Hawks are doing. No idea. You could tell me that the Hawks are the only undefeated team in the NBA. Well, I would know you're lying if that's the case. I would know that you're lying. Let's take a look at the Atlanta Hawks, see where they are. Okay, all right, all right, a little impressive here. Seven and four, they've won four in a row. I'm imagining Luka comes back tomorrow, and hopefully the Lakers and the Hawks, this is a good game coming up tomorrow. I know, obviously, they're known. They made the playoffs where they had two wins against the Knicks last year. That was the team that had the most wins against them, so they're trying to build off of that. Let's see who their wins are, losses are. Orlando Charlotte. Lost against Houston by 7, lost by 10, lost against Miami. Beat Cleveland. Lost to the Pelicans and then have played pretty bad teams the rest of the way. No Tyrese here. They beat Washington on two straight games and then just beat Brooklyn. Let's look at the last game. So they played yesterday. So they get a day off before they get the Lakers. Let's just see who are their, you know, obviously who are their guys that are putting in the most work. Atlanta, Okongwu, let's see who we got here. Nikhil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson as well. Yeah, you know, it's funny. You kind of look at this team. They definitely got talent. Nobody's, I think, questioning that. And to be 7-4 to start the season, they've won four games in a row. They got to feel pretty good about themselves. So Lakers and the Hawks tomorrow. postgame probably starts around this time tomorrow, so something to keep in mind regarding that. Let's take a quick look at the scoreboard here. Let's see what we got in the NBA. Celtics up, Clippers up on the Pelicans. Can you imagine being at this game? Might be the most boring game I've ever seen in my life. Heat up on the Kings. Sixers already beat the Bulls. Lakers beat the Pistons, of course. Timberwolves win again. Mavericks over the Nets. So right now, if you go look at the standings, I mentioned to you guys what the standings look like in the West. Here are the Lakers on top of the West. 9-2. Now, you got a lot of teams balling out here. OKC has won four in a row. San Antonio, since starting the season out, 0-2, have won eight in a row, and they just shellacked the Blazers yesterday in Portland. Minnesota, kind of trying to figure some stuff out without Anthony Edwards. They've won four in a row. Golden State's won seven in a row. So you got a lot of good teams here. At one point, I think the Rockets, before this two-game winning streak, had the best record in the West. They lose two in a row, and they fall in the standings. I mean, Portland's been good. Here's where Denver is. Dallas looks like they could be a little bit of a headache to start the year. Look at Utah, 1-9. Oh, my gosh. You think Walker Kessler's happy to be with the

Lakers right now? I'm pretty sure he's happy to be with the Lakers right now. All right, let's read last couple of comments here, and then we're going to call it a day. And I appreciate you guys hanging out in this post-game show. Just a quick reminder here, if you guys enjoy the content that I do, obviously a lot of my work is around Lakers basketball. We got a live show coming up tomorrow at 9 a.m. Hope you guys can be a part of it. Subscribe to the channel, please. It's a great way to support the channel. And I really, really want to continue to grow the channel, and I'm going to need your help in doing it. Subscribe, like, and share to anybody that you think will like these videos. Final few comments here. Let's get into it. And then we'll call it a Sunday. 76ers versus Lakers in the finals is my dream. I was talking with the guy I do my show with here in San Diego. His name is John Schaefer. And we were talking about he's a big NBA fan as well. And we're talking about Luka, and we're talking about Victor Wimbanyama for MVP. And then we said, I think the best matchup in the Western Conference, can you imagine if it's Lakers and Spurs? And it doesn't have to be, you know, one verse two or anything. I mean, hell, it could be two verse three. It could be one verse four in the Western Conference second round. But can you imagine a Lakers and a Spurs matchup? So I know you're Lakers, Sixers, Finals, NBA dream, but I think there's a lot of people in the West that would love to see Wemby, and Luka Doncic. Can you imagine that must-watch TV right there? All right, let's get some more in here. AR and Luka got hurt carrying LeBron last year. Don't like how we struggle with Portland and San Antonio whip them. Well, they took them out yesterday. I watched the highlights today. Can't wait till we face off with San Antonio. Spurs are That's the class. I would say it's the class of the NBA right now. And the Thunder, the problem with them is going to be their health. So that's going to be their health here. Let's see. Let's see what we got here. Lakers and Spurs would be must-watch TV, of course. And I get it. Some people, listen, does Braun come up a lot in the chat? Yeah, he does. And, you know, here's the reality is the reality is he's was with the Lakers for eight years. He's not Philadelphia. You know, the team with the best record in the Eastern conference. I think they still got the best record. Yeah. Nine and two by, by the way, are you surprised Boston figuring some stuff out? Seven and two. That's just that organization is well-ran well-ran. Let's see what we got here. All right. All right. All right. I think we, uh, I think we got everything. I think we got everything in. I'm back tomorrow. We'll do a 9 a.m. show, and then we'll come on tomorrow night and do a postgame show for Lakers and the Atlanta Hawks. Thank you all for coming on the show tonight. Lakers win again, 121-116. They are 9-2 to start the season. So really, really impressive stuff from the Lake Show and all these players tonight, including head coach J.J. Ramsey. I thought he was phenomenal tonight as well okay final things to just mention here Kessler I want to say that's five or six straight games with a double-double and of course Austin Reeves we know what he was able to do tonight as well for the Lakers I hope I hope that Luka Doncic comes back tomorrow against the Atlanta Hawks, and then the Lakers can obviously do some work against Atlanta. But I'd be really, really disappointed and a little concerned if he's not able to go tomorrow to miss a couple of games. He was sitting on the sideline. I'm sure the Lakers were just, you know, were strategic in how they're going to use Luka this year. Thank you, everybody. Have a great rest of your night. Lakers over the Pistons, 121-116.