Stephen A. is concerned the Lakers could miss the playoffs 👀 | First Take

Stephen A. is concerned the Lakers could miss the playoffs 👀 | First Take

No Luca no problem for the Mavs as Kyrie Irving put on a show last night against Stephen A’s Nicks dropping 44 in a win Stephen A what’s the bigger deal Mavs winning without Luca or Nick’s losing well I think Nick’s losing because you know you got Kendrick Perkins sitting on

This set last hour talking about the Knicks of the second best team in the Eastern Conference and then you go up against the Dallas Mavericks team and although Kyrie Irving put on a show and there’s no surprise there because we know what a show stopper he he can at

Any particular moment in the end if you’re the New York Knicks particularly a team sticking out your chest about how elevated your defensive prowess has become because of the OG and a noi trade then I think that when you go out there and you lose to the Dallas Mavericks

Without a Luca donic and you give up 44 points to Kyrie Irving in the process all of a sudden it debunks a lot of the things that were being said we know the New York Knicks are a good team we know they’re going to the postseason uh we’ll

See what happens once they get there uh but for me personally the minute I knew that Luca donic wasn’t going to play I expected the New York Knicks to win this game and that did not happen all right stay in in the association heading to La where it did

Not hey Brian wior windy where it did not look good for LeBron and the Lakers last night against the Suns Bradley be out scored the trio of LeBron ad and Reeves by himself dropping 37 including eight from Deep to their Collective 36 and 127 109 win dropping the Lakers back

To under 500 LeBron how you feel right now we understand in order for us to win we have to defend at a high level so you know um you know every team you know creates different challenges different disadvantages or advantages or whatever the case may be we prepare for it and we

Try to execute that um you know obviously this is being the fourth time Fenix have seen the way we’ defended them throughout the first four games and even if you include the preseason game um you know um in Palm Spring so I thought they were um you know very aware

Of what we wanted to do plus you know having their big three helped as well are you concerned the Lakers will miss the playoffs I’m getting to that point um I’m not quite there yet Molly but I’m getting there I was at the game last night fellas I was not impressed with

What I saw it’s just a regular season game I get it Bradley Beal put on the show Phoenix is something to think about when the three of them are on the court especially if Bradley Beal is balling like that you you know how I feel about

Devon Booker I mean this brother is just he is something special and so he he and Bradley Bill were taking turns scorching the Los Angeles Lakers LeBron James didn’t seem seemed a bit lethargic last night the same with Anthony Davis but you expect that to happen when you’re in

Your 21st season in the league and you just turned 39 years of age and I’m looking at the rest of your guys and I’m like where the hell are they they’re non-existent and and and I said I was joking around with Kendrick uh last week on NBA count actually this week on NBA

Countdown I’m talking about you take these cats out to LA you drive them Brown you show them make sure the sun is shining the weather’s nice and you drive them around you be like you want to be here want to be here because you’re about to be up out of here y’all don’t

Start playing and acting like you have a damn pulse the Lakers do not look good they’re not impressive they clearly are going to be looking to make a move I’ll leave you two to talk about that but in the end I will tell you that I’m growing very very concerned you see the

Personnel in the Western Conference the multitude of teams in the Weston conference what you’re supposed to be able to do is carry LeBron and Anthony Davis to some degree during a regular season by simply doing your job and using them in moments instead you got to spell for them because you know you’re

Going to run you’re going to run them out of gas because nobody else is producing for you it’s a bad situation in Los Angeles with the Lakers right now make no mistake about it and without question I don’t give a damn about their victory over the Clippers over a week

Ago the Clippers are the better team in Los Angeles that is an easy easy thing to say yeah so that game last night the Suns and the Lakers are right next to each other in the standings in the Western Conference but they’re not any where alike because when you look at the

Suns their top players have played eight games together seven eight games together and you looked at it last night Bradley Beal look like he was getting his his legs underneath them 37 points they looked great in this game they had great energy I think they’re going to

Take off here the Lakers have had their star players all year I know that they’ll tell you that they’ve had role players who’ve been out and that’s true they’ve had role players out and they’ve still got some guys out but LeBron and AD have been healthy the entire season

They I think they’ve missed five games between them this is the healthiest they’ve been not only that they’re playing well it’s not like ad is like not playing well ad is playing great great okay and so my thing is we’re 39 games into the season they are they are 500 team bottom

Line they’re just not good enough yeah I mean that’s just the way it is I’m I’m not trying to will says that all the time it’s just not good enough so now what are they going to do about it okay in a few days here January 15th arrives

That is when ruy hutcher and Austin Reeves can be traded um their contracts bar that for right now now I think once we get to January 15th and we was you know 3 weeks ago a month ago I was saying wait till January 15th okay well

It’s here I’ve seen it I’ve seen 39 games now they’re not good enough and I expect them to aggressively look to upgrade this team the most valuable things that they have are Austin Reeves not only because him as a player but also his contract is very favorable and

They have one first round pick they’re allowed to trade I believe in either 29 or 30 not both one and so I would expect the Lakers after January 15th to get aggressive I don’t think it’s going to be Zack LaVine I don’t think that I think if they’re looking for a player

They’re looking for a player who can play at both ends of the court because one of the things that’s happening guys they are asking so much from LeBron and AD defensively they’re having to play in both 35 minutes a night they don’t have the energy they need another big they

Need another shootter but go ahead where’s Molly where’s Molly she’s on the screen somewhere she uh what are we doing on this this Friday morning are we we stradling the fence or we we we actually at First Take you do me a favor are we going to answer

The question you yeah could you reinforce the rules of what happens on the show because the question is concerned the Lakers will miss the playoffs Stephen a strad defense no you said I’m leaning towards that way that’s that’s straddling defense and Wendy still having answered the question yet

Yeah Wendy what’s going on yes they not only am I concerned they have be concerned they’re four and a half games out of sixth place there we go now my answer is hell no okay because of LeBron James and we’re not going to just sit up

Here and try to minimize what they did to the Los Angeles Clippers and how LeBron James and Anthony Davis has an on and off Swit that at any given time when they know they in must-win situations or they need to get a win for themselves

They know how to turn it up we saw what they did in the n Season tournament I don’t even want want to go back to that but we also saw when ad and Brun turned up in Oklahoma City which is a tough place to win that against a young tough

Oklahoma City team led by SGA now if you asking me are they going to going back to the Conference Finals with this Team Hell No if you asking me if they’re going to win a championship with this Team Hell No but missing the playoffs in the Western Conference I don’t believe

So right now they’re in playing Zone they’re in play zone They yeah okay well last year they wasn’t even in the playin Zone on before this part at this part of the season and they got into the but they made Moves before the trading deadline and they immediately were

Better they were second best team basketball and guess what right now Anthony Davis is looking like a top five player in the league both that’s okay LeBron James have shown us not in the past like the past 20 years this year that he could turn it up another level

When need be let me tell you what’s going on in the lakeer locker room right now okay everyone knows and their head is on the swivel because they know something is probably about to happen and it’s hard to walk in the building and and play at your highest or play at

Your your your best at your top potential knowing that you may be gone the next day so that’s why you’re seeing the role players play the way they playing right now because they don’t know they don’t know but the Lakers missing the Playoffs they’ll be in the playoffs okay well the Lakers can’t

Shoot threes they need an additional big to help Anthony Davis okay that’s number two number three in the month of January LeBron James is averaging 20 points shooting 6 61% from the free throw line like 26% from threes I don’t think that’ll last my point is is that when

You go out on the basketball court there’s only but so much you can do when the other fellas don’t show up and you’re telling me Oh they didn’t show up because they’re not showing up because they’re fearful their head is on the Swift well guess what was it that way in

In in Jan in October was it that way in November I mean damn at some point in time you got to show up and act like you got Anthony Davis and LeBron James you got to do something say you know why the rest of the fellas got to do something

You know look six shooting 60% from the free throw line that’s unex that’s no no excuse the reason that his points have dropped in January is because dingham has switched his position he is the point guard now that’s what we saying you got to and that’s why I keep harping

Whether it’s Zack LaVine or whoever you got to get another playmaker and another quick guard around the it better be somebody Wendy that can shoot it can’t be somebody that oh you can score but they can’t shoot they need a shooter they need a shooter to make a Deep Run

In the postseason they need a third player in order to get you know deep into the you know what I’m saying get to the post there you go Molly Lakers 10th in the west right now they play the Jazz tomorrow we’ll leave it there big perk thank you I needed my reinforcement

Bodyguards in he getting soft on me today I don’t know what’s up with yeah like cottel tissue is that his Line

Stephen A. is concerned the Lakers could miss the playoffs 👀 | First Take
Stephen A. Smith, Kendrick Perkins and Brian Windhorst discuss their level of concern that the Lakers could miss the playoffs.
#firsttake #nba

0:00 Quick Takes
2:00 Concerned Lakers will miss the playoffs?
6:00 Perk isn’t concerned about the Lakers

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