Lakers/Thunder Postgame, Bron, D-Lo, AD, Reaves, Coach Ham Reactions | March 4, 2024

Lakers/Thunder Postgame, Bron, D-Lo, AD, Reaves, Coach Ham Reactions | March 4, 2024

Hello and welcome to aess sportset Lakers driven by your Southern California hota dealers I’m Ali Clifton James Worthy Robert Ory Mike bresnahan Chris McGee Mike trell handling the locker room responsibilities great bounceback win for the Lakers I’ll keep this one simple no matter how daunting the road ahead looks like for the Lakers

Coming up nine of their next 10 coming into tonight above teams above 500 is who they will face having said that big game you said it in the pregame no matter what it looks like for the Lakers if they play Lakers basketball they have chance to maximize and they’re very

Capable of handling this stretch they did that tonight on both sides of the basketball first defensively the number one team in the west who are seven- one in their last eight playing great basketball hold them to 39% from the field and deep Shay guildas Alexander just 20 points tonight struggled from

The field five of 13 just one of two from downtown five Lakers and double figures the ball was hopping 28 assists they dominate The Glass just all around Good Vibes good energy playing Lakers basketball and and this is why you know of course we want the Lakers to move up

In the standings but where they are this is why they would be a a matchup disaster for a team like Oklahoma or other teams they played well enough to win against the Denver Nuggets the divver nuggets are just too well groomed and too experienced right now and they

Just took advantage of him in the fourth quarter but if the Lakers play like they play tonight against one of the top teams in the west uh they’ll be a tough matchup they there’ll be some a team that no one will want to match I think they just totally outrebounded Oklahoma

Outsized them match them and as long as that ball is spread DLo ruy they start to continue to include guys and not just depend on the braon and AD as much making a whole team effort on both ends uh they’ll they’ll be okay I think but

You know still you want to win these games and see if you can move up if you talk about tonight’s matchup it boils down to experience we talked about earlier how young this team is and that’s I think sometimes people forget about that you can have the best regular

Season that is but when it comes to the playoff you need experience and right now the Lakers are looking hey we have to match up with this team maybe we don’t know let’s go out and show them who we are like James said against the

Denver team you know you had it for the first three quarters and you lost in the last two minutes and that’s been the mo for them for the last couple games playing against Den but you can’t worry about that you have to worry about the next opponents and take care of business

Because you still need to get out of that play in game because you think about it you’ve already played one extra game more than everybody because of the playin tournament you got to get out of that and not play as many games and that’s what you had to look at just

Focus on the next couple games and take a one game at a time Big Picture check this out Lakers only two games out of sixth place right now why the teams ahead of them that were on on winning Ro winning streaks they were on a roll

They’re starting to lose now in fact I think we got the standings come up come up for us right here you take a look they have a huge game against the kings in two days right here at crypto.com right here in La at crypto.com Arena

They could pull within a half a game of the Kings and there they are only two games out of a guaranteed spot in the playoffs if they play play defense like they did tonight hit a bunch of Threes if D stays hot they can they can make

This run no doubt about it that’s the thing and it’s about becoming consistent with it over these final 19 games obviously you’ve got guys who have a lot of experience when it comes to the postseason big game but you got to be consistent with it and you have

Something that you can prove to to yourselves here over the next 19 and and and and why not now I mean they’ve been up against you know like Brad says injuries uh inconsistencies in the lineup and so that’s there’s no more breaks you know you get a little break

Here and there but this is it your season is now until the end of the season so that that’s the way I would approach it I I look as what do you want do you want to be hey one two three Cancun or do you want to get into

Position where you don’t have to be in the playing and where you can be in where you get that game off like I said and for me it’s going to ball down the one thing is toughness and when I say toughness that’s toughness on the court and mental toughness because there’s at

Times when the Lakers are rolling and they start doing high school stuff where he starts celebrating trying passes and losing the ball and turn it over that’s not toughness toughness is taking care of business understanding what’s at stake and the Lakers are a veteran team they went to the Western Conference

Final last season so they know what’s at stake and what they have to do this is not a really good team where you can say oh we going to sit back and flip the switch and no you got to have mental tough just come out and play tough and

Know that everybody that you play is in your way they’re in the way of what you want to get again still not 100% healthy by the way but there was an update that we got in the pregame that Jared Vanderbilt gave Vincent there will be an update on them coming next week the

Words right out of my mouth that’s what I was going to say to get some people coming back that’s going to even add to their you know confidence exactly what I was thinking about we’re on the same page update to the upate um before we uh go back downtown and hear from Darin

Which we’ll be do in uh a few minutes here I do want to point one one thing out obviously as I mentioned Five Guys in double figures we talked about DLo with the 26 by the way four steals also for D’Angelo Russell ad adding 24 of his

Own Braun 1911 and8 you get 16 from Austin we talk a lot about how starter heavy this the squad is right now but you pointed out the the lack of bench production coming into this one I do want to say this tan Prince found a

Little bit of a shot he had 14 Off the Bench he was a plus 29 Spencer dwy a plus 35 the activity again from Jackson haze just what maybe a performance like this can do for this squad brez right now against one of the top teams in the

League yeah you know the last several games not a good time for the Lakers reserves I mean really the Washington game uh kind of almost bottom out there and that the last game wasn’t very special either against Denver 60 Minutes for all the reserves combined they

Scored 12 points so to have a nice bounceback game like this tonight and to know that maybe help is on the way why is the bench weaker than it seems like it was earlier in the year Austin Reeves no longer on the bench ru hamura no longer on the bench still know Christian

Wood still know Jared Vanderbilt gab Vincent he’s played only five games all year if those guys can come back and and give the Lakers some meaningful minutes probably Off the Bench all three of them because I like the way the starters look right now that’ll really help the bench

And I don’t think we’ll be having this conversation again cuz you know like I said the last week week and a half not strong for the Lakers reserves again you don’t want to put the cart for the horse but hey one game at a time good win

Tonight let’s hear from Darin ham he’s speaking with Mike in the media jvin what did you see as the difference between that rough start and then you know what seemed be to be immediately a pretty good defense like for the the next three quarters as you guys blew out

That big lead towards the end of the fourth I mean I thought early uh they made some shots we turned the ball over uh but we you know we didn’t totally collapse or implode it’s it’s we we continue to defend I told him at halftime it’s like the best defensive

Half I’ve seen all summer uh All Season uh just the way we just fought to keep the ball in front of us our shifts and that activity behind the initial Defender help at the ram rebounding the ball well but you know the turnovers kind of bit us early um

And often and so um we’re able to still get some good looks play downhill guys were making shots but um our defense man kudos to our guys they really stepped up and defended really really well any individual that you thought LED that charge Darin or was it more of a team I

Think it was it was contagious um you know AR you know ad back there talking AR starting with that tough matchup on Shay uh Brun you know everybody’s closing out Deo everybody ruy he got in a little early file trouble picked up a few early but all in all then the guys

Coming off the bench you know cam tan all those guys Jackson Spencer you know we had to run multiple bodies at Shay you know he requires that type of attention just just the elite level that he plays on so all our guys just was like-minded in terms of again having a

Defensive mentality and individual Pride on the ball you spoke about the collective defense but when LeBron specifically has that I just call it juice defensively on the end the floor how does that change I guess you guys as a team I when he’s a that locked in is

Able to provide that kind of energy just the reads he makes you know if he’s on his weak side defensively with with a smaller guy he makes sure the smaller guy stays up stays High he’s a bigger body stand low um they try to throw a

Alive he comes out weak side Mig most important guy disrupt their L um his close outs and close outs to keep the ball in front creating that indecision with certain guys and you know it just it was great you know he he’s he’s one of the best you know when he when when

When he’s engaged like that like his his instincts and his communication is key gives everyone confidence Darin you guys have been able to hit defensive highs for four or five minute stretches um how encouraged were you with the fact that this was excuse me sorry 17 minutes in the

First half you didn’t bring any for me I actually have some if You’ like I do have it if you would like a lifesaver I have a bunch actually in the media room appreciate appreciate you I got you um it was a good one too the

Um but to then there a little slipage in the third but to like recapture it again um do you feel like this was the the most defensive you guys have been for for maybe since December absolutely I mean we talked about it a lot and shoot around this morning we watched our film

Our pregame coach Zack Peterson did a hell of a job with the Scout um and that was the key you know individual Pride contain the ball um defend without fouling and finish possessions defensive with a defensive rebound and so our guys did just that um you know showing our

Hands trying to just being solid just being solid you don’t have to you know no gambles we’re able to come up with some steals just because our our hands were active we forced them into some tough situations our shifts we were on time doing our work early so shifted in

The lane and they threw a couple passes right to us right to us and we were able to push the ball toward the other end so defensively we got to just continue to build off this just just what we did tonight just continue to Bild uh once we

Get a chance to get back at it on Wednesday Dar you guys fell down 18 to six Midway through the first quarter you’ve had some some games this season even as recently as Phoenix where you give up 40 in the first quarter you end up turning around you only give up 43 in

The first half uh what did your group show in that moment like what have you guys have you guys gotten better at showing resilience yeah you know one of our biggest mantras is the next play mentality you you see the frustration when guys make a mistake

If we turn the ball over they get got some live ball turnovers or some we play great defense guys still scores we’ve been doing a much much better job and just moving on to the next play moving on to the next play um and that’s exactly what happened tonight it’s just

Guys dug we dug our heels in and and really just competed again on the ball in transition on the ball um off the ball at The Rim defending the rim getting rebounds tracking down long rebounds and getting run outs and so um just the resilience to just keep pushing

And trying to get stronger as the game gets longer Darin uh you guys just had a game where you were outrebounded by 16 rebounds and then tonight you respond without rebounding them by by 17 what did you see in terms of the physicality and the paint and and just controlling

The defensive glass and offensively getting a bunch of offensive rebounds a lot of guys being proactive guys putting bodies on bodies you know those Second Chance points that Denver was able to get killed us and so uh you know these are learning steps we we understand that

You know time is up the essence and we got to get busy in order to do what we’re trying to do and so you know we did a great job turning the page moving on from that loss it was tough loss but again moving forward got some really

Good work here today as shoot around um and just just talking through some things on both sides of the ball and you know just again guys wanted to come out and they responded well showed a lot of character with the way they responded hey derin can you share a thought that

You had after seeing D’Angelo shooting those three threes in a row I just knew he he has those DLo moments man where where he just he he can throw it up any kind of way and he going to find his way through the hoop um it’s great to see

Him out there having fun his teammates cheering him on encouraging him him being aggressive and decisive like DLo is is Uber talented and um you know we need him we need him to play at that level in order for us to have that ultimate success um and he’s doing a

Great job he’s doing a little bit everything he’s he’s being aggressive scoring when he sees opportunities he’s setting his teammates up um and he’s he’s competing on the defensive side of the ball he competed his butt off tonight and so uh it’s great to see him

Out go out there and do well and be in a good Rhythm thanks coach thank you let the people know be yes I am don’t do it Austin uh do you feel like DLo kind of overshadowed your four for five from three tonight with that late flurry

That’s a tough to start with bro God damn I mean I don’t really um the way that he gets his buckets in you know spurts like that when he gets hot uh it’s a beautiful thing to see and if you roll back uh the the

Tape as soon as he got the ball me and AD stood up and we knew it was going up even when he passed it uh we knew Bri was going to give it back to him we knew it was going up and once he Let It Go um it looked good

But yeah if I can go four for five and it gets overshadowed by anything we do um I’ll be the first one to be happy about that a good answer a good answer DLo on that 33 as atin mentioned LeBron just gave right back to you once you pass it

Out do you feel like in that moment just you know whatever you got to it yeah basically what he just said you just feel like you got to shoot regardless of the separation creat or what I what the play develops yeah I was going to shoot

It before I passed it um I heard him I didn’t know what he was saying I thought he was thought he was about to um attack Chad or whatnot and um then when I heard him say shoot like go ahead go ahead I didn’t even know I made the shot I kind

Of didn’t see the rim and just threw it up there lucky shot I I think for for both of you also uh you beat OKC again three and one against them that the number one seat in the west coming into the night as you guys

Look ahead to what your team goal is to get back in the postseason and and make some noise like you did there last year how much is this about proving to yourselves um how good you can be versus The Who whomever the opponent is uh I mean obviously they’re coming off a

Tough back toback you know they played last night in Phoenix and uh you know it was a good game down to the wire but anytime you can you know beat a team um confidently uh going into the fourth um of that caliber you know it it speaks to what

You did you know both offensively and defensively but I think it started on the defensive end tonight um everybody was locked in I know that they was either at the end of the first or the start of the second quarter uh um you know it felt like we got like five or

Six stops in a row with you know some type of block or some type of Steel that you know LED out to you know good opportunities for us to go score so yeah anytime you beat a team like that um that been playing really good basketball

You know it feels good and gives you some momentum moving forward you you guys have had defensive moments um over like the fourth quarter against the Clippers overtime against Washington where you guys have been pretty locked in but to to hit that level defensively for this long of a

Stretch doesn’t feel like you guys have been at that level for a while um was there any extra emphasis defensively going into this or is it sort of they’re really good and if you’re going to be if you’re going to beat them you’ve got to be really good yeah they’re so well

Coached it’s just you can’t you can’t relax um I think they’re number one right or something like that or number two in in the league godam yeah so I mean you you got to you got to be ready to play against those guys it’s no flute um how important was the

Rebounding tonight you guys won that by by 17 just you know controlling the glass I watch n get 31 on them last night so I knew that was something where we could dominate the Dominate the game a little bit give us a little Advantage like I said they’re so well the system

That they have around those guys a lot of guys are plug and play and can step up and have a big night any at any time so to come in and try to dominate the rebounds and things like that just going to give us another advantage against a really good

Team hey de hey you said before how you’re always looking for ways to find your Flow State it seems like you’ve been finding it pretty consistently uh just wondering if you kind of know what needs to happen for you to walk into that uh I mean just consistency you know

Um the more my game days can look the same as the last one I think that’s what allows me to get there sooner um but when any hiccups and any rotations line all that little stuff becomes a distraction so for me I try to just let distractions be distractions not let my

Mind get to them um I always talk about it when I first got around him you know I tried to you know give him that you know try to let him know that a lot of stuff could be a distraction distract you from the main goal which is put the

Ball in the hoop you know and um I’ve seen him over the time just kind of change his approach a little bit and just kind of stay locked in the moment when things can get like that so um yeah I recognize and try to attack it uh can

Can you talk about you all defense tonight you know um seem like you all fed off each other so how important it is for you all to feed off feed off each other one one is uh playing hard on defense yeah I mean I think it um you

Know when you come out uh at the first two games and you just give that effort um regardless you know it’s going be and you know there’s a lot of times that you’re gonna play really good defense that they score you know obviously G and

Shay uh there’s going to be times like I said that you know you think you play really good defense but he shoots over the top and makes a shot but when you have that you know effort from the you know start of the game and Braun sliding

His feet like that ad always being ad you know we just feed off that and you know that was the main thing tonight uh just getting off to that good start you know of the energy the start of the game wasn’t good um but you know we just you

Know kept plugging in at it and good things happen last two SGA struggled uh from the field the first three quarters he was 5 for 13 from the field um how were both of you and and the team in general able to contain SGA and put him

Into those tough shots especially with a player like V who usually had a bulk of that responsibility obviously not available he me he gets 30 on every team in the league so for us to come in and try to just make everything tough for him is the objective um whoever’s

Guarding him we know I mean you put anybody in front of him he finds a way to get it done so we were all on the string I would say for sure last question D’Angelo I know you guys still have you know bigger things in mind but just have you been

Able to soak in some of the moments you know hitting those threes LeBron coming over just relative to the first stint here and has that has that gotten you anywhere uh just in the moment I don’t but um when I watch the game tonight and um my friends are send me stuff like

That it it’ll helped me realize that you know you’re really doing this you’re really here um the goats like right there celebrating with you it becomes crazy when you when you go back and look at it but I mean for me it’s I try to stay in the moment stay locked in and

Once again that’s a distraction right when you think about it you locked into the game and you you you still in fan mode is it’s tough so for me I try to leave all that at the door but I’m still a fan of of greatness around me and I

Recognize and appreciate it as well thanks bro thank you Darin called it one of the better defensive uh performances by you guys this year uh talk about the second and third quarters and just how you guys locked in um I think we did a good job

Of keeping bodies in front of bodies we know they’re one of the best U one-on-one teams in the league um they live in the paint but they also been shooting the ball extremely well from the uh from the outside as well so um just trying to keep bodies on bodies and

Then if they was you know we get them to miss we clean glass we didn’t give many Second Chance points and that was key I was going to say rebounding tonight uh definitely the key for you guys getting beat in that category you won it by 17 yeah absolutely we uh we definitely

Understood if we going to make a team like this Miss and if we you know if they do miss we got to clean glass and uh I thought we did defin for start to finish been a I was going to say d uh been a much bigger sample size as of

Late offensively you guys have been one of the better teams in the league DLo got it going tonight uad everybody uh what’s that been like for you guys to kind of unlock that end of the floor yeah we understand that um you know when the ball is popping and everybody’s

Feeling comfortable um you know we’ve been playing some really good basketball offensively I think tonight we had too many unforced turnovers which we work on we know we can’t do that but all in all I think um you know obviously do DLo caught fire uh TP was you know um Sensational you know

Tonight for what they shooting the ability but everybody came off the bench you know I think um I think Spence you know and uh I think he had a plus 35 Off the Bench you know so that was U big time for our ball Club too is this you

Guys are in setad of 20 games now is this the should this be the standard defensively for you guys I mean obviously we know we I mean every game is different every game is going to present different challenges we understand that but this is one of the

Better offensive teams that we have in this league and uh we did a good job we did a good job from start to finish and we could take some key moments from this and apply to next next game flammable to describe former teammates like J.R Smith Mike Miller

Like having Dow with with that type of I guess skill set and confidence what type of X Factor can that provide um obviously we know um and I think I talked to you the other day about you know that DLo can get going U where he

Can make three or four threes in a row you know and break the game open um and he did that again once again today you know um he have that uncounted ability to just once he see the ball go through the hoop he can run off three or four of

Them you know get the crowd into it um get us hyped and uh you know able to you know take the momentum from the game what you see with the Austin on defense he just took the challenge I mean obviously Shay is one of the best

Players that we have in our league so you know you just try not to put him to the free throw line CU that’s where he gets a lot of his points from too so you know I thought Austin was Sensational from the start to the Finish you know

While he was on on the floor just trying to contain the ball and making Shay and making you know Jay whe all right appreciate big night for LeBron uh just kind of steady across the way 1911 to shy of a triple double 7 of4 he shot

North of 60% from the field and deep versus Oklahoma City in the three previous matchups big game yeah I mean we we talked about a little bit in pregame he just continues to impress us uh you know there was a mama away he went out of the game for a little bit uh

I think it might have been the third and Oklahoma they started to come back a little bit they got within three and I was talking to Gater out the arena I said okay LeBron needs to come back in you watch how the energyy is going to

Pick back up it just something he does you see him he’s out there first one at the arena every game he gets up the shots so it’s it’s not by accident bra that he’s that he’s knocking him down seemed like he had a lot of fun out

There rob you know I I just feel like LeBron obviously it helps when you’re winning helps me have a nice cushion against the top uh team in the west record-wise seemed like he and DLo had a good time especially after DLo hit those three threes in a row to start the

Fourth quarter put the game out of reach you know what other stat I like tonight Ally LeBron played 31 minutes last four games he’s gone 37 37 39 and 37 anytime you can give him a rest even if it’s you know the last five minutes of the game

You take it you bank it it can only help going forward for me I just look at you know me I’m a big component of load management within a game take care of business and have you watched couple of Laker games you think they going to take care of

Business and then something happens when they don’t take care of business and tonight they took care care of business when they got down early they said you know what we got to show this young team who we are as a team we got to lock in defensely and when you talk about lock

In defenses everybody locked in you know from DLo to ad they locked in they got steals they got fast break points they got points in the paint and what I like best is even though they had 20 turnovers they didn’t let that affect them on the end because they locked in

Defense like I said kept grinding and grinding out a win he Darin say I think the best first half or half of Defense he has seen this season and we mentioned in the pregame they’re coming off a back toback a tough one in Phoenix last night

You got to jump on them early Lakers did just out 80 recorded his 49 double double UPS this season he’s speaking with Gater Gater hey Darin called it one of the better uh defensive uh games for you guys in in quite a while how did you

Feel about your just the whole team on that end yeah that’s a really good ball Club um you know a lot of guys who can play one-onone and score and uh you know go came out was playing great defensively um you know taking pride in the one-onone matchups Shay uh Jaylen

Williams uh chat L Dort like everybody was just you know moving their feet and keeping their guys in front which limited a lot of the um overh helping so uh it’s really good defensive uh game by for sure does the 3 in1 record against OKC mean

Anything when you look down the line um in the postseason and if you guys are facing you know not necessarily them just you know considering what happened last year you guys were a lower seed in in consecutive series does does that mean anything for this group further

Improve that it’s just about you guys not necessarily opponent yeah it’s about us for sure um just about you know getting in uh you know behind the eightball a little bit but we’re right there you know so uh you know any event we don’t get top six you know you got to

Go through the whole playin um kind of process again uh you know we don’t really care what you know see in uh we proven that last year you know it doesn’t matter um I think this goes like with anyone you know you just try to get

In and then you know play off with a different animal so um you know we don’t look at it as you know we want to have this match up than this match up you know for us it’s just about getting in and uh tackling each opponent from there what you see from

Austin as the initial on ball guy on Shay and just kind of the the job he did and then following him certain directions yeah uh he did a great job um you know moving his feet know the Shay likes to you know get to his reverse

Between uh kind of like a little push off and you know get to his midi or you know gets in lane use his pump fakes and draw fouls and things like that so I think we did a good job not putting them on the line um um you know they already

Going to make tough shots uh but you don’t want to combat that with putting them on the line as well now they kind of get it going so um he did a great job you know starting off on him of just making it tough for him and uh funneling

Him to you know our defense and get you know great contestant uh you know he miss some shots early but uh made a couple down down late but um you know he did a good job can you share a thought that you had when you saw theangel

Shooting those three threes in a row uh that’s what he do he he’s shown that he can get hot uh any point in game and uh when he made the first two um you know we kind of knew the third was going up so um know he tried to play like he

Didn’t want to shoot and threw it to Braun and you know Braun gave it right back to him just knowing like I knew it was going in um I was already standing up when they scored and uh you know he kind of pushed the ball

Up the floor so um you know he’s able to get it going you know and kind of just uh fu our offense sack lost the home tonight so it’s one and a half back now I I know you try to just take it one

Game at a time but how much do you as a player to consider that heading into a match up like tomorrow and what does effort look like for you guys like out what do you look for from your team yeah that’s a very important game uh we

Played them twice within the next week um or so so uh you know those are that’s going to be a big game and then the one next week is going to be a big game so um we got to come in and take care of business thanks

❗ Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEjOSbbaOfgnfRODEEMYlCw/join
✅ Sub And Like For More Content
🏪 FreeDawkins Merch Store – https://freedawkins-merch-store.creator-spring.com/
📌 Follow on Twitter – https://twitter.com/DawkinsMTA
📌 IG – https://www.instagram.com/dawkinsofficial/
✅ Subscribe To My SQUADawkins NBA Videos Channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/squadawkins