UNDISPUTED | Lakers will win the WEST? – Rachel & Skip breaks Lakers big wins over Bucks & T-Wolves

UNDISPUTED | Lakers will win the WEST? – Rachel & Skip breaks Lakers big wins over Bucks & T-Wolves

So the Lakers won a game last night at home they should have won no goar no cat no Kyle Anderson no Monte Morris for the visiting t- wols but without LeBron they won a game Friday night at home they shouldn’t have won it took nine threes and 44 points from D’Angelo Russell

Including 21 of those points four of those threes in the fourth quarter alone which ended with Spencer Den witty’s block of a potential Damen Lillard gamewinner wow so Rachel Nichols after what you saw over the weekend from the Lakers how much are they starting to look like a contender to you a contender

For the Western Conference Finals yes absolutely a contender for a title with a shiny ring and all of that stuff no to me no and I would just say that I would still pick Denver in a seven game series against them every time and even if for

Some reason they could get past Denver the the idea that they would then also be able to beat say a Celtics team if they’re there I I just don’t see it it it could happen the reason we love watching sports is the unexpected happens upsets happen but it would be an

Upset to me if the Lakers were to win a title or a contender for an actual title I will say though I think that Lakers fans who’ve talked about it a bunch it’s Championship orust it’s championship orust and I get that it’s a story franchise with a story at history but I

Will say if they do if they are able to reach the Conference finals for the second year in row led by a 39-year-old who is a legend of the game that Lakers fans get to see play every other night that should be great too it should no

Doesn’t work like that but go ahead Rachel no I just I think I look Michael dord will never play basketball again and I feel extremely lucky I got to be at you know at the arena Courtside for so many of his games LeBron James is going to retire as unlikely as that

Feels and I think these years of substantive success if they are able to do the same thing this year and they won a title a few years ago I I think that’s okay they don’t have to win the championship every year it wouldn’t be it wouldn’t be okay you got two of the

Top 10 players in the NBA on your roster and if you make it to the Western Conference Final you would hope and think that what went on a year ago in that sweep would change now I’m going to assume is is Nicol yic different in the St yeah but but but Anthony Davis

Somehow can muster up or whoever you know could somehow figure out how to negate him to a degree or stop Murray and and make it about just the Joker we would hope that they would be able to do that and I’m going to assume that they

Are going to do it and if that happens I don’t know that the Lakers are afraid of the Milwaukee Bucks a team that they just beat without a LeBron James okay with a Dame Lillard and a Giannis I don’t think they would be afraid afid of

A Boston Celtics team that they went to Boston without ad and LeBron and you would say well that’s only one game key that’s not seven that’s not a serious of games that that’s true but I don’t think that they would be especially LeBron would be looking at and going oh we we

Got to the championship now okay at least we made it no not at all the player should never feel that way I just would love the Lakers fans to appreciate what they’ve got right now and I think we appreciate it but I think at the same time there’s a certain expectation that

Come with when purple and gold and winning championships and paying a guy 54 plus million dollar there’s a certain expectations that come with that and it’s LeBron freaking James this isn’t just a normal NBA player this is a guy that you want to see win multiple championships for your team so you can

Put that statue out in front of staple center I don’t call it crypto I call it Staples even though it’s not Staples anymore with you because if he gets a second there’s a chance a strong possibility that statue will be somewhere around just got to get two yeah one yeah absolutely I

Don’t think they GNA do one okay one one gets the Jersey I don’t know one gets the statue statue I don’t think I don’t think so okay I don’t know let’s see so the most astonishing development of last night to me was at the end of the game

As they finally said okay that’s enough wolves we got you LeBron said that’s enough ad said that’s enough and I looked up and realized for the first time all year they are now they have risen to six games over 500 and I’m thinking oh year since 202 okay since

2021 I’m just doing this year I just I’m doing this basketball team and I’m thinking this team has led this league in underachievement all year long because they’re better than that and I know they’ve had one injury after another I got you but LeBron has played more games this year already than he

Played last year and he looks even better than he looked last year agree he’s shooting way better from three than he shot last year and On Any Given night Anthony Davis can give you a stat line that no Center in the history of basketball has ever achieved and that

Was his stat line last night that included seven Steels I know there’s no go bear I know there’s no cat but we condemn on a daily basis here Anthony Davis for not showing up he showed out last night albe it with a super highway to the basket for LeBron and anybody

Else who wanted it because they didn’t have a rim protector and AD clearly took advantage of that but still just now you got to six games over 500 and yet you start looking at the standings and say oh wait a second they’re only a game behind Dallas and then they’re only a

Game and a half behind Sacramento oh they’re only two games behind wait a minute Phoenix for the six spot it’s doable it’s getable it’s achievable it’s right there the carrots right there in front of you and you actually have the opportunity to to get some revenge over

Sacramento because you get to go to Sacramento on Wednesday night they tend to play Sacramento for some reason better at Sacramento than they play them in Los Angeles where they lost have their own beam I guess they should they they should like the beam in Los Angeles

Cuz they own the Lakers and that Crypt that they plan okay so the the point is that this team is so much better than six games over 500 and I keep asking you and now they’re reporting as you did for us Jared vilt’s going to come back I

Don’t know exactly when but he’s going to come back Gabe Vincent might be back within the week the way they’re talking these are two big crucial pieces to a puzzle a championship puzzle this is the deepest team in the west to me talk about when they get all those those

People right and yet there’s some missing element with the chemistry because I couldn’t figure out at the end of Friday night whether DLo was good news or bad news because that was Sensational that’s Allstar offensive ability on display for him to to say Dame watch this I’m going to badly

Outplay you badly I’m going to take this game over I’m going to make nine threes career high I mean what are the odds he’s going to do that again maybe in his life I don’t know if that was in the following game yeah well okay LeBron’s back

LeBron as great as he is he’s hard to play with and far be it for me the last thing I’m going to suggest that they’re better without LeBron because they’re absolutely utterly not but they got to figure out a way to blend in the DS and

The Austin Reeves go ahead I was just going to say I do do think that game Friday was a big chemistry win and took them a step further because of course we always talk about oh that gives the other guys confidence they can play without LeBron they can win without

LeBron to me that was so important because it gave LeBron confidence we Haven seen him trust his teammates throughout this season up and down a little bit he’s had reason to by the way to feel the way he feels and the fact that he sat there and watched them do

That I thought was very very important Kean you talk about a third star maybe it’s not Austin Reeves although he blends with LeBron a lot better than DLo has blended with LeBron but D’Angelo Russell has third star ability you have to admit On Any Given night you you

Can’t that doesn’t grow on California palm trees you can’t just go score 44 you you can’t that that’s that’s third star capability that’s nuclear capability yeah but it’s too inconsistent okay that’s the problem the inconsistency whose fault is that is it his fault or the the the blend I don’t

Know if it’s I don’t know if it’s the rotation or how they blending it I don’t know if it’s that the fact that LeBron is back and now all of a sudden here you go you I defer to LeBron because he looks at me a certain I have no idea I I

Have no idea but that still shouldn’t you still shouldn’t have a poor performance yeah after coming off that night you just shouldn’t yeah and as you point out he’s one or four in the fourth quarter he’s kind of quiet four in the fourth quarter yeah exactly but

Consistency is a skill it’s a skill we just you know we talk about how high a guy can jump and can he dunk and how’s his three and all of that or how fast can he run the 40 those are skills being mentally tough on the field being

Michael Irvin being Jerry Rice being those guys being Kean Johnson those types of things that’s a skill guess what consistency is also a skill DLo has some incredible skills we got to see that and I’d argue he’s already the Lakers third star I mean if you compare

Him to Austin Reeves you know he’s shooting his three-point percentage is five% higher he’s got more points per game 18 to 15 and then in the clutch his three-point percentage is 50% compared to Austin who’s 33% I mean there’s just a lot there that says he has emerged as

The third in the clutch the other night against Milwaukee and he had two running just sort of running jumpers and I said that that’s big time that’s like a third guy than me can play both ends of the floor well that’s the third that’s what I’m that’s cuz when you

Remove that scoring but you giving up scoring to the opponent at that position who you guarding trading buckets that ain’t that’s not going to help me well now we’re back to the Trey young conversation but yeah all right so I’m going to read to Rachel what I read to

You the DLo quote right after Friday night’s game that really caught my eye and ear he said and I quote public humiliation has done nothing but molded me into the killer that you all see today I never lack confidence I never fear confrontation I want all the smoke

Said D’Angelo Russell after he had hung 44 on Dame and Company okay how does that hit you what does that say to you it it he’s matured he’s grown up and he’s grown up in the right direction for a pro athlete he’s gotten tougher he’s gotten hungrier it doesn’t surprise me

That a guy who was thrown into the spotlight of LA and the Lakers so young playing you know with LeBron all of the stuff that comes with it didn’t handle it completely adult and smoothly and obviously had a lot of public foibles which he’s referring to in terms of the

The humiliation but he grew up and this is exactly what you want someone to grow to be do I think he went through incredible trauma that forged him as a person no I I I do not I do not think that what he went through was you know

Incredible traumatic he’s being a little bit dramatic over there but I do think that those experiences shape you I think he got tougher from them and I think we see the result so in other words he won’t be pillow talking anytime soon I mean I think he grew out of that I think

He learned that lesson and as you would know that’s one line you cannot cross the Kim no right okay now back to Rachel’s point about her Denver Nuggets not that you’re a fan but you did pick them and you’re sticking with them I’m going to reiterate your Lakers the last they’ve

Lost eight straight to Denver but six of the last seven times it went to the wire six of seven times you were right there right there somebody’s got to step up it could be ad it could be Austin Rees it could be LeBron he has struggled to close against Denver and I don’t

Understand it because it’s it’s just getting wronger if I can coin that word because he’s better than that and he should be better and they should be better but to your point at some point they’re going to break through against Denver because they play them really

Tight they play him well ad plays Joker very well he doesn’t get embarrassed by it even though sometimes they even put ruy on Joker and do some different things to try to keep ad out of foul trouble obviously because he is going to foul you out

If if you stay on him for 48 minutes but the point is I I wouldn’t be afraid of Denver if I’m the Lakers I I don’t think LeBron is afraid of anyone to your point key like I don’t I don’t think there’s anybody he sees across the court that

He’s like I don’t know maybe they don’t even get Denver though I don’t I don’t you know I was trying to figure out the matchups where they would fall to to avoid Denver maybe you know hey matchups is all is key if you can if you can get arounders Denver season then maybe

Somebody else takes Denver on and and Pops Denver phoen maybe Phoenix maybe the

#undisputed #skip bayless #michael irvin #keyshawn johnson #richard sherman
UNDISPUTED | Lakers will win the WEST? – Rachel & Skip breaks Lakers big wins over Bucks & T-Wolves