Lakers-Kings Reaction: LeBron James & L.A. DISASTROUS LOSS in Sacramento | Hoops Tonight

Lakers-Kings Reaction: LeBron James & L.A. DISASTROUS LOSS in Sacramento | Hoops Tonight

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That’s h o o PS the crown is Yours All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Wednesday everybody hope all of you guys are having an incredible week we’re going to be reacting to the Lakers in a must-win game getting their ass kicked yet again by by the Sacramento Kings whove really

Had their number this year and the Kings win with defense something that’s been a consistent theme for them this season we’re going to break that game down from the perspective of both teams if you’re looking for Nuggets heat we’re going to be hitting thing first thing in the

Morning I only caught the fourth quarter uh uh this afternoon uh with the time change it started much earlier we’re going to be hitting that in the morning as long as well as probably one additional game uh from tonight’s slate but saw that Reggie Jackson came in hit

A bunch of big shots in that fourth quarter as the Nuggets had one of their textbook fourth quarter execution runs that they went on so we’ll be hitting that in the morning but just hitting Lakers Kings in tonight’s show you guys know the drill before we get started

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You drop some mailbag questions in the YouTube comments all right let’s talk some basketball so I’ve talked about this a lot uh I kind of uh um you last week in the Wednesday game the one that the Kings went into LA and won I talked a little bit about some of the matchup

Issues that the Kings present for the Lakers and then that game was a resounding example of those matchup issues being uh exploited and then you know the Lakers had an opportunity in a must-win game for them really in so many different levels obviously to try to get

Out of the 910 slot this specific game is vitally important to have any hope of climbing out of that specific position that they’re in and once again like it’s the same stuff that keeps happening and when you when you see a large sample size of basketball games and the same

Thing happening between two opponents that typically means that it’s a matchup related issue because like obviously basketball games have a certain amount of variance right like there’s always like random guys that get hot from three right like like all these guys can shoot but you’re gonna have games where

Certain guys shoot above what they normally shoot right Austin Reeves H seven threes tonight right Harrison Barnes said seven threes tonight those are your guys that get hot there’s going to be random kind of occurr that take place but the key facets of the game in matchup situations like this tend to be

The same right and like first match up to hit on is sabonis versus Anthony Davis one of the things that happened with Anthony Davis is as that 2020 season F unfolded we saw an evolution of him that we saw that began with the Pelicans where he was this great a guy

That really showed some high level jump shooting right and then he peaks in the 2020 bubble uh and a lot of people look at it as just the the bubble if you really zoom in on that season and I covered that team very closely obviously that year the Anthony Davis shot really

Well at the tail end of the regular season going into that Bubble Run and then shot really well for the first stretch of The Following Season until he got hurt so it was an extended stretch there where he was shooting the ball really really well and you know one of

The things that happens when you’re a really tall player like Anthony Davis you usually have one of two advantages you either have like a speed advantage or a strength advantage and when ad has one of those two so for instance when he’s playing against a really slow footed Center that

He can just go right around he looks great on the offensive end of the floor when he plays against a a a a particularly skinny Center that he can just Bully under the basket kind of like what we we’ve seen with Chad holgren so many times this year he can have a ton

Of success right but once he runs into a guy that is both stronger and quicker than him which is what sabonis is all of a sudden when sabonis can beat him to spots and with stand the physical onslaught of Anthony Davis in those situations it exposes his flaws as a

Shot maker and Anthony Davis has had little improvements over the years like he’s become a guy that can hit the floater in ball screens around you know 55% right and he’s a guy that can occasionally get to a left shoulder hook as long as the spacing is right and and

Shoot that little hook shot over the top and he can hit it like 50 55% of the time nowhere near as efficient as a yic per se but but at least it’s a shot that he has in his bag but in general as an over the Top Shot maker that’s a

Weakness of Anthony Davis for whatever reason I don’t know if it’s a combination of injuries or just how much muscle he’s put on uh on his upper body even though that’s not really his archetype as a player whatever it is there’s been a lack of development in in

That specific area and you know one of the things that happens in the NBA is especially when you get into games that that carry a certain amount of importance which obviously is in the playoffs but also during big moments in the regular season where there’s like you know especially important game and

The standings and the physicality and the intensity ramps up especially as we saw in general since the All-Star break in terms of the way the game has been officiated around the league just allowing more physicality like the league will find your flaws it’s not about what you’re great at when you get

Into these kinds of games it’s very much about what you’re bad at and that’s the thing like against against Deon sabonis when ad is on offense he sabonis can beat him to spots and hold his ground and so because of that Anthony Davis has to make over the

Top shots to beat him and he just can’t it’s not a strength of his right then when we flip and go to the other end of the floor Anthony Davis has put on a lot of muscle but he’s a high center of gravity guy that was never his Advantage

His Advantage as a basketball player was speed and quickness and skill uh compared to other centers right like that was what made Anthony Davis one of the best young Center prospects in the league it was a speed quickness and skill in addition to his length it

Wasn’t strength and so as ads put on strength it hasn’t changed the fact that with his frame he has a really high center of gravity so even though he’s bigger and longer than DEA sabonis overall as a player sabonis in his low center of gravity can just power through

Anthony Davis and we saw that in a bunch of different ways in this game powering through him on Cuts powering through him on rolls cut powering through him on straight post-ups to the point where you here’s the thing ad was really competing and that that’s what I mean when I say

Matchup related in the sense that like 80 is trying really hard sabonis is trying really hard this wasn’t an thing sabonis is just a bad matchup versus Anthony Davis now obviously sabonis has his own issues when he runs into other really big strong players that have

Really strong bases kind of like what we saw with Kavon Looney and Draymond Green he can struggle to to create the separation he needs to finish around the rim and then all of a sudden that starts to shine a light on some of his flaws right but specifically as we zoom in on

The ad sabonis battle on the offensive end it’s he can beat him to spots and force him to make shots over the top which he’s not good at and on the defensive end he can bump him off of his spot because of his high center of gravity and still fine finishing angles

And then in that fourth quarter run it was a lot of work on the offensive glass sabonis had I think five offensive rebounds in total in the game but he had several uh he had like three in a row there in the fourth quarter where it was like either tap outs or offensive

Rebounds where one of two things would happen either ad would have to help in a ball screen situation or a dribble handoff situation I talk a lot about that bracket of a of a a two-man game coverage right the over the-top guy in the screen Defender as ad has to come

Out that leaves a vacancy for sabonis to operate there and sabonis did a lot of damage to ad there and then in there were two two offensive rebounds in that fourth quarter stretch where ad was engaged with sabonis underneath the rim but once again what sabonis is doing is

He’s basically it’s a rebounding strategy where you’re basically giving yourself a field of of play that’s your side meaning like sabonis will just bury ad up into that uh uh the side of the rim that’s closest to the shooter and he’s basically making it so that any

Long rebound that comes over the top he can disengage from ad and go get the basketball and one of the things as a team you need to do to counter that is crack down from the the perimeter to help ad in those situations and that’s something that the Lakers have always

Struggled with this season so like again a matchup related thing ad struggles with big guys that can kind of fight him offer position and seal off elements of the of the Court where they can offensive rebound and then the Lakers don’t have the perimeter rebounding to

Account for it so that’s kind of an example of the sabonis versus ad element here now secondly the Kings have a ton of speed at the guard position on the defensive end of the floor as well we’re going to talk about offense but I want

To zoom in on the offense on the um specifically when the Lakers are on offense because one of the things the kings are 20th in defense this year coming into the night and they haven’t defended nearly as uh consistently as they need to which is definitely something the Kings have to sharpen up

If they’re going to have any chance to make a deep playoff run right like after tonight they’re now 16 and3 when they hold their opponents to 110 points or fewer and they’re 10 and 15 when they allow over 120 points they’ve always won with defense this year they have not

Been a team that is good at outscoring teams and shootout types of games they’re tenth in offense they’re a good offense but they’re not good enough offensively to do that they have to identify what their strength is like perimeter speed is the best strength of this roster and perimeter speed can be

Deployed in two ways we’ve talked endlessly about Malik Monk and dearen fox and them coming off of these dribble handoffs and their ability to work in the mid-range and their ability to attack the rim and beat guys just off the dribble and straight ISO situations as well and that’s all great that’s all

Great but at the end of the day one of the best ways to deploy perimeter speed is in ball pressure just like and flying around in rotation right and like one of the specific weaknesses that D’Angelo Russell has had throughout his career we saw this in a big way against Bruce

Brown Ina and cavius Cowell Pope in the Conference finals against the Nuggets last year is when you’re a a guard that is quicker than DLo and strong enough to hold your ground against some of the leverage plays that he makes you can really cause him problems and from the

Opening tip of this game Keon Ellis was just up in D’Angelo Russell’s Jersey and then as soon as he stepped off the floor here came here came Davon Mitchell and he did the exact same thing and they were just up in in D’Angelo Russell space being super physical and bumping

Him off his spots and not giving him the kind of baked in openings that DLo is accustomed to operating with he ends up going two for n in the game so like a like like that’s the thing and again DLo has been 23 points per game for like

Literally like two two months now he’s killing everybody again they held the Lakers to 107 points an excellent defensive effort from the Kings the Lakers have been the second best offense in the league since the beginning of February they’ve been the sixth best off in the league since January 7th that’s a

30 game sample size this is an this is an elite offense that the Kings just completely shut down tonight and it’s it started at the point of attack it started with Keon Ellis and Davon Mitchell for the entirety of the game just making D’Angelo Russell uncomfortable and again one of the

Problems with D’Angelo Russell just overall as a basketball player is like he kind of is like James Harden in the sense that in the flow of an 82 game regular season his skill obviously James Harden is a much much better player than D’Angelo Russell I don’t mean to compare

Him like that but it’s a similar issue that James Harden runs into when he gets into the postseason D’Angelo Russell once the athleticism steps up a level the intensity steps up a level the physicality steps up a level and teams are willing to do things like pick up

Full court and ball pressure and and deny and do all that kind of stuff all of a sudden D’s athletic shortcoming start to rise to the surface and again this is why I talk about like the playoffs and important regular season games as like exposers of your flaws the

Reason why they matter is like it’s just like anything else it’s like a video game each level you pass gets harder and harder LeBron said that during the postseason last year every time they won a series he’d be like the next one’s going to be even harder it’s because he

Knows he’s been through this he knows it’s like you every every con consecutive series it’s like it’s another team that has made it to this point that has better Personnel that is better coached that plays harder that is more firm in their details and more firm in their habits and they will expose

What you’re bad at and in this particular game there’s one guy in this matchup that has a significant Advantage we talked about sabonis and how he strugg ad and how he struggles with sabonis we talked about D’Angelo Russell and how he can struggle with the speed

Guards for the Kings even Austin re has shot the three ball really really well uh but this is not a team that he can like really create off the bounce against the way that he can against some other teams although Austin had a great game tonight he had 28 six and four of

17 from the field hit 73s great game from Austin but Austin has struggled in this matchup this year he’s had rough games against the Kings and so we talked about the guards we talked about uh Anthony Davis the one guy who really has a big time Advantage is LeBron James

None of their wings are big enough to guard him none of their bigs are fast enough to guard him none of their guards are big enough to guard him no one can guard it but it requires him to play with a certain level of physical imposition his Advantage there is

Strength and power and for three quarters LeBron was just floating around the damn perimeter and and and content to throw up jump shots and was sloppy with the basketball and to to tie it all together he was also having a bad a bad defensive game I there were countless possessions

In this game where he was ducking under picks on uh uh on Harrison Barnes and letting him walk into three-point shots or or just not paying attention off the ball there was a a big three that I think he Murray hit on the left wing in the third quarter where LeBron was

Standing on the in the dunker spot on the right side of the floor guarding his man the Kings had moved around and every Laker moved and LeBron just stood there and next thing you know there’s a wide open shooter on the left wing because LeBron’s not paying attention and so

Like honestly yeah it was one of the worst games I’ve seen LeBron James play in his time in a Laker jersey and so when you already have disadvantages that you’re working against from a Personnel standpoint with ad on sabonis and with Z and uh and uh um Austin Reeves against

Their athletic and Speedy backcourt and you have this one guy who’s got like this the the tools to really punish this team and he gives you just one of his worst efforts of the Season not just in terms of his a shot making but also just in general with his approach took too

Much of a passive approach on both ends of the floor and you’re just not going to beat a really good team in a must-win setting like this if you don’t get better play out of LeBron James James and Anthony Davis but at least with Anthony Davis I thought he was competing

I thought ad was trying this is just a bad matchup for him these are weaknesses in his game that are exposed LeBron he has the strengths in his game and the lack of weaknesses in his game to attack this team he just needs to bring the requisite level of physical imposition

And he just did not and and and that’s that’s where it kind of turned quickly for them um I want to come back to the Kings a little bit I want to talk a little bit about defense we talked about um how they’re 16 and three when hold

Opponents to 110 or fewer they’re 10 and 15 when they allow over 120 points in this particular game you saw they’re capable of Defending at a really high level Keon Ellis and Davon Mitchell because of what they can do on the ball taking the primary guard it leaves

Dearen Fox and Malik monk to take a matchup like Austin Reeves who is a really good player but obviously he’s not as involved in the offense typically as D’Angelo Russell typically is it’s an easier job right and that’s just that goes down the line to other matchups as

Well when you can throw a Keon Ellis and a Davon Mitchell at a Damen Lillard and you can keep dearen Fox and Malik monk in an easier lower intensity defensive matchup right but it’s that speed flying around on the perimeter it’s rebounding like Keegan Murray had 11 rebounds

Tonight um uh eight of them defensive like that that that to me it’s the wave after wave of perimeter speed for them when they’re defending on the ball being physical in their ball pressure denying off the ball flying around in rotation when they really weaponize their speed

They can be good and like when we you know uh uh when we look back at the offensive end obviously we get seven seven threes out of Harrison Barnes big one there was the Lakers were ducking under picks so uh with the uh with the guards they were chasing over the top

But with Harrison Barnes in particular they were going under and so Harrison got into a rhythm early by basically finding that soft spot right behind the screen as the defender ducking under to go to the other side of the screen and he was just rising in fire firing and so

He got comfortable like that then he started hitting catch and shoot threes after that again Keon Ellis we talked about his defensive effort but he also did a really nice job punishing D’Angelo Russell in this game early for overh helping just sitting in that right corner and being ready to take and make

The big threes in the corner when DLo overh helps um we talked about Keegan Murray hit the five threes also took two super important charges on LeBron the eight defensive rebounds Darren Fox had a bad three-point shooting night but he cooked him in the mid-range and at The Rim like

He always does and you didn’t need him to score much tonight and then you know here’s the thing the Kings have their own issues they’re a little bit matchup dependent too uh like when they face teams with really good perimeter Defenders like Houston like Chicago they’ve taken some

Bad losses and they in the last couple of weeks they’ve lost at home to Houston to Chicago to Miami they have their own matchup related issues right but this type of matchup they can Thrive against they kicked the Bucks ass last night same sort of thing a team that lacks

Speed on the perimeter and they just did a ton of damage to them but like they do have their advantages and so the question is for the Kings just like we’ve talked about with the Lakers and their kind of path their sliver that they can kind of slip through to try to

Make a playoff Run for the Kings it’s consistently defending you have better Personnel than the 20th ranked defense in the league you’ve got guys that can really fly around and make things difficult on the perimeter that has to be something that becomes a part of your identity in the next month uh two

Sabonis has to maintain his element of Rim finishing and the confidence that he’s had in his jump shot this year because that was what hurt him against the Warriors last year right ignoring him in Jump shooting situations and then kind of withstanding the the drop shoulder left-handed finish that sabonis

Can kill teams with third uh Daren fox has to play like a superstar he did for the most part in the playoffs last year this has been the best scoring season of his career I think Dean Fox is encroaching on that Superstar tier he needs to play like that when they get

There and then again Malik monk I thought Malik monk showed that he can succeed in the playoffs last year in the Warriors series obviously they need him to maintain that but if they can put all that together they have a punchers chance just like anybody else after the

Denver and Boston tier uh but did you 20th on defense is not good enough that that’s something that for their personnel they need to be better at on the Lakers front this is just what they are they’re good team but they’re a flawed team I had a lot of fans in my

Twitter mentions being like oh they’re maybe the Lakers are just bad no they’re not they they’re what 12- six in their last 18 games that’s you know two wins for every loss they’re what 19- 12 in their last 31 games they’ve uh started the season 15 and N counting the

Inseason tournament win like they’re not a bad team they’re just a flawed team they’re exactly what they were last year if they catch the right matchups they can beat teams they catch bad matchups they can lose to teams that puts them in that tier with the rest of the teams

Down there but the problem is is because they let their foot off the gas and went three and 10 for 13 game stretch after the inseason tournament they don’t have the luxury of being in a situation where they can have a a a a home playing game

For to win one to get in let alone maybe even is secured in a playoff spot there in the 456 range which they very well might have had if they didn’t let their foot off the gas in such a big way in the middle of the season and so theyve

Now put themselves in a situation they were already flawed they were already matchup dependent but now they put themselves in a situation where they might not even have an opportunity to beat a team four times out of seven because because they mailed in so many games during the middle of the season

Now they’re in the playing tournament you know and like as we look at their kind of personnel situation like LeBron is old and he’s not as consistent as the younger stars in the league because he’s old and because he’s dealing with a nagging ankle injury and like the legs

Just aren’t there like they usually are I mean hell I’m 32 and I feel like my legs are not as consistently good as they were when I was in my mid 20s I can’t even imagine how that dude’s feeling at 39 with all the minutes that

He has on his body right so like that’s just something that comes with the territory right Anthony Davis he is in my opinion firmly one of the 10 best basketball players in the world but he has a significant matchup weakness against big bodied centers that can withstand and his physical approach

While also sliding their feet well enough to make him into a shot maker and that can bury him under the rim on the other end of the floor and then their role players they all have abilities but they’ve got some redundancies right like ruy is more or less the same type of

Player as LeBron DLo is more or less the same type of player as Austin DLo in particular really really struggles with ball pressure and physicality ruy straight up can’t play him in certain matchups defensively because of his inability to navigate screens and defend on the perimeter and so again everything

For this team comes down to what kind of path lays in front of them and at this point there’s so much luck that they need to get in terms of the team they play facing the play in the team they face in the first round it just like

With each passing day it just seems like that window gets narrower and narrower there’s still a path there but like I in a lot of ways I looked at this particular game against Sacramento as a certain like Gateway test like if you’re G to do something in the playoffs this

Is the game you win they beat you three times already uh like you have the motivational Advantage you need the game more than Sacramento does you have the embarrassment like sort of thing going on after everything that’s happened to you against them this season and you go

On the road and your two best players play like crap and you get your butt kicked like that’s that that to me is is one of those things where like if you look back at a team uh that makes a deep playoff run they typically pass tests like this in

The regular season and the Lakers more often than not have failed these kinds of tests and I’m a big believer and like a basketball team will tell you who they are and you know even early in the season when they started 14 15- n counting the inseason tournament win

Even at that point they were winning kind of ugly games they would BS for three quarters and then lock in and win at the end that was how they were winning early they would play bad for three quarters and then come back and win like they were an inconsistent

Effort team from the start so are we surprised that they went three and 10 after after the inseason tournament and immediately relaxed once they had a little bit of success I’m not surprised are we surprised that they’ve been not very sharp off ball defensively which is what killed them tonight getting uh you

Know we talked about the bracket coverages like they constantly were just in predicaments where like they had to bring that third Defender over and then they’d get burned on a skip pass or Lebron would have to come down to box out sabonis and then he’d get burned on

A skip pass and like they just this has been it’s been a consistent issue all year and so again when teams try to tell us who are we got to listen to them uh all right I’m off my soapbox for tonight big win for the Kings kind of just feels

Like that kind of season for the Lakers and I feel like all Lakers fans should adjust their expectations accordingly uh but I do want to just say before we get out of here that I sincerely appreciate all of you guys for supporting the show tomorrow morning we’ll be back with heat

Nuggets and probably one other game uh and then just a typical game breakdown mailbag type of day on Friday so uh I will see you guys tomorrow morning I appreciate you see you then

Jason Timpf reacts to LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers’ 120-107 loss to De’Aaron Fox and the Sacramento Kings. Jason breaks down the game’s biggest highlights and shares his thoughts on both Western Conference contenders moving forward as the NBA Playoffs draws closer. Is there any hope for Los Angeles?

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