Lakers/Pacers Postgame Analysis, J.Worthy, Bron, AD, Reaves, Coach Ham Reactions | March 29, 2024

Lakers/Pacers Postgame Analysis, J.Worthy, Bron, AD, Reaves, Coach Ham Reactions | March 29, 2024

Tough one for the Lakers as their five-game win streak comes to a halt currently two in one on their six game Road Trip and it was a bit of a a tale of two games if you remember between these two teams just 5 days ago the

Lakers get the job done here in La against the Pacers 150 145 and despite them entering tonight the Lakers with the third best offensive rating here in the month of March big game at 120 a game their offense it stalled how about this Not only was this just the fourth

Time being held 100 points this season it was a season low in points at just 90 uh they’re five of 30 from Deep five made threes is their second lowest on the season you tip your cap maybe as Mike trell mentioned it is three and four nights for the Lakers you don’t

Want to make excuses that is only the reality uh but the Pacers certainly capitalized yeah I mean you don’t want to make excuses everyone has to go through that type of schedule at some point and you know I think the Lakers mentally you know they were trying to

Play hard but sometimes you just you know I think being on the road uh I think it caught up with you it’s indicative to me with the five or 30 from three they just could not get close to that and you know uh Indiana played very well they had all five starters and

Double figures and you know they were home yeah you know I don’t like to write off any game but you know the fact that they won two already and they run into a little buz saw in Indiana you know I don’t I don’t want to just give it away

But let’s go to the next one and see if we can get there Indiana’s a good team they play well at home I think when you talk about the three and four nights though you you looked at the three ball as you mentioned they just look short some unar characteristic misses at The

Rim yes uh maybe some heavy legs I I I look at you know ad around the rim he missed a lot of easy shots I look some miscues between AR and LeBron that comes from being mentally tired I I think sometime this late in season when you

Have three games and this many nights it can weigh on you and especially when you go to Indiana Indiana is one of those basketball towns and Indiana these guys they remember two things the last game we played against you and End season tournament so you can see they these

Guys came out with a lot of energy they play with a lot of effort especially TJ TJ came out the bench and he was inspired he went at them tonight and he outscored our bench by himself so that’s one of the things you have to look at

When you are tired as a starting five you need some energy from the bench and the bench for us tonight was kind of lackluster yeah this game reminded me maybe of one in late December maybe after Lakers had already won the inseason tournament maybe early January there’s some of the same symptoms you

Know Lakers outscored by 15 behind the ark D’Angelo Russell not shooting well remember he was having trouble not long after the inseason tournament Lakers unable to establish themselves in the paint so a couple little symptoms that thankfully for the Lakers James they have not been around lately you know

They’ve been hitting their threes DLo has been great they’ve been establishing pretty good presence in the paint so it’s just a one-off in my mind they’re still two- one on this road trip uh we’ll see what Phoenix does in their huge games coming up a very brutal

Schedule I’m not saying goodbye to the Lakers finishing an eighth it would have been a lot more helpful had they won tonight but still you know you take this one you throw it away as Kobe would say you flush it and uh that’s it I I I

Think the next game they play will tell us about this game you know I I think if they come out fresh again playing the way they’ve been playing the last couple weeks it’ll tell us that uh everything we’ve been saying a little fatigued maybe and you got to give Indiana credit

Too they were ready for them you do just to kind of capitalize on that as you mentioned all five starters in double figures uh Tyrese halberton had 218 and 8 he had been struggling obviously trying to get out of his shooting slump that he has been in recently uh but

Nonetheless then you got T.J McConnell with the 16 the plus 20 Off the Bench just tough for the Lakers uh I do want to ask just because Stu mentioned it and you guys are talking about it when you flush it you put it behind you you bounce back you have the three teams

Coming up Brooklyn Toronto and Washington how do you do that as a player understanding at this stage of the game what needs to happen for you first you have to take it that the opponents you playing aren’t that good they’re not even in the playoffs so you

Got to say hey we got to jump on this team early and we can’t do what we did Indi Island just kind of mess around muddle around and let this team stay in and then next time you take the lead because you look at teams like Toronto Championship Cal Washington not so much

But you got and Brooklyn they got one of the know tough young teams so you got to go in there with the might the right mindset and that’s the whole thing when it comes to the end of the year it’s not the physical part of it’s the mental

Part mentally you have to be ready ready for the game you got to be ready for your opponent and know hey we’re a really good team if we jump on this team early and then we can load manage in the fourth quarter which I love because if

These guys don’t do that then they have to play 35 to 40 minutes at this late in the season you don’t want that you set the tone early too I mean I I can remember uh conversations when we would lose a game I mean we rarely lost back

To back but when we did you know as soon as magic or Cooper or somebody as soon as we got on the bus we would call attention to everybody and say look we got to take care of these next two or three we always made it uh a collective

Effort to remind each other we cannot stay in this mode so I I think the Lakers are capable of that this this Laker team they’re they’ve bounced back before I think they know where they are in the standings and they have great leadership in Lebron and so we’ll see

We’ll see they snap back in this next game with the type of uh energy that we they were used to we’ll know that they’ve been on the road that third game was a little tough for them snap back yeah I mean have they not won fight in a

Row and won a big game in Milwaukee a few days ago and followed up with another big game against a poor Memphis team but no ad in that game the Lakers won that one going away yeah the offense has been out of control good for the

Lakers so the fact that they had this output tonight okay you can chalk up to you know bad shooting fatigue uh inability to to establish down low you say all right you know it’s been a good couple weeks for us it’s okay if I’m Darin that’s exactly I’m telling the

Guys hey we we we’ll figure it out in uh in Brooklyn in a few days so you guys know over the course of an 82 Game season you have a couple of these every now and again let’s head back to Indiana Darin ham is speaking with the media

Darin you guys scored 90 points tonight which was a season low I guess what did you was it just an off night offensively or did you not like the flow of the offense or or just what did you make of of the offensive role yeah I thought we

Were you know running in mud a little bit um third game four nights um you know a double OT game in Milwaukee play against physical Memphis Squad you come here and it’s like the indd 500 as you know as fast as they play so

Um it’s a com a combination of of a lot of different factors um you know we trying to post and take advantage try to get work done in the paint and a lot of times you know they jamming us up different schemes showing the crowd just didn’t have a lot of pop on

The offensive side of things and you know guys miss shots some guys miss shots they normally make had good look and just just didn’t go down and a other times you know just us trying to force our will in the poe so to the paint um

You know we got out of rhythm a little bit and so a lot of clock a lot of shots came up against the clock but you know overall we’ve been playing some great basketball you know we we’ll get our treatments we’ll get our nutrition our recovery going um and be ready to bounce

Back on Sunday you mentioned the third game and four nights and you know you put 150 on this team not too too long ago did you see them just defensively intensity wise step up just kind oh absolutely you know they they had bodies flying around everywhere do a great job protecting the

Rim um and again we we we we missed a ton of shots we normally make uh so part of his defense of course and the other part is just us missing shots we normally make um but you know we knew they’d be coming out ready to go uh and

And they were and so we fought as long as as hard as we could and then and then the bottom just fell out so to speak how did you think ad was moving physically coming off of that the game missed with a knee yeah you can tell he he has some

He was running with a little gingerly um it got better in the second half as the game wore on his body got a lot warmer uh but you know my hats off to him kid is a trooper he wanted to be there for his team and he was and he gave all he

Could give and you know that’s why he is who he is he cares you guys said that that stretch in the fourth where you cut it to I think seven I want to say um and then they W on a little run to kind of

Push the lead back up what what did you see kind of in that stretch that sort of turned the game when you guys had seemed like you had some momentum just faster more Pace um something we we really got to lock in on when we play with pace and

We play downhill toward the paint uh we’re very difficult team to stop uh and we just got to be more consistent with that Darin what’s the the Topline item as you start to transition into that Brooklyn game and kind of get a day’s rest and start to think about getting

Trying to start another winning streak as you close the season you know just going back and looking at the film um seeing ways we can get better uh different things that we can do uh to improve upon defensively offensively and and look at the things we we’ve been

Doing well it won’t just be like a oneoff where we just watch this Indiana game we’ll we’ll go back and look at a few games we played here recently and um put together a film for us to watch and again try to grow from and get better

From and you know be ready to suit them up on Sunday go sorry sorry D I apologize if you addressed this already um and never really felt like you guys had the kind of energy or juice that you guys have maybe had over the last eight or nine

Games um anything to that do you think I mean I guess three games in four nights I was just going to say in January like maybe like that this type of stuff happens is it disappointing that you guys couldn’t quite break through it was tough I mean you coming off a a double

Overtime win versus one of the better teams in the league team is top five easily in the league and then you go to Memphis you know had a difficult year with injuries but still play a physical very physical brand of basketball and then you come here and it’s like the ND

500 um these guys run up and down like crazy and it’s a tough team to play uh tough style of basketball to play you know on a third night of a third game and fourth night so so but you know we not going to feel sorry for ourselves

You know give them their credit they played a hell of a game they’re a hell of a team but we’ll go back to a drawing board and try to get better from it LeBron we knew some of the challenges going into this one third and four

Nights he just put 150 on them mentally how do you to try to get over that hurdle going into a game guys not able to tonight uh offensively we didn’t have it going obviously we shot horribly from the three um you know we’ve been shooting the ball exceptionally well from the outside um

You know over the course of the last few months tonight just um we a have it can can some of that be attuned to the legs or did Indy step up the ball pressure is a combination of things um I mean it’s a combination of both you give credit what

Creditors do Indy play well exceptionally well they extended their defense um you know but we miss some some really good looks as well turn the ball over a little bit too much as well three more cities on this trip to get to all Eastern cities of course uh teams

All below 500 what do you guys have to do to just kind of get that that vibe that you had back that’s that right there is not the thinking um that can’t be the thinking saying we playing against all under 500 teams cuz um that

Would get you burnt every time so we got to play our game we got to understand that uh Brooklyn beat us last time when we played him in uh in La so we look forward to to that challenge um they got some guys that can uh can beat you you

Know cam Thomas and um you know Diaz is on the on the squad as well so you know he’s always looking forward to playing us you know Mel Bridges and you know those guys are our Pros just like we are so we better be ready for you know for

That game on Sunday Bron how does fatigue kind of manifest itself in turnovers and do you think that was something that happened tonight well it’s just careless you got to be able to focus and play through it I’m understand it’s three and four nights but no excuse no excuse for uncharacteristic or

Unforced turnovers some of them when you’re trying to make a play to a teammate whatever it gets battered down or you know it’s it’s a it’s a attack turnover you can be okay with those but some of the unforced ones you’re not you can never be okay with that kind along

Those lines you guys to cut it to seven way through the fourth you had a a feed down low you know uncharacteristic of you to lose it out of bounds and then I think the next possession Tyrese overplays you Austin throws it hits his I mean both you not

Getting the first ball and Austin throwing that second ball is not something we see very often um can you just chalk it up to you know a couple poor executed plays can no got execute better um you don’t chalk it up to nothing when you’re trying to be

Great so we got to be Better you guys have played with the right sense of urgency I think over the last couple weeks um did you feel any l in urgency tonight would do you think you guys let your guard down at all or was this know not against them you can’t

Let your guard down vers them we know what type of team they are type of ball they’ve been playing all year so you can let your guard down vers them I just think we didn’t uh we didn’t have the energy that we’ve been that we’ve had

Over the last few weeks we don’t know when yet but you know Gabe’s back with the team sounds like he could return at some point what could what he does Aid your guys second unit um I really don’t even want to get into it too much don’t put too much

Pressure on him when he’s ready to go you know it’ be a bonus for our team but you know he’s been out you know for quite a while so you know uh whenever he’s ready we’ll be we have we welcome him with open arms he’s a brother of

Ours he teammate of ours and you know we were waiting on him but um at the end of the day we put no pressure on him so you take his time thanks elj talk a little LeBron guys tonight 16-10 two assist shy of a triple double played

35 minutes a lot of talk certainly about his minutes in usage here down the stretch with eight games to go um like a lot of guys the three ball wasn’t there he was 0 for three but you okay with yeah he looked okay I mean yeah he looked okay didn’t injure himself didn’t

You know pull up with anything like that I mean you know look LeBron you know he plays hard every night but just didn’t have enough in the tank for collectively tonight so we’ll see how he pick up the pieces next game you know it’s so funny we we grade him

Sometimes so hard out of everybody in this league this the one guy if he ain’t got no legs one night I’m good with it you know you think about you know you just don’t want this to happen in the playoffs but there going to be those nights where you can do everything

Mentally physically and the body just won’t respond but I still think he still had a good game he had a couple turnovers him and allus down the stretch but that happens when you play on a team that wants a get back game but I I I if

You watch it overall I didn’t see him on the bench like huffing and puffing like I seen him before like last season where he was tired I think he’s in good shape I think he’s fine are you tired from running around post or pregame on pre

How are your legs good I’m good tired he’s still pumped up got extra $100 in his pocket the only thing I will add in terms of LeBron James how about this tonight marks his 65th game played here he is in season 21 at 39 uh years old I

Think he’s grandfathered in to the uh postseason in award situation where you have to play 65 games uh but nonetheless all NBA 19 seasons in a row and tonight he hit that Mark uh to make no one question it with eight to go so you’re

Right if he if he has a tired night it’s okay he pass ad returned from a one- game absence put up 24 and 15 in the loss he’s with Mike ad first of all just checking in on how you felt physically 52 minutes we know didn’t play in the

Last game and then you know played a good chunk of minutes tonight how did it feel out there um still sore uh took me a while to kind of get into the game just cuz uh you know feeling it in a lot of plays but I’ll be all right you’ve had a lot

Of stuff that you’ve been battling through throughout the season you’ve been top 10 in the NBA in total minutes is this another thing that you’re going to have to play through do you feel like it’s something that could get better in a couple days uh get better in a couple days uh nothing

Ser excuse me nothing serious um that’s what I play tonight I feel I can play through it um so there’s nothing that I uh plan to you know miss any more games for or have to be on a like minute restriction or anything of that nature LeBron had

Mentioned that you you know you can’t look at this next three stretch of teams is you know under 500 anything like that you have to approach each one of them seriously um coming off of a loss how do you just get back into the Rhythm that

You were in as you get to Brooklyn uh the team to our team yeah your team yeah yeah um just go out and compete uh like we’re a little slow today uh both ends of the floor it’s not like us um Turned the ball over quite a bit tonight and that’s

What they feasted off of um you know we fou a lot tonight let them guys get to the line um but learn from it get ready for Brooklyn like you know you said Braun said we can’t look at it as um you know under 500 team you know they they play

Good basketball uh they got a lot of good players uh you know we have to come in with the mindset of a must win um for us and just to get back on track and the win colum and what ways do you notice when when you guys don’t have the the

Right energy like what ways does that for you on the court that you see uh not helping each other defensively so a lot of times um we didn’t uh get back in transition somebody stopped the ball and another guys is wide open got to the backs before EAS lay up or dunk

Um guys are just blowing by us not rebounding they getting offensive rebounds then offensively you know guys are hesitant um you know are we turned the ball over a lot tonight overthinking you know trying to make the right play but just overthinking but I think when I can tell is from the

Defensive end of how we playing defensively are we helping each other are we covering covering up for each other are we talking um and uh that wasn’t the case tonight did you ever figure out what play you kind of bang your knee up on and that was it the Middleton play or did

No the juice of playing at M Garden kind of goes without going to New York what’s the the feeling of going to play at Barclays Uh playing at barlay I mean obviously there a difference you know it’s the garden right um when it most historical Arenas in all the sports and just a little different play playing in Staples crypto uh I don’t know if the feel it’s a little different for away teams when

They come to crypto though cuz the name name change I’m not sure but it’s kind of like the same thing right um but it’s a definite r i mean it doesn’t actually hold the same weight as the garden but uh you know in the arena you

Know I go in look playing on the road here in teams you know boyu most of the time where we go um besides a couple Arenas we usually have a lot of fans where they cheer for us so uh but it’s always fun playing baray for sure thanks

Lady oh TK one more sorry want it no okay oh thanks I was going to be respectful um at this time of uh at this time of year um does it feel like anytime you guys lose it’s a a wasted opportunity considering where how you guys are trying to climb and yeah um

It’s not about that I mean teams can play well and beat us I think is the way you know we lost tonight which is is a wasted opportunity um you don’t shoot the ball well you can’t control that but we didn’t play well defensively uh turned the ball over

Um wasn’t getting back in transition so the way we lost uh I think what the waste of opportunity is at you know um like I said we could have play great basketball and these guys just could have shot the ball extremely well you know you tip your hats off to

Him but um you know we didn’t play a basketball on either the end of the floor and uh so that’s the that’s a tough part and that’s where the waste of opportunity comes in at thank you thank you 24 and 15 for ad coming off a night

Where he set out versus the Grizzlies on Wednesday played 38 minutes I think the biggest thing coming from that big game is the simple fact he said with eight games to go he doesn’t plan on missing any games or being on a minute’s restriction that’s a good sign for

Anthony Davis yeah when you’re in a Groove and he’s been working on his longer than you know half the season you know over the summer new program trying to get stronger so he can push through but he’s he’s learned how to push through injuries and get his rest to be

Available uh when they need it I think a lot of times when as a player when once you get into a rhythm you don’t really care about the minutes you just want to keep playing keep keep that Rhythm if you think about all the guys on this

Laker team this guy’s had a rhythm pretty much from the day one he’s been playing really well you know he always knock him by getting injured hasn’t had any injuries major injuries and so he’s been able to keep that energy up physically his mind has been right because usually when you know your

Career has been riddled with injuries you can see him thinking about it he doesn’t think about it he said he just want to play basketball be there for his team and I applaud him this year because there’s so many times in his history in his past where he like no let me make

Sure I get a little bit better but now he’s out there for his team Austin how much do you put things like you know the the whole team struggling to hit threes or some of the Force turnovers on a on a fatigue level third and four nights

Having just beaten the PS all that you know versus kind of frustration with execution uh we just got to be better uh I got to be better I have five turnovers um that’s you know uncalled for and I know everybody goes through you know back to back quick turnaround so

Just got to be better um as a team you know I got to be better individually and uh yeah flush it move on you did have 13 rebounds uh some you know verticality has been working for you defensively seems like that’s picked up of late has there been any additional Focus for you

On doing things like that and just other things from the you know the scoring and assists and St uh no just trying to compete to win games uh going into every one of these games just you know um a must win you know but that’s basically

My mindset going into every game is go out there and compete 110% to um you know come out with the win and you know tonight it wasn’t good enough a how does fatigue affect decision- making in terms of execution and and did you feel that do you think tonight for for for this

Team uh without making excuse of course but uh I mean I I think if you’re mentally strong yeah you’re tired and you know you’re tired but you know we’ve played in a million games where you’re you know tired competing you know uh as hard as

You can so um I don’t really think it you know plays that much of a factor uh you just got to keep your mental strong there are nights where we hear it all the time over the course of season like we’re guys will we just didn’t have it

Like you reach for energy and it’s just not there um did it feel like that at all tonight in some ways I think that LeBron kind of was to energy as being kind of just like absent uh yeah uh you got to find it somewhere um but

Like you like you said you know Braun said that you know I just don’t think we found it at any point I thought that uh coming out of the fourth quarter we made a uh a quick little run that if any time was the time then right there was the

Time that we were going to you know uh pick it up and uh run with the the momentum and energy that we had and then uh I had two bonehead plays um you know back-to-back turnovers uh one led to um I think a layup or free throw for them and the

Other one I just you threw out of bounds um so I think if you know I’m better in those situations then maybe that momentum you know continues to grow and then we catch that Rhythm uh but yeah sometimes it’s it’s hard hard to find

And you got to figure out a way to find it not to harp on that but you brought the turnovers in those two in particular but they were like very atypical though like one it seemed like LeBron kind of missed time to jump or something like

That and then the second one you know Tyrese over played the passing Lane but it’s not a pass we normally see you make but did did it feel like you know it even though it’s a full game like it may have come down to a couple plays there

Yeah for sure I think those two plays right there were um two huge play and you know that’s on me um the one the first one uh I should have thr the lob I went up for the floater and uh n Smith came forward so I

Brought it down and tried to wrap it around to him but he had already jumped so when I threw it it was you know basically at his knee so he couldn’t catch it uh and then the second one I just thought he was about to uh quick

Repost and it was really just you know um too bad plays on my part but just two kind of different thought processes uh between you know us two and like I said that those were you know two big plays and I got to be better nothing frustrates Austin Reeves

More than losing man no doubt what’s on the what on the docket for us you know what I feel like it’s silver lining time right obviously a setback for the Lakers but if you look at the schedule coming up Rob here’s where you’re going to come

Over here and uh box me out from saying this but these are the definition of winnable games you’re playing an opponent with a god- a a record meanwhile the Phoenix Suns to the Lakers Trail by two games Sun’s getting drilled tonight in Oklahoma City tough next

Three for them they are at New Orleans then they come home and they play Cleveland and Minnesota so what I’m what I’m lining up here is Lakers have a chance over these next three games to make up uh those two games that they Trail the suns in the standings by are

You taking notes Rob no I’m just looking at how bad the Wizards are they’re bad aren’t they yeah they’re the worst team in basketball yeah I feel bad for a guy CZ p i don’t P has not been a good uh offensive player for them I like when

You put those two players together p and Kyle kman you get the pool Koozie so there you go I am going to tell you this though the Nets beat the Lakers kozi the Nets beat the Lakers the Raptors lost to the Lakers by one in January and the

Wizards took the Lakers to double overtime I see what you’re doing I’m sorry not double overtime to overtime yeah you can’t look past them it’s it’s it’s the name yes on the Jersey and it’s a big game unfortunately for the Lakers it’s a big game every Arena regardless of the the record or

How poor the team is they want to be ready uh against the Lakers so that’s just one extra battle you have to you know fight against when you’re the Lakers you have to be ready mentally every night there so many teams they don’t care you can play everybody in the

League but when you play Lakers uh uh experienced it all those years no matter what time of the year you know te teams get up to play the Lakers so LeBron said it he already planted that seed he did not like the question he was asked tonight by the

Report that said hey you know these are winable games just you’re going to win him right LeBron’s like hold on a sec so definitely that’ll be a big talking point for the team over the next four or five days

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