Will Jarred Vanderbilt Return? Will Jamal Murray Be Available? Lakers-Nuggets Game 5 Preview!

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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Monday.

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Brian Komenetsky, Andy Komenetsky, game five tonight in Denver ORG. Who's going to be playing for both teams, potential big swings in both directions? We'll tell you about it next.

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You are Locked-on WORK_OF_ART Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers ORG podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network ORG, your team every day.

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Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen to every every day Monday through Friday no matter how or where you get your podcast. This one's always free and never behind a paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube ORG. So we can go hang out with over 23,000 darn near 24,000 now. Subscribers all wondering if the Lakers can steal a win in Denver tonight in game five and send it back to the crypt for what would become a very interesting game six to say the least.Do it allow everybody to know that today's episode is brought to you by a Monopoly Go PRODUCT. I admit it. Andy PERSON admits it. We both have a competitive side. And that competitive side is a big fan of Monopoly PRODUCT Go, the mobile hit twist on classic Monopoly. So join your friends and download Monopoly Go now free on the App Store or Google Play ORG.So, you know, it's still, it's a lot of people sort of dissecting what happened in game three to try to figure out what the Lakers ORG can then put into game, I'm sorry, game four to figure out what they can put into game five. But one of the things that could be very different, Andy PERSON, is the availability of players on both teams. Jared Vanderbilt for the Lakers ORG upgraded to questionable.So he's at least going in the right direction. And this is a major development over the course of the weekend. Jamal Murray for Denver ORG downgraded to questionable with a calf injury. So interesting haps, as the kids might say, in the injury news. Start with Jamal Murray, because obviously he's the bigger name of the two.

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This would obviously be a massive, massive issue for Denver ORG and a massive opportunity, potentially for the Lakers ORG. The report that I saw noted that Jamal Murray had been grabbing at his leg towards the end of game four. I'll be honest, I didn't actually notice it in the moment. There was just so much else going on. And frankly, I was far more concerned about the Lakers ORG business than Denver's business in that moment because the Lakers, frankly, had more at stake than Denver's business in that moment because, you know, the Lakers, frankly, had moreat stake than Denver in terms of this one game. But that being said, a CAF ORG situation could maybe explain why Jamal Murray PERSON has not been, you know, buzzer-beating heroics, classic moment notwithstanding. He's not been himself in this series. He's not been nearly as efficient over the course of entire games. He's had pockets of games where he's been really fantastic. Typically in the fourth quarter,he's had some ability to get to the line, but he's not been making shots inside the arc or beyond the arc the way he typically does.

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And maybe he is dealing with some type of lower extremity issues and explosiveness issues. But the fact that he's been downgraded doesn't mean that he won't be playing,

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but that's never the direction you want things going, particularly with a player who I don't think had been on the injury report at all up to this point.

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And what's really interesting about it is the dilemma. You're right. Jamal Murray PERSON has been more clutch and timely than he's been good in this series.

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And so certainly not to his standards.

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Right.

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In terms of in terms of efficiency.

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And and all of that kind of stuff because like you know, normally Jamal Murray PERSON is, you just he's more, he's only shooting 38% in this series and he's just normally much, much, much, much better than that. You know, and this is, it's a really interesting dilemma for the Nuggets ORG because not to write off the Lakers here, but the Nuggets ORG have not just this series to think about.They have the rest of the playoffs to think about. Like they do not want a hobbled Murray PERSON to be something that they have to deal with going into the second round, into the conference finals, into the finals. You know, they need to make sure he's healthy. And they do have in this series, you know, it was a quick turnaround from L.A. to Denver ORG,from, you know, Saturday to tonight for the game. But they do get an extra day off between games five and game six. So if the Nuggets were to let Murray PERSON rest, then, you know, and I realize what this sounds like. For those of you visiting from Locked on Nuggets, I understand what me encouraging you,the Nuggets to rest Jamalal Murray PERSON, sounds like coming from us. But it does give them, you know, gives them nearly the full week DATE off. And all that. But then it does if you lose game five, you're now getting to at least collar tightening territory going back to a team that is fully confident playing at their home floor to potentially send it back to a game seven. So it's a tough, it is not a cut and dried thing what you do with him.

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No, especially too, the idea that if you just close out game five with Jamal Murray PERSON,

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then he also has a long time to rest. He potentially can have a long time to rest either way.

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It's really a question of what do you think gives him, if not the best opportunity to heal up, the least amount of opportunity to reagravate this thing and make it worse. Right. So it's really like a question of just how bad is this thing? How concerned are they that him playing immediately gives it a greater chance of actually this becoming a thingwhere all of a sudden he can't play through it. And this is no longer a question of what, you know, Jamal Murray PERSON can handle in pain tolerance or, you know, like Kauai Leonard, who has now been ruled out indefinitely for the Clippers ORG, if you watched Game 3, he was actively hurting the clippers. If you watched game three, he was actively hurting the clippers by being on the flooron both sides of the ball. Correct. Hawaii Leonard was bringing them down. So you don't want to be in that type of situation from Denver ORG's perspective. Their hopes are for an extended playoff runwhere Jamal Murray PERSON reaches a place where you really can't put him on the floor, if that were the situation, you would be better off risking game five and still having two more opportunities to run one game.

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I mean, and also let me point this out.

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Our biases aside and whatnot. Right. No, I can see this both directions, but let me point out for the, again, for the benefit of the locked on Nuggets ORG fans who might be peeking in. And a lot of them have.I know. Thank you.

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Some of them just to, you know, make fun, but that's okay.

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Traffic's traffic. View is a view. They don't know.

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It is a reasonable belief on the part of the Nuggets that they could beat the Lakers at home without Jamal Murray PERSON. It is not one of these situations. Well, if we don't play Jamal PERSON,we're pretty much folding up the tent for game five and assuming there will be a game six. The Nuggets ORG could absolutely win that game. They are used to playing without Murray PERSON. It's not like this would be a brand new thing.And, you know, it gives the Lakers ORG a much better chance to win a game that I think Denver will be taking far more seriously and with a greater level of intensity and focus than they had in game four because they don't want to play game six. You know, they don't want to go back to L.A. to play game six. But, you know, I just want to put that out there. The other part of this is Denver ORG could sit him saying there's still a pretty good chance we win this gamebecause we are the defending champs and we're used to playing without Murray PERSON. So I could see them going in either direction with this.

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I mean, what's hilarious about this, and I'm sure all of the locked-on Lakers ORG'

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viewers and listeners are thinking right now,

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of course he's going to play, because everybody who's ever on the injury report with status, if you are a player of notoriety, all-star caliber, all-NBA caliber, or in the case of Jamal Murray PERSON,a playoff effing killer.

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Of course that guy's going to play.

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If nobody ever misses a game against the Lakers ORG, it often seems like.

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If the Bucks want to get Janus and Lillard PERSON back on the floor, the key would be just figuring out how to get a matchup against the Lakers ORG between now and then, because that will magically heal both of them. The other side of the coin here, though, because obviously Murray is the big name, is the ascension of Jared Vanderbilt PERSON from out to questionable. And we've been-

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Skip doubtful.

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Yeah, we just went zipped right past that one. I got your doubtful right here, Jack PERSON. But look, there it went. Entering Doubtville, leaving Downville GPE. And so this would be in theory if Vanderbilt ORG could play. The second straight game, the Lakers ORG have welcomed back a player that has been missing for a very long time.But the context between him and Christian Wood PERSON is very different. And we'll talk about what impact Vanderbilt ORG could have if he returned next.

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Game on. Reminder, the Lakers play the Nuggets tonight at 7 p.m.

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Pacific time game five. Obviously the Lakers ORG have to win, catch every Lakers game on the hometown broadcast with Sirius XM on the SXM app search Lakers ORG.

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All right. So Christian Wood was available, Andy, for game four for the Lakers ORG, and not surprisingly, did not play. He has not played in weeks and the Lakers ORG, I think rightly, chose not to just throw him into game four of the playoffs. And it's like,welcome back. Jared Vanderbilt PERSON has been out not longer, I believe, than more or less the same way. But they're pretty close to each other, both in early Februaryin that Valentine's Day realm. He obviously would be in a similar situation, but I actually could see if he's available to play, I'm not saying he'd get out there and play 25 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever. But I think if he's available, there's a'm not saying he'd get out there and play 25 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever. But I think if he's available, there's a much bigger chance he actually gets out of the floor to play.

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Yeah, absolutely. I think if you can, the difference between, say, Christian Wood and Jackson Hayes PERSON, who is the guy that, you know, is the backup center if Christian Wood PERSON is not available, is, you know, Jackson Hayes, he played six minutes in game four and he's averaging about six minutes a game. Like those minutes, even of itself, they're not, I mean, I think they were consequential enough that I would have, you and I debated this going into game four, I would have liked to have seenHayes PERSON play just because they've been getting killed on the glass and I thought he could help there. He did get three rebounds in six minutes. But ultimately, we're not talking about that large or multifaceted of a role to begin with. In the case of Jared Vanderbilt PERSON, there is a lot that he could provide that they are looking for in different multifaceted ways.And I also think it's really clean to find the minutes for him. Like, you know, I don't think it'd be that difficult. First of all, you just give him Jackton Hayes' PERSON minutes because it's become pretty clear. Darvin PERSON doesn't really want to play him unless he has to. So there's around six or so anyway. I also, Spencer and Dinwiddie PERSON's averaging about15 a game. I would not mind giving Vanderbilt about seven to 10 of those and then divving up the rest between some combination of Gabe Vincent, DeAngelo, Russell, and Austin Reeves PERSON. The idea being A, you go bigger, which I think they're always better off if possible against Denver ORG. B, everydayers have heard me rail on about this for a while. I've wanted Darwin to consolidate the minutes between Spencer Dinwidding and gave Vincent PERSON anyway, because I think trying to play both of them is not giving either one of them enough time on the floor to really catch a rhythm or the other guys to get into a flow witheither of them. I would choose Vincent because I think he's been better. And I think Dinwiddie PERSON, he's not giving them anything offensively right now anyway. So you might as well, again, get bigger, but also with Vanderbilt ORG address some of the weaknesses that they've been having, namely rebounding and physicality. Like he can do certain things out there that Dinwiddie PERSON isn't doing while at worst, also not providing the offense that Dinwiddie PERSON isn't providing.

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I think the big thing, the big difference between like let's get bigger with Vanderbilt versus let's get bigger with Hayes PERSON. I mean, Vanderbilt is obviously not as large as Jackson Hayes PERSON. You're not, it's not the same kind of big. But by Lakers standards, adds a ton of rebounding and obviously length, is that he can do it while not compromising your defensive matchups.You know, he is in theory, and this is a tall order for a guy coming back from an injury, hasn't played a live game in a while. But in theory, you can, you know, he's switchable. You can guard guys on the perimeter. He can, you know, he can chase through stuff better than Rui PERSON. I mean, you talk about players that can, you know, where he can take some of the minutes.I think some of them could come from Rui PERSON, who has not been particularly good, particularly defensively in this series. That's true. And so, I agree with you. It's easy to find the minutes for him. It is a natural fit to find things.The Lakers have responded to Vanderbilt's minutes this year when he's been healthy. I mean, remember there's that first stint when he first came back when he was not very good. And then he finally got healthy after the initial injury, played poorly, got healthy. I mean, remember, there's that first stint when he first came back when he was not very good. And then he finally got healthy after the, you know, the initial injury, played poorly, got healthy. Then he was amazing. And then he got hurt again. And that as much as anything is what I think changed the outlook for the Lakers ORG in terms of their legitimate championship hopes, how high they could rise in the West LOC and all that kind of stuff. But the biggest, the other big reason I think you would see him is just that more than any otherplayer, I think, on this team, Vanderbilt ORG kind of gives them an emotional and spiritual sort of lift that even five or ten minutes of just seeing the guy out on the floor and he's going to make one or two hustle plays or he's going to do something that gets you fired up. I just, I feel like that's got value. You've got to be real careful not to over, you know, lean too much into a guy who hasn't played since February or whatever it is. But I just feel like there are knock on effects with howVanderbilt ORG lifts the group that make it worth putting him on the floor that in ways that no disrespect to Christian PERSON would, they don't with him.

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Well, without reading too much into comments said, at practice and stuff like that, because you know, we're only occasionally able to attend practices because of how infrequently they practice, whether or not they match up to our schedule, stuff like that. But you've heard a lot more talk from other Lakers ORG about what it means for Vanderbilt to return than what it means for Christian Wood PERSON to return. And again, I don't think that's them being dismissive to Christian Wood as a player, as much as it is speaking to how much they miss Vando, how much they want Vanderbilt back, how much they recognize he's one of the guys that helped us reach the point we got to last season.And I've said this many times over the course of this season. His value has been proven by his absence because there's nobody else on this roster. Other than in some respects, Anthony Davis PERSON, there's nobody else on this roster who can do all the different things Vando specifically does in one player. There are a lot of different guys who do a few of the things, but nobody who does all of them. And that's a handy guy to have.

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That the Lakers, I've said this a couple times, but over the course the last few weeks, but that the Lakers are as dependent on Jared Vanderbilt PERSON as they are is a flaw in the roster construction. Like they are more dependent on him than they should be. No, no team, no team that has the sort of aspirations that they have, I think should be other than your, other than your, you know, obviously you're dependent on your stars for certain things.Should be that dependent on a role player because they can't replicate a lot of the skill set anywhere else. It's not a good, there's no, the lack of redundancy in other places on the roster indicates that, that, you know,there were some gaps here. But I will say, of all the things that I didn't quite forecast correctly about this roster, their dependence on Vanderbilt was one of them. I didn't see, I thought there would be more ways. I wouldn't even sure at the beginning of the season,given all the players that they brought in, given Ruiz, you know, big contract and what I thought you might get from Christian Wood PERSON and so on and so on. And so on. I wasn't totally sure there, like if you didn't start Vanderbilt ORG, where he was even going to fit in the rotation, we're hard to get in minutes. Absolutely just spent a lot of time talking about that before the season started. And, you know, just I was wrong about what they needed from him and his impact. And it showed both in his absence, but then in that stretch of whatever it was, 15 or 20 gameswhen he really was playing at a really high level. So I think you'd have to temper your expectations for sure. But if he can get on the floor, I think he plays 10 minutes or 12 minutes. I think they throw him out there and see what you can get because just the adrenaline rush, I think from him playing and whatever. I think you get him out there.You play six minutes in the first half, seven minutes in the first half, get him off the floor. And like maybe you try it again in the second, but hope you get the like, are you plus two in those minutes?Are you plus three? Can you be like, that might be enough to tilt the game. I don't know.

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Again, I, I've thought that he's been extremely valuable all season. I thought he'd be valuable heading into this season. So I think it would matter a lot if you can even get 75% of Jared Vanderbilt PERSON, I think it could be helpful

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for some of the things that they've been missing. And it just, you know, it just, he's so important

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literally for this matchup in terms of how you have to defend. And trying to sort of overcome, allowing you to stay big in ways that you otherwise haven't been able to because Rui PERSON is just so poorly constructed, really, for this series. So maybe a little bit more on that, but I want to talk about the challenge that is in front of them for game five, as well as just a reminder of how good Anthony Davis PERSON has been. That's next.

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Reminder, the Lakers play the Nuggets tonight at 7 p.m. Pacific time game five. Obviously, the Lakers ORG have to win. Catch every Lakers game on the hometown broadcast with SiriusXM on the SXM app search Lakers ORG.

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Spent a little time on a Sunday show following game four, noting the performance of Anthony Davis PERSON and just how good he's been over the course of the series. The Lakers are down 3-1, but they'd be down like 11 and nothing. It wasn't for Anthony Davis PERSON. This would have been Lakers, the Nuggets ORG and 2.30 and a half points per game, 62% shooting. He's hitting 83% of his free throws. He's got 16 rebounds in game, four assists, a block and a half and a half of steel. It is a stunningly good performance that is if the Lakers lose tonight,I think risks getting lost and potentially sort of forgotten, certainly by the national media, who are going to be dissecting this Lakers ORG team, and rightly so over the course of the offseason, we'll be doing the same. But I do think, at least this Lakers team, and rightly so, over the course of the offseason, we'll be doing the same.But I do think, at least among Lakers ORG fans, that there is a recognition that it is not gone well. The Lakers are not getting what they need from the supporting cast, but Anthony Davis PERSON has shown up. And I do get that sense, like reading through the comment section today on the Lockdown-Lickers YouTube page, when we did this, spent a lot of time on this for Sunday, I was really curioushow people would react. And my reading of it was like, no, like, yeah, he's, this ain't on him. And, you know, we will remember that he was present and accounted for in this series. I think it's

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good to see. I hope so. He deserves it. I mean, this is an incredibly difficult

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matchup, not just because of the team that the Lakers are facing, but because AD PERSON is spending

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the majority of his time guarding the best player on the planet and having to account for him at all the times. And Nikoliyokic PERSON is frankly a matchup-proof borderline, if not totally unguardable player. And he's a damn problem. And it's a lot to put all of that in AD's lap while also telling him, we need you to score like 30 points a game and like 15 to 20 rebounds a night and, you know, get your assists up to four or five or game.Just do all that while trying to contain this guy who is basically Magic Johnson PERSON meets LeBron James meets like a middle class man's Dirk Novitsky PERSON. Right.

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Go.

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And I mean, that's brutal.

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Apparently, despite the body type, never gets tired.

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No.

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No, I think it took a long time for people to realize he's not lumbering.

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That's just how he gets up and down the court. Yep.

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It's just the way he does. Some of us work out as much as we can and we still look the way we do. Yeah. I mean, he is, for real.

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Like, he is magic meets LeBron, meets Shaq, meets middle class Dirk PERSON. What the F do you do with that?

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That's really hard. Even MVP WORK_OF_ART awards is apparently the answer to that question.

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Real quick, before we get to just the interesting sort of mental task

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that's in front of the Lakers for game five, we talked about Wood in the context of Vanderbilt ORG,

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but he is not listed at all on the injury report. Do you think he plays in this one tonight? Again, the Lakers ORG need size. Woods performance has been all over the map this year, but he has rebounded the ball well. He at the very least could give you more offense than Jackson Hayes PERSON in six or seven minutes a game if you wanted to try that.Do you think there's, you know, would you put him out there for this yet and played in so long? That's the issue.

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I think it depends on whether or not Vanderbilt ORG plays.

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I think if Vanderbilt ORG plays, the answer is no. I don't think Christian Wood PERSON will play. I don't think Jackson Hayes will play if Vanderbilt ORG does get on the court. If Vanderbilt for whatever reason doesn't play, I think it's possible. Wood PERSON could. I mean, it was interesting that they had them available and didn't play him in game four on the heels of Jackson Hayes not playing at all in game three. I do think it is important that,again, removing Vanderbilt ORG from this, I think it is important that one or the other does play those minutes. I think they need to avoid, or the other does play those minutes. I think they need to avoid, even in the minutes when Yokic is not playing, which have been the ones that have matched A.D.'s minutes, pretty much for the most part, the two have been mirroring each other. I think it is very important that one or the other is out there because even when Denver ORG goes smaller, they're still a pretty big team. And they have been crushing the Lakers ORG on the glass. And it has been really, really hurting them.Like Jackson Hayes is flawed, but he helps in that one area, which is why I thought it was worth playing him even for five or seven minutes, whatever. It's worth it. So if it's, if Vando PERSON doesn't play, one of the others should play. If Darwin wanted to roll the dice on Christian Wood PERSON, I understand.

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Yeah, I can see it's one of these, it's a weird combination. This guy's, I guess gets into a little bit of the mental stuff that Lakers ORG have to get into. It's like, it is a weird combination of like, you don't want to panic and you don't want to start doing crazy stuff. But the same time, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it is a weird combination of like you don't want to panic. You don't want to start doing crazy stuff. But the same time, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's sort of beresting back and letting the game come to you. Like, the, the elimination games are, are weird things. Um, and, and, and figuring out that balance as a coach of how heavily you press on the let's try something different versus let's lean into harder maybe what we've done all year that's made it successful. Give it more time to work. It's just guys missing shots, whatever it might be. And as we all know, Andy, Lakers fans have endless, endless faith in Darwin PERSON's ability to manage that balancing act properly.

Speaker 41867.96s - 1872.1s

I mean, for what it's worth, I would not consider it panicking or tinkering.

Speaker 21872.26s - 1878.12s

I would consider it you are addressing an area of need that has been a problem in this series.

Speaker 41878.28s - 1902.66s

I mean, if we truly don't want to tinker at all, go with the rotation that got you the win in game forward. Don't even play Vando PERSON. I mean, that's not how I would do it, but I'm just saying if you wanted to be that conservative about it, that's what you would do. But to me, if say you decide to give Christian Wood the Jackson TIME Hayes minutes andfor whatever reason, they just decided Vando PERSON is not a go, I would not consider that.

Speaker 21902.66s - 1920.98s

He is question. He may not even be active for the game. We don't know. Exactly. But I'm just saying if for whatever reason he is not an go. I would not consider that. He may not even be active for the game. We don't know. Exactly. But I'm just saying if for whatever reason he is not an option to play, I would not consider playing Christian Wood for five, eight minutes.I wouldn't consider that throwing crap at the wall. I would consider it trying to address the rebounding issues.

Speaker 41922.08s - 1923.3s

So we'll see how that goes.

Speaker 21923.38s - 1988.84s

But it gets to a little bit of just, I find this situation the Lakers ORG are in fascinating because of the same, it's, you know, we did it. Like, you know, well, if they can get through this, what if Jamal Worry doesn't play in game five?Now you're looking at game six. You win game six. Now you're going back to game seven. Now, as far as I know, historically, there's been one series that's gone from zero three to three. And it was that Boston GPE series.But the, like, it's still a long way from that. And usually the reasons you got down 03 are the reasons why the series ends in five or maybe ends in six. But as a player, like athletes are notoriously good, famously good, I should say, at compartmentalizing what they're doing.But to me, Andy PERSON, it seems like a really difficult thing to not look ahead and think of like, we got to do, we've got to win four of them. You know, It's just,it's a really interesting exercise, I think, mentally.

Speaker 41989.84s - 1991.36s

LeBron PERSON after Game 4

Speaker 21991.36s - 1995.26s

phrased this as a one game series for them.

Speaker 41995.8s - 2080.44s

And that really is what it is right now. You know, taking the one game at a time cliche to, I guess, the next logical place,which is treating this like a series of one game series. And in some respects, like, look, there's going to be pressure on them. There's going to be tension. As LeBron said, I think it was after game one or game two, like, there's supposed to be pressure and tension.It's the playoffs. That's the whole point. But at the same time, there can be a part of them that removes the pressure in just acknowledging, look, the odds are so stacked against us. What's the point of worrying?Like, the odds of us beating Denver four times in a row are incredibly small because it's difficult to beat any team four times in a row are incredibly small because it's difficult to beat any team four times in a row. It's the reason why sweeps in the playoffs, even with like one-eighths don't happen that often. You know, a four-game winning streak in the regular season is not an insignificant winning streak. It's hard to win four in a row, much less against the same team four in a row. So I think the same team four in a row.So I think in that in that sense, they can try if possible not to let it seem overwhelming because it's going to be it's going to be so improbable. What are you worried about?

Speaker 22080.44s - 2084.48s

You start to peek ahead and go, oh, maybe we could do this. That's when you lose.

Speaker 42085.48s - 2089.86s

You know, I think that's when you, you know, potentially, you know, I don't know, it could be the thing that

Speaker 22089.86s - 2093.82s

ups you too. It could be the thing that uplifts you when all of a sudden you're like, you know,

Speaker 42093.98s - 2097.56s

we really. Right. But you got to be at the very least, I think you've got to get through this one.

Speaker 22098.18s - 2109.4s

And it's, I think this situation, look, first for the Lakers ORG can, hey, we lasted longer than the suns.

Speaker 42109.92s - 2110.72s

Suns ORG are out.

Speaker 22111.64s - 2113.72s

You know, they got swept.

Speaker 42114.18s - 2119.08s

It's very possible while the end of the game will still be happening while the Lakers are playing in game in game five.

Speaker 22119.62s - 2121.54s

They could outlast the Pelicans ORG too.

Speaker 42123.96s - 2127.62s

And it's just, it's one of these things.

Speaker 22127.62s - 2129.04s

They are good enough.

Speaker 02129.16s - 2132.98s

And I think I, one of the points that I made, we can quit here, but like one of the

Speaker 32132.98s - 2135.88s

points I made following, you know, why game form mattered.

Speaker 02136s - 2139.82s

Why it mattered that they didn't get swept other than like, play for pride and all that

Speaker 22139.82s - 2228.16s

kind of stuff is trying to at least looking ahead to next year, which is still likely where this is going, like the Lakers are going to be eliminated and we're looking ahead to next year. It matters that the Lakers don't look like they can't run with Denver ORG. Denver is going to come out and really try to put this series away tonight, whether Murray plays or doesn't. They are going to be very focused and playing very hard with a lot of energy and a lot of spirit.If the Lakers, if this is a two-point game of the fourth quarter, late in the fourth, this comes down to a final possession, all that kind of stuff, or it's just a highly competitive game, I do, it continues to start to reset where the Lakers feel like they are relative to Denver ORG, you know, going forward. And I just, I feel like this stuff is important. Lakers also need to know how good they are compared to Denver ORG because a lot of theiroffseason changes that they're going to be making this season. You do that with these teams in, in mind. And so I'm really interested to see how this goes. I want, I hope they play a good game. I want Russell PERSON to play well. I want Reeves a good game. I want Russell to play well. I want Reeves PERSON to play well.I want them to go out playing at a high level. And if you lose, you lose. But, you know, that's what I want to see. And we'll, of course, be back at the end of it. Locked on Lakers on YouTube ORG is where you can go hang out, see the show, talk to 24,000.We're just going to round up subscribers to the channel, all of whom are hoping the Lakers ORG pull it out tonight and push it back to L.A. for Thursday.

Speaker 32228.66s - 2229.98s

We will see everyone after the game.

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Speaker 32239.98s - 2242.14s

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Speaker 02242.68s - 2244.84s

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