Lakers-Nuggets Reaction: Anthony Davis & D'Angelo Russell "disappointing" LeBron | Draymond Green

Welcome to the brand new Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our content. Nuggets are ahead 3-0. The Nuggets should not be ahead 3-0. The Nuggets are ahead 3-0. And when the better team is ahead 3-0 and they shouldn't be ahead 3-0, that's a problem. Because that means that you lost a game that you should have or could have won. And you're already kind of outmatched anyway. Like I think, I don't think any of us do not think that Denver's a better team than the Lakers. However, I think all of us thought anytime when you have LeBron James on the floor, you know, they have an outside chance. And they had that chance and in game one, had a lead and it evaporated fast and the game got outta hand. In game 2, had a lead even longer, up 20 points most of the third quarter until the lead started to go away as a whole. Most of the third quarter was up 20 points and then you lose that game. And that was the gut punch. Like—

Yeah.

Game 1, you're there, you're ahead first half, going to the half with the lead because they've done that all 3 games, and you lose that game. All right, cool fellas, you know what? Listen, we on the road, we know what we came here to do. The goal is to come here and win 1 game. Not necessarily win 2. Would be nice to win 2. Probably not gonna win 2 against a team like Denver out on their home court, but you know what? "We came here to win one, we can still do that." So you hold on to hope, like you hold on to it and you go into game 2 feeling good. And because Denver mopped the Lakers in game 1 after all, I think they end up winning that game by 15+ points or something of that nature. You know, you come in like, "All right." Yeah. We're pissed off now because we got mopped a little bit game 1. We gotta come back and redeem ourselves. And so the Lakers are feeling good coming in the game 2. Like, you know what? If we stop that run or this run, we good because we play. And so you got something to hold on to. Then you come in the game 2 and you get up 20 points. And when you're up 20 points and you look over at the other team and they're just like, ah, like, all right, here we go. And they're not fazed at all. They're not bickering at each other at all. They're not doing anything outside of, "All right, fellas, let's go. All right, one play at a time." Like talking to each other like nothing, no problem. And you see them being unfazed by that lead. And then you see the lead start to go. And then you look up. And you lose a game in which you were up 20 points, 101 to 99. And that, my friend, on a Jamal Murray step back going right, when he struggled most of the game, got it going down the stretch, and you lose that game on a buzzer beater, that is the gut punch.

Yeah.

And so the Lakers deflated going back home. Gotta be deflated because one game, and for sure you should have won, where you were 96.5% favorite. I mean, at one point in the game, there was a 96.5% chance that you would win that game and you lose that. So now you go home 0-2 against a team that you now lost to 10 times in a row. Including 4 times in the playoffs. And that's almost impossible to come back from. But nonetheless, they do have LeBron James, who's seen everything and been through everything. Anthony Davis, who's a top 75 player in NBA history. So, you know, you like, they can rally because they've seen it. And they do rally. They come out, they take the lead, feeling good, going to halftime again with the lead.

Yeah.

However, you go into halftime up 4 and everybody on the Lakers team, everybody in the Lakers organization is looking at each other like, this is it. Because it's like a boxing match. A lot like one we've seen this past weekend, Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, where Devin Haney caught Ryan Garcia with a couple shots. And in that moment, the fight ended because Ryan Garcia knew at that point, and possibly even before the fight, when you look at all of the things leading up to the fight, that if Devin Haney gave me his best shot, it couldn't hurt me. Can't hurt me. So from that point on, when Ryan was serious and locked in, he was just pressing forward. He was on the gas, he's moving forward the rest of the fight. Why? Because even if you catch me with your best shot, you can't hurt me. Like if you absolutely catch me with your best shot, you can't hurt me. How do I know that? Because you already did and I ate it. And that's what the Denver Nuggets are, and the Los Angeles Lakers are going through right now with the Denver Nuggets, which is, You've given us your best shot and it can't hurt us. So when you give us your best shot, because you're a team with pride, because you're a team with champions on there, because you're a team with all-star superstars, all top 75 NBA players in history, arguably the greatest player in NBA history, because of that and all of those factors, You still hold out some level of respect, hold on to some ounce of respect, but ultimately knowing we can press forward because their best shot can't take us out. They go up 20, be up 20 midway through the third quarter, their best shot can't beat us. So from that point on, we see no competition. And that's where Denver's at with the Nuggets. Needless to say, this series is over. Will it end in 4? It should. I do not doubt that Denver would end the series in 4. But if they do not end it in 4, it's for damn sure over in 5. Because you got Joker last night, 24, 15, and 9. And in game 2, he had 29, 20, 12. Yeah. And 11 assists or 12 assists or something of that nature. And I must say, I was very disappointed in AD's statement after the game. When AD came out after game 2 and said, sometimes we don't know what we're doing on the defensive side of the ball or the offensive side of the ball. I was disappointed in that. And the reason I was disappointed in that, got a lot of love and respect for AD, Lot of love and respect. Go back to being drafted together, both being clutch athletes. I'm always tell it like it is, tell it how I see it. And I was just a little disappointed in that statement. Number one, Darvin Ham was a player. Darvin Ham is a Black man. Yeah. And to just throw him under the bus like that, I didn't like, I didn't appreciate it. I didn't respect it. I could be a little biased 'cause Darvin Ham is my OG, Saginaw, Michigan. So I could be a little biased, but in this case, even being a little biased, I like, I got love for both of those guys. So it ain't even about being biased towards one side or not. 'Cause I got nothing but love for both of them, both parties involved. But the problem I have with the statement is like, did you not know what you were doing up 20 midway through the third quarter? And then did the game, did Darvin Ham come into the huddle and say, all right guys, we're up 20 points. Let's change the game plan now, right? Like let's change it to away from this thing that's got us up 20 points and let's go, Here, do this. And which has not been proven that it's gonna work because what we were doing was working. It got us up 20 points. Also, we had a lead in the first game. They kind of switched their defensive game plan between those two games, games 1 and 2. But if Darvin Ham didn't come in the huddle and say, all right guys, we're completely changing what we're doing on both sides of the ball, how all of a sudden do you not know what you doing on both sides of the floor? Because that same game plan did get you a 20-point lead. And so I was a little upset with AD because as players who's been in these situations, who's won championships, like, yes, at some point throughout the game, while up 20, Mike Malone could make an adjustment, which would require at some point, the Lakers to make an adjustment. However, from being up 20 points halfway through the third quarter and the end of the fourth quarter, the adjustment that they make shouldn't cover 20 points. Not when you have Anthony Davis and LeBron James. Because even if Darvin Ham don't make an adjustment, um, to their adjustment for those last 18 minutes, what I will say is, sometimes coaches do struggle to make adjustments in, during the game in these playoff series. Mm-hmm. They go back to the film, they watch it, and they're locked in. There's been times throughout the course of our playoff run where we're in a game and at some point throughout the game it start going wrong. And maybe Steve doesn't make the adjustment right in that game to like dice up whatever change it is that they did. Maybe he don't make it in that game. One thing's for certain, when we come back to that next game, The adjustments that Steve is gonna have is gonna be outta this world. We gonna dice up whatever that thing is that they started doing. And then it's a game of adjustments, right? And so sometimes your coaches don't necessarily make the adjustment right there in that particular game. But with Anthony Davis and LeBron James on the court, I don't really care if they make the adjustment or not because those two guys are good enough with a 20-point lead to, to get you home.

Yeah.

They are. Even if that's LeBron, like, you know what? We're getting to this every time. So I didn't really have a strong appreciation for AD saying that. I think AD is one of the more respected guys in this league, from how he carries himself to being at that level of play for this long, it's in year 12 now. Like all of those things. And I think we all say some things that we could wish we could take back at times. And I don't doubt that AD looking back at that wish he could take that back. And I know the type of guy that AD is. I know AD stand on business, you know, raised by his father. Yeah. Grown man, great man, stand on business. I personally believe AD would want to take that one back. And I know everybody jumped on him like, oh, this, that, and the other, and AD— I'm gonna give AD the benefit of the doubt here. I too didn't love the statement. It's emotional game. Nobody really ever wants to take the emotions into it. Everybody want to act like We're robots and we don't have emotions and we don't sometimes get beside ourselves. And so, felt for Draymond Green in this situation. Not totally holding it over AD head, like, "Oh man, he's a quitter." Like, yeah, he blamed somebody and he shouldn't. I'm never, me personally, I never really wanna put the blame on anybody else. Even if it wasn't my fault, I am more along the side of, if I go in this press conference, I'll take the fall, I'll take the hit, and we'll figure it out. So I try to steer along that side. Like I said, it gets away from us all at times. Very emotional game. Lose game 2 when you know you should have won game 2, and now you going home, know it's an uphill battle from there. Emotions running high. Wanna win. Lost to this team 10 straight. So I'm giving AD the benefit of the doubt. That was an out of character moment. And we all have them. That's not gonna determine what I think on AD, who Anthony Davis is, doesn't change his legacy. All of that garbage talk, we not on that. But I will give you something. I haven't checked this stat in 2 years. I am pretty sure it is not far off from what it was. 2 years ago when we played Denver in the playoffs and we beat them, I think it was the first round, possibly second round, whatever it was. There was a stat that we kept and we looked at that stat every single game. And I'm pretty sure every time it was true, which was if Joker has 6 assists or less, they lost, call it 40%, they won 40% of the time. Call it something like that. 2 years ago, I'm not gonna have the exact numbers. If Joker has 6 assists or more, They won like 83% of their games. So we're going into that series like, yo, you need to do this on defense. You need to do that to not give up this back cut, to not give up that cut, to not give up the late pass for the layup. All of these things, it's the game plan. And sure enough, you can go right to Joker's assists pretty much the whole series and say, oh, we lost that game or we won it. And yes, it wasn't exactly accurate, But the moral of the story is in that game that we were just speaking of in game 2, Joker had 10 assists, 11 assists, 12 assists. Last night he had 9. In game 1, pretty sure he had more than 6 assists. So look no further than Joker getting everybody else involved. Don't look at Joker's points. For instance, last night he had 24, pretty much had less than 20 most of the game.

Yeah.

Draymond Green scored a few buckets down the stretch late. No problem. The other night he had 29. No problem. Look no further than the assists though. You go look there and you can see because everybody else gets involved. And if he's scoring, he gonna score. So if he's getting everybody else involved and scoring and rebounding, it's a problem. It is a problem. Now, what I will say is in this series, you can definitely see the flaw in the Denver Nuggets as opposed to what they had last year. That is their bench. Bench not great. I've always said championships are won 6 through 10, 6 through 11. They're not won 1 through 5. And Denver, as they show you and as we know, Their 1 through 5 is great. Incredible. 6 through 10 still needs some growth. And so if there is something where you can pry on them, it's not necessarily that you're gonna get, it's not necessarily that you're going to get 4 or 5 bench guys in at a time at this point in the season. It's not gonna happen. But when they start plugging away and taking certain guys out, you gotta be ready to go. And if you're the opposing coach, Your lineup, your lineups should be as such. You now know the combinations that they are playing. When they play this combination, we know we can pounce on that combination with this lineup. And we're going to this lineup to take total advantage of that group while Joker not on the floor, while Draymond Green not on the floor, whoever it is. We know we can take advantage of this group in this way. And that's what you have to do against a team like that. Because they don't have many weaknesses, but the one weakness they have is their benching. You need to exploit that. Now I saw Reggie Jackson, um, banged up. Not sure where that's going, but that's— I mean, I don't think Reggie Jackson at this point in his career is near as good as Bruce Brown was for them last year. So it's already a drop-off. And if you then lose Reggie, that's an even bigger drop-off. You have to be ready to pounce on those lineups. Yeah. Have to. Love Peyton Watson, love the growth. You gotta be able to pounce on the lineup when he's in, when Christian Braun is in, when DJ is in, because it's just not as strong as the lineup when they're not in. So you gotta find weaknesses. No disrespect to those guys, but you gotta find the weakness in these series. And right now, the only weakness that Denver has, it looks like, is their bench. So how do you take advantage of that? And I think that's what the Lakers gotta figure out. We talked about D-Lo before. I thought it would be very important how KCP came out and started this game. I thought in game 2, they were picking on KCP, which was shocking to me. You know, they hit a couple shots on him and then all of a sudden it's like, It looked like everybody was like trying to get the switch on KCP. KCP's a great defender. And KCP screwed up the beginning of game 2. He gambled for a pass and D'Angelo Russell caught it. Nobody in front of him, walked into a 3, which then led to D'Angelo having a night. Nuggets had to overcome that night. Guess what? They should have won that game. I told you, D-Lo play well, they can win. D-Lo don't play well, no chance. 0 points last night, 0 for 7 from the field, 0 for 6 from 3. Little disappointing in D-Lo not being a part of the huddle. Again, I'm on this theme of as athletes, man, we can always look to blame somebody. Never look no further than yourself. Never look no further than yourself. Darvin Ham ain't go 0 for 6. LeBron James ain't go 0 for 7. So from the field. So look no further than yourself, man. You got to, you gotta look in the mirror in these situations. Champions look in the mirror. Non-champions look elsewhere. D-Lo gotta play better. It's just that simple. To me, after seeing that last night, I personally think probably checked out. At this point, it's unfortunate to see after the season, the second half of the season that D-Lo had, it's unfortunate to see this Not that he's playing bad, but because, you know, you see the body language now, you see the comments now, and it's like, you kind of got over that hurdle through the trade deadline stuff, you know? So when you come into these playoff series, yeah, you may not have a game 1 or a great game 3, but it's a 7-game series. So if you stay locked in, you get more opportunities to have those games that you want to have. When you let go of the rope, It's a tough one. And right now it looked like the rope has been let go. I don't think it's impossible to grab the rope again. I do think it's impossible for them to win this series, but I don't think it's impossible to grab the rope. But right now to me, kind of looks like the rope has been let go. Unfortunate, sucks. Absolutely sucks. As I told you before, D-Lo must play well in order for that team to win. And right now they're not getting that. I also wanna mention before we get off this game and move on to the next one, Aaron Gordon's play.

Mm-hmm.

Told you all before, the respect that I have gained for Aaron Gordon and watching him in the series against us in 2022 and the player he has grown into since then. My respect level shot through the roof because that's a guy that took failure in a series and grew and said, that'll never happen to me again. And it has not. 29 points, 15 rebounds on the road. Road players don't play great on the road. Let me tell you that. Road players don't play great on the road. You can book it. Yeah. Not this time. Aaron Gordon stepped up. 29 and 15 on the road in the game where you were down 20. I'm sorry, they weren't down 20 in game 3, but in the game where you were down, everything going against y'all and you come out with 29 and 15, man, much respect to Aaron Gordon. Aaron Gordon has found his niche, has found his role. He don't overdo it. He's played next to Joker and Jamal Murray. And he getting the scraps. And guess what? You gonna win a championship, you better have somebody that's getting the scraps. And Aaron Gordon is doing that. And Aaron Gordon, the floor spacing that Aaron Gordon creates being in the dunker, I told y'all, it's no different than the spacing that you get with Klay Thompson on the wing. 'Cause if you step up, that lob is there. And they're gonna complete that 90% of the time. So you can't step up and leave his body. Well, guess what? You got Joker floater, you got somebody trying to pinch in because you can't step up, Joker kicking out. It's tough. So what Aaron Gordon does for their spacing, forget the 29 and 15, I know everybody gonna see that. And then if he have 8 next game, be like, oh my God, I told you he couldn't do it again. No, no, no, no. Forget that. What he does for the spacing of the Denver Nuggets It's like what a shooter does on the wing when he's in that dunker. Can't help. So brings us to the question of, will LeBron James ever win a championship again? I've been seeing people like, oh, LeBron, Steph, and KD, they'll never win a championship again. It's 10 rings and that's it. Blah, blah, blah. Number one, 10 rings is a lot. Let's stop talking like that ain't a lot. It's crazy. Even amongst 3 guys, that's a lot. If you took the average of that, gives you 3.33 rings per guy. That is still 3.33 rings more than 87% of the people that played in the NBA in the history. So stop. Will LeBron James ever win a championship? With this current Lakers team, I don't think so. I think it's gonna be tough. Can LeBron James win another championship at the level that he's playing at? Absolutely. But I think some things have to be retooled and figured out. And not with this current team, I don't think it's possible. But I don't think it's impossible for LeBron to win another championship.

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