What do you think about the Laker team now?

You follow the box scores of the games every day?

Just the Lakers.

You're kidding.

That is really a compliment.

I was pleased to see you smile at the top bar show

because once the game starts, you have a game face.

You don't smile much out there.

I don't think you have to do things for money

anymore. Correct. What's up, Laker fans? Welcome to the Laker Filmroom podcast, brought you by the

Blue Wire Podcast Network. I'm Pete, joined by Darius. And today we start the second half of the

Lakers season. But we're going to start on the pod here with a more specific topic. And the reason for it is that it branches out into a bunch of other ones that I think are really important for this team. I think the most crucial area where we need significant improvement for us to be a contending team is in our closing lineup. So much ink is spilled about starting lineups and who's a

starter, who's not. But your most important lineup is your closing lineup. And that's been

somewhere again where the Lakers have struggled. And a central figure within that over the course

of the first half of the season has been Russell Westbrook. In several games, teams have put their center, a big man, a slow-footed big, on Russ, and just not guarded him, right? And he hasn't shot particularly well. And in a broader sense, the Lakers offense has kind of fallen apart in a lot of those games. That said, it's not the only issue that the Lakers have had with their closing lineups. One of the things they've done is, okay, we're just going to bench Russ in those situations.

And one of the things that has happened in those points is we really get outmuscled.

Because for as much as the last five minutes of a close game is not the wide open, high-octane style that Russ thrives most in. And it's not,

and it's somewhere where you definitely want LeBron James to have the ball. The last five minutes

of a close game is also a rock fight of sorts. It's when everybody's playing their hardest.

Everybody's rotating. Everybody's crashing down for that crucial defensive or

offensive rebound and possession. And it can it can have more of these kind of chaotic

type of possessions that I think Russ is actually a huge asset in. And so that's kind of where

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