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 Film Room podcast, brought you by the Blue Wire Podcast Network. I'm Pete, joined by Darius and Mike. And the Lakers got whooped by the Memphis Grizzlies last night after a good win on Friday night over the Atlanta Hawks. And so we're going to talk a little bit about both, but mostly about the Grizzlies game, because I think that that's a game that's more informative than the Hawks game is. And I think that game went the way that it did for three reasons. First and foremost, the Memphis Grizzlies are really good. I kind of gravitate toward them on League Pass because they're a team that plays hard every night.

They execute very well and they have good personnel, right? It's not just a bunch of scrappy tryhards.

Like, these dudes can play. Like, they're going to step into that jumper. Desmond Bain has a

great variety of shots that he can make, just a lot to like on that team on both ends of the

floor. I said this before the last time we played them, you have to bring a certain degree of your best. You have to be sharp against them because if you're not sharp, John Contra is going to dive from the weakside corner and get a tip jam on you. And that's going to be every time. You've got to box him out. You've got to crack down on that every time. And Memphis is really, if they're not playing the best basketball in the NBA right now, they're easily top three. So I just wanted to give a shout out to them. They're really playing great. And I think that if we could, for the sake of preparation, if we could play them 10 more times and still make the playoffs by the end of the season, I think they're a great team to measure where you are as a team against right now.

Secondly, and along those lines, a couple of guys last night I didn't think showed up to play.

They were not ready.

They'd gotten used to, I think, when you play against defenses like Atlanta, Sacramento,

I think Houston was in our run as well. You don't have to be a sharp

like you do against Memphis to get that open three, to get that bucket, to hit that floater.

The whole point of playing defense is to make the offense uncomfortable. And I think that a couple

of guys kind of gotten caught up in that looser, sloppier style of play. And they had to be

more precise and more on it than

they were. And then lastly, I do think that Memphis is a team, Darius, that exposes some

weaknesses in the microball groups. This is never, the no big island thing was never intended

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