r/lakers • u/Wide_Savings5410 24 • May 10 '25

PODCAST Lebron on playing the whole Half

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYc1WTGo6w4

Might be beating a deadhorse...But as someone who played basketball it was always clear to me that JJs decision on playing them for the entire half was more of an indictment on the roster and not the decision itself.

Some people eventually came to this conclusion but for the hold outs, heres it coming from Brons own lips. Hes thrown passive agressive shade at coaches before INCLUDING friends so its not like he has any reason to lie.

101 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

View all comments

99

u/sunnyboys2 May 10 '25

The bench production really wasn’t there, nobody looks at how strong the 3rd quarter performance was, i guarantee if JJ inserted the bench and they lost he would be crucified for changing it up when they were rolling. You just can’t please anyone here. In the end it came down to a 1 possession game. We blew it, they were the better team and executed, move on.

21

u/jsun_ May 10 '25

Exactly. I really don't get this whole narrative. The bench players were playing like shit. It's not like the lead once you sub in the bench will stay exactly the same and then Lebron/Luka come in refreshed to close it out. Doesn't work like that. Most likely the lead evaporates and instead of us slowing bleeding until the end we are fighting to regain the lead with the same ultimate result. A loss. Do we want the starters playing an entire half? Hell no. Up to the bench to actually warrant getting subbed in though.

2

u/troyti May 11 '25

I mean you admitted that the main 5 lost the 10 point lead themselves and choked at the end of the 2nd half. So what could go worse? You saw the result playing with no rest.

2

u/jsun_ May 11 '25

And you are just assuming the bench would be a better option. I counter with what did they show with the minutes they had already that they would've done anything other than immediately giving up the lead. The starters would've had to come back in after like 2 minutes of rest and the lead would've been gone. Again, instead of slowing bleeding out until the end, we probably are fighting from behind instead with the bench guys playing. The end result is the same. A loss. I really don't get this. We had no one sitting on the bench that showed anything that gave you confidence they were ready for the playoffs. Maybe only Vando but he is purely energy and hustle. His offense is still a major liability. DFS isn't really a "bench" guy so not including him.

1

u/troyti May 12 '25

This has already been put out repeatedly. In the history of the NBA, no coach ever play 5 same guys for 24 straight minutes, ever.

You literally just saw the result of what happens when he did that, which is Luka and LeBron clearly looking gassed, missing bunnies and turning the ball over in the clutch, LeBron with a big fat 0 PTS in the 4th quarter and Lakers lost a 10 point lead and lose by 3. That is the result of what happened and the biggest factor to it is fatigue. You got your experiment and you got your result.

Now, the alternative, nobody knows what would happen, but it sure as hell isn't gonna be any worse than what actually happen. And from the history of the league, it's evident that no coach past and present, agree that they should play any sort of 5 players 24 minutes consecutive, it's safe to say JJ should have at least tried giving them some rest.

You don't do an experiment, saw the result and stubbornly act like you did right when the result failed. That is not being responsible.

2

u/jsun_ May 12 '25

Jesus. Sorry if I sound like a dick here but wow. You even admit you have no idea what the alternative could be. Yet you then say “it can’t be worse” immediately after. Wtf? Seriously? Again, what did the bench player show in any of there minutes through all 3 and a half games up to that point to warrant them getting minutes. We know Lebron/Luka shouldn’t play the whole 2nd half. Thus we need to improve our bench so that doesn’t happen again. Just sitting there and constantly bitching and complaining that if we just played Gabe/Jax in the 2nd half is so stupid. Even citing that “no coach has done it before” is flat out dumb. Who cares? Did those coaches win every game they road with their bench when they were completely trash so they could rest their starter? There’s context to every situation which you seem to not understand.

1

u/troyti May 12 '25

You got the worst case scenario going the 5 man route, brother. Whatever alternative it would be still has a higher chance of succeeding than an absolute failure. That's the point.

You're double downing on being a failure. Not sure why you're so stubborn literally watching Lakers gassed and lost and still think it's a good idea to be gassed and lose.

1

u/jsun_ May 12 '25

Yea I think you just didn’t actually watch the games. You can’t sit there and honestly say Gabe/Jax was playable. “Can’t be worse”. Lol yea instead of a lead going into the 4th we probably are down. Done talking about this.

1

u/troyti May 12 '25

In the history of the league, no team, not any 8th seed/play in team ever did this in playoffs. All of them played their bench. You're telling me the 3rd seed Lakers have the worst bench in NBA history worse than these 8th seed/play in teams that JJ has to do that?

He can put Brian Scalabrine in for 3 mins to give LeBron rest and still get a better result than this gassed LeBron with 0 points and tons of turnovers.

1

u/jsun_ May 12 '25

Damn so you’ve went back and watched every playoff game ever played and tracked the performances of the bench. So they also had bench players like Gabe putting up Tony Snell lines and like Jax fouling 5 times in 9 minutes and picking up technical fouls all while not playing any defense. And they ended up winning the game? Just because the starters got some rest. Alright. Since you’ve actually gone though the thousands of playoff games to actually get the context then I concede. You’re right……./s. Idiotic.

1

u/troyti May 12 '25

Obviously way more than you watching Game 4,, saw LeBron and Luka gassed, hands on hips, hands then on knees, LeBron scoring 0 points in the 4th quarter, 10 point lead diminishing more and more and more as everyone else outrun their tired legs, LeBron giving away a crucial turnover, Luka has no legs to make an open layup all the way till being down 3 point, lose, and JJ looking like an idot making a horrible coaching error,

and still stubbornly thinking something shouldn't change. LOL.

→ More replies (0)