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  • We had an MBA Finals preview last night and we got LeBron James.

  • Pardon me and the Lakers taking on Harden and Kyrie and the Nets.

  • No, a d no k d.

  • But the Stars were out, particularly for Brooklyn, Kyrie and Hardened.

  • Getting it done.

  • There's Kyrie in the mid range.

  • There's Harden from way downtown.

  • They would also be finding their teammates, Kyrie and James Harden, scoring or assisting on 55 points in the first half.

  • Last night, hardened with the floater, the Nets up seven.

  • After one, they were up, 11 at the hand.

  • Third quarter.

  • Now the Lakers down 14.

  • LeBron trying to keep the minute.

  • Somebody want to guard this guy, All right, that's LeBron with the Tomahawk.

  • 32 points for him.

  • But that was as good as it was going to get Four minutes to go in the 3rd 15 point game.

  • Oh, the Red Sea parts for James Harden.

  • He would score 23 the Nets up 17 4th quarter Mawr from the Nets, Kyrie knocking this one down.

  • He would score 16 points.

  • The Nets are now 10 and one against winning teams.

  • This year, they win this one easily Alright, Stars, Let's talk.

  • You don't look at too many games in the season when you have a measuring stick, but also when you when you do, you wanna be full, you know, and they weren't full as well, so you don't really know how to go about that.

  • But you know, you can always find ways to get better.

  • No matter who's in the lineup.

  • We'll see them down the line again and we look forward to it with a whole entire healthy Lakers team.

  • That's what we really wanted.

  • I know everybody wants.

  • That s so I'm looking forward to the challenge and seeing them down the line or he's right by.

  • Everyone wants it.

  • He means all of the fans and me and Tim Legler, who was up with us early this morning.

  • Thanks for getting up to me.

  • I wanna look at this from both sides.

  • Let's start with the Lakers.

  • LeBron is trying his best to carry this team sort of an M V P campaign.

  • Anthony Davis reevaluated.

  • He's now out at least another four weeks.

  • The question is simple.

  • Are the Lakers in trouble?

  • No, I don't think they're in trouble at all because, look, this is the deepest team in the N.

  • B.

  • A.

  • This is why you go out.

  • And you had Harold, you had shrewder.

  • It's to get through times like this.

  • So when you get Dennis shooter back, even though you're not gonna have 80 for four weeks, this is a team that doesn't really care where they finished in terms of the Western Conference standings.

  • Doesn't matter to them if the Clippers or Jazz end up with more wins at the end of the day, this is a team that knows if their whole.

  • They're the best team in the Western Conference, and I don't think it's really close.

  • I think they're gonna level completely to themselves, So I don't wouldn't worry about it too much.

  • Not having a d.

  • I think the key is getting him back and keeping him back, because I think this is a concern right now.

  • When you look at a guy that had an injury, missed some time, came back and said he felt great before the game place 14 minutes and goes out, and it's worse than it was before.

  • That is a major concern, and that's why they're gonna exercise on the side of caution right now.

  • Sit him down as long as you need Greeny.

  • Whether it's four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, I don't think it really matters.

  • If Anthony Davis comes back and he stays back and he's healthy, there's a reason that we had the Lakers in a special place before he got hurt.

  • They're going to be right back there if he gets any sort of run it all before the post season.

  • So the Lakers to me, clearly the cream of the crop in the West, I wouldn't care too much or worry too much about the regular season record.

  • Alright, so that's fair.

  • And then on the other side, what place do we have?

  • Brooklyn.

  • They do it last night without Durant, Harden is fitting in.

  • I mentioned they're 10 and one against winning teams.

  • Are they right now?

  • Are they the favorites to win the championship?

  • If you asked me two weeks ago I would have said no because they still had a lot of things in terms of their flow.

  • I didn't like offensively.

  • I didn't think they included enough of their roster offensively.

  • They had great shot making, maybe the greatest collection off just raw offensive talent at the top of any roster in N B.

  • A history with those three guys.

  • But that wasn't going to be good enough, particularly with their defensive issues.

  • Well, that was two weeks ago.

  • You look at him now.

  • A couple things have jumped out to me first this West Coast trip in the last four games, they just made 81 threes and they shot 49% in doing it.

  • Okay, so they're starting to move the ball, make the extra pass, their role players now very comfortable.

  • When the ball is coming to them, they're more prepared.

  • And if those guys shoot the ball of this kind of rate, nobody can deal with this team.

  • So that's the first thing offensively they seem to have ironed out.

  • You know who's gonna be Alfa?

  • They seem to be working through that.

  • It's James Harden show for the most part, Kyrie just gonna be a raw score and Kevin Durant's gonna get his whatever he wants to.

  • So the question is gonna be out of the close games.

  • Defensively, I've seen much greater effort.

  • They just seem to care Mawr, they're helping each other more.

  • They're more active on that end of the floor.

  • So when they play with that kind of effort on the defensive end of the floor, you can't tell me any of these teams in the East can match up with the Brooklyn Nets and maybe nobody in the league.

  • But I won't be able to make that assessment in terms of the Lakers until I see them play them with Anthony Davis.

  • It's that so he's that big of a difference maker on both ends.

  • I need to see these teams of full strength.

  • That's why last night was frustrating for an analyst like myself, I'm using as a barometer and there's too many guys not there.

  • But clearly, the Brooklyn Nets have something special going on right now that nobody in the East can really deal with even the Bucks at full strength.

  • Withdrew Holiday.

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We had an MBA Finals preview last night and we got LeBron James.

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