Rui Hachimura, Westbrook, Coach Ham x James Worthy React To Lakers vs Nets | Jan 30, 2023

Right. Yeah. So they missed a lot of free throws and you talked about you know points in the paint forty two to thirty eight. They just didn't have any resistance there. There was there was a lot of things they look at. You know we talked we talked about the turnovers but you know that they played hard. They just this unit just not used to playing well together didn't have but one day to prepare stuff tough. But the net carrier we closed them out. Now typical. You think you know you have that little letdown in the first quarter because I think it was still thinking about that Boston game. But the second and third quarter were fantastic. And it's almost like they put so much energy into those two quarters that by the time the fourth quarter rolled around they didn't have the gusto. Sixty six points off the bench. Sixty six points two guys over 20. Camp Thomas and Patty Mills. That's hard. That's hard to beat. Watanabe had a good game as well. So big night. Sixty six points from that bench. But really it comes down to Kyrie right when they needed a bucket. Big game. You put it in your best players hands and there's the advantage. Yeah. Kyrie has settled down and you know got rid of all the noise. We know he's unstoppable one on one. They had a closer. Yeah. Brooklyn had their closer and one of them and we just didn't have anything to answer. Yeah. I look at I don't even know. We expect people like Kyrie to do his thing. But you got a guy. Well I didn't even heard of Cam Thomas. Yeah. This on the boards hustle plays. And that's what you're used to seeing Thomas Bryant doing and winning. And you're not expecting another guy to come off the bench and give you that same energy and that same effort. And sometimes when you have that it sparks the team. And Kyrie is the type of guy. He says OK I see this. I'm going to keep feeding him. Keep taking these shots because I know you got position to get those offensive boards. So those are one of those things that we always talk about how good Kyrie is. But I always want you to point out that his but his basketball IQs is at the top of the league because he can read situations and he can put his body in the best situation to help the team out. He's even tougher to guard when he can just take four steps without a dribble and shoot. He's unstoppable. I'm just kidding. He was awesome. It's funny. LeBron James has said a couple of times recently the margin for error with this team is so small. It's true. So imagine going without LeBron and A.D. Your margin for error goes from small to ineffective infinitesimally. I'm trying to speak English here. I don't know what that means. Very small is what I'm trying to say. And you can't you can't have Scott to say that microscopic much better. Thank you. You can't have 14 missed free throws. You just can't James. I'm glad you pointed that out. I wish I could say what I want to say. I have no idea what I just said. I mean look you got you got to keep that margin for error fairly large. You just can't do that. Even with everyone healthy so far this year on this Laker team. You know they just didn't just could not get in any rhythm. You know points in the paint. Brooklyn had 42 points. Sharp started out with a bunch of offensive rebounds and they continued it in the second half. So it's hard to ask a group of guys who aren't used to playing the minutes and getting the volume of shots to step in and play the type of game that they needed to play in Brooklyn tonight. So it's just a little short. So they have to pick up the pieces in New York tomorrow. Yeah. Because you know you look at our bench our bench. You know it played decent. There's a lot of bench playing extra amount of minutes they're not used to. You know the legs get a little weary. But also I just want to point out Troy Brown was I think this is his best game he's played as far as getting rebounds. Seventeen boards. Seven offensive rebounds. So you got to really look up to that because that means he has some energy. He had some effort because Troy Brown to me is a guy who can do this. Well get offensive rebounds every night because we're not really throwing you the rock. So you need to crash it because nobody boxes out in the NBA. So I hope he learns from this game and say hey I can get to the right because like I used to do if I get off his rebound. I better go the other way because this is my shot. I'm going to play. And Brad's a great point but also Brad's like you know when A.D. and LeBron come back minutes are going to get shorter and shorter. Rotation is going to get tighter. So Troy Brown I mean every night he's got to prove himself. A.D. and LeBron both sit tonight. There's back to backs. LeBron has been playing in back to backs. He's been playing a ton of minutes. This was not a huge surprise especially you know how the body is banged up a little bit. A.D. we know is not going to play back to backs for right now. So you expect them both to play tomorrow. I do. I do because I think at the end of the day you looking at this. Everybody wants to play in New York. There's a couple of reasons you want to play in New York is definitely on top of the list. But I think when you they're going to look at the standings and be like OK it's go time. You know like Brad says early. You know we need to push for this LeBron. I know you're a little banged up but we'll get you some rest the next night. We're going to go out and play. I think also with A.D. you have to rest him because of the foot. But with LeBron I says it's one of those situations where you have to play because we need these wins. Yeah. And it actually makes sense to miss the first night the game because of how many games they've been playing. Now he gets that extra day. You get two days before you go to New York because it was 40 hours. Absolutely. Both of them get rested emotional game. And I think based on the way the Lakers played with A.D. out they had LeBron. Yeah. But you know this was a game that maybe Darnham thought maybe they could sneak and win. Yeah. No K.D. Yep. So and they played well enough to win as you can see. So that strategy almost worked. Yeah. But you know and then they would be ready tomorrow with their with two big horses. So they're still in good shape. I guarantee you if Schroeder would have had a better game they get his victory. Exactly. But you know we always look at the offensive end starting. But you know he did. He did a great job guarding defensively. Kyrie with twenty six. Camp Thomas twenty one. Brez's guy Patty Mills with twenty one. He's leading the way for 18. Russell 17. Hachimura with 16. Let's hear from Darvin Hammy. Speak with Mike Trudell the media. Darvin down 19 in the first half. It rallies to take that seven point lead after a really good third quarter until the last two minutes. What did you see flip back in Brooklyn's favor at that point. We had some opportunities there. We missed missed some point blank shots. They got away from us a little bit at the three point line. Just had without you know I have to go back and watch the film obviously. But you know they're formidable formidable ballclub you know with Seth Kyrie obviously. Patty had to go on tonight. We just got to do a better job finishing quarters defensively and then offensively. We've got to make plays. It's as simple as that. We have plays right in front of us and we just got to step up and make them. What's the kind of the message to the team then as a just given where you are now. Ideally you're getting LeBron and maybe back tomorrow. How do you shake off these last two. I mean we just I just felt like the first half kind of was a little bit of a hangover from what transpired. Come you know lean into the game from the previous game. And so just told him take bottle up what we did in that third quarter. And let's make the first step in the right direction tomorrow. We got to fill our cups back up prepare for a really really good New York Knicks ballclub. And just come out ready to play the right way and sustain it for as much as the 48 minutes as possible. So that's pretty much it. I mean nobody nobody's going to feel sorry for us. I mean this is still had a potential to make this a very good trip. It's three winnable games. But you know it starts with us. We got to make up make it up in our minds that we want to come out and not only play the right way but play the right way for long periods of time. Long durations of time. What kind of pressure does it put on the overall offense to have the three guards you give the most time to tonight. To and obviously Dennis Russ and Pat to shoot that much and shoot that poorly. I mean it's a matter of you know those guys all three of those guys have had big moments all season helping us win games. When we do have those ball hammers out there I think one of the things I want to focus on offensively coming out of halftime was us being disciplined in our running habits. With those guys who used to having the ball in their hands and probably pushing it or leading the break. You know we were we were in the first half. We were coming back asking for the ball too many guys instead of just being disciplined sprinting to the corners. If you're in the middle slashing to the rim. And I thought you know that set a tone for us in the third quarter because we did indeed do that. You know guys who ever had the ball they brought it. Everybody else just sprinted alongside of them. We were able to get a lot of good looks clean looks from point blank range and three point range. So again just you know the stick to it to miss with our discipline and our running habits and setting good screens and moving the ball side to side. We spent a lot of time this year talking about the accomplishments that LeBron continues to pile up. Russ moved into the top tennis list tonight and how have you guys as a franchise been able to I guess acknowledge stuff like that in the context of trying to rack up more wins. I mean we definitely acknowledged it after the game. Everybody gave him you know an applause. That's a hell of a feat. But you know again we play the right way. Things like that are going to happen. You know eventually LeBron is going to eclipse the scoring record and Russ is just moving to the top 10 of all time assist leaders. Those things are great. Those are huge shots in the arm for our franchise and for those guys for us as a team those guys individually. But again just we have to come out and play. We've shown we have the ability to play with the best of the best in the league when we play the right way and we're disciplined in the way we're playing. And they just basically come back. But those individual accolades those are byproducts. And again a testament to those guys and their durability how long they've been playing at a high level both Russ and Bron. And you know we celebrate it. We celebrate it as a team. It is extremely impressive what Russ has put together over his career as far as you know assist triple doubles. Surpassing Oscar Robinson in the triple double category and now moving into 10th. Ahead of a guy that neither Robin I thought was a big assist guy Gary Payton. But you know looking at that list though you know the one person that just stands out the most to me is Mark Jackson. Mark Jackson. Yeah a hell of a guy. Hate that he only got a coach for a couple of seasons in the state. But I love Mark Jackson. All right Russ finished with 17 and 10 in the loss. He's now speaking with Mike in the media. Russ you guys have managed to erase the 19 point deficit in the first half and take a lead in the third. What did you see Brooklyn do or what happened on your guys' end where they were able to kind of regain control of the game? We made some big shots. We had some timely misses turnovers. Once we got back just a little kid in the shooters. Kind of got him back in the game. Russ you spoke to Darvin and he told us that the team kind of gave you some acknowledgement for breaking into the top 10 all-time assist list. Congratulations on that. Thank you. What's it been like to kind of have your own career milestones pile up this season under the context of still trying to get things right as a team? I don't take none of this game for granted since day one. I'm very blessed and grateful and thankful to go out and compete. I never cheat the game. I go out and compete every night. I do my job every single night regardless of all the things that have thrown at me. It means a lot just from where I started to where I'm at. Where I grew up at to be sitting here and somebody would tell me 15 years ago, 20 years ago you'd be top 10 assist. I look at it like it was crazy in the NBA. I never dreamt of being in this position nor getting to the point to where I'm next to some of the greats. I'm just truly grateful and thankful for an opportunity to keep playing at the highest level. I don't take it for granted. Considering the guy you passed Gary Payton was known for not just his game but the way he could speak about his game. What trash talk would you have for Gary? I don't know. I'm pretty sure whatever I would say he would be talking right back. I'm not a big trash talker so I just like to compete. I'm pretty sure back in his day he would have talked some mess and I would have been right back at him. Russ, obviously a really tough game in Boston. Tough finish in Boston to get over. Darvin said he thought maybe some of the disappointment bled into how you guys started today. What do you kind of make of that? Did you feel like there was some lingering disappointment in the start? What do you make of the Lakers overall starts and games? It varies. I don't know. I'm not out there to start the game. Tough to get that vibe. Guys that start you probably want to ask them and kind of get their opinion. Russ, to echo Dave's congratulations on moving into the top ten. Thanks. Big picture, you guys have been in games with great teams. You've beaten some great teams but you guys are here five games under .500 right now. More than halfway through the year. What sort of your big picture view of this team? Has it been altered at all by what's happened? Or do you kind of still have a sense that it's still too hard to know exactly what this team is? We've seen it. We're able to play the right way. We know what it takes. It's just really up to us honestly. 16 points for Rui Hachimura in his first start with the Lakers. Let's hear from him. Alright Rui, your first two games you play a lot alongside both LeBron and AD. Obviously they didn't play in this one. Just wondered how that impacted the game and what your role has been as you're figuring things out with the Lakers. Like you said, those two guys were out today. I was trying to be aggressive, especially offensively. It actually didn't go the way I was expecting. I think the second quarter and third quarter we had a good stretch. Especially defensively we had a couple stops and we were getting up and down. I think we have to, if those guys are out, we have to keep playing together and play defense. That's going to be a key to win the game. And then just overall this last week and change, what has it been like for you? What feedback are you getting from the coaches and where do you feel like you're going to continue fitting in as the season goes on? I think it's been good. It's been great. Those coaches, of course the players, they've been talking to me during the game, after the game, at the practice. Watched a lot of films and learned those plays and defensively, defense concepts and stuff. I think for me it's been easier for me to get used to this and adjust to this new basketball. How different is it for you to play a game with those two for this team versus them not being on the court in different parts of the playbook maybe? You having access to or more touches or more looks? How does that actually change for you? I only play two games, three games, so I can't really say anything. When those two guys play, I feel like they have more balls, but they're also good passers. They also get double-teamed and they spread out. I think I can have more easy looks. It's a both side. I've got to learn more with those guys and get used to it. I think the last two games I've played with them, so far I think it's good. You've never been traded before in your career. You've been dropped into a situation where teammates win, chasing a playoff spot. What's the sense of urgency that you've seen from your teammates in this situation? How quickly have you felt the need to adapt to this team's mindset, this team's identity being dropped into it in the middle of the season? I just had no idea how this was going to be. I think so far it's good. This is a winning organization. I take this seriously. I want to help this team win more games and make the playoffs and hopefully win the championship. For me, I think I've got to study more. I've got to watch a lot of films and learn those players and how the system works. It's a little bit different. I've just got to focus on more details. That's about it. It's always fun when the Lakers and Knicks get together. Anytime you go to New York City. Those fans love basketball. If you give them a show, you would think that you're at home sometimes when you go to New York. But it's a challenge. The Lakers need some wins. The Knicks are a sticky defensive team. They're physical. As Brad mentioned, Bronson in addition to what Randall is doing. They also have the young kid from Duke who can play well. I can't think of his name right now. They've got some players that can put it in the bucket. They seem like they're a team of runs. If you can stop them early and not let them get going, your chances are better. But you've got to control some of the things that they didn't do against the Nets. Rebound, turnovers, fast rate points. But they will have the big dogs back. So we'll see. Troy Brown. Is that a career choice? B-boy, what are you laughing at? Troy Brown. Speaking of the media. So just the rebounding effort tonight. Was there any specific effort? You just kind of find yourself battling and the total is climbing. What did you see there? For me personally today, I felt like I was playing more of the three. I feel like I'm playing a smaller position. More in my range of where I play. I feel like a lot of guards don't box out. So they were able to let me crash or sneak behind and get a lot of offensive rebounds today. What's been the challenge in a game like tonight without LeBron, without AD? Guys having to step up some but not wanting to get outside of their typical games. How do you do that on a night coming in like that? I think it's hard. I feel like we play in a league where the game waits for nobody. So at the end of the day, we have to pick up for what they do for us. Offensively, I feel like our biggest thing is trying to find a rhythm of where the shots are coming from. I feel like in that first half, we were a little stagnant trying to figure out offensively where we were going to get our shots. What plays we were going to run and stuff like that. But I feel like ultimately at the end of the day, we play each game day by day. And then whatever that game needs, that's how we adjust. Troy, obviously winning is the main thing. But also, Russ moved into the top 10 of assists all-time. LeBron is obviously chasing number one and scoring. Does that ever sink in for you that these guys are among the all-time greats in that way? And do you take any time to appreciate the history being made around you? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of greatness around me. I feel like I've played with a lot of great players throughout my career. And just being around those guys, seeing their habits and how they prepare for the game. And what they do to make that stuff happen. I feel like they deserve it 100%. Just seeing how Russ prepares his routine every day. He never skips a beat on none of it. He never changes anything. So, to see that preparation for the game. As a young guy in the NBA, we inspire to do stuff like that. So, to see him do that is definitely great. I feel like I give Russ his props here and there. But I feel like it really doesn't hit me until after season. After season, when I go sit down and I'm really just relaxed. And thinking about the season and kind of tallying everything up. Then it's like, dang, I really played with one of the best passers in the world. So, yeah.