LAKERS QUESTIONS ANSWERED 🗣️ Perk is looking forward to LA’s ‘dress rehearsal’ | NBA Today

LAKERS QUESTIONS ANSWERED 🗣️ Perk is looking forward to LA’s ‘dress rehearsal’ | NBA Today

Bradley Beal. He’s going to be making his return as Clippers debut rather tonight for their final preseason tilt against the Warriors. Is that another just one cookie for you? Be remembering from arthroscopic knee surgery that happened this off season. As for the Los Angeles Lakers sticking in LA on this final night of the preseason, JJ Reick said that this is going to be a dress rehearsal. That’s how he’s going to be treating this season against the Kings. So, all of the teams available rotation guys are going to be out there. We expect to see Luca Donuch for the second time this preseason, but of course they will be without LeBron James, who is out to start the season with sciatica. Now, the Lakers, they’re a different team without LeBron, of course. Since coming to LA in 2018, the Lakers play at a 49 win pace with him. That plummets to 34 win pace without him. We have the best stats team in the business, but I do take this with a little grain of salt because the majority of those games, they were not during Luca Donuch’s tenure here. So, the final night of the preseason here, Danny, what are we going to be talking about tomorrow about the Los Angeles Lakers after seeing their full compliment minus LeBron? Just how they look as a group and what DeAndre Aiden actually brings with that tandem with him and Luca? Cuz that that’s pretty much the most important thing. Luka having a big that can roll, put pressure on defense, be a lob threat. And defensively, you know, I I’ve like what I’ve seen from him thus far. He’s been very impressive running the floor, talking on defense, being active, blocking some shots, getting rebounds. That’s what they lacked last year. You know, Rudy Gobear 30 and 20 because they didn’t have a big man. He’s got to be the guy to kind of, you know, offset those issues. So, I’m looking at DeAndre A mostly. Ruy, see how he steps up without LeBron James, how well he can score the ball, but also defensively. So, they got to do it collectively. You’re not going to be able to do one person, you know, missing with the missing of LeBron LeBron James. Tonight is going to answer a lot of questions for as far as who’s going to be in the rotation, who’s going to be in the starting lineup because he said a dress rehearsal. Usually when you have a dress rehearsal, you know, in a marriage the day before you get married, that’s the people that You have all sorts of analogies. going to be wearing a nice dress but not your wedding dress. Yeah, but that’s the people who going to be in your wedding. So, he’s basically telling us, hey, what you see is who’s going to be in my rotation. And like Danny said, it’s about the chemistry, right? How’s Marcus Smart going to fit in? DeAndre Aiden, we’ve seen great signs from him. His mindset seems in the right place for us defensively, but most importantly, after a showing like Gabe Vincent had, what type of minutes are is he going to have in the rotation? Where’s Ruchi Rui Hachimar where he’s going to play. So that’s what we’re going to see. We’re going to see who’s actually going to be in the rotation and expect that whatever lineup and players that JJ Reick plays tonight, that’s going to be the players that’s going to start the season. Okay. But of all of those players, the most important one tonight, it’s Luca Donic, right? It’s Luka Donic. This is his team now. I mean, they’ve until LeBron comes back, he’s got the ball in his hand. The the Lakers are his future, his present. And and I think you got to play where you don’t know when LeBron is coming back. They got to step up collectively. And I think they have learned how to play with Luca. I mean, they had a, you know, third of a season with him last year, but this is now his team. And I and this is only his second preseason appearance. So, he’s got to learn to find some rhythm with DeAndre Aton and Jakeia and Marcus Smart. And I I wonder how this defense is going to go though because Perk, your question is the right one. Who’s going to be in that starting five? Is it going to be Marcus Smart? I don’t know. And and I want to I want to ask Danny this because it’s been trending now. Ramona, Danny, y’all here, but Malikica been surrounded by two big men. Me and Big Bob, right? So it’s trending around the world. Every team is going with a double big lineup. Danny, what I mean, if you’re the Lakers, do you go with your biggest lineup? Do you have Ruy at your at the four? You might not need that without Sabonis tonight. At least for tonight, I think it changes regarding on the team that you’re playing. But to me, Luca is the last guy that I’m worried about. It is his team, but the most important guy on the floor is DeAndre Aen because they’ve all played together except with DeAndre and of course Marcus Smart another guy, but he is the focal point to me. His mindset, how he attacks, approaches the game, him and Luca, two man game, Austin Reeves, and of course early signing Jake Lavia. If he can shoot, stretch the floor. They need some shooting. But DeAndre Aen is the guy for me that I hate to tell you this, Danny, you’re starting to sound a lot like Kendrick Perkins over there. He’s been preaching that all week. Austin Reeves, he will be on the court and he’s seen his role elevated with LeBron James out to start the season. LeBron, of course, is dealing with sciatica and expected to miss about a month. Now, Reeves, he spoke on that just moments ago. Take a listen. We got a lot of really talented guys and I’m definitely not going to go out there and be LeBron James if that was the case. Uh, you know, people would talk about me like they talk about him, but that’s not the case. We have to do it as a collective. And uh I’m just excited to, you know, start the regular season, you know, go out there and compete with the guys we got and hopefully put together a lot of wins. Dave McMenan is at the Lakers practice facility in Elsaundo for team shoot around today. And JJ Reic Dave says that this is going to be a full dress rehearsal for the Lakers. So what exactly does that mean? What should we expect? Well, Malikica, let’s look who’s going to be replacing LeBron James in the starting lineup because it’s going to be the the last chance they get to try that out in the preseason before the regular season opener on Tuesday against the Warriors. So, will it be Jared Vanderbilt who is cleared to play tonight after suffering a thigh bruise against the Mavericks the other day? Will it be Jake Laavia who’s seen time in the starting line? Will it be Marcus Smart? Uh, I think those are the main candidates to fill that fifth position. And then also tonight, we’re gonna get to see Maxi Cleber for the first time of the preseason. He’s been out with a quad injury. And in it being a dress rehearsal, JJ Reic said, “We’re going to play his guys larger minutes than they played thus far, including some fourth quarter action for Luca Donuch.” Okay. So, fourth quarter action for Luca Donuch. Can you tell us a little bit more about the plan for Luca? We’ve only seen him in one preseason game before. How did they come to to this decision? Well, obviously he played almost a month of basketball in the summertime for the Slovenian national team in Euro Basket, and they wanted to be cognizant of him already putting that workload on his overall body of work and trying to get him playing his best basketball from April through June. So, they’ve given him spots to rest, but again, his minutes will increase from what he did in his preseason debut the other night in Phoenix. And I don’t think he’s going to be in the 35 plus range, which it will be during the regular season. But this will be a close approximation. Give him a chance to feel what it’s really like to play an NBA basketball game with that big game against the Warriors just about 5 days away. Right. So, we can see some fourth quarter action from Luca Donic in this dress rehearsal here for the Los Angeles Lakers. Dave, thank you very much. Dave mentioned that the regular season is just around the corner. It tips off on Tuesday. That’s on NBC. And our first double header here on ESPN is Wednesday night. You can also catch it on the app. First, you’re going to get the Knicks hosting the Cavs. Could that be a preview of the Eastern Finals? And then it’s the Spurs and the Mavs for the regular season debut of Cooper Flag NBA tipoff with Ernie, Kenny, Charles, and Shaq. It debuts on ESPN 6:00 Eastern, and that is going to be Appointment TV. But so is this, our hit game, because it’s Friday. So, let’s have some fun. It’s time to play Who Said that? We’re going to look at some of the quotes that caught our attention and ask our esteemed contestants and perk who said that. Sound good? Put the winner up there. Oh, we’re going to go straight into We’re going straight in. But you are you you’re up there, Perk. You’re leading the pack. But Danny, I’m going to you first. Oh, man. This is tough. Who said this quote, I like the Laboos. I’ve got four of them. I like the trend. It’s cool. It’s cute. Was it Tyrese? Was it Hansen? Or was it Dylan? I know this one. I don’t think Dylan would do the Laboo thing. I know him pretty well. Okay. hands. Would you do the Laboo thing? No, I would not. I’m going to go with Tyrese Hallebertton. I think to the Laboo. I think he’s a little bit more in that that generation, that culture. All right. Is it Tyrese Hallebertton who’s in on the Laboos? Wow. Thankfully, this doesn’t count for I like the boooos. Um, I knew that one. I like the train. Um, it’s cool and um it’s cute. I think maybe because his daughter, his kids. Okay, that makes sense. He has he Well, it counts for like five more days. We’re going to restart in the regular season. That was me. What’s the h? What the hell? Parker Park, are you ready? You’re up next. He said, I’m born ready. All right. Who said this? Quote, we came into the locker room at halftime and I said I must have had my invisible clothes on or something. I was like, did you not see me? Who had their invisible clothes on? Was it Zion? Was it Carl Anthony Towns? Or was it DeAndre A. The only person that would go into halftime and say something like that is the guy in the middle courts. Was it Carl Anthony Towns with the invisible clothes? Wow. Man, I went we came we came into the locker room at halftime and I said, “Trey, I must have had my invisible clothes on or something.” I was like, “Did you not see me?” Zion had his invisible clothes on and he was ready. He was ready to call. He wanted it. Yeah. But no. Hey, at least they at least they finished, right? Hopefully. He got it done. We don’t start. All right. Ramona, the next one, my friend, is for you. All right. Who said quote? Hopefully, we can be the silent, how do you say it? The silent night. The silent horse. The dark horse. I know this. See, I thought there was silent but deadly. That’s without knowing where I saw it at the time and it was so Let’s read the contestant. Was it Giannis? Was it Nola Joic? Or was it Victor Webbya? It is absolutely Nicola Joic. Is it Nicola Joic? There you go. So good. Hopefully we can uh be the the silent I say the silent night. Silent horse. Dark horse. How you call it? So good. The dark horse. Literally the bay horse that he’s riding in on. We should have We should have known that. That’s like me when I You know, you walk into a room, you’re looking for something, and you’re like, “What? Where did we go from this? Also absolutely exceptional, Nola. I mean, we probably need to go to the barn and have a car out the horse guy. You should know that. Absolutely. All right, the last one is for everybody since Ramona is the only one rolling today. Who said this? Quote, I’d rather have no preeason games and practice every day. I hate preeason games. We should just have practice for one straight month. I can see all of you. I can see all of them. I don’t know this one. Was it Rick Carile like Joe Mazul say? Was it Joe Mazoula or was it JJ Ready? Joe Mazula did have the media practicing against Joe. Joe Mazula. I’m going to go Carile. I’m Darkhor here. Was it or Joe? He’s the only person games in practice every day. Yeah, I hate preseason games. We should uh should just have practice for a month straight. I love the strong face in which he delivers it. I did I did like though that how he came around and clarified with reporters and said, “You know what? I actually really appreciated everyone playing in their media game. I hope people stop joking about it because he felt like it made them all see eye to eye. [Music]

On NBA Today, Danny Green, Kendrick Perkins and Ramona Shelburne discuss the Los Angeles Lakers treating their final preseason game as a dress rehearsal for the rest of the NBA season.

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