That Luka magic hit different when it’s in that Purple and Gold

Being on the beneficial end of those stepback 3s is a wonderful experience, 10/10 recommendation

You know how demoralizing it’s going to feel for teams having to guard Luka step backs and then Lebron hits a Lefuckyou

JJ: Be willing to die on the court

Bronny:

Rui Hachimura on the Lakers carrying the NBA’s No. 1 defensive efficiency ranking for the last 15 games:

“We cover for each other.”

JJ Redick followed up on the defensive effort at Denver: “We had a lot of guys play really physical basketball on that end.”

Redick has spoken to how connected the players have been on that end for a while now, and the commitment to executing game plans.

JJ Redick said he’s happy to see Max Christie succeeding in Dallas and he’s a player that Redick will be invested in “for the rest of his career.” He said Christie has increased offensive freedom in Dallas and he thinks he would’ve eventually gotten that type of freedom in LA.

JJ Redick on Luka Doncic:

“Part of what makes him brilliant is he makes the game easy for everybody else.”

More Redick on the Lakers playing extremely well defensively despite many different variations on last several weeks (with AD/Christie and without, with Luka, etc):

“Team defense … our group is committed to it right now. We have some really good defenders, but you have to play a team defense and rely on each other. Just playing hard and competing. You’re trying to capture that every night. This is a team sport, and the group has to be right. More times than not, our group has been right with competitive spirit.”

Dorian Finney-Smith said he’s been getting “butt-naked wide-open” shots playing alongside Luka Doncic and LeBron James.

“Excuse my language,” Finney-Smith said.

He said he feels like he’s been rushing some shots and needs to take his time.

Dorian Finney-Smith on what he expects from Luka tomorrow:

"I think he's gonna be excited. But everybody in the locker room is excited, we got his back. It's gonna be a hard fought game, we know Jason Kidd is gonna have them ready to come in and compete. We just gotta match their intensity."

Dorian Finney-Smith is a team-best +163 in only 20 games as a Laker. That’s an average of +8.2 per game.

Dorian Finney-Smith joked about his exceptional +/- with the Lakers:

"When you ain't making shots, that's something you look at... I'm happy good things happen when I'm on the court. Hopefully that will continue."

Rui Hachimura shared that JJ Redick's pregame message was the Lakers were "going to war" against the Nuggets and that the Lakers took it personally how much they had previously lost to Denver. He mentioned the team's connectivity, energy and spirit as reasons why they won.

Max Christie on getting traded:

“I had my suspicions when I got that call,” Christie, 22, told Andscape after a 126-102 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday.

“The emotions at that moment obviously were pretty overwhelming. And then going back to the hotel room, I got zero seconds of sleep that night. I was up from 12 a.m. to 8:15 a.m.

I had a flight the next morning at 8:30 to go to Dallas. I was in denial a little bit, at first. I can’t believe this is happening…"

andscape.com/features/dallas-mavericks-guard-max-christie-looking-forward-to-return-to-los-angeles

“If you look at the magnitude of that trade, it magnifies that emotion. So, I was shocked, man. I was on the floor in the hotel room for two hours just thinking about what was going on.

I eventually came to my senses, obviously, and had to put one foot in front of the other and think about what I needed to do next.

So far, I’ve had a good job just kind of settling in and just trying to stay present. That’s the biggest thing for me is just being present here, trying to help this team win games.”

Max might go crazy tonight

“I’m not even looking at this game as a ‘revenge game,’” Christie said. “I’m actually looking forward to it from a sense that I get to see old teammates, old colleagues, old coaches. I’m looking forward to just enjoying that game. I want to win, obviously.

“But I’m not going in there with any bad blood or any intention of trying to drop 40 on them.

I’m just going in there to try to win the game, play my game and let the game come to me. I’m not going to go out there and force 25 shots. That’s not what this game is about. That’s not what I’m about.”

I hope he go crazy and we win. He grew on me

Absolutely gotta resign him.

AD

If we could've gotten a center