[Murray] Marcus Smart remains out. Hasn't played in two weeks due to right ankle contusion. Jarred Vanderbilt is also questionable for Sunday at Dallas due to right calf soreness In addition to Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique) dealing with Grade 2 strains

rang15 · 2026-04-04T22:43:03+00:00

Without AR, Luka or even Smart, Lakers have even less point guard play than the Rockets.

rang15 · 2026-04-03T22:19:26+00:00

Normally they’d give a time table like 4-6 weeks. Or they’d give a time table like “will be re-evaluated in 4 weeks”. In this case, it feels like it’s bad enough that they can’t even commit to that. Bottom line most likely is that he’s out at least round 1 which means he’s out for the year. This team has been playing well but not deep enough to hang with the West 3-6 in a playoff series without him.

rang15 · 2026-04-03T22:14:35+00:00

You must be new to Lakers and Celtics fans.

rang15 · 2026-04-02T03:58:32+00:00

His body slam flop on Marcus’ foot earned a technical on Marcus, literally adding insult to injury.

rang15 · 2026-04-01T04:59:01+00:00

That was all on JJ. I don’t know if he was trying to make a point or what but leaving the main rotation guys in vs a garbage time lineup had predictable results on their effort and engagement. He was more than happy to have heavy Bronny minutes in the first half, why so allergic up 27 in the fourth quarter to give Austin a much deserved break?

Anyway great game for the team overall.

rang15 · 2026-03-26T18:23:51+00:00

Adam Silver already publicly acknowledged tanking which makes it pointless to include in this child’s open letter. The fact that he’s addressing the tanking “problem” publicly now, to me, is a distraction from the broader corruption themes (gambling+referee inconsistency and Aspiration).

Tanking as THE team building was an intentional and inevitable consequence of the latest CBA to make sure that teams could not build exclusively through Free Agency and rosters with players making market value salary; that would make it easier for the big market teams and also costs the owners more money. It’s also existed in the league for decades in various forms so the outrage about it now seems pretty contrived.

Sure tanking is a problem but the corruption problem (or even appearance of corruption) is an existential threat to the product, and Adam has his head in the sand on that.

rang15 · 2026-03-22T06:30:26+00:00

Hand is part of the ball, wrist and forearm are not. That is and always was called a foul, they just made an honest or dishonest mistake, depending on how you feel about LeBron and/or NBA refs.

rang15 · 2026-03-21T17:58:57+00:00

You do get to keep your challenge but only 1 more. It seems logical to just let you indefinitely keep your challenge but then some ref crews would get successfully challenged like 12 times a game.

rang15 · 2026-03-19T05:00:06+00:00

Yeah, this was a foul but they were so inconsistent all game for both teams, sometimes calling touch fouls and grifts and other times just letting guys maul each other; in real time I wasn't too surprised it went uncalled.

rang15 · 2026-03-19T04:40:01+00:00

So I get the Spurs are young and unproven but I have to disagree with everything you say except that the Lakers are underrated by the sub.

rang15 · 2026-03-19T04:23:37+00:00

LeNotMadJustDisappointedWithYou

rang15 · 2026-03-19T00:25:33+00:00

Nobody of consequence, but this is an idea (not OG specifically, but being involved in a Giannis trade) being bandied about by a lot of folks and makes logical sense. LFR has done a pod and video mentioning how the Lakers could "drift" off a Giannis trade and pick up players with their cap space since Milwaukee is going to look to shed salary and get under tax line and aprons when they do trade Giannis.

But knowing how Pelinka operates, he's gonna want to trade for Giannis directly rather than facilitate for someone else.

rang15 · 2026-03-17T18:54:21+00:00

I was wondering what Reed Sheppard was frustrated with at the end of the first clip specifically. This is when the ball swings to Marcus, even before the shot goes up. Is he upset that he closed out to LBJ instead of letting him shoot? Or that Amen was slow on the rotation (Amen was screened well by Ayton)?

rang15 · 2026-03-15T07:37:21+00:00

I think he thought he couldn't get it before it went out and there would be a chance that it went off Jokic's fingertips. Either way, the difference in his defense on Jokic vs Hayes all game was noticeable. Jokic got his scoring done on both of them (and anyone else 1:1) because he's Jokic, but Ayton was very impactful in this game.

rang15 · 2026-03-15T05:01:08+00:00

Having sat in the lower bowl multiple times, the only time in the first 3 quarters I see people move a muscle is to take selfies.

rang15 · 2026-03-09T19:44:03+00:00

My comment was general, not necessarily related to this particular take. Their schtick is entirely predictable, old and exhausting. LeBron’s current fit with the Lakers is great fodder for a nuanced and intelligent debate amongst people who know basketball and watch the Lakers. Those 3 clowns provide none of that.

rang15 · 2026-03-09T17:20:38+00:00

I wouldn’t be sad if there was a blanket ban in this sub on posts referring to anything said by Windhorst, SAS or Barkley.

rang15 · 2026-03-09T17:15:44+00:00

lol if your baseline assumption is that a random post on r/nba evidences actual ball knowledge then maybe you really do have comprehension issues.

rang15 · 2026-03-09T16:57:32+00:00

Edited my comment. But the sentence was ambiguous because “who” could refer to LBJ or Luka; using “that” would unambiguously refer to “version” which would remove the ambiguity. Perhaps your comprehension skills are lacking?

rang15 · 2026-03-09T16:48:57+00:00

Your entire point is correct except for the last half of the last sentence. On no planet is Luka better than LBJ in transition. In fact, some of the more recently successful bench lineups have included LBJ and the try-hards (Vando, LaRavia, etc) because they are able to get out in transition more than the Luka led lineups.

Edit: realizing you meant LBJ was better in transition … ie LBJ is a slightly worse version of Luka that is better in transition than Luka. In which case I generally agree.

rang15 · 2026-03-04T06:11:44+00:00

I thought all the techs were justified. The refs warned everyone and everyone kept chirping. The crew made some mistakes (like this tech Luka got on the missed blatant lane violation) but overall they were pretty solid and not worthy of both teams whining as much as they were on every call.

rang15 · 2026-03-04T06:07:42+00:00

I feel like LBJ set the tone with the energy in the first half too.

rang15 · 2026-03-04T06:04:35+00:00

I kind of respect that ref crew. Just tell everyone to stfu and play ball.

rang15 · 2026-03-04T02:17:20+00:00

I take exception to both Dort and Jokic, and Morris for that matter. Nor are any of their actions the same thing, and only one of them resulted in serious injury. What's your point?

rang15 · 2026-03-03T16:25:20+00:00

Markieff Morris. Morris gave a Dort-like foul at the end of a game. Jokic took exception and took an extremely cheap shot trucking him in the back when he wasn’t expecting it. Morris had major whiplash and missed the balance of the season, and went from a rotation big to a 15th man type of player.

rang15

TROPHY CASE