Stephen A. reacts to Lakers losing on LeBron's historic night_ I'm DISGUSTED! _ NBA Countdown

just a little bit in Crypto.com arena. Hey, welcome inside our Los Angeles studios alongside the one and only Stephen A. Smith, Bob Myers, the architect of the four-time champion Golden State Warriors, NBA champion Kendrick Perkins. I'm Malika Andrews. The Denver Nuggets, they escape with the win, 124-114. And Bob, you and I were talking about just how well Denver closes games. It really proves why they're the champs. Yeah, they 6-0 since the break, Malika. And when you win a championship, yes, you become the hunted, right? That happens. You're the defending champ, everybody's coming after you. But there's a confidence that comes with winning the championship, which they now have. And in the closing moments of games, when everything's on the line, this unit, and usually is even better with Caldwell Polk, best in the NBA, best five-man unit in the NBA, this Denver starting five. They know how to close games. They have a confidence in themselves. They don't worry if they're up two, down two. Lakers made a run here, and the Nuggets responded and just put them away. I mean, it wasn't even close at the end. They made play after play after play. They run everything through Jokic. He makes a great play for himself or someone else. So they look to me to be the best team in the West, at least right now. And so it's fun to watch them coalesce. One concern with them, I only have one concern. This guy stay healthy, that's it. Yeah, they gotta stay healthy. They look like the best team in the West. Can I switch gears and go in a different direction? Because I'm quite disgusted. And I'd like to say that to the American people right now. Open at night, the Lakers open the season, they lose to the Nuggets. The night that Kobe's statue's revealed, they lose that night. Tonight, LeBron James surpasses 40,000 points, the only play in NBA history to ever do it. They lose that game. Seems like the big moments the Lakers don't measure up to. That's number one. Number two, we look at D'Angelo Russell. Let me dissect this. Did I applaud that brother in the first half? With 30 points? Four points the second half. Four points. That's number two. Number three, let me get to the biggest point. The biggest point that I want to make. This season, LeBron James had 26 and nine. LeBron James shot 60% from the field. What did I say, Big Perk? What have I been saying? I said, you ain't gonna stop Jokic, which didn't happen. But what you have to do if you're Anthony Davis is nullify what he gives you by making sure you give the same. You can't have Nikoli Jokic dropping 35 and Anthony Davis answering with 17. You just can't do it. If you are the Los Angeles Lakers and you've got championship aspirations, the big boy who is an all-star and a superstar talent in this game has to show up and give me a little bit extra when that other superstar who's a reigning defending NBA champion, okay, when that brother shows up. I didn't see that tonight, and I don't like it. Particularly when you're also getting Michael Porter Jr., Stephen A, shooting a perfect 10 of 10 from the field for 25 points to add on to all of that. Yeah, but to piggyback off of Stephen A's point, and it was a great point, Anthony Davis had more attitude with me and Stephen A today before the game than he actually did in the game. He had attitude with me? I thought that was you. I mean, I just ignored him. I ignored him. I wasn't even thinking about it. But my point is, my point is, my point is, that's fine, but it's no way that Jokic, and I was just talking to Bob about this, he was playing this game with a certain level of passion and tenacity. Did you see it on his face? A guy that never shows emotion? Well, and you heard him before the game joking with LeBron James, oh, we're not gonna let you get past eight, buddy. But really, they did, but also came out and ruined the rest of the night. And I said this before the game as well. Look, credit to Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. Credit to Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. Anthony Davis and LeBron, the best duo in basketball is Jamal Murray and Jokic. And the way that they feed off each other, that two-man game is unstoppable. But tonight, they had 34 assists, the Denver Nuggets as a whole. Jokic and Murray accounted for 50% of those assists, meaning that they're trusting the others. No Caldwell Pope, guess what? We trust you, Aaron Holiday. We're gonna continue to make the extra pass. Aaron Gordon, that connection between him and Jokic is probably the most unstoppable thing in basketball. Jokic is the best player in the NBA right now. Is he the MVP in your mind? Without MB, if MB was playing, I would have forsaken him. He just, you know why? When we used to play against him, when I was with the Warriors, we played against LeBron James. When you play against somebody that good, what you realize is they will get you a great possession every time. Now, a great possession could be LeBron scoring or passing or setting the teammate. Jokic is the closest I've seen in the NBA. I think Jason Tatum's a great player. I think Giannis is a great player. They can't do that one thing. They cannot guarantee you a great possession every time down as much as a Jokic could and LeBron can still for the most part. So they're a scary team. What they're doing with Murray, it's not, in my opinion, because Murray is at that level of some of the other number twos on other teams, but their cohesiveness, how they played at that dribble handoff, how they know each other, it's pretty amazing to watch. I don't use the word scary. You know what? Scary to me is when you're creeping up on people, you're lurking, and oh my goodness, you know what, you have the opportunity to dethrone somebody. No, these are the champions. They're the champions, and so they're playing like champions. They've just been hanging around all year long. Well, everybody get excited. Oklahoma City, go ahead and get excited. Minnesota, go ahead and get excited. Clippers, go ahead and get excited. We're right there, and we're just creeping up on you. This is what we do, because we've been there, we've done it, we know what it takes, okay? You know something about that with the championships with the Golden State Warriors. You're the Los Angeles Lakers. You're supposed to have a clue. LeBron James is a four-time champion. Anthony Davis finally won a championship, and the bubble year. When you have a guy like Jokic showing up, that's your position, and you're going like this. I'm gonna bust your living, you know what? What you gonna do? I had a conversation with Rob Palenka before the game, and he was talking about the value that Jared Vanderbilt and Gabe Vinson bring to the table. Listen, the point of attack, right? Like guarding the ball. I'm not talking about stopping Jokic, but if the Lakers are gonna ever beat the Denver Nuggets, forgetting the playoff series, get a win in a regular season, they're gonna have to defend, and that's part of the reason why LeBron James was giving those signals during the trade deadline, and I know how valuable Austin Reeves is. I know D'Angelo Russell elevated his game, but a guy like DeJounte Murray, right? Providing that defense, kind of somewhat slowing down on Jamal Murray, gives them a better shot. But if, like Darwin here told me before the game, if you're anticipating that Vanderbilt is gonna be back within the next couple of weeks, that's justification for not making a move and keeping the nucleus of the team intact if your concern is defense. It still doesn't fade away from my point. Jokic is a monster. He's the defending champion. The road to the finals is gonna have to go through him. Who is more better equipped to go up against him and to negate what he brings to the table than an Anthony Davis if you bring your A game? You heard the other night. Well, they don't give you Rudy Goldberg for the Anthony Davis. Let me tell you something. I respect him, but he ain't an Anthony Davis. We saw the other night, Draymond Green, you could argue, is still one of the best defenders in the NBA. Yes, absolutely. Jokic went into their court, and Draymond Green said after the game, I couldn't do anything with this guy. Yeah, but he's not the size. I understand, I understand, but Anthony Davis is a different kind of defender than Draymond Green. You're talking about two of the best defenders, and look what Jokic did to them. But isn't that why you need to contain everybody else? Why Michael Porter's in your game? That's why he's so good. But Bob, I'm saying if Jokic can drop 35, Anthony Davis can drop 35. Was you paying attention to the big man segment pre-game? We all were paying attention to it. But the point I was making was this. You're not gonna stop Jokic. No one is, okay? But the way that Anthony Davis could kind of neutralize Jokic is go give him that work on the other end. And you just see him like just fade away with that I don't care type attitude. Oh, well, just another game. No, it's not just another game, because you know why? They're sitting in the 10th spot. Well, I'll tell you what else. When you lose to a team in your conference eight times in a row, and you're trying to win a championship. You played on team. I want to take off my belt. No, no, listen. When you lose a team eight times in a row, you're in that locker room right now as a Laker, as anybody on the Laker organization, you're going, I don't know. Right. And they didn't have to take this call about Porter. Right. Yeah. And you say, well, we'll get them next game. And then you go, we haven't beat them in eight games. Yeah. At what point does that become an elephant in the room? Yeah. And it's, can we be, that's the question. Well, it's eight games, but four of them came courtesy of broomsticks being brought out in the Western conference finals when they swept them for nothing. They played them better in those games though. Yeah. They played them closer. Well, and we also saw LeBron James, particularly in game four, take that defensive assignment of Nikola Jokic and say, you know what? It's my turn now. I'm going to let you take him a little bit. But the fact of the matter is, this is another loss for the Los Angeles Lakers who are in the play-in currently. And if you put up their next 10 games, we talked about this being an opportunity for them. They do not leave the state of California, Stephen A, which is important for LeBron James in year 21, less travel until the 26th of March. Right. But look how difficult this is. Tell the audience why you're asking me that question, Maliki, you're asking me that question because I talked about this on countdown. I only see two pretty much guaranteed wins the Hawks and 76ers, and that's pushing it. They can lose all them damn games. The Thunder, the Kings, the Bucks, the Timberwolves, the Kings again on the road, the Warriors, and then the Pacers to end it on the 24th. Oh, the Lakers could lose all of those games. Do I think they will? Of course not. But they could. None of those, none, you can legitimately say each of those teams could be a favorite against the Lakers, but not respectively not. Well, the fact of the matter is, no matter what their record is going to be, whether they go 500 or whatever the case may be, in my opinion, they're still going to be in the play-in tournament. But being in a two-win scenario in the play-in versus a one-win scenario in the play-in is a much- It don't matter because when they get to the postseason, I still don't have confidence that they could beat the Denver Nuggets, and we know why. Sure. They cannot beat the Minnesota Timberwolves. I don't care what nobody say, and they cannot beat the Clippers in the seven games. But I would love to see them against a young team like the Timberwolves, to see what the Timberwolves are made up in terms of their experience, because obviously that's unfamiliar territory. I think the only team they might not be able to beat is the team they just played. Denver. Yeah, I mean, when you say something like that, you're just saying, we're not beating that team. They're not going to say that, but I might say that's the team. Other teams, I think they can beat. More from us coming up tomorrow at 1230 Eastern.