Lakers Lounge

Yes, it sucks to be nervous going into tonight's game, but at the same time, if you would've told us the Lakers would hold a 3-2 lead given the odds they were facing, that'd be a win in and of itself. And yet... here we stand. Should the context matter? Or is that coping?

Anthony recaps a weird game, discusses Houston's big adjustment, analyzes Austin Reaves' return to the court and then wraps with a Q&A with a feisty live audience.

Game five was defined by great Houston shooting and a complete abandonment of the offensive boards by them -- a total course correct from their identity much of the season. Anthony explains the move, what else he saw from the game and whether he thinks the Lakers have a counter-punch.

Anthony explains why this was probably LeBron's second least impactful game of the series (ok he said least but it was late and he meant second-least) so far, then dives into questions and comments from the live audience.

Anthony wraps up the show's questions from the live audience, and they weren't in the best mood. So, Anthony pushed back on some of the doom and gloom about individual guys as the Lakers look ahead to this summer.

Reports are that Austin Reaves' return is looking pretty good for game five. The reports on Kevin Durant's are less positive. Anthony consider this a "please-win" game, also because of how OKC looked in sweeping the Suns. The guys react to the voting breakdown for the NBA's Executive of the Year award.

Contrary to some pockets in the Lakers fan base's beliefs, Austin Reaves coming back would be great for the Lakers. Anthony and Harrison explain why.

The guys wrap up their conversation about OKC as The Empire and turn their attention to Brad Stephens winning exec of the year and, maybe more notably, Rob Pelinka receiving a single third place vote.

In a loaded mailbag/Q&A session, Anthony answers questions about LeBron James' future with the Lakers, how he'd build around Luka Doncic with OKC in mind, what the rotations should look like with Austin Reaves potentially back and more.

The Lakers have been a super tight group dating back to the beginning of March. LeBron James has been a big part of that. Have these couple months changed the chances that he returns next season? Anthony explains whjy he thinks so, but that the Lakers must set aside any pettiness if they want him back.

Luka Doncic has had success against OKC in the playoffs, so Anthony outlines how he would build a roster that gives Doncic a viable chance at doing so again as soon as next year.

A member of the live audience asked about the amount of input teams have on Nike jerseys and whether the Lakers could push for gold jerseys rather than the current banana yellow coloring. Anthony explains how things work between Nike and the league and the role Tim Harris had in the current uniforms.

While it would've been nice to sweep a team from Houston, it just wasn't in the cards. Anthony and Raj recap the loss, look ahead to game five and make fun of Ben Simmons for some reason.

Anthony didn't have high hopes for this game. Raj did. We saw how it turned out. Frickin frick.

Anthony just will not drop this stupid Drew Timme thing. We're begging him to, but he just won't do it.

Houston as a sports city owed Los Angeles one and hooooooo, boy, this feels good. Anthony starts with a very quick rant on the subject, then, he, Raj and Harrison relive the game, celebrate some of its individual performances and just generally sit in this moment for a nice little while.

Anthony opens the show with some, uh, honest thoughts about the city of Houston. From there, he, Harrison and Raj try to figure out how that game turned out the way it did.

Kevin Durant has been allowed to slide for bad situation after bad situation and this one is coming to a head. The guys discuss how it is Durant has just happened to land in these tough spots. Surely he has nothing to do with it whatsoever.

Rui Hachimura has launched plenty of takes during his time as a Laker but once again, he's risen to the moment in the playoffs. So Anthony asks Harrison and Raj about whether this run has changed their minds on a potential Rui return. The wrap with some final thoughts about the series.

Anthony and Pete react to the reports that Austin Reaves could potentially be returning as soon as tonight in game three. How would that look? How likely do they feel it is? Which adjustments do the Rockets have? Do the Lakers have counterpunches? All of that and a ton more.

Anthony and Pete go through the things they're looking for as the series heads back to Houston, now potentially with Austin Reaves involved and likely with Reed Sheppard playing a larger role for the Rockets.

Anthony and Pete quickly hit on the NBA refereeing discourse over the last couple days, then turn their attention back to this series to wonder whether the Lakers can actually end this series as quickly as possible.

Anthony and Harrison spend this extra off day adding to the discourse about NBA refereeing after Devin Booker went on a great tirade on the subject. Anthony makes the case this is the NBA's actual biggest problem and explains why it, like most things, reflects poorly on Adam Silver's leadership. After that discussion, the guys explain what's impressed them most about this Lakers-Rockets series.

Anthony plays a snippet of Devin Booker's rant about refereeing last night and that launches the guys into their discussion on the subject. Refereeing is bad, but, as they explain, the refs themselves are put in impossible situations.

Anthony explains how he'd fix refereeing in the NBA: If a rule or the interpretation of that rule would start a fight in a pickup game, then it's a bad rule and needs to be tweaked.