Dan Woike

31 games in the season is not consistent.

In theory, he's always been here, but there are... But, I mean, even LeBron didn't really enter this fray.

you know, until Thanksgiving.

Sure.

And, um, you know, an off season he had never had before.

Um, you know, I never missed a preseason.

I never missed an opening night.

Um, you know, and I think there's been some unevenness because of that.

Certainly this roster changed dramatically.

Um, when you integrate a player like that, none of this is to say it's the problem.

Well, that's not what I'm saying, but like, like it is, I think, um,

there's obviously a pretty big difference when that happens.

I do, though, think that one of the things, and I've talked to a handful of Laker players about this privately, it's why I wrote it last week, and it remains true today, there is a very big difference.

And there's a very big difference between teams that try to play hard and teams that play hard.

Mm-hmm.

Like it is for the teams that try for better or worse, it's play acting.

Like you're, you're doing your best.

I don't even think it's like, I think it's like an actually born from a genuine place of like, it's not performative.

They wanted to be as physical as Detroit tonight.

They wanted to play as hard as Detroit tonight.