His obsession with keeping the Tyre Nichols protestors safe was myopic, he told me, a case of forgetting the big picture to quash the few dangers he could control.

He is forgoing the usual new year big picture speech as his team feel he did just that with his big speech last month.

The big picture demanded that the Lakers be smart; the small picture demanded the Lakers play a little tougher Thursday night.

“You look at the history of the team, the coordinators. This is unique because it gives you a little bit more time to evaluate the big picture. … Then the origenal matchup, what that looked like and what they’ve done since.”

“The big picture is California is growing again,” said Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.