Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - 28 from Luka, 24 from LeBron Lead Lakers to Easy 128-104 Win Over Sacramento

Starting point is 00:00:00 Second straight blowout win as the Lakers feeling better about themselves. Can they carry it through when the schedule gets more difficult? That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. Your first listen of every day, Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends,

Starting point is 00:00:31 even on holidays and now more than once a day, no matter how. how or where you get your podcast, whether you're a Spotify guy and Apple guy. Maybe you're one of the 37,000 plus subscribers to Lockdown Lakers on YouTube because it's awesome. No matter how you're doing it, your part of making the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network in this or any other known universe. I'm Brian Kaminetsky with Andy Kaminetsky. We've covered the Lakers for nearly 20 years with the LA Times, with the SPN, with the athletic. And in that time, Andy, we've often seen teams that don't look like they're having any fun at work.

Starting point is 00:01:05 And the Lakers were that team. And this weekend has gone a long way towards fixing that problem. 128-104. I thought you were talking about the Sacramento Kings for a second, because we've watched a lot of Sacramento Kings look like they're not having fun at work. Yeah, that's sort of just the normal state of the world. It's the exception is when they get to light the beam. You know, light the beam season every couple of decades.

Starting point is 00:01:30 But everything that, no. My God, light the beam was like two years. ago, it feels like the Rockchester Royals or the Cincinnati Royals. It feels that long ago. Remember when we beat the San Diego Clippers? That was a good game. Former, former locked on Kings host Matt George, current locked on Kings host James Ham. You both deserve way the hell better. Yeah, they do. Although Nick Clifford looks like he might be a pretty good player one day. So, you can't wait for his trade request. Yep. You look at this and We touched on a few of these things on Saturday after the Lakers blew out the Warriors

Starting point is 00:02:10 that you wanted to see something very similar in Sunday's game, and that's exactly what happened. Lakers get up big. They probably threw it into cruise control a little early, then kicked it back up and ran away with the game, sat the starters late in the fourth quarter. Nobody played more than 29 minutes. It was really, in a lot of ways, a repeat of Saturday's formula.

Starting point is 00:02:32 And you could tell if nothing else, Andy, we'll get into some of the specifics about the game, what seems sustainable, all these other things. You could tell first and foremost that there was a little bit of joy that was brought back and that sort of dark cloud that's been over the team for a little while seemed to have moved with what they did on Saturday and certainly on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:03:00 Yeah, I'm not going to say that. the clouds are gone because this is a stretch that's very easy or should be at the very least to turn into sunny days. You know, playing the Warriors with no Steph Curry, with no Christopps Brazingis, with no Jimmy Butler, then playing this King's squad that's sorry on its best day, much less this version without Zach Levine, without DeMontas Sabonis, without D'Andre Hunter, without Murray with

Starting point is 00:03:32 with Russell Westbrook like there frankly the Lakers should have been starting the

Starting point is 00:03:40 the sunnier days earlier because by all rights they should have been able to go into that sun's game and in that one

Starting point is 00:03:51 the magic have been struggling on the road but that's what hence the dark clouds the enormous frustration

Starting point is 00:03:57 right but I if I may play amateur weatherman for a second. I am not declaring the clouds completely gone and not coming back for the next six months. But this is where, if nothing else, you get the opportunity to start to turn the mood, and the mood was in desperate need of turning. We talked about after the sun's loss, the potential for spiral was there. if they, if nothing else did not hit the brakes on what was happening.

Starting point is 00:04:31 They have. They've got one more hopeful tune upish game Tuesday against the Pelicans, another team that's not very good. Before they go play Denver, the Nuggets in Denver, Denver, by the way, having a bit of struggles themselves. So the Lakers have an opportunity to use this period to workshop and to build some of their best habits, it's going to be more difficult to do the things that they did against the Warriors and Kings against better competition. But the first step is actually getting the

Starting point is 00:05:06 reps under their belt, and they're doing that. Yeah, I'm doing it a lot people in the today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. FanDuel. FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost. Head to fendual.com to get started. That's fendual.com. Fandule play your game. you know, it's interesting that you kind of phrase it, though, like, I agree with you, like, this doesn't, the Lakers aren't fixed. But there's like a difference between like sort of the clouds over what their ceiling is, you know, some of their shortcomings as a team or whatever. And just literally the mood. Like, you know, you could just see like there was no sense of fun, no sense of joy.

Starting point is 00:05:50 Like in the first half of first quarter when the Lakers went up 36 to 18, there was that. play and JJ Reddick credited Marcus Smart for this sort of thing at the end of the game. Smart from the floor starts a fast break off a steal, one of his five, I believe. He had five steals in this game. Marcus was really, really disruptive. Very much so. So he starts a break on his knees, throws it out to LeBron. LeBron flips it to Reeves.

Starting point is 00:06:22 Reeves looks like he's going to go for a little finger roll, but instead it's like a little finger roll oop to to LeBron who throws it down and like everybody's up they had a couple poster dunks from Maxi Kleba of all people in this game and just like

Starting point is 00:06:38 it was just they look like they're having fun and you know I understand this is serious work it is a business they are all paid a lot of money the expectations are quite high and so on and so on and so on

Starting point is 00:06:55 it's still basketball. And it's like if you can't find some enjoyment in the playing of the game, then you're not going to win. And step one, like they just, they were so frustrated. And Saturday and Sunday loosen them up. Now let's see what happens. Because New Orleans, they got blown out on Sunday against the Clippers. Broadly has played a tiny bit better.

Starting point is 00:07:24 DeJante Murray is back. It should be a little bit more of a challenge, certainly than what they saw Sunday against the Kings, who really, it cannot be overstated just how terrible a basketball team that was. The Lakers were playing. There was one point where I was honestly wondering, is Malik Monk trying to get ejected?

Starting point is 00:07:51 He got a tech, and then he ended up going out, added a little bit with Maxi Kleba after, you know, a blocking file that had some physicality in it. But Malik really reacted pretty demonstratively. And in the beginning, I was like, you know, you know what? Is he just trying to get tossed? And if he is, I don't blame him. I don't blame him in the slightest. Which game was it a few weeks ago where La Ravia filed out, like two minutes into the third quarter and looked totally happy? I believe that was against the spurs where they were super short-handed. And I agree.

Starting point is 00:08:27 It looked to me, like when La Ravia got his fourth or fifth foul, his body language from there was so effort, man. ethic. Get me that. I don't think he was in, I don't think he was trying to foul out, but I don't think he was not trying to. He sure was not,

Starting point is 00:08:45 he sure was not not trying to file out. He wasn't concerned about fouling out. But, you know, so like, look I mean you just they needed to get back to a place

Starting point is 00:09:00 where they could show that they could play competent basketball and you know look in this one they got out to that 3618 lead I think quite frankly

Starting point is 00:09:09 they thought the the kings were just going to stop playing which to be fair was not a crazy assumption a decent bet it wasn't you know if you had that on your fan duel

Starting point is 00:09:21 like it wasn't a terrible idea. The lead got down to 10. They played a kind of a mid second, you know, math second quarter. Lead got down to 10 early. At the top of the third quarter as well. Like they went into halftime and came out of halftime sloppy for about maybe eight or nine total combined minutes bridging half time where they were screwing around a little bit too much for their own good.

Starting point is 00:09:50 When they put it back into. gear though they built that lead up really quickly and i think they knew they could but they built that lead up really quickly and importantly didn't relinquish it so you know you got if you were to draw up like a script for what you would want saturday and sunday to look like it would look like what would happen where you get you know easy victories with your starters off the floor and nobody playing big minutes um they got they played i think j j j says it's like six games and eight nights and they've got some difficult competition coming up. All of this stuff adds up. And so, you know, these were two very cruise control kind of wins. It couldn't have looked any

Starting point is 00:10:34 better. So what did they happen upon that might be able to push them through just in terms of trends and things we saw over the weekend? We will tell you next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Better Help. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. March is a time to celebrate women, especially International Women's Day, and recognize just how much they can carry. It work, relationships, families, and the unseen roles, they step into every day. And sometimes men can have blind spots, even with the best intention with the women in our lives, whether mothers, sisters, partners, coworkers, therapy can help people talk through these situations or to get a better understanding of yourself, create fewer misunderstandings, create empathy to provide the right

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Starting point is 00:12:22 actually I guess now three but they're all kind of related a rotation that seems to be shaking out an improvement in the on-court performance of the big three when they're together and balance what stuck out to me in these games Saturday and Sunday was there was a significant amount of first quarter balance between Austin between LeBron and obviously Luca who has 10

Starting point is 00:12:52 typically own the first quarter. He kind of took a backseat in terms of scoring for both of the games. Luca and I'm sorry, LeBron and AR get involved early. Luca maybe piles up some assists. But that seemed to kind of keep a mood and, you know, it was sort of contagious in terms of just promoting movement and promoting action involvement and all that. I mean, I liked it.

Starting point is 00:13:18 Look, it sets a tone. I've talked before about how I, call the first quarter often Luca Paloosa. And Luca Paloosa can be like in a vacuum if you are just taking it in for either sheer entertainment value or like jaw-dropping audaciousness or just holy bleep moments. It has a very Russell Crow, are you not entertained? Oh yeah. No. Luca The Lekapalooza in the first quarter can be amazing. But as I've often brought up before, the Lakers have not been a team that often wins the first quarter. They've often not been a particularly strong first quarter team.

Starting point is 00:13:59 And I don't think that these events are unrelated because while, again, Luca's individual performance is breathtaking. And I believe he still leads the league in first quarter points, it doesn't often set either the proper tone for ball movement or, you know, establishing that foundation. It also, I think, doesn't always get everybody else in a proper rhythm. And like, we used to talk about this when we covered Kobe back in the Kobe Pow days and even a few seasons before that. Like, the Kobe's individual performances beginning games were often, again, like Lucas, pretty amazing. But the other guys would then go a quarter or so not exactly understanding

Starting point is 00:14:50 when they were going to be getting the ball, not really feeling any rhythm. Then all of a sudden they start getting more shots halfway through the second quarter. They're not in any rhythm. They don't go down. It can become cyclical where then Kobe starts feeling like he has to do more. This can be related to when JJ has talked about, you know, Luca and LeBron and Austin. And to be clear, It's all three of them. I just want to make sure people understand. It's not just Luca, but Luca has the ball the most of everybody.

Starting point is 00:15:18 Right. You just want to make sure everybody gets in a rhythm. And also, you're setting when Luke, we talked before, remember last year with LeBron, and when LeBron started cranking up his defense, it set a tone and an onus for everybody else because if the old man is playing defense, there is no permission structure or excuses

Starting point is 00:15:40 for everybody else not to try to play defense as well as they can. If Luca's moving the ball as the guy with the ball in his hands the most, it removes any permission structure or just tone setting for others not to move the ball. And it just creates the best version of players individually. It also creates the best shots. I don't think it's a coincidence entirely that they've been hitting more threes as the ball's been moving more. he's probably not unrelated.

Starting point is 00:16:11 Better shots. Yeah. 34 assists on the night for the Lakers, paced by Luca, nine assists against only one turnover. So a super clean game from Luca, who did, by the way, have 28 points on a very efficient 10 of 16.

Starting point is 00:16:27 It's, you know, look, I mean, like AR finished with 12 and, you know, not a super efficient night got to the line four times, whatever. They didn't need much for them, and that was cool. But like, on any given night,

Starting point is 00:16:39 one of the big three is probably going to have to sacrifice some shots. And it's usually not going to be Luca. It's going to probably be LeBron or AR. But the difference is if you can get everyone kind of flowing a little bit early when you need one of those guys perhaps later in a game or the minutes where Luca's not on the floor or whatever it might be, they're kind of not starting from scratch. I want to have a larger conversation about some of Reeves' none.

Starting point is 00:17:09 numbers and what you think all of this looks like in terms of off-season stuff, when LeBron presumably is gone. That's the assumption that I know you and I are working on her that he will not be back with the team next year and how that changes what you would expect Reeves' output to be. But in the near term, they really just need to figure out a way to maximize everybody in that group because there's just too much talent for them not to be more competitive. competitive in those minutes. And I agree with you. I think it's not a coincidence

Starting point is 00:17:43 that the shot selection was better, that the shot quality was better, that the energy kind of remained a little bit more sustained. And then from there, I feel like JJ is just getting a better feel for how to break them up.

Starting point is 00:17:59 Using LeBron more frequently as the only one of the big three on the floor so he can really lean into his skill sets, having Luca and AR working off of each other a little bit more. It's just I, there seems to be an increased comfort level with that. Well, we've seen that some of the floor combinations with say LeBron, Marcus, at times,

Starting point is 00:18:27 Rui, La Ravia, I think Luke Canard can be helpful here. Jackson Hayes, maybe now Maxi Claibah, we'll talk about it. It appears like Maxi Kleba is taking Jared Vanderbilt's minutes. but if you put LeBron out there with these guys who are high energy, who look to defend, who play with physicality that LeBron can match. Like when LeBron goes into that mode, that dude is still at 41, super strong.

Starting point is 00:18:55 He is still capable of pushing dudes around. Like, I think he fits well there. It's a lot of disruptive guys that can start a break, where LeBron can be extremely, he can be not just, you know, extremely useful. but he also, that's when he's going to be completely at his best and I think most comfortable just running the offense. Like it puts the ball in LeBron's hands for extended periods where even even though LeBron has off ball utility, we talked about this before, he is most comfortable

Starting point is 00:19:29 and I think still best with the ball in his hands. It's the riddle for JJ to figure out because Luke is that way and I think Austin is that way. So you're just giving LeBron these extended minutes where he's completely running the show and put in a position to make good decisions. And you think about it too. And the timing of it is important too. It's to start the setting. Usually LeBron, you know, he's taking that break a little bit earlier and he comes back on.

Starting point is 00:19:59 He's, you know, certainly, you know, comes back on near the end of the first quarter, starts the second quarter and all that. So now you're the other team and you have your second unit out on the floor and the guy running point on the other team is LeBron. It allows him to do what he does against slightly less impressive ball pressure. He doesn't have quite as much talent in terms of his own teammates on the floor. but the opposition isn't quite as capable of handling him either. And so it's just, it works really well.

Starting point is 00:20:40 And, you know, it takes some of the pressure off of like this incredible microscope of every single time. The three of them are out on the floor. Like, okay, what happened? Do they win those minutes? Like they've got a couple three or four games in a row where it started to look better. And if nothing else, they just need to make it good enough that people stop asking the question. every single time that they play. Well, I mean, the question is going to be continued to be asked

Starting point is 00:21:08 if they don't get it together better and they're not more synergized against better competition. Like, they're not going to be. No, you're right. It's got to sustain against, say, a team that isn't Sacramento. Yeah, I mean, like, well, it is important to emphasize because I can see the reactions coming already. You know, you guys are blowing sunshine,

Starting point is 00:21:32 up their butts over two wins over the Warriors and the Kings. We're not. We're not doing. We are recognizing full on. The Lakers have a lot to iron out against teams that are actually good. But these games matter as a lab to figure those things out and as an opportunity to just build reps and better habits. This is why, by the way, you and I have continually emphasized all season, these games, do matter. Don't blow them off.

Starting point is 00:22:04 It's not the same thing if you win by four as if you win by 24. Like it actually does matter. And can I ask you, and we'll go to break here in a second, but can I ask you a question and you can answer me honestly? Not that you typically lie, but if I had told you said like, hey, the Lakers are going to go into Saturday's game and be in a dog fight against an undermanned golden state team

Starting point is 00:22:29 and really struggle to either win. or put it away. Would that have been terribly surprising to you, given where they were going into that game? No, it would not have been shot. And that's why, you know, like the turnaround, like, it wasn't a given that they, you know, we're going to play well in these games. I want to talk a little about you mentioned Maxie Claibah in for Vando and also a little bit of DeAndre Aitin because he's in sort of a fascinating place. You know, a pretty good weekend, I thought. And so let's talk about that next.

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Starting point is 00:25:33 At some point this week, we've got to talk about Luke Conardt. because he's making a huge difference. And, you know, to the point where, like, in an off season where the Lakers are, you know, the assumption is they're going to throw everything overboard that can be thrown overboard, they would hold on to that guy. Well, man, I said from the beginning that it would not shock me if Luke Kinnard was re-signed just because, A, he's not going to be super expensive, whether for the Lakers or anybody. He's currently on an $11 million deal.

Starting point is 00:26:08 I'd be stunned if he got re-signed by the Lakers or anywhere from more than that. And I'd actually, if I'd bet, it's going to be less just the same. I think it's somewhere around the same. Someone's exception maybe or whatever. But he is not going to break anybody's bank. And also, too, he just, he's the type of player that you want around Luca in terms of elite shooter. Like shooters are valuable around.

Starting point is 00:26:34 around Luca Dona. And for reasons, which maybe we'll get into when we really can focus on them, in a world where LeBron may not be on your team, I actually think there's even more utility for his secondary skills looking at next year. So we'll see. It could be an interesting way that their cap-adjust, you know, cap-space thing has to get adjusted based on fit. Certain guys are more valuable to you than they are in other locations and it's worth paying

Starting point is 00:27:04 for that. So that's one thing. The Claibah minutes thing, like Vanderbilt played 10 minutes, I believe against the Warriors, did not play much, didn't take the floor in this game. He's the only Laker who didn't play. JJ was not going to put him in in garbage time and insult him that way. But he didn't play with the team fully healthy, everybody available, Vando didn't play. didn't play much against Golden State, as I mentioned. And Claibah picked up a lot of minutes on Sunday and played quite well. It's just, I am, I go back and forth on this. Like, I know you're a bigger Vando believer than I am, but like, I can't necessarily fault it.

Starting point is 00:27:54 I can't just kind of. It's sort of win the minutes with Vando out there. They've typically won the minutes. If you look at the net ratings since 2026 rolls around, Vando has the best individual net rating on the team among rotation players. They typically win the minutes when he's out there. I think he is not a JJ Redick type of player. I think JJ, we've seen going back to last year, he has a shorter leash for Vando. He has a shorter patience for Vando.

Starting point is 00:28:22 And I think he sees Vando, he sees Vando's flaws and or mistakes as. louder or more destructive than I often think they are. If I'll say this, playing Claibble works, it works and it's fine. If you're asking me if I get it, my answer is no. I'll put it, I'll put it this way. I mean, obviously the results need to be there. But with the team at full strength and as they're sort of, as we talked about in the previous segment, sort of rearranging and really, you know,

Starting point is 00:28:58 flowing into a better sense of who is playing, you know, where and when you're adding more minutes for somebody like Kennard. It, I, if the, I am, if the results are there, they can get the stops that they need and all that kind of stuff, I do not think Vando's going to be glued to the bench for the rest of the season. I do think there, you know, these things ebb and flow and inevitably, but back there are certain nights, but I think JJ, is not going to be a good match. Looking for reasons to glue him if he could.

Starting point is 00:29:31 That was about what I was about to say. That said, he is clearly not, you know, a favor of the limitations that, you know, all of his coaches have kind of, you know, I don't want to say struggle with, but navigated. Everybody, you know, and Vando's playing time in the time that we've covered him fluctuate, has often fluctuate. I don't know if I agree with that, but... Well, like the averages end up the averages, but there are a lot of times where he plays less, then he plays more, then he plays less. Sometimes it's based on injuries, sometimes not. I am really curious to see what it looks like if he doesn't play. Like, can you sustain really good defensive effort?

Starting point is 00:30:22 Can you get the kinds of stops that you need? And then if he does play, you know, obviously, the minutes can come from Claibah. Maxie's minutes to some degree, I think, also come from Jackson and Aiton, who didn't pile up huge minutes over the weekend.

Starting point is 00:30:41 Aton only played 18 minutes on Sunday, and he wasn't bad. He had six of six from the floor, four rebounds, he had a couple steals. I thought he played well on Saturday, too, doing dirty work, Clint Capella kind of stuff. I don't think Maxie's minutes are

Starting point is 00:30:58 necessarily just coming from Vando. They're also coming from the centers. I am curious to see what it looks like going forward. They finally have a full roster. And the minutes

Starting point is 00:31:17 are, as we suspected at the beginning of the year, going to be harder to come by. If guys like Jake are going to play, if guys like Rui are going to play, if you're going to play your starters as much as you theorize. theoretically would. Look, this goes back to last season. I clearly have a philosophical difference on Vando than JJ does. I tend to think his strengths are more valuable and more

Starting point is 00:31:43 singular to this team than his weaknesses are destructive. And again, they have typically won the minutes when he's out there. I realize net rating is not the only metric that matters, whatever, but I think generally he has not hurt them when he's been out there. I agree. And certainly this year, actually. Yeah. I mean, JJ clearly sees it a different way. And if they win the games, whether with Maxi getting those minutes or with the rotation just shortening, if they win, I don't particularly care how they go about winning. But if you're asking me if I agree with JJ, the answer would be no. It's interesting. And for those watching live on on YouTube. I was answering a question about like for this from ML Bolt 5. Do you think Vando should

Starting point is 00:32:33 play more than Aiton? And like in a vacuum you could say yes, no, whatever, but like those aren't the right people to compare because the skill sets for those two are so different. Yeah. And the way they function is so different. You know, that you you can't do. But like I, I, There have been different times that just, you know, for me, it's like I can see why Vando gets squeezed. And the big thing is the defense has shown some signs of life even in some of the games that were losing. They were not losing, you know, the Orlando game. And so those were not, those were games that were generally lost because their offense was atrocious. The defense has shown some signs of life.

Starting point is 00:33:20 And so if they can sustain that without Vando, it would be strong. and different from what they've been doing earlier in the season. But again, if they win, I don't particularly... Yeah, it's just the combos are different. Once you get everybody back, the combinations are very different. But it has obviously gotten a lot of people's attention that he has made this change. So we'll see. It's not one that I necessarily expected just because the returns with Maxi,

Starting point is 00:33:49 frankly, have been pretty spotty themselves. And as I mentioned earlier, I don't know if Vando getting squeezed necessarily means Claiva stays in the rotation. I don't think it's necessarily a choice between one or the other. We could end up seeing option three where neither of them plays a lot. Oh, Maxie and Van do? No, I think Maxi is situationally driven. And again, takes as many minutes. Well, the matchups against this King squad, they matter a lot.

Starting point is 00:34:21 Right. But, like, you know, but you know what you're like, and I also think he'll take minutes away from the other centers as much as he will other guys. Like, you know, again, it's, it's, I talked a lot last year, you know, especially in the playoffs. I thought JJ should have played Vanda more. I thought he should play Jordan Goodwin more. Clearly disagreed. It's just an, it is just a, I guess a piece of what either you value or what you, what bothers you most in terms of how you view what's happening on the court.

Starting point is 00:34:58 JJ clearly knows more than I do. But again, if you're asking if I agree, the answer is no. Yeah, and here's what I'm interested in finding out. Like what? Because it wasn't Vando.

Starting point is 00:35:08 I don't think if you asked JJ, Vando wasn't necessarily doing anything wrong. You know, it was specifically like he's doing making, you know, whereas like eight, you know, to the point that he's not playing.

Starting point is 00:35:21 not that he's not trying to say you know it's like what he was doing was what he always does i i suspect that what he's looking at is a difference in who's available when they're available who they're trying to put on the floor and what the combinations are you know given that they've got some home games this month i mean you know maybe you're hoping he gets jj gets asked that question like what about the rotation changes make it harder to play vanderville because that would be the kind of the, you provide these sort of explanation that you're looking for.

Starting point is 00:35:57 But anyway, Locked out Lakers and YouTube is where you can hang out with over 36,000 subscribers, 37,000 subscribers to the channel. We, of course, will be back with many, many, many segments over the course of the week, including getting ready for Tuesday's game against the Pelicans, a game the Lakers need to win. We will see everyone next time.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - 28 from Luka, 24 from LeBron Lead Lakers to Easy 128-104 Win Over Sacramento

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