Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - 45 Points From Luka Donćić' Can't Save Lakers in 126-106 Loss to Bucks

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Friday. Brian Komeneski, Andy Kaminetsky, Luca Donchich puts up 45 points in Milwaukee, and it's not even close to enough. Lakers get hammered. Talk about it next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. First, listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how are you, get your podcast, this one's always free and never behind a paywall. Of course, locked on Lakers on YouTube,

Starting point is 00:00:38 Andy is where everyone's headed to hang out, talk Lakers with Lakers fans, leave each other comments, have conversations, talk to us over 33,000 strong, and they are just waiting and waiting and waiting patiently

Starting point is 00:00:53 for the front court to return because until that happens, Andy, it appears the Lakers, there's just not much they can do. They go into Milwaukee on Thursday night and, you know, play certainly play harder than they did in Brooklyn, I think, on Monday. Luca puts up 45.

Starting point is 00:01:12 Austin Reeves breaks out of his slump. He has 28. And the Lakers got throttled by Milwaukee, lose by 20. It was in a lot of ways, I thought, the inverse of the Milwaukee game where, you know, Jordan Goodwin, Dalton. Brooklyn, yeah, Brooklyn.

Starting point is 00:01:31 Jordan Connect, Dalton Connect, Jordan Goodwin, Gabe Vincent, Vando, I thought all those guys filled in in the ways they were supposed to pick up for the absences of the guys missing. But Luca and especially Austin really struggled. Tonight, Luca and Austin were fantastic. and everybody else was somewhere between not nearly enough and damn near non-existent. To put this in perspective, Luca and Austin combined for 73 points. The rest of the team combined for 33. And, I mean, if you're looking to really get a clear view of what happened, like the garbage time minutes didn't affect anything because he really,

Starting point is 00:02:24 JJ really gave, other than Shake Milton, everybody a legitimate shot to play in this game before finally waving the white flag. And you still only got 33 points. And beyond how starkly bad production that is, if you want to put it in perspective, Kevin Porter Jr. off the bench, 22, he had two-thirds of, the rest of the Lakers combined production himself. Luca had 29 in the first half, almost outscored all of his teammates

Starting point is 00:03:07 not named Austin or Reeves himself. It just was way too little from everybody. And, I mean, for the injury news, we'll get to it back in the next segment, kind of what things are looking like there. and you know, all three of LeBron, Rui Hachamura, and Jackson Hayes, you know, obviously that's your starting front court. They were back in Los Angeles, weren't getting their bodies right.

Starting point is 00:03:36 You know, weren't even in the building. So we'll talk about their progress in terms of when they might be back in the lineup, certainly before the end of the show. But that leads you, this is one of those instances, Andy, where, like, really nothing had to give. like, you know, this was not an immovable object against an unstoppable force. This was, man, the Lakers really look like they're going to have trouble with Milwaukee's size, you know, with Janice Ante Cumpo, with Brooke Lopez. And that is exactly what happened.

Starting point is 00:04:07 They, you know, JJ talked about it. They didn't like how they approach some of their coverages. They didn't execute the game plan as well as they needed to, obviously, and all that. Milwaukee did get a vote in that, by the way, in terms of how they were playing. But the Lakers clearly were trying, you know, felt they needed to try to protect the paint as much as they could. And that left Milwaukee shooting a ton of open threes. And that problem was compounded by the fact that while they were shading to try to protect the paint, that didn't actually work. So they were getting the worst of both worlds.

Starting point is 00:04:46 and Milwaukee just leveraged their size in ways the Lakers had no response to because whether it was Alex Lenn or Christian Coloco or going small or trying Markeith Morris or whatever it is, they, Lakers aren't equipped without those three guys in the front court to play without Keith. Keith. They hit, Andy, it was DefCon 88 today in this game. I don't know if Defcons go that high, but they reach DefCon 80. and you know, Keith is on the floor.

Starting point is 00:05:20 And like, I mean, you can't get mad about it. I mean, I'm not mad. It's frustrating, but I'm not mad. The only thing I guess I am somewhat frustrated with is if you were going to play Coloco, I would have liked to have seen him just start. At this point, it's, it's become very clear. Alex Lenn is not going to help. I mean, clearly is not the reason himself that the,

Starting point is 00:05:45 the team lost, but I've Jason Tenth, the host of Hoops Tonight, friend of the show, summarized it really well. Alex Lenn has made some really nice short roll reads and has logged a few great ISO defensive possessions on Janus, yet has still been downright destructive to the Lakers in this game. The response I had was the stuff that Len can't do, he really can't do. Like it is, he's one of the most,

Starting point is 00:06:15 more all or nothing players in the league right now. And I like to talk about, Andy, how good coaching you can play to a role player's strengths and hide their weaknesses. That's not possible here. Yeah. It's just not a choice. And look, to credit to JJ in the sense of he didn't even activate Trey Jemison the third for this game, meaning he entered it with the idea of, I'm going to give Christian

Starting point is 00:06:41 Coloco a try. He obviously was willing to even put. Marquith Morrison there to begin the fourth to see if just anything different could happen. And nothing did. And like you said, the size that they were giving up, the length that they were giving up, the JJ talked about this, the lack of familiarity with a lot of these floor combinations together, which led to a ton of open threes for Milwaukee. And I'd mentioned before how the Lakers, not Luca or Austin combined for 33 points. And Kevin Porter Jr., had 22, that's two-thirds of that production.

Starting point is 00:07:19 He had his first four threes. And none of them were contested. We mentioned at the beginning, 45 from Luca Donchich. It was, it was, you know, you could kind of tell it was going to end in kind of futility. Like it wasn't going to amount to a win. But watching Luca keep the Lakers in the game in the first half, amazing. fun. I mean, he was insanely good. He finished the first half with 29 points. He was hitting threes. He was getting the line. He was hitting little middies. Like the full range of

Starting point is 00:07:58 Luca Donchich offense was kind of on display, which is actually, you know, if there is a silver lining to this moment, it is that both he and Austin, to whatever extent that they are in slumps and Luca's efficiency isn't what it normally is. So there's room for improvement there. Obviously, Austin had a breakout game. Like, those guys are going to be able to shoot their way out of whatever slump they're in because, I mean, you can't get greener lights more than what they have provided. Lucas certainly took advantage of it, looked smooth, looked comfortable, had the full

Starting point is 00:08:37 array out to keep the Lakers close going into the half. And it literally was Luca keeping the Lakers close. Lucas, you mentioned the 29 points. He also had seven rebounds, two assists, two steals, a block. You did have three turnovers. And he and Austin combined for nine. But some of that was just, again, they're getting blitzed constantly. And it is difficult to work out of that.

Starting point is 00:09:04 They also both, frankly, should have had more assists in this game. that's what I'm down. I'm pointing it out, but I'm not parping on it. I'm not criticizing it. I actually thought Lucas' defense in this game a lot was actually pretty good. This was a game where you really saw Luca, and I think also to a very tangible extent, Austin really trying as not just the most talented players on the team at this point,

Starting point is 00:09:33 but also the leaders of this team, really attempting to put everybody on their backs. It's also why, I mean, we can talk about it a little bit later in the show as well. You texted me during the game wondering why Luca was put back into the game with, I think, about seven or eight minutes to the Lakers down close to 20. I had a couple ideas why, but in the end, if you're looking to see what a game can look like for the Lakers, where Luca attempts to go supernova for his team, even if it ended up ultimately in a loss,

Starting point is 00:10:13 picture it now with, you know, his roster there. Like, let's just say LeBron is available, but just struggling that sort of thing. Let's carry this over into the next segment, because like I said, I do think there is some benefit. Like, what can the Lakers do to make this time constructive? Because it's going to be, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:31 they're playing tonight, you know, Friday night in, you know, for those listening to the audio on Friday, morning. They're playing Friday night in Denver. They've got six games starting tonight, six games between now and the 22nd. That is an insanely packed schedule. And, you know, this lineup is going to be the lineup for at least part of it. So what can they get out of it? We'll ask that question next. Lockdown-Lakers is brought to you by Fandul. March Madness is here, and Fandul is giving you the chance to get in on the action like never before. Right now, New customers can get $200 in bonus bets when you're first.

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Starting point is 00:12:19 Locked on Daily. Click on Locked on Lakers. The show is in your inbox. You know, I think if there is something to try to get out of this moment, you know, these are not lineup combinations. If you end up having to play some of these lineup combinations in the playoffs

Starting point is 00:12:38 and stuff like that, it's not going to end well. Like this is just like there's, you know, can you, can you try to make a guy like, I don't know, Goodwin, more comfortable playing? But like, yes, but like even minutes for guys like that are probably going to come with other really good players around them. And so like these lineup combinations and the way that some of these role players are being used just isn't going to look the same once you have your starting center, you're starting power forward and you're starting small forward back in the lineup. But what you can do is do whatever you can to make Luca extraordinarily comfortable.

Starting point is 00:13:17 Like he can, you know, he can take over, like completely take over when LeBron is not available and work his way back into full Luca before the playoffs come. That actually gets to why, at least a theory that I had for Luca playing those fourth quarter of minutes that you had texted me about. One theory, and this is my response. he was. I wonder if JJ is just seeing if by say five minutes left in the game, they can get it down to 10. And if you get it down to 10, it's worth trying a little bit longer than what it was. That tends to be what coaches do. But also, the idea of getting Luca comfortable, this was a game

Starting point is 00:13:58 where not only did he look great, he looked probably the best that he has looked as a Laker. certainly I think over the course of four quarters, the most comfortable, the most Luca-ish. So he may have wanted to just keep him out there just to keep that rhythm going, you know, keep the flow. If he, you know, dusting off Markeith Morris, that's somebody Luca's familiar with. I wonder if he was just trying to give him a little more,

Starting point is 00:14:30 a little more reps with Markief just to see what it looked like, you know, because those two have played together in Dallas. Maybe. I think he was just letting him play. I'd be perfectly honest. But I mean, given the backup thing is see if you, coaches do this all the time, see if you can get it within 10. If you can get it within 10, weird things happen.

Starting point is 00:14:47 I also do think there's a chance that he doesn't play in Denver. So I mean, I think if they, JJ did not commit to whether or not Luca would or would not play in Friday night's game. And so I think there may have been 100% speculation. At least some thought that we can let him play a little bit longer in a game. We're probably not going to win because there's a very good chance he's going to sit on Friday night anyway. It's possible.

Starting point is 00:15:16 JJ, while not committing to it, did say that his expectation was that everybody who played in Milwaukee is going to play in Denver, which, as you note, is not a commitment. But I read it more like JJ was really expecting everybody to play unless, as he noted, did somebody's bodies feel, somebody's body feels worse tomorrow, which you can't predict. And to be fair, even though it was like,

Starting point is 00:15:41 why is he in there? It was more like you're risking, you know, turning an ankle, stepping on the wrong guy, like whatever. And it's not like these extra three minutes are going to make a difference

Starting point is 00:15:52 either in how he plays on Friday or his availability or like waking up more sore once they get off the flight. It was purely a preventative. Sure. But I mean, I think there was at least potentially some tangible motives on JJ's part for keeping Luca out there as long as he did, for keeping Austin as long as he was out there. They both played 36 minutes. And if you wanted to make the argument of why, you know, why is Luca being put back in the game?

Starting point is 00:16:24 Why is he out there? You could have made the same argument for Austin with that big of a deficit. I imagine at least a little bit of it beyond the competitiveness, all these. coaches have is Austin looks great for the first time in a few weeks. Let him keep playing. Let him recognize this feeling. I wouldn't be surprised if that was an element with both those guys. It could be. I definitely, I'm glad you brought up Reeves because that was going to be my next thing. It was like while in, you know, in contrast to what I think it was with Luca, you know, who's been nursing the ankle and the back, he looked good. I mean, he looked comfortable. He looked

Starting point is 00:17:03 fine. Like, you know, I made the joke that, you know, if he wasn't so out of shape, he would have gotten 30 in the first half instead of 29. Like, as much as this is a talking point, like, you can tell the difference when a guy is laboring and when he's not. And Luca looked smooth. He looked comfortable. He looked like all that stuff.

Starting point is 00:17:21 He got, looked like he got tired in the second half because Milwaukee was finally making it just too difficult to, uh, to kind of keep the team in it single handedly. But he didn't look at all uncomfortable. And I think if he had, the Lakers would have sat him down faster. Austin getting right is critical. And so again, in terms of this, like, it's not good. You wouldn't draw it up this way. It's not ideal.

Starting point is 00:17:49 It's not like something you want to have happen. But there is an opportunity here for a little bit of two-man familiarity, a little bit of a two-man game between Luke and Austin to get those two guys on the same page and really comfortable with each other. And then beyond that, they need Reeves to play well. Like this is clearly a supporting cast, and obviously it'll make a difference when Rui is back. But it's not an explosive supporting cast.

Starting point is 00:18:16 Like most of the, most of the firepower is going to be in that starting lineup. You might get Dalton Connect to pop off the bench every, you know, a couple games or, you know, Gabe Vincent hits a few threes or whatever it is. But like those guys need to be right. Austin needs to be somebody who is a threat to put in 20 to 25 in a playoff game. Absolutely. And again, I think there was utility to playing both those guys extended minutes.

Starting point is 00:18:44 I think there was utility, again, with Keith being out there for like his first extended minutes ever as a Laker, just seeing what it looks like because there are issues with center right now, period. And even when Jackson Hayes gets back, there can be issues in terms of who, backs him up. And coming up, we can talk about the supporting cast because it was really lacking in this game. And it is also a continuation of some issues that have been happening with the non-star guys, or in the case of, I guess, maybe Austin's star adjacent players on the Lakers. So we can get into that coming up next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Monarch. Money. You ever check your bank account and wonder where did all the money go between dining out online shopping

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Starting point is 00:20:50 It is obviously very important to bring people up to speed with the news of the day regarding all of these injuries. As I mentioned in the first segment, LeBron, Jackson Hayes and Rui all flew back to L.A. They did not accompany the team to Milwaukee and then to Denver. and they are, and this is the good news, they are all listed as day to day. And obviously, especially when you're thinking about LeBron, like the timeline initially had given out was one to two weeks.

Starting point is 00:21:23 If he is already being put in that day-to-day category, one to two weeks actually does kind of sound like it could be the time frame or at least pretty close to that. I think they would say, yeah, LeBron's still got another week and we'll look at him or whatever. You certainly do not want to be. raising expectations around when he is going to be coming back. And so if all three of those guys are listed as day-to-day, hopefully at least it means

Starting point is 00:21:50 the Lakers could get one of them back, a couple of them back, if not after the road trip is over, maybe early next week. Again, the Lakers play six games starting Friday between Friday and Saturday the 22nd. That is an absurd amount of basketball. So if they can get anybody's back, Andy, it's good. But at least, you know, I took that to be a very good sign, particularly when it comes to LeBron that he's considered day-to-day, and they sent him back to Los Angeles.

Starting point is 00:22:22 I also take it as a good sign because a, it's more productive their use of time if they're in L.A., as opposed to having to go to an arena and sit there for four hours when they're not going to play, then get on a plane, go to. Denver, city they're not going to play in, then go sit in arena that they're not going to play in.

Starting point is 00:22:41 Like it's a more productive use of their time beyond the idea that they are hopefully getting closer to return. But I also take it as a positive sign from the Lakers because they do not like to get ahead of any injury news at all. So the idea that they would even, the idea that they would even create expectations is so antithetical to what they typically do, no matter how you feel about the way they go about their business, I agree with you. That makes me optimistic that all three of them, LeBron, Rue, and Jackson are going to be back

Starting point is 00:23:19 relatively soon, which is obviously great. I mean, and, you know, Jackson is the only one where it's like you look at it and you're like, when it first says, like that seemed like a really minor thing, like he'd miss one game and come back. The fact that he hasn't been able, of all the, of everyone, I'm actually most, you know, most sort of distressed about his injury. And it's not because he's the best player of the three. He's not.

Starting point is 00:23:44 It's because this is one of those, it was only supposed to be a three-hour tour kind of injuries. And all of a sudden, you know, they're still stuck on the island. I, everybody else kind of seems like they're on the track they gave. And as we've seen, Andy, they really don't have a backup center that is viable.

Starting point is 00:24:05 And, you know, I know, they, they, you know, Jemison, God love him. He plays incredibly hard, but he's limited. And Coloco plays hard, but he's limited. And Len, I'm sure he's trying. He's not very good. They just don't have a lot of playable centers. I thought Coloco was a little bit better than Len in, in Thursday's game. But I didn't think he was very good.

Starting point is 00:24:34 I also agree. And that's not meant as a knock on Coloco. He hasn't played in like two months. Right. And he's not somebody who like they signed with the expectation of playing high leverage minutes like to try to nail down playoff seating. They, they signed him as a, you know, kind of a guy you could put out there if you need to, but mostly as a development, a developmental player that they think over the next couple of years

Starting point is 00:25:02 has potential. And I 100% agree. So do I. Right. I like Coloco. Hayes, while he has limitations, a good fit for what they're doing, has played well. And it is by far the best option that they have. And so if he's not available, they really are a little bit screwed. But this gets back to why I was focusing a bit earlier on when Keith got in the fourth quarter.

Starting point is 00:25:33 and JJ specifically playing Luca with Keith. I would not be surprised if at all, if Keith gets some run against Denver and earlier because the center situation, I mean, currently without Hayes, is a nightmare. And even with Hayes eventually back, knock on wood ASAP,

Starting point is 00:26:01 it is looking on, settled. Like Trey Jimmison, again, I mentioned that at the top of the show, he was not even active for this game. Yeah. And JJ has clearly lost some trust in Coloco because he went from being in the rotation and I thought playing reasonably well to going long stretches without playing at all. And the why has never been fully clarified, but we can clearly tell the what. And Alex Len is, if I had to guess, going to be the guy that starts tomorrow. if for no other reason, then he's huge and Yokic is huge. But he clearly is not a viable rotation guy.

Starting point is 00:26:39 And once Hayes is back, I would be surprised, maybe not shocked, but surprised if Len ends up Hayes' backup. I would not be surprised at all if JJ starts giving Marquith Morris a few games of a look as the backup center because nobody, nobody is. standing out and like we talked about with Keith and the piece that Dan Wojke wrote for the LA Times that everybody should read because it's a really cool piece. But he's a veteran. The guys around him respect him.

Starting point is 00:27:18 He's experienced. He was part of a 2020 championship team. He's somebody that you could put out there with the hope of first do no harm. And maybe he can pull that off. Yeah. I certainly long term I don't know. but tomorrow, Friday, you know, again, we're recording this Thursday night for Friday's show. You know, in Denver, I agree with you.

Starting point is 00:27:40 I think he's going to play because he's a better option than what they've got. Even at 6.9, he's undersized. But like, Len is not going to stop Yokic. I mean, the notion of a Yokic stopper is kind of stupid anyway. But like. Well, especially with Rui injured. Right. you're not going to execute, you know, the same type of game plan.

Starting point is 00:28:03 It's just, it's not going to work as well. And so I think you will get a little bit more predictability on a, and a consistency, again, like Len makes a good play and makes five bad ones. Coloco makes a good play here, show some energy. He did get vertical. Like the first thing they did do him was throw him a lob when he got in. That's his greatest value is he just opens up another place for Luca to throw the ball. But, I mean, he's.

Starting point is 00:28:27 keep, I think, from possession to possession, the ceiling might be lower, but the floor is higher. And so, you know, undersized Markief Morris, 6, 9, 15 minutes wouldn't shock me. I mean, they just, again, you can't get mad about this stuff. There's nothing they can do. I mean, as long as they play hard, Austin said it after the game, Redick said it after the game. Like, yes, technically you can execute well enough. DFS gets really hot. Gabe Vincent, they shoot

Starting point is 00:28:59 unnaturally well from the perimeter. You get a slow night from another player. You know, I don't think Phoenix is so good that they can't beat them over the weekend. But, you know, Katie's a problem. You know, they've got, you know, some decent enough large people who can, Lakers are going to have to account for

Starting point is 00:29:18 and then you get Booker. They're not great, but, you know, I think the Lakers might be able to win that game. But broadly speaking, they're missing too much of the same kind of player to compete against good NBA teams that are paying attention. And by the way, Andy, there were reports going into this game that the Bucks were extra motivated because it was a Darwin Ham revenge game. They wanted to make sure that Darwin won this game against his former team, which makes it one of the very rare assistant coach revenge game that you've ever get a chance to see. Oh, what a time to be alive.

Starting point is 00:29:57 I don't root against Darwin. I just find the notion of an assistant coach revenge game to be kind of silly. No, we actually both on a personal level like Darwin. Really good guy. And both of us thought actually his first season, he did a very good job. Second season was more spotty. None of this needs to be relitigated. But as a person, really, really good dude.

Starting point is 00:30:17 And I think he'll get another shot at head coach. I think he deserves another shot. Assistant coach revenge game. Yes. Are we doing that? Are we really doing that? Well, when you're missing LeBron for a TNT game, you got to come up with some storylines. And there you go. We had talked about this, I believe, for Wednesday's show. And tonight was another reminder. Dorian Finney Smith, five points on two of eight shooting, one of five from behind the

Starting point is 00:30:47 arc. You know, I mentioned he was hardly the only supporting player who didn't step up. Gabe Vincent's six points on three of ten. O of five from behind the arc, he missed three consecutive corner threes from the exact same damn corner. God, that was the most frustrating sequence. It's like, you know, you get a feeling like you're watching a game and you're saying to yourself, I don't think it's going to end well. Like when he, when Gabe missed three corner, the three in a row and you're just like,

Starting point is 00:31:21 I don't think it's going to end well. Like those need to go in. We're going to need that to go in. And, you know, Connect had 10 points, 4, 7, 7 shooting, 5 rebounds through his system. Dalton was fine, if not good enough. Frankly, they needed to get him the ball more because he was one of the only guys who could make a basket in this game. But swinging it back to DFS, this is now 49 points over his last nine games combined. Like, that is just not going to get it done.

Starting point is 00:31:55 And, you know, nobody expects Dorian Finney Smith to explode for 50. But they do believe that he can in a situation like this. I don't know. I sure explode for 15. You know what I mean? Like they need DFS to do more. It's all relative. It's becoming a thing.

Starting point is 00:32:17 100% agree. Like, you know, you can, Dalton connects profile as an NBA player. And he picked up five files on top of it. And other than one rebound and I guess one turnover, he was a donut across the box. Wasn't good. And he is,

Starting point is 00:32:33 he is a guy who will play better and perform better with the better players around him. But like, you know, Dalton, you look at it and say, okay, these guys are missing in a situation where there are an extra 18 shots to go around, 20 shots, 25 shots, whatever it is. You know, Luca's going to absorb a bunch of what's.

Starting point is 00:32:52 So we're like, you know, like connect erupting for 28. You'd be like, okay, I can see that. I can see that happening. You know, Dald had a couple very confident jumpers, a good three in the first half. You don't expect that from DFS. Like, he's not that kind of offensive player, but they need him to hit his averages. Like, they kind of need everybody to get their averages to have a shot. And he just wasn't, you know, we, that was Thursday show.

Starting point is 00:33:16 And you were prescient. Andy in your observations there. And we'll see what happens in Denver. I don't think anybody is particularly optimistic about what that game's going to look like. The Lakers, it's kind of annoying. They're going to slip in the standings. But as long as they stay above that six seed and give themselves a chance to be healthy, win a couple games going to the playoffs,

Starting point is 00:33:40 maybe you can get back into the three or four. Two probably does look like it's going to be really tough to do by the time this is all done. but, you know, three, four, five, six still very much in play. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out. With over 33,000 subscribers, we will, of course, be back after the game in Denver and this weekend against Phoenix. Yeah, after that came. But that would be Sunday for Monday. That's like normal.

Starting point is 00:34:08 But everyone have a great, great Friday, and we'll see after the game.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - 45 Points From Luka Donćić' Can't Save Lakers in 126-106 Loss to Bucks

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