Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - A Tough Challenge In Miami for the Lakers, Plus Deandre Ayton's Mental Shift

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Lakers face a tough challenge in Miami on Thursday. We'll tell you why this game might just be a scheduled loss or not. 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 for tuning in to Locked on Lakers. I'm Brian Kamenetsky with Andy Kamenetsky.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Lots to get into on this little. mini episode. I think we people for for tuning in both to the long episodes, the short episodes, the post games. We appreciate you no matter how you're getting the show, but hopefully you're getting used to all this extra content that we're providing here. We love the response that we're getting and we appreciate it a lot. The Lakers, they have been scalding hot, Andy, including a sweep of a back to back, you know, sort of a little home series for the Houston. and Rockets. Lakers win both of those games. They've earned the tiebreaker now against all three of their closest rivals in the Western Conference. They've put a little space in between them in the

Starting point is 00:01:15 standings. Things are good, but setting all of that aside for a moment, they're going to get into Miami on, or got into Miami, I should say, on Friday, Thursday morning. Is that late or early? When you get in at 430, you're getting in late or are you getting it early? I can't. I think it is technically early. It feels late. And so, you know, on the second night of a back-to-back, landing the plane very, very, very inconveniently at time to say at least against the Miami team that is pretty motivated to stack up some wins in the east. This is a challenge to say the least for the Lakers. Yeah, a couple days ago for my ESPN.

Starting point is 00:02:05 in LA 7-10 weekly show Lakers talk. I had Wes Goldberg on, who's the host of Locked-on Heat as well as Locked-on NBA, to preview the Heat, get a better look at them because they're not a team that you and I get to see a lot of. And beyond the fact, just a quick health update, Andrew Wiggins has already listed as out. Jaime Hakez Jr. is questionable with a hip thing, but Bamato is going to play. He missed the Heat's last game, but he's listed as probable West Thal

Starting point is 00:02:35 it was likely he would play. One of the things that we talked about that jumped out at me immediately as, oh, this could be problematic. Miami is at least as of 48 hours ago, the last time I looked, the number one pace team in the league, they get into their sets extremely quick.

Starting point is 00:02:56 As Wes informed me, they are the number one team in the league at running specifically off rebounds, Like everybody on the team basically has carte blanche to when you get a defensive board, just go. Go run their sets fast. They attack the paint a lot. They remain in motion a lot. Norm Powell last West checked.

Starting point is 00:03:21 Leads the league in three-pointers made seven seconds or less into the shot clock. So you combine that with second end of a back-to-back, landing late slash early, however you want to put it, and the Lakers in the midst of a really demanding stretch that even as they've been winning games, we've seen a few of these fourth quarters, they've looked gassed. This is going to be a game that I think just from a physical

Starting point is 00:03:53 and mental exertion standard is going to be, or standpoint, is going to be difficult. Like it's just going to be a, it's not necessarily the, toughest opponent they're going to play on this road trip. But contextually, it may be in a vacuum, the biggest challenge that they face on this road trip. And while it's not me, Miami is not going to win a title this year. They're not a bad team. You know, it's not the game to finish the road trip in Indiana. That's a bad team. Miami is a good team, not a great one. And when you,

Starting point is 00:04:29 when you factor in the context here, I mean, I think, one of the things I find interesting by there was no real update after the game on Wednesday in Houston as to who might play who might not LeBron said he's going to play but we'll see what happens when he you know wakes up you know at four whatever time he ever goes to sleep right I mean you know there's there's a lot that goes he said he didn't feel great before the game on Wednesday really had to kind of push his way through it didn't feel great after the game on Wednesday, of course, had that tough fall, or tough fall, landed on his elbow, had to kind of shake that out. But, you know, he spent a lot of time flying through the air on Wednesday night.

Starting point is 00:05:15 And so, you know, we'll see what he feels like when he actually gets to Miami. Both during the game against the rockets and on the way to Miami. He flew a lot in the air against the rockets. I, you know, so you look at it, if like, to me it feels like if they were, If they went from Houston to Orlando and then Miami, I think there'd be a bigger chance that he sits out on Thursday. The fact that it is in Miami that, you know, not to play the, we don't know how many games LeBron's got left in Miami thing,

Starting point is 00:05:47 but we don't know how many games LeBron's got left in Miami. I think if he can play, he will. But the Lakers are just, you know, part of the benefit of what they've been able. able to do over the last, you know, three weeks in terms of earning these tiebreakers over Houston, Denver, and Minnesota, winning the games, which gave them a little bit of space and getting a little bit of breathing room is they have the luxury of saying, you know what, if we can't push LeBron on Thursday or Saturday in Orlando, or if Luca needs a night, or if AR is

Starting point is 00:06:24 hurting, or if Smart has an injury that he needs to tend to, because, Lord, knows the Lakers can't get by long term without Marcus Smart. Like all of these things, like they have the ability to make discretion the better part of Valor at this point. It's one of the big perks of what they've been able to do. Yeah. Like I said, this is going to be a game where style points do not matter one iota. If the Lakers manage to win this game, I'm going to be curious about how it happens just because maybe it'll be a very, a very interesting, unique way or whatever,

Starting point is 00:07:01 but the bottom line is you really can't care how it happens. If it does, you just take it. As I mentioned before, the pace, given the context, I think it's going to be interesting to keep an eye on. I said Miami, in particular lately, has been rebounding really well, and that's always a potential problem area for the Lakers. They have three 20-point scores in BAM,

Starting point is 00:07:26 in Tyler Hero, and in Norm Powell, Like, there is going to be a lot for a potentially quite exhausted Lakers team to keep their head on a swivel over. And if I would imagine, Spoe is bright enough to think we are going to look from the jump to run these guys hard, even by our standards of running a lot and moving a lot. Like I wouldn't be surprised if they were just constantly looking to push everything as the fresher team, knowing the Lakers are going to be just fried. Yeah. Last thing on this that I'll say is just, you know, I actually wouldn't mind seeing a game between now and the end of the year where, you know, you would kind of classify it as a bench game where your front line players, you know, maybe a couple of them are sitting and you give Jake Laravia and, you know, Luke Kinnard and some of these other guys who have been a little quiet of late, a chance to have a high usage game, get a lot of touches, get a lot of shots. Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

Starting point is 00:08:32 After the break, let's talk a little bit about D'Andre Aiton, some very introspective and honest comments to Dan Wakey at the athletic and reflecting how Aiton really has turned things around. Do it next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Wayfair. Spring is the perfect time to refresh your space. make your home better for you, whether it's updating a room, adding some outdoor furniture, or finally organizing that cluttered corner, it's a great chance to bring fresh look into

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Starting point is 00:12:18 And we had said earlier in the season when Aiton was playing well, we've continued. to say like he's probably the single biggest ceiling razor on this Lakers team. You know, obviously he's not going to be the difference between the Lakers winning and losing in the sense that he's more important than Luca or Austin or LeBron. But if you're looking for like an X factor that can just make the Lakers significantly different, it's Aiden. And I think there's a pretty broad consensus about that. he had some really interesting comments to Dan Wakey of the athletic that if you haven't a chance to read it, you know, I think we've tweeted it a couple times. We'll do it again.

Starting point is 00:12:59 But if you are looking for reasons to be optimistic both about the Lakers and about Aiton specifically, read this article and you'll feel a lot better too. Yeah, some of the quotes about introspection, he was talking about not too long ago when Aiton was not performing in a particular high level. I mean, we spent a lot of time talking about how there was a significant stretch where Jackson Hayes was out playing him. I had wondered if maybe this was connected to the intermittent knee issues, both of his knees that Aitin was dealing with, and maybe that was slowing him down, or if it was D'Andre dealing with the recurrent focus and motor issues that have plagued him throughout his career, maybe a combination of both. but the way Aiton talked about this and talking about the recent uptick that, you know, the last few weeks, he has been, for the most part, pretty good. He said, quote, I started looking in the mirror and said, yo, bro, you're not that guy talking about like the guy, the star of the team or the guy, number one option type thing. You don't need to be on this team doing all that.

Starting point is 00:14:08 This team, you came here to be the effort guy to close out possessions, rebound, run the damn floor, hard as hell make bigs work make superstars work and then he said i'm having fun with it i'm not going to lie and then he also said that you know quote jj's been instilling to us that this is a playoff atmosphere and we're fighting for playoff position you can tell lebron's locked in lucca everyone's been completely locked in and i'm just tired of being the odd man out i think i told the media the other day it's finally just me catching up team's been there it's just been me and obviously you know, this level of self-reflection is fantastic. And I talked about, you know, when I was at DeAndre's introductory press conference

Starting point is 00:14:51 or when you and I were both at Media Day, he was displaying some of this very similar introspection. And we both found it very believable and sincere. But there was also an element of you got to do it. Like, it's easy to sincerely mean this stuff in the moment. It is harder to do it on a game in, game out basis, particularly. particularly when it's not your natural state. But I do think the idea of recognizing I'm the only one not doing this stuff. Like if I am letting people down and I'm letting people down on a team that

Starting point is 00:15:30 actually has stakes, like it's great to see him recognize it that way. And also too, we can talk about a little more, the idea of enjoying it. Like the idea of actually actually these are the asks. And you know what? When it's working, this can be pretty enjoyable too. I think when a player is going to make sacrifices. And first thing, one thing, too, I mean, Aiton's struggles kind of coincided with a time where the vibes on the team were considerably different.

Starting point is 00:16:04 The vibe of the team were very good at the beginning of the year. Aidan was playing well. It was a lot of energy and all that kind of stuff. And so, you know, strong start. The vibes turn a little bit. I, you know, Aiton, I think, you know, in some ways, kind of a bellwether for how things are going with the team broadly. It's on the, you know, I've called him a canary in a coal mine a couple times. And so, you know, whether he's the cause of those things or a reflection of them, I have no idea.

Starting point is 00:16:34 But the vibes turn, I think, has helped him. The winning has helped him. And like you say, you've said this before. Like when the team starts to roll, nobody wants to be the guy who's ruining that. Certainly not. DeAndiardy eight. And, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:49 you have an opportunity to go do something really cool and be part of something really cool. And most importantly, be rewarded for it. And I think, you know, he is being supported and rewarded. And he talks about it in this article by his teammates, by his coaching staff, increasingly by fans

Starting point is 00:17:08 and, you know, it would have been great if it was like this all year long? Sure. But he's here now. And again, the potential for the Lakers is significant. I mean, he may have also, this is just pure speculation, but I don't think it's out of the question

Starting point is 00:17:27 that maybe he actually kind of played back his Clint Capella comments in his head and was like, oh, like, that didn't sound good or at the very least, I can see why I'm not the guy who should be saying that. And if he saw the, if he saw the reaction to it, he would have seen more fans going,

Starting point is 00:17:52 you need to be more like Clint Capella, because this team needs more Capella like attributes than they do, you know, score, you know, front line center score type attributes like that's actually what the team needs you should be more like Capella so i mean it's it's possible if he's like a lot of these guys who does see the reaction and and read the online stuff and all that you know it could have made an impact that way you're right i think too the idea of having fun with it and i i don't think it's pure coincidence at least not

Starting point is 00:18:28 potentially that when you see somebody like lebron shift his responsibilities and at times do less or ask to be do less, or at the very least, have less direct control. Like LeBron, he is still getting numbers, but he does not have the same control over the offense. And seeing him lean into it and again, actually enjoy it,

Starting point is 00:18:52 there's a contagion element, but also there's got to be a, okay, that's LeBron, I'm D'Andre Aiton. Who the hell am I to resist this? I mean, everybody's happened. When you win 10 of 11, you're having a lot of fun. And, you know, it's just it's, it's, it's, the key for the Lakers, key for Aitin, key for

Starting point is 00:19:10 Lakers is going to be how do they work through an inevitable three game stretch where they don't play well between now and the end of the year? Like, you know, can you maintain this, this strong feeling and these positive, this positive energy when things, you know, hopefully only momentarily have a little bit of a bobble. So we'll see. And we'll see what the Lakers do on Thursday night in Miami. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you're going to hang out with over 37,000 subscribers, almost 38,000. Of course, be back with you after the game to tell you how it all broke down. We'll see everyone then.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - A Tough Challenge In Miami for the Lakers, Plus Deandre Ayton's Mental Shift

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