Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Austin Reaves Scores 45 as the Lakers Beat Indiana Without LeBron and Luka

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone. Welcome to a special bonus episode of Locked on Lakers for, what is it, Saturday afternoon? Man, all right. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kemeniske, no LeBron, no Luca, 45 points from Austin Reeves, gets the job done. The Lakers win again, they beat Indiana 124, 117. A really fun win, and we'll break it down next. You are Locked on Lakers, your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Lockedon Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. First listen to every day, Monday through Friday,

Starting point is 00:00:40 sometimes on Saturdays, no matter how or where you get your podcast, this one's always free, never behind paywall Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you go hang out. With over 31,000, I think now. I mean, you've got to check all the time now because the subscribers are still pouring in. We really appreciate all the support for the channel.

Starting point is 00:00:58 Welcome if you are a new subscriber, a new viewer to Lockdown Lakers. really excited to have you. Saturday, Andy, was a day that looked like it could be a rough one for the Lakers. LeBron James sitting down with a sore ankle. Lucas still not quite ready to make his Lakers debut. So obviously a lot of talent sitting there in street clothes against a pretty good Indiana team. But they use a huge first quarter, get out in front, never relinquish the lead. Final score, 124, 117. This is a nice win for the Lakers. Yeah, it definitely helps that the Pacers didn't have Miles Turner in terms of evening things out a little bit.

Starting point is 00:01:38 But the Lakers missing LeBron and Luka Donchich. Mark Williams still has. Oh, I forgot. Yeah, not with the team. I don't know if the deal is not completely gone through, like, complete, complete in the sense that I don't know if Dalton Connect hasn't taken his physical. JJ alluded to something with the deal not being done yet. And so he can't play. There's no worry.

Starting point is 00:02:03 There's no worry he is going to be available for the team this year. He is probably going to play on Monday along with Luca. But the Lakers were still playing at a short-handed state. And you get 45 points from Austin Reeves, 14 to 28 from the field, four of nine from behind the arc, 13 of 13 at the line, seven assists, seven rebounds, three steals. And then I thought it was a really good showing of other guys. guys stepping in to fill the void as well.

Starting point is 00:02:34 Like Rui Hachamora would be, I think, the next guy in line in terms of counting points production that you would expect to help fill that absence of that you need. Right. That you absolutely need. And Rui did it. 24 points. 8 of 13 from the field. Six of six at the line.

Starting point is 00:02:54 Two of three from behind the arc nine rebounds. Happy 27 birthday. Stop there for a second. because the nine rebounds, I think, is, you know, you expect the points and you need the points from Rui, but you also really need the work on the glass. And Rui's rebounding up and down over the course of his NBA career. They needed it today, and they got it.

Starting point is 00:03:19 And that, you know, for him to rebound well makes him a very different player. Yeah, it's seven rebounds in, I don't know, the first maybe 14 minutes of this game, 18 minutes of the game. Happy 27th, by the way, to Rui. So there's a fun birthday present for him. And then, you know, Jackson Hayes and near double double, nine points, 12 rebounds and two blocks, seven assists from Gabe Vincent, six assists from Doreen, Finney Smith. 10 points from Jordan Goodwin, who I'm sure a lot of folks aren't even quite familiar with Goodwin, four of seven from the field closing minutes and 25 minutes for Goodwin.

Starting point is 00:04:01 It was just a really nice example of guys stepping up when needed. Vanderbilt had the energy and disruption that you expect from him over 20 minutes to go along with six rebounds. Dorian Fifth, I mentioned, Dorian Finney Smith, I mentioned the six assists. He had a mother of a blocked shot coming in from the weak side. Just it's everybody everybody like you got eight points from trade jemison you got a you got a you got a three in a near rejection yeah it's true i actually should have been but then you know he's not making frivolous ejection money man tray needs to be careful but i was i was actually surprised that he wasn't ejected i mean you got they they even you know blew the dust off markeef morrison got him out there for six minutes um he had a three so good for him but like the I really like this game, not just because it's another example. Like, you know, Lakers piling up these wins that give them some flexibility in the second half of the season when the schedule, as we've talked about all year long, gets very challenging. Just, you know, many more games against the Western Conference that is just significantly tougher than the East.

Starting point is 00:05:14 So if you're playing in conference, the games get harder. You want a little bit of that padding and that William to win a game without Luca and LeBron. and Mark Williams and Max Christie who's gone. And I'm just talking about guys who are normally available in your rotation. Like you're running out of players. And, you know, Dalton Connect's not available, but he's gone. But the guy who replaced him isn't in the lineup yet either. So you're digging really deep into your roster.

Starting point is 00:05:41 And they've talked all season long about being an execution-based team. And one of my major complaints is execution-based teams play well even when guys are missing. They continue to execute. And one of the things that has been, they may not win. I don't know what I can take star guys, where sometimes the talent on the other team is too much and whatever. But you sort of play fundamentally sound and well and you follow your principles and all that. And one of the things,

Starting point is 00:06:07 you feel like you're always giving yourself a chance to win even if you don't. You can win by sort of setting the floor high and, you know, sometimes the other team just won't meet it. And that can happen. the last two weeks when they've had guys in and out of the line of playing games without AD, playing today without everyone, the level of that, one of the reasons they've been so successful is the level of execution really has gone up. And I think you saw that in a great example Saturday afternoon.

Starting point is 00:06:36 And that is why, in addition to effort, hustle, all that other stuff, you can win a game with Jordan Goodwin, who literally was brought in like yesterday. I believe they signed him on Friday and let Armeltreori go. Maybe it was Thursday. He's not been there long. And you're getting, you know, 25 minutes from him, you're playing 12 minutes for Jemison. You know, guys are playing big minutes who don't, some of them who don't normally play at

Starting point is 00:07:04 all. And you still get the win. And again, you know, they got out to a huge lead, which was important. And they held on to it. This win is going to benefit them a lot in that, in that quest to stay in the top six. and out of the play. And if it gets to the end of the season and they squeak into that six spot by a game or two, you're going to look back at this one, I think in particular, and say,

Starting point is 00:07:27 hmm, okay, like this game, the Boston game, stuff like that. That's how they got there. Yeah, there are execution elements to the way they won that I think, you're talking about just what happened on the court. There was a possession where they forced Indiana into a 24-second violation where every single Laker on the floor played some role in disrupting what Indiana was doing, making a guy pass up a shot, give up the ball or whatever. I think you're seeing certain things over the last few weeks in terms of the way JJ's asking him to execute.

Starting point is 00:08:02 Like one thing that jumps out at me that I think is really great is Jackson Hayes defensively has been out on the perimeter guarding more often than certainly was last. last year, but I think sometimes even earlier this season, Jackson is actually better, I think, in space along the perimeter, moving his feet, than he is guarding the lane. It doesn't change the fact that sometimes you need somebody of his size doing that, and it's not always ideal when you're asking low men to rotate or whatever, but I like the idea of playing to what he's better at and adjusting, executing around that, as opposed to trying to force different people into doing things they're not as good at.

Starting point is 00:08:48 You can get a better version, I think, of Jackson, a more disruptive version of him this way. And then also, Austin Reeves, obviously he had a phenomenal game. We haven't given the full line. 45, 7, and 7 just saw this tweet from Dan Waikie, the list of Lakers players to have games, 45, 7, and 7. Elgin, West, Magic, Kobe, LeBron. So that's the list he joined. Yeah. And it's also coming off the heels of Thursday against the Warriors where Austin struggled a lot. Like he got to the line, I think double digit times. And in that sense, he found ways to help. But it was not, I thought, a particularly strong game for Austin on either end of the floor beyond that.

Starting point is 00:09:35 So to have not just a great game like Austin did tonight, but on the heels of a game like that, I think matters. And this Pacers team has a lot of athletic defensive guys that they can throw at Austin and try to disrupt him, especially knowing like he's going to be the focal point of a lot of what they did in this game. And he thrived anyway. Like that is a great showing from Austin. I just think that the confidence this really provides. is not a takeaway game, like in terms of how the Lakers are going to play, what things look like. Three of their five starters were not playing in this game, presumed starters going forward, you know, Luca LeBron and Williams.

Starting point is 00:10:19 There's nothing about what they did today that you apply, you know, post-All Star break. But what you can take is the level of confidence this gives guys like Reeves, Rui, Jackson, you know, players to have an opportunity to show and kind of like be the, the guy, so to speak. So when you are called on to do things in high leverage situations, your role decreases, but your confidence is there. You know you can do it. And the confidence that other people have in you that you have in each other, I think goes up. I mean, it's not a, it's not a significant win in the sense of revealing how they play. It is a very significant win. I think for the culture of the team. And one last thing before we go, we mentioned Goodwin.

Starting point is 00:11:00 We'll obviously a lot more to talk about for Monday show, full show coming on Monday. Goodwin is a sneaky example of how they've shifted this roster in other ways to orient to winning this year. At the beginning of the season, the Lakers had three development guys essentially as their two ways. They don't have any of them anymore. And like even Coloco, who is, I guess, sort of a guy that they want to keep long term, is somebody you put on the floor. You now have Jemison, who is a break glass. Like, we need a big tonight. Somebody's hurt.

Starting point is 00:11:32 But he's been in the NBA. Correct. You can be, Jordan Goodwin has 120 NBA games. He's not a long-term guy you build around, but he's a guy you can put in a game when you need to say, because half your lineup is out. And we saw it 25 minutes wearing a mask.

Starting point is 00:11:48 I'm not even totally sure that was Jordan Goodwin. I presume it was. They probably have rules around that. Like that is another little shift that says this team is building to win something this year. And I think it's, it is important. This is a fun win. It was a fun, fun to watch these guys play well. So I'll have lots more to say about it.

Starting point is 00:12:08 Again, quick little mini show for a Saturday afternoon. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 31,000 subscribers. We'll be back with the big show on Monday, getting ready for Lucas' presumed debut. And yeah, everyone have a great Saturday, great Sunday. Lakers set you up for a nice weekend. We'll see. But no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The first.

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Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Austin Reaves Scores 45 as the Lakers Beat Indiana Without LeBron and Luka

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