Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Best Win of the Year? Dončić (41 Points) and Reaves (25 Points) Push Lakers Past Bucks, 119-95

Episode Date: November 16, 2025

Now THAT'S more like it. The Lakers—playing the second night of a back-to-back and coming off a good, but not exactly inspiring win in New Orleans—came out of the gate red hot and sharp in Milwaukee, using high end offense and excellent defense to build a 30-point lead on the home team in the first half. That was the best combination of offense and defense the Lakers have played all year. In the end, the Lakers absorbed a third quarter run from the Bucks and never let the lead drop back to single digits. Final score, 119-95. Luka Dončić led the way with 41 points, nine rebounds and six dimes. Austin Reaves was 9-17 from the floor en route to 25 points, with six boards and eight assists. Deandre Ayton played another strong game, with 20/10 and strong defense often matched up against Giannis. Good minutes as well (especially in the first half) for Dalton Knecht, Jaxson Hayes and Maxi Kleber, and Adou Thiero made his NBA debut (and left with a game ball after the Lakers basically refused to leave the floor without it).All in all, a GREAT finish to a road trip that got off to a terrible start and looked very much in peril after the Lakers got waxed by OKC. They'll take the floor Tuesday, perhaps with LeBron on the floor, then won't play again until Sunday. So some rest and some good practice time is in store for a team with a tidy 10-4 record.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashNext time someone goes off for 50, use promo code NBA50the next day to get 50% off on DoorDash with DashPass — plus your shot at the Bag Drop.DashPass members only. 50% off up to $10 the day after a 50-point game with promo code. Terms apply.No Purchase Necessary. Ends April 13th. Open to U.S. residents 21 or older. Visit https://DoorDashInYourBag.com for full details.DoorDash — In your bag all season long.QuoSee why over 90,000 businesses trust Quo, formerly OpenPhone. Get started free and get 20% off your first 6 months at https://www.Quo.com/LOCKEDONNBA.RipplingGet Rippling FREE for 6 months. Terms and conditions apply. See site for details: https://app.rippling.com/legal/promotermsPrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use codeLOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here:https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNBA SKIMSShop SKIMS Men’s now at https://SKIMS.com.When you place your order, choose “podcast” in the post-purchase survey and select our show from the dropdown to let them know we sent you.The SKIMS Holiday Shop is open — so if you’re looking for the perfect gift this season, SKIMS has you covered.RugietVisit https://rugiet.com/lockedonnbato get 15% off your first order.And don’t forget to use our code LOCKEDONNBA so they know we sent you.Rugiet — stop making excuses and start making moves. RobinhoodYou expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at robinhood.com/yourmoney. Your money. Your move. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Options, futures, and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Futures trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and not SPIC or FDIC protected. Crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840), not FDIC or SIPC protected. Portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies, an SEC-registered advisor.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting https://FanDuel.com to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone, welcome to a special bonus episode of Locked on Lakers for a Sunday. Brian Kaminetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, 11995, the Lakers cruise past Milwaukee. Andy, was this the best win of the season? We'll break it down next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcasts network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. Lakers, your first listen to every day, of course, part of the locked-on podcast network,

the number one sports podcast network in the known universe and presumably the unknown universe, too. So this is one of those deals, Andy, where the Lakers, this road trip kind of could have gone either way, but man alive, did they close out strong in Milwaukee? Yeah, this was one of the best games they've played this season, especially when you consider second end of a back-to-back five-game Rode. They obviously have not had LeBron James this entire season, but very last minute, no Rui Hachamura, no Marcus Smart. Marcus Smart was dealing with an illness that JJ said has been going around the team. Some guys have been able to play through it more. Marcus couldn't. Rui dealing with some kids.

half soreness. And this, when you consider how much the Lakers have been all over the map during this road trip, but more on the glass half empty side, if not the glass is broken and there are no more glasses in the cabinet side than glass half full, this was a really strong way to close out. 11995 win over the Bucks in a game that they basically led and controlled wire to wire and played not just arguably their best defense of the season. They played according to the folks over at Lakers PR and stats and all that, the 34 points that they held the Bucks do in the first half of the game.

That was the best first half defense since. Since January of 2021 against the Bulls, to put that in perspective, current Milwaukee Buck Kyle Kuzma was a Laker at the time when they did this. He was a child. He was in seventh grade. Well, no, he had a ring. He had a ring at the time. He was a man.

He was in the NBA. He was the kid that they selected to go forth with. He wasn't that long ago. But here's the thing. And JJ talked about this in his walkoff interview with like Trudell, which by the way, only happens when they're winning. They only do the half-time walk-off interview if the Lakers are up going into the break. And we actually, I had texted this to you before.

It's like the reason I think the defense was in part so good is because the offense was so much more precise and intentional and all these other. They ran good possession after good possession after good possession. And then that put them, they didn't turn the ball over much. And that put them because they were putting the ball in the basket or at the very least taking good shots, that put them in position to be able to set a defense to do what they want to do. They weren't on mismatches. Milwaukee wasn't out on the run, all that kind of stuff.

And so good offense gave them the opportunity to play good defense. and they step in passing lanes. It was a really, really well-executed game play. Yeah, they finished with 15 turnovers, but a couple of those were like guys stepping out of bounds or offensive foul, something like that. And I would also, I would be curious to see if any of those turnovers came in crunch time.

But I agree with you, if nothing else, there were very few turnovers in this game, that it just felt like, what the hell are you doing? Like what was that? Why did you do that? Like, Luca had a couple that were like, we're really rolling here. Let's get a little saucy with what we're doing.

But, you know, those were like the kind of turnovers you can live with because it's a team that's feeling really good about itself and getting even more. And also, I think actively trying to just completely demoralize this buck squad and trying to play some psychological warfare with them. And again, they didn't go overboard with it. Like they did not allow themselves. And they did a little bit more of this against the Pelicans,

but it is the Pelicans who the Lakers were the last straw of the Willie Green era. They ended up firing Willie Green after this game, which we both said we were around Willie Green a little bit when he was a player. Really nice guy. It sucks to see that. But to be honest, he's probably ready to go. he probably was ready to be done with that by the time he was let go. But you can't screw around with a team like the Bucks.

And there was a lot of not screwing around in this game. Their energy was super high. We mentioned the defense. D'Andre Aiton was, I thought, the catalyst of this defense. He spent a lot of time as the primary defender on Janus, which I didn't necessarily expect, in part because with so many guys out last minute, I was like, I'm not quite sure who's going to start how Jay did you do this, whatever. His defense against Janice was terrific.

Really? Yeah. And he was just active all night. It was another really good, like, I think people are starting to see, like, what does a good DeAndre Aiton game look like? And it's what you saw in Milwaukee. It's 9 of 13 from the floor. It's 20 points.

It's 10 rebounds. It's a couple steals. It's a block. You know, it's like you're, there's certain things you're not going to get. Obviously, he's not a stretch five who's going to, you know, hit you two or three threes. He's, you know, if he shoots four free throws in a night, that's a, you know, a couple

weeks worth of free throws for, I was going to say you misspelled a week. Right. And so like that, but like, and I think Lakers fans, this is what I, I love. I love about, and we'll get to Austin Reeves, and we'll certainly get to Luca Donchich, who was Nails on

and the debut of my boy Adieu Thero! Yes. So there's a lot to get to, but like just with Aiton, we can talk more about this for Monday's show. One of the things that I think is just great about the potential here for

this season is Lakers fans aren't looking for Aiton to be you know, a Hall of Famer. They're not looking for him to be a franchise cornerstone who was drafted number one ahead of Luca. Like all of these, they're looking for a guy who can come in and like,

they'll get excited about what we saw on Saturday night, what we saw on Friday night, you know, really what Aitin's been doing all year. We're not going to get at, you know, the Lakers community is not going to get hung up on the, the things that Aiton, doesn't do that make him sort of an incomplete player, something less than an All-Star, none of that stuff matters here. He is going out and he's producing, not every, I mean,

he's had more, you know, most of the time has done exactly what the Lakers need from him offensively, tried to do it on the glass, trying to put out the effort defensively. It has been, I think as perfectly executed an early season script as the Lakers could have had for DeAndre 8. And it's two consecutive strong games after what I think had been some lulls in this road trip.

And both of us were bullish when they brought in Aitin and neither one of us was going to make too much out of it. But with a guy like Aiton and some of the ups and downs of his career, you are on guard for backsliding and these last two games, and then especially this one, when you are matched up so often against one of the premier players in the league, like JJ was very much timing Aiton's minutes around Janus's until Aiton got into foul trouble,

and then he had to adjust some of it. But he was very much timing putting Aiton on the floor when Janus was out there. Well, they needed that body. But there's a lot, and we'll save some of it for Monday because, you know, there's, you know, shorter show for, for this one post game, but, you know, there's just a lot to get into with him and why it is going so well and, you know, what it means for him to have to be the third or fourth best player on this team once LeBron is back rather than the first or second. In the meantime, Andy, we need to talk about Luca Dantzich.

And we need to talk about some guys who really played an important role in this. game who we have not seen much of this year. We'll get to all of that next. After we, of course, let you know that Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Robin Hood. Your ambition just met its match with Robin Hood. You play for the win, not just on game day, every day. Locking in on every opening, beating your PR, beating it again. You channel that drive into your money. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money, trade stocks and ETFs. options, futures, crypto, all in one platform. You can now build and execute your own trades from a desktop with Robin Hood Legends advanced tools. Plus, you can take advantage of the new

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Okay, let's just mention. Luca was awesome. And in the third quarter, particularly when the Lakers were, you know, Milwaukee made a nice push coming out of the break. They go on a 15-0 run, which this is where it's nice to have built up a 30-point lead as the Lakers did. The other team goes on a 15-0 run and it's not that big of a deal. So, you know, I don't even think I answered to remind you. It is, I think, the best win they've had this.

season. I mentioned that in the open. But Luca was instrumental in stopping these pushes. A couple times Milwaukee got it down, I think, to 13. And one of those instances, Luca went on a personal 9-0-0 run. Later, was that the back-to-back stepbacks? Yeah, Reeves, then he had a couple of places with

a little two-man game with Maxi Claibah, who will mention here in a moment. Reeves pushed back with some critical threes. And the Lakers never let that lead get down under, you know, back to single digits. And so really we're in control the entire time. Luko's just fantastic. He got to the line a lot. He was getting into the paint.

When Milwaukee tried to double him, he made them pay. When they didn't try to double him, he made them pay. 41 points, 18 of 20 from the free throw line, is a big deal. We're always looking to see, is he getting to the lane? Is he drawing contact? No question he did that on Saturday. Six assists. He had a steal. He had a couple blocks. It was just, it was a phenomenal performance from Luca. So let's just mention that. But I also, like, a couple guys. I'll say this really quick. Yeah. Most nights, if you get 20 points from DeAndre Aiton, plus Luca and Austin, combining for 50% from the field together,

50% from behind the arc together, and 66 points, you are almost certainly going to win those games. We just are. I mean, like, that's super hyper-efficient work from your two big-name guys, and then a third guy in D'Andre Aitin, stepping up like that,

that is a big formula for consistent winning. Well, I mentioned Claibon, and we'll get to Tharo in a second. But Claibah, he had one bucket. He had a three in the second half. It was a good, you know, an important one. It was actually the first half, I think. But he was a plus 24, I'm sorry, 22 coming off the bench.

He had three assists and he set some monster screens. He was just, he played well. And you know, you could see why JJ pointed him out after the game. You could see why he was just doing a lot of things that were noticeable, but aren't necessarily box score stats. Yeah, I also thought Dalton had, particularly in the first half, he had some of his best minutes that he's had in a while. Finish with just nine points, but it was four of eight from the field, like just the idea of him, I don't know how many, if any, of those shots were taken in garbage time, but not that many of them, because Dalton played

34 minutes in this game. He was out there a lot. He had six rebounds. He had three steals. And I thought beyond just making the shots, I thought this was the most assertive and decisive on either end that Dalton looked in a while. Particularly in the first half. Yeah, in the first half, especially. There was a couple sequences where Dalton made mistakes defensively. Like, AJ Green hit three corner threes from the same corner where he, He was left wide, I mean, wide open by one time it was Dalton, another time I think it may have been Austin. The third time might have been Dalton again. But overall, though, this was the type of game that you look at from Dalton and you say this could keep him on the floor.

Like this could actually keep Dalton on the floor. You know, things may change, obviously, when LeBron's back, Rui's back, Marcus is back, Vincent eventually back. Like that might squeeze Dalton anyway. But this, if he plays like this when given the opportunities, JJ will feel comfortable putting him on the floor. Yeah. I think that's a big thing.

And so you, you, I just, I liked all of it. You know, everybody who stepped on floor, you know, La Ravia missed a ton of shots. But aside from the shooting, actually thought was a reasonably positive contributor what they were trying to do. Some nights, you don't shoot the ball well. And we talked about Maxie. I thought Jackson Hayes, aside from a couple moments where I just wanted to see him go up stronger,

you got the ball in the paint, use that 20 pounds that you put on this offseason and go up through contact, try to draw a foul. He passed out to the perimeter instead. But his work on the glass, this is something Lakers did very well in the first half. Milwaukee missed an awful lot of shots. And, you know, they missed an awful lot of shots. And the Lakers, for the most part, limited them to one opportunity each time down the floor. That was a huge part of their defensive success.

And so I like what Jackson did overall, you know, rebounded much stronger than he had. But I think that's where that extra muscle is coming into play. And protecting the lane and protecting the lane as well. He just, he just had a nice game, you know, 10 points, six rebounds. He had a couple of steals. And then Thero made his debut. He had five, what is it?

He ended up with four points, I should say. One dunk and a couple of times. It was nice. It was a really well exit for the second teamers. It was a, you know, a brawny steel, you know, well-timed pass to Thoreau filling the lane. And then you could see the bounce there. He actually got his first points off of free throws, which got the group excited. And then you could tell how much they like the kid because they wouldn't leave the floor until they could get the game ball.

And like I don't know why. I'm sure there are rules about this. Like it's not like baseball where you go through 7,000 balls a game. I think I may be wrong. But I think it's a whatever court you're on, they keep the balls. I think, I don't know exactly right. I don't know exactly what it is, but they were trying to get the game ball. And they, like, wouldn't give it to.

And finally, Janus actually came over and took the ball from like the, you know, I guess one of their equipment people or whatever it is and just gave it to, right, to Luca, which is cool. And I get, it's like nobody's trying to be difficult. But it's like, you know, people got to follow the rules. But Janus came and solved the problem. But I just. There are rules, Donnie.

There are rules. And we'll talk more about Theero and really in detail for Monday's show. But it was just cool to see how hard the team was working to get this kid the ball because it shows how much they like the work that he's putting it. He also too. He only played a handful of minutes, but you can just see the athleticism in a due theory. Like it jumps off the charts that this kid is an athlete. I'm not just talking about the dunk, which was really forceful with. with a chase down defender in pursuit.

Like he had to really throw this thing down quick and hard. You managed to make it happen. You watch him cover ground. You watch him go up. He's big rebounds. Yeah. He looks like he's got even by NBA standards

plus plus athleticism. Oh yeah. No, there's no question. That is the absolutely the scouting report on him. Now, how they're going to use him, where he's most effective, I think Laker fans will talk more about this for Monday, probably need to temper their expectations a little bit of this kid just becoming like instant defensive stopper,

you know, kind of thing like they got to figure out how to use him and when and where. And honestly, he will probably get the bulk of his minutes with South Bay and should. But it was fun to see him on the floor. Great end to the trip. Things are looking up again for the Lakers. They play Utah on Tuesday. there is at least the possibility that LeBron could make his debut in that game. If not, it is, I don't want to say certain, but seems quite likely that he would play Sunday,

because Lakers don't play again. They play Tuesday and then Sunday against Utah. So a lot of rest and a lot of practice they can get in and a section of the schedule that is opening up for some opportunities for the team. So a lot to look forward to over the course of the week. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is we can hang out with. with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. Thanks again for making us your first listen of every day. And the network, the most popular in the universe, we'll see everyone tomorrow.

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