Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - BONUS: Defense Dominates Again as Lakers Beat Kings 103-99

Episode Date: December 22, 2024

In the NBA, it's hard to beat the same team in consecutive games. It's very hard to do it on their floor. And it's particularly hard to do it when in both games, the offense struggles to put points on the board. Yet that's what the Lakers have just done, finishing off a sweep of their mini-series in Sacramento, beating the Kings 103-99. Offensively, the Lakers were led by LeBron James, who put up 32 despite a bad night shooting from the perimeter. D'Angelo Russell kicked in with 20 points. Austin Reaves, 16. But this game was won with defense, specifically, and effort more broadly. The Lakers moved with purpose, hit their rotations crisply, made the extra play on the glass (including a huge ORB from Rui Hachimura to help seal the game), and more. And this has been the trend for LA since the incredibly embarrassing loss to the Heat in Miami. Since, the Lakers have been one of the NBA's best teams, winning games despite a bottom five offense. Basically, it's a complete reversal from trends earlier in the year, when the Lakers won with high end offense and a defense that couldn't get stops. So can they find some middle ground? Holding opponents under 100 points on a nightly basis feels unlikely in the modern NBA, so expect at least a little bit of slip. But the principles of what they're doing—including just playing with more effort and commitment on the defensive side—are sustainable. And if they can just become a consistently decent defensive team, everyone around the org (as expressed by LeBron, Anthony Davis and JJ Redick following the game) believes the offense will come around. At 16-12, things are definitely looking better for the Lakers now than they did a week or two ago.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky  Your favorite podcast now has a newsletter! In One-stop for ultimate team and league coverage delivered right to your in box. Sign up for free now, at lockedondaily.com.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Skylight FramesWe've got the perfect gift for you! Skylight Frame is the touchscreen digital photo frame your whole family will love. As a special, limited-time offer for our listeners, get $20 OFF your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go to SkylightFrame.com/NBA.BILT RewardsStart earning points on rent you're already paying by going to joinbilt.com/lockedonnba.Rocket RXRight now, our listeners can get 40% off your first order when you use code LOCKEDONNBA at RocketRX.com. Terms and Conditions apply.Rocket RX: Better sex, made simple.RobinhoodRobinhood Gold provides the privileges of a high net worth for any net worth. These generous benefits are now available for only $5/month. The new Gold Standard is here with Robinhood Gold. Sign up at robinhood.com/gold.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelThe NFL Playoffs are almost here, but it’s not too late to get in on the regular season action with FanDuel because right now, new customers can finish the season strong with TWO HUNDRED and FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins.Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL 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 Sunday. Brian Komeneski, Andy Komeneski, the Lakers win 10399 in Sacramento, and the defense keeps leading the way. What's going on here? 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. First listen to every day Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast.

by the way, also obviously on weekends, always can be free. It's never going to be behind a paywall and locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 26,000 subscribers to the channel, Andy, all of whom are super duper, duper excited at what the Lakers have put together

over the last few games. They win again in Sacramento. 10399 is the final for this one. I realize, Andy, that the Kings are an underperforming team that's at least seen to be part of the playoff mix and all that. I get it. It is difficult in the NBA to win consecutive games against the team. It is very difficult in the NBA. You don't get

many opportunities to do it. Win consecutive games on the opposing floor as the Lakers did, completing the sort of mini-series sweep. And they did it essentially in the same way twice. It was again a defense-led game propping up an offense that was spotty, to say the least. But I mean, what they are finding on the defensive side of the ball is extremely encouraging, and now they're 16 and 12. Taking what you said even a step further, it's very difficult to do that two games in a row on the road against a team that even underperforming the expectations,

certainly that their fan base had at the very least, and I think the organization had at the very least, that's still been very good offensively. Oh, yeah. For all of the issues the Kings have been having in terms, you know, we talked about this with Matt George from Lockdown Kings earlier in the week. Like, they have been having trouble

executing down the stretch and like, they have not been getting the fourth quarter, I guess would be called like a lockdown offense from the combination of the Aaron Fox and Demarder Rosen like that has not gelled in ways you would expect two of the best clutch offensive players in the league combining forces. But like the Kings have been able to score and the Lakers have been making life over these last two games hell for Sacramento.

I mean, their defense over the last five games has been really good. It's been as good as any team in the league. I mean, what's really, we'll get in. this a lot over the course of the week, I think, as we start to get out of this slow section of the schedule where they're not playing as much and get into a regular rhythm. The Lakers have, to say they've been all over the map who this year, offensively and defensively, is a mild, actually not a mild, a major understatement. And you look at what they've done over the last five games or so.

They have been one of the best defensive teams in the league, depending on how you want to slice it up, but like, and one of the worst offensive teams, which is exactly the opposite of what they were at the beginning of the year when they were winning games as one of the best offensive teams and a bottom five defensive team. And so, you know, for me, what I look at this, you know, do I think this model of winning is sustainable where you hold teams under 100 points and all, no, I do not, not in the modern NBA. The Lakers are going to have to score more. Do I think, but like when I look at, you know, do I think the Lakers are going to be a top five defensive team for the rest of the year? No, I do not.

But they don't need to be. What, you know, what they have found is that they can be a good defensive team. And if you can rediscover what was making the offense work more effectively at the beginning of the year and just keep the defensive intensity that they're playing with, you're going to be doing something significantly better than you thought at least when they were, you know, completely off the rails and terrible. Well, that's something that both JJ Redick and LeBron and Anthony Davis, all three of them talked about after the game, like the idea that they all have faith that the offense is going to come around again. Like they all believe this is not who they are offensively. But there has been clearly a mindset shift for this team defensively. And some of it is, I think things that they are doing schematically differently. Like there's a difference, I think, an approach.

but I think top of the chain when it comes to approach is just the mindset of this team and no longer just being content, frankly, to just be a doormat defensively. Like you and I were texting during the game, and we're talking about how sometimes when it comes to defense, like phrases like, you know, you got to want it more, get thrown around in ways that can be, I think, to, they can reduce things down to, reduce results down in ways that just really aren't accurate for how the game. It's true. Right, exactly.

But for this team, there had actually been an element of not wanting it bad enough defensively and not playing hard enough on a regular basis. I think it's been an issue for this team over the last few seasons, just not valuing the regular season. And if you even want to take it a step further, I think this organization has often not valued the regular season enough because everything gets distilled down to all we play for are championships. It's the only thing we measure against championship or it's a wasted season,

which if you want to use that as a franchise ethos, fine, I guess. But if you don't treat the regular season with enough seriousness, unless you are just super talented, more likely than not, you're not going to win a championship anymore. And also, too, when you're a hyper-talented team or you're a team that knows

it's legitimately competing for a championship, treating the regular season means something different. It is you are calibrating for a long run because you know that you're going to be there. And sometimes I don't want to say that you encourage taking nights off, but sometimes it means, you know, we're going to save it for this one.

And knowing that over the course of time, you're going to be building up to where you need to be because you're playing a 100 game schedule, not an 80 game schedule. And so this Lakers team should not be planning for a 100 game schedule. They need to play the 80. And, you know, I, obviously every day, or as I've heard me say, but, you know, people who have listened to us

podcast for a while, we've been at this for a little while, they understand. Like I am a big believer in the concept that playing poorly can often look like bad effort. And it is easy to confuse those two things as fans. You can play hard and play poorly and look like you are a step behind that you don't care and all these other things because you are playing really poorly. And that's part of the reason you're getting the results you're getting. But sometimes it's just you're not playing as hard as you need to be. And since the Miami game, these Lakers,

And I know we can talk about individual players, and LeBron had a nice night, although it tailed off. And really great first half especially. And we can talk about DeLo with 20 points that were big. And, you know, Gabe Vincent hitting a couple big threes and like some of these little things, and Max Christie, his defense. And we can. But a lot of this is just after the Miami game on the heels of who did they lose to by 29? That was that Minnesota?

I forget. I believe it was Minnesota. Yeah. So you lose to Minnesota by 29. You're coming back for the next one. And I made the joke. Like I told a friend of mine was like, oh, how is I going with the team? I'm like, well, I don't think I'm going to lose by 29 tonight, you know, like making a joke about the Miami game.

And I was, I was correct. They lost by 41. I think they were finally so humiliated and embarrassed. That was a high profile game. LeBron returning Miami and you get blown out by 41. I think that finally got them to a place where they said, okay, we got to do it better. And to your point about playing harder schematically and things like that, when you play harder, you don't switch off on everything. You do fight through screens.

You are able to do more. So I think just the mentality of the rebounding and the aggressiveness and all these other things, we can talk about individual players, but this is a team just deciding to do it better and harder. J.J. Reddick talked after the game about how the defense for tonight and the last few games have really set a tone for the entire game. And it also in this particular game played a huge role in just their offense. Like here's a series of plays that led to the Lakers being up 15 to 7. Max Christie gets a steal. LeBron ends up getting to the line. That's how they got their first two points.

Anthony Davis alters a Malik Monk Drive. it leads to Rui being set up in transition for a dunk, off an incredible bounce pass from LeBron. Anthony Davis blocks a DeMontas-Sabona shot. It leads to Max Christie getting a corner three. Later, they luck out a bit because Demontas-Sabonis misses a wide-open corner three, but both Max and Rui converge to tap out a defensive rebound. Austin Reeves hustles to save it from going out of bounds.

It ends up setting up a Rui dunk in transition. Anthony Davis gets another block. the block gets controlled. The end result is a LeBron and one layup. He ends up missing the free throw. But at that point, the Lakers are up 15 to 7. That's the majority of their points to this point. And they are all set up defensively.

And even like you can put a bow on things. Anthony Davis misses a critical pair of free throws down the strides. I think there's probably less than 20 seconds left in the game. Rui, who his energy, not just in this. this game, but the last several has been phenomenal on both sides of the ball. He has been called out positively by coaches and teammates for really just being on the details. Rui gets a game-saving tapout from that missed free throw that leads to Reeves going to the line. Reeves hits both free throws. Now they're up four with Sacramento can't catch him.

And LeBron pointed out afterwards, like, Rui did that against Sacramento's rebounding lineup. Like they'd put in Alex Lenn specifically to help in case AD misses. And side note, Anthony Davis fourth quarter free throws are becoming a thing. But that being said, like Rui doing that against like Sabonis and Alex Lenn, that's just straight effort, man. It is. And it's effort in spots that the other team, you can put the lineup, the rebounding

lineup in whatever you want. that's a team that's not expecting Hachimur to do that. These are extra steps. You should have. You had 11 rebounds in this game, three on the offense. You should have. But like, you just don't often see players crash missed free throws in that situation. No.

And it's just it, it is the extra hustle and extra stuff. And they did that on both sides of the ball with tap. And how many offensive rebounds did they have in this game? It was a pretty. Yeah, pretty good amount. And I just, you know, I, and you are correct. It's starting early. I think this is where like the insertion of Christie and the lineup makes a difference.

I think the trickle-down effect, we talked about this after the game on Thursday. Like it moves people into better spots by making it so Christie is picking up the best player on the other team as opposed to having honestly to give it too often, Austin Reeves. We're talking about backcourt players. and that makes Austin a better offensive player. It makes him a better defensive player because Reeves works defensively. He's just got some limitations to what he's capable of doing. And so by and, you know, and Christy does some of those things while he is not a dynamic offensive player, he does some of those things with less of a negative impact on your

offense than Reddish does. And so, and then that allows Reddish to be deployed in that 15 minute role. 20, you know, Saturday he played 20. But like, his energy was making a big difference too. And you can, and if Gabe Vincent's going to give you some buckets here and there and Russell's contributing, then you can get by with, you know, 20 minutes from Cam where he scores two points. Saturday he scored five, whatever it, mostly on sort of transition or, you know, I think an offense rebound and put back, that kind of stuff.

Like, and with Fernand won. Like, all of its stuff starts to line. up, but that initial energy where we're like setting a tone defensively early. That's how it's going to be. Now, the offense has to get better because you talked about that, you know, AD missing those free throws. The Lakers were up by 10 with two and a half minutes left and didn't score again until, you know, for two, about two minutes. And that can't happen.

Like the quality of their possessions, it was terrible. And you look in this game, 31 points in the first quarter. 25, 25, 22. The game on Thursday had a very similar pattern. First quarter was the best one. Offense gets worse as the game goes along. You got to fix that. But I just, if you can play with this level of intensity and carry it through,

it's not always going to be as good as it was in these couple of games, but more or less, the effort can be. And the, you know, AD talked about it, you know, afterwards, like, the, the, the, The way that these things build on each other, like a flywheel sort of effect where you see it on, you know, it feels good in the game, then you see it on tape and you're like,

ooh, okay. And then it feels good to see it. And then you go out and do it again. And like it, you know, you're rewarded for these things with 99 points scored against you. All that's up.

All of this makes a difference and it builds on itself. So you know it's there and you can and you, and you start paying better attention to it. Two last things I wanted to bring. up just from this game. We're obviously going to get into more details from it and like bigger picture stuff for Sunday's full-length show. But afterwards, LeBron was asked about what he thought was the most important element that he brings defensively. And again, there's another game where LeBron was very good, very engaged defensively, this pattern that's been in place

since he took that time off. And LeBron actually said his voice and just calling out coverages like, seeing stuff that helps make the most of Anthony Davis as that backline and just playing up that communication. And obviously it's great when somebody who is as smart as LeBron is on the court, that basketball IQ recognizing everything that's beneficial to everyone. I also think that it is likely impossible that LeBron talking more and being more focused on just talking does not coincide. with him being more focused on doing stuff. You know what I mean? Like the idea that he would just be barking,

barking out stuff, but not actually doing anything. If that's what you want to do, then you just become the guy that points and doesn't actually move. We all remember the Kobe pointing era. Yeah. I mean, look, towards the end of,

towards the end of Kobe's, you know, there's even pre-Aquillies. I mean, again, this is not unique to LeBron. A lot of older stars who are responsible for scoring a lot, often do a lot of pointing on the defense. There would be pockets where Kobe really cranked it up and pockets where Kobe did a lot of pointing. Also, AD had a really great line after the game talking about the Rui tapout. He said, quote, I definitely appreciate Rui with the tip out.

My wife even called me and said, Rui saved you. That made me feel like worse than I actually did. Whose side is you on? It's interesting. Look, I'm not trying to discount, you know, 32 from LeBron. You know, on 13 and 24, I know it was, it was frontlet. I mentioned it was sort of frontletting. I only mentioned that because it is indicative of the offensive problems that they had throughout the game.

Yeah, LeBron had 32, Dilo had 20. Reeves was the next closest with 16. 16, right. And so they were nine of 35 from three point range. Russell and Vincent were the only guys who hit more than one three-pointer. And Russell, you know, and those, you know, so, you know, LeBron was one of eight, Rui was one of five, Reeves was one of seven. It was just not a good shooting night for the Lakers.

They turned the ball over far too much early and clean that up as the game went along, which was really important. And so, like, you play defense, stop turning the ball over. You can get by without hitting a lot of shots or being particularly good at the free throw line. So I'm not trying to ignore LeBron and all that. Like, he had a great game. There's no reason to ignore. I was going to say there's no reason to ignore LeBron.

No, but we get people get mad. You know, now LeBron is a great game. You're not talking about it. The point for this show, and I think it's a short show people. And again, this is like, this was an example of a, you know, what got them this win. Obviously, the 32 points for LeBron were all needed. They were they only won by four. And AOAD, I don't think had a field goal in the first half.

He did was significantly stronger in the second. He was terrific, though, defensively throughout the time. He was phenomenal. And exactly. And so, like, this was an example of a collective effort getting a team ineligantly through a game. And that to me is the story of this game more than 32 from LeBron.

And I just, you know, and I think it's a bigger reason to be encouraged if you're a Laker fan. That's it. You know, LeBron's upturn since, you know, the, the bad moments for Lakers and taking a little bit of a break is obviously very encouraging. Stuff we will get into for Monday's show.

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