Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - CATASTROPHE! Lakers, LeBron Stumble In Closing Seconds, Lose 119-117 to Bulls.

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

The Lakers have lost games this season that they should have won. Every team does over the course of an 82-game season. They all count. So technically speaking, Thursday's 119-117 loss to the Bulls in Chicago is just one game on the calendar, like all the others. Except this late in the year, when there are so few games remaining, the impact of these terrible losses is far higher. So given that they were up by double digits with under five minutes to play, up by five with 12 seconds to play, and up by one with three seconds remaining... yeah, this one's gonna bruise. Especially when LeBron James, who is as smart a player the game has ever seen, was part of two plays that helped turn a win into a loss. First, on an inbounds pass with 12.6 seconds remaining, James got caught in no man's land, rotating too high towards Bulls center Nikola Vucevic, who swung the ball to Pat Williams in the corner. LeBron couldn't close fast enough, and Williams buried the triple. Then, with a timeout available, LeBron dropped a horrible inbound pass in the direction of Austin Reaves that was easily picked off by Bulls guard Josh Giddey, who kicked it to Coby White for another three. Five point lead? Try one point deficit. You could watch LeBron play 100 more games before seeing a play that bad. And then James, like everyone else on the Lakers, let Giddey move unobstructed up the floor for his buzzer beating heave from halfcourt. LeBron wasn't the only culprit, to be sure. Luka Dončić got off to a terrible start, got hot in the second half, but took a few questionable shots down the stretch. LA also caught some bad luck, as Chicago went nuclear in the fourth quarter, hitting 11-14 3-point attempts. That, as JJ Redick noted after the game, would be considered good work even in an empty gym. And it still took a 47-footer for the Bulls to win. But that's kind of the point. The Lakers did so much good stuff to overcome a slow start and put what seemed like a stranglehold on the game. But a little organic bad luck combined with a lot of the type the Lakers created for themselves means they lost out on an opportunity to stick closer to the Nuggets for the 3-seed, and missed a chance to move ahead of Memphis and give themselves a better grip on the fourth spot. It's fair to wonder how they'll react heading into a critical game Saturday against the Grizzlies. Redick said they don't have time to feel sorry for themselves, and the staff won't let them, anyway. So while it's easy to wonder about the emotional impact and any potential for carryover into the weekend, the more immediate hit is practical. This hurts the Lakers in the standings. It almost certainly eliminates a shot at the 2-seed, even with two games remaining against Houston, unless the Rockets totally collapse. It hurts their efforts to keep home court in the first round, and it keeps the threat of dropping to 7th and the play-in tournament alive. In short, it's bad, and the way it happened, with so many moments where it seemed the Lakers would walk away with a win, literally until the end? Certainly makes it feel worse.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: What was LeBron thinking? SEGMENT 2: Failures down the stretch. SEGMENT 3: Practical impact.  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!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. 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.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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 Locked on Lakers for Friday. Brian Komeneski, Andy Komeneski. Was that the worst five seconds of LeBron James' career? 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, no matter how where you get your podcast. This one's always going to be free and never behind paywall. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube is where 34. thousand subscribers are wondering what the hell just happened with the lakers in chicago um i thought andy that uh uh wednesday's game in indiana was a weird one oh no this one was i think we could even have that debate uh but the lakers lose in the final moments to the bulls one nineteen one seventeen on a josh giddy 47 footer uh at the buzzer made possible by perhaps the worst, I don't know, five or six second stretch of LeBron James' career in terms of

mental mistakes, something he does not typically make. We'll explain in a second. I'll do want to let everybody know today's episodes brought to you by Fandall. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. And if you would bet on LeBron James making these kinds of mistakes down the stretch, I would have laughed at you because that doesn't normally happen. but man, you'd have walked away a winner. The Lakers had this game in hand.

You know, they were up double digits with five minutes to go. They were up five points with 12 seconds to go. They were up one point with three seconds to go. And yet here we are, and they lost the game. You said it was the worst five to six seconds of the brink. Ron's career. I would be willing to stretch it to 10 seconds because one could argue that the half court buzzer beater by Josh Giddy who looks like Timothy Shalame's Naredewel brother, like the degenerate black sheep that nobody likes to talk about.

Chalemite does like basketball. So it's, Chalemay does like basketball. And actually, Chalemay's got, he's got game on the court. He just looks less creepy than his narrative well not actual brother but uh lebron lebron maybe could have put a little more heat on the contest of that shot just to break just to break shallomaze rhythm a bit but that that goes all the way to the buzzer but the certainly five to six seconds with like you said the lakers up 115 one 10 Chicago gets a wide open three for Patrick Williams because in the corner,

LeBron inexplicably just wandered off from Williams. And I'm, I rewound this three or four times because I was like, there's got to be a reason in a situation where the one thing you don't want is a three. You are wandering that far off a guy, giving him a, I mean, LeBron was not within seven or eight feet of Williams. And I kept rewining, there was nothing.

There was nothing. No, I mean, he, he, I don't know what it was. And we obviously, we, we started recording before, you know, getting the post-game explanation from LeBron and all that. I mean, it looked to me, the only explanation I could possibly see, you know, you know, Reeves was a heartbeat late getting up to. Was it hurt her or giddy? I don't, I forget, it made the pass.

but I don't know if LeBron just thought it was uncovered and didn't see his teammate. Actually, Vucevic. Vucevich. I knew it was. You're mixing up your Caucasians. I was, I knew it was a white guy. I just, you know, and I, they all look alike to us. They really do.

And so, I, you know, that is the only explanation I can think of. You know, I, my son in his soccer game over the weekend made a pass late, in the game to the referee. His team was wearing white. The referee was wearing blue. I asked him like, what were you thinking there? He's like, I thought he was on my team. Sometimes you just see things or don't see things.

But either way, LeBron, you know, a terrible rotation leaves Pat Williams wide open for the three. And then even worse than that, though, Andy, for a couple reasons. You had, so LeBron goes, takes the ball out. you're still up by two at this point. Like it is not an emergency. It's a bad play, but it's not an emergency. Get the ball in, go hit a free throw. Go hit your free throws.

And the game is over. LeBron under the basket throws a terrible, soft, you know, telegraphed pass. Trying to get the ball to Reeves because it's the best free throw shooter. But, you know, he would have put Reeves in a position where he was going to be trapped in the corner, which might have been a problem. And beyond that, if he didn't think that play was clean, the Lakers had a time out. Right.

So, like, it was just, it was an inexplicably bad pair of mental errors from a guy who is arguably the smartest basketball player ever. He's, he is on the short game, how he executes. I mean, it was just, he just had, it was like he channeled. Von Wafer for five seconds. Our dude catching strays right there. I love Von We cover it. For anybody doesn't know, my fantasy basketball team is named Slavon Wayfordenko,

after my two favorite Lakers of all time. But I just, it was stunning. And then they went and they actually got the bucket to make you think, oh, you know what? They were going to pull it out. Austin Reeves gets to the rim really quickly, hits the shot.

you're thinking and Chicago has no timeouts, but they have to immediately inbound and go up court. And I see this comment from MT on the YouTube chat, why give Giddy a running starting? There's no question. Like somebody should have gotten in his way, making him turn do something. There's always the fear of closing too fast

and fouling a shooter on a 50-foot shot. I mean, the shot that Giddy hit, this is one of the things that just makes this game so stupid. The shot that giddy hit was the 11th three-pointer that the Bulls made in a quarter. 11 of 14, they went. Like, that's insane. As Reddick said after the game, shooting alone in a gym to hit 11 and 14 with nobody else in there is impressive.

And that's coming from JJ Reddick, by the way. way who was an elite, elite shooter. So like to some degree, yes, it's like you ran into some bad luck and all of it. But for all of that, like if they had won that game, bad luck though, they created their own that's the thing is if they had one, you know, they, they did enough things in this game. They didn't have stupid things to give Chicago a chance to win. But, you know, if they don't do the LeBron back to back there in terms of the mental mistakes with five or six seconds, whatever it is. And I thought, to that point, LeBron

actually played a really nice game. If you don't do those things, A, not only is Chicago not in a position to win, it's like you win anyway. They did enough good stuff in this game to be able to win against a team that shot the lights out in the fourth quarter, shot so far above, and they still should have been able to win. They still have controlled their own capacity to win the game and they still didn't. And like I, I paused the game, Andy, when they were up by five. Do you want to know why? Mom called.

And, you know, we're at a point in our lives when mom calls and it's in the late evening or whatever in central time. I'm going to pick up no matter what just to make sure everything's okay. But I figure they're up by five. There are 11 seconds left. It's okay to pause the game and take a call from mom. when I got back, I was like, wait a minute, they were inbounding the ball to Reeves. And I went, how did this happen?

And then I saw Andy what happened. And I couldn't, I was even more flabbergasted by the whole thing. Yeah. I mean, we'll get into it over the course of the show. Like they started out bad and did so many good things to get themselves back into this game. Yes. at one point, control it by double digits. And some of the supporting guys in particular, Jackson Hayes, Jordan Goodwin.

Arguably his best game is a pro. Jordan Goodwin. Like there were, there were DFS made some nice plays. Vando makes like there was a, Rui, by the way, did not play in this game. The second end of a back to back sat out. So like you needed more guys to step up. And they actually got a fair amount of guys to pitch in. and handle their business.

And, you know, the last 10 seconds were a disaster. Chicago got hot in the fourth. I also did not love some of the shot selection from both LeBron and Luca in, like, the last three or four minutes of the fourth quarter, as we've talked about before. Yes. And that's something I do want to get into as well. Because they did a great job generating good shots in Indiana. I think they did a terrible job in Chicago.

So we can get into all of that coming up. next. And Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul. March Madness is here. Of course it is. It's March. 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 your first $5 bet wins. That's 200 extra bucks in bonus bets to use on everything from buzzer beaders to Cinderella stories and even who's cutting down the net. Staying in the action you can with Fandle with tournament games happening almost every day. There's always something to bet on. Plus, fast and easy. The Fandual app is simple to use. And when you get paid, when I get paid, when anybody gets paid, they get paid instantly. There's no

waiting around. So visit Fandual.com. Get in on the college hoops action all season long. I mean, I'm watching this play again, you know, while you're reading that, the three-pointer from Vucevic. And I'm, again, I'm looking. I think either he, mean from Pat Williams from Pat Williams the Williams three that before the turnover and there's I mean

there's no question LeBron wandered way you know off Williams and left him wide open one point he was under he was almost under the damn basket he it was who Williams or no no

LeBron was like wandering like to the lane like I mean he was really off no it wasn't that he was he was going up high to you know clearly he thought Reeves was not there to be able to close out on the three attempt from Vucevich. I mean, reaching out to the way, but he got, he got caught. I think you just got kind of caught in between maybe.

I'm not exactly sure what happened. But either way, the more egregious play, and that was not a good, I mean, it was a breakdown there. The more egregious play was the inbound pass. I mean, I am willing to, you know, looking at the replay again, like I said, I think he saw something that maybe wasn't there or just didn't see where Reeves was to be able to recover to the to the play or whatever. But so, I mean, I can give a little good bit of grace there.

There's just no excuse for the inbound pass. That one, you know, say what you will. And to that point, I just, I thought LeBron played a really nice game. You know, he did a, I, we've talked a. we've talked a lot about isolation play and stuff like that. LeBron, I think, really put the ball down and put the ball to the basket, recognizing mismatches. There was a play in the fourth quarter.

Lakers needed a bucket, and he had the ball atopic. He was trying to get a little penetration, a little action, making sure that, you know, trying to get Chicago to react to him. They didn't do anything. So he backed up about eight feet, got a running start going down in the lane, and basically walked to the basket because no. And nobody came out to guard him. And so nobody can stop him once he's on the move.

It was just a really smart play like that. You know, I didn't like Lucas shot selection down the stretch. You know, just the Lakers as a whole, everything they did generating good shots in Indiana in the last five minutes. They really didn't reproduce in Chicago. I mean, other than I thought Austin was looking for a pretty good show. And Austin, by the way, another game where he turns his ankle. This time he didn't even really leave the floor at all. He stayed in and his ankle rolled in an absolutely nasty direction.

But Reeves ends up finishing this game, 10 of 17 from the field with three assists, 30 points, two blocks. It was really good and very tough game from Austin, like tough as in like displaying toughness. Like physical toughness, yes. Right, physical toughness. it's crazy too when you think about like the 24-hour span of LeBron going from guy that didn't score a basket until the fourth quarter against Indiana, then gets a game-winning tip-in to having an inexplicable meltdown in a loss to the Bulls all the while this stuff is going on back and forth between him and Stephen A. Smith, like now just taking over the entire like first take and NBA coverage of ESPN.

Like at this point, honestly, if like LeBron and Stephen A and the four letter, which full disclosure, Brian, I do work for, like if this has all been orchestrated just as one part of a massive thrill ride soap opera, like chef's kiss to everybody. Because you, I know it's not, but I'm just saying you cannot come up with. these sort of swings, man. It's crazy. I keep watching this replay. And I mean, again, Reves gets a little bit,

it gets separated from Vucevich a little bit. And maybe, I think that's maybe what LeBron saw there. But either way, it just, it's just frustrating because, you know, this was, you know, it's an interesting place for the Lakers to beat because, you know, Luca was very inefficient in the first half, got going in the third quarter, hit some big shots in the fourth. I think the Lakers, you could, you know,

we're working through a little lactic acid build up in that first quarter. It took a little while a good ago. And I'm with you. I was so impressed with how they just put the squeeze on in the second quarter, kept it on in the third quarter, built that lead against a team that had played them very well. And looked, even when Chicago, Chicago got it in the fourth quarter down to, you know, four or five or something like that.

And the Lakers pushed it back out to 10. I was like, this is really impressive what they're doing, particularly defensively. And to give it away with poor shot selection, like we've, I don't like, we all remember with Kobe. Like there are times when Kobe's going to be five of 16,

which Luca was at one point in this game. You know, it's fine. Keep shooting. Because part of what makes those guys, these Uber level scores, what they are. If they start to back off, part of the reason

Luca can continue to be effective is because he's always Luca Donchich. And so even when he's 5 of 16, defenses will overplay to him. He has gravity and he will continue to generate great shots for other people. You never want these guys

to back off even a bit from kind of their nature. You want him to use judgment. That's what I was about to say. But we had these conversations with COVID. Sometimes it's not the step back three. It's when the step back three, it's did somebody else touch the ball? Right.

Did, um, were you working come hell or high water for one particular shot? Right. Or was it with, you know, 16 seconds left, 15 seconds left in the shot clock or three seconds left in the shot clock? And I feel like that's where a little bit of the shots. And sometimes if it was three, why did it end up three? Well, no, but sometimes you want it to be. You certainly don't want like the step back three where nobody else touches the ball is a better

shot when you're bleeding a clock with a seven point lead. If you're going to do it, I mean, there's at least the benefit of draining one time off the clock. Like some of these shots, like they were, I think, dagger hunting in ways. Just run a play, not run a play, but run an action, get a good shot, put the ball on the floor, do something. You don't have to go for the dagger highlight. I feel like that's where the Lakers.

God. And that is something we've talked about with this team a lot this year. And this is well before Luca arrived, like, the tendency for them to look for the dagger shots. And it's not always LeBron. It can be Austin. It can be other guys just looking for the haymaker when just a solid jab will do. And look, this is, like you said, this is not unique to LeBron or Luca or whatever. Like, superstars do this all the time. Yes. And they, I think, can maybe even visualize themselves in that moment because I mean, they always assume that the ball's going in.

Yeah. And they shoot the ball. They assume it's going in. And they've crushed a lot of teams over their careers. That's why they're superstars. But yeah, a lot of that stuff broke down. And again, it erased so much work they did as a team making up for that terrible start. but then also like some good,

really good individual performances in this game. Like I said, stepping up for Rui's absence, stepping up just to get them this second, supposed to be a second win of a back-to-back. Yeah. I mean, you could see like if you watch the, the post-game show on Spectrum Sportsnet,

just the, um, the, disgust with, with somebody like James Worthy who really understands the ramifications of losing games like this. And, you know, Redick was asked,

like, what's the impact of this game? The word he used was devastating. And he's not overstating it. Like, you're this late into the season. You know, yeah, does it count? Like, the game they lost against Orlando earlier in the year was another one that he pointed out. Like, there were a couple others.

Like, they've had some losses this season. They all count. They all count the same. But losing a terrible game in inexplicable fashion in game six or game 16 or game 26 is way different than losing it in game 70 or wherever they are. You know, 71. I forget exactly how many of it got left. You don't have time to make up that win, you know, to get that win back.

You've got to just keep winning all this stuff. You used all of this energy and all of this. The Lakers played hard. That wasn't the problem. I think part of the reason they had so many brain cramps down the stretch is because they were tired, because they were fatigued. But you've already put out the energy and now you didn't win the game. Nine games left, by the way, for the season. That was game 73.

What to look for next. And also, too, I want to make sure we at least give the compliments to the. those who earned it. So I do want to point out, Andy, if you would like our opinion of what happened in Thursday's game delivered to you in the form of a newsletter. Who wouldn't want that? Say you're like, you know what? It's wanting me to get it in a podcast. I've heard people talking about it, like whatever. I could watch it on YouTube, but really how I want to take this in is in the form of a newsletter. Man, is it your lucky day? Because go to Locked Daily.com and you click on Lockdown-Lakers and boom, you have just signed up for a newsletter.

And I can tell you that it's going to cover some of this stuff, Friday's newsletter. So that's how you, it's like, we've got you covered here. LockedownDaily.com news. I mean, who would not want additional coverage and thoughts on this night? Who does not want to wake up for that? Like, frankly, this is a terrible day to be trying to promote the news. letter, but we really would appreciate it. Those who have not subscribed, please do.

Yeah. Please do. We've given you a lot for free. Always free, never mind, paywall. It's time for you all to give back to us. Yeah. What Andy's saying is it helps us. We benefit when subscribers go up.

That's the subtext there. The Lakers really did get some good performances out of other people. Like I said, I think this was arguably Jackson Hayes' best game as a Laker that I can remember and probably the best game of his career. I mean, if not, it's top five. I'm just guessing. I don't know if I'd go that far just because I haven't said, I'm willing to bet. I haven't seen, I wasn't, you know, watching all of Jackson's games in. No, I'm just saying I think he has had better games as a Laker, but that being said, he played extremely well. And I don't know. I actually don't know because when you took a lot talk about the activity about the production

offensively 19 points 9 of 11 from the floor eight rebounds a block shot and assist the act you just no he was he was he was not trying to take away at all he was he was he was terrific jacks was really good in this game um and you know it was you know because chicago is a team that plays a lot of size you know when they when they pull when they don't have Busevich on the floor, they go with Zach Collins. So, I mean, like, they're putting seven footers on the floor for a significant portion of the game, if not all of it. And so it's, you know, he, he can play a little bit more in a game like this,

matchup-wise. And I thought he was just, he did a great job. And, you know, Jordan Goodwin with, you know, big rebounds, you know, doing the, they're sort of Jordan Goodwin stuff that, you know, got the Lakers to give him that contract. Two, you know, big rebounds. He hit a couple three-pointers. He had eight points on the night. Gabe Vincent with a big shot at the end of the first half. Like, it's another reason this is so disappointing because like you said in the last segment, they got what they needed. On night, LeBron only scored 17 points. He had 12 assists. The Lakers limited the turnovers as a group. That

terrible one at the end was only their 11th in the game. You know, you got 30 from Reeves. You overcame the, you know, Luca overcame that really slow start to finish with. 25 points. Eight of 22 doesn't look good. Remember, he was at 1.5 of 16. So, um, and led the team in rebounds with 10. Right. He had eight assists. Vando had a nice game, I thought. Only turned the ball over once. Luca had two steals that were sneaky good, you know, and it's just this, this one stings in ways that other bad losses happen because the consequences for this one are going to be, are, are more deeply felt. I mean, they caught a bit of a bit of break in that the Thunder beat the Grizzlies and that is a team that they're playing on Saturday,

the Grizzlies for the fourth game of this road trip. And it's also a team that they are, double check, I believe dead even in the standings. The Lakers, I believe for the time being, have a tiebreaker. But yes, they are currently tied at 44 and 29. So this game on Saturday, not that it didn't feel important before, but now really feels very important for the Lakers. You know, the Warriors have lost a couple games. Like they've gotten a little.

They're in decent position still to avoid the play in. It's not a guarantee. They're only two and a half games up, but they do have some tiebreakers on some of these teams. They're only two and a half games up on the type of, they really put themselves completely out of community. They don't have a show. shot now at the two seat.

They're, you know, Houston has, you know, they've won nine of ten. They're playing really well. They're, you know, now a full three and a half games ahead of Lakers. Even with those two games, Lakers have left against the rockets, catching them to get the two. Okay, well, that's probably not a thing anymore. This was a, you know, games like this make it much harder to catch Denver to give yourself a chance of the three. If you, if they win this game Thursday, Andy, and they, you know, you can go.

into Memphis and lose that game and not fall into fifth and lose home court. Like they did catch a break, but they blew, it sort of rubs salt in the wound here because they blew not only this game, they blew an opportunity to move a game ahead of Memphis. Right. They caught a break in the sense of the damage is not as bad as it absolutely could have been. Yeah. But catching a break is not the same thing as no damage. damage whatsoever, much less actually capitalizing on something.

Like, they did not capitalize on Memphis also losing tonight. It just was not the absolute worst case scenario. So it's just, it's so incredibly disappointing and frustrating. And Chicago is playing extremely well right now. And we, you know, we talked about this after the loss last week and heading into this game, like Chicago has been really good lately. They actually have something to play for as well, as much as every year people keep questioning,

when will they finally just learn to accept the tank and rebuild? It's not what they do for better or for worse. And they have been playing quite well lately. Like I know Indiana was playing the Wizards tonight, but they put up 162, which if nothing else reinforces what we were talking about after the buzzer beating win against the Pacers. Like holding, you weren't going to hold that team to 103 points.

Like they're one of the best offensive teams in the league, and they're playing really well right now. But this is still a game tonight that even acknowledging all that with Chicago, they not only could have won, there's no way around it. They should have won it. Chicago was in this game. You can do the stuff like, oh, yeah, but. Chicago did this, then they got lucky.

And all of that is true. And you run into statistically weird things all, you know, throughout a season, you know, all these, you know, people, there are metrics about expected shot, you know, conversions and all these other things. And what you ought to be able to get on, you know, based on every shot, what the expected points. And the Chicago is well above that, particularly in the fourth quarter. There's no question. On a normal night, the Lakers don't have to play this game down the stretch because Chicago is not close enough. but this wasn't a normal night. And, you know, one of the things that I was so intrigued by with this team when they were making their run,

and it's not like it's over. Like, it's not like they've collapsed and fallen back down, but like, you know, it's going to be a fight to the end to finish somewhere in the top six. One of the things that always impressed me is like they reached a place where they were executing. really well, no matter what players were on the floor. Everybody understood, but then you go back three weeks and listen to the podcast and like one of the things I was telling. Everybody understood what they were doing and looked so comfortable and dialed into

the role that they were being asked to play. And some of that has just kind of slipped. And you expect ebbs and flows and things like that. But I would have expected this was a game where you'd be like, you know what? The Bulls, they shot the lights out. They did this. They put pressure on the Lakers, and the Lakers weathered it all. And they came out like Wednesday, Indiana started throwing stuff at them.

And the Lakers, they needed five minutes of great execution. You know what? They got it. And in this game, they needed five minutes of great execution and didn't. I was about to say they got four minutes and 50 seconds, but the truth is they didn't get that. No, they blew a 10-point lead. five minutes left. Granted,

like nine of that was in the last 10 seconds, but no, no, I was about to say that. And then I corrected him as I was like, no, they didn't.

They did. Because, you know, the lead got, they built it back up to five with 10 seconds left. But it was, you know, it was one.

And then Reeves, then they got a bucket and then they got fouls. And so that bumped it to five, make you think the game was over. They just didn't. They didn't get the, the quality of shots wasn't the same. It wasn't a matter of they got good shots

and missed him, which is going to happen. They just didn't execute quite as well. It was not a great Luke game. He did so many things that you could see, like, the value of having a player of his caliber and what the impact they can have, even when they're not shooting well. But, like, you know, just like little stuff,

you know, little decisions that they made. And then obviously the LeBron inbound, the nobody picking up Giddy to make him turn, make him stop, make him hesitate, make whatever. So he does like, you know, it's still a low percentage shot, but they turned a,

they made it as high percentage as it possibly could be. They allowed Giddy to shoot that low percentage shot in rhythm. And these are the type of shots that guys do practice. All the time. They remain very low percentage, but they practice this stuff all. I bet if you most of these guys, even Josh Gidey's not a three-point shooter,

but that's not really three-point shooting. If you gave them a hundred of those, just, you know, up and down, I'm sure they'd make 15, you know, 15, maybe even a little bit more uncontested like that. It depends who it is. I mean, a lot of this really is. No, but like a player, a guard, a, you know,

a guy like that, like, it's just, it's, we'll see. Really quick, too, because we were talking about Luca and some of the things that he does well, but we were also talking about decision making. I would like to see him dial back the threes. Like, take a few fewer threes. Like there, or at the very least be a little bit more judicious with the threes there. I think it's a timing thing, time and place kind of. Sure.

That's part of the judiciousness. Yeah. And it's hard. Like I said, I agree with you. There are a couple that I went like, especially late where I was like, That can't be the best shot they get in this possession. And it's just a fine line between, you know, because part of what makes Luca Luca is that ability to just be like,

you know, ice cold, step back three, whatever. Like you're just like, well, like he had the steel, that sequence where he had the steel and the pull up three. I'm like, no, no, no, no. Oh, nice. You know, of course. But I mean, but it is also important to Remember that part of what makes Luca Lucas, he can do other stuff too.

Yes. It's not just, I mean, the step back three is often what just starts turning Luca into unguardable. I think it's fatigue. I think you get, you get tired and, you know, getting all the way down to the basket, getting all that is is harder. And so, I mean, guys just, and Luca looked tired throughout most of the game. I'm not trying, like he was, I think, grinding and pushing through and trying to get himself going through it.

I don't think you look comfortable through most of the game. Kept getting hit the face in the head. More guys get hit the head in this game that I've ever seen. It's just, it was a lot. Anyway, again, you can have all of this, recreate all of this in a newsletter, Andy. Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 34,000 subscribers.

Lakers are in Memphis on Saturday. We'll, of course, be back after that game. We will see everyone then.