Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Dorian Finney-Smith Doubtful for Lakers' Must Win Game vs. Heat

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Wednesday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, the Lakers, will be a little bit short-handed as they play a crucial game tonight against the heat. 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 Lockedown Lakers.

Starting point is 00:00:32 First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast, This one's always going to be free and never, ever, ever, behind a paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 27,000 subscribers to the channel, Andy, all of whom are still real angry about what happened on Monday when the Lakers played kind of return to action, played the spurs, played a pretty good game until about four minutes left in the third quarter, and then played about, I don't know, what is that, 16 minutes of god-awful basketball and ended up losing by more than 20. So people still upset about that, to say the very least, Andy.

Starting point is 00:01:10 Well, it's a the second consecutive loss by 20 plus points, but also, too, I think it's the way that they lost that feels indicative of things that we've seen over what's now a three-game losing streak, but also things that have periodically popped up throughout this season. that has led to a lot of Laker fans being upset about this team in the first place. Yeah. I mean, it was, you know, the sort of, I've seen a bunch of different versions of it. Like, to the point, people are angry enough that they kind of forget that, you know, the Lakers actually were winning that game by 10 points at the four minute mark of the third.

Starting point is 00:01:55 And it's like, I don't think that makes it better. They didn't get blown out from wire to wire. It's like this, it's this annoyance that they can't, the level of inconsistency and the inability, I think, to me, and sort of thinking about it, looking back at some of the game, you know, we sometimes watch them twice and whatever, the inability to get things back on the rails after they start to go south, that to me is what really struck out. It's like, okay, the defense is clapping. you know, the offense, you know, turning the ball over too much. Wrong guys, maybe you're in the game.

Starting point is 00:02:33 Like, somebody needs to do something to bring the group back together, take count to five, and get back into the game. And it just didn't happen. It was like, we're great and then boom. And we've totally collapsed. I think if this felt like a one-off, you would have Laker fans unhappy about this, but able to maintain some degree of perspective.

Starting point is 00:02:58 The problem is it doesn't feel like a one-off. And we've seen a lot over the course of this season that if you hit this team a couple times, it is not a guarantee that they're going to fight back. It is not a guarantee that they're going to hit back. And the idea that when things go wrong, they can grow catastrophic, I think from the perspective of a lot of Liker fans,

Starting point is 00:03:22 and it's something I know I've talked about before, and I believe it came up in Tuesday's show, it's the idea that it doesn't always feel like they are resolved as a group to get it back in the first place and to put out the necessary fight to even try. Like something that I talked about during Lakers talk, the show that I do for ESPNLA 7-10 weekly was this was a potential moment for the Lakers to really feel like they were rising up and playing for L.A. at a time when things are just absolutely awful in this city

Starting point is 00:04:03 with all these fires across Los Angeles that are still an issue that needs. We're a long way from them being contained before we even start talking about the city going into recovery. And it came on a night where the Rams had to go to Arizona to play their playoff game against the Vikings. And they ended up playing a terrific game and it was something that they talked about heading into it. They felt not even just an opportunity, but like a responsibility to play this way for the city and try to give L.A.

Starting point is 00:04:37 something that they can be galvanized around, something that they can root for, feel good about. And then when you compare that against the second half with the Lakers, and I want to make it clear, I'm not even talking about the result. because the Lakers could have felt like they were showing up for L.A. even if they lost. Like you can sometimes play a good game and lose. You can sometimes play a bad game, but feel like you were 100% committed. In the second half of that game,

Starting point is 00:05:05 it did not feel like they were committed both big picture for the season itself or small picture for that game and the context of what that game meant. To say nothing also about Michael Cooper being honored in franchise history, I think that's something. By the way, the org screwed up the t-shirts on the seats. Whoever was in charge of it didn't notice. Sure.

Starting point is 00:05:32 They screwed it up. It happens, but it's just embarrassing. It was just like a bad thing that kind of happened on a bad night anyway. If they win that game by 15, we joke about the shirts and talk about how the Lakers, like you say. kind of did the thing for LA. And I don't, I'm not, I'm not putting it on them in the sense of like,

Starting point is 00:05:55 they let down the city. Like, you know, you got it like, like, I don't want to make it like trite or like cliche or like it's like to kind of minimize the thing. But they're going to be fixed by a basketball game, the people who have suffered this loss. But there is a certain amount of, I think what it speaks to if I'm understanding,

Starting point is 00:06:16 and I certainly wouldn't disagree. we talked about focus, whether you want to call it focus, whether you want to talk about being too casual, urgency, whatever it is. Detail. In that stretch where they were playing really well, and the defense was top 10 in the league, top five in the league, top of the league, for a lot of that stretch.

Starting point is 00:06:38 The one thing that defined them is just how hard they played on that end. And some of that you can just see. You can just tell when they're, not that they're loafing now, but like whatever that next gear was, it was not there in the last 16 minutes of this game on Monday. And there was no ability to put things back on the rails. I mean, this gets back to my season long complaining about the switch one through five approach that they had temporarily abandoned, not coincidentally, when the team was playing good defense. They've started falling back into it, not coincidentally, when the defense has started to get worse.

Starting point is 00:07:21 But among the things that I don't like about it is I don't think this team has the collective personality for it. Because if you're going to play it that way, it requires a collective urgency and motor and a determination to get in terms of physicality. It requires a determination in terms of minding details. It's getting back to spots. It's about doing this in a way that feels intentional and with purpose. And this is, I'm not saying that this is a group that I think doesn't care about winning because I think they do. But this is not a high urgency collective personality for this team. There's a lot of laid back.

Starting point is 00:08:12 I think in a lot of ways it begins with LeBron and AD. like LeBron is in season, we know this, season 22, 40, there's a certain degree of pacing, yada, yada, yada. And he's also the most been there, he's one of the most been there done that guys in the history of sports, much less the NBA, which makes the regular season, I think, more difficult for him to get up for. And while I think AD generally plays on a game-to-game basis harder than LeBron, you do sometimes see that slippage with AD as well. And his personality is not rah-rah that way. It is not

Starting point is 00:08:52 high motor personality. And for the most part with this group, I feel like if you give them an opportunity to dial it back, they're going to take it. But it's, I hate the term energy player in the way that it can denigrate players or make it can be reductive. We, we, we, we Covered Roni Torreoff, man. Of God, he hated that term. So, like, you know, but when in the next segment, I want to, I want to talk about, though, what the issue they have around energy is because I think what you're talking about with personalities is really important for kind of getting into that equation.

Starting point is 00:09:37 So we'll do that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Hunger Route. And when it comes to grocery shopping and meal planning, I've had this ongoing problem. It's called time. I don't have it between work, life, trying to eat healthier, which is actually something I'm very, very into. But everything changes if you go with hungry root. It's a game changer.

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Starting point is 00:10:55 Hungry root.com slash locked on NBA code Lockedon NBA. Don't miss out. So with this three game slide, Andy, the game tonight against a very ordinary Miami team that I'm not going to say they're going through some of their own things, but they're kind of going through some of their own things. This is a really important game.

Starting point is 00:11:28 I mean, oh my, like, you've got to take, you know, the schedule only kind of gets harder as the season goes along. They're still in this home-heavy stretch before they leave on the road trip at the end of the month. Like, you can't afford not to win home games against a. Bla, Miami team, especially given how Monday's game ended. Like, come on. Like, you've got to come out with something in this one.

Starting point is 00:11:58 Especially, too. Miami's not going to have Jimmy Butler. He's still going to be suspended. The Lakers are going to have the extra obstacle, perhaps, of Dorian Finney Smith not being available. He's listed as doubtful for personal reasons. But the Lakers should be capable of winning this. game and quite frankly need to win this game more than the heat do.

Starting point is 00:12:22 Like the heat is waves arms around in terms of all the bleep they got to figure out right now that has in some ways little to do with the actual basketball court. The Lakers are still for the time being a team that should be able to focus on the court. And we've talked about the importance of capitalizing on January. they've blown already a couple games that should have been banked. They have to get themselves back on track. And if anything, find a game like saying next week versus Boston where you got to beat those odds to make up for the one you crapped away.

Starting point is 00:12:58 Get one back. It's I, um, I, I, I, I don't like to, it's, I don't like to put too much into individual games because it is a long season. There's a ton of Evan Flo. Things are always happening that impact the way a team looks in terms of how they play from any night to night that we don't always even know about. That said, you talk about that.

Starting point is 00:13:31 You made in the first segment, that point that a team can play poorly, but you can tell they're still invested in what they're doing. They're playing as hard as they can sometimes. it just doesn't work. At the very least, I need to see that. I need to see a team that shows up and looks like a professional team that believes that it really is

Starting point is 00:13:56 for a purpose this year. And that doesn't mean they're necessarily going to win. Who knows? Tyler Hero catches a hot streak. Haywood Highsmith does something you don't expect or Nikolayyovic, you know, like they've got that. the one that isn't the Yokic, but the other guy.

Starting point is 00:14:16 Strange things happen, but put in a professional effort the entire game. And if you can't do that on the heels of what happened in the last 16 minutes on Monday, that is a major red flag, even in a time when there are a fair amount of red flags around this team anyway. I mean, it raises the larger question of what does this season even mean? what should Rob Polinka and the okays that he gets from Jeannie Bus to make whatever moves, like how big of an investment do you make? If it feels like almost halfway through the season, you can't take the temperature of this team consistently just to figure out, are they going to mentally show up?

Starting point is 00:15:01 Like, are they committed to fighting for 48 minutes on a regular basis? Like, regardless of the results, like, are, Are they going to be in it from an investment standpoint? And look, there are a lot of things going on with this team right now on both sides of the ball that I think require addressing. There's, I think, an element of getting back to basics. I would say, number one, start getting back to an offense that again revolves around Anthony Davis, like you did for the first 14 games of the season when you were 10 and 4.

Starting point is 00:15:40 AD looked like an MVP candidate, and we were talking about the potential upside of this team, and they were harder to guard, and they looked more functional. And if you start doing that combined with, I think, a better approach defensively and more commitment that way, and an offense that will frankly make your defense easier to play. But this gets back to investment, too, because that requires discipline. Like it requires a commitment to the steps and to not looking for shortcuts or workarounds for every step of your offense. And every time you're supposed to remember to cut or every screen you're supposed to set or running things methodically as opposed to what it's felt like often, I think for all of DeLo's faults, he was one of the guys that avoided this, I think, the most. like Dilo would often look to just run an offense.

Starting point is 00:16:39 Like I think more than LeBron, certainly more than Austin. I think Dilo looked to actually run the offense that they were supposed to be doing. He definitely looked for Anthony Davis very frequently. They need to get back to more of what was working early on. And then you combine the defense that you discovered. It's, you know, we talk a lot with LeBron. And we'll get to a couple things with LeBron. in the third segment.

Starting point is 00:17:06 We talk a lot with LeBron about, beyond the physical, you know, difficulties and stuff that go along with trying to play in your 22nd year and the mileage and this and that, whatever, the mental focus that it takes for him to achieve at a high level is significantly higher than what it took before because he is compensating for athleticism, you know, a little bit slower, not quite as bouncy.

Starting point is 00:17:30 You can't do it every night in the same way. You need to go deeper into the bag and all that kind of stuff. stuff. It's hard. And like that as much as anything could be the thing that gets you say, I just don't want to do it anymore. I'm tired. I'm tired of doing this and I just don't want to put, I want to spend my mental energy on other things. The Lakers, I think as a team are in kind of a similar boat because you talk about the attention to detail, like go back to the basics, make sure you're not getting away from Anthony Davis too much. Make sure you're running your offense, running an offense that really is centered around him, no pun intended.

Starting point is 00:18:09 And all of these things and setting an effective screen and fighting over the screen, switching at the right time, not every time. All these things for the Lakers to be competitive because the bench isn't filled with a bunch of really high-level scorers and because they are... There's one way to fix that. Yeah, I know there is. We can talk about that. But like, and because there is, you know, there are, there are holes in the lineup.

Starting point is 00:18:41 There are holes in the rotation. It's not the most talented thing you're going to find out there. But when they are dialed in and they do it, but that's hard. It is really hard to do. It's hard to do that for 48 minutes. And then it's hard to do that for a week. And then it's hard to do that for a month. And it's hard to do that for too.

Starting point is 00:18:57 But to be a good team, you got to. you've got to play well for two months at a time, not two weeks at a time. Here's the other thing, too. This team has no other choice because they're not, they are not talented enough to coast on their talent. They're not athletic enough to coast on their athleticism. Like they have to play with a requisite level of high energy on both sides of the ball and execution on both sides of the ball because they,

Starting point is 00:19:29 don't have enough stuff to paper over the things they're not doing. I agree. And that's a really difficult way to have to play. But it reflects the, that is a reflection of the roster that they have, the one that Rob Polenko put together and then has to decide now if he wants to try and improve. So let's talk a little bit about LeBron, a little bit about DFS and in his absence what that means for tonight. And a couple other things when we get back.

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Starting point is 00:21:23 Go click on Locked on Lakers. You get the show. You get NBA analysis from around the league and across the network sent straight to your inbox every day. So that makes this whole process seamless, Andy. So do that. And by doing it directly when you hear it from us, it actually does help us out. So we appreciate that. It's, you know, you had mentioned that it might be time to hit the button.

Starting point is 00:21:48 The Dorian Finney Smith for Rui Hachimura button. Well, they can't do it tonight because DFS. Probably. I'm assuming the guys are doubtful. I assume they're not going to play. Just want to make sure people understand he's not officially listed as now. Right. And it is a as a personal as opposed to an injury.

Starting point is 00:22:08 So, you know, I guess that does change potentially, you know, his availability. This can, you know, like it put, this can make their, Miami's not a high-flying offensive team, but, you know, you are now removing, again, one of their higher, you know, better wing defenders, arguably they're, you know, the best one in the front court. And asking Rui to do more, asking. Reeves to do a little bit more. Going back to a formula that they've seen before,

Starting point is 00:22:38 but it's going to be more difficult. That's even more of a reason that they have to have their bleep together and keep it together for 48 minutes. I had planned when you and I were prepping for the show to talk about, yet again, pressing the button the need to flip-flop DFS and Rui in the lineup. And that's quite possible. that quite possibly may not happen for tonight's game, but when in fact DFS is available and you have this option,

Starting point is 00:23:11 there are a multitude of reasons that I think it needs to happen, which we've gone over a lot. But it underscores, and this can take place tonight, the need to involve Rui Moore, period. Like I'd mentioned during that period where the Lakers were 10 and 4, and AD was the hub, and AD also was clearly the leader in usage. on this team. It was at a little over 31. Since the 10 and 4, he's gone down to about 28 and a half.

Starting point is 00:23:40 LeBron has risen up to team leader during that period. Austin Reeves has gone up a few. Ruiz has just plummeted. And to put this in perspective, during the 10 and 4 start, again, that the Lakers really looked like they were potentially a good team, particularly if they could clean up their defense, Rui was averaging almost 11 shots a game. In January, he's averaging seven shots a game, like fewer than Max Christie. And I think every dayers know I'm big on Christie. I want it into play for a long time. It makes no sense for Rui to be taking fewer shots than Max Christie.

Starting point is 00:24:20 And it makes no sense to have Rui on this roster, much less on the court, if you're going to be involving him that little with his best skill set, which is scoring, but also I think this matters because the more Rui is involved, I think it is kind of an avatar for everybody being involved more. And the offense looking more egalitarian, the way it did earlier in the season when it was less predictable, less automatic high screen and roll, less stagnant, less guys standing around, harder to defend. So that's something that I think you can start that tonight too because I mean DFS isn't playing

Starting point is 00:25:02 somebody has to take those shots that also too one other thing when you start thinking about the bench because we've talked about DeLo's absence and a trickle-down effect and the lack of ball handlers I would like to see JJ give shake Milton 10ish minutes a night because I think they just need another

Starting point is 00:25:23 NBA player who part of his job is to handle the ball. Like I don't, not seeing him as a facilitator. I'm not saying as a floor general. I'm just somebody that I think can keep the trains running more than say Cam. And I don't mean this as a knock on Reddish. This isn't the lane he's supposed to fill in the first place. But especially right now, whatever you're getting from Cam defensively is not offsetting what you're not getting offensively, whether from him or the group at large. I feel like Shake, can actually fill more of a need for them right now,

Starting point is 00:26:04 like a very specific need. I would like to see 10, 15 minutes tops. I think it could be helpful. Yeah, it's, Cam is, it's an interesting case. Like, you know, he is, I'm going back to it. You got to go back to the Monday, the 23rd. So before Christmas,

Starting point is 00:26:24 to where he was over 50% from the field. He was on Christmas, he was two for four. But since then, he's gone one for three, oh for three, one for three, one for two, oh for nothing in four minutes against Houston. And then in 15 minutes against San Antonio, he was one of seven. So you're talking about that's eight points, ten points since Christmas. And he's not playing 25 minutes a night, but he's not playing five either. And so part of the problem that the Lakers have is, you know, like you, you, you, you, almost have a similar situation with Rui and Reddish as mirror opposites of the same problem.

Starting point is 00:27:05 Like you need a certain amount of defensive support to allow Rui to really flourish and focus on the stuff. He's really got to be better if he could do the other things as well, improve the defense, become a better rebounder. We talked about it. What was the number? Five rebounds over his last three games? It's not very many if you're 6-8-2-45.

Starting point is 00:27:25 Five rebounds against Texas. Right. I mean, and that's only five more than you and I have. We're terrible rebounders and we're very short. But it's hard to get the most out of reddish or a Rui when you feel like the defense is really suffering because there's that pull. I think a lot of times to just take him off the floor or you have to put him in different combinations where he can't kind of cook as much or whatever might be. reddish, it's hard to use Cam when the team isn't scoring because he makes things much worse in that regard. I understand he's playing hard and he's the lane like you say is defense.

Starting point is 00:28:08 But what we're really starting to see in another reason I think to start DFS or at least why he's going to be important is he has skill on both sides. he's a good shooter. He moves the ball reasonably well. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes, picks his time to put the ball on the floor, and does stuff. He's not super dynamic, but he knows his lane and he stays in it,

Starting point is 00:28:34 and then he meanwhile he plays defense. Christy is starting to look a little bit more like a two-way player, but they still have a lot of guys on the roster who kind of qualify as one-way dudes. And I'm including LeBron in this equation with all the asterisks and the understanding that go along with it.

Starting point is 00:28:52 He is still on many nights, essentially a one-way player. And then on a night like Monday, they didn't get enough. Like 18's not enough for LeBron. Like they got 60 points. We got a great note from people, I'll try to pull it up.

Starting point is 00:29:09 But in consecutive, you know, somebody getting all over us for not being critical of LeBron, A.D. and Reeves. And like, you never guys never criticize him. And then the reply was, no.

Starting point is 00:29:21 always blame things on LeBron, you must be new here. So clearly we're actually doing it right. But like we spent some time on this on for Tuesday. Like those three guys have to be productive offensively. And if LeBron isn't going to be productive night to night defensively, and I get why, that he really does need to be putting up 25 or 2011 and 11 or whatever might be. It can't be 18 and 8 with seven turnovers.

Starting point is 00:29:53 Just can't. No. And you can't, for that matter, have Austin Reeves shooting like 30% from the field with even four turnovers against eight assists because you start accounting for those empty shots. And I remain very concerned, if not convinced, that there's just too much on Austin's plate for the level of player that he's at, which is a good player. Like what they are asking of Austin is basically all-star level or higher. Like I don't think people often really think about just how good you have to be

Starting point is 00:30:36 to be the third most important player, the third best player on a team that is capable of making at minimum a deep playoff run. They need to find ways to protect him. If they're going to ask him to have this elevated burden offensive, all this keeps putting it. It's like the only guy is like, look, sorry AD, you're going to have to do it on both ends, just how it's going to have to be.

Starting point is 00:31:03 But they need to figure out ways to protect him at least some. Like, you know, he is, it's not that he won't try, but like when he gets put on the post because San Antonio is able to match up hunt and get what they want. They're not even able to match up hunt. They're being offered the matchup. Right. But even if it's because they're switching too much or just the way, you know, like

Starting point is 00:31:26 Wemby. They do everything short of saying who would you like to guard you? Right. But it's like it's, you know, they can do some stuff by pulling with pulling AD away from the basket in terms of, you know, because Wembe has to be guarded 30 feet away and all that. There's a lot going on there. It doesn't have to be guarded by side conversation. say, I don't think he has to be guarded by AD.

Starting point is 00:31:47 Maybe not, but if Wendy's going to take pretty footers, sure. All I'm saying is teams are going to make adjustments over the course of the game. And one of the things the Lakers are always going to need to be conscious of is making sure that you don't end up in a situation like they were in on Monday where over and over and over again, you have this mismatch in a place on the floor

Starting point is 00:32:14 where there's just not much Reeves can do about it. And so whether that's, you know, chain making, they have to respond faster to these sort of mini emergencies on the floor. And that's a JJ thing. Sure. I mean, that is on JJ Reddick to make those adjustments. And I think also not be stubborn with some of the things. I mean, this is coaches do this all the time.

Starting point is 00:32:40 They get stubborn. but we are starting to see from JJ at times, I think, again, not unique to coaches, the tendency to want to coach the team that you want as opposed to the team that you have. And JJ, like everybody else, he's going to have to fight that. Otherwise, he becomes part of the problem like everyone else. Yeah, it's a fine line between sort of trying to get guys to play into a system that you think is most effective and will be most effective for them and forcing that in a way that doesn't work. I mean, and I'm sure like, you know, no coach likes to switch everything unless you have a roster that's just like perfect for it.

Starting point is 00:33:22 And most teams don't. You do it often because you feel like it's the best solution for your team because you kind of have to to cover over deficiencies. But either way, when they're doing, they're not getting the results. And so, you know, they either, it just, it has to be different. where the, even if you are 10 to switch, it can't always be that easy. And so we'll see. We'll see what happens tonight, 80, because the Miami heater in town, and this is a very winnable game. And it's a game the Lakers really need to win because that's just how it is.

Starting point is 00:34:00 This is the place we are in the season. And this is the, you know, the games on the schedule that they have to put in the bag if they expect to be somewhere in the spring. So we'll be back after the game. Postcast will be back. Sign up for the newsletter. We'll see everyone after the game.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Dorian Finney-Smith Doubtful for Lakers' Must Win Game vs. Heat

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