Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - How Will the Lakers Survive Without Anthony Davis?

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

The Lakers have a very distinct challenge in front of them over the next week or two. Let's say for the sake of argument Anthony Davis misses all seven of the games the Lakers have left on the calendar before the All-Star break. How will they respond? In theory, three of those games—tonight against Washington, then games against Utah on February 10th and 12th—are winnable whether Davis plays or not. The other four? You do what you can. But staying above water will require a true commitment to details and focus that has been missing too often this season, and has apparently left the building over the last two games. JJ Redick spoke bluntly about the poor mental approach the Lakers had against the Hornets in Charlotte, and to say the least, was not happy with that aspect of his team's game in Philadelphia against the Sixers. But sometimes missing stars brings things into focus. Redick and LeBron James have talked about the lack of margin for error, and about being an execution-based team. Well, nothing will bring the need to execute into greater focus than losing your best player. The security blanket Davis provides on both ends is gone. The Lakers know it, and can prepare. You would think the Lakers would come out with the requisite energy and attention to detail the task (even against a horrible basketball team like the Wizards) requires. You would think. In a perfect world, the Lakers can win enough games to buy A.D. some time, allowing him to rest through to the break if it's needed, or even what would be best for Davis in terms of his long-term health, and capacity to play at full strength for the stretch run. That means beating the Wizards tonight, but also stealing a game or two (ok, maybe just one) against the Knicks, Clippers, Warriors and Pacers. Lord knows they owe Davis the lift, given how he's carried them throughout the season. (In that sense, it's surprising Davis didn't already have a hernia.) HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: How long will Davis be out? SEGMENT 2: Where can the Lakers compensate? SEGMENT 3: Anger around Bronny vs. Philly is misplaced.  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!Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert. Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service. Real-time updates only in the iOS mobile app. See guarantee details at TurboTax.com/guarantees. 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.FanDuelSuper Bowl 59 is here, And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.  Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. 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 Lockedong Lakers for Thursday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, the Lakers kickoff an Anthony Davis-less stretch of games tonight in Washington. How will they respond without Davis in the lineup? It'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 Lockdown Lakers first listen to every day, Monday through Friday,

no matter how or where you get your podcast. This one's always free and never behind paywall and locked on Lakers on YouTube is where over 27,000 subscribers are all hanging out and wondering what the Lakers are going to do without Anthony Davis for at least a week, probably a little longer, perhaps even Andy, all the way up to the All-Star break. There is certainly the possibility that AD could miss that amount of time. That would be seven games, but he's certainly going to miss the next four or so. do it to let everybody know that today's episode is brought to you by GameTime,

download the GameTime app, create an account, use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. And we talked a little bit about this on some of the emergency pot on Wednesday, but like the amount of questions, Andy, that get raised by this are huge starting. You know, there's who actually, like where do the Lakers make up at least some of the offense that Davis provides? There's the impact of a trade deadline. and then there's just the larger question of just how much time he's going to miss because I guess that one influences all of it. I mean, there's, it's not good.

None of it's good. For what it is worth, remember my initial response to hearing that they were going to reevaluate him in a week. And obviously with announcing there will be a reevaluation in a week comes the public part of this because everyone's going to be waiting to hear, that struck me as relatively optimistic news just because if they were concerned that this could be four weeks, six weeks,

maybe closing on two months, there is no point in even giving people hope that this could be a week to 10 days with the reevaluation. Like you would just say, we're going to reevalued them in three weeks. You don't ever set up intentionally, at least, people for disappointment. Dave McMenamon, who covers Lakers for ESPN, he was on my weekly ESPN 7-10 show Lakers talk tonight.

And for what it's worth, he is sensing internal optimism as well that this could be something that's like a weekish, but that so far the organization is not overly concerned about this turning into something that is a very extensive. Right. Dan Wakey at the time sent out similar information today over Twitter. And, you know, so I think, you know, we talked a little bit about the schedule of like what is there. And, you know, a week to 10 days takes you through the Indiana game a week from Saturday. Like that would be, you know, probably the very earliest he could come back. And once you get there, you've got two games against Utah. and then it's the All-Star break.

And so, you know, there's a lot to consider here. Like if he's close, but, you know, not, you know, you're maybe risking a little bit, you know, to play the two games against Utah, like all things consider, do you let him sit those? You also have to keep in mind the Lakers now have extra games when they come out because they have to make up the games that were rescheduled because of the wildfires. Like there is, you know, they're going to have some stretches that are even. a difficult second half schedule. It's going to be even more compressed in a lot of ways because of that.

So I think, at least for me, between your instincts, which I agree with, what you're hearing, sort of those early things, and the way the schedule lays out, which is he can get a week off just with the All-Star break. It appears that the Lakers, at least right now, may have dodged. a bit of a bull. Like it certainly could be worse on its face right now. I mean, here's the thing, though. If you want to turn the All-Star break into an actual break for Anthony Davis,

then you may have to eat the games against Utah because that's how you make him plausibly unavailable for the All-Star game. Oh, I think the Lakers, if they get close. But here's the thing. you can maybe do that. Let's say they win tonight and they take one of the next four games. And I don't think that's guaranteed.

The Knicks on Saturday is going to be a beast of a game. The Knicks were very good. The Clippers, I don't know if people saw what the Clippers did to the Spurs in the fourth quarter on Wednesday night, but it was surgical and impressive and kind of frightening. with a healthy Kauai Leonard. That is a tall order game to win. How many spurs were sitting out because they didn't want those players to get injured for an eventual deer in Fox trade, though?

No, they were all playing. Oh. They were all there. The Pacers are playing extremely well right now. They're kind of quietly moving up in a fairly open Eastern Conference. But if you can win one of those games, now, you know, if you go and you're, you go and you even just split those last games against Utah, you're three and four in this seven game stretch, and it's not a disaster, it's not a calamity, you're not going to collapse in the

conference standings because of that. And you can kind of afford to give AD those last couple games and then another week after that. It is, it's sort of incumbent on his teammates to provide him the space to get as much rest as possible. Well, he's been doing a lot of heavy lifting this season. And at times, dare I say, certainly in Tuesday's game against the Hornets, flat out carrying their asses. Like, you could argue they owe this to AD. Like, you know what, man? You've been doing a lot for us this season, Bigfellow. Why don't we repay the favor and, I don't know, beat the Wizards without you? You know? Yeah, but I'm not like the least we can do for you, my man. It is. But the

Wizards game is even getting complicated because the injurer report for the Lakers for tonight's game is crowded. You know, Rui has been upgraded to probable, but everybody else, Dorian Finney Smith is suddenly questionable with a shoulder

contusion. Which which is different than the ankle injury that has led to Dorian Finney Smith being on, if not a minute's limit, certainly a minutes monitoring, which maybe has even gotten in the way of him becoming a starter in place of Rui.

But this is a separate deal from what's been capping his amount of time on the floor. This is brand new. So that ain't good. And Dave Vincent, still questionable. They are potentially short on folks. And look, I know. The Washington Wizards are a catastrophically bad basketball. It's not, but the distinction here is important because one of the things I'm writing,

people who sign up for the newsletter, Locked on Daily Newsletter will see, is that, you know, this is the time that if you're going to pretend to be a good basketball team, the Lakers are going to have to execute their way through these games that AD doesn't play. That means your talent level may go down, but you are a well-coached, well-run group of smart basketball players who know how to do the right thing and don't check out mentally for giant stretches of games. And so you can execute your way past a team like Washington, which has lots of bouncy athletes and whatever, but are a lousy basketball team. go be a good basketball team, even if your talent level is low. Even if LeBron doesn't play in this game, the Lakers should,

the execution level for the Lakers against the team like Washington, should, if you think you're a good team, should be good enough to do better than they did against Philadelphia. That's for damn sure. I agree with you up to a certain point. I think without LeBron, if say LeBron didn't play in this game, I have concerns that the,

the Lakers might not be able to have things to execute, much less execute them well, just because you start turning into an exceptionally perimeter-oriented team with no real balance and Austin Reeves being led, left to run everything. It would be very helpful of those other guys play. Right. I'm just saying, I mean, the Wizards just got beat down by the Toronto Raptors, 106 to 82 tonight at home.

The Wizards have won five games at home. I mean, you are not overstating just how crappy they are. But if you are talking about a Lakers team with no LeBron, potentially at least, no LeBron, no Anthony Davis, no Gabe Vincent, like, maybe no Jerry. All of all those other guys don't play. It's different. It becomes legitimately difficult for them to execute. It just does.

Okay, that's fair. But I mean, but I'm assuming, like, let's say LeBron doesn't, the other guys too. The point I'm making here, and we can carry this into the next segment, is just this question of how did the Lakers get through this stretch? Because, you know, you had your show tonight. I did Spectrum, the Lakers TV station. I was there, their media guest. And we talked a lot about this. Like, what exactly is.

that the Lakers can do. Where do they make up for the loss of AD? How do they try to compensate? And I think the answer might be slightly different than people think, at least my answer. And we'll get to it next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by TurboTax. This is a message from sponsor, Intuit TurboTax.

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real-time updates, only on iOS mobile app. See Guarantee Details at turbotax.com slash guarantees. So we were asked on the show, Andy, Wednesday when I did it, like, how do the Lakers compensate defensively? Like, where do they make up for the loss of AD? And, like, my answer is for defense is like, okay, guys can play. Everybody's got to play really hard. You know, you can't be lazy getting over a screen.

You have to remember your assignments. You know, again, attention to detail, focus, whatever. I think the big place that you actually try to compensate for the loss of Anthony Davis is on the other end. I think it's with your offense. I think it's by not, you know, you know, now the. focus is no bad turnovers. It is really executing the offense so that your shots, whether they go in or don't, are done in rhythm and they're done in balance so that you're not off kilter on the other end. You're not trying to, you know, you don't have cross matchups.

You're not being beaten, transition. And then you got to figure out where to make up the 30-ish points a game that AD provides you just to make you a pretty bad offensive team. It's not like, they, you know, if they don't get those 30 points, they go from like sixth to 18th. They go from like 27th to off the grid, you know, if they can't. So I think it's offense where they have to try to make this up more than defense. If you are anybody other than LeBron James or Austin Reeves and you throw a hit-ahead pass, you should be fined $500. And even if you are honestly LeBron or Austin Reeves.

And that includes, by the way, that includes Brony, who technically does fit with your definition of LeBron James. Oh, brawny, that's a grand. That's a grand. After, you know, we went through this on Wednesday's full show. I think the uproar, and I think you agree, the uproar over Brony's stepping on the court was way, way over the top. If you can't figure out why this happened, frankly, you're not paying attention. That being said, it was a disaster. He can't throw a hit a head pass.

I would go so far as to say even LeBron might get fine $100. Like just I don't. You've got to be careful. You've got to be so careful. You have to be, you know, there are no style points. Like, you know, they need to play quickly. They need to be, you know, leverage advantage against a team like Washington especially that is bad, that is, you know, tends to be, you know, bad teams often lazy.

there are, you know, even when they're playing hard, a lot of their players are very young and will be in the wrong spots, whatever it is. You have to press advantages quickly. See things and do things quickly. Get into your offense quickly. But that doesn't mean you do reckless things. And so the Lakers need to be really careful. And then like, where do the, you know, where do those 30 points come from? And I think some of it's LeBron, obviously.

A chunk of it is Austin Reeves, obviously. Like he goes from a guy that, you know, 17 on. some nights for AR is fine, especially if it comes with five rebounds, eight assists, low turnovers, like plays a really good game, and AD and LeBron are doing their thing. Well, okay, now it's got to be 20 plus a night no matter what. Okay, Max Christie, no more first halves where you don't score. It can't happen. You know, Dalton Connect needs to be, you know, this guy rather than the guy who was shooting

17% or whatever from three point range for a month. like that's that that's all stuff that's sort of got to happen i just i don't see how the lakers other than trying really hard can can compensate on defense in a meaningful way without davis it just doesn't seem possible to me another big one ruy needs more shots i mean he yeah i keep forget yeah absolutely for all of the talk about ruy's inconsistencies or you know he's now expendable in this new post-DFS post-Jarred Vanderbilt world, which you and I don't totally agree with. But if you think Rui is expendable, part of it's because he's not making the impact that you think he should be making. And a big piece of that is he doesn't get enough shots.

He is in January still shooting like 50% from the field, is three points percentage is a little bit down at 34, but that's not terrible. On the season, he is shooting. 49% from the field, 41% from behind the arc. If you want more than 12 points a game from Rui, it's become very clear. Dude needs the ball more. Like he just does. To your point, though, the good news is there will be more shots available.

Yes. Because it's not just the points that are missing. It's the shots. And, you know, Rui is one of those guys who is capable of, creating a little bit against the right defender. We will aggressively put the ball on the floor and go try to score. But yeah, you're right. I mean, like, this is one of those situations where if you need the offense to keep some juice

or try to sustain itself, he's one of your better offensive players. And so this is a Rui Hachamura time to shine. I don't think there's any question about that. This gets back a little bit to what we were talking about, too, with like the hit-ahead passes and no turnovers and things like that, they need to accept the idea that they're going to have to play for 48 minutes. And I don't even mean like play hard for 48 minutes, execute for 48 minutes, all of which they do. I mean that it's literally a 48 minute game. And the idea of trying to bury a team by one and a half quarters to where you can basically coast from there.

and, you know, when you start having that goal, you start kind of looking for shortcuts and start looking for the quick early three or just like ways to snowball. No, you're going to have to go out there and play an actual full game because we've talked about this before. It is often felt like this is, I think,

frankly, a LeBron thing, but it can be a whole team thing where they would just as soon get the game over with, with a win. They want to win it, but they would like to limit the amount that they actually have to play to as little time as possible. And more often than not, if you attempt to shortcut that, particularly with this team's lack of discipline when they ever get an early lead, all you're doing is eventually inviting this opponent back into the game and making it so you have to play 35 minutes a night anyway. Like if they really want to try to turn this into a night where LeBron plays 30 minutes as opposed to 36, be methodical about this thing.

Don't try to deliver a knockout in the 18th minute. Like that's a guaranteed recipe for this turning into LeBron playing 38 minutes. Yeah, I agree with you. I do, before we go to the break, you mentioned Brani and like I don't know. I was, I guess I was surprised. but the level of anger about his minutes, you know, not just locally, but nationally, you know, Stephen A. Smith on the SPN pleading with LeBron,

I mean, theatrical and all that, but pleading with LeBron as a father, stop this. Stop this. And all of this stuff going on, like, as if I agree with you, like the fact that the Lakers were without Gabe Vincent, don't have another healthy guard available to it.

I think the argument you can make, and I think JJ got to this in how he talked about Bronte. I do appreciate that he didn't try to sugarcoat like Brony's performance. He's like he didn't play well. And he didn't. There's not enough sugar in the world.

No, but they'll do that. You know, they'll try to be. I know, I know. And. What my biggest criticism of all of it was just that and Redick got to like, he's like, I don't think I did right by my player. Like I put him in an unfair position. I think the Lakers are, you know, Redick is in an unfair position because he doesn't have

enough players to fill that, you know, that need. But they tried to sneak him in hoping I think that the minutes would be, because remember they were winning when he got on the floor. They were up by nine. Like we can get away with five or six minutes here, five or six minutes in the second half, and hopefully not lose too many. Now this is before the new AD was out of the game

and all that other stuff. But that said, while he's played well in the G league and, you know, given more time and, you know, into next season and all that stuff, we'll see what happens. and if he can build up the confidence in the skill set, he's clearly not ready for meaningful minutes in an NBA game.

And I think they were hoping they could steal some. But it was unfair to the player, and it's particularly unfair contextually when that player is Brony James. There's one more thing I want to add to that. We'll get into coming up next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Game Time, Love, Live Events, Sports, music, comedy, theater. One of my most fun memories of 2024 was going to Hamilton on Broadway last spring with my family.

It's a really, really great show. My daughter got to meet the entire cast, basically after the show, took a bunch of selfies with them, autographs. They're all really, really nice. And it was just a fun experience. And it's easier to do something like that with GameTime because they make it easier to get tickets to your favorite events. use a feature like GameTime picks that filters out all of the fluff and the confusing verbiage and thousands of tickets or whatever you're sifting through. You just see incredible deals on great seats and that's all you want anyway.

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what time is it it's game time two quick things on two quick things on the brawny issue and then we can just put it to better the brawny debate one as far as like JJ Reddick's lack of options which we went through

all the guards that aren't available vando wasn't available who can handle the ball in a pinch if you really needed it. Shake Milton has been basically unplayable. He has not scored a basket since January 2nd. I've seen a few people push back with the idea of if you wanted energy and defense, JJ could have gone with Cam Reddish earlier as an option. I think that is fair.

It is worth noting that Cam's ball handling can be shaky. The scoring has been shaky. and JJ has given Cam a lot of opportunity. I mean, Cam was starting earlier in the season. But I think that is fair. Even if, again, we both understand why JJ ultimately decided to go. And also to just say, I think some of it's matchup based. You're trying to find somebody who can a little more agile to run around Maxi.

But yeah, I agree. It's absolutely a fair critic. I think that is, again, without, I understand JJ's thought. process and, you know, again, the idea that this was like LeBron creating pressure or like clutch or it's national TV. If Gabe Vincent was healthy, Brony James would not be. If Jaylonautshafino was healthy, Ronnie wouldn't have been in that. That's just silly.

The one thing, and I want to stress, I do not know this to be the case, but I was wondering when I saw some quotes from Brony after the game, Brony said that just being called up at all took him by surprise. It was not something that he expected. And then he was just trying to stay in the moment, trying to stay ready. But like just the idea that he was even going to be with the team was unexpected. It got me wondering whether or not JJ actually gave Brunny a heads up

before the Philly game. Hey, there's a non-zero percent chance you're going to play. So I won't. That part, he was, because remember, he was recalled before. I mean, I think he was absolutely, I think when he got there, they told him, like, you know, I don't know. I'm saying, though, if he didn't, if he did not, that would be a mistake by Reddick. It's a mistake, but I also think, like, Brony is not a stupid kid.

Like, you are, you know, Gabe Vincent is hurt. That's why you're being called up. Jalen Hesafino is hurt. That's why you're being called up. And you were called up three to, two days earlier to meet the team. If you can't figure out, again, I think he probably told him that, you know, be ready, you might need you to play. If he doesn't show up with the attitude or with the idea, like, it's pretty blatantly obvious that you might need to do. Is it, though? I mean, considering the amount of people that seemed shocked by the idea that Brony was playing, I don't know if it's that obvious. I'm being honest, I don't. Because I think it's pretty obvious because you're out of guard.

stuff. But I would assume that they talked to him before the game. I said, I don't know. I also think I think some of this is fairly self-evident. Whether we find it self-evident or not, I think for somebody like Brunny in particular, you can't treat it as self-evident. That's fine. If that happened. Again, to be clear, I don't know that it's not all the way with you on that. I mean, I understand what you're getting at. I just, I'm not all the way there on that

one. But I look at where they are. What's interesting to me about the Brani episode is less Brunny because I would have loved for him to play better just for his, for him, because he gets the pile on is tremendous. But what's interesting is how it reflects the situation that the Lakers are in, which is if Gabe Vincent can't play, they don't have another guard. They don't have anybody else who can do these things. And even when he can, they're really short on ball handling and playmaking and all this other stuff. So when you have differing priorities, and, you know, Dan Wakey, The Times has a really good story that came out on Wednesday about where the Lakers are in terms of their approach to the trade deadline, which is like eight days away. And, you know, does this, does Davis's injury increase the need to go get another big? and all these other things.

It really, to me, pointed out that the Lakers have multiple issues. And this idea that the center is the only thing that they need to address or that they need to overpay or they need to do it. Bronny James was the symptom, not the disease. J.J. Reddick got too cute and I don't think did his player any favors. by putting him in this situation, I think he sort of hoped that the G-League momentum that he had built up would carry over a little bit. But if they had a better constructed roster

with a more diverse skill set, if they had, you know, if Jalen O'Shefino was available, if they figured out work rounds, if they had a different two-way guard, you know, they cut Olivari to sign Jemison. Like, should they have maybe, you put that towards, you know, a different guy.

They could have cut Armel Traorri. They could have. They could have. Which I was surprised, to be honest, they didn't do in the first place. I get why, but. I get why. I'm just surprised. But they also, Jemison is dressed for two games, I think.

One. Something like that. And, you know, so. I mean, they're trying to, they're trying to balance how many games they play Coloco before they're up against that limit. Because they don't, they don't have any space. to put them. And they don't want to lose them.

And they don't want to lose them. And I don't blame them. But they've sort of tried. And then they traded away their other guy. And so like when you when you leave yourself short, stuff like this can happen. And, you know, and I don't think there's another 55th pick in the draft that would have necessarily been super ready to step in if the Lakers had used the pick on that person instead of Brunney.

but either way, the player that they did have available to them because of the way they put the roster up, very obviously had no business being there. And, you know, that was, it was an unfair position to put him in. And, but it was a, it's a result of the roster and not of brawny or even Reddick, I don't think. Well, this also, though, gets to the idea of the Lakers identifying the needs and what is realistic to get, you know, we've talked about before.

I do not believe Walker Kessler is attainable. I know Miles Turner's name has popped up of late. I would, I think he's probably more attainable than Kessler, but I would still be surprised, particularly given the way Indiana's played of late. But there are a lot of different areas that either need to be strengthened or flat out need to be. just better. They're unacceptable right now. And it speaks to the idea that just because it's pretty clear, Anthony Davis considers center the number one priority so he can move to power forward, his number one preference. That doesn't mean the Lakers have to abide by that or even should

abide by that unless the center in question is so good you'd want him anyway. Right. And look, all franchises, much less the Lakers who are among the more star effery franchises in all of sports, all of them care what their stars want and try to make their stars happy because all franchises and all sports want stars. But stars don't always either know what is best for the overall picture or what they want can't be delivered. Like not for lack of effort, not because of incompetence by Rob Polinko

or whoever is running the organization. It's what you want is not attainable. And the Lakers have to, they have to do a good job identifying the needs and the targets. And if people don't have faith in Polinka for that, that's fine. I understand where the lack of faith comes from. But it doesn't change the fact that,

Anthony Davis may have to accept the idea of what you want most, not only may not be attainable, but may not actually make the sense to prioritize first. It's, there are very few. Look, Miles Turner comes available. That's somebody who makes sense for the price that it would cost. If Kessler becomes available,

he's somebody who makes sense for the cost. I don't think either of those guys are going to become available. available and to pay if you have to pay starter cost for a player that can't play starter minutes or shouldn't or should you're well yeah you're you're setting yourself up for for disaster really now and down the road a lockdown lakers on youtube is we can go hang out with over 27000 subscribers we'll be back after the game make sure you sign up for that newsletter and check out the Postcast with Dave L.A. We'll see everyone after the game.