Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Huge Game From LeBron (29 points), Plus Luka Dončić Triple Double Gives Lakers Win In Philly

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

The Lakers have had to scramble over the weekend to keep lineups on the floor, but Sunday the gang was (save Marcus Smart) back together. Luka Dončić was back from Slovenia, where he was celebrating the birth of his daughter, and LeBron James was back in the lineup after missing Friday's game in Boston. They certainly needed both. LeBron had, without question, his most impactful game since returning to the lineup, scoring early and late, hitting 12-17 from the floor, including 4-6 from 3-point range en route to 29 points. He added seven rebounds and six assists. Luka wasn't as efficient as he's been (international flights with a birth of a baby sandwiched in between will do that), but was hardly a bystander, finishing with 31/15/11, and hit the free throws to ice the game at the end. Add in a tidy double double (14/12) from Deandre Ayton and three blocks from Jaxson Hayes, and it was enough to cover a brutal shooting effort from Austin Reaves and give the Lakers a 112-108 win against the Sixers to cap the road trip. It was a big win, not just because it allows the Lakers to keep pace in the top half of the Western Conference, but also for the effort LeBron put out, and the lift it gave the team both tonight (they needed him badly) and more broadly. Because LeBron's play to this point has certainly been a major concern for Lakers fans. And while one game probably isn't enough to say James is back, it's enough to give people faith that this is what he's building back towards, and that once he's got his legs and timing fully back will look like something similar to the LeBron James we saw last year. Great finish to the trip, and now it's back to Cup play as San Antonio (likely still without Victor Wembanyama) Wednesday night.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: The Lakers get big games from LeBron and Luka to win in Philly. SEGMENT 2: A bounceback night for James. SEGMENT 3: A huge week coming.  Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Mint MobileTurn your expensive wireless present into a huge wireless savings future by switching to Mint.Shop Mint Unlimited Plans at http://MINTMOBILE.com/LOCKEDONNBA.Disclaimer: Limited time offer. Upfront payment of: $45 for 3-mo., $90 for 6-mo., or $180 for 12-mo. plan required($15/mo. equivalent). Taxes & feesInitial plan term only. >35GB may slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed, & coverage varies. See mintmobile.com.QuoMake this the year where no opportunity and no customer slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://www.Quo.com/lockedonnba.Quo — no missed calls, no missed customers.ZocdocStop putting off your doctor’s appointments and get the care you need.Go to htps://Zocdoc.com/lockedonnba to find and instantly book a top-rated doctortoday.RobinhoodYou expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at robinhood.com/yourmoney. Your money. Your move. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Options, futures, and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Futures trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and not SPIC or FDIC protected. Crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840), not FDIC or SIPC protected. Portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies, an SEC-registered advisor.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. 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 everybody. Welcome to Locked on Lakers for Monday. Brian Keminetsky, Andy Kemenetsky, a return to the lineup for Luca Donchich and a triple double and a return of LeBron James to LeBronness. All of that next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen to every day Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends, no matter how. or where you get your podcast, Andy. Some people do it on Spotify, some people do it on Apple. A lot of people, they're part of the 37,000 plus subscribers to the YouTube channel, the Lockdown Liquors YouTube channel. However you do it, you are part of making the Lockdowne podcast network,

the number one sports podcast network in this or any other universe that we are aware of. And we certainly appreciate your support in this, putting this show together, putting it out there. And Andy, Sunday was a fun one. Luca Donchich, welcome back. Congratulations on the birth of your second daughter. And welcome back to LeBronness, LeBron James, because on a night, Andy, where Austin Reeves wasn't very good,

the Lakers really did meet a turn back the clock night from LeBron James, and they absolutely got it. The final score in Philadelphia, 112, 108, fun times had by all, and a very strong end to the road. trip. Yeah, two and one on this East Coast road trip and the Lakers continue to remain at towards the top of the Western Conference. Luca back from Slovenia, it was a long ride back and I think Luca was losing a little bit of steam down the stretch of that game, which is understandable. It's been two international flights with a baby being birthed in between. I'm willing to

out of them slack. Exactly. It is, it's a lot for Luca to battle with on the way to this game, although his second daughter does not know a world in which the Lakers lose, which is pretty awesome. He looked at that little girl and said, Zadrobo, and now I got to go to work. I got to go. I got to go back to the States. He's like, he's like, Dwayne Johnson, when he broke that cast and the Fast and the Furious, he said, Daddy's got to go to work. But Luca, the effect, the effect. efficiency waned over the course of the game as far as his shooting, but he was still great across the board in this game with a triple double. He had two blocks.

He actually had two really big defensive plays in the first quarter. One of them breaking up, the Sixers managed to blow a four on Luca break. Like, Luca managed to break this thing up. Later in the first quarter, he broke up a baseline. Baseline shot got a either strip or a block or both. And he was, you could tell, very dialed in to being back with this team, if, again, I think, very tired. He's got a, he's got a larger family to feed now. You've got to be on the stick.

Do it to let people know that today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit Fanduel.com, place your NFL live bets all season. long, though don't place them on the Kansas City Chiefs. Strugglesville for those folks. I just, this is another one of those, you know, how the NBA and the people define it as like the clutch victories for the Lakers. They remain undefeated in these situations over the course of the season.

And this one was unique in some ways because of not that they won the game. I just mentioned they were undefeated. I think that makes them 7 and 0 in these situations. I believe it is 7 or no. Yeah. But this one was the first where LeBron really kind of carried it home and had just a huge influence on the result of this game. And he got out of the gate.

You could tell LeBron was feeling better in this game early because he got out of the gate fast. He was, we've talked about Andy how he's not really been part of the offense early. That was not an issue in Philadelphia. So he kind of book-ended, I should say. A really strong start with a really big fourth quarter, you know, where he was hitting from the outside. In between, he was moving on the break. He just looked very comfortable, very fluid, had a little bit of energy in those old man legs.

His fourth quarter, 12 points, 5 to 6 from the field, 2 of 2 from behind the arc. Three rebounds, three assists and steel. You mentioned that breakaway dunk in the first quarter that felt like, oh, okay, this is a little different. And Michael Thompson, who typically is the color guy for the Lakers radio broadcast, ended up sitting in with Billy Mac because Stu Lance has been, I guess, ill over the course of this road trip. Our friend Mike Trudell, who typically does the sideline for Spectrum Sportsnet, did one night with Billy Mac. as well. We wish Stu the best and speedy recovery. But Michael talked about during the game that LeBron's pregame warmups were especially lively in this game. Like he was windmill dunking during the warmups. And Michael kind of called this early. Like I think this is going to be a

big game from LeBron. He looks more like LeBron. And over the course of this show and, you know, the next couple leading up to Wednesday's game against the Spurs for the Cup quarterfinals, we can talk about questions of sustainability and what this could mean for LeBron, all that stuff. But this was by far the best LeBron has looked since returning from sciatica. I mean, not just start to finish. I mean, even his best moments since returning from Syatica up to this point. Oh, yeah.

Like, aesthetically, he just, I mean, like, literally looked better. We talked about during the win, the win in Toronto, where LeBron, four of 17 from the field, had the game winning dish to Rui for that corner three, 11 assists against zero turnovers. LeBron looked physically off in that game other than the playmaking, which was on point and played a huge role in them winning. But to be fair, like the playmaking as a thing, like, Of all the stuff that he does, and I don't mean to discount it, it's also the thing he can do with the least amount of movement. No doubt.

It's like watching me play ping pong. Feet don't move, just the arms. I mean, LeBron will be able to make plays for others. Like, you want to talk about an old man game. This will be his old man game. Like if he plays slow-paced pickup with his NBA buddies or whatever, he will be able to do that stuff forever. Like, that's just, it's easy for him.

Like, in terms of he's so damn good at it and like you mentioned, he can sometimes do it without moving, but he looked physically uncomfortable against the Raptors. Yeah, this was the most like himself that LeBron has looked since he returned. I just, you know, and the, they did a few things. And, you know, obviously he got out into space early in this game. And of all the stuff that I think is challenging for LeBron, by the way, I don't know, sure we've mentioned the full stat line, 29 points on a very efficient 12 of 17 shooting,

four of six from three point range. You know, part of that fourth quarter were a couple big threes, one that almost was a three, but his toe was on the line. Seven rebounds, six assists, only two turnovers. He had a steel. He had a block. When he can get out into space, I firmly believe that running is the easiest thing for him. The physical quickness side to side trying to beat somebody off the dribble.

I'm not saying it's like physically demanding like, you know, just the old man can't, you know, I'm saying he doesn't quite have the explosiveness off the dribble just stack. up one-on-one against most defenders. We saw it in Toronto, like, you put Scotty Barnes in front of him. That is a tough ask for LeBron just to clean beat a guy like that off the dribble. But in this game, whenever there was an opportunity to get LeBron on the move, and that could be obviously in transition, where he still remains one of the great transition players in the NBA. But also in the half court, there was, you know, whether with Luca or with Austin,

there were really good sequences of pick and roll and quick, tight movements, but two-man game or three-man game or LeBron moving and catching in motion and then doing something rather than just squaring up and facing a defense. So I think we'll talk a little bit in the next segment about, you know, how much confidence this gives you. in the ability of LeBron to kind of, over time, look like LeBron. But what I do think there was in this game for sure is kind of a blueprint on how to make LeBron as successful as possible in what they're doing offensively. So we'll start to unpack some of this stuff.

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So my position, Andy, has been pretty clear on this, as we've all watched LeBron struggle through the bulk of what he said. There's been good moments. there have been good game played well against Utah. In the return game, that like six minutes where he piled up like 14 assists or whatever it was. And you can see like the moments of it. But overall, he has not looked great and it has been distressing to a lot of Lakers fans. I think as I said last week, I think it is way premature to decide that LeBron is like, okay, Father Time,

you got this one. He's going to be a. highly diminished version of what he's been. I think it's probably, you know, not a great idea off of one game to say, all right, LeBron is back, baby.

But what I do think is, should give the Lakers and Lakers fans a lot of confidence and a little bit of hope going forward is to see that it's there. Like, I think, you know, he's not going to play a lot of back-to-backs. I think they're going to be careful,

like all that's kind of stuff. But it's, there's different game. Like it's clearly still there. It was there tonight. And it could be there going forward. So I think step one is show that it's there. Step two is show that it's there more consistently over the next few weeks.

Yeah, the truth, like I've talked about before, I would be lying and I think it's gaslighting to say that there is no chance that over the course of the season, we will see that age more often than. not is taking its toll on LeBron because what he is doing is really flipping hard. Like it's just difficult. Your bodies are not meant, even bodies as supremely blessed and gifted and insanely durable to be doing this sort of thing. They're not meant to be playing basketball with this type of mileage. I mean, LeBron, forget just that it's season 23. LeBron's playoff mileage is longer than the average NBA players career.

Like, that's not an exaggeration. It is. Most NBA players do not play as many games as LeBron has just been in the postseason. So it's like another half decade of play. Right. So there is no template for this. And I don't want to be pessimistic about it, but I also don't want to put expectations on LeBron for the fan base.

that frankly aren't fair to LeBron, but this was great tonight. Like he looked, I will say the thing that gives me the most optimism or guarded optimism, if nothing else moving forward, is this is the most lively LeBron looked on the court and also just flat out comfortable.

Like he, this is the most minutes he's played in a game where he seemed to be enjoying himself that he has since returning. And obviously winning and playing well matters, but the Lakers spent a lot of this game playing from behind. They got down in the second quarter, the first court, I believe, ended tied.

30-30 after one down seven at the half. Right. And they spent a lot of the time fighting back. So it's not just like LeBron spent the whole time front running or whatever. Like he looked like he was really in a physical and mental great, place in this game. That's awesome. We'll see how it looks Wednesday. We'll see how it looks at the end of December when he's officially 41. We'll see how it looks in March and April and beyond. But this, this if nothing else, felt like the most promising we've seen from LeBron as he's

dealing with this persistent foot issue, something like sciatica. You never know when it's going to flare up again. Like it's, LeBron has said himself, man, this is a bleep to deal with. And he's doing his best. I, you know, should be noted, the Lakers had a phenomenal third quarter. They were up, they were a plus 10 in the third quarter, turned a seven point deficit into a three point lead going into the fourth. Actually, it was larger. They got up by, I think they got up by 10 at one point, but it might have been as large

as eight. I don't, I switched off my ESPN screen that has the game flow on it. But the, they, the third quarter, they cranked up the defense and the sort of of overall pace of play in a way that was really effective. You can just see they found a little bit of a gear that the Sixers couldn't respond to. Defensively, they played very physically and kind of dared the referees to start calling more. And they didn't. I mean, there were a couple times.

I'm sitting there watching at home going, huh, it's a lot of contact. The rules can be such that like I'm watching at home and guys are vertical or this, that, whatever. And, you know, sometimes things that look like files genuinely aren't, whether they're for or against the Lakers. But I'm just going, that's a lot of contact. There's a lot of physicality out there. And when they play that way, and then they can turn around and get buckets on the other end. Because I thought in the first half, fits and starts looked okay defensively. Fits and starts looked okay.

but especially they just couldn't get any kind of consistently doing. The physicality on the defensive end, I think, really turned into something where they were moving a step faster offensively. That's when a lot of those screen and roll actions I was mentioning started to happen. And you just saw a little bit of that, just that hop. They were a half step faster in the third quarter. Philly kind of evened it out in the fourth. And this, by the way, was a full Philadelphia team.

Like they had Paul George, they had Joe LMB. They had Tyrese Maxie. Unfortunately for them in this game, they had Embeddeed. M. Beed was terrible until about the last seven minutes of the game. He was awful, but he was still there. So, you know, they had, you know, VJ Edgecombe played. Like, they had their team, and Philadelphia has been pretty competitive this year. They are over 500.

They came into this game 13 and 9. This is a good win. And, you know, the Lakers cranked it up defensive. in the last game of a road trip against a good team that, you know, playing at full strength and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, as we talk about this, you know, this question of LeBron, I think Reeves wasn't good in this game, three of 16 from the floor. It was a, you know, he's had a year of incredible efficiency. Austin could not get a shot to fall in this game. You know, they got the standard, you know, 80% and above from DeAndre Aiton, you know, quietly 14 and 12.

And between him and Jackson Hayes, who had three blocks, the center position was a strength for the Lakers. I want to talk about this over the course of this week. I think one of the under-discussed talking points for the Lakers this season and them now being 17 and 5, Jackson Hayes has been, it's not just that he has been. better now that he is properly slotted as a backup as opposed to the period where he was starting post-AD and playing well, but then had issues in the playoffs and in JJ's perspective became unplayable. He has been better this year in the backup role than he was last year as a backup. And it's created this center tandem that has been, I think, a position of strength for the Lakers. and it's prevented JJ from having to go small as often,

whether because he wants to, whether because he feels like he has to, both. Jackson has been, I think, kind of under the radar, a big piece of this season's success story. Also talking about the first half of this game, something that gave me confidence of the Lakers were going to be able to shift momentum in the second half. They were holding Philadelphia to really low percentages

from the field inside and outside the arc. But the Lakers missed, I believe, six free throws in the first half. And Philadelphia had them beat on second chance points 14 to 4. I'm like, okay, these are to some degree areas that the Lakers can control themselves. And if they just control this better and keep doing everything else as is, they can win this game and they actually did a better job in the second half with all that stuff. Yeah. It's, it was, there was a lot, you know, contributions.

What I think is interesting about this team, maybe we talk about this in the next break because, you know, we'll have a few days to talk about LeBron for sure. One of the things I think is just is really interesting about this team is they have a lot of ways for sort of the water to get to the level that it needs to be, you know, the level goes down a little bit because Reeves isn't contributing. much, but you quietly get a little bit from from Jackson and then you know, oh, look, check out what Rui did. You know, he made seven shots. You know, he finished with 17 points, three of seven from three point range two, a couple really nice corner threes. Like they just, they always seem to be able

to find a way to get the level up to where it needs to be. And it's a, it's a function of the roster when everybody's available. It's a function of, of the roster that they have. They're trying to do a couple interesting things with Aduthiero, you know, maybe filling a role that Vanderbilt had Jared Vanderbilt didn't play. They're still playing around with some stuff, but there's a lot going on here

that I think is, should be very encouraging to Lakers fans. We'll talk about that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That's what makes live betting with Fandu so exciting. It's not

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Fandle, the game moves fast, and so can you. Yeah, it's interesting to me. You talk about Jackson. Like, the big thing with Jackson coming into the season was how he put on this muscley game. Like, we've seen this. You and I've been around a long time doing this. And every year, there's always somebody who put on weight or took off weight or did something. And like, sometimes it's skinny Luca where you're like, okay, this is a.

thing. But most of the time, I think it's not. It turns into something where either the guy looks in place exactly like they did before. Occasionally, you'll see a little more health, a little more. This is one of the clearest examples with Jackson Hayes and the 20 pounds of muscle and functional strength that he found over the offseason, where you can really see how much it is making a difference. And it doesn't mean Jackson is a starter now in this league and the Lakers are sort of holding him back or whatever. But you talk about him, he is a much, he's not just slotted in like you say as a backup. He is a significantly better player and that makes him a better backup than he was before. And now the Lakers have,

especially like Maxie is not a useless player. They're deploying him, I think, in specific circumstances when everybody's healthy. But JJ knows exactly what it is that he's, wants Claibah to do, and Maxie knows how to go do it. They have 48 minutes of center available to them. And that is a huge change from where they were after the trade last year. It's a big deal in a league that is starting to go back to being bigger and certainly a league that is starting to become more physical. You just need, you need to have the ability to impose size, especially

if you're a team like the Lakers that is not going to be especially fast and not going to be especially dynamic. Like there were times last year where the Lakers were a bad combination of not particularly fast, not particularly athletic, but also smaller. Like those are difficult things to, you know, circle that square. Like you need to find some type of physical advantages and being able to stay. big when you want to now without, you know, losing anything in the process. It's a huge, huge change for this year that, you know, that wake in, I think has made a big deal for Jackson.

He just does not get pushed off spots as much as he used to. He can maintain verticality better. He rebound better. He is playing, I think, with more confidence. It's almost like he's discovered, oh, like this really was part of the problem before. Like, he's. He's, Well, it's funny too, because there are times where he forgets, it seems to forget that he put the weight on, that he has, it's like where you like, go up through that, you know, go make a play. You get the ball. Yes, you're good at that, you know, passing out of that little role and all that kind of stuff. You make good choices there. But like sometimes like power up, man, go through that. And he did it a couple times against Philly where like he took the shot. Like it's good. Like you see it. And it's like be a center. Like you, you are like you're contesting for office. offensive rebounds or plays on the glass where you can see where last year he'd have been knocked eight inches in one way or the other that would have kept him from getting a rebound. Now he's able to either contest and let somebody else get it, get it himself. It really is a big difference in how he plays.

And DeAndre Aitin in this game, seven to seven from the field, 14 points, 12 rebounds. He is only two on the offensive glass. He is only listed as having one block and one steel. It felt like he had more of both, which speaks to just how much he was able to alter and bother shots around the rim under the basket. JJ really praised his defense a lot after this game. DeAndre afterwards, I don't know if he was playing this down

because he was just trying to stay modest or if he was playing this down, kind of screwing with the reporters, asking him questions about his defense. And, you know, D'Andre, particularly after Wins, has a very eccentric way of dealing with media that I think is actually pretty fun. As long as time and place matches,

you can tell the media is having a lot of fun with D'Andre. They tell his teammates like it's funny. Yeah, they think it's funny. hilarious. I mean, he really has a very quirky personality, but he kept saying, I don't know what I did. He's like, I'm glad JJ liked it. I appreciate it. I don't really know what I did defensively, but he really, DeAndre Aiton is not somebody that I would consider a classic defensive center. Like, he's not going to be confused with Prime Matumbo or, you know, Ben Wallace or Akeem Elijah Wong. He's not that type of defensive big or defensive anchor.

And the stats are, if you're looking for the defensive stats to jump off the page, you're just not going to see it. And I haven't looked at his defensive rating lately or what the defensive metrics say. And for a while they weren't good. And we've talked before that may have something to do with floor combinations, in particular him and Rui together. But I will say this. The eye test tells me DeAndre Aiton is working his ass off defensively.

And for the time being, particularly with the Lakers now 17 and 5, good enough, man. Like, especially with everything that had been said about him leading up to the point where he joined the Lakers. Like, he is clearly working hard and he's focused on that end of the floor. I agree. And, you know, the Lakers are going to have trouble being the maximum version of themselves to defensively, whatever that is, I'm not entirely sure. Well, I mean, look, if you're funneling, he's not a funnel to center.

And, you know, there are times, in fairness to DeAndre, he's got his hands full with some of the defensive personnel that they have. No question. Like, I'm not saying, like, I'm saying as a team, I do not know exactly what their top end is defensively. And they're going to need to play ultimately, I think, as a sum is a better is better than the parts kind of group and all that stuff. But all you can ask, and they really can't be the maximum version of that without Marcus

smart. But you really can't ask more of a guy than do what we're asking you to do, try as hard as you can to do what we're asking you to do. And I agree with you. He 100 is. And then offensively, he's shooting 70% and he. When you have a guy who's taking 10 shots a game, he's not shooting 70% on three shots a game or two, he's shooting 10 shots a game, which is a, I don't want to say it's a career. No, yep, tied for a career low.

He is not getting, he does, is not, has not, will never get to the free throw line very much. So like if you're going to give DeAndre Aiton, anywhere from eight to 12 shots a game, the fact that he's making. 70% of those is such a sneaky benefit to your offense where you have a low usage, low volume player who contributes at an enormously high efficiency level. It is so big. And that means those are all shots that your defense is now set going back. The other, they're taking it by the other. It's incredibly beneficial. We've talked before about DeAndre sets very, very, very. very good screens and it's a big part of getting these guys open. He is also really good at rolling out of that screen and timing, whether it's going to be a lob or a

pick and pop or whatever he's doing, timing all of this with the ball handle, LeBron, Austin, Luca, he's just very, very good at that. our friend Darius Soriano over at Lakers Film Room podcast, he had a stat that I apologize in advance if I'm getting any of the details wrong, but I think I pretty much got this correct. The all-time number of players who have taken at least like, I think it's 10 shots a game, like 10 shots a game for a season and are averaging 70% from the field, the list is DeAndre Aitin. Like, it actually is the list.

Like, if you start getting it down to like 65%, I want to say like there's a couple seasons with, like, Wilt, obviously, because Wilt's always in there. And I think artist Gilmore might have like a couple of them. But for 70%, and I believe it was 10 field goal attempts or more, something in that range. Like, it was, it clearly was DeAndre's field goal attempts per game because that's what brought him into this.

The list is DeAndre Aten. which lets you know that this is a very difficult thing to do that he's maintaining so far this season. And look, I mean, he's going to get, like, he should be, he's, I mean, he's a high efficiency guy over the course of his career. Like he said, 60% from the field as in his career. You know, his best seasons have been over 60%. And he should be able to stay there when you're being fed by, you know, and feeding off of the gravity that Luca, LeBron and AR provide. But you do, you make a great point.

Like, sometimes it seems like why aren't you rolling harder? Get to the basket. Roll harder, roll harder. But sometimes the play isn't to roll as hard as you can to the baskets. It's to go a little slower and leave yourself that space, you know, at seven feet. And stop and take the pass there. And understand that it's like, you know, a wide receiver settling into the right spot of a zone.

And all that. So like, he's, he was advertised as a really good pick and roll player. And he has been a really good pick and roll player. I think it just took a second for people to understand that that doesn't, and Lucas got him figured out really well. But that doesn't always mean high flyer above the rim, lo, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It doesn't always look that way.

And so, and he's pretty, you know, the Lakers have a nice offense in the sense. They have two guys who are very good in their sort of supporting roles who are very good from 10 feet. You know, Rui is extremely accurate as a mid-range shooter. D'Andre Aiton is extremely accurate as an elbow shooter. So he doesn't have to take all 10 of, to shoot 70%. Aiton doesn't need to take all 10 of those shots from two feet. You know, he can do, some of them can be from 8 to 10. And it'll still be pretty bankable.

Over time, I think this will really help. as long as the Lakers have all three of their ball handlers. It makes a really big difference. Yeah, for the people who thought Brian and I were making excuses about, you know, back to back and the Lakers missing Luca, LeBron, and Marcus Smart in the loss to Boston, we acknowledged the Celtics were the far better team in that game. Right. But if you are on the second end of a back-to-back, and for what it is worth,

just real talk, the Lakers game against the Raptors was far more difficult than the Celtics game against the Wizards. Like that's just being truthful. The Celtics were also gaining a player in Jalen Brown. The Lakers were losing players in LeBron being out of that

game on top of Luca and Marcus Smart. They had one rotation ball handler. Right. Against a really suffocating defense. Right. And again, The Celtics were clearly the better team. They played better.

Sure. But context does matter. And you see the difference in having all three of those dudes. Because even if Austin is having a bad game, defenses are going to pay attention to Austin. And he still creates space. He still gets into the little sneaky cracks and crevices of a defense. Just couldn't hit a shot.

But they can always, generally speaking, they're always going to have two of those guys on the floor. And that's going to provide a ball handling advantage that other teams can't face. So we'll talk more about LeBron and get back into what you think going forward and what you're looking for going forward. How optimistic are you about? Does this game recalibrate your expectations about LeBron going forward? So we'll do that over the course of the week. Please leave us your questions and comments, especially about that, because I'm sure for Tuesday we'll be spending a lot of time on that,

getting ready for Wednesday's Cup game against San Antonio, locked on liquor's on. YouTube is where you're going to hang out over 37,000 subscribers, number one sports podcast network in the universe. We'll see everyone tomorrow.