Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers Hammered In Game 1, 117-95. INSTANT REACTION!

Episode Date: April 20, 2025

Things looked good for a quarter... and then the roof caved in. Saturday's 117-95 loss in Game 1 was a full menu of everything that felt concerning for the Lakers heading into the series. Controlling the defensive glass? Yeah, that was an issue. Defending the 3? Oh yeah, that was a problem. Avoiding transition opportunities? Not good! Too much frustration looking for foul calls? Too much of that! After that strong start, Minnesota basically out-everythinged the Lakers. Their defensive pressure took LA out of its offense, which made it very difficult to get the right structure defensively with any level of consistency. It's never a good idea to make definitive declarations after Game 1 of a series, but it's pretty obvious the Lakers have a lot of work to do before Tuesday's Game 2.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky Your favorite podcast now has a newsletter! In One-stop for ultimate team and league coverage delivered right to your in box. Sign up for free now, at lockedondaily.com.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Amazon Fire TV Stick 4kDid you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Door DashSign up for DashPass and when any player scores 50+ in a playoff game, DashPass members can grab a free 3PC Crispy Tenders Combo from Wingstop the next day, with a $20+ order and code WINGSTOP50. That’s DashPass: your door to more savings, more flavor, and more ways to win. Terms apply.Valid only at participating Wingstop locations. Fees (including service fee), taxes, and gratuity still apply. Orders must have a minimum subtotal of $20, excluding taxes and fees. Offer valid on 4/15/25-6/22 /25 or while supplies last. Valid for one (1) promotional redemption per customer. DoubleDash promotions apply only to your DoubleDash add-on order, not your primary order. DoubleDash orders are not valid for the purchase of alcohol. No cash value. Non-transferable. Discount applies to subtotal only; does not apply to fees, taxes, and gratuity. Not valid for pickup. Limit one per person. Not valid for the purchase of alcohol. Fees, taxes, and gratuity still apply. Must have an active DashPass account. Use promo code WINGSTOP50 to redeem. See full terms and conditions at drd.sh/qnAXuU GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone, welcome to a special bonus mini reaction episode of Locked on Lakers. Brian Komenetsky here. Lakers take it on the chin in game 1, 117 to 95. The final score, a lot of things went wrong for the Lakers and a lot that needs to be improved before game two on Tuesday. We'll talk about it 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. Lakers first listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how where you get your podcast, always free, never behind a paywall. Locked on Lickers on YouTube is where you're hanging out right now, many of you watching and where you can catch this show every single day over 34,000 strong.

Andy's doing radio. We'll be back for a long, complete show in, you know, probably, you know, next hour or so. But in the meantime, a little bit of instant reaction here. Basically, you know, a lot of people here, got mad at me for maybe being a little bit too deferential to the potential of the wolves when this when this series was set last week. But most of the things that Lakers fans and, you know, analysts and people like myself were worried about really were on display in this

game one. The Lakers lose 117 to 95. The offensive glass was a problem. Minnesota. Can't really go by the final numbers. Lakers had five offensive rebounds in the last two minutes of the game or whatever in garbage time. But Minnesota really took advantage of the Lakers, particularly after a strong first quarter for the Lakers, Minnesota took control, and a lot of that was based on second chance points. And obviously, anybody watching this game could tell you that the three-point shooting for Minnesota also hugely problematic. Minnesota takes 42, three-pointers. They make 21 of them. And for the non-math majors, that is 50% from three-point range, 21 three-pointers on a 50% clip. So that is obviously tremendous work for Minnesota. A lot of that were being done by

Nas Reid. You saw Jaden McDaniels, who was insanely good for Minnesota on Saturday. He hits all three of his three-pointers. Anthony Edwards is four of nine. Nas-Reed, six of nine. Julius Randall was 4 of 6. And that 50% number that they finished as actually was higher at halftime. So again, the Lakers, you know, Minnesota slowed down a little bit. Yet that three-point onslaught was front-loaded to some degree for Minnesota. Lakers did get off to a good start in this game. They were up 2821.

Luca Dantridge was excellent early. Looked like he had Minnesota in his back pocket as it was in the series last year while Luca was playing with the Mavericks. 28-21. After one, start of the second quarter, Luca goes to the bench. The Lakers are just wildly out of sorts. LeBron and Austin Reeves still on the floor together, could not get anything going. The offense was incredibly stagnant. Some untimely turnover, bad possessions that allowed Minnesota to get out and start running.

It particularly allowed them to break the Lakers down in the paint and find wide open three-point shooters on the perimeter. And as I mentioned, Minnesota basically didn't miss any of it. So any opportunities they got particularly early were taking advantage of the Lakers. As you say, you know, as they start to fall farther behind in that second quarter, everything seemed to go wrong. Dante DiVincenzo finished the half with, you know, 45 footer to or so 38 foot or something like that, long three-pointer at the buzzer fading away over Austin Reeves to.

to send Minnesota into the break with an 11-point lead. And the Lakers just couldn't, the Lakers just didn't recover very well from there. And so that third quarter you expected, you needed the Lakers to come out and eat into Minnesota's lead. Instead, Minnesota gets out to a quick 11-0 run. And that is essentially your ballgame. The Lakers did make a run out of it.

but they got to within 12 with about seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. The game wasn't over. But at that point, you're playing a team like Minnesota that is good. You can't expect to come back from down 12, down 14, down 20, down 25, and expect to make a game of it. Again, up and down the box score, a lot of things to dislike from this game if you're a Lakers fan. the bench scoring was a major problem. Again, you can't go by the total final numbers. Dalton Connect added five points there at the end in garbage time.

But Gabe Vincent had three points in 25 minutes. Jared Vanderbilt, two points in 14 minutes. Dorian Finney Smith, three points in 33 minutes. JJ Redick essentially played about a seven and a half man rotation. Jackson Hayes played all of 11. 11 minutes in this game, or sorry, eight minutes in this game was a minus 11. Vanderbilt didn't play a ton either. He only played 14.

So you're looking at Vincent and Finney Smith off the bench with Rui, LeBron, Luca, and Reeves. So a very short rotation for Redick in this game. And the Lakers just did not get enough from their non, really from anybody who wasn't Luca. If you're going to play with a rotation that short, 35 points between LeBron James and Austin Reeves just isn't going to get it done. AR was particularly bad in the first half. And it took, you know, he had about a three and a half minute stretch. It seemed like in the third quarter where he started to get things going.

But obviously the Lakers were significantly behind at that point. And it was not great. So, you know, he didn't get going. LeBron didn't get going. The offense generally was very bad. I think people are going to look, you know, at least many people are. We're going to look at the defense, 117 points, 38.3rd quarter, second quarter for Minnesota, 35.3 quarter for Minnesota and look at the defense. And obviously, the defense can be improved.

But really, I think so much of what Minnesota did was created by some stagnant, bad, disorganized, freelance Lakers offense, even in the first quarter when the Lakers were playing well. And Luka was, lighting up Minnesota pretty effectively. Again, 2821, the Lakers did finish this first quarter up by seven, which just makes this split over the rest of the game. Excuse me, that much more staggering. But you look at what they were doing. And it really was just primarily Luka, on his own, beating up the wolves. And there was very little ball movement, and there was very little player movement and got the Lakers into a place where while they were winning, they weren't necessarily doing it with a lot of snap, with a lot of pop to their game, with a lot of of anything. And when,

when Luka went out of the game, that lack of dynamic flow in what the Lakers are trying to do offensively was was right there. And there just wasn't anything the Lakers had going. Minnesota turned them over. They forced bad shots. And that was the end. end of it. I mean, the, the, the, the wolves got out to a huge run to open the second quarter, the Lakers, even when they brought LeBron, or brought Luke back in, could not significantly eat into Minnesota's lead. And I just, I feel like that offensive flow wasn't really much better in the third quarter. The Lakers raised their intensity level, which I think was significant. And that was something that Redick talked about, even on the sideline interview with

the SPN. But, you know, one thing here to pay attention to, Minnesota played an eight-man rotation here with eight guys playing 20 minutes or more. The Lakers only had six guys play more than 15 minutes in this game. So the depth of Minnesota is going to be potentially an issue. If Jackson Hayes is really going to be a small minute guy in the series, and I thought it might be possible. I actually thought it might be a good sign of Hayes isn't playing a ton because it might mean that the Lakers with this smaller lineup are really exploiting some of the potential challenges there that they could give Minnesota against a guy like Rudy Gobert or something like that.

And Gober only played 24 minutes in this game. So, you know, two points, six rebounds, one block for Gobert. He was not necessarily hugely dominant. Only had one offensive rebound. But that's not how it turned out. So over the course of the series, if the Lakers are... aren't going to get more from LeBron and Reeves. It's hard to expect necessarily that that production is going to come from deeper down in the rotation.

So like I mentioned, plenty of stuff for the Lakers to review and to have to improve between now and Tuesday's game two. It is good that they get the extra day. LeBron, I think, could certainly use it to continue allowing that groin to heal. I think everybody hopes that the Minnesota Timberwolves cool off a little bit between now and then. you know, some just incredibly good shooting for Minnesota. And sometimes there's not a lot you can do about that, although a lot of these were uncontested, wide open three-pointers. So the Lakers can certainly tighten up,

tighten that up a little bit there. Don't ever want to make sweeping declarations about a series after one game. But the Lakers got a lot of work to do. And they have things that they need to fix. And they're the things mostly that I think they thought were going to be potentially problematic coming into the series. So you certainly trust that the coaching staff is ready for this stuff because, again, all of it is the kind of thing. The Lakers, I think we're anticipating when it comes to what this series might look like. So Andy's going to join me here in, you know, half hour, 45 minutes for a full-length show.

But before I go, I do want to let people know that today's episode, this little mini episode brought to you. by UpWorks. There we go. Scaling your business requires the right expertise at the right time. With Upwork, you can find specialized freelancers in marketing, development, design, and more experts ready to help you take your business to the next level.

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Again, that's monarchmoney.com code locked on NBA for half off your first year. I will be back with Andy quickly for a full reaction. to game one. So see everyone in a bit.