Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers No-Show In Atlanta, Lose 122-102. Reaves Hopes to Return During Trip...

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to a special bonus Locked on Lakers for a Sunday. Brian Kaminetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, the Lakers, totally no show in Atlanta. And they start the trip off on a down note. We'll break down next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcasts Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Lockdown Lakers.

Starting point is 00:00:32 First, listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how, where you get your podcasts. This one is never going to be locked up behind some kind of paywall, locked on Lakers on YouTube as we're over 37,000 subscribers, Andy, are all wondering what the heck went on Saturday because it wasn't Lakers basketball. The Lakers no-showed worst performance of the season, I think, by a long shot. They fall to 7 and 3 losing to an extraordinarily short-handed Atlanta Hawk squad,

Starting point is 00:01:00 122 to 102, the final score game, honestly, that really wasn't that close. It wasn't as close as the score would indicate. No, LeBron, Austin Reeves, still on the sidelines, Andy for the Lakers. That doesn't matter. The Hawks were playing without Trey Young, Jalen Johnson, Chris Taps Porzingis, Nikiel Alexander Walker. Those are... And Jalen Johnson.

Starting point is 00:01:28 I said Jalen Johnson. Jaylon, okay, is Jalen Johnson, Christopps, Brazingus, Trey Young, McKeel Alexander Walker, Luke Conard. Oh, and Luke Conard. I forgot Luke Conard. But, you know, we're talking about four very, you know, frontline players and then one of Atlanta's more important subs in Canard. I mean, they, it's one thing you can come out and lose. Look, the Lakers have shown, they showed a few days ago.

Starting point is 00:01:56 You can surprise a team when you're missing all your. guys. We've seen that from the Lakers, but the lack of the lack of effort, the lack of intensity that they showed from the jump in this one was pretty bad. Yeah, I tweeted out during the game at Cam Brothers. The downside to the Lakers, having spent the overwhelming majority of this season playing very hard, a lot of effort, a lot of intensity, I think treating no game like they're ever out of it or ever a game that they can't compete in. That's great. And I want to make it clear.

Starting point is 00:02:33 It's who I think this team still is. One game does not erase that. But the downside to playing that way is when you play with less effort, less intensity, less desire, it is glaringly obvious. And that was the case in this game. I was doing Lakers radio pre and post game for 710. ESPN, the Lakers, the Lakers radio affiliate. And in the pregame, I was talking with Michael Thompson, Clay's dad, Showtime member.

Starting point is 00:03:05 And I was saying how the Lakers this year, and we've talked about this on the show, have not treated any game like a scheduled loss, like regardless of the circumstances, second end of a back-to-back, whoever they're missing, whatever, the win in Portland being the best example of that. The problem tonight was they treated this game like a scheduled win. I think so. They, oh, there's no question. They treated this like a scheduled win.

Starting point is 00:03:32 They walked in like a team that recognized, even though we're missing a few players ourselves, they're missing damn near everybody that matters. We have Luca Donchich by far the best player that's going to be on the court tonight. Atlanta's not a good team even at full strength. We got this. There's only so much effort we have to put into it. And, you know, no effort around. find out.

Starting point is 00:03:58 Yeah, it's just, it's, I, it's, teams will play bad games all, you know, that's going to happen every, you know, even if you're really good, every, you know, 11th game, every ninth game, maybe sixth game, whatever it is, you're just going to kind of lay an egg, it happens. And I, and that's, that's the ebb and flow of a season. But I think you could tell by JJ Redick's reaction after the game. he didn't look at this as one of those, you know, look, we, we went out there and we did our best. Like, we tried. It just wasn't clicking for whatever reason.

Starting point is 00:04:36 I mean, we all have those days. And everything that we do, it's like, I'm doing my best. But like, I can't get out of my own way, you know, whether it's sports or anything else in life. This just wasn't that. It was just a really lousy, no-show effort where, you know, like you say, it certainly appeared that they, they thought, you know, that this was going to be one of those games where being short-handed themselves wasn't going to be a big deal because look at all the teams we've beaten. We've gotten a few guys back. We've got Luca, best player on the floor by a mile.

Starting point is 00:05:11 And so they've got one ball handler in Dyson Daniels at all. Like really? Wallace is a, you know, is a. But he's inexperienced, though. I mean, he's, he's, he's, all right. But like, they've got, the point is, it's like, When the Lakers in Portland, you know, you look at some of these shooting percentages and stuff like that. And, you know, they have three guys, I think, who shot 60% on volume in that game.

Starting point is 00:05:39 You know, Nick Smith, between Nick Smith and Rui and La Ravia, it was like, you know, you're getting a ton of high percentages. It was one of those nights where if you let a team get into a rhythm, believe they could start winning. And the Lakers turned around and did the exact same thing for the Hawks, who, you know, most of their rotation guys were out, but you're left with, you know, Dyson Daniels is a good player. Acongwu is a good player. And then, you know, you let, you know, Kriji and, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:18 Gahmah. Muhammad Gay. He had a career night. He set a career high for points. He set a career high. He more than doubled his career. career high for assists. Like there is no reason Muhammad Gay should have a seven assist night. No.

Starting point is 00:06:31 It just shouldn't happen. No disrespect to him. Not at all. That should not happen. Aesan Newell, you know, their number one pick. Like they just, they, they allowed. He has four steals to his career so far. They all happened tonight. Yeah. They allowed the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, these are guys in the, you know, either in the back end of Atlanta's rotation, except for a couple, you know, Kongu plays and whatever. But like a lot of these guys are back end of the rotation players who are trying to earn more time in the NBA,

Starting point is 00:07:04 who see this as a golden opportunity to do that. And they let him in. And then, you know, some of these guys just had really great nights. And, you know, there is some of that, you know, Atlanta, whenever there was a, a big shot that needed to be hit just to make sure the Lakers didn't get any momentum, they hit it. And, you know, the Lakers made it easier for them. They turned the ball over 19 times.

Starting point is 00:07:32 Their transition defense was horrendous. Which matched their half court defense. But there was a little bit like the transition defense, the back, but like the back cutting and the half court, all this stuff. I was particularly unimpressed with just the speed with which they got back in transition, the speed with which they attempted to recover from a turnover and all that kind of that's just running. Even in the half court, you can lose assignments.

Starting point is 00:08:01 You're not used to this player that you're guarding. It's different combinations, all this other stuff. Getting back in transition, to some degrees, just run and they weren't doing it. And let's, we'll pick apart a little bit more of this and then look ahead to the rest of the trip because the math does get a little bit more complicated if you wanted Andy, you talked about a three and two road trip. If you want a three and two road trip, now you're going to have to beat one of the three and two is the baseline.

Starting point is 00:08:27 That was the baseline. Right. But now you're going to have to do that. You're going to have to beat one of the two front line teams that you play on this trip. So we'll get into it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Robin Hood. Your ambition just met its match with Robin Hood. You play for the win, not just on game day, every day, locking in on every opening,

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Starting point is 00:10:39 That's code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-B-A for $20 off. Swap, Swap, Swipe, tap, ticket, go. I feel like the Lakers swapped on Saturday because I don't know what that means, but it doesn't sound good. Swap walk through that game. He did swap walk. I mean, look, you look at the box score

Starting point is 00:11:01 and like Luca finished with 22 and 11, 22, 5 and 11 because we basically all in the first half. Right. He was like he wasn't playing all that well and you looked up and he had basically that line at the half. You're like, that's just how good Luke is. But Rui was three for nine. La Ravia was okay.

Starting point is 00:11:18 He wasn't really the problem. He's not offensive. He was not very good in this game. He wasn't great, but at least efficiency-wise. Jared Vanderbilt had 18 rebounds. That was pretty cool. I thought Vando was one of the,

Starting point is 00:11:32 I don't know if Vando particularly played well in this game, but he was one of the few guys that I will give credit, played hard. If everybody came out with the same energy and intensity as Vanderbilt, they would have been better off. Yes. You know, I actually thought, Brani did some nice things and sort of this sort of low key continuing to perform better against NBA

Starting point is 00:11:52 competition. This is another one of those good little building blocks in terms of some stuff. We're not going to sit here and break down his nine points. Nick Smith Jr. played the sort of the opposite of what he did in Portland, which is always a possibility. I just, you know, so I mean, you take the whole thing and you kind of flush. it as Kobe used to say. Well, except, this is interesting. J.J. said we're not flushing it. He was actually asked, like, you know, it's a very standard media question.

Starting point is 00:12:28 You know, what do you do with this game? You know, do you go through the film or, you know, break it all down or do you flush it? And Jay just said, no, we're going to look at it for sure. Like he was not even happy. Because flushing it is typically for a, you know, things just weren't clicking the night. It's just one of those nights where we didn't have it. this was a night where they didn't bother trying to have it.

Starting point is 00:12:47 Right. And that's what I mean. What I mean by that is like, damn right. We're sitting through this film. No, you punish people. You punish people by making them watch the movie. But what I mean is like you don't,

Starting point is 00:12:59 assuming you go out and you play a little harder on Monday in Charlotte, but you don't look at this as a game that is sort of indicative of what you are. It's very different than how they've been playing. Yeah. And like I said, 82 game season, you will get nights like this. You know, but that said, you move on from this. And like there aren't, I think, necessarily a lot of lessons to learn from it other than, hey, guys, let's, you know, quit.

Starting point is 00:13:35 You have to take every game seriously. And you have to come ready to play in every game. So that's what they'll carry into Charlotte on Monday. I would certainly expect a much better effort against a very bad Hornets team that is missing a couple people, including Lamello Ball. They should be better. But now again,

Starting point is 00:13:59 you put yourself from the jump on this five-game trip in a position where if you want to finish above 500, you're going to have to beat probably, at least one of the two big teams on this trip in Oklahoma City and Milwaukee. It's not exactly where you wanted to be after game one of the trip. Yeah. And to your point, because I think it's the only responsible way to talk about this. I don't think this game was indicative of a warning sign or like, you know, the seven and two record,

Starting point is 00:14:34 you know, it's not really who they were. You know, there were a lot of holes you could poke in it. No, I think the seven and two record is. who they are. They have flaws just like basically any team not named Oklahoma City or Thunder. Like they all have. They played a bleepy bad game. Right. They played a bad game that they didn't show up for, that they did not have the right mindset for. It was interesting. DeAndre Aiton, after the game, said something that I thought was really interesting. He mentioned that there a lot of guys on this hawks roster available tonight that are lower down a scouting report

Starting point is 00:15:11 if they're even on a scouting report at all like mentioned mohammed gay who had a career night and kudos to him that's awesome for making i mean people do what do people know about guys like wallace or crudgeoning these are these are guys that are lower on the scouting report if they are on it at all and they're not typically the guys you prepare for and eight and said they were underestimated those guys. And he actually said, quote, them guys were hungry. And obviously those guys were hungry for something different. They were an opportunity. They want an opportunity to show what they can do, whether for their coaching staff or any of the other 29 teams around the league, they want an opportunity. But what's disappointing to me is the Lakers were not hungry for the opportunity with this road trip.

Starting point is 00:16:01 Like they were not hungry for the idea of we can set up three and two as a baseline, four and one as a possibility by just, you don't even have to play your asses off, just play with a B to B plus level effort. And we can likely control this game. And, you know, I said with Michael Thompson before the game, my goal or hope for Luca was, especially in an era where everyone's talking about load management. certain players are out and whatnot, that this was a game that Luca could play 30 minutes or less because the Lakers controlled it so much and built up such a lead that by nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, you start playing without Luca and then you just never have to put him back in. He did play under 30 minutes tonight just for all the wrong reasons. Technically, technically that part came true. I just say, and that's what, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:55 Aiton's point is kind of what I was getting at before about, you know, why you can give them similar in Portland probably didn't spend a whole lot of time scouting for for Nick Smith, even if they remembered him from last year or something like that in Charlotte. They don't play the Hornets that often. So it's like, okay, guys can surprise you. Run. You know, just effort and things like that. And they were just, they were very sloppy.

Starting point is 00:17:19 They didn't look like they wanted to play the game, to be honest. They really didn't. You know, I mean, it's Atlanta. They got to Atlanta day early. I mean, I don't know. Are you suggesting? There might have been an excess of lemon pepper. All I know is like the Lakers, even at their worst, you know, used to catch teams.

Starting point is 00:17:41 I remember like the seven win team from whatever year that was, like beat the snot out of a Warriors team that spent like three days in L.A. Atlanta is a very popular city for NBA players. It is Vegas for NBA players. There's always an expression. L.A. Nightlife is undefeated. Atlanta is at least on the metal. They're in the medal. They're on the podium.

Starting point is 00:18:08 They're on the podium. Good way. Again, I'm not saying that's what this is. I have no idea if that's what happened. But I wouldn't just think it looked like it's what happened. Right. It wouldn't be the first time, but that's what it looked like. To be clear, we do not have any knowledge.

Starting point is 00:18:22 No, none. But I mean, if you're looking at like what the game looked like, it looked like they came from the club. It looked like they were actually eating lemon pepper wings at half time. Right. And during the game. So, I mean, but it's just it's these games annoy fans more than just sucking. Like, you know, have a bad game, miss a bunch shots.

Starting point is 00:18:46 You know, you come back to the next one. So we'll see. You know, it was, it was a game. This comment from Nell 7, they downplayed their opponent. But even the Hawks commentator didn't expect the Hawks to win. Right. And it's frustrating too because the Lakers just did this in Portland. They just did this.

Starting point is 00:19:08 They did exactly to the Blazers what the Hawks did to them. They showed up with half a team and they surprised a good team by playing really hard and having some guys catch fire, taking the opportunity. to get into a rhythm. And then you look up and Risha Se is 7 of 14 and Gay is 8 of 12. And, you know, a Congu is shooting a decent percentage. Dyson Daniels is a near triple double. Right.

Starting point is 00:19:38 Aes and Newell is 7 of 12. And like, you know, dice in Daniels was five of eight. Like everything about this, the only thing the Lakers probably didn't do, I think you could look at the box score and say, well, they didn't put Atlanta on the line because you have to get near someone to foul them. like that's the thing it's like Atlanta they couldn't follow because they weren't close enough to the hawks to do it it was just a it was really bad it was a it was a really bad game and I will be really disappointed if it looks like this on Monday yeah but I don't think it will I don't think it will either I again this has not been indicative of them I'm not going to start panicking that this is who they are it's just disappointing that this is who they were yep uh so shame shame on them um But don't let it ruin your Sunday. Certainly don't let it ruin the beginning of your week.

Starting point is 00:20:29 There was another game coming on Monday and better times are ahead. Austin Reeves, by the way, is traveling with the team and is expected. They hope to return, if not on Monday, at some point during this trip. They would have left him at home if they didn't think there was a chance he was going to play. So Locked Alickers on YouTube as we can go hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. We will see everyone after. No, we'll see everyone tomorrow for Monday, for Monday's show. Before we go, though, we got to let you know also that Lockdowne Lakers is brought to you by Fandul.

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Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers No-Show In Atlanta, Lose 122-102. Reaves Hopes to Return During Trip...

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