Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Anthony Davis leads the Lakers past the Warriors 118-108.

Episode Date: January 26, 2025

Anthony Davis scored a game-high 36 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and LeBron James added 25 points and 12 assists as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the hometown Golden State Warriors 118-108. With the win, the Lakers have now won five of their last six games and look to continue their winning ways Monday night when they travel to Charlotte to take on the Hornets.Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reeves, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dalton Knecht, Lakers vs Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers vs Golden State Warriors Steph Curry  Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!FAN DUEL Get ready to tackle the NFL PLAYOFFS with FanDuel America’s – Number One Sportsbook! Because right now, new customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get THREE HUNDRED in BONUS BETS, if you win!The FanDuel app is easy to navigate, and the variety of bets keeps every game exciting. Plus, when you win, you get paid instantly—no waiting around for your winnings. Whether you’re betting on your favorite team or just looking to add some extra excitement to the playoffs, FanDuel has you covered.Just visit FANDUEL DOT COM to join today and get started with THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS. That’s FANDUEL DOT COM. TALKSPACETalkspace, the leading virtual therapy provider, makes getting the help you need easy, accessible, and affordable.As a listener of this podcast, you’ll get $80 off your first month with Talkspace when you go to Talkspace.com slash LOCKEDONNBA and enter promo code SPACE80. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com slash LOCKEDONNBA and enter promo code SPACE80 to get $80 off your first month and show your support for the show. That’s Talkspace.com slash LOCKEDONNBA, promo code SPACE80. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are a Locked-on Lakers podcast. Part of Locked-on Sports Los Angeles on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. When tonight for the Los Angeles Lakers, Anthony Davis and LeBron James, they show why their future Hall of Famers, Jared Vanderbilt returns for the first time in almost a year, and the Lakers make a defensive statement. We talk about it all on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. I'm Dave Palais. Want to mention the people, of course, over at... at Fandul. Always thank the people at Fandul from the first whistle to the final drive.

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Again, I've covered this team for a number of years, but I've been a bigger fan of this team since I was a little kid and still loved this team. I love doing this show when the Lakers win. It is no fun when the Lakers fall short and to see the Lakers have a big win, as it called it, rival week, because he had the Boston Celtics and just an awesome win on Thursday night. And then here we are on Saturday, travel up to play the Golden State Warriors, always want to beat the Warriors. Always to talk when it's LeBron and Steph Curry. We'll get into Steph Curry's performance as well. But the Lakers, again, can they make a statement? Can they distance themselves from the Warriors?

As we said, the Warriors have struggled. I don't know about you, but coming into this game as a Laker fan, I wanted to see the Lakers not only get a win, but make a statement because I'm so tired of all the talk of the Warriors need to make a move, and it's time to go out and get LeBron James. And it's frustrating on our end because we're like, wait a second, we need to make a move and we need to make LeBron James. Bron better. We don't need to make Steph Curry better. So it becomes frustrating. So I'm glad the

Lakers not only did it on Christmas Day against the Warriors, but here we are a month later, and they do it again on January 25th, and the Lakers win this one. This one is even more impressive than what happened on Christmas Day. If remember, that game came down right to the very end and it was one of those who were nervous and Steph Curry was on fire. And for the Lakers, they're able to pull this thing out. And that was absolutely fantastic. So again, I will take your comments throughout the show, tell me what you want to see the Lakers do. You're hearing more and more about different kind of trade talk from different teams than the league. Is it time to make a run to help this Laker team out a lot on Rob Polinka's plate? Again, what does he do to make the team

better? Anthony Davis isn't hiding the fact. He wants to see them make a move. He's been very vocal. He's probably been the most vocal Laker out there saying this team is fine, but if you want to make a run into championship, again, not a quote, but hey, you've got to make some moves. And he seems adamant that, hey, give me some help. Anthony Davis made the comment as well as he doesn't want to be a guy that is the center. What doesn't want to be the number five? He wants to be the number four. And you've seen his game more and more. He's starting to shoot shots that look like a player that plays the four. We talked about this a lot, how today's NBA isn't the NBA that many of us grew up on. It's not your traditional one, two, three, four, five positions where

basically anybody can bring the ball up the court at any time. Anthony Davis does it all the time. Can you imagine back in the day when if kareem did it, if robert parish did it, if moses malone did it, it just wasn't one of those things that happened. Everybody had their role in the NBA. It's completely different now. It's a different game. It's a different game as far as the way you're allowed to play defense. It's a different game as far as how many three pointers are shot.

It's just a different game. And so when ad says he wants a five, it kind of sounds a little ridiculous, but we know what he means. He wants a little bit of help. He basically will save his body if ad, he's not taking, you know, such a beating underneath the basket on both ends of the court. So you understand his angle as far as what he wants to do. All right, let's talk about the game.

So here's the deal. The game again, we know how it ended. Lakers win 118. They played an outstanding second half, but we'll start from how it started. And, of course, how things start. They start at the beginning. And so for the Lakers, they had a different, they had a different starting lineup tonight. And it was kind of interesting because you've heard a lot of talk that once Dorian,

Finney Smith came to the Lakers, he would eventually become a starter. And if he becomes a starter, what does that mean for Rui? Well, the Lakers haven't made a change in the starting lineup since the trade about three weeks ago. And Rui has had games where he's had career highs. He's also had games where he kind of disappeared. Well, Rui couldn't go tonight because of an injury. So that opens the door for Doreen, Fennie Smith. He gets a shot to jump in the starting lineup.

So your starting lineup looks like Anthony Davis, Dorian Fennie Smith, Austin Reeves, Max Chrissy and of course LeBron James, Ruiz with a calf strain, so he's forced to miss a start. And it's one of those things where they say the best ability is availability. And if Ruiz is concerned about his starting position, and who knows if he is or is, if he isn't,

he always acts like he's a team player. But I think most people would say, you know, I'm a professional athlete and ego does play a factor. If we're going to be honest here, everybody wants to be a starter. So Dorian Finney Smith gets to start. And what do we usually see with the Lakers from Ruiz? gets the start is usually where we gets one of the first shots of the game usually gets a wide

open three well that happened exactly tonight dorian phony smith first start as a laker scored the first points knocks it a three-pointer so that's awesome lakers jumped out to a seven two lead before the warriors rallied back to make it eight seven lakers scored at the end of the quarter dalton connect on a dunk or lebron james passed right underneath the basket connect dunks boom lakers they have a one point lead at the end of one lakers lead 27 to 26. It's always that number we talked about. Can the Lakers get to at least 30 points in a quarter? Way too many times the Lakers don't score 30 points or more in a quarter. Lakers fall short to start this game. Again, 27, but they do lead after one. Anthony Davis came to play all night long,

all right? So here's the deal with Anthony Davis. He led to the Lakers throughout the entire night, but in the first quarter, he basically laid the groundwork, eight points, four rebounds. LeBron James, six points, two rebounds, two assists. Feeling pretty good. Lakers shooting 48 percent. 39% for, excuse me, 38% from three point range. They made three of eight. The Warriors led by Steph Curry's eight points. Gary Payton's junior had, he had six. Warrior shot 39%, 31% from three.

We all know the Warriors, they're the three-point shooting team. Lakers out rebound of the Warriors 10-8. Lakers had more assists than the Warriors, 15, 13. So so far, we're off to a good start. And this is what you expect from a Laker team like this, because if they don't get off to a good start, We know the Lakers aren't that kind of team that rallies. They're one of those teams that needs to have a decent first quarter.

Lakers in the second quarter, more of the same. It looked very similar, but this time they got in the 30s. The problem is they let the Warriors get in the 30s as well. Lakers, Warriors, both scored 32 points. And so at the half, Lakers have a one-point lead, 59, 58 over Golden State. We're a little concerned at that point. Just to catch you up to date on what the Lakers did at the half, it was Anthony Davis again, continuing to play great.

He ended up with 18.6 rebounds. LeBron James, 11 points, three rebounds, five assists. And Austin Reeves playing typical Austin Reeves basketball, 10 points, four assists. Not bad for first half, especially when you're on the road, especially after a big time win against the Celtics on Thursday. Lakers came to play, which is what we wanted to see, also in front of a national television audience. So getting to show the rest of the country that, you know,

the Lakers on a team that's past their prime. This is a Laker team that still has hopes of winning a championship. Warriors led in scoring, Steph Curry had 13. Remember that number, 13. Andrew Wiggins had 11. Former Laker Dennis Schroeder. He had 10 off the bench. Always frustrating.

We know Dennis Schroeder has something to prove. There's a chip on his shoulder. He wishes he was still a Laker. He's not a Laker. He's jumped around the league a lot since leaving the Lakers. He's been on about four different teams. He's been at one return as a Laker and then not a Laker again. But you knew you were going to get his best effort,

just like you did on Christmas Day when Dennis Schroeder was very good. Andrew Wiggins, which is always interesting to me. If you take it all the way back to when LeBron went from Miami back to Cleveland, Andrew Wiggins has had his best games playing against LeBron James. And that's, you can't tell me it's not because there's not a chip on his shoulder. What do LeBron James do when he became a cap? First thing, you're going to trade the number one pick in the draft and you're going to give me Kevin Love.

He did not want to play with Andrew Wiggins. Andrew Wiggins isn't a fool. He knows that, hey, wait a second, you don't want to play with me. We'll watch this. And every single time he's faced Wiggins, it doesn't matter what team Wiggins is on, you know he's going to see Wiggins' best effort whenever LeBron James is on the floor. Lakers shot 50% from the field at the half, 31% from 3, 5 to 16. Warrior shot 44%, 33% from behind the arc, 9 to 27.

It's not your typical Warriors basketball game. Lakers, again, with the rebounds, did a good job, getting an advantage there. The assist Lakers got an advantage there, 25 to 23. Right now, if you're J.J. Reddick, you're happy. Now here's an exciting number for you. Bench points. Lakers had 14 at the half. Dalton Connect had seven, and this is what we need. We need Dalton Connect to find his groove.

Find his groove. It's funny because when guys make the transition from college ball to pro ball, it's usually around this time of the year. Right before the All-Star break where rookies hit the wall for Dalton Connect, he hit it after the first month of the season, and now we need him to come back and play as the first round pick and why they brought him into this rotation. Gabe Vincent with five, and Jared Vanderbilt,

the exciting factor is Jared Vanderbilt made a season debut, and that was big for the Lakers right there, because Jared Vanderbilt to see what he has and the importance of having him on this team and what he can bring to the team to see, does that help the team defensively enough, is going to be a big deal, I think, for the next few games to see exactly what do the Lakers have

and what kind of trades does that mean? We'll get into Jared Vanderbilt, and his game as well. But again, big night for the Lakers as they win 118. We'll talk about Jared Vanderbilt. We'll talk about what they did defensively and everything that changed for the Lakers tonight. First, want to mention the people of our fan duel again.

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make this playoff season Unforgettable with Fandall an official sports book partner of the NFL. So there we go right here. So the Lakers, again, very exciting because we got the win. We get another win and we're showing that the team is making improvements.

And I say we a lot because when this team wins, I drop we and it's just out of habit from being a little kid of watching this team that I love to when they lose and I know I dropped they and I should probably say we too, but nobody wants to be associated with the team that short, especially when it's your favorite team. So for the Lakers to get a big win against Boston,

big win against Golden State, what else could you ask for if you're a Laker fan? Very exciting time to see that this team is starting to make strides. Again, the team improves in the win column, which is right now, I believe there's seven games over 500. That's the furthest that they've been in the standings as far as the difference from wins to losses. And for the Lakers, good news all the way around. If you're a Laker fan, good news all the way around. As you know, you have to hit the road on Monday because, of course, you know, we're around the Grammys. Lakers on a big road trip. Lakers will face Charlotte on Monday. Again, it's a 4 o'clock tip off. I want to remind you on that. If you're at work, you want to make sure you catch the game. You don't want to miss it, that the Lakers do play 4 o'clock Pacific time.

So Jared Vanderbilt, as we mentioned, Jared Vanderbilt makes a return to the Lakers, and it was great to see him out there. It's become very frustrating when the Lakers struggle and he go, well, don't forget, we still have Jared Vanderbilt. Well, man, it's frustrating when he's not playing, and he's just wearing casual clothes on the bench, and he can't help us. Going back to what we said at the beginning, the best ability is availability,

and he has not been available for this franchise for a year now. So you go, okay, he's coming back. What do we remember about Jared Vanderbilt? Do you remember the fact that this guy's a great defensive player? Most of you do. But then you think he might have been better than I remember, and then you look up his numbers and you're like, ah, he's a 5.4 rebound?

guy. It's not, it's not crazy numbers offensively, but the Lakers aren't looking for it. What they're looking for is a push defensively. So when he finally got into the game and I don't care how long you've played this game, if you sat out a year and you're excited to make your debut and you're a veteran doesn't even matter, you want to sit there and make a great first impression. So in six minutes in the first half, Jared Vanderbilt, he only had two points, but this is where he came to play. Jared Vanderbilt also had two rebounds to assist. He was productive for this. He was productive for this team. He's in the plus column for this team. And so for the Lakers, it's exactly what you need it. So when we talk about very good defensive players for the Lakers, you now have three of them that

you can rely on. You can rely on Anthony Davis. He can rely on Max Christie, and now you can rely on Jared Vanderbilt. This is what it takes to win big games in the postseason. You have to have a defense that you can rely on, and Jared Vanderbilt is a guy that the Lakers know they can rely on. Bench points in the first half. The Warriors had 22. Now, Dennis Schroeder, led the Warriors with 10. So again, when you look at bench points, Lakers, we're happy with they're 14, but the Warriors, they came up

with 22, Dennis Schroeder, again, his 10. Remember his number as well as we'll sit there and look at his final numbers. Turnovers, Lakers at eight, typical Lakers, Warriors had five. And again, for the Lakers, what's the number? Lakers are 18 and 4 when leading at the half. So that number now improves

to 19 and 4 for the Lakers, which is outstanding. That's a good sign. of a good basketball team. So for the Lakers, again, how are they going to come out in the third quarter? What kind of effort are you going to see? This is always big in every sport that has a halftime. We see it in the NFL where some teams are really good halftime teams, and they come out and they punch you in the face to start the third quarter.

In the NBA, the Lakers are a team that it's a little bit of a coin flip because, you know, if you come out slow like they did against Boston, all of a sudden you let a team back in the game, and at the same time, you want to know where's your focus. Lakers had a very good third quarter. They finished leading that quarter 30 to 25, so they outscored them. Now, the Lakers went on a quick 8-0-0 run, again, to start the third quarter. That was great. Lakers, again, made the score 67, 61 to 4, Steve Kerr to call a timeout.

Anthony Davis, after 3 at 26 points, 12 rebounds. LeBron James, 15 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds after 3, and Austin Rees, 14 points, 5 assists. And Dalton Connect had a great third quarter as well. Something we've spoken about as well. When Dalton Connect does find his rhythm as a shooter, let's get him back in the game. Let's see if we can keep it going. Let's build confidence from Dalton Connect.

You're going to need him. You're going to want him to play well. It doesn't make sense for him to find his rhythm and then sit him down and not get him back in the game. Dalton Connect was important to this team in the third quarter. Would like to see him get more minutes when he's actually having a good game. I understand why you're sitting him when he's having a bad game and he's hurting the team. But when he's having a good game and he finds his shot, it's great to see Dalton Connect get an opportunity.

Third quarter, he was big. So after three, Dalton Connect had 13 points. That was awesome. So for the Laker fans, we're going, here's our rookie for Dalton Connect, playing on the road, national television audience to have a big game. Anybody watching the game tonight's going, that rookie number four, he's a player. Great. Warriors were led by Andrew Wiggins after three, 16 points.

Steph Curry held scoreless in the third quarter. Amazing, because here we go. one of the best players of all time. How many times can you say in one broadcast? The greatest shooter that was ever created. Not too many people will disagree with that. Steph Curry is the best NBA shooter I've ever seen. But when you hear it a lot.

So when you go to third quarter and you don't score at all, you're going, well, something great has to happen in the fourth quarter for Steph Curry because, again, greatest shooter who's ever lived. Well, here we go. Let's move to the fourth quarter. Lakers jumped out to 11 and 4 run to start the quarter. Lakers led by 13104.91 with 630 remaining. and again a minute later, 106.93 with 530 remaining.

Now with five minutes remaining, Lakers had a 15-point lead, largest of the game, and right now it looks pretty good. Lakers, as we know, held on to win 118. Steph Curry did not score in the fourth quarter either. Greatest shooter of all time. Missed all eight of a shot attempts in the second half. And that was it. We went to the bench, did not score the rest of the time.

So whatever Steph Curry had in the first half, That's all he had. And how many times do you see that? You don't remember that very often that Steph Curry has that kind of game. So it becomes extremely frustrating if you're a Warriors fan, but guess what? We aren't Warriors fans. It was a great night for us and for everything that went around. Super excited by that.

So Lakers finally winning this thing, 118, big win. We're excited. And let's look at some of your comments on what you see. Craig says three in a row, man. Good to see you, Craig again on Saturday night. looking at Daniel, man, he's excited. Easy dub. Daniel says nothing's an easy dub in the NBA,

especially for this Laker team. The Lakers don't blow guys out very often. So at the same time, to get a win like this is big. These are not the Magic Johnson, Kobe, Shaq Days, where you get the big giant leads and you can rely on it. You can look at the schedule and go, well, the Fates in Charlotte Monday, gives guys a chance to play about three and a half quarters,

and then we can sit guys out and get the bench in. The Lakers just, don't play like that. We think it should happen a lot, but it's a franchise that has to work really hard for every single one of these wins. So go back to the quote again that you heard earlier in the week from JJ Redick and LeBron James. We have to play almost perfect basketball for us to get a win. And as fans, we see that too. It is hard work for the Lakers to get these wins, almost too hard when you see teams that aren't playoff teams and yet the Lakers struggle against them. That's why all the talk of a trade maybe has never been more important in this franchise

his history than what you're going to see Rob Polinka try and do in the next few weeks. Because all of a sudden, when Anthony Davis says it, I think you have to go out and do it. I mean, you know, LeBron James asked for a lot. We all know as much as, you know, you might be a LeBron James fan and I am. Well, maybe dislike LeBron James because you do the whole thing. We compare him to Kobe. But here's the deal. LeBron James is what we have.

Anthony Davis is what we have. You know, forget about LeBron James asking for trades in the past. and LeBron, the so-called coach killer, all that stuff, that he makes all the decisions. This wasn't LeBron James that did it this time. This was Anthony Davis that went to the media and said, we need to pull off a move. And for the Lakers to pull off a move, puts a lot of pressure on Rob Lincoln and make it happen. As fans, we fall in love with players. We fall in love with an Austin Reeves or Ruiz.

Who's untouchable on this team? If the Lakers traded somebody and he said, whoa, whoa, what do you mean you got rid of, you know, my favorite guy? again, I think there are a lot of people that say, I wouldn't miss Max Christie. I wouldn't miss so-and-so. I wouldn't miss so-and-so. I wouldn't, but Austin Reeves, I think people would freak out.

I don't think Austin Reeves is going anywhere. Rui is a guy that a lot of teams ask for. But at the same time, I could see the Lakers go, you know what? We're going to hold on to Ruiz because he's a guy that's a good team player that plays inside of what we're trying to do. And we don't have to worry about,

about mistakes from Rui because he's consistent and that's what we want on this team. Does this Laker team need another star player? Curious to know what you think about that. Do they need a guy with a big time name? Let you think about that, curious about what your thoughts are. Hey, I want to mention the people over at Talk Space. Now, therapy is a game changer.

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show support of the show. That's hawkspace.com slash locked on NBA promo code space 80. All right. So for the Lakers, again, with all the talk that you're hearing as far as moves made, what moves do you want to see the team make? Well, let's look at the box score right now and tell me which guys stand out to you. Because when a win is a win and you're exciting, excited about, hey, you can't do much better than that. Remember, that's not the norm. Okay, that's just not the norm for the Lakers. They're 25 and 18 right now. Seven games above 500. best they've been all season long. For the Golden State Warriors, they fall tonight,

and for the Warriors, they're 22 and 23. So it's a Warriors team that now has a losing record. A Warriors team that's now playing 500 basketball at home. I always say it wins a win, but at the same time, it's not the Golden State Warriors that was winning a bunch of championships. It's a Golden State Warriors team that's a little bit lost. As we know, Anthony Davis led the Lakers in the box score. Game high, 36 points, 13 rebounds is what he finished with.

Doyan Finney Smith, who got the start for a wee in 26 minutes. He shot the ball four times. He made three of them. Two of them were three pointers. He had eight points on the night, but only 26 minutes. For him, three rebounds, no assists, no turnovers as well. LeBron James with 25 points, 12 assists, five rebounds, and three turnovers for LeBron. One steal as well, but LeBron's outstanding.

And everyone talks about the age thing. I almost think we should stop talking about it. It's a disservice. He's straight out one of the best players in the NBA. He's my favorite Laker, and maybe until he retires or he's hurting the team, will I say, you know, I'm not a LeBron fan right now, but I'm a big LeBron fan. I'm a big fan of team basketball. Magic Johnson was my first favorite player, and he had no problem.

Scoring points, but assists, he made passing cool. And for LeBron to get 25 and 12, guess what, that's a good night for even Magic Johnson when he was in his prime. Austin Reeves, 16.7 assists on the night. big for him. The three turnovers, I know we're killing them because that's always the thing he was judges the box score on for him. Max Christie was solid. Max Christie with 11 points, four or five shooting in 31 minutes. Three of those were three pointers. Max Chrissy, again, with his defense. I mean, again, he's underrated as a defensive player in this league and off

the bench for the Lakers. Big night. I mean, big night for the Lakers with 22 bench points for the Lakers. Dalton Connect finished with 13, five and nine from the field. three of seven from three point range. And for Jared Vanderbilt, two points. Great to see him. He only played 12 minutes tonight. So we got six in the first half, six in the second half. Two points.

He was one of two shooting. The one shot he missed was a three point attempt. But what can you do? Jared Vanderbilt, look at this. In 12 minutes, he had three steals. Pretty good. Three steals, four rebounds. Again, defense first for Jared Vanderbilt.

And that's why the Lakers are happy to see him back. interesting to see that, you know, Cam Redis, Sheikh Milton again, right now kind of in the doghouse. Neither one of those guys are fine in minutes. And as Laker fans were fine with that. But again, if you're both those guys, you thought, hey, I'm playing with the Lakers. At one point, I was in favor when Jake Milton first got here,

got minutes right away. Cam Reddish was once starting for this team. When he gets another, did not play coach's decision on the box score. Gabe Vinsup, by the way, playing better basketball of late. Three-point shooting wasn't great for him tonight. one of six, but he did finish with seven points for the Lakers. For the Warriors, they were led in scoring. Andrew Wiggins with his 20.

The big stat, though, in the box score is Steph Curry with his 13. Not a good night for Steph Curry. Shot the ball 17 times. Only made four of them. Only made four shots at a 17 for Steph Curry. Nine assists he helped out, helped his team out with. But not a great night for Steph Curry at all. Actually, probably one of his worst nights in the NBA.

But he healed, which always makes me like. that Laker fans, and I was one of them. I wanted to see Buddy Heald in a Laker uniform because we needed shooters. We always need shooters. Yet Buddy Healed has not been the consistent player, the Warriors thought they were going to get. He had 10. Gary Pate in the second, he had 12. And for the Warriors off the bench, they actually did pretty well.

Their bench actually scored pretty well. We see 27, 37, 45, 49 points off the bench for the Warriors, but not enough. Again, not enough. Lakers win 118. 108 and couldn't be happier. Lakers again, we'll face Charlotte on Monday if we want to see if they can keep this thing going. It was a big win for the Lakers in Golden State. Can they keep it going, getting on the airplane, traveling cross-country, and facing a Charlotte

Hornets team that's not that great. That would be excited to see what they can do. And again, nice to see the Lakers if they can win on the road because as we know in the postseason, can you win those games on the road really important. So let's look at the standings real quick. where are the Lakers and how are they matching up and how are they matching up with the teams that are in front of them? I always say I want to see the Lakers get at least in the four spot or higher in the standings. Lakers did not move up to the four spot tonight. It's going to take a while for the Lakers to get there. Number one, Oklahoma City Thunder again to the Western Conference.

Oklahoma City lost their last game, but they're still 36 and 8. They've won seven of their last 10. Houston Rockets, they're the two seed. There's six games behind Oklahoma City. they've won eight of their last 10. Memphis Grizzlies are the third seed. They have also won eight of their last 10. Denver Nuggets, they are the four seed.

They have won eight of their last 10. So even though the Lakers are playing pretty good basketball right now, the teams in front of them are playing very, very good. I mean, they're trying to create that distance even more. So how far away are the Lakers from the Nuggets right now? Well, they're two games back. Nuggets are playing very good basketball. They did lose the last game here,

and that's fine. Lakers gained a game, but Lakers are still two games back. That's the Nuggets are eight and a half games beyond Oklahoma City. Lakers are 10 and a half games back. The sixth seed is the L.A. Clippers have won six to the last 10, just like the Lakers. They're 11 games back, so we have a half game lead over the Clippers. Minnesota, the seventh seed. Phoenix Suns are the A-Cid. Dallas Mavericks are the ninth seed and the Sacramento Kings are the 10th seed.

in the West, which team did I mention that's not in the playoffs right now? Well, that's the Golden State Warriors, not in the playoffs. San Antonio Spurs. Again, the rebuilding mode, not in the playoffs. Portland Trailblazers, not in the playoffs. 19 and a half games out. Pelicans are terrible, 12 and 34. They're 25 out.

Utah Jazz, pitiful. 10 and 33, 25 and a half games out of only won two of their last 10. In the east, Cleveland's still playing pretty good basketball, but they were and kind of that lull. They have a four and a half game lead over the Boston Celtics, but they're five and five in their last 10 games. They've lost three straight. So for Cleveland, I think they're coming back to Earth.

No, I think that's a really good Cleveland team. It just right now, a lot of teams kind of limp into the All-Star break. I think that's what you get seen out of the Cavs. Boston Celtics, four and a half out, New York Knicks. I have won three straight games. They're six and a half out. Milwaukee is the four seed. Indiana, Detroit, Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago.

All those teams are in the post. season of the playoffs began today. What team I didn't mention, Charlotte Hornets. Charlotte Hornets, 12 and 30. They're the second worst team in the Eastern Conference. Charlotte Hornets won their last game with their playing 500 ball over their last 10. But for the Charlotte Hornets, again, 12 and 30 team, and they're 8 and 14 at home. So for the Lakers, it would be nice to do what you're supposed to do when you face the team, like the Charlotte Hornets and pull out a win. That's what's really important. So look, if you love Laker basketball, make sure you follow Laker basketball

all season long with Brian and Andy. They have the Daily Laker podcast for you. Again, I have the Laker post game shows for you. You can follow me, of course, after every single game. Love talking Laker basketball with you, especially after the Lakers win. Really important. Just like they have the last couple nights, it's been a good couple days outside of the fires, which have been obviously insane and very sad. It's been a good

couple days with the Lakers, at least, doing their job to kind of share us up a little bit and get our minds off of some of the sadness from, whether personally or from family and friends. And, of course, if we love Southern California like I do, everybody feels it as well. So look, the podcasts are available anywhere you get your podcast. Again, it's locked on Lakers, locked on Los Angeles. You know where to find everything. It's a very simple.

Brian and Andy are here every day. I'm here just after the games talking Laker basketball with you and happy to do it. I look forward to talking to you on Monday night after a big Laker win over the Charlotte Hornets. Hope you join me. And again, enjoy the win tonight. Lakers win 118 over the Golden State Warriors. I'm Dave Pallet. You can follow me on social media. It's right there in the corner of the screen. If you want to direct message, I'll answer any questions that you have, any thoughts. I appreciate the comments throughout the show as well. But have a good night, everybody. We'll see you Monday.