Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Hornets sting the Lakers 100-97

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

Miles Bridges scored 29 points and LeMelo Ball added 27 as the Charlotte Hornets upset the hometown Lakers 100-97. LeBron James led the Lakers in the loss with 26 points, 7 rebounds and 11 assists, while Luka Doncic struggled, making just five of sixteen shots and one of nine from behind the arc. The Lakers will look to get back on the winning side of things Thursday night, when they visit the Portland Trail Blazers.Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reeves, Dalton Knecht, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dave Palet, Lakers vs Hormets, Los Angeles Lakers vs Charlotte Hornets Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!PRIZE PICKS• Now’s the perfect time to join. Download the app today and use code LOCKEDONNBA to get $50 instantly when you play your first $5 lineup! That’s right—no need to win to get the bonus, it’s guaranteed. PrizePicks—Run Your Game! TURBO TAX• TurboTax is here to change the game—by matching you with a TurboTax Expert who can get to work on your return right away. No more waiting for answers. No more wondering if you're missing out on deductions. Whether you’ve got one form or twenty, TurboTax Experts give your taxes their undivided attention—while you get real-time updates on their progress, so you can focus on what really matters. You won’t have to lift a finger, but you'll get the peace of mind knowing that your taxes are being handled by the pros. 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. Hey, everyone. Good evening. Again, Lakers lose tonight in 197. Maybe the worst loss of the entire season for the Lakers. Very disappointing as the Lakers, they have the All-Star break. They come back after a week after an embarrassing loss to the Utah Jazz,

two of the worst teams in the league where really there's hardly any excuse for this Laker team to lose two. the Utah Jazz and then all of a sudden you get time off. LeBron doesn't play in the All-Star game to rest and you think the team would be maybe a little bit ready to go excited to be back at home, get the bad taste out of your mouth. We all know the Lakers schedule for the next 29 games after tonight's game is extremely tough.

We get a couple easy games coming up with the Utah Jazz, the Charlotte Hornets, the Portland Trailblazers tomorrow and the Lakers have dropped the first two of those three that are supposed to be basically gimmee games. Games that you wonder if they will come back to haunt you, but this is unacceptable. If you're a Laker fan, it's unacceptable to lose a game like this.

The Charlotte Hornets are terrible. Charlotte Hornets are only better than the Washington Wizards in the East. The East is a subpar conference, and then let alone for the Hornets team to come in here, especially after the trade that was supposed to go down to send Dalton Connect to Charlotte. You know the whole thing about their front office being very upset with the Lakers, that they're going to have to come out with something to prove.

And at the same time, the Lakers should have come out with the ideas, is we're going to embarrass you. That's what you do. That's what good teams do. Good teams put bad teams away. And knowing that it's a back-to-back games that the Lakers should have gone into this with, we're going to play with everything we have. Like if we were playing one of the better teams in the league so we can give the guys a chance to rest a little bit, the guys like LeBron James, to rest. But it didn't work that way at all. Lakers played one of the worst games, if not the worst game of the entire season. We're very frustrated. Again, I'm going to take your

comments tonight as far as what you think. But again, the post-game show tonight is off to a tough start because it's frustrating watching a Laker team that we all have hopes for, especially after the Luka trade, that this team's going to make a run and make a run at a championship. And nowhere close does this team look like a good team right now? You know, you have major problems, obviously protecting the rim, but you can't knock down shots and nobody can knock down shots. Austin Reeves gets tossed out of the game. We'll talk more about that as well. We'll talk about Dalt to Connect against the team that he was supposed to be with, but Daltor Connect didn't lose the game. Austin Reeves didn't lose

the game. LeBron James actually didn't lose the game. It was the best player we had. And yet the Lakers cannot play team basketball to win and knock down shots to watch the Hornets completely go in and go on a crazy run in the second half and embarrass this team. This Laker team is known for winning games when they have the lead at halftime, fell short. Fell short and embarrassing way. So who we are. We have two games in a span of about eight days and the Lakers lose to the Utah Jazz and the Charlotte Hornets. not a good sign, not a good sign at all. It's one thing if these games were close and you're saying,

well, Luke is trying to figure his way in and the players are trying to figure out their roles now that Luke is here. Completely embarrassing. Unacceptable basketball tonight by the Lakers. And if you're a Laker fan, I imagine you're as frustrated as I am. Not a lot to say as far as making excuses. And, you know, anyone else who gets paid by the Lakers that's making an excuse in the locker room right now, they should be embarrassed.

The only thing they should say is that should never happen. What happened tonight should never happen to a Laker franchise that has basically two Hall of Famers and two top five players in the league on their team in LeBron and Luca. And completely embarrassing the way it went out. Unbelievable to see what happened in this game tonight. We'll talk about it as far as the way things started with this Laker team and show you how we ended up this way losing this game 100 to 97. Again, if you want to get all your Laker coverage on a daily basis, again, I'm just here for the post game shows. and Andy do a great job, locked on Lakers, locked on Los Angeles, do a great job every single day. Again, you can get those podcasts anywhere you get your podcast.

But Brian and Andy, I'm sure saying the same thing, a little frustrated. And again, if you want your Laker coverage every single day, make sure you find those guys on a regular basis. But very frustrating for me. Again, you know, I'm on social media. You guys want a direct message. You want an event, even when I'm not doing the show, I'm here. My name is right there in the corner of the screen. We could talk about everything that happened to the.

night. Lakers starting five. This looks like the starting five the Lakers plan on going with now that Lucas here. It's Jackson Hayes, Rui, Austin Reeves, LeBron, and Luca, of course, in the starting lineup. For the Lakers, look, they jumped out to a 10-6 lead. It looked like this thing was going to go the way we're hoping it was going to go. LeBron scored eight of the Lakers' first 10 points and then kind of took a step back. And for me, as a guy that watches LeBron his entire career, I think the one thing that LeBron gets criticized for as LeBron kind of does the wait and see move. And yeah, he wants to get his teammates involved. But, man, LeBron's a star.

And that's where Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, that's where I think when people want to compare those three guys, you know, I say it all the time. Michael and Kobe were killers. And it didn't matter who shot the ball. But if your best chance is to score points, if LeBron drive into the basket or shooting threes when he's red hot and to say, hey, I still want to try and get other guys involved, look, LeBron was off to a very hot start. The way LeBron started the game is what we usually see from LeBron in the third or fourth quarter.

But you could tell this was going to be his night. And then all of a sudden, LeBron's like, I'm going to take a step back and let other people do their thing. Look, we aren't giving out awards for making sure everybody's happy. That's not the way it works. Winning games is what makes you happy. As a fan as a player. We're past the time of, hey, when the game is over, someone's mom's going to bring the apple juice and gram crackers. It's a situation where the Lakers have to go out and win.

Lakers go on a 12-0 run in the first quarter and we're feeling good. At the same time, the one negative was the amount of turnovers. Lakers had six turnovers in the first six minutes of the game. Hornets, though, believe we're not, as bad as they are, they only scored two points off those six turnovers. So as bad as we were playing and sloppy as we were playing offensively, the Hornets weren't taking advantage of it. Defensively, this Laker team was moving.

I mean, it wasn't one of those where people want to sit here and say, you know, the Lakers played lazy. I don't want to say they played lazy at all. Offensively, they were terrible. Defensively, not a lot of complaints with what they were doing. Guys were moving quickly. Guys were hustling. Guys, to me, were playing the best defense they could possibly play.

It is what you get. Hornets go on, though, a 10-0 run, and they tie the game at 16. That was disappointing to see that that was available, that the Hornets able to put a run together. Who would have known that that run that tied the game at 16 would be the front end of something bigger? Lakers were led in the quarter by LeBron James. He had eight points, four rebounds, three of six. assists. He, you know, obviously, plays usually about half the quarter, usually in the first. He comes out around the six-minute mark. Ruiz and Dorian Finney and Gabe Vincent off the bench

played very well. So Ruiz was the second leading score, Dorian Finney and Gabe Vincent, obviously, their bench players. They both had six points, rebounds. Lakers out rebound of the Hornet, 17 to 11. Fine. Lakers assist, nine to three. Lakers bench points, 12 to three. Everything's moving in the Laker direction except for the turnovers. Lakers had nine in the first quarter. Hornets had three. Second quarter, Lucas started off look, one for seven from the field. This wasn't his time. It just wasn't a good shooting night for Luca. He grabbed five rebounds. He dished out five assists, but his shots just weren't falling. And a lot of times when you see a guy who shots aren't falling. And remember, Luca hadn't played a game since Christmas Day. We got the good news today before the game that is not going to be a time restraint on Luca.

But, you know, in his defense and anyone else who's ever played sports, you understand that. Look, if your wind isn't there, number one, you aren't going to be great, too, is he's coming back from a calf injury. And maybe who knows, he's thinking in his mind and thinking about that calf, you know, is there an injury there? Am I 100% healed or always thinking about what's going on with the leg injury? We hear about athletes all the time. We suffer knee injuries that go through the same thing, not to make excuses, but Luca is going to play better basketball than what you've seen from him so far in a Laker for him. And right now his shots just weren't falling. Lakers only made two of 14 from behind the arc in the second quarter. Not a good three point shooting team tonight. And it was contagious.

Overall, the team was not shooting well and it's frustrating. And so you sit and go, well, what can you do to change it up? I'll tell what you do. You drive to the basket. If your shots aren't falling from three, drive to the basket, get fouls. This is not a good Charlotte team. Take the twos. I understand the math, right? We all know how it works that they did the research at MIT. and three points are better than two. Well, that's considering if you make a three-pointer once in a while. Well, the Lakers aren't making three-pointers. So change it up.

This is where coaching comes involved. This is where the players know who play the game. They shouldn't have to be told. You're 2 of 14 from behind the arc in the second quarter, but we're going to keep shooting the ball up from long distance. You aren't getting anything. You aren't getting any points at all. And so for the Lakers to sit here and play poorly in the second quarter is frustrating.

And so, you know, as bad as the Lakers played, they had a 4837 lead going into the half. And they're going on, right, 4837, not bad. We expect to be a lot more and expect the Lakers to open it up. As we mentioned before, the Lakers before tonight, they were 25 and 4 when leading at the half. And it goes to Charlotte Hornets, 25 and 4. This team's easily going to get number 26 tonight.

Not the case. Lakers, obviously, they fall and they lose. So it did not help out at all. And very frustrating to see the way they play this game. you know, it's one of those where maybe I'm too tough on this team. Maybe as fans, we shouldn't expect so much. I don't know, but when I see that Laker name on the front and I see all those retired jerseys up at the top, I expect the Lakers to play better basketball than what they play

tonight. So not a lot of excuses, man, for me. If anything, these guys should be embarrassed to the time they get on that plane to go to Portland and until they start that game tomorrow, think about what happened. I mean, how long is this going to continue? Because it is contagious right now that you lose to the. the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trailblazers back to back. It's frustrating.

I know I'm not the only one that's frustrating, as I said before. I will take your comments, of course, throughout the show, and we'll talk a little bit and see if you guys are as frustrated as I am. First, want to mention the people over at prize picks. Look, football season may be over, but the basketball edition is here, and the action is heating up. There's no better way to get into the excitement than with prize picks, the best place for daily fantasy sports.

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Imagine that lead was only going to expand. Lakers shot 43% in the first half, 31% from behind the arc. They're 8 at 26. 2-2 on their free throws. That means they weren't going to the hole very often. Hornets at the same time, shooting terribly. 29% from the field, 17% three-pointers. They weren't shooting well at all.

Laker Jolet at the half. LeBron James, 10 points, 5, rebound, 6. assists. That means he only had two points in the second quarter. LeBron took a step back. Rui had 10 points, five rebounds. Lucas, as I said, struggled. Again, he was two of nine from the field at that point, seven rebounds, five assists. Hornets led by Miles Bridges, 12 points in Lamello Ball. Of course, he had nine, but here's the interesting. Miles Bridges is a guy that we've heard over and over again. Laker fans say it all the time. Let's try and make a trade for that guy. Well, man, he made you wish he was wearing a Laker uniform tonight. Rebounds, Lakers out, rebounded

in the first half, 29, 25. Assis, Lakers 17. Hornet 6. Bench points, Lakers at 20. Very good for the Lakers. Again, this bench is much better than it was a few months ago. Hornets had 10. Finney Smith led the Lakers with nine of those 20 points. Turnovers, Lakers had 11. Hornets had nine.

So the number of turnovers was just amazing. Points off turnovers. Lakers had nine. Hornets only had four. So the Hornets weren't really taking advantage of the Lakers' sloppy play. At the same time, you say, okay, that asks to stop. Lakers have to do something. and if they don't, the Hornets are going to make the Lakers pay for it.

Points in the paint, Lakers at 18. Hornets also had 18. As I mentioned before, when leading at the half, the Lakers coming in tonight's game were 25 and 4. That number now changes 25 and 5. So things aren't going well for this Laker team because guess what? In the third quarter, it was all Charlotte. Charlotte outscores the Lakers 32 to 18, making the score 6966 at the end of three. Hornets leading now.

Then he's gone, okay, what happened? And still there's a quarter left to play, but the Lakers again struggle. Lakers only had 10 points in the first seven minutes into the third quarter. Whatever that halftime speech was, it's time to throw that one away. Charlotte is not that good. At that time, seven minutes into the quarter, the Lakers again with 10. Charlotte only had 13. Both teams combined for 29 turnovers.

Unbelievable. 4.30 remaining in the game. Lakers take a 63, 62 lead on an Austin Reeves that passed to Ruiz for a dunk. 317 remaining Austin Reeves. He gets ejected. after two technical fouls. Lakers were up at the time, 65-57. So Lakers had an eight-point lead at this time. Hornets went on, though, from there to go on a 14-0 scoring run. Two minutes and seven seconds remaining, Miles Bridges, hits a three-pointer to make the score 65-63, and then with 145 remaining in the third quarter, Miles Bridges, it's another three-pointer to give the Hornets a 66-65 lead. The Hornets finished the third quarter on a 17- to one run. Amazing. I don't even know how that's even possible that that happens. 17 to one run and the Lakers made one free throw to give them that one point obviously. So again, disappointing.

This Laker team, you go, okay, they got to turn it around. Well, the Lakers look like they were going to turn it around. Okay. The Hornets continued their streak. They made that run at 23 to 1. Again, the Hornets went on an 18 to 1 scoring run when Austin Reeves was ejected. And is Austin Reeves that good of a player. He's a very good player, but there's no excuse for that team to go down 1801. I don't care if you lose LeBron James. You shouldn't go on an 1801's corn run against this Laker team. Somebody else has to step up to make things happen. How close do the Lakers get? 543 remaining. Doreen Phiney Smith. He gave the Lakers an 8683 lead with a three-pointer of his own. We're feeling pretty good. We retook the lead. 412, though, remaining. Miles Bridges ties it up with a three-pointer at 88,

155 remaining in the fourth quarter. Miles Bridges made a three-pointer and make the score 93-90. And with a minute 21 remaining, Lakers got a turnover as the shot clock expired and you're going, okay, things are going away. Luca rebounded, a ball, put the ball back in for a layup. Lakers lead now 94-93. That's with a minute three left in the game. And then it started, the last minute, started downhill for the Lakers.

50 seconds remaining. Nick Smith Jr., he made a three-pointed. gives Charlotte a 96-94 lead, 37 seconds remaining. Rui missed both free throws. How many times have we talked on this show? Like, when you lose a game, start counting the free throws you missed. Rui missed both free throws when those need to be made. 14 seconds remaining Lamello ball, gave Charlotte a 98-94 lead on a layup.

And with 0.68 remaining, LeBron drills a three to cut the lead down to 1, 98-97. Lamello ball makes two free throws with 0.6.3 remaining in the game. again, Hornets are up, 197. Lakers get a look. LeBron gets an open three, misses it, gets the ball back, a miracle. LeBron's not going to miss both of them. Sure enough, he misses both of them. Final score tonight, Lakers ended up losing this game, 100 to 97.

So frustration all around. Frustration for me, frustration from you, I'm sure as well, for this Laker team, has no excuse losing a team like the Hornets. Again, as I said before, take your comments. I appreciate all you guys that are sitting there, attention to the show tonight because I know it's not easy. I know when my team loses and and I'm not doing what we're doing tonight. A lot of times I'm like, I just got to walk away. I just got to walk away, but you guys are here. Craig, you're here as always, man. Appreciate it.

Craig says Reeves cost us the game. Again, I expect other guys to step up. It wasn't like they to play five against four. You know, as much as Reeves might as should hold his temper and check, Reeves is one player. I mean, there are other players on the team that still has to do something. So, yeah, Reeves didn't do that, do that, you know, great a job as far as keeping us cool. At the same time, I thought the refs were really fast on throwing Reeves out of the game. You know, we talk about the NBA all the time as far as entertainment and ratings are going down this year and everything that's going wrong with the NBA.

When you're throwing guys out of the games and people pay all that money for tickets, I don't think that's basically productive for this league. I thought Reeves got a quick hook in that thing, you know, in the future, so everyone's aware, Luca's a guy that gets tossed a lot out of the games. So, you know, you sit there and you watch out for Luke and hopefully he's doesn't become one of those guys when you need them most. If it was Luca that got tossed out or LeBron, then maybe your argument's a little bit better.

But, you know, Craig, as much as I love your opinion, man, on this one, I think the Lakers should step up with the Reeves out. There's no way that you go on a lead like that, on a downfall like that. Lucas still looks a little bit rusty. Couldn't agree more. Again, I'll go back to, I think it's about being in shape. I'm not calling them fat. I'm not doing the whole Dallas thing.

I will say Lucas looked the same. same the majority of his career basically. And, you know, the Joker's body is not fantastic either. But at the same time, when you look at the Joker and you look at Luca, they're two of the best players in this league. So I'm not going to sit there and go that right. I just think he's a guy that hasn't played basketball a lot since December 25th. And it's hard to sit there and have great cardio when it's a calf injury.

So very frustrating, you know, to see obviously the way Lucas playing. I'm sure he feels the same way as well. Oh, Daniel says Luca looked like Westbrook out there. He called him Westbrook, but kind of did. You know, I hate to say it, kind of right, kind of did. You know, had this, this, had the rebounds, shots weren't falling, much better player than Russell Westbrook today than, have much, or have Luca than Russell.

That definitely didn't work out for the Lakers, but that did make me laugh right there. Have to eat your free throws at the end of the game, just like I said. And, you know, BC, man, you're always there sitting there saying, you know, go Lakers. Look, I'm not saying I'm turning my back on this team. But at the same time, this is unacceptable as far as the things worked out for this team and the way it went today. Very frustrating.

Very frustrating. I have no other words for it except to say I'm embarrassed as far as the way the Lakers played. If I was in that locker room and I was lucky enough to wear one of those uniforms, I don't know what I would say to the media. I just don't know what the right answer is. And, you know, it's interesting to see the way they're going. I want to see this team bounce back tomorrow night against Portland Trailblazers. It has to be better than what we're seeing right now. It's just not working right now what they're doing.

And you expect it sometimes when you get a trade that goes through when players are getting used to new guys. As we said last week, it's not like these guys are going to be together running a practice. That's not what's going to happen there. So for the Lakers, 197 of the Charlotte Hornets is one of those that's unbelievable that there are people in Charlotte who went to be. bed because think about it, the game starts at 10 o'clock their time. They'll wake up tomorrow morning and they're going to go, oh my gosh, the Hornish beat the Lakers. How did that happen?

That was a game. I wish I would have stayed up to watch. Hey, when I mentioned the people over at TurboTax, look, don't forget Intuit TurboTax. Taxes are waiting and wondering and worrying what you're doing with to get any money back. At the same time, it's tax season. Everybody gets a little bit nervous about tax season. At the same time, it's nothing that you want to deal with, but at the same time, if you go to Intuit and TurboTax, they'll be taking care of you. No taxes is matching with TurboTax expert to make sure your taxes get done as soon as today. An expert who gives you taxes, their undivided attention as they work on your return, while you get real-time updates on their progress so you can focus on your day.

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Again, that's turbotax. com only available with TurboTax Live full service, real-time updates, only in iOS mobile app. See Guarantee Details at turbotax.com forward slash guarantees. All right. So again, this Laker team tonight, how bad was it? Let's take a look at the box score tonight and see how things went. Okay, so for the Lakers, Rui, 39 minutes tonight, 17 points.

This is where the shooting starts and it's bad all the way through. If you want to hear a sad story, get your tissues ready. Rui was one for eight three point range. A couple of his shots didn't even look like typical Rui, but one for eight, three point shooting usually much better than that. It kind of makes you wonder, what do you do over the last week? You know, when we talk about vacation time and getting away, how much did you get away that you just lost your three point shot?

17 points for him, eight rebounds. And for the Lakers, I'll take the eight rebounds to me. It's the biggest positive stat out there. We've been on Rui a lot about, hey, you're a big body now that we don't have a guy like Anthony Davis and big guys underneath the basket. Rui has to do a better job on the boards tonight. Eight rebounds are big plus. LeBron James, 26 points, seven rebounds, 11 assists.

Great night, you know, for LeBron. LeBron, to me, did everything you possibly could. He made almost half of his shots, 10 and 22 from the field. only made four three-pointers out of 11 attempted. I made both of his free throws, though. By the way, Rui 2 or 4 free-throw shooting. Jackson Hayes, you know, Jackson Hayes isn't going to be dependent on a lot. And we all know Jackson Hayes is basically a guy that's going to get the easy baskets.

He's a garbage man. But in 18 minutes, eight points for him. Only four rebounds, expect a little bit more. No block shots for Jackson Hayes. Luca tonight really struggled. 33 minutes tonight. Again, no minutes restrictions on Luca from here on. run out. Luca in 33 minutes. He had 14 points. He had 11 rebounds and eight assists. Not bad numbers

if he just looked at that. But when he's sitting and you look at Lucas shooting, one of nine from three point range. God, when you combine the one of nine for Luca for three point range and the one of eight for Ruiz, you see why they struggled. Austin Reeves was not shooting lights out by the way when he left the game. Austin Reeves played 27 minutes. He was two of seven from three point range tonight. Finish the night with eight points, two rebounds, two assists, one steel. I mean, The amazing thing is, you know, Austin Reeves ends up with two block shots. And you have Jackson Hayes over here who can't get one. So LeBron had two blocks and Austin Reeves had two and Jackson Hayes with none.

Do you know, Fannie Smith started off pretty hot, did not have a bad game off the bench. In 28 minutes tonight for Dorian Finney Smith, he had 12 points. He was four or six and three point shooting. Maybe he's a guy should have shot the ball last at the end of the game. Four or six, three point shooting for him. In 28 minutes, he had 12 points. Jared Vanderbilt, one of one shooting. He only shot the ball once and with three points.

But again, when we needed him to make free throws, he missed one. So he's one or two from the line. Alex Lynn, if saw people say you should DFA, Alex Lynn, Alex Lynn, it's terrible. You know, almost every guy wears a Laker uniform. I'm a fan of. Alex Lent, I do not understand this signing at all. Zero points in 10 minutes, one rebound. And that is it, one foul.

I mean, did absolutely nothing. I mean, it is insane to me that Alex Linn, as big as he, is cannot do more. And I don't want to say it's an effort deal with Alex Lynn. I just think Alex Lynn stinks. Just not a good player. It doesn't make any sense at all that pickup of getting Alex Lynn last week. Again, Alex Lynn at one point was a lottery pick, but that was a huge mistake.

10 minutes tonight, again, zero points, one rebound, and nothing else. Did nothing. Did nothing on. Not even a block shot, nothing. I have no excuses for Alex Lynn. Can't understand why he's wearing a Laker uniform. matter of fact, when the Lakers do decide to release Alex Lynn, I think it's going to be one of those where remember when that guy

wore that Laker uniform might be the worst Laker of all time. Gabe Vincent tonight, good to see him back 20 minutes at six points, two of six from three point range for him. Again, it always seems like Gabe, you know, when he seems like he's starting to get a shot, he comes out of the game. That's one thing I don't understand about JJ Reddick's rotation is that a guy like Gabe Vincent or a guy like Delta Connect

when they start making their shots all of a sudden they're back on the bench And now you're cooling down and hopefully to get back in. You'll continue the hot hand. JJ Reddick, who was known as one of the better shooters in NBA history, you think would understand that more than anybody. When a guy's shot is falling, you leave him in the game and he'd get him the ball so he can continue to keep it going.

Dalt to connect against his former team. That's a joke. 13 minutes tonight was one of four from three point range. He finished with three points tonight. Here's a thing when we talk about about Luca, by the way. When you talk about Luca and you're saying, you know, his shot's not falling. You know, Luca, again, with the personal fouls, up to five.

You know, that's the second time we've seen that where he's had five personal fouls. That shows that he's not in shape. You know, when you're getting five personal fouls in a game in the situation, just 33 minutes means he's just not moving the way he expects to move. Again, six turnover is five personal fouls for Luca. That's not Luca basketball. I mean, Luca, again, is considered one of the best players in this league,

and that's not what he is. He's only going to get better from here. That's right. why the Lakers made that trade. That's why everyone said the trade was so lopsided. And it was one of the biggest fleece jobs in sports history. The Lakers were able to get Luca from the Dallas Mavericks. So even though it didn't work out tonight for Luca,

I don't put all the blame on him. Right now, it goes a full team effort on how this team lost this game to the Charlotte Hornets. So frustrating as can be. We all know Miles Bridges tonight was the big point guy, knocking the big shots when they needed it. Miles Bridges was 29 points for the Hornets, made five of 11 for three point range.

The mellow ball, 27 points had a great second half. Actually played great after the first quarter, five or 13 from three point range for him. And most importantly, he made his free throws when he needed to be. So let's look at those free throw numbers real quick. Look, the Hornets, which are a really bad team, made 16 to 17 free throws, 94% tonight. They knocked their own of those free throws when they needed it.

Here's the frustrating stat for you on the night. And the last thing you want to take with you, is the Lakers made eight of 12 free throws, which were 67% for the night. Okay, so the Lakers missed four free throws. What do the Lakers lose by? They lost by three. Let's make your free throws.

You make your free throws. I mean, you're an NBA player. It's one of those we expect it. And at every single level, I don't care if it's middle school basketball. You expect you to make your free throws. And for the Lakers and not to, you know, miss them is frustrating. It's frustrating when Shaq miss them.

It's frustrating now watching for us watching the Lakers. Lakers miss these free throws. And I don't know what to say except, you know, be a pro. Be a pros, pro. That's what we want. So what does it do for the Lakers as far as standings go? We ask to say all the time, where do you want to see this Laker team when it sets up? We want to see them as a top four seed in the West. Well, with the loss tonight, the Lakers, they fall to 32 and 21 on the season. They're now in the five hole. Okay. So Oklahoma City, Memphis, Denver, Houston, all ahead of the Lakers. The Clippers are behind them in the six seed, Minnesota seven, Dallas eight. We will see Dallas very soon, by the way, Sacramento, Golden State.

Again, the frustrating thing with this Laker team is this is the easy part of the schedule. You have three gimmee games in a row. You had Utah. You have Portland at home. Now you have Charlotte at home. Now you have Portland on the road. Those are three games. The Lakers should have won easily.

Instead, the Lakers right now have lost two of the first two of the three of those. Utah Jazz are 13 and 41 on the season. second worst team in the Western Conference. Charlotte Hornet, second worst team in the Eastern Conference, 14 and 39 after tonight. And how did that just happen? So what are they going to get tomorrow? Well, they're going to get Portland Trailblazers.

Third worst team in the Western Conference at 23 and 32. They're 15 and 13 at home. This Laker team playing back to back needs a win desperately against the Portland Trailblazers. Can't believe I'm saying that in 2025. That's where the lakes are at right now. So we'll be back in about 24 hours. We're going to talk Laker basketball. Hopefully we're talking about a win.

Tonight's game extremely frustrating. Again, I appreciate you listening. Again, Brian and Andy, if you need more Laker talk, they have it for you. Again, locked on Lakers, and they will break everything down. Again, every one of these podcasts is available anywhere you get your podcast. But thank you so much for joining me tonight. I know it's not an easy night. I do appreciate your time.

We'll be back tomorrow. And hopefully, the Lakers pull out a win against the Portland Trailblazers. Again, final score tonight, Charlotte 100, Los Angeles Lakers 97. We'll see you tomorrow, everybody.