Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Josh Giddey is too much for the Lakers

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Josh Giddey’s half court three-pointer at the buzzer erased a 16-point Lakers lead to hand Los Angeles a 119-117 loss. Austin Reaves led the Lakers in the defeat with 30 points and Luka Doncic added 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists; it wasn’t enough as the Lakers have lost two of their first three games on this 4-game road trip. The Bulls were led by Josh Giddey’s triple-double, who had 25 points, 14 rebounds, and 11 assists. Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reaves, Dalton Knecht, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dave Palet, Lakers vs Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers vs Chicago Bulls Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!Advertiser: FanDuel March Madness is here, and FanDuel is giving you the chance to get in on the action like never before!Right now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! That’s TWO HUNDRED extra bucks to use on everything from buzzer-beaters to Cinderella stories—and even who’s cutting down the nets!Picking My Favorites: I’ve got my eye on a few underdogs this year, and FanDuel makes it easy to back them with spreads, totals, and game props.Staying in the Action: With tournament games happening almost every day, there’s always something exciting to bet on!Easy and Fast: The FanDuel app is simple to use, and when I win, I get paid instantly—no waiting around.So, visit FANDUEL DOT COM and get in on the College Hoops action all tournament long! 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. Lakers go down early, Austin Reeves and Jackson Hayes. They bring the Lakers back. But Josh Giddy's half-court three at the buzzer handed the Lakers another heartbreaking loss as the Bulls win tonight, 119, 117. Appreciate you joining me tonight on the show.

Again, my name is Dave Ballet. Apologize for the voice. A little under the weather tonight. night. I tell you what, after tonight's game, feel a lot worse than I did before the game started. Just an amazing fourth quarter for the Lakers, an amazing ending the way things worked out for this team. And if you're like me, you're extremely frustrated. How can you not be? Unless you're a Chicago Bulls fan or you just hate the Lakers, you have to be miserable watching the game tonight. Just unbelievable the way the game went. We can talk about it. Again, we'll take your comments

throughout the show. It's going to be a short show. It's only about a 15, 20 minute show. But we'll talk about how the Lakers blew this game because it might not be the worst loss of the season as far as games that the Lakers didn't compete, but it's definitely one of those that hurts, especially if you're a Laker and you're a Laker that has to basically talk to reporters right now. And if you're a Laker that has to get on that bus and then get on that plane and head to Memphis and wonder what the hell that just happened, because that's exactly what feels right now. What happened and how did this happen to a Laker team that many people thought are a championship contending team? So, extremely, extremely frustrating tonight. Again, Lakers lose 119, 117 of the Chicago Bulls. And I don't know what to say. I hope you watched it because we can talk about it for the next 15 minutes. And even if I explain it to you, I think you won't believe it. You just won't believe exactly how things ended up the way they did. We'll start in the fourth quarter. Normally when we start these shows, we start in the first quarter, we walk you through the game. We go to the box score, give a player of the game. We move on. Look, it is amazing. So we're going to start.

at the end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth quarter. Lakers lead after three, 91.75. Now, this is after the Lakers battled back. The Lakers did not play really well to start the game. It was very disappointing, the start they got off to. At the same time, you understood that the Lakers were playing on the road. The Lakers were playing back-to-back games. After one, the Lakers were losing 32-22, and you're wondering, can they pull it together?

Second quarter, Lakers outscore the Bulls 37-26. Half-time Lakers lead 59-58, and you're going, things feel good because gave Vincent's three-pointer, basically at the end of the second quarter, gave the Lakers in the lead. Lakers came out and did well in the third quarter, and things were feeling good, right? Lakers outscore the Bulls 32-17 to make the score 91-75. Now everybody's caught up. This is how it went. 825 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Lakers are up 70 to 62, and you're going, okay, the lead's cut. cutting down, but the Lakers extended to 7062 on an Austin Reeves, two and a dunk. And then we jump all the way down to a minute 42. Excuse me. Sorry, let's jump right back in. I'm sorry, 758 in the fourth quarter. Bulls go on 11-1 run. Lakers lead is down to 97-89, okay?

97-89, 725 remaining in the fourth quarter. Kobe White hits a three-pointer, cut the Lakers lead down to 97-92 and becomes very frustrating because as we talk about this Laker team all the time, and we talk about this in the NBA all the time as well, that the Lakers can't afford to be one of those teams that is your average NBA team that gives up leads. And so, you know, when they're sitting there and they're giving up leads and you're going championship teams, is this a championship team or not? We all want to know, is this a championship team? Well, the Lakers again show that we have questions. We got a lot of questions about what's going on, and we'll get to that right now. Again, a 16-point lead that dwindled down

to a loss. This is what you'll be talking about. Good teams don't. Good teams don't sit there and do what the Lakers did tonight. Straight out. Everybody knows that, right? Championship teams don't give up huge leads. They close out. They don't sit there and let other teams back in the game. You can't have a team like the Lakers and their roster being a situation where you have a guy like LeBron and a guy like Luca, guys like Austin Reeves, who arguably is the best. player right now on the court for the Lakers, even with an ankle injury, but the Lakers continue to let teams back in, and it's one of those where it has to come to an end. You know, think back to your days of Kobe Bryant.

Think back to your days of Magic Johnson, guys who are leaders on this team and knew who to take control. And maybe that's an issue right now. Who is the leader of this team when things start to hit the fan? And there's too much looking around. Is Luca, the guy that obviously wants the shot, but it feels weird because he just got here. There's LeBron, a guy that says, my, I'm LeBron. I'm the face of this league, and maybe I know it's Luca that should take over Austin Reeves

because you're seeing too much passing where, look, it's one of those guys. It has to be one of those three down the stretch when things are going bad. And for LeBron to sit there and make passes with his o'clock's running out to Jackson Hayes, whose back is to the basket and he's standing by the three-point line and the clock almost runs out. That's bad basketball, okay? 604 remaining in the fourth quarter, Austin Reeves, he rolled his right ankle. He came back, though, into the game. The Lakers, though, they obviously, they're in a run because Austin Reeves decides, hey, it's important.

We win this game. I'll give you everything we have. Lakers lead goes back up to 13, but the Bulls, before you know it, they cut the lead back down to five. 250 remaining. LeBron James layup gives the Lakers a seven-point lead. 207-107-10. Two-o-seven remaining. Bulls hit a three-quirti hit to three, making the score.

Lakers 11, 110. that's with 46 seconds remaining. At this time still, the Lakers have not given up the lead where the Bulls actually lead in the game. 26.5 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Austin Reeves basket gives the Lakers a 113, 110 lead. We're feeling pretty good. Now, here's where things kind of go crazy,

and at the same time, I think we're all feeling good. 12.6 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Josh Giddy airballs a layup. They foul Austin Reeves. the Lakers take a 1-15, 110 advantage after Reeves makes both of his three free throws, and things start to hit the fan. And you're going, we got a five-point lead. There's about six seconds remaining.

How can this possibly happen that the Lakers can't win this game? And yet, it is. Time to reveal where the game was won or lost. It's the turning point. The turning point is right here. Lakers give up two, three-pointers by Williams and, and, and, uh, Kobe White with six seconds remaining to give the Bulls a 116, 115 lead. So the Lakers now, what do you do?

Who are you going to with the ball? You're going to get one shot. You think the game's going to be over. Shot clock's not an issue. Well, with three seconds remaining, the ball's inbound in Austin Reeves, and the Bulls are looking at Luke and they're looking at LeBron. Reeves just turns, go straight to the basket. His layup goes in.

Lakers lead 117, 116. Bulls have no timeouts. And Josh Giddy gets the ball. dribbles a couple times, fires it from about the half court line. And I don't know about you, but I was like, it's going in. That's honestly the way I felt. That ball is going in, and Josh Kitty did it. He drilled a three-pointer from half court, Bulls win, 119, 117, and just one of those

were just unbelievable. Not that the fact that Josh Kitty hits the shot, but the fact the Lakers continue to give games away. You can't give games away when you're a situation like this team is where they are down the stretch and this team has a tough schedule to play and extremely frustrating to watch what the Lakers are doing right now. Because right now it's hard to have faith in a team that is struggling. Look, there's so much going on with the Lakers and what they need to do. If I'm J.J. Reddick, I'm a little confused. I'm a little upset. Obviously, us as Laker fans were confused, we're upset with what's happening.

But it's frustrating. And at the same time, you go, how do you make it better? This is a game that you had. This is a game you might look back on when your seating doesn't go your way. And a lot of people said, the Lakers could be in a play-in situation. I don't think it falls to that. But this definitely isn't good for what's to come in the future for this team.

They got a rally. Well, look, the season's almost over, and the Lakers have to figure out a way to make this work quickly. We will get to your comments as well. I appreciate everyone joining me again tonight on a really frustrating night. But I do want to mention the people over at Fandil, Don't forget March Madness is here. Fan duel is giving you the chance to get into the action like never before.

Right now, new customers can get $200 on bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. That's $200 extra bucks to use for anything from buzzer beaters to Cinderella stories and even who's cutting down the nets. Picking your favorite team, it's always tough. Do you pick with your heart or do you pick with your head? Staying in the action, look with the tournament with Fan Duel, it's always exciting. It's easy. It's fast. And the Fanduel app is simple to use.

and when you win, you get paid instantly, no waiting around. So visit fandul.com, get in the action on college hoops right now, all tournament long with Fandul. All right, so this Laker team right now, again, I'm frustrated, you're frustrated. Let's get to some of your comments right now if you can deal with it. So wages and warriors says Lakers are so bad, man, they can't handle Kobe White. That's why I feel too. I mean, Kobe White, I'm thinking, you look,

great against the Lakers, but where's Kobe White, you know, as far as making all-star teams and being one of the dominating guys in the NBA? He's not a guy that people talk about outside of Chicago. I mean, Kobe White is a guy that's known for his hair as much as he is for his basketball skills. So it becomes frustrating when you look at the Lakers get by guys that you're like, ooh, and why? Why does this happen? So again, you look at this Laker team that gave up double digits to seven different players tonight. Seven different players. Basically, if you played for the Bulls, you basically scored in double digits tonight. Outside of only two guys that got in the game that played 13 minutes and seven minutes, everyone scored in double digits. Kobe White had 26 points

tonight. He lit up the Lakers just last week. Josh Giddy was outstanding tonight. Again, he almost had a quadruple double last week against the Lakers. I don't know. I mean, you're kind of aware of how good he is. Tonight, 25 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists, and then hits the game winner. Very, very frustrating all the way around for the Lakers. Looking at the Lakers in their box score and you're going, okay, well, Dorian Finney Smith, he started in Rui's spot, and maybe he is going to start in that position for the rest of the year. He was a starter before he was a Laker. A lot of talk when the trade was made that Rui would go to the bench, and Doreen Fennie Smith would be a starter like three points and 30 minutes for him. One of five shooting. That one shot was a three-pointer, but only four rebounds.

So it becomes a little frustrated. He was banged up a little bit. LeBron James, 17 points, five rebounds, 12 assists. Jackson Hayes actually had a great night tonight for the Lakers with 19. points, eight rebounds. Pretty good, right? We're excited that Jackson Hayes is getting some scores because if he's scoring, that means they aren't focusing on somebody else. Luca tonight, 25 points, 10 rebound, seven assists, typical Luca night in 38 minutes. Austin Reeves, I scored and showed that he was a man tonight. He stayed in the game, even with a busted ankle, 30 points for Austin Reeves in 37 minutes.

But the Laker bench, look, Gabe Vincent had eight points in the first half off the bench. He finished with eight points. Jared Vanderbilt had seven. Of course, he's in there for defense. Goodwin had eight points. Dalton Connect only played 12 minutes. I think JJ Reddick honestly is making a huge mistake

by the way he's using Dalton Connect right now. Dalton Connect has proven he can score as many as 30 points. and at the same time, Delta Connect shots finally coming around. Yet when you're a shooter and you're hot and you're used to, you know, warming up before the game and you go to the bench, okay, can you come out of the bench and make your threes? Well, when you're only playing 12 minutes and the game is about two and a half hours long, it's hard to stay in a rhythm. And I think you're kind of, you kind of ruin in the way you're supposed to use Dalton Connect in this situation. I think Dalton Connect deserves more minutes. And I'm sure there are guys on this team, especially on back-to-back days that would say, you know what, I need more minutes as well.

to sit on the bench and rest a little bit, give Dalton some time. So it's extremely frustrating all the way around as far as what happened with the Lakers tonight, the frustration levels through the roof. I don't think it is the worst loss of the year. It might be the loss that hurts the most. For me, the losses that are always the worst losses of the year are the ones where the Lakers look like the efforts not there. LeBron looked like he was a little bit exhausted playing back-to-back games.

Everyone else looked fine to me. Everyone else looked fine. Lakers get a day off on Friday. they come back on Saturday at the Grizzlies. They've already lost two of the first three games on this road trip. And look, it could have easily been 0 and 3 on this road trip, but it wasn't for that tip in against the Pacers. So how good is this Laker team?

I don't know what to tell you. You got to tell me what you think, how good this Laker team is, because right now I have a lot of questions. And I hate saying that, believing that my favorite team has a chance to win another championship, when reality, I'm like, I don't know if they can get there, especially if you look at a Bulls team who people aren't talking

in the East as being a championship contender, yet they just got swept by the Bulls in the last week. And then you look at what the Lakers have coming up with teams like OKC, and you've got to face them multiple times before the season ends. What does that do for the Lakers and the standings? And at the same time, what is it, what does it happen to the Lakers as far as playoffs? Is it going to be a short, you know, one round and out, or the Lakers are going to make a legitimate run and see what they can do against a team like OKC throughout?

So it is frustrating. I'm frustrated like you guys are as well. And for this Laker team, they've got to figure out a way to make things work a little bit. So real quick, I want to mention Fandul again. March Madness, of course, this year, if you're like me, you've got the TVs on the Dodger game. You've got TVs on the Laker game.

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Visit Fandual.com and get in on the college hoops action all tournament long. I'm telling you, man, the Lakers did not do me any favors at all with being sick and then losing this game. I was feeling like I was moving in the right direction. and Lakers completely knocked me, knocked me completely out.

So thank you, Josh Giddy, for that shot as well. So Craig, good to see. I was wondering if you're going to join. Would have been the first show tonight, Greg, if I didn't catch you. Craig, Bonehead plays. I hate to say it, it was LeBron's inbound pass that hurt this team the most.

You don't expect it from a guy like LeBron, who usually is the one pointing out where passes need to go and who's open. It wasn't LeBron's pass that I thought was as terrible as it was the amount of speed he had on the ball. I don't know. The player's right in front of a seat. face. So it becomes extremely, you know, disappointing. Lakers need better non-Luca

minutes. Couldn't agree. Literally anything says that. And couldn't agree. And that's what we talk about, the minutes. I mean, if I'm Luca, I'm frustrated going, you know, what's the deal? I come here to a team that I'm supposed to help win a championship. I need guys to pick me up that aren't just named Austin Reeves and LeBron James. Again, JJ Reddick and his staff, I think, need to look at how I was using some of these bench guys. Because two weeks ago, we were talking about how deep this bench was. And all of a sudden, it looks like he's afraid to use some of the guys win. Not only were they provided fresh legs, but guys who have been knocking down threes,

as the Lakers have seemed to have had so much ability to basically have guys that come in the games and do great things. And we're so happy about the roster that they had to all of a sudden, it doesn't feel like the roster has been used to the best of its ability. So very frustrating. That's the best word I can use for it. Let's give you the player of the game. This is the locked on player of the game.

I'm player of the game. I told you last week. I hate giving it to guys who are on the other team, and I never give it to guys on the other team. I hate to say it. The guy that's only won it once this year that was on the other team was Josh Giddy. That was last week. Again, Josh Giddy, he gets the player of the game.

Congratulations. Josh, again, in 40 minutes, 25 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists, and a game-winning three-pointer at half-court. to give the Bulls the 119-1-17 win. It hurts me even to just say it. It hurts me to say it. Good news is, for me, Dodgers won today. I see some of you guys saying that in the comments.

Also, good news is the Lakers get a chance to turn things around on Saturday when they face the Memphis Grizzly. So I'll be back with you. Hopefully my voice stays around and I'm good to go. But thank you for joining me tonight. Heartbreaking loss. Thanks for suffering with me. Again, we'll see you in two days. and Lakers lose 119, 117.

Thanks again. Laker postcast can be heard anywhere you get your podcast. Brian and Andy have daily Laker talk for you as well. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun for those guys doing a show after a game like tonight as well. It hurts. Tonight hurts a lot. Bulls fans, I know you're excited. And I know there's some Bulls fans that are messaging me right now, extremely happy.

Either way, we'll see you in 40 hours. Let's hope for a better outcome. Final score tonight, Bulls 119, Lakers 117.