Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Lakers edge the Nets 102-101

Episode Date: January 18, 2025

Austin Reeves scored a career-high 38 points, including 15 in the 4th quarter, and LeBron James added 29 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists as the Lakers, without Anthony Davis, held on to beat the New Jersey Nets 102-101. Former Laker D’Angelo Russell led the Nets with 19 points off the bench. The Lakers will look to extend their win streak to three games on Sunday night when they travel across town to play the Clippers.Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reeves, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dalton Knecht, Lakers vs Nets, Los Angeles Lakers vs New Jersey Nets Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!Robinhood GoldRobinhood Gold provides the privileges of a high net worth for any net worth. These generous benefits are now available for only $5/month. The new Gold Standard is here with Robinhood Gold. Sign up at robinhood.com/gold. SKIMSShop SKIMS Mens at SKIMS.com/LOCKEDONNBA and SKIMS stores.Let them know we sent you! After you place your order, select "podcast" in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows. 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 Postcast. Part of Locked-on Sports Los Angeles on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Well, no Anthony Davis. Austin Reeves has a career night. And Danangelo Russell returns to Los Angeles. We talk about it all on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. Again, the show is brought to you by FanDuel. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook,

because right now new customers can bet $5 and get two. 200 in bonus bets if you win. So all right, Los Angeles Lakers. It's a good night to be a Los Angeles sports fan. We'll start right there. Extremely excited about Rokey Sizaki going to the Dodgers, but also extremely excited about the Lakers winning tonight. 102-101 final score over the New Jersey Nets.

And you wonder, well, it's the Nets. They should have won by a lot more than that. At this point, if you're a Laker fan, you'll take a win as a win. And right now the Lakers, they hold on to win. 102-101. And so it was a big night. It was a big night for Austin Reeves, a big night for LeBron James.

It was not a big night, obviously, for Anthony Davis. And the reason that is, the Lakers decided to give Anthony Davis a little time off. That's fine. He played really well the last couple games, and the Lakers have a big game coming up on Sunday against the Clippers.

So thinking what the Lakers were facing tonight, you're facing a New Jersey Nets team, that's not very good, right? So it's a Nets team that comes in with a 14 and 27 record. record completely got embarrassed against the Clippers earlier in the week. And you figure it should be easy, not a bad game to say if you want to give Anthony Davis a day off. The thing is, this game was much closer than it should have been.

So what did it look like for the Lakers? Jackson Hayes, he got the start. Jackson Hayes, Rui, Austin Reeves, Max Christi, LeBron, James. That was your starting lineup for the Lakers tonight. Jackson Hayes, you can't blame them as far as, you know, A for effort. But holy cow, man, there's a big difference in looking at Jackson Hayes and looking at Anthony Davis. And anyone who's ever been to a Laker game that likes to get in the building early, you'll see that Jackson Hayes is a guy that puts a lot of time into his game. It's not like

he's one of those guys that Salks say he doesn't play a lot. He's one of those guys that's always on the court. He's always working with a coach. He's always working on a shot. His inside moves. But man, when the game went on tonight, you would have looked at him as a guy that looked like he had picked up a basketball in seven months. Clumsy as can be, kind of looked like a giraffe. but at the same time, it got the job done. It just seemed like he wasn't gain speed ready, at least ready to step into that role. And for the Lakers, they didn't need Anthony Davis

because they got the win, but at the same time, 102, 101, if you're like me, there are a bunch of things I want from this Laker team. And one of the things I want from this Laker team is to have a couple games where you don't have to worry about the outcome. And you're in a situation where you can give guys like the Bronn time off because the lead is so big in the fourth quarter. It seems like those days of Laker memories are so far in the past

because the Lakers haven't been able to do this all season long. The Lakers improved to 22 and 17 on season with the win, but overall, it's tough. Every single Laker game with a win is a tough win. It's not always easy. So we'll look at the first quarter and the way things started off for the Lakers. Lakers ended up winning in the quarter 24, 23, and a little frustrating that it's low scoring because you want to see

the Lakers, at least in the 30s. We've seen a couple of these games with the Lakers don't score 30 points. As a matter of fact, you know, to sit there and turn the pillow over early, the Lakers only had one quarter where they scored 30 points. It was in the fourth quarter. Otherwise, they were held in the 20s every single quarter. So offense, not exactly where you want. The Lakers in the first quarter, they shoot 39% from the field, 33.3% from behind the arc because they made two of six shots. The Lakers were led in scoring by LeBron James. He had nine points. Max Christie, he had seven. and you're thinking in your mind, hey, Max Christie belongs to starter, right? It's one of those things we talked about a lot when Max Christie struggled as a starter

beginning, then they moved him to the bench. There were games from Max Christie. He wasn't getting any minutes. He has stepped in that role, and I think this is where you're going to see him stay the remainder of the year. He plays solid defense. If you're one of those guys that watches basketball just for offense, maybe you miss some of the things Max Christie does on defense.

But Max Christie, again, seven points. And for the Nets, they shot 47 percent from the 15. field 40% from three point range. Keon Johnson, he led the Nets and scoring with six points. DeAngelo Russell played seven minutes in the first quarter. Kind of interesting to see what was going to happen when DeAngelo came back. You knew DeAngelo was going to try and show the Lakers and Laker fans. They made a huge mistake by trading him away and not using them the way he thought he

should have been used. Kind of interesting as well that he still comes off the bench for the Nets. But DeAngelo, again, seven minutes in the quarter, scored just two points on one of four shooting. And it was one of those where we didn't miss them. At that point, you're like, ah, this is why he's not a Laker anymore. Lakers out, got out rebounded by the Nets 15 to 9, happens when Anthony Davis is a plane. And here's the crazy stat.

The craziest stat that I think I've heard in the NBA this season and it involves Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons coming into the game had taken 151 shots, but it only shot six of them outside of the paint. It's crazy to think that here's a guy that so many people thought, this guy's a future Hall of Famer. There's some broadcaster said he's going to have a better career than LeBron James. Ben Simmons can't shoot. I'd tell you one thing that Ben Simmons can do. Ben Simmons can pass. And Ben Simmons is a fantastic passer. And it was one of the things that he was compared to because

everybody likes to do this when you see a guy with a little bit of height when they come in the league, they compare him to Magic Johnson. He's far from Magic Johnson. The other thing about Ben Simmons, he's a tremendous defender. So he does have some value. He's just not the player that so many people thought he was going to be. 76ers didn't get what they wanted out of him, neither of the nets. And there's so many off the courts things that have happened with Ben Simmons. But to see him on the floor tonight, because if you're like me, you see most of the NBA Western Conference games, because I think the best basketball is in the Western Conference, I don't see a ton of Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons was impressive defensively and, of course, with his passing, but the fact that this

is a game now that involves so much shooting and he's so terrible at it, he doesn't fit today's NBA at all. Again, 151 shots, only six of them outside of the paint. Really weird to think about. LeBron James, three-pointer at the buzzer, gave the Lakers a one-point lead at the end of the quarter. Again, they outscored the Nets 24-23 after one. Second quarter, Lakers outscore the nets 27-22, starting to think going into the half that the Lakers are going to have the night that I was hoping, where they can get a big enough cushion. We could sit guys like LeBron and guys like Austin Rees before they face a team like the Clippers on Sunday night. unfortunately, it wasn't the game like they played two nights ago. Remembering the Lakers came out after halftime and they had a tremendous second half,

especially the surge they had in the third quarter. For the Lakers, of course, it ended up being a struggle. And the Nets jump out to a 7-0 run to start the third quarter. And you're frustrated to go, man, are you overlooking New Jersey? Because they're still an NBA team. You're still at home. You want to take advantage of these home games because we know the Lakers are about to go on a very long road trip.

You've got to win these games at home. So the Nets jump out to a 7-0 lead. Lakers struggle. Lakers then go on 11-2 scoring run, and they take a lead. So the Lakers struggled. They get back in it. They get serious. It looked like the Lakers control the game anytime they wanted to,

but we saw through the remainder of the game. It's not exactly what happened. The Lakers in a six-minute stretch, a matter of fact, they outscored the nets 21-7 to take a 51-40 lead and you know and you're sitting there going you know things are going to be okay but it's it's one of those things that again is very frustrating to see that things go up and down for the Lakers all the time and the consistency problem is tough the start of the second quarter was Austin Reeves start of the fourth quarter by the way was Austin Reeves as well we'll talk about that but Austin Reeves finished the half the

half of the game with 16 points. Lakers led 51.45. So again, Lakers are up by six at the half. We expect the lead to be a little bit bigger. And for the Lakers, fine, six point lead. Let's do what they did last time and come out red hot because it was big. And it's big for a variety of reasons for the Lakers on how important it is to set the tone not only at the beginning of a game, but especially I think after halftime, it might be even more important to find out how you're willing to to battle and what's going to happen as far as the team and being focused the rest of the way. If you can sit there and basically use the term, punch them in the face to start the third quarter to know, hey, this might be a good time for you to hang it up.

And for the Lakers, that wasn't exactly what happened. We'll talk about the halftime stats. I'll get to your comments as well. Again, big Laker win, 102, 101. I don't want to diminish the fact that a win's a little disappointing that they struggle against one of the worst teams in the league at home. But we'll get into all that stuff. But first, I want to mention, of course, Robin Hood Gold.

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check out what Robin Hood Gold can do to make your life a little bit easier. So looking at the Lakers right now and looking at everything they did in the half going into the third quarter, things were kind of miskewed a little bit by the numbers. And I think a lot of times if you were just to someone to show you the numbers and you not know the score, I think you'd have a hard time knowing which team exactly was leading. It's interesting to see the way the last couple Laker games I've got because the Laker stats don't exactly match up. The Lakers, as we know, not a great three-point shooting team.

Lakers with turnovers, where they go with free throws, how the team looks, especially when you're missing a star player like Anthony Davis. Lakers were led in scoring at the half. Again, I told the Austin Reeves had 16. LeBron at 13. Max Christie, he added seven points in 18 minutes. Rui had five points in 16 minutes, kind of hoping for another big night for Rui, hoping that we turn the page a little bit that Rui is going to be a guy that gives you a little bit more points.

and not just a guy that is a person on the floor, but a guy that can actually put the ball in the basket and score. I was hoping to see back-to-back nights didn't see it. Jackson Hayes playing in place to Anthony Davis had six points and six rebounds in the first half. And the Nets were led and scoring by D'Angelo Russell's seven points in 12 minutes. Russell also had three assists. Lakers shot 44% from the field. The Nets, 47%.

So that's one of the stats we talk about on how did the Lakers have the lead? Well, the Lakers made six of 17, three-pointers. The Nets made five at 12. So the Lakers shot 35% from three-point range. The Nets, they shot 42%. Nets out rebounded the Lakers, 21-18. Nets had more assists, 13 assists to the Lakers 11. Yet the Lakers had the lead at the half.

Now, here's the stat that obviously helps a little bit. Lakers only had six turnovers in the half compared to 12 by the Nets. Lakers scored 14 points off those turnovers compared to 11. from the Nets, Lakers scored 26 points in the paint compared to 22 for New Jersey. Now, the Lakers is the two games in a row where the Lakers have dominated the paint. And as much as J.J. Reddick might not feel comfortable with, you know, the idea that, hey, this team is great, you know, scoring points inside the paint because he would love to see successful three-point shooting.

They don't have the horses to be a great three-point shooting team. And that's the difference of the Lakers compared to what J.J. Reddick wants and what the Lakers are. and say if you can grab the two, just grab the two. You know, don't sit there and move the ball around and miss another three because more than likely, you're going to miss that three. A matter of fact, there's about a 70% chance you're going to miss that three. And for the Lakers, if you can get easy two, take the easy two when you can get it. Now, the stat that is interesting for the Lakers, the Lakers are 16 and 4.

We're leading at the half. That now goes to 17 and 4 we're leading at the half because the one tonight. But the Lakers, you expect something more in the third quarter. here we go. The Lakers again, you know, taken on the Nets, going into the start of the third quarter, the Lakers are up 72.68. All right. So the Nets, they take a, they take a lead. And at the same time, all of a sudden, if you're a Laker fan, you're starting to worry a little bit. Lakers go on a 7-0 run. They eventually take the lead back. After three, the Lakers were, after three, the Lakers were led in scoring by LeBron James, who at 23, Austin Reeves,

Dave Vincent, you know, they were contributing as well. Gabe Vincent, hats off to him, eight points off the bench. The Nets led by Zaire Williams, of course 12, Keon Johnson's Ted, along with Dantzlo Russell, who had 10 off the bench. Now, in the fourth quarter, this is where it got interesting, right? Because the Lakers weren't able to pull away, neither were the Nets. With 10 minutes remaining in the game, the game is tied at 74, and then now it's a race to see who can sit there and put a run together.

Now, the team that put the run together was the last. Lakers. The Lakers put a run together because Austin Reeves just caught fire. Austin Reeves had a tremendous fourth quarter. Austin Reeves with 15 points in the fourth quarter had a career high tonight. Austin Reeves played extremely well. The problem is Austin Reeves played extremely well until about two and a half minutes remaining in the game. And he could tell he completely ran out of gas.

The Lakers literally had a call a timeout just so Austin Reeves can kind of pull it together because he looked like that guy that at the gym that stays on the court that plays eight games in a row and he could tell his legs weren't there and when your legs aren't there your shot starts to disappear. LeBron James though again most amazing athlete going that he's you know 40 years old and continues to look like he's in the best shape of anybody on the floor but for the Lakers they're able to hold on and all the way to the very very end when New Jersey has the last shot and they miss a three and then LeBron gets the rebound and Lakers hold on for that one point win. It was big. It was big for the Lakers to pull that out. On the Nets, you look at that team,

and you're going, this is not a team, though, that is full of all-stars, right? The Nets defensively, not a bad defensive team. The Nets obviously, as we said before, the one had approved that the trip out to Los Angeles wasn't a waste because it's completely embarrassed against the Clippers earlier. But then when you look at the Nets, they finished with overall six guys that finished with double-digit scores. Also for the Nets, none of those guys scored more than 20 points. Actually, the Nets were led in scoring tonight by D'Angelo Russell. Can you guess the number D'Angelo Russell had?

Well, if you haven't looked at the Pog score, bet you're the first number that pops into your mind, 19. Danilo Russell is all about the number 19 when it seems like his best games is he just gets about 19 points. But he was big for them. And 19 points, eight assists, six rebounds for D'Angelo Russell, did all that in 27 minutes. started off very slow, but he finished 7 of 15 from the field.

He made 50% of his free throw, I mean, three point attempts. He was 5 of 10, did not attempt a free throw, but 5 of 10 from 3 point range. I'm sure he'd love to have that one more that would have given them the win. But Angela Russell, what do you expect? You know, nobody wants to be told you aren't good enough to be part of the club, and that's basically what he was told. Not only once by the Lakers, but now twice in his career by the Lakers. So he comes back with 19 points.

Again, six rebounds, 8. assists. And if you played that way for the Lakers, he'd still be a Laker. But he's not able to play like that night in and night out. Again, off the bench. So bench points for the net, very impressive. You know, just the opposite from the Lakers where we've seen this all year long. They aren't getting a lot of points. Also playing a couple guys short. Finney Smith wasn't there. Anthony Davis, not there in the starting role. But for the Lakers, they're struggling on the bench. Whereas you look at the Nets, they have three guys who scored in double figures. and pretty impressive.

I mean, pretty impressive by then. Nets finished the night, by the way, shooting 45% from the field. They made 45% as well of the three-point attempts, shot 77% from the free throw line. Turnovers, the Nets had 17 to give them a total of, of course, the 101 points that they got. But the turnovers killed them.

17 turnovers are a lot, but that's what you expect from a bad team, and that's what the Nets are. The Nets are one of the worst teams in the NBA. For the Lakers, you look at the scoring. The Lakers had four guys who scored in double digits. Rui had 10. LeBron had 29. Austin Reeves, career high 38. And Gabe Vincent, off the bench, had 10. It was a big time for Gabe Vincent to have a big game. And for the Lakers, they were able to get it.

Game Vincent in 29 minutes had 10 points. Not a fantastic shooting. And I know it was 50% from the field, but only one of five from three point range. But Gabe Vincent made the right passes, played decent defense, made the shots when the Lakers actually needed a big basket. And overall, he was the only spark that the Lakers had off the bench. Dalton Connect, again, can't make a basket. I mean, extremely frustrating. Dalton Connect in 18 minutes missed all four of a shots. He shot three, three pointers missed all of those. He made two or three free throws to finish with two points. The Lakers with only 12 points total off the bench and that's not going to get it done, right? As Stu Lance would say, that's not,

that's not good. That's not going to get it done for them. And so a little bit a little bit frustrating for the Lakers as well. But they get the win overall, and for the Lakers, getting that win is a big deal. We'll take a little bit deeper dive into the box score in just a second, but also, you know, overall for the Lakers, you want to see them play a little bit more better, a little bit more of a complete game. And we'll talk about how they can do that in just a second as well. As I said, I will get to your comments. So what I mentioned the people over at Skims right now, as a lot of people are finding out, Skims is making underwear for men. A lot of people are are intrigued and there's a good reason to be so.

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why not give skims a chance. Again, give, give yourself a chance. Try the working out, the feeling that I get walking around, everything else the rest of the day. Plus, they never lose their shape or write up. And maybe it's in my head, but I swear since I started wearing these, my gains have improved too. So try skims when you get a chance. So overall, looking at this Laker team, are you happy with this Laker team? Do you like what you see with this Laker team? Do you like what Rob Polinka has together? Do you like the job that J.J. Reddick is doing? I know when the team loses, a lot of people will say, man, you're too critical of this team and simply would say you aren't critical enough. You remember the good old days. I do. I remember the good old

days. And I've seen a lot of them. I've seen the days of Magic Johnson. I've seen the days of James Worthy, Pat Riley, Michael Cooper. You know, those were the times when I fell in love with the Lakers. Had a chance as a broadcaster for 10 years following the team and being with the team from the forum to Staples Center with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neill and the good days of winning more championships and knowing what it looks like. And moving on from a coach like Del Harris to a coach like Phil Jackson. And the feeling of knowing that every time the ball is going up in there, that the Lakers are going to win, especially in games that matter, there's nothing like it knowing your team

as a chance. If you're a Dodger fan like me, you know that feeling. When the game starts, you're expected to win the game. Anything short of a win becomes extremely frustrating. And so for me, I get frustrated when the Lakers when they don't play well. Tonight I'll take the win because I don't think this is a Laker team that can compete right now for an NBA championship. I would like to see moves made. And that's where my criticism goes.

It goes right now towards Rob Polinka because the last trade he made, you haven't seen the massive jump that you're hoping that you would get. And LeBron has seen it all too. I mean, to sit here and act like I know more than him, you can see it in his face. He knows this roster and this team isn't ready to make a run for an NBA championship. At the same time, it's in Rob Polink's hands to basically make it work. This is a time you have to make it work because you don't have a lot of time. You have a 40-year-old superstar that doesn't take the night off tonight, that sits there and does everything you can to help the team win,

and they only win by one. So it's hard, all right? It's hard all the way through as far as what the Lakers are doing. And overall, you know, I don't know what to tell you. and what that trade's going to be. I'd like to see it. Again, Lakers win by one. Clippers beat them by 59,

as Craig likes to point out in the chat. For the Lakers, at the same time, what's going to happen with, you know, them moving forward? Can they continue to put win streaks together? If they win on Sunday, it's going to be a three-game winning streak. Actually, Sunday's postcast, by the way,

will be a different postcast than what you normally see. It will be two of us here. It will be me and it will be Pete Fox. who does the Clippers. So we're going to do the show together. We'll do a postcast with the Clippers side and the Laker side. Laker fans. Come on, we know who really runs L.A. Craig also points about Rui. It would be nice to see Rui have back-to-back big-time games. Exactly. I couldn't agree more. Daniel says, you know, it's an ugly win. It was an ugly win, but I think the key word, Daniel, is that is a win, is that, you know, they got one. And I hate to say it, this is what this team is.

If you want to make the argument, guys, that the Lakers are playing down to their competition, you can make that argument as well. I can't really disagree. At times, I wonder, can they turn it on? I've looked at the schedule, and I've looked ahead to say, when are they playing Boston? When are they getting another shot at Oklahoma City? When are they, you know, when are they playing the teams that give them a hard time or the teams they have to beat to get real respect?

You know, what is the biggest victory this team has had? Maybe it was when they beat the Memphis Grizzlies, and they were the number two seed at the time. But for this Laker team, as a Laker fan, do you have faith that this Laker team can get by teams like the Denver Nuggets? Can they get by, you know, the teams that are in front of them? And we saw them struggle against the Dallas Mavericks when the Mavericks can't beat anybody because as we know, we talk about it all the time, the Celtics go through it, the Nigs go through it every home game they play at Madison Square Garden. People get up for certain games. For these athletes, they know it's a big deal to play in New York. For these athletes, they know it's a big deal

to play against the Boston Celtics. For these NBA players, they know it's a big deal to play against the Lakers, especially when you're playing at Crypto. You're never going to get a team that's going to take the night off. It's not like you're going to Sacramento after back-to-back games and maybe your best effort's not there. This is the Los Angeles Lakers. When you step into crypto, not only you've seen superstars and beautiful people,

you look up and you can see all the retired jerseys. All the guys when you were a kid that you admired, all the guys that, you saw winning those championships. They're all in front of your face. Of course you want to play your best basketball. And I can't say that there are probably a couple of people out there to say, now that I want to play my best basketball, I'd love to wear that Laker uniform one day.

And maybe if I play well enough, all of a sudden I catch somebody's eye to make that trade possible. But for this Laker team, disappointing, you know, disappointing that they struggle with almost every single team that they face. Lakers finish on the night shooting 46% from the field, 35% from three point range, 78% from the free throw line, always frustrating. 10 turnovers, not bad.

I'll take that. LeBron James. He led the Lakers with five of those turnovers. I don't know what to say about that. I kind of feel like LeBron it's going to happen. Maybe it's one of those why I should stop picking on the turnovers from LeBron. I am a fan that LeBron is taking the ball to the basket more, which means he's getting chances at free throws tonight. LeBron only shot two of them.

And he missed one. Okay. Austin Reeves, by the way, shot eight free throws, made all eight. So Austin Reeves on his career night, let's not overlook that. 38 points, three assists, three rebounds. LeBron, just amazing. Again, forget about even his age. If LeBron was 23 years old, with 29 points, seven rebounds, eight assists, he'd go, that's a great night. LeBron, again, 12 with 17 from the field, four, six, and three point range.

And most importantly, LeBron played. So in 35 minutes, he did all of that, and he played, whereas, you know, Anthony Davis, they decided, you know, it's a time to give him a night off. I'm not a big fan of the night offs, you know, in any sport. But it's frustrating when a guy. takes the night off. And for me, as just a basketball fan, as a sports fan, if you're going to give a night off, do it at home. You know, they're 41 home games. I hate when they guys take the night off and you know their Laker fans on the road and you're cheating the fans who spend a ton of money

or look at that schedule and say, I'm going to get a chance to see LeBron and Anthony Davis, and they're sitting out. And I blame Kauai Linder for all this stuff, by the way, of the sitting out. I can't imagine as a kid going to a game and Kareem's not playing, you know, or magic's not plane. That would be extremely frustrating. So what we say all the time, the Lakers, where are they in the playoff seating? What do they need to do? For the Lakers, I love to see them in the four spot. Everyone knows that. A lot of people say they'll be fine if they're in the sixth spot. Here's where the Lakers are right now if you're wondering. Oklahoma City, they're eight and two in their last 10 games. Oklahoma City, after that big win the other night against Cleveland, they come up with

a loss. They're still the number one seed, though. Oklahoma City has a six and a half game lead. over the Houston Rockets were the number two seed. Memphis Grizzlies are the three seed. Memphis has won two in a row. Denver Nuggets, scary team. Denver has found their way. Remember in Denver was struggling right around 500? Denver's now nine games over 500.

They're 25 and 16. Clippers are 23 and 17. They're the fifth seed and the Lakers are the six seed at 22 and 17. Sunday's game at 6 o'clock tip off as Lakers travel across town is a really big game for the Lakers. The Lakers not only do you want, want to obviously push your dominance of saying you're still the team of L.A. No matter what happens, there's still the team of L.A.

The Lakers, of course, everyone knows. There's a reason why you see all those banners. It's kind of funny that the clippers had to move out of the building because they weren't getting any respect and they had to create their own home. But the Clippers are the number five team, the Lakers, the number six team. Again, this is a big game on Sunday, though, overall standing-wise and also to say, you know, we are the Lakers and it's different. Dallas Mavericks are the Seat.

they have fallen quick. Dallas did win their last game, but Dallas is three and seven in their last 10. They're the seventh seed at Minnesota. Big win in New York. Minnesota wins tonight, but Minnesota, they're 22 and 19 on the season. Sacramento Kings are 22 and 20 at the ninth seed. Phoenix Suns back in it. Look at that. The Suns are back in it. They're the 10th seed. So if the playoffs started today, the Suns are in it. A lot of talk that they were looking to trade guys like Durant and Bradley Beal. but the sons right now would be in the playoffs. The teams on outside is interesting. There's a big name right there.

It's the Golden State Warriors. Golden State Warriors would not make the playoffs if the season ended right now. San Antonio Spurs, Portland, New Orleans, Utah, all those guys, they are out. And you're seeing really a lot of rumors. If you're looking at which guys could possibly move teams, you're seeing a lot of guys out of the teams I just mentioned that aren't in the playoffs of guys that could possibly be traded. Cleveland, again, 8 and 2 in their last 10.

Cleveland is a five and a half game lead in the east over the Boston Celtics, who are the number two seed. And the Knicks that we said, completely embarrassed at home. They're the number three seed, eight and a half games back. Right there, of course, in the Eastern Conference, Milwaukee's a four seed. I think right there you could stop. I don't think there's anyone really outside of Cleveland, Boston, and Milwaukee. I still don't buy New York.

It's a three seed. But there's not a team in the east that I think would be in the NBA finals. You know, I understand the Lakers have trouble with a few of these, but these aren't teams that can win the championship. Outside of those three teams, Cleveland, Boston, Milwaukee, none of those teams are winning a championship this year. It's not their time. And it's fine.

You want to be a Pacers fan or Orlando Magic fan? Go ahead. You're wasting your time. Nothing to see here, as they say. So, Lakers, again, we'll take the win. Lakers win 102, 101. They win over the New Jersey Nets. They're back in action.

Six o'clock, Sunday night. I will be here with you for the, the post game and we'll talk laker basketball we'll also see anthony davis how did you do now that he had multiple days off let's see what ruy can do as well austin reeves big night tonight career high 38 points 15 in the fourth quarter uh great for the lakers that have that weapon right there in austin reeves let's see if he can continue it let's see which guys can also help contribute off the bench or nice to be uh it would nice to see dalton connect be the player the lakers thought he could be and eventually hopefully he catches fire otherwise it's a head

on how this kid went from being so good for two months to all of a sudden just being terrible for two months. Just cannot snap out of it at all. So it's frustrating for him. It's frustrating for us as well. Again, if you want to follow Laker basketball every single day, Brian and Andy do a great job talking Laker basketball. Make sure you catch them on the locked on the locked on Los Angeles Sports Network. Also locked on Lakers. You can get these podcasts anywhere that you get your podcast available everywhere. And I will be with you. Again, I'm just the guy that's doing the post game, but I'm happy to be with you talking Laker basketball after a win or a tough loss, which sometimes my frustration shows.

But thank you so much for joining me. You can follow me on social media. My name is Dave Palais, and I will catch you Sunday evening after hopefully another Laker win. That would be three straight in a row. Have a good night, everybody.