Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST LeBron and Luka lead Lakers to 7th straight win

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

LeBron James scored 34 points as he became the first player in NBA history to score more than 50,000 combined points in the regular season and postseason, and Luka Doncic added 30 points and 15 assists as the Los Angeles Lakers won their 7th game in a row, beating the visiting New Orleans Pelicans 136-115. New Orleans was led in the defeat by Zion Williamson’s game-high 37. The Lakers will look to continue their winning ways when they host the New York Knicks Thursday night. 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 Pelicans, Los Angeles Lakers vs New Orleans Pelicans  Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!OPEN PHONERunning a small business means you’re wearing a lot of hats. Your personal phone becomes your business phone, and before you know it, you’re juggling customer calls day and night. As your team grows, it becomes impossible to manage everything with just your personal number. That’s where OpenPhone comes in. It’s the #1 business phone system designed to help you keep your work and personal life separate.For just $15 a month—the cost of a few coffees—you get complete transparency and visibility into everything happening with your business phone number. OpenPhone works through an app on your phone or computer and integrates with tools like Hubspot and hundreds of others. It also uses AI-powered call transcripts and summaries, so you’ll have a rundown of your calls and action items the second you hang up. And if you miss a call? No problem. Automated messages are sent directly to your customer, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to engage.Right now, OpenPhone is offering 20% off your first 6 months when you go to OpenPhone.com/LOCKEDONNBA.That’s O-P-E-N-P-H-O-N-E dot com slash LOCKEDONNBA for 20% off 6 months.OpenPhone.com/LOCKEDONNBA—and if you have existing numbers with another service, OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge BETTER HELPIf you're not sure what they look like, therapy can help you identify them, actively practice them, and even embody that green flag energy yourself. Whether you're dating, married, building a friendship, or just working on yourself, therapy can help you form relationships that love you back. Therapy helps you develop healthy boundaries and improves your communication skills.It empowers you to set clear expectations and express your needs in relationships.Therapy provides tools for managing conflict in ways that strengthen your connections rather than break them down.BetterHelp makes it easy by offering online therapy, with over 30,000 licensed therapists to choose from. And if you need to switch therapists, you can do so at no extra cost. Discover your relationship “green flags” with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/lockedonnba today to get 10% off your first month. That’s BetterHelp—H-E-L-P—dot com slash lockedonnba. 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. Luca comes out red-hot. LeBron sets another NBA record, and most importantly, the Lakers take care of business. We talk about it all on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. I'm Dave Palais. Again, 30-year broadcaster, both TV and radio and then happy enough to do this, Laker Postcast with you talking about this Laker team,

as the Lakers have made major improvements from where they wore just about six weeks ago to where they are today. And how much fun is this team to watch? A lot to talk about. We'll take some of your comments as well throughout the show. But the Lakers, again, they win tonight over the visiting New Orleans Pelicans. They take care of business the way they're supposed to, 136, 115. And for the Lakers, you have to be extremely happy if you're a fan of this team and you like good basketball. And I'm going to throw this out there and kind of want to take it in the comments as well.

I've watched a lot of Laker basketball in my lifetime, as I say it all, all the time. The first game I ever saw was Magic Johnson's big game when he was 19 years old, and Kareem was hurt in the 1980 NBA finals, and he moves to center, and the Lakers knockoff to 76 years in Philadelphia. That was literally the first NBA game that I can ever remember watching, and I was hooked. I was hooked as a Laker fan. Magic Johnson was my favorite player.

Lucky enough to live in Los Angeles, and at the same time, follow Showtime and see exactly what Pat Riley and the guys were doing and see defense and see ball movement and everything else. And now that the 90s, when I got a chance to be a broadcaster back in 1993 and following the Lakers through some bad years and sad years, of course, when Magic Johnson all of a sudden retired and then James Worthy retires and they have guys like Sidel Threat and Eddie Jones and George Lynch and Anthony Peeler, Nick Ben Exel, exciting teams, but not championship teams. And then it all changed in 96 with the Lakers when they got Kobe and they got Shaq and they finally figured it out to win a championship together with Phil Jackson in 2000. Those years with Kobe and Shaq were fun. Even when Shaq was gone and it was Gasol and it was Kobe was a lot of fun. I understand this Laker team has not won a championship, but where this Laker team is as far as excitement, what they're doing defensively, what they're doing with ball movement, with the passing, with the stars of a Luca and a LeBron who's

doing things that we've never seen from a professional athlete at LeBron's age at such a high level. I can make the argument this Laker team and the Lakers in the next year or so are shaping up to be maybe the most exciting Laker team. And I know right now I'm a lot of people going, what the heck do you just say? I'm telling you, I'm loving it. I don't know about you, but I love watching Laker basketball right now because as good as and exciting as they are to watch right now, I know it's only going to get better. It's only going to get better because Luca hasn't found his complete rhythm with

this team and his health, I don't believe is 100%. I don't believe he has full faith in that calf. I don't believe his wind is where it's supposed to be. And as his legs start to come back, his shot obviously continues to get better. But this Laker team is really fun to watch. And yeah, they have some deficiencies. We'll get into Jackson Hayes game because he had a great game tonight. But yeah, you're missing a major center.

At the same time, in the NBA, how many teams need that, you know, old school type center? You need a guy that can move, can prevent protect. And at the same time, with the ball movement, this is, a fantastic team to watch as far as entertainment. Now look, if they go to the NBA finals and they ball short and lose, all of that goes right out the window. Winning a championship is most important. But when I look at this team, there are a couple guys I think would have loved to be on this team, Lakers of the past. I think number one, Magic would have loved being on this

team because when you look at the passing, that's what Magic was about. Magic made passing fun and made it exciting. But I think Kobe Bryant would have loved to have been on a team like this as well. You know, with the intensity of what the Lakers do and the ball movement and being unselfish and whoever can basically get the ball to the basket and play solid defense along with it and reward the players that basically play solid defense that I think Kobe would have loved being on this team. This is a lot of fun right now. Lakers have won seven straight games. Lakers, I understand they take care of the Pelicans, not one of the better teams than the league, but at the same time, when you look at the month of February, the Lakers beat everybody but two

teams, the Hornets and the Utah Jazz. And then here we are. The Lakers play a bad team. How are they going to come out tonight? You weren't exactly sure because, yeah, you won six in a row, and then you face the Pelicans, and then things get tougher at the end of the week when you have the Knicks on Thursday, and you have the Boston Celtics on a national televised game on Saturday, that, hey, are we going to see a game where the Lakers all of a sudden kind of let one slip by? And unfortunately, good teams don't let that happen. And the Lakers let it happen twice in the last month with Charlotte and with Utah. I wanted to see what they're going to do against the pelicans because as bad as the pelicans

are, obviously you're going to see the pelicans at their best tonight. And we'll get into Zion Williamson, who had 37. Oh, it's amazing. A Zion can raise his level of play when he wants to. So here we go. Lakers, the first quarter was the Luca show. Luca was absolutely incredible. If you missed the first quarter of this game, man, you missed a lot because if you're excited

about Luca becoming a Laker, this is one of those. we can understand exactly why Dallas fans extremely frustrated that Luca is no longer in Dallas. Lucas 17 points, three rebounds, four assists, Pelicans, Zion Williamson. He had eight points, but the Lakers went on a 21 to eight run in the last five minutes in the quarter, and the Lakers led by as many as 15 in that quarter. So up to a great start. Lakers shooting 55% from the field, 47% from three. They made eight to 17.

17, three point in attempts in one quarter is a lot. Lakers got that many up. Remember what J.J. Reddick said. J.J. Reddick said this is a team he could see shooting 53-pointers a game and people kind of laughed at him. This is all the way back in Media Day. And now all of a sudden, I think J.J. Reddick almost had his perfect game as far as what he wants from his Laker team. Pelicans, 46%, 17% from three-point range, just one to six. Rebounds. Lakers did a great job.

Again, as everyone says, you don't have the size since you have Anthony Davis. Lakers are rebound the Pelicans, 14 to 6. assists Lakers do better, nine to eight, bench points, Lakers nine, Pelicans two, turnovers. Of course, the Lakers got more turnovers than whoever they're playing. Lakers had five, Pelicans had three. So that's always a little bit frustrating. Now look, with Luca on the bench, and again, Luke had an amazing first quarter with Luke on the bench, the Pelicans going to 9-0 run, cutting the leakers lead down to 39, 35,

7-04 remaining in the first half, pelicans tied the Lakers at 43, tied them at 43. Again, Luca's out. All of a sudden, the Lakers became a bad team. Lakers won an 8-0 score and run in just a minute, 22, to give them a 51-43 leader. Really no looking back right there, which was great. And look, it's either you need LeBron, you need Luca to basically carry the load for this team

because as good as the players might be, and as much as we're starting to gain faith in some of the other guys, and then, again, Austin Reeves is not playing. The Lakers obviously need Luke and LeBron to be the guys, and we'll get into their incredible night tonight, because it was amazing. Lucas three-pointed at the end of the second quarter gave the Lakers a 69-59 lead.

And so at the half, Lakers up 69-59. Pretty good. Lakers shot 51% from the field in the first half, 35% from 3. So they're up to 32 attempts. Made 11 of those 32 attempts, but up to 32 attempts in the first half alone. Free throws, Lakers, 10 to 13, that's 77%.

Pelicans, not a bad shooting night. Actually, you're shooting 52%. field goals, 28% from three. A lot of those baskets were, of course, inside the paint. For the Pelicans, that's why the percentage is so high. Five of 18, three-point range from New Orleans. Free throws, they shot 68%. Not very good, but that's what you expect from a not very good team.

Lakers led at the half by Lucas 20 points, five rebounds, and nine assists. Now, who else led the Lakers? You think I'm going to say LeBron James? It wasn't. Not at the first half. It was Jackson Hayes, who had basically a perfect first half, making all eight of his shots and dunks and basically converting all three of his free throw attempts. Jackson Hayes had a great game.

I mean, he had 19 points in the first half. Man, if you're one of those guys and he'd love to wager a little bit, you picked Jackson Hayes to be a start of night. Tonight was a good night. LeBron only had 12 points at the half, which shows you what he did in the second half to be even that much more amazing. Pelicans led by Zion Williamson's 21. At the half, Lakers out rebounded the Pelicans, 2717. Assists, Lakers had 19, Pelicans at 17, bench points.

Pelicans scored 15. Lakers had 13. Turnovers, of course, the Lakers, as I said, always they lose the turnover battle. Nine to five. Now, points off the turnovers. Pelicans only scored 14 off those nine Laker turnovers. Lakers scored 12 points and points in the paint. This was a crazy number. It was kind of scary going into the second half,

considering you only had a 10-point lead. The Lakers had to do something, and they did change things around. Points in the paint, the Pelicans had 40, and the Lakers had 24. So again, going into the half, the Lakers lead, and so when they lead at the half, which their record was 35 and 5 going into the game. So now they're 36 and 5 when leading at the half.

So that was a very exciting move for the Lakers, that the Lakers were able to come out and have a big second half. And we'll get into that second half and some of the numbers as we go deeper into the box score. Again, looking at this Laker team with the big win tonight, the Pelicans, pretty excited. Pretty excited to see what the Lakers did and what they're going to do moving forward. As we said, they're going to get a bigger test this week when they face the NICS on Thursday.

And then, of course, when they go ahead and they take on the Boston Celtics on a national televised game in Boston on Saturday with a 530 tip off. We'll get in all that stuff. There's a lot to talk about the show as well as taking your comments. So, again, a lot of fun, a lot of fun watching this Laker team and watching guys that you'll see that are future Hall of Famers playing their best basketball. Hey, want to mention the people with open phone. Look, running a small business means you're wearing a lot of hats. Your personal phone becomes your business phone. And before you know it, you're juggling customer calls all day and all night as your team grows.

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nothing was going right for the Lakers, yet everything went right for Charlotte. So in the NBA, things changed. These guys are all professional NBA players for a reason. And for the Lakers, let's see what good teams do because the Lakers are now considered a good team. Look, with 458 remaining in the third quarter, Lakers took their biggest lead of the night, 90 to 72. With 337, Lakers went up by 20 on Lucas layup, making the score 94-74, for. And then LeBron James three-pointer at the end of the third quarter gave the Lakers an 18-point lead.

And the Lakers win that quarter 33-25. So the Lakers right now, they got the game in hand and things are looking good for this team. So we're pretty excited to see what's happening with the Lakers. They move forward. Again, final score tonight's 136-1-15. Now, the Lakers, as we say all the time, is you want to see the Lakers score at least 30 points per quarter. Now, you don't expect it every single quarter, but that's your goal. Score at least 30 points a quarter, you're going to be okay. You're on pace for 120 points. You're going to be fine if you're scoring 120 points every single night. Well, the Lakers did great. Lakers actually won three of the four quarters tonight. Lakers scored in the first quarter, 36 points. In the second quarter, Lakers were outscored 3633. They come out in

the third quarter, and they outscored New Orleans 3325. And in the fourth quarter, they outscored New Orleans 3431 for final 136, 115. So extremely, you know, exciting. And look, the play is fantastic. The Lakers are becoming can't miss television right now. If you aren't able to go to the game, the Lakers are becoming Can't Miss TV. And that's the way it always was when the Lakers had star players that were also winning.

So there's a difference. You can have star players and you don't win games, but the Lakers not only playing star players, the Lakers are winning, moving the ball around, guys feel part of the team. And yeah, the stats show. that, hey, maybe it looked like a two-man game. Not exactly. Look, Austin Reeves isn't playing right now when Austin Reeves was playing All-Star caliber basketball at the time of his injury.

Hopefully Austin Reeves comes back and is able to contribute as well because I think he was finding his way with Luca now in this offense. And again, they're missing time to basically polish what they're trying to do going into the postseason and deciding exactly what kind of team they are. Again, this rotation will go down because the Lakers are playing a lot of guys right now. and you keep a happy team when you're playing a bunch of different players that are getting out there in a chance to contribute, but you watch the NBA playoffs. And you'll see teams that will cut that rotation down to seven,

maybe eight players, and then the rest of the guys become, you know, basically cheerleaders. So you figure out who are going to be those eight guys that join that starting lineup or join the rotation. So Ruiz been out, so he's a starter.

Austin Reeves has been out. He's a starter. And who's filling in? So Dorian Finney Smith, he fills in 30 points tonight. He, excuse me, 30 minutes night, eight points and 30 minutes. It's a big mismatch right there. 30 minutes, eight points, five rebounds for Dorian Finney Smith.

Knocks down a couple three-pointers as well. And then you have Gabe Vincent, who gets a start as well. But Gabe didn't have a great shooting night. Actually, I had a terrible shooting night. But Gabe is a guy that all of a sudden looks like he belongs on this Laker team, when for a long time, you're like, why the hell did the Lakers get this guy? Gabe Vincent in 29 minutes, only had two points. He was one to seven from the field of 0 of 6 and three-point range.

did have three assists, did have a couple steals. So if you get Rui back and you get Austin Reeves back, you have to assume that Dorian Finney Smith and Gabe Vincent, those are two guys that go to the bench. And now your bench is strong as you say, okay, that's possibly seven guys in your rotation. Well, another guy that's going to be in your rotation is going to be Jared Vanderbilt, right? And Jared Vanderbilt, whose defense is insane,

he's always around, always seems like he's causing problems. At the same time, his shot, looks better now with Luca. Like when he shoots a three-pointer, he is all by himself. His shots are never contested because he's never been an offensive threat. Now with Luca, able to find him in the corner, and he does it a few times a game, he's knocking these shots down for the most part. Jared Vanderbilt tonight in 20 minutes had 12 points, also had eight rebounds. He had a steal. He had two block shots, and he made two or four three-point shots. And so a guy who's never an offensive threat that's always in the game for defense, man, he was all over the place tonight.

was great. So Jared Vanderbilt and at the same time, he's going to be in that rotation. So you can say, well, there's your eight guys right there. I don't know about you, but I am completely all in on Dalton Connect. I have been since the season started. I was frustrated when he wasn't doing well for a few months. Then he got traded and what was his mindset going to be like? And then he comes back. And Dalton Connect, the last couple of nights, has looked like the reason why you get him. Looks like the players love playing with them. But Dalton Connect, in 26 minutes tonight, he had 13 points, of six and three point range and he's active four rebounds three assists zero turnovers which is great only

one foul and um you got to love having them on the team so again that bench starts to get a little deeper a guy who got some minutes tonight that you kind of wonder because he came over in the dorian finney smith trade was shake milton and shake milton early on contributed well all of a sudden he had a good first half and you don't see him a lot in the second half but when he gets in the game he does good things. 18 minutes. He's had 12 points, made five or seven of his shots, made two, three pointers, played really good, had two steals. And Jake Milton's known for a guy that's supposed to be a very good defender. So that bench gets big, you know, and yeah, there are going to be guys who you won't see play in the playoffs unless it's a blowout one way or another. Like Alex

Lynn will not be playing in the playoffs. Thank goodness. Bronny James probably not going to play a lot in the playoffs. Cam Reddish, not going to play. You know, how many people, you know, don't even understand And the old thing, Cam Reddish is bizarre as well. But the Lakers, you know, have a deep team. And maybe when you have guys like Luca who has played a lot of minutes and a lot of games and, of course, suffering an injury all the way back in December. And you have LeBron who's 40 years old. Maybe instead of going with a playoff rotation that is seven deep or eight deep,

then the Lakers extend that to nine and they become a little bit different of a team than a lot of teams in this league. And so things shape up a little bit different. But right now I like what the Lakers are doing a lot. I want to see what the Lakers look like when they get Rui back in Austin Reeves. I want to see the best of the best of the Lakers and how they will, you know, pour this whole thing out because I'm extremely excited. I love watching Laker basketball right now. I know you do too.

If you're following this show, you're a Laker fan and you're invested in what's going to happen all the way through the end of the season. It's a great time to be an L.A. sports fan. There's so many things going on in L.A. And, of course, the Dodgers start off their season in Japan very soon as well. So there's so many things to be excited about. But anytime your team has a chance of winning a championship, it makes it that much better. We'll get to your comments for just one second.

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Use the promo code, MBA 50 to redeem, see further terms and conditions with DoorDash. So again, DoorDash, great time for you to enjoy everything that's going on as you enjoy your favorite meals. All right. So let's look at what's going on. on with your comments and where you guys are at. Hey, Craig, good to see you as well. Craig always appreciate you being with me every single, every single day. Look, Daniel, so let's keep it rolling. And I'm with you, Dan, not only keeping it rolling, but let's see it get better. Let's see this thing get better as the Lakers continue to play

better. The Lakers are playing great basketball, but I don't think the Lakers are close to their ceiling on where they should be and where they can be. That makes it even more exciting. It's not like the Lakers are getting by with smoke and mirrors. The Lakers aren't even playing their best basketball yet. And so I love it. So Craig says, I don't miss Reeves so far. Now, so far we don't, which means that Reeves doesn't have to hurry back and kind of force through a time to say, look, my team needs me. I got to play. And most importantly is that when you have a leg injury, that you give it proper time to heal because you never know when it's going to come back. So Dalton Connect has been picking up the slack, Craig, I agree with you. Again, everyone here,

fans of Jared Vanderbilt and, you know, Luke out, standing in points in a assistant. So you guys saw the stat tonight, which was pretty incredible. There's only been a few Lakers that have had 30 points and 15 assists in one game. And the list is extremely small. Magic Johnson, he did it 19 times. Jerry West, he did it six times. LeBron James one time. And then Luca tonight, he does it for the first time.

So again, I'll give it to you real quick. 30 points and 15 assists in the same game. Always impressive. Magic Johnson is my first favorite player. So obviously I always lean towards everything magic. My son leans towards everything Kobe Bryant. And right now, guys, the more I watch LeBron James, the more I sit there and go, maybe this guy is the greatest of all time.

I mean, he is just absolutely incredible to see what he's doing at age 40. If he was doing this at any age, it's incredible. I don't care. You're 23, your 28, your athletic prime, whatever you want to think that is. It's incredible to see what LeBron James does night in and night out. and what I'm most impressed with LeBron James right now is his defense. I think his defense has carried the Lakers a long way. I think the Laker team sees what he does in a night-in-night-out basis,

and it's hard not to give your best effort if LeBron James has given his best effort. So let's look at LeBron's numbers tonight because it was one of the best games of the year for him. In 33 minutes, LeBron James had 34 points, eight rebounds, six assists, one steal. Four turnovers always hurt, but LeBron's always going to have a lot of turnovers. It's one of those I think he could fix, but let's not change anything when you're considered, you know, one of the greatest, if not the greatest of all time. Again, 34 points and 33 minutes. He made 10 of 18 shots, 5 of 10, 3-pointers, made all nine of his free throws. It was a great night for the king.

It was a great night. And he becomes the first player in NBA history to have a combined 50,000 points for his career when you combine regular season and postseason games. They're just amazing to watch. Luca is getting better every single day as well as, you know, somebody have you written in your comments. Luca's legs aren't there. Couldn't agree more. Luca's legs are coming back.

Luca looks fantastic. He's fun to watch. Again, Luca, 30 points, 15 assists. My favorite thing about Luca is Luca plays the game like his slow motion. Like he sees everything or he's seen it before. Remember that scene in Spider-Man where he's in the cafeteria and he catches everything on the tray because he sees everything slow? it seems like that's the way Luca is.

He knows when to speed up, knows when to slow down. It's really incredible to watch because I'm watching some guys on other teams that I go. That guy's really an outstanding player. And he's been an all-star for years. And then Luca looks that much better than that guy. So impressed with Luca. Love that he's a Laker. You know, Dallas Maverick fan was writing me during the game going.

Do you see what we see and why we were so upset that we lost him? I do see it. Look, I loved Anthony Davis when he was here. It's one of the worst trades in NBA history. but it benefited the Lakers. And when Luke is doing this for the next 10 years, oh my goodness, it's still going to be talked about

as one of the worst trades of all time. But he was great. Jackson Hayes, what he did in the first half, he really didn't get any attempts in the second half. So he ended up basically with the perfect night. Jackson Hayes in 24 minutes had 19 points, eight of eight from the field, three of three from the line,

and rebound-wise, he had 10 rebounds. Jackson Hayes, doing everything you could possibly do. It's pretty funny. when you look at Jemison and you look at Jackson Hayes, those guys have zero offensive moves. At least Jackson Hayes can give you points for those lob dunks. But overall, Jackson Hayes has zero offensive moves. Like, you always hear about big guys that go out and work out with Camelaguan,

and they develop moves. Like, Jackson Hayes has been in the league a while. It's not like Jackson Hayes is a rookie right now. He looks like a guy that was the biggest guy that was in high school. And he's a freshman year of college, and he's gotten by on his high school. Well, he's been around basketball for a long time. And do you think that Jackson Hayes would have some moves?

But he doesn't. He doesn't have any moves at all. But right now, it is working for this team right now. Maybe next year it's going to be a little bit different of a situation. Let's take a look at the NBA standings right now to see what that win did for the Lakers tonight. Again, the Lakers, as we say all the time, Lakers, we want to see them in the top four spots in the playoffs. And they have been climbing. With their seven wins in a row, the Lakers have been climbing.

The Lakers are eight and two in the last 10 games. They won seven games in a row. Lakers for the longest time were in the fifth or six seed spot. Well, as you know, the Lakers have moved up. Oklahoma City Thunder is going to finish with the one seed. No one's going to pass Oklahoma City. They're 1511 on the season, but they have a 10 and a half game lead over the two seed.

And the two seed is your Los Angeles Lakers. Lakers are now 39 and 21 on the season. And when we saw what this Laker team was that seemed like they were only just a couple games over 500 and they weren't playing great basketball. It seems like it was years ago. But right now, this Laker team is 18 games over 500, and they're the number two seed. The number three seed is the Denver Nuggets, number four seeds, Memphis Grizzlies, number five seeds is Houston. Golden State, which a lot of people love to talk about Golden State with a big win against the Knicks tonight in New York. I believe

that game was in New York. Golden State, they continue to win. They're eight and two in their last 10 games as well. Minnesota is the 7th seed, Sacramento, the 8 seed, Clippers 9, Dallas, 10, and your Phoenix sons are out of it. The Portland Trailblazers out of it, San Antonio, out of it. Pelicans are now 17 and

45 on the season, and the jazz are absolutely terrible at 15 and 46. So when you look at the east, you have the calves who are playing great basketball. I still say as great as the calves are playing, and they're probably going to be the one seed because they have an eight-game lead over the two-seat Celtics. Nobody wants to see the calves in the playoffs.

I mean, maybe the story would be if LeBron went back and played Cleveland, there'd be a pretty good story there. Everybody wants to see big media markets, teams with a history. They want to see the Lakers in the NBA finals. If you get Cleveland and you get Oklahoma City, the two number one seeds, it's going to be the lowest rate of finals of all time. But if you get Lakers against the Celtics or Lakers for some reason against the NICs, that is big time stuff. Can you imagine having a World Series of New York and L.A. And then you have an NBA finals of New York and L.A. That'd be crazy.

I'm not a huge Knicks fan as far as not. I'm not talking a fan of the team. I'm talking to someone who believes in the Knicks. I don't believe in the Knicks. The Knicks don't beat teams with winning records. The Knicks aren't that good of a team. Nicks will be here on Thursday. It should be exciting.

I expect the Lakers to take care of business. They've had a great homestand. I expect the Lakers to take care of the Nicks Thursday at Crypto. Nix are 40 and 21 on the season. Lakers took care of them, of course, at Madison Square Garden. And then that was the night right after the Knicks game, when the Lakers won that the Luca trade was announced. So the Knicks will come to L.A.

There will be a bunch of people in the crowd that are Nick fans that realize that it's not very fun living in New York. And they now make their homes in L.A., but they're still going to support their team. Fine. I think the Lakers will beat the Knicks. And then the game that everybody is talking about, and the one I'm always looking forward to a Saturday night, the 530 tip off, the one where the Lakers taking on the Boston Celtics in Boston, and it's the real deal. And then we're ready to go. Then we're ready to go to see what happens there.

All right. I'm going to let you guys go for the night. Lakers win again, 136, 115 over the New Orleans Pelicans, not one of the better teams than the league, as we all know. But at the same time, Lakers took care of business, so that's what they're supposed to do. I want to remind you, I'm here for every Lakers postcast, but if you need your Lakers every single day,

don't forget about Brian and Andy. They're talking Lakers every day. Again, every one of these shows is available, locked on Los Angeles, locked on Lakers, YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcast, you can catch these shows as well. You can follow me on social media. My name's right there in the corner of the screen right now. I will respond to your direct messages.

Love talking Laker basketball with you 24-7. But we will be back on Thursday when the Lakers host the Nix and we're looking for another big win. Otherwise, Lakers win tonight. Let's enjoy the next couple days. And let's see if we can do it again on Thursday against the New York Knicks. Have a great night, everybody.