Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST LeBron leads Lakers past Wolves

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

LeBron James scored 33 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, and Luka Doncic added 21 points and 13 boards as the Los Angeles Lakers won their fourth game in a row with a 111-102 win over the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves were led by Terrance Shannon Jr.’s 25 off the bench but were forced to play the majority of the second half without Anthony Edwards, who was ejected in the third quarter after receiving his second technical foul. The Lakers will look to extend their win streak Friday night when they host the crosstown rival Clippers. 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 Wolves, Los Angeles Lakers vs Minnesota Timberwolves  Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors! FAN DUEL When the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started—and there’s no better place to get in on it than FanDuel, America’s Number ONE Sportsbook!TRANSITION:With FanDuel, you can place live bets throughout the game, so even if you miss the opening tip-off or want to bet on a fourth-quarter comeback, you can stay in the action. And if you’re looking for a bigger payout, you can even combine your live bets into a Same Game Parlay.Example: I love using FanDuel’s live betting feature because it keeps every moment of the game exciting. Whether I’m backing my team for a late-game rally or picking a player to hit a clutch three, I never feel like I missed my chance. Plus, the app is easy to use, and when you win, you get paid instantly!Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins! Just visit FANDUEL DOT COM to join today. That’s FANDUEL DOT COM for your shot at ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets.Make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA.Robinhood GoldWith Robinhood Gold you now enjoy the VIP treatment, receiving 3% IRA match on retirement contributions. The privileges of the privileged are no longer exclusive. With Robinhood Gold your annual IRA contributions are boosted by 3%, plus you also get 4% APY on your account in non-retirement accounts. That’s over 8 times the national savings average. The perks of the high net worth are now available for any net worth.The new gold standard is here with Robinhood Gold. To receive your 3% boost on annual IRA contributions, sign up at robinhood.com/goldInvesting involves risk. Rate subject to change. 3% match requires Robinhood Gold. At $5 a month for one year from first match, must keep funds in IRA for 5 years. Go to robinhood.com/boost. Over 8x the average national average savings account interest rate claim is based on data from the FDIC as of November 18, 2024. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC). Gold membership is offered by Robinhood Gold, LLC. 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. What a game for the Los Angeles Lakers. It wasn't easy, but they pulled it off. Lucas started off red hot. LeBron carried the Lakers down the stretch and the Lakers can't make their free throws. We talk about it all in the next 30 minutes on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast.

I'm Dave Pallet. Thank you so much for joining me tonight. Again, going to take your comments throughout the show. but appreciate it as the Lakers win tonight, 11-102 over the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves. Extend their winning streak now to four straight games. So big game for the Los Angeles Lakers, an important game. When I mention the people over at Fandul, when the game tips off, the NBA actions just getting started.

And there's no better place to get on the action than Fandul. America's number one sports book. Right now with Fandle, you can place live bets throughout the game. So even if you missed the opening tip-off, you can bet the fourth quarter coming. back and stay in the action. Don't forget, Fandul customers can get $150 in bonus bets with their first $5 bet if it wins. Just visit Fandle.com to join today. That's fandle.com for your shout at $150 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Again, my name is Dave Pallai. Thank you so much for joining me tonight.

And again, for all the Laker postgame shows, as the Lakers are on the way to finish out a fantastic and a season that many of us didn't expect to go this way. You can follow me on social media. Again, my name's right there in the corner. I'll respond to you with all your Laker comments, of course, even when we aren't doing the show. But if you want to follow the Lakers every single day, don't forget about Brian and Annie.

They do a great job with their Locked-on Lakers regular show. Again, you can get these podcasts anywhere you get your podcast. Locked on Los Angeles is a great job. Locked on Lakers keeps you in touch with your favorite teams. So the Lakers win this game. 11-102, and really there was no reason for the game to be this close. There's so many things that happened in this game from star players that did their job at the beginning to star players, that did their job at the end, to a star player that didn't even

finish the game. So if you weren't there for the entire game, there's a lot to go over in this game because it was really important for the Lakers to get this win. Again, a little bit of background. If you're new to the show, more than a 30-year member covering sports and Southern California from Los Angeles through San Diego, Major League Baseball, the NFL, and, of course, the NBA, my time with the NBA has been really my favorite part, is covering the Lakers as a lifelong Laker fan, getting a chance to be a fan during the 80s, but then to cover this team within the 90s and the 2000s, especially with Kobe and Chack when they were winning championships. This is a fun time for Laker fans, and there are times out there where you go, man, it kind of feels like something special is going on. And this team is not polished yet.

I think as many of us will realize this is not a polished product, but we see glimpses here and there where we go. That's impressive. Some of the passes are amazing. And if you're a lifelong Laker fan like me, you fell in love with the guys that not only score, but guys who can pass because of Magic Johnson. But you're seeing some passes now from LeBron James,

who's really an underrated passer to Luca, who many of us have maybe watched from afar with the Dallas Mavericks to realize how great of a passer he actually is. It's really impressive, not only finding guys on the offensive end, but getting out with the break and being able to throw the ball over extended arms to get easy buckets for this team. And it's a lot of fun watching what the Lakers are doing. Overall, with the Lakers, you know, here we go. So the first quarter, Lakers come off red hot. The first quarter is my favorite quarter of the game was probably yours as well because the Lakers showed something special and looked like one of those games is we wish for all the time where the Lakers are going to come out red hot, score at least 30 points in a quarter.

And then at the end of the game, you're giving your stars a chance to rest because we know there's a game tomorrow. Playing back-to-back games in the NBA is always tough. And they host the Clippers tomorrow night at Crypto. Well, the Lakers started off the game. Austin Reeves nails like a 45-foot three-pointer. That was great. They jump out to an 11-3 lead with amazing passes from Luke and LeBron. 647 remaining in the first quarter.

Lakers were up 19 to 8 on a Lucas three-point play. And at this point, the Lakers were doing great. Actually, the Lakers were on an 8-0 scoring run. the Lakers biggest lead of the quarter was 17 points. And the first quarter, they had a 17 point lead up 27 to 10. Now, in the quarter, Lakers were led by Lucas, 11 points, five rebounds, four assists, looked like he was going to be the star of the game. LeBron, not too shabby either, 10 points, three rebounds, two assists, points in the paint.

Lakers dominating 18 to 2. Timberwolves, their leading score, believe or not, was only four. That was Anthony Edwards who had four points. That was a leading score. Lakers shot an amazing 57% from the field, 33% from the three-point line, and they were perfect 100% free throws. They couldn't have played better basketball at this moment against a Wolves team that is a good Wolves team, a team that many people think, not only the playoff caliber team, but if you ask people in Minnesota before the season began, they would say this is the team they expect to be in the NBA finals. Wolves only shot 32% in the first quarter, 21% from a three-point range. Lakers on the boards dominated 16 to 5 assist Lakers up in that category,

seven to five, bench points, Lakers, four, turnovers, Lakers, Lakers, six, wolves three. Lakers is the one thing that bothers me a ton is the turnovers. The other thing bothers me a ton is the miss free throws. And we'll get into all that, but look, to be a championship team, and that's the goal for every Laker team is to be a championship team, you got to sit there and you've got to fix some of the stakes. Some of the things that you can control.

So when you're sitting there saying, let's get ready to sit there and make a run into championship, what do good teams do? Well, good teams close. And that includes making free throws and not turning the ball over. You're giving possessions back to the other team over and over again. And it seems like every single night, the Lakers lead with turnovers. And it becomes very frustrating that can get sloppy. Second quarter, wolves outscore the Lakers by five points, 30 to 25.

And so here we go. with 10-10 remaining in the first half, Lakers are up by 17, 39-22, 9-30 remaining in the second quarter, Lakers go up by 18 on LeBron James three-pointer. The score Lakers go up by 20, 42-24, 859 remaining Lakers up by 20 on Austin Reeves layup. And then with 501 remaining,

Lakers go up by even 21 on an Austin-Reeves and 1, making the score 52-31. We're feeling pretty good at this moment. Now, the Lakers hit a bad stretch. All of a sudden, the Lakers cannot get a basket. The Lakers missed 10 of their next 11 shots, and the wolves cut the lead down to 54, 39. And even at that point, you're going, man, it's still a big lead. They're doing okay.

Well, they go into the half, and things obviously are in hand for the Lakers because they have a lead. They have the lead at 58, 47. But at the same time, the Lakers have played really good basketball in the first quarter, did okay at the beginning of the second quarter. and now things are starting to trend in the wrong direction, which is always a little bit scary for this team. Half time for the Lakers. Lakers, again, shot 49%, 35% from three-point range,

8 of 23. Free throws, 8 of 11, 73%. You can kind of live with that one. You'd love to see the Lakers shoot at least over 80%. Again, they're NBA players. They practice free throws all the time. Wolves shot 40% from the field, 28% from 3, 7 to 25,

and they were shooting 73% from the line as well. Lakers at the half led by LeBron James 19, five rebounds and three assists. Luca had 13.7 rebounds and four assists. And the wolves were led by Anthony Edwards, who scored nine in the second quarter. He had 13 points at the half, five rebounds and three assists. Lakers rebounds at the half, they're doing fine. 19 to 12. Assists, Lakers ahead, 13 to 12.

Bench points, Lakers 12, the wolves, 20. And that's because Tarrant Shannon Jr. was insane tonight. A lot of people don't even know who he is, but man, he was ridiculous. off the bench for the wolves. Again, bench points, wolves had 20. Lakers had 12. Turnovers, Lakers had seven. Woles had five. Points off turnovers. The wolves had seven. Lakers at four, not huge to affect things, but points in the paint. Lakers dominated, 26 to 16. So here's the stat we talk about all the time with the Lakers. You know, can the Lakers close things out? The Lakers coming into tonight's game, 30 and five when leading at the half. So that improves now to 31 and 5. So things are

looking pretty good for the Lakers at that point. And we're feeling, feeling pretty good, feeling pretty good as far as what's happening with this team and moving forward going, okay, what can they do in the third quarter, fix some of the sloppiness, make some of the free throws. Obviously, you hit a bad stretch in the second quarter where you weren't making your shots. Well, that couldn't possibly happen again. Well, sure enough, you know, things got a little bit crazy in the second half. And we'll talk about what happened in the second half in just a second. Again, I want to mention the people over at Fandle, don't forget, Fandul, when the The game tips off.

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And I mentioned, again, 30 and 5 when leading. at the half, what's next for the LA Lakers? And what's going to happen in the third quarter? Can the Lakers improve on this? Well, here we go. In the third quarter, Lakers start off great. They go on a 10-2 scoring run. 1032 remaining in the third quarter. Lakers extend that lead to 15 points and a Rui breakaway dunk. Now, what was interesting was we was talk about in NFL, non-contact injuries are the ones that scare you the most. Rui immediately flinch, not so sure at the time. Was it a lower leg injury? Was it a back-end? injury. We've seen Rui leave the court a few times in the last week, and now Rui leaves the court

again. And it was later revealed that he left because of a left knee strain, not a sprain, but a strain. And so the idea of the Lakers playing tomorrow night against the Clippers is a good chance we will not see Rui in that game. Lakers will have Saturday off, and then the Lakers will face the Clippers again on Sunday. But the Lakers might have to go without Rui on Friday in the first game against the clippers. 10 minutes remaining in the third quarter, LeBron James Leap, gave the Lakers a 64-47 lead, started to feel a little bit more comfortable.

9-31 remaining in the quarter. Dorian Finney-Smithmsmiss 3-pointed gave the Lakers an 18-point lead, 521 remaining in the third quarter with a score 74-59. So the Lakers had a 15-point lead at this point, and all of a sudden, in Minnesota loses their best player. Anthony Edwards, he gets ejected after receiving a second technical foul in the game, and he's gone. Now, there's so much talk about, you know, with stars and what do you do with the double technical?

This has been a rule in the NBA forever. You get two T's in one game. It's an automatic objection. But at the same time, you look at it two different ways. What are you trying to do as far as selling your product to the fans? Is it, does it make sense to still keep that rule around? When you have a star player that leaves the game, you know, tickets are expensive at the same time. NBA ratings have been critical this year.

NBA ratings have gone down. Does it hurt the league when? a star player like Anthony Edwards leaves. Look, it benefited the Lakers tonight, but at the same time, it's a business and it's entertainment. And when a guy leaves the court and not only is Anthony Edwards gone for basically most of the second half, but Anthony Edwards now can't play tomorrow night against Utah, which is great for the Lakers again, because we want to see Minnesota dropping the standings.

But he has 16 technical fouls on the year and he's going to be suspended for tomorrow's game against Utah. So if you're a Minnesota fan, that becomes extremely frustrating. The way the third quarter ended was both teams scored 26 points. So the Lakers, again, they don't get the points they need. When we talk about getting those 30 points a quarter, Lakers don't get it. They get to 26. They started off hot and then they went a little bit cold. So fourth quarter starts off and things aren't going real well.

So Minnesota gets off to an 11-0 scoring run. They cut the lead down to 6, 92, 88. And that's what's 6.55 remaining in the fourth quarter. 520, the lead gets cut down to 9390. Now, of course, we're all nervous because it seems like we can't buy a basket and we can't make free throws. We're missing free throws all over the place. 4.55 remaining, Luca had missed his last 10 shots before getting a layup, making the score 95, 90 Lakers. Luca at this point, he was 5 and 19 from the field, 0 of 8 from 3 point range. And finally with 337 remaining, Luca connects on a crazy 3-pointer, almost falling out of bounds. Fan has to catch him. beats the clock and the Lakers take a 98-91 lead.

At that point, you start to feel comfortable that things are going our way. And Luca making a basket, making a three-pointer was big. And he said after the game, he goes, man, he goes, you know, I stink making the good ones, paraphrasing, but the ones that you shouldn't go in are the ones that are going in. So 219 remaining, Luca made one of two free throws. Again, they're missing free throws. We'll get into that.

Makes the score 103-96 Lakers. Two minutes remaining, LeBron's two free throws. gave the Lakers a 105-97 lead. At this time, still not real comfortable. Even though the Lakers have an eight-point lead, still not real comfortable. And 103 remaining, LeBron knocks down a jumper in the paint to give the Lakers a 107-98 lead.

Right then, we're feeling pretty good. Gabe Vincent, though, he kind of iced the game, 37 seconds remaining. And it's amazing that the Lakers were out to such a big lead in the first quarter that we have to go down in the final 37 seconds to feel comfortable. Gabe Vincent finally, uh, uh, finally,

Ices the game as he knocks down two free throws, gives the Lakers a 109-100 lead. And the Lakers end up winning the game overall, 11-102. And so overall, the Lakers, they get the win, most importantly, but are they playing championship basketball? And so, again, the goal is with, you know, a quarter of the season remaining, are the Lakers where you need them to be no?

I mean, they just acquire one of the best players in the league to play with one of the best players in the league. And there are other guys on the roster that have to figure out a way to fit in. Austin Reeves has done a great job, by the way, of finding his role on this team. He fits in where he needs to fit in, does whatever he can. Defensively, Austin Reeves is a guy that sacrifices his body all the time.

We talk about this almost every single game. He's fun to watch. If you like guys that just work and do whatever it takes to win, you're an Austin Reeves fan. At the same time, it's always amazing to me. As much as we talk about Luca, that Austin Reeves is actually older than the Luca. And he doesn't have the name.

It hasn't been in the league as long, but Luca's ridiculous. And there's a reason why the Lakers made that trade, and they fleece Dallas as they get to keep this superstar for about another 10 years. But Austin Reeves is a lot of fun. Got to give a lot of credit to the Lakers for figuring out a way. And JJ Reddick for figuring out of way to make this work. Speaking of JJ Reddick, I think overall you have to give that coaching staff,

who I've been extremely critical of before the Luca trade, about the way that went about their business. Didn't understand what is happening with assistant coaches? You have Nate McMillan and you have Scott Brooks, two former head coaches in this league. And you have JJ Redick who has been around about. basketball his entire life that the Lakers look like they were getting out coach and weren't getting the most out of their players. The Lakers 100% are getting the most out of

their players now. There's not a guy that comes off the bench right now in this rotation where you're going, oh, why are they putting that guy in for? It's just not enough minutes for everybody, but everybody that comes in knows, hey, I got to do everything I can on the defensive end of the court as well to make it count. So whether it's a Dorian Finney Smith, where it's a Jared Vanderbilt, whether it's Adulton Connect, Gabe Vincent, any of those guys that come in, you feel comfortable, but at the same time, if you're like me, I imagine you're still looking to see, is 77 on the floor and is number 23 on the floor. If those guys are on the floor, you feel much better. It's almost like the security blanket that these teammates have,

having those guys on the floor. So overall, I'm extremely happy with what the Lakers are doing in the direction they're going. I think they continue to get better. The schedule is not an easy schedule for this, for this Laker team. So there's a lot of things that are going to go on with the Lakers as they need to, of course, improve and get better to hopefully make a run at a championship. And right now, if you believe that this Laker team is the real deal, I think many people will look and see what Cleveland has done. That's fine. But I think a lot of people feel this Laker team could be on pace to face the Boston Celtics again in the NBA finals. And who would have guessed all the way back in December when this team was struggling that this was going to be a team that

can make it to the NBA finals. Hats off to both the J.J. Reddick and Rob Polinka for making this because when you talk about postseason awards, and I'm not a huge postseason awards fan, you can honestly tip your hat and say, I think the Lakers might have the coach of the year and might have the front office of the year as well by being able to pull this move off to get Luca. Name another GM that was able to get a superstar like Luca

and stick him with LeBron, who all of a sudden, even though he's 40, he looks like he's excited as can be to be in the NBA and looks forward to playing these games. Speaking of LeBron, LeBron in the fourth quarter, it looked like he came up with a hamstring strain that always makes you nervous back-to-back games in the NBA aren't easy, as they are rare now in today's game,

which is always frustrating for NBA fans. When you buy a ticket to a game, expect to see your superstar, and then LeBron James hopefully can go back to back and play tomorrow night against the Clippers. Every single one of these games is extremely important for this team. We'll see what happens when we wakes up tomorrow to see if he's ready to go. Tell you what, if it was the Clippers and Kauai, very good chance he's not playing.

But with LeBron, I think LeBron will do everything he can to be out there for this team. We'll take your comments in just a second here. But first, I want to mention the people over at Robin Hood. Don't forget right now, there are great options for you with Robin Hood Gold. You can now enjoy the VIP treatment, receiving 3% IRA match on retirement contributions. The privileges of their very privilege are no longer exclusive. With Robin Hood Gold, your annual IRA contributions are boosted by 3%, plus you also get 4% APY on your cash and non-retirement accounts. That's over eight times the national savings average.

The perks of the high net worth are now available for any net worth. New gold standards here with Robin Hood Gold to receive 3% boost on annual IRA contributions. Sign up at robin hood.com slash gold. Investing involves a risk rate subject to change. Three percent match requires Robin Hood gold at $5 a month for one year from first math. must keep funds in IRA for five years. Go to robin hood.com slash a boost. Over eight times the national average and savings account interest rate claim is based on data from the FDIC. As of November 18th, 2024, Robin Hood Financial LLC, gold membership is offered by Robin Hood, Gold LLC. All right. So many of you are very excited about this Lake Gowin.

Many of you have comments, some of the things you like, some of the things you dislike about tonight's game. Let's hear what you. Let's see what you guys have to say. Craig, always good to see you right there. So here we go. We missed way too many free throws. Craig couldn't agree more. And if you listen to the show from the beginning when I started talking during the Laker postcast, man, I'm one of those guys that falls back on the fundamentals. And that includes turnovers and free throws and talk about you got to make your free throws. Everyone who's, you know, obviously a Laker fan, if you played any kind of basketball at all, whether it's rec basketball or high school basketball,

you know your coach has always stressed free throws. Well, let's look at Minnesota first. Minnesota made 20 of 26 free throws. They shot 77% from the line. Not a great night, but very acceptable night in the NBA. Lakers, on the other hand, shot 60, well, 70% is what it will say, 69.6% from the free throw line. And so you go, well, that's not too bad.

Well, let me show you this. The Lakers missed 14 free throws tonight. 14. There were 32 of 46. That's a lot of free throws to shoot. It's one of the reason why we're on so late tonight. But going through some of your stars and you go, how does that happen? LeBron missed three of them.

Jackson Hayes, he missed two of them. Luca missed four of them. Luca's supposed to be an outstanding shooter. He missed four of them. Austin Reeves, he missed one. And overall, it becomes frustrating. Dalton Connect, who's a great shooter, missed both of his free throw attempts. Dalton Connect on the night, 11 minutes, missed both his shots attempted, didn't make a three, missed both free throws.

So he ended up playing 11 minutes, got one rebound, no points. That's obviously a disappointing night. That's a failure of a night for Dalton Connect. But when you look at the Lakers on what they need to do, obviously you got to improve on your turnovers, which was high. It was a total of 12 turnovers tonight. That means, you know, you're giving up basically 12 possessions without getting a shot. You look at Minnesota, they turn the ball over 10 times, but that's Minnesota on the road without their best player. You have some built-in excuses if you're Minnesota and why things didn't work out.

For the Lakers, you're at home. There's no excuse to miss 14 free throws. It's way too many. And if the Lakers were to lost this game, it's the first thing you look at is that box score to go, well, how many free throws do they miss and what could they control? The Lakers have to fix that. The Lakers are better than that. We've seen the Lakers shoot better than that. To miss 14 free throws in NBA game is absolutely unbelievable.

Couldn't agree with you more, Craig. It's a great point. Again, wolves, you know, to hold them to 102, that's good defense. That's one of the things that's been underrated on this team. If you're a diehard Laker fan, you realize the type of defense that these guys are playing right now. And their defense is good as any defense in the league. In some metrics, you're seeing the Lakers ranked as the number one defense in the league right now. I think it's only going to get better.

Guys, I think a lot of that has to do with LeBron James. LeBron James' effort on defense is the best I've seen since he's put a Laker uniform on, and I think a lot of that has to do with what LeBron's doing. If LeBron can do it, there's no excuse for anyone else on the court not to do it as well. You take pride in your defense. When they lost Anthony Davis, that was a major loss on defense. When they lost Max Christie, that was a major loss on their defense. For the Lakers to play the way they're playing with this unit,

and everyone said they have no rim protectors, they're playing great. They're playing very good basketball with what they have. And again, I credit a lot of this, not only, to pride in the players to pick it up on the defensive end, but also JJ Redick to stress it out and say this, this is important. This is a big part of this game. George, let's say, what's this is George? I don't just read it out loud.

I can't even read it, George, but I'm afraid of something dirty, so I'm not going to read it. Good Lord. Again, Craig says, Luca doesn't have his legs yet. And Craig, I don't, I don't disagree with that. Maybe he doesn't, maybe he doesn't have his legs because the shot's not falling. And that makes sense. Again, he hasn't played a game since December 25th before he just joined the Lakers.

He's getting his leg. He doesn't have time constraints now. So the Lakers saying you're good to go. Obviously, he's passing every health test. But Luke is a better player. As good as Luke has been and shows signs of saying, man, I'm really happy he's wearing our uniform. Luca, we have not seen the best of Luke on a consistent basis. And again, Luke is going to hit those shots.

And I don't know about you guys as basketball fans, but for me, one of the things I love about Luca is he sees the game in slow motion. And he knows when to speed up and he knows when to slow it down. It's amazing to me how many shots he gets off underneath the basket that he knows when to drive at full speed. And at the same time, he knows when to slow it down. It's not easy to do to slow your heart rate down and slow your body down. Like just talking about Austin Reeves, as much I love Austin Reeves, he has one speed. And that's, that's, you know, basically pedal to the ground at all. times. Luca can go that way, but he also slows it down where it throws other guys off. I mean,

he is never rattled. And when the shot starts falling, especially from the outside, we're going to see the best version of him. Looking at the final box score tonight, LeBron James, and he carried this team. And LeBron did it in the last game, too, that the Lakers won. LeBron, 33.17 rebounds, six assists. Just an incredible evening for him, 11 to 21 from the field, four of nine from three point range. He played 37 minutes. And to grab 33 points and 17 rebounds, that's a big night. Austin Reeves actually was the second leading score for the Lakers tonight. In 38 minutes, he had 23 points. Always picks up a charge every single game on the defensive side, too.

Always love to see it. Luke on the night, 36 minutes. He had 21 points. He had 13 rebounds as well with five assists. But the deal with Luca was the shooting. The shooting was absolutely terrible. And he knows it too. They didn't run from the fact when he's interviewed after the game.

Luca was only six of 20 from the field. one of nine from three point range and that was a shot that he'd said to throw up because the shot clock was running out and thank goodness it went in so you know overall lakers again defense helped them out um effort helped them out for a while there though it kind of felt a little bit like that game against charlotte that when they lost that game and you're wondering you know what's happening why can't we stop it why can't we stop what the other team is doing because it was getting out of hand and it was getting uncomfortable as far as the way things are going with the win tonight by the way, the Lakers have now won 16 of their last 20 games. They've won four in a row and exciting to watch. So let's take a look at the standings to see where the Lakers are at. You guys all know if you follow the show, I always say I want to see the Lakers somehow end up in one of the top four seats. I think the Lakers could actually do a little bit better than that. So the number one seed, there's no chance the Lakers are going to catch Oklahoma City. They have a nine game lead right now. Oklahoma City is playing great basketball. They've won eight or their last

to end either 47 and 11 on the season. They have a nine-game lead over the second seed, Memphis Grizzlies, and the third seed is the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers beat on Saturday night, but they're nine and a half games out. The Lakers right now, as of tonight, are the fourth seed, 10 and a half games out. So one game behind the Denver Nuggets.

The Lakers and the Nuggets can pass Memphis. At the same time, I think the Lakers could pass both of them. It would be amazing to see the Lakers where they were at at one point during the state. season to possibly end up with the number two seed in the West. So if they can get in the top four, we're in good shape. Houston Rockets, as I've said from the beginning, didn't have faith in Houston. Houston's 37 and 22 on the season. They're the fifth seed. The Clippers who will see not only tomorrow night, we'll also see them on Sunday. The Clippers are 15 games out at the six

seed. The Golden State Warriors, who everybody now has fallen in love with since the Jimmy Butler deal, Warriors have won five games in a row. They're now the seventh seed. It wasn't long ago that the Warriors weren't even in the playoff picture. Minnesota is the eighth seed with the loss. Dallas is the ninth seed at 32 and 28. Sacramento is the 10th seed, 17 games out, and then Phoenix Suns looking in. They're three and a half games behind the 10th seed,

Sacramento Kings, and that's about where it sets up. But for the lake, because you take care of your own business, and they're going to get big time tested with the remainder of the schedule as the schedule gets extremely tough for this team. But it's basically a race all the way through to have a fantastic March, obviously the season ends in basically mid-April, and then you're going into playoffs. And let's see what this team is about. You know, what can they do?

Can they win another championship? Can they win a championship outside of the bubble where LeBron James gets a parade as a member of the L.A. Lakers? Just to want to see who they could possibly match up with, Cleveland again, is figured it out. Cleveland has won eight games in a row. Cleveland has a six-and-a-half game lead over the Boston Celtics. Celtics are the two seed. And for me, those are the two teams that really have a chance.

The Knicks, even though the third seed, never beat a really good team, not sold on the New York Knicks. But even though Cleveland, in my opinion, you know, they've been number one the whole year in the east, I still think the Boston Celtics are the better team in that division. So that's where it's at right there. It's one of those right there. If it was the Lakers Celtics, the NBA with all the criticism that ratings are down, the ratings would go right up. This is perfect. As David Stern says, and I quote it all the time, what's your perfect NBA finals?

matchup, it would be Lakers against Lakers is what would get the best ratings. But Lakers Celtics, it's the best rivalry in all of sports and anything. So if you might love the NFL and you can name whatever teams you think and you might love Major League Baseball and Yankees and Dodgers were great for me as a Dodger fan. I love seeing that World Series, but there's nothing like the Boston Celtics playing the L.A. Lakers for the championship. And there's nothing worse than losing in an NBA finals to one of those teams. They'll tell you the same thing.

Both sides will say the same thing. At the same time, there's nothing better than beating the Boston Celtics for an NBA championship. So this Laker team has a lot of room for growth. And I think this Laker team could be really, really good moving forward. So it's exciting. I can't wait to see how the rest of the season is going to play out. Again, there's another game tomorrow night against the Clippers. I believe Pete Fox, who covers the Clippers for Locked-on will join me on the show.

You'll have two people talking. I'll be promoting the Clippers. I'll be promoting the Lakers. looking forward to hopefully your comments tomorrow night after the game. Again, Lakers Clippers will go at it again at Crypto on Sunday. We'll talk about that game as well. Don't forget, Brian and Andy have all your stuff every single day talking Laker basketball. I'm here for the Laker Postcast.

You can follow me on social media, as I said at the beginning of the show, if you have any questions, any comments that you want to talk to Laker basketball, I'll respond to your direct messages and we'll get into all that. But overall, anywhere you get your podcast, you can catch every one of the shows, catch them on YouTube as well. But thank you so much tonight for joining me as the Lakers win. 11-102 of the Minnesota Timberwolves have now won four in a row, and the best is yet to come.

We'll see you tomorrow night, everybody.