Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Luka and LeBron are too much for Knicks

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Luka Doncic had 32 points and 12 assists, and LeBron James added 31 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists as the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the New York Knicks in overtime 113-109. Jalen Brunson had 39 points and 10 assists in the loss but had to leave the game in overtime with a sprained ankle. The Lakers will look to extend their 8-game winning streak Saturday night in Boston when they take on the hated Celtics. 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 Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers vs New York Knicks 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!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. 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. Continue their winning ways. Luca comes out red hot. Jalen Brunson puts on a show and the ending felt like a playoff game. We talk about it all on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. I'm Dave Palais.

The beginning of the show is brought to you by Fandul. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandul right now because Fandul customers could get $150 of bonus bets. if your first $5 bet wins. What a game for the Lakers. Again, this is a game right here. I'd love to hear some of your comments on what you thought of the game. Again, Lakers win 113-109.

That's her eighth straight win as this team gets rated to travel on the road and take on the Boston Celtics, and what should be a very exciting game on Saturday night. First, they had to take care of the New York Knicks. Kind of talked about it a little bit after the Pelicans game. We talked about media market size, and, of course, you have New York and you have L.A. It's always a big deal because there are so many transplants from New York that go to L.A.

and realize the weather stinks in New York. And when you can afford to come to L.A. and enjoy a little bit of sunshine and make things happen here, you still bring your fandom with you from New York. So you see a lot of people who are Knicks fans that show up to crypto. And we've seen it for years. The thing is the Knicks are an organization. And I've said if you're a Knicks fan, you're going to hate what I'm going to say. It's an overrated organization.

You haven't won a championship since 1973. So it's one of those situations where you know what? You can talk about how great your Knicks are and you can talk about Walt Frazier and Patrick Ewing and everyone else that you had. You guys fall short all the time. And that's exactly what the Knicks did today. The Knicks fell short and the Lakers do what they do and the Lakers win. So it was an exciting game. Again, I want to hear your comments on what you think as far as what happened tonight.

But for the Lakers, I was kind of nervous thinking, are they overlooking the Knicks for the fact they already took care of them once? but also at the same time, are they in a situation where they're looking towards the Boston Celtics game on Saturday, which we know is a nationally televised game. So this game was very, very exciting. And again, maybe it shouldn't have been so exciting. But I tell what, usually when we talk about these games and we talk about what's going on in the post game, again, I'm Dave Palet, and I'm with you every single night. If this is your first time watching and joining the show, listening and join the show, you can catch every single one of these shows from Lockdown, Los Angeles. list through Laker coverage for me all the way, of course, anywhere you get your podcast also available on YouTube, a bunch of different platforms.

If you want to find the shows, and again, if you want to get Laker talk every single day, make sure you tune into Brian and Andy. They do a great job talking Lakers. I'm just here for the post game shows. Love talking really what happens after the game. If you've been with me all season long, you know, I'm not always in the best mood when the team loses and maybe I'm not so nice. but this is one of those where the Lakers keep winning,

and I've been in a great mood. I've been in an absolutely great mood. We're going to pick things up in the fourth quarter. And so the reason we say we picked things up in the fourth quarter for the Lakers is because this is where it got really exciting. Lakers were trailing, and the Lakers really had been trailing since the second quarter. So in the fourth quarter, the Lakers come out with the important part here. 602 remaining in the quarter, the Lakers cut the next lead down to five on a gave Vincent three-pointer.

It made the score 90 to 85. 457 remaining in the fourth quarter. Lakers cut the lead down to four. Jackson Hayes dunk off a lot of pass from Luca. 421 remaining in the quarter. LeBron James three-pointer makes the score 9190 as the Lakers on a 10-1 run. And you can feel right there the Lakers have the momentum. The Lakers, it feels like the Lakers are going to win this game in regulation

because they have all the momentum going their way. Former Laker Josh Hart at 3-22 remaining. He makes a three, makes the score 94-90 Knicks. 353 remaining. Gabe Vincent, underrated all night long. Gabe Vincent, man, his shot was there and the Lakers relied on him to hit that shot. Gabe Vincent knocks down a three-pointer and Nick still ahead, 94, 93. Two minutes remaining, Jalen Brunson. If you don't watch Jalen Brunson a lot, Jalen Brunson's one of the best players in this league. A lot of people expect him to be on that Olympic team. He was not, but Jalen Brunson is an outstanding player. They mentioned a bunch during the broadcast, but Luca and Jalen were once teammates in doubt. Dallas and Dallas let him walk right out the door.

Again, I don't know what goes on in Dallas, but you had a chance to have a Jalen Brunson, Luca combination for years, and instead you let Jalen go on to the Knicks. But whatever that's in the past, here we go. Two minutes remaining, Jalen Brunson gives the Knicks a 96-993 lead. A minute 51 remaining. LeBron James comes right back.

He ties the game at 96 with a three-pointer. A minute 21. There's Gabe Vincent again, corner three. Lakers now lead 99-99. and we're feeling pretty good. 46 seconds remaining in the game, Jalen Brunson, he ties the game at 99, and it's one of those that's frustrating as we had to overtime.

So you're going, okay, overtime, we know how it works. You know, you look for different signs. For me, I always look for the team that can score two consecutive baskets with that their other team scoring. Always seems to me is that's the team that's going to win in overtime, but it was tough. I mean, the Lakers got a huge break in overtime. 4-15 into with with or in the game remaining I should say Lucas jumper gave the Lakers a 101-99 lead

347 Luca from way downtown 27-footer gave the Lakers a 104-99 lead and then with 3344-9 lead and then with 334 remaining Jalen Brunson hits two free throws to cut the lead down to 104 101 now again exciting we're going back and forth we're going who start is going to do what we know with the next it's going to be Jalen Brunson at that point Jailen Brunson had scored every point for the Knicks in overtime. They weren't looking for them to go anywhere else. They have some guys on the team, Carl Anthony Towns, Josh Hart.

They have guys that you know, but it was the Jalen Brunson show. They were going to live or die with Jalen Brunson in this game. Three minutes remaining Jalen Brunson's jumper made the score 104, the 103 Lakers, 245 left in overtime. Austin Reeves, thank goodness. We had a horrible shooting night.

You can expect it. We'll talk more about that and why Austin Reeves struggled in a little bit, but Austin Reeves three gave the Lakers a 107, 103 lead. And 223 remaining, Jalen Brunson knocks down two free throats. It's now 107, 105, 124 remaining Jalen Brunson, he rolls his ankles. This might be the play of the game. Right now, if you're a Knicks fan, he said, when he rolled his ankle and he's down on the ground, you're going, he's no way he's going to continue, and he didn't.

Jalen Brunson rolled his ankle when he landed on Austin Reeves' foot. Brunson tied the game with two free throws, kind of little, everyone was in sick of Kobe in situations like this, because he stayed in the game, makes both free throws, and then he leaves the game. And not only does he leave the game, he doesn't go to the bench, he goes straight to the locker and what looked like a severely sprained ankle, not a doctor, can't tell you what happened. The deal is, though, with ankle sprains, as we all know, for sports fans, there's two different types. You have your ankle sprain that you and I do when we're at the gym, or you have that high ankle sprain,

and the high ankle sprain is the one that puts you out for six weeks. The lower ankle sprain might be out just a couple weeks. We'll find out the severity of that ankle sprain. or tomorrow, but it doesn't matter for the Lakers. They're going to see the Knicks the rest of the year. So it might sound cold-blooded to say that, but it is one of those. We'll see you later, but we probably won't see you this season. 59 seconds remaining.

How about Jackson-Hays? Not only has Jackson-Hays come through with some big moments tonight for the Lakers, but Jackson-Hays played in crunch time. He wasn't on the bench. The Lakers needed him, and it was interesting the way they played defense. Or many times where Jackson-Hays, they abandoned having him under the basket. As far as the shot blocker goes, a guy that maybe gets rebounds, they brought them out. They brought them out often to be on Brunson. And so it was a little bit different of a defense. But again, if you're a guy like Jalen Brunson and you're seeing this guy that's over seven feet tall, who's athletic, obviously not a real skilled offensive player, but that's not what the Lakers are looking for a skilled defensive player. And they made a switch. It was unusual and it worked for the most part. Jackson Hayes kind of threw off the Knicks offense. It made it really a one and five, a one against five offense defense. So Jackson Hayes makes a

both free throws with 59 seconds remaining. Lakers now up 109-107. 38.6 seconds remaining. LeBron James made both free throws. We talk about free throws all the time, how important it is. Well, LeBron James makes both free throws, Gives the Lakers a four-point lead at 11-107.

And then the Knicks, they cut the lead down to 11-109. And with nine seconds remaining, LeBron James does what we expect them to do. We expect every good NBA player to do. He makes two more free throws, secures the win. 113-109 for the Lakers. That is their eighth straight win of the season, and the Lakers are rolling.

Lakers are looking good right now. I mean, eight straight wins. Very impressive to see where this team was. Again, that's a 40th one in the season. Lakers are now 40 and 21 on the year, the Knicks fall to 40 and 22. But we talked about this schedule, about this schedule is going to get extremely tough for the Lakers

when you talk about when they lost two really, disappointing games. And as far as Luca being on this team and him trying to get his win back and making sure his calf is healthy for the Laker players to get used to playing with them, to all of a sudden, Austin Reeves, he misses games because Austin Reeves

is in a situation where we don't know how long he's going to be out. Well, Austin Reeves comes back tonight, and that was a huge plus for this team. Huge plus for this team to have Austin Reeves back. And for Laker fans, we wanted to see Austin Reeves, and we want to see Luca and we want to see LeBron.

play together as much as they can before the postseason to make sure that they're basically able to, you know, sharpen everything up, polish what they need to do to be the best version of themselves. And so when you lost, you lost obviously Reeves, you lose some of that time. Reeves was playing outstanding. It really was a perfectly good,

three-headed monster for these guys and what they were doing. So very exciting for this Laker team. We've got a ton of Laker talk to talk about. I'll get to your comments as well. But I do want to mention the people over at better help. Now look, here's the question you have to ask yourself, who's in your support system? We all need people to lead on, whether it's friends, family, mentors, professionals, even the strongest

leaders and athletes know asking for help makes them better. Therapy is one of the best ways to build strong support system. And it's not just for tough times. It helps with setting boundaries, developing coping skills, and becoming the best version of yourself. Learning to ask for help is extremely important. Very hard to realize when you have to ask for help. Everyday benefits of therapy very important, especially in a crisis moments. It's convenient, it's accessible, and it's very easy. Recommend that you go ahead and you try therapy. And with better help, there's no better way to do it because not only is it personal, but you can do it right there at home. And it is much different than saying the old days where you've got to get in the car and

you've got to make the transition. And sometimes you feel like I can figure this out myself, but with better help, they're there, obviously, to make your life that much better. Build your support system with better help, visit betterhelp.com slash locked on MBA today. Get 10% off your first month. That's better, HELP. Again, HELP.com slash locked on NBA. All right. So here we go. The Lakers, again, outstanding win. 113109, extremely exciting. I'd tell you before we get to some of the things that happened earlier in the game, kind of want to get to your comments. I'm kind of see what you guys have to say because man, I'm pumped up. Daniel, man, I'm right with you right here. I see right away. It says 20, 25 champs.

Who would have thought that when the way this thing started out? I mean, it seemed like over and over again, I was calling it Rob Polinkas. And you said you were going to make a trade if this team wasn't doing what they're supposed to do in December. Where are you? And when he goes ahead and he gets Shake Milton and Dorian Finney Smith, that wasn't the trade I was thinking. And I'm going, all right, there might be a better team, maybe a better three point shooting team, defensive team, but it wasn't enough. to even think that this team could be a championship team with what you see right now and knowing that they have about, you know, five weeks to get better. I think this is a team number one. They believe they can win. Two is you tell me a team in the league that wants to play the

Lakers. Who wants to see the Lakers on their playoff schedule? The Lakers are tough. How do you sit there and decide what you're going to cut down? If you can get Austin Reeves back to being what he was before, and I don't think Austin Reeves stinks, I think what happened was when you have a leg injury, it affects your jump shot. You guys all know what it was like when Luca first got here. We weren't sure if it was because of the calf injury that was healing, or is it because that Luca didn't have his legs and his wind wasn't there? Right now, we're seeing an incredible version of Luca. This might be the best version of Luca. I think the only thing that Laker fans probably say when they watch Luca that they get frustrated with is the technical fouls, right? You can't

have a technical foul that will come back and hurt your team. One thing about LeBron, he gets knocked around a lot, man, he keeps his mouth shut pretty good. Yeah, people who hate the Lakers and hate LeBronos, they always a cry baby. Disagree. Disagree. And when you're sitting and you watch today's NBA, it is very physical. And anyone who wants to say, oh, it was much more physical in the 90s. That was different basketball.

Those games were terrible. Those games were final scores were in the 70s and 80s. That wasn't even good basketball. I was there as a media member. That wasn't fun. You know, the skill to it with what Magic and the Lakers did in the 80s to 90s basketball, which was just basically bruising basketball. Today, it might be the best combination.

I've been honest with you. I think there's some things that happen in this league that we're talking about guys that make a tremendous amount of money. And you talk about NFL salary caps and look at the money you guys get. But compared to the NBA, NBA players get so much more money and you've got to keep those guys healthy. The fans that pay the high price of tickets want to see the best players being able to play. And when you're seeing Dalton Connect go to the ground and slam is headed into the floor. and yet there's nothing that's called on his end.

LeBron James, who has over 50,000 career points in the regular season and postseason, LeBron James gets hit a lot. And a lot of times there aren't calls. And so there's not the whole Jordan Rules thing with LeBron James. I think it's a very, very physical game. And what happens is your superstars end up getting hurt. And at the same time, what the NBA doesn't want more than anything else is they don't want fights. They don't want guys who start throwing punches.

And that's what eventually starts happening when you let, players play pushing the rules a little bit. See, there has to be a happy medium in between there on what you're going to do with the NBA. It's pretty physical. If you watch it, the games like we all watch, the people that I see in the chat, I see you guys every single night. I know you guys are watching.

It's physical. You go to a game in person and he realized how physical it is. It's tough. I mean, LeBron James has been around this game for a long time, 22 seasons. I guarantee you, tonight's one of those nights where he goes home and says, I am exhausted. I am completely exhausted. That is one of those where every single guy on the floor gave it everything they had. And lucky for the Lakers, they are the ones that ended up winning. Again, I'm excited right here for what's happening with the Lakers because, as I said, if you join me

in my very first show in November, I told you, I count championships. And that's where I'm at right now. My goal is that when I pass, the Lakers have more championships in the Boston Celtics. And right now, the Celtics have 18 and the Lakers have 17. I want to see the Lakers go ahead and get that one because I believe one of these two teams is winning the title this year. Oklahoma City is an outstanding team. I got it. But Oklahoma City at the same time, they're young and they're inexperienced. And when push comes to shove, there's a big difference from playoff basketball to regular season basketball. And for the Lakers and Celtics, they know it. Okay. So here we go. Saturday night. Can't wait. 5.30 tip off Pacific time. My neighbor down the street's a huge Celtics fan.

We go back and forth all the time on this whole thing. Can't even take it. And if you try to watch that Celtics show on HBO, I said, you know, I'm a basketball fan. I'm going to watch this thing. I, be honest with you, I made it 30 seconds in, and I deleted it right off the DVR. I can't watch that garbage.

I don't want to see anything about it. I don't want to respect them. I don't want to know them. There's nothing about the Boston Celtics that I admire. And for me, as a Laker fan, I always think of Jerry West, who have two or three of his jerseys behind me. And Jerry West would never even wear the color green

at any time in his life because he hated the Boston Celtics that much. That's exactly where I'm at. That's exactly where I'm at. So here we go. Craig, you say something interesting right here. And Craig, I appreciate you joining every single night. Luke and LeBron, best duo in the NBA. I agree with that. Now, if you watch that game at the beginning, kind of curious to know if I am I out of line on this one?

You guys tell me what you think as Laker fans. I thought it was too much of LeBron and Luke at the beginning. I thought the other guys became afterthoughts, which means they don't know what to do in the offensive end. Like I know those guys are the stars and those guys are supposed to do something, but I thought the Lakers, basically with Luke and LeBron only, you got to get your teammates involved at some point. Someone has to get those guys involved. Austin Reeves obviously took him a long time before he even started shooting the ball. And when he did shoot it, it wasn't going in. When Ruiz healthy, Ruiz usually gets a couple shots off early. But other guys were lost on that

team. Dorian Finney Smith seemed like offensively, he was lost because he didn't have an opportunity to find his way early in the game. Just like pitchers, right? If you have a fastball, you have a curveball, you have a change up, you got to mix them all in because the other people don't know what's coming. The batter doesn't know what's coming. Same thing with this offense. If it's Luke and LeBron all times, I know it's good luck stopping them,

but you got to keep those guys involved. Number one, it's going to keep those guys fresh, meaning Luke and LeBron, but also at the same time, if you're beating someone up with five different guys, you don't know which direction you're coming from because they're all dangerous. and gave Vincent, for example, tonight, he was dangerous. Dalton Connect at times.

He was dangerous. And Jackson Hayes was dangerous. And when they figured it out to me and they got a wave a little bit more from the two-man game and it's just going to be two guys all night long, it didn't work. Guess what? The Knicks figured it out and the NICS went cold and the Lakers couldn't buy a basket. And it was one of those like, are the Lakers going to lose this game? Are the Lakers literally going to lose to the New York Knicks at home when they've had such a good run? where the only disappointing thing the Lakers have done in the last six weeks is loose to the Hornets and the

Jazz when we freaked out over that one. But they went through this entire tough schedule and have rolled the table and run the table, I should say. And then here we are sitting or fighting over this as far as guys getting involved in the team. We'll talk more about that as far as what the Lakers did and what they need to do. For the last commercial, just want to mention, of course, Fandul. Fan Duel, of course, a great customer of the show. and obviously always love having FanDuel around. So we'll tell you about FanDuel right now.

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That's fandle.com for your shot at $150 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right. So again, let's look at exactly what's going on in the box score right here. And we'll get to more of your comments as well. But we talked about a two-man game. And yes, I do agree. The Lakers duo of LeBron and Luker is the best duo of the NBA.

But to me, it seemed a little bit heavy. We're just going to read top to bottom in this box score. Dorian Finney Smith, who started playing 40 minutes tonight. Would you be shocked if I told you, Dorian Finney Smith only had two points, two points, five rebounds and 40 minutes? he's a pretty good player, but again, you go cold when you're never getting a shot opportunity. He was only one for five from the field. Five rebounds, two points.

That's all he had. Okay, Jackson Hayes, again, played a lot of minutes tonight, 34 minutes for Jackson Hayes. He had eight points. He had five rebounds. But again, Jackson Hayes did things that away from the ball that were extremely important. Also, Jackson Hayes hit these free throws, and he did it last game as well or big. To have a tall guy like Jackson Hayes knocked down these free throw, throws is big. He knocked down all three of his free throws against the Pelicans, knocked down

two crucial free throws tonight against the Knicks. So in 34 minutes, he has eight points. Austin Reeves, welcome back, Austin. Man, it was good to see Austin Reeves. 32 minutes tonight. Austin Reeves only had eight points was a terrible shooter all night long, and I'm sure he's frustrated, but when they needed him to make a big three-pointer, he absolutely did it. The biggest moment, Austin Reeves knocked down that three-pointer. So Austin Reeves from the field tonight, first game back. Two of 13. Not good at all. One to seven, three point range. That was a big one. So we'll take it. Austin Reeves assists. We always talk about how Austin Reeves takes pride in being a guy that can distribute the ball. Zero assists for Austin Reeves. In 32 minutes, eight points, no assists, six rebounds, not a typical Austin Reeves box score.

So the big star is for you, of course, Luca and LeBron. Luko outstanding. Starts the game great in the first quarter, just like he did against the Pelicans. look like Luca's going to have one of those nights, and he did. When the Lakers needed him, Luca was great. 43 minutes tonight for Luca, 44, by the way, for LeBron, 43 minutes for Luca. He had 32 points. He had 12 assists. He had seven rebounds. Turnovers a little bit high, five.

He also had five personal fouls, which scares you a little bit if you're a Laker fan for the idea that what if he ever fouls out of one of these games and it's the playoffs. You can't have Luca foul. I also can't have Luca get technical fouls like Draymond Green and deciding a series. but Luca's awesome. Luca's great. He's everything we thought he was going to be,

and I think there's a lot more in the tank that you're going to see even a better version of Luca. As he gets his win back, his calf looks like it's healed. That shot's even going to be more consistent. So he was 9 to 23 from the field today. He was a 4-12-3-point range and 10-12 free throws. So he missed two free throws,

and when he misses those free throws, you start thinking, man, here we are in overtime. If Luca knocks these free throws down, the weird thing about Luca to me, and if you see the same thing I see, which you don't understand, how does Luca drain these crazy three-point shots from way out? Just swishes right through the net, perfect. It's clean, but when Luca shoots a free throw,

he hits every part of the rim. It's bizarre. It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense that you can be that good of a shooter from 27 feet out, but here you are shooting free throws, and it seems like it's never clean. It always makes you hold your breath a little bit, like is this going in or not going in. LeBron James, you know, he mazes me every single,

single day. LeBron James in 44 minutes, 31 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists. And by the way, LeBron only had one turnover tonight, only one. So he cut his turnovers down. A very good game for LeBron. Hit his free throws when the Lakers needed it most. He was 11 and 23 from the field. He made two of eight of his three point shots, including a really big one. And he made seven of his eight free throws. So just a fantastic game for LeBron James. Just incredible. I don't care that he's 40 years old. If he was 28 years old, we'd all be shaking our heads and going to the sky is absolutely amazing. By the way, a player of the month for the month of February,

when you talk about all NBA teams in a couple months when they decide, I think LeBron James is a first team all NBA guy. He's playing that good of basketball. And if you watch him in the Olympics, LeBron James, he can dig in to the tank as far as he wants and pull it out whenever he's ready to go. But LeBron James is an outstanding player. And defensively, since Luca's gotten there, just incredible. I think right now as Laker fans, we're seeing the best version of LeBron James since he's been here. Bench-wise for the Lakers.

Lakers got, again, big night from Gabe Vincent. Gabe Vincent, look at this right here, 22 minutes tonight for Gabe Vincent, four or five from the field, but he made all four three-point shots. Lakers needed every single one of them. Gabe Vincent, for the longest time, if you're like me, why did we get this guy? This guy isn't anything what we expected. Gabe Vincent has found his way. in a Laker uniform and has found his role on the team.

I also like, I know he got called for that hard pick that he laid out, the New York Knicks player. I loved it. I liked it. I like that you have players on your team that aren't going to be pushed around. And even though Gabe Vincent's not one of the bigger guys on the team, that physical basketball, I'm okay with it. That's the kind of foul I will take because it makes guys think twice

before setting picks or knowing where other guys are. A lot of guys don't like contact, especially in basketball. But even a smaller guy like Gabe Vincent, that's willing to throw the hammer. Fantastic. Dalton Connect, big night as well. Dalton Connect could be a huge plus for this team. 21 minutes for Dalton Connect, had 11 points, made three, three-pointers.

Not a bad night for Dalton. When he hit his head, that was kind of scary. He stayed in the game. If you saw when they went to the timeout and he touched the back of his head to see if he had any blood coming out, that was tough. That was a big one. We spoke about this, by the way, in the last show, about the Lakers as they go towards these big games and they go towards the playoffs,

the rotation. Most teams go to a seven, eight man rotation in games that really matter. Well, the Lakers did cut the rotation down a lot tonight. The Lakers rotation, again, you had your starting five, of course, there's no Rui, but you had Vanderbilt, you had Jemison, you had Vincent, you had Connect, the only ones that played on the bench right there. And it's amazing how our big guys in Jemison and Jackson Hayes.

They have the worst offensive games of all time. But at the same time, you don't have to sit there and count those guys out for effort because those guys are giving you great effort every single night. Man, how can they not? When you have guys like Luke and LeBron and your team, you know you have to give your best. Look, for the Knicks,

it was the Jalen Brunson show. Again, 41 minutes, 39 points, 10 assists. Again, he's an outstanding player. Everybody knows he's an outstanding player. I think it might surprise you if I told you Jalen Brunson scored 39 points in 41 minutes and only made a one three-pointer. Only one. Who's one to seven from three-point range? but he is just an outstanding player and, you know, fun to watch.

Josh Hart was a former Laker who, you know, when the Lakers got rid of them and you understand part of the deal and the way it works at the NBA, and there's certain guys that you don't want to see leave. Like for me, I loved Eddie Jones. I love George Lynch, Anthony Peeler, all those guys. When they were gone, you understand it made the team better, but you start to like these guys as they, you know, obviously get older and you want to know what they can become. and so Josh Hart was one of those guys for me, Julius Randall, those guys that I love seen in a Lake of uniform. I don't know what happened to Josh Hart.

He goes to New York and he turns into a jerk. So I'm not exactly a Josh Hart fan all of a sudden. Josh Hart kind of rubs me a little bit the wrong way. Not exactly a fan of the way Josh Hart goes about his business. So it's one of those things right there that I'm not a fan of him as a former Laker, the other former Lakers that I root for except when they played the Lakers. So it was a good night. It's a good night.

I'm on cloud nine right now, and I know so many of you guys are as well. It's a lot of fun. BC, you're right right here. LeBron plus Luca equals champs. I'm with you on this one. I'm absolutely with you on this one. It's Michael says,

Luca has a Laker fighting heart. Man, I believe it. I think Luca wants to win. I think Luca has a lot to proof, by the way. Not only to the Mavs, the Mavs fans, to the NBA. I mean, you don't see super. superstars traded like this.

And Luca overall became one of those guys that was moved because they thought they were better without them. That's the only reason why you would make a trade like that is that you're literally saying we are better without you. Laker fans are extremely happy to have them. I feel like Luke is a true Laker already. I do. That's the way I feel.

I just feel like this guy, you look at Luca, you look at LeBron. You're going to see those numbers up there with everyone else. You're going to see them right there as Michael Cooper was the last guy to go in. You're going to see LeBron's up there. You're going to see Lucas up there. And we're seeing greatness right now. We're seeing absolute greatness. Today was a cold day weather-wise in Southern California. And I went out to the store, came back in and get my car and look across. And there's a guy wearing a brand-new Luca jersey, no sleeves underneath. He's just letting it go like it's like it's basically 85 degrees outside. It didn't matter. Sporting is Laker, yellow jersey,

ready to go. So anyway, that's the way, that's the way it happens out, that everyone here's starting to have Laker fever. Again, it's a good time to be a sports fan in L.A. with the Dodgers starting up against the Cubs real soon in Japan. And the Dodgers is trying to repeat. Let's see the Lakers win as well. You guys all remember back in, if you're alive, as I say, I remember, I don't know how many people are close to my age, but 1988, Lakers and Dodgers, they win championships the same year. It's a lot of fun, right? You remember all the way back in 2020, what happened? Lakers, Dodgers that win championships the same year, it would be pretty cool to have back-to-back championships

where we talk about it all the time. Nothing like San Los Angeles, City of Champions. So very exciting, very excited to see what happened tonight. Lakers win 113, 109 in overtime. We will be back on Saturday after the Lakers take on the Boston Celtics. And for me, I'm not saying I'm super confident, not saying I'm scared, but man, I am excited. Like excited, can't wait to watch it,

been counting the days down. I always look at that NBA schedule. When did the Lakers play the Celtics in L.A. and when did the Lakers play the Celtics in Boston? Because I never miss it. Never miss it. Best rivalry in all the sports is going to happen Saturday night. And I hope you join me to obviously talk about what happened with the Lakers and Celtics and to get an idea, will we see them again in June. So again, if you love your Laker basketball, Brian and Andy are with you every single day on locked on. And with me, you can get me at that course after the Laker games. And It's been a blast. It's been an absolute fun time. It's March 6 today. We've been doing this since November, and the season has been a lot of fun, and it's all because Rob Polinka and JJ Reddick have gone above and beyond what I think all of us even expected. So it's going to be a good time. Again, you can follow me on social media. My name's right there in the corner. I'll write to you back. If you have a question about anything or just want to bounce something off, go ahead, tap and talk Laker basketball 24-7. I will see everybody on Saturday night when the late. Lakers take on the Boston Celtics in Boston.

But again, Lakers went tonight. Again, their eighth straight against the New York Knicks. 113, 109. We'll see you all in about 48 hours.