Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Luka Leads Lakers in MUST-WIN

Episode Date: April 5, 2025

The Lakers' Big Three shined bright as Luka Doncic scored a game-high 35 points, Austin Reaves added 30, and LeBron James chipped in with 27 as the Los Angeles Lakers blew out the New Orleans Pelicans 124-108. The Lakers will look to continue their winning ways Sunday afternoon when they visit the Oklahoma City Thunder. Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reaves, Dalton Knecht, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dave Palet, Lakers vs Pelicans, Los Angeles Lakers vs New Orleans Pelicans Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!FAN DUEL March Madness is here, and FanDuel is giving you the chance to get in on the action like never before!Right now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! That’s TWO HUNDRED extra bucks to use on everything from buzzer-beaters to Cinderella stories—and even who’s cutting down the nets!Picking My Favorites: I’ve got my eye on a few underdogs this year, and FanDuel makes it easy to back them with spreads, totals, and game props.Staying in the Action: With tournament games happening almost every day, there’s always something exciting to bet on!Easy and Fast: The FanDuel app is simple to use, and when I win, I get paid instantly—no waiting around.So, visit FANDUEL DOT COM and get in on the College Hoops action all tournament long! 5-hour ENERGYDaylight savings snuck up on us again, and if you’re feeling that lost hour of sleep, 5-hour ENERGY has your back! The extra sunshine means more time for fun, but sometimes you need a little boost to power through.Whether you’re staying up late watching the NCAA Tournament, squeezing in a round of golf after work, or just trying to keep up with your busy day, 5-hour ENERGY gives you that quick, refreshing pick-me-up whenever you need it.· Basketball Madness: I’ve been staying up late watching all the tournament action, and 5-hour ENERGY helps me keep up the next day.· Extra Daylight, Extra Activities: With longer days, I love getting outside for a hike or a run—Tropical Burst is my go-to for a quick boost!· On-the-Go Convenience: Whether I’m at a game or traveling, 5-hour ENERGY is easy to grab and keeps me feeling refreshed.CTA OFFER: Head to 5-hour ENERGY dot com to find over 15 flavors to choose from, including Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, and Peach-Mango. You can even build your own 12-pack or 24-pack, delivered right to your door!Need one now? Grab a 5-hour ENERGY shot at your local grocery or convenience store—they’re everywhere! Stock up today and stay energized. 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. Stars shine bright, Luke LeBron, and Austin come through, and the Lakers get a much-needed win. We talk about it all on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. I'm Dave Pallet. Thank you so much for joining me tonight. This was a must-win situation for the Lakers. You can say what you want about must-wins, but for the Lakers, they weren't playing very good basketball of late.

very concerning, especially after the way they took on the Golden State Warriors and lost. We all know that the Lakers, two toughest games of the season are coming up when they face, obviously, the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday and on Tuesday, and they desperately needed this win against the Pelicans on Friday night to move forward against Oklahoma City, and everyone else are going to face in the short schedule that remains for the rest of the season. So this Laker team needs to get sharp, and they need to get sharp fast, to figure out what is their best plan of attack.

We're going to talk about it all on what the Lakers did tonight and also something the Lakers did that I think benefits them moving forward. And if you follow this show on a regular basis, I bet you've a pretty good idea as far as what I'm going to say. First of all, let's get to what everybody's talking about. This is what you'll be talking about. I'm going to talk about is the big three. The big three came through and that's what Superstars are supposed to do.

And the big three, obviously the Lakers needed them. were kind of concerning on back-to-back nights. If this was a game that was in November, a game that was in January, there would be a situation where you saw some of your starts that were going to sit out and not play the back-to-backs. Well, the Lakers needed this win. After what happened this week and what happened against the Warriors at home

where all of a sudden you're scratching your head and saying this Warriors team, when they're at full strength, are they a team that now contends for a championship? The Lakers had dominated Golden State up until yesterday. And Warriors might have figured out something new on the Lakers. You can sit there and say that or you can say, hey, that's not the way Luke normally plays where he never makes a three. With the Lakers in 24 hours come back a different team. And you can't rely on no offense to Dorian Finney Smith, no offense to Jackson Hayes, no

offense to Gabe Vincent. But there's a reason why guys like Luke and LeBron James make so much money. And the reason they're on the way to the Hall of Fame, it's because they do things other players can't do. Austin Reeves has turned into a star. And one day he's going to get a giant pay day as well. Let's look at the big three on what they did tonight. Luca in 36 minutes, 35 points. He had six rebounds. He had six assists. He made 10 and 21 shots, four three-pointers, much different. Led the team and led everybody with 35. Austin Reeves, 36 minutes. He had 30 points. He had seven assists. Again, outstanding game. One turnover, by the way, for reuse, two for Luca and one for for Levin James.

Now, LeBron's stat line is kind of crazy. And if you didn't notice, I'll explain to you why it's crazy. LeBron played 33 minutes tonight. Again, I apologize for my voice. As you know, I've been sick for about 10 days, but doing the best I can to get through it. LeBron James, in 33 minutes, had 27 points, he had eight assists, and he had zero rebounds. Zero. I can't remember LeBron ever getting zero.

That is such a weird stat line that LeBron would get zero rebounds. Now, if you recall, early in the game, LeBron was injured. He injured his thumb trying to block a shot. And it was kind of concerning because the Lakers had a call timeout and get him out of the game to check to make sure everything is okay. Thumb injuries in any sport extremely serious. If you're a baseball fan like me, you know, thumb injuries are one of those where your power disappears. Well, if you're a shooter and you do everything that you have to do as a basketball player, whether it's dribbling, passing shooting, the thumb obviously is extremely important. So it's not one of those fingers where you sit there and you can pull it out if it gets jammed.

It was a situation for LeBron where it's the thumb, and it was concerning, but LeBron played great, and they played great when the Lakers needed him and made some exciting plays. He was 9 to 17 from the field, made 2 of 7, three points, but for the Laker of Big Three, they scored a combined 92 points. And so that's what the Lakers needed in the 124-108 win tonight. So again, I want to get to your comments tonight as well. If you're on Cloud 9 like I am, because the Lakers did what they're supposed to do, fantastic. That's what we want to do moving forward for this Laker team. Can the Lakers do what they need to do to be dangerous? And guess what?

The Lakers should prove they can be a dangerous team. It's the reason why we have faith in this team. If you're a Laker fan, you haven't given up on this team. I haven't either, but I get frustrated. I get frustrated on some of the things the Lakers do. And for me, I want to see the Lakers win a championship. I've said that since day one. Since I started doing the show at the beginning of the year,

and some of you have been with me all along have said, the same thing. You want to see the Lakers go out and win a championship. So what can the Lakers do to do that? When they went and made the trade for Luca after getting Doreen Phine Smith and Jake Milton, and if you want to say, shake Milton was an addition. Shake Milton plays well when he's in the game, but he's not a guy obviously that JJ Redick relies on. But when they went out and got Luca, this was to win championships. And you can say, well, not championships this year. Look, when you got a 40-year-old star in LeBron James, it's this year. Okay, you can't sit there and plan for the future. The future is right now. The Lakers are on a time crunch to win championships.

And the Lakers, and I love this part about being a Laker fan, every year is a plan to win the championship. That's the way it should be. That's what the organization has established as far as setting the bar high. So it's always a sense of urgency. It's exactly what you want. If you're a Dodger fan, it's the same thing. It's always a sense of urgency. And there's nothing else you can ask for except going, this is what I want. As a sports fan, this is what I want. It's not wait until next year. with these two LA franchises. And so they set the bar high and it makes it easy to be a fan of the team when they're playing well and they have superstars to represent your obviously favorite colors. Real quick, when I mention the people over at five hour energy, five hour energy look can help you out.

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listening to my voice as well. So Lakers win, again, 124-108, and that's the exciting part of the night. I want to get to your comments as well of what you think before we take a look at this box score and the way things played out for the Lakers. Again, I know I can always count on BC and Craig. You guys are always there. I love BC right here. I see it right away.

LeBron plus Luke equals championship. Austin Reeves. I tell you, BC has a lot to do with that. Good to see both of you guys again on Friday night. It always means a lot to me that you guys are here. Lakers, need LeBron, Luca, Reeves, to average 80 points on 50% shooting in the playoffs to have a chance. I don't know to have a chance. I mean, I think, you know, you have other guys that can step up, whether it's a Gabe Vincent,

whether it's a Dalton Connect. You have Dorian Finney Smith, who has knocked down some threes at the same time. Craig says Luca broke his slump. Look, it was weird to see Luca not make a three-point shot, right? In 114 straight games, making a three-pointer, and all of a sudden, that comes to an end at the worst time with the face of the Golden State Warriors. Luca, this is the way I would look at it. I was talking to my son, who happens to be in town,

and we're watching the Lakers together tonight. And one thing about Luca and Magic Johnson, because they get compared a lot as far as being distributors and great passers. Luca, if you notice, every first quarter, Luca comes out and establishes his game by scoring a ton of points. And nothing against that. I mean, it's great to have a guy score 14, 15 points in the first quarter. At the same time, you see a lot of standing around from other guys on the team.

I'd almost like to see it backwards. And you can say you're nuts from being critical of this, but I would love to see Luca establish the pass first and get guys involved that can shoot, whether it's in Austin Reeves, whether it's Ruiz, who used to start off games by knocking down a three-pointer, getting the guys involved. Because it seems like the Laker players sit around for the first eight minutes and watch Luca do his thing as he gets his 15 points.

It seems like it would make Luca's game a lot easier for him if guys now know that other guys on the quarter are dangerous, and then Luca would get his open shots and Luca could save his energy. But I understand it's the way he's always done it, but at the same time, have the Mavericks won with him doing it this way. Have the Lakers won against good teams

with him doing it this way? Is this the best plan of attack? I would love to see Luca actually get LeBron, Austin Reeves, those guys involved early instead of late. And for me, that's why I'd like to see it. I know with JJ Reddick, I'm sure it's fine with it. I don't know what happens in practice of what the game plan is.

at the same time, it's something that I would like to see a little bit of a change because I think the Lakers, the Lakers moving forward would be really exciting. Okay, hold on. Craig just wrote something in here that a distance saw Craig. I'm sorry. It says, Craig said he's seen all 17 championships. Damn, that's impressive. That's absolutely amazing. If you've seen all 17, I'll tell you, my first one was all the way back in 1980,

and I thought I've seen a lot. So, B.C. says the first one was the 1953 or something. So I don't know, Craig. Are you lying right here? What's going on here? He says, oh, Craig says, yes, he's seen the Minnesota ones on tape. Okay, there you go. I was about to say, how old are we talking here?

But I thought I was the old guy talking to Laker basketball until I just saw that. He's seen all 17. Good for you, man. You're a diehard just like I am. Just like I am. It's funny. Everyone ever walks into this room and sees all these Lakers, all this Lakers stuff behind me. And I got a lot more of it.

There was good. Did you buy all this stuff because of this show? I said, no, unfortunately, it might be a little bit embarrassing. I haven't had all this stuff for years. And I got a lot more of it. I got Laker warmups. I got all kinds of stuff that I have as far as Lakers stuff. Now, the one thing I don't have is I need a LeBron James jersey.

And I got an All-Star game jersey back. Oh, sorry, back over here behind me. But I also need to get a Luca jersey as well. I got about three Jerry West jerseys just because even though I never saw Jerry West play a game. Jerry West is always impressive because as a player, and as a front office person, Drey West basically, you could say is responsible

for almost every Laker championship outside of the one in 2020. The Laker, Jerry West, responsible for every Los Angeles Laker championship, I should say. So, no, I love this Laker team, and I love the franchise, and everything that goes with it.

I just want to see the guys continue to do better and win all the time. And obviously, so do you. So to you as well. So Lakers, again, tonight, 124, 108, and some of the big things that I saw tonight. If you saw me complaining, obviously yesterday, and I was upset because I didn't care for the rotation that JJ Redick used.

And I think there's one big-time player on this team that the Lakers, to me, don't focus on. And for me, I'll tell you right now, here is an important part of the game. Time to reveal where the game was won or lost. It's the turning point. The big part of the game for me was in the second quarter. Dalton Connect comes into the game towards the end of the second quarter, really late in the second quarter. And in one minute, Dalton Connect scores eight points.

If you remember, there was a miss three-pointer. He tips the ball in, bank shot, tip in, outstanding. Then he comes through and he knocks down two, three-pointers in a row. Dalton Connect with eight points right away. And for me, I want to see more Dalton Connect. Number one, I want to see his career grow. Two is when you have a shooter like Dalton Connect, he's a guy that can get you back in the game quickly.

And so I was excited to see Dalton Connect in the rotation. They made the comment on the broadcast that it was the first time Dalton Connect has ever sat out of a full game like he did yesterday against Golden State. And it's funny because Golden State's known for shooting threes. The Boston Celtics is also known for shooting threes. I think Dalton Connect can be an important piece. And again, if it's the reason is because of his defense, I don't know. One thing the Lakers did, though, in the first quarter, going all the way back,

there, Jose Alvarado at 18 of the Pelicans' first 23 points. He did not score at all the rest of the second half. After the first half, I should say, after he scored his 18 points, he didn't score anything in the second quarter. He didn't score again until the third quarter, but for the Lakers, they were able to focus. Again, I know the Pelicans were missing a lot of stars, a lot of starters as well,

but the Lakers did what they're supposed to do. They can't worry about who the pelicans have on the floor. They have to take care of basically their team and take care of business. Highlight of the game for me was four. 404 remaining in the game where Austin Reeves, the dribble behind the back, the lob, passed to LeBron James for the dunk. That was the highlight. That was great.

I gave the Lakers a 114-99 lead. And then Luca, of course, hit the three-pointed to give the Lakers their biggest lead at the time. 117, 100. That was a 325 remaining on the clock. So all that was exciting to see what the Lakers did and extremely, extremely exciting overall. I'm looking at Craig's comments as well. Drey West average 10 steals per game up until the All-Star break in 1972, 73. Craig, always appreciate the notes.

Anything Laker basketball of something that I can see is something I can learn, I'm always all for. I'm always all for Lakers history because it's so great, individual players and team concept. That's pretty fantastic. So I appreciate that as well. Lakers, again, have a big, tough schedule coming up Sunday. Don't forget, it's a 1230 tip-off in Oklahoma City. Then they have to hang around for two days in Oklahoma City. If you ever been Oklahoma City, for me, it's the worst city I've been to the United States.

Absolutely terrible. If we driven cross-country, Oklahoma City is a rat hole. So the Lakers have to hang out through Tuesday because they have another game against Oklahoma City on Tuesday as well. And they've got to take care of business. There's nothing to do but focus on what the Lakers are doing. So let's go to the Locked-on Player of the Game. This is the Locked-on Player of the Game. On Player of the Game for me, guys.

It's going to be Luca tonight. Luca again after a tough night, being embarrassed, the best thing about playing back-to-back games, you get that bad taste out of your mouth. It's Luca in 36 minutes a night. He had 35 points. Again, 10 to 21 shooting, four of 10 from three-point range, made all 11 free throws. He had six rebounds, six assists, and only 10 turnovers. Could have given it to a few guys.

Austin Reeves, man, comes up when you need him in 36 minutes. He had 30. LeBron James at 27 and 33 minutes. But the Lakers, absolutely fantastic tonight. Again, you had LeBron James in double digits. You had Luca in double digits. You had Austin Reeves in double digits. And off the bench, you had Dalton Connect in double digits with 12.

Lakers, again, they win 124, 108, and they desperately needed it. And you can catch every one of these postcasts anywhere you get your podcast. Again, if you want to get your Laker coverage every single day, Brian and Andy, they have your shows for you, of course, on Lockdown, Los Angeles, the Lockdown Network. And we're talking to Laker basketball with you all the way through the end. talking after a championship when the guys are born in champagne about the Lakers winning another NBA title. But I always love talking to you guys. I appreciate the comments. Appreciate you joining me tonight. I hope you'll join me on Sunday as well. But again, Lakers win tonight.

Final score, 124-108. We will see you on Sunday after hopefully a big Laker win against the Thunder. Have a good night, everybody.