Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Mavericks beat the Lakers 118-97

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Quentin Grimes scored 23 off the bench and former Laker Spencer Dinwiddie added 22 as the Dallas Mavericks, playing without Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, beat the Los Angeles Lakers 118-97. Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 21 points and 12 rebounds, while LeBron James had 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists in the loss. The Lakers will look to get on the winning side of things Thursday night when they host the Hornets. Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reeves, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dalton Knecht, Lakers vs Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers vs Dallas Mavericks Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors! BILT•      Bilt Rewards. If you’re a renter, Bilt, you can now earn points on rent payments, just like you do with groceries or travel. Paying rent now comes with serious perks, and it’s completely free to join!FAN DUEL Get ready to tackle the NFL action with FanDuel America’s – Number One Sportsbook! Because right now, new customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS, if you win!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.Mint MobileTo get the new customer offer and your new 3-month premium wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to mintmobile.com/lockedonnba. See Mint Mobile for details.PRIZEPICKS – is the best place to get real money sports action. Run your game all season long on Prize Picks. America’s#1 daily fantasy sports app. Robinhood GoldRobinhood Gold provides the privileges of a high net worth for any net worth. These generous benefits are now available for only $5/month. The new Gold Standard is here with Robinhood Gold. Sign up at robinhood.com/gold. ROCKET MONEYCancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney dot com slash lockedon today. That’s RocketMoney dot com slash lockedon. RocketMoney dot com slash lockedon.SKYLIGHT FRAME•      If you’re having a hard time finding the perfect gift, you have to try Sky Light Frame. You can try Skylight Frame today when you go to SkylightFrames.com/nba Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are a Locked-on Lakers Postcast. Part of Locked-on Sports Los Angeles on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Well, the short-handed Mavericks upset the Lakers. J.J. Reddick's team can't shoot in this offense, and the Lakers get swept and their brief two-game road trip in Texas. We talk about it all on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. I'm Dave Palais.

Thanks again for joining me tonight. Talking Laker basketball with you after every single game. Don't forget if you want live Laker coverage. Of course, you can always tune in and find out what Brian and Andy are doing. They give you the Laker talk every single day right there, locked down Lakers. They do a great job. Make sure you check out Brian and Andy.

Again, I'm here just for the postcast. Unfortunately, tonight, not a lot of fun because the Lakers lose 1187. Get ready to tackle NFL playoff action with Fandul, America's number one sports book, because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $200 and bonus bets if you win. Once again, final score tonight, 1187, Lakers lose to the Dallas Mavericks, and you go, how did this happen?

Trust me, I'm right there with you. How did this possibly happen when you look at all the injuries that the Dallas Mavericks had coming into this game? Basically, anyone that had a chance of beating you wasn't available to play tonight, yet the Mavericks completely showed the Lakers up. It was an embarrassing loss. One of the worst losses of the season.

You can mark it down as the Lakers' fault. to 20 and 16 on the season. Lakers, again, struggle. And they struggle in a situation where they need to move up in the playoff standings because we're almost halfway through the season. And right now, this team still does not have an identity of what they are. If we want to know how we got where we are, let's start right here in the first quarter. Lakers, look, they do okay. They outscore the Mavericks, 2724.

Mavericks, again, playing without Luca, playing without Kyrie, playing without Daniel Gafford, playing without Dante Xum. And you're going, okay, well, no, Luca. know Kyrie should be a win. Guess what? The Mavericks also played last night. So this is back-to-back games for the Mavericks, and you're thinking, well, they didn't have to travel. Not the case. The Mavericks were in Memphis. How did this possibly happen that here's a team playing back-to-backs? Lakers basically waiting for Dallas to show up, and the Mavericks go on to run like they did tonight. Mavericks went on a 7-0 run, by the way, after Austin Reeves scored the first basket of the game, that was a three-pointer. And you've got to be kidding me.

Of course, it's former Lakers, Spencer Dinwiddie. made five of the seven points for the Mavs. And all of us remember Spencer, of course, the Lakers acquired him into trade, and it didn't work out for him here in Los Angeles. For me, I was a Dinwiddie fan. I was kind of disappointed that the Lakers passed on him so quick. He was kind of an instant offense guy,

and that's exactly what he was for the Dallas Mavericks tonight. Lakers felt they didn't need him. So he moves on. He's still in the NBA, still doing great things, sticking it to his former team. Lakers also went on a 7-0 run in the quarter. The highlight, though, and it was the highlight of the night. I mean, who would have thought that in the first quarter you go,

okay, well, there's your highlight of the night. It's not going to get any better from there. But it was LeBron James. LeBron James, you'll see it 100 times all over social media. Of course, where he drove the lane, he switched hands from his right hand to his left hand, and then he dunks the ball with his left hand. Pretty impressive. Now, Mike gets some heat for this, but telling me right now it was a better shot

than Michael Jordan shot in 91 against the Lakers. All Michael did was switch hands and reality, you look back at it. He didn't even need a switch hands. He just did it right there in front of San Perkins. but I'll take Jordan's left-handed dunk tonight. Unfortunately, the Lakers lose. Jordan won the NBA finals after that play. Anthony Davis led the Lakers 10 points,

six rebounds in the quarter while playing all 12 minutes. Now remember, playing all 12 minutes, it's kind of interesting the way they're doing the substitution plans for the Lakers. Because Anthony Davis now, because he played 12 minutes, needs an extended break. So he gets his break not only between the first and second quarter, but remember when's he going to, to come back into the game.

Took a while for him to come back in, like a little bit longer. When you saw the game starting to slip away in the second quarter, you're thinking, hey, we've got to get Anthony Davis back in the game. At least that's what I'm thinking. That's what I was hoping JJ Reddick was thinking, but it wasn't the case. And then Jackson Hayes enters the game, and Jackson Hayes in the second quarter completely falls apart. Four fouls and four minutes.

I mean, what have you seen that? That's like one of those things that you play with your high school teammates, and it's that guy that never gets to play, that they finally put in a game. at the end of a game and he ends up with like four or five thousand just a few minutes and you goof on him forever this happened to jackson hayes in an NBA game four fouls and four minutes completely out of control what that did was it forced the lakers basically to play small when anthony davis wasn't in wasn't the difference of the game it was just another example of bad basketball first quarter lebron james had seven austin reeves had six uh the six points for austin

reves with the two three pointers again he made the first basket of the game so austin rive scoring wise in the rest of the first quarter didn't do much. Mavericks were led in the quarter's shocker by Spencer Denwood. He's eight points. And again, eight off the bench by Quentin Grimes. We'll talk more about Grimes in a second on what he means to the Dallas Mavericks. But a lot of you, how many basketball fans out there wondering who's been, who's Quentin Grimes? Because he was the dominating force.

The Lakers just had no answer for him. Hey, if you're wondering, because Quentin Grimes had eight points, what do the Lakers bench do? Well, tell you what? They stepped up in the guy, is zero. Laker bench was zero points in the first quarter. Very frustrating. Lakers shot 40% from the field, 25% three point range. Maverick shot 53% from the field, 29% from behind the arc.

But the Lakers again, after one, going up 2724, the stats show that really the Lakers probably shouldn't have the lead. And the stats kind of showed that they were false because the way it worked out from there, it was all Dallas. Second quarter, Mavericks outscore the Lakers 3123. So you basically look at the second quarter and what was the highlight there? Well, there was a highlight. It was Max Christie.

Max Christie was the lone bright spot for the Lakers in the quarter, scored nine points. And again, the downside in the quarter was Jackson Hayes while Anthony Davis is trying to get some rest. Four fouls and four minutes. Mavericks went on 11-0 scorn run to end the quarter. It was all led by Clay Thompson. And, you know, we've always thought he's one of those guys meaning Clay because he's Michael's son that, hey, I'd love to see this guy in a Laker uniform. him. We all know the back story on it that Michael Thompson thought his son, Clay was going to sign with the Lakers during the summer. He didn't. He chose the Dallas Mavericks instead. And

Clay Thompson looked like the old Clay Thompson. Unfortunately, it was against the Lakers. So right there, you look at this Laker team and you're saying, we ended down 5550 at the half. And you're going, what do they need to do to turn things around? What's going to be set at the half to turn things around? Well, they're very frustrating to see that, you know, the Lakers again, struggling going into the half and knowing that they haven't come out strong in the third quarter of late to turn things around. So whatever is said at the halftime speech or whatever the focus is, can they make adjustments? If you watch the first half, you could see early on the frustrating part was the idea that they're missing so many easy shots. I mean by easy shots is balls

running at the basket. I mean, easy, like Anthony Davis underneath the basket layups. You look at Max Christie missed an easy layup. You look at LeBron, he missed easy layups. I mean, it doesn't get easier in the league for any. anybody, especially this Laker team, is not great at shooting threes. You've got to make the shots underneath the basket. These are the easiest ones going. And if you can't make your layups, it's embarrassing. At the same time, the Lakers had a huge hide advantage in this game.

This is one of those games where Anthony Davis should have walked out of Dallas with about 50 points because they should have fed them basically all night long. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for the Lakers. They didn't make their threes consistently. They didn't make the easy shots consistently. And for the Lakers, they end up falling short. and so very frustrating, very frustrating. It has to be tough getting on that plane coming back to Los Angeles

and we're going to play the Hornets on Thursday night with that kind of effort. But overall, the Lakers did not play well. We'll look at the halftime stats in just a second. But when I mention the people over at Fandul, again, Fandle, don't forget. Fandle is your sponsor right there to get ready for all the big playoff games. Don't forget from big upsets to game-winning drives, NFL playoffs are better with Fandul because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $200 and bonus bets. Guaranteed, that's $200 in bonus bets.

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maybe he's going to figure things out. He's going to carry this team, 12 points at the half. And if you double that, you're going, okay, 24. Again, this was one of those teams, one of those nights where Anthony Davis should have had a career night, but he exactly didn't. 12 points, nine rebounds, three assists for AD, LeBron, nine points, six rebounds, two assists, and Austin Reeves, nine points, one rebound, and only one assist. That is extremely frustrating.

That last stat, the one assist for Austin Reeves, it's incredibly disappointing for the idea that Austin Reeves made it clear. He wants to be a point guard, and he wants to be one of the better point guards in this league, and getting the turnovers down. So Austin Reeves has been playing great basketball of late. When you look at the one assist, let's go back and look at some of the great point guards, you know, through your lifetime. I mean, there's one that was sitting on the Dallas Maverick's bench and Jason Kidd that was outstanding in dishing the ball out. Magic Johnson, John Stockton, all the guys, you know, you talk about Hall of Fame point guards.

Well, Austin Reeves hasn't claimed to be a Hall of Fame where he's been playing an all-star level basketball and have only one assist in the first half, very concerning to what the Lakers are trying to do. obviously, you know, when you look at the assist, it's sharing the ball. He's the major distributor, Austin Reeves, slow night. Rui added six points, one rebounds and two assists off the bench. Excuse me, in the starting role, Ruy trying to find his way as far as he hasn't been the same since the big trade with the Nets. Again, I can't figure that out why that is. You know, it looks like he's not about to lose a starting spot, but there's been a lot of talk that the Lakers could change their lineup around and Rui would be one of those guys to go off the bench.

I don't know, but Rui just hasn't, hasn't exactly played the same. It shouldn't have changed because his role hasn't changed. Dallas Mavericks were led by Spencer Dinwiddie's 12. Clay Thompson's 11 at the half. Mavericks, though, outshot the Lakers from the field and outshot them 46 to 40%. Now, the Lakers only made five or 13, excuse me, five and 19 three-pointers. That's 26% while the Mavericks were 8 of 18, 44%. So Mavericks are better shooting team.

The Lakers are not a great three-point shooting team. team, even though their offense continues to show that J.J. Reddick wants them to shoot threes as much as they can. It's not exactly working for this Laker team. Lakers were it rebounded 24-22. Embarrassing, considering that the Mavericks, height-wise, should have lost that battle. The Lakers, here's the deal also on this rebounding. As I said, the Mavericks out rebound in the first half 24-22. The Mavericks also had 11 offensive rebounds. What, I mean, that's an effort deal. I mean, there should be no excuse where you should every question of pro athletes effort.

And for the Lakers, unfortunately, it seems like we see this a lot. And you wonder, is this Laker team playing as hard as they can for JJ Reddick? Guy they're playing as hard as they can for themselves. I mean, I hate to talk about money when you talk about pro athletes, but it's a lot of money. And these guys that sit there and say, you know what we can have a cakewalk through the Mavericks, when the Mavericks can't beat anybody of late,

but the Mavericks look like one of the better teams in the league. We say this almost every night. People get up to play the Lakers. The Mavericks are looking to stop their losing. using ways. Again, back-to-back games, Mavericks did well. They also had more assists in the first half, 12 to 11. Lakers only had three turnovers, which was a plus. Okay, not bad. Dallas had six. Lakers never win the turnover battle. Lakers scored two points off the Dallas turnovers. Mavericks, they scored zero off the Lakers' turnovers. Mavericks had 22 bench points.

Lakers had five, and again, three were Dalton Connect, two were Dorian Finney Smith. pitiful, pitiful effort by the Lakers bench. And again, whether that's J.J. Reddick or if that's Rob Polincon making the wrong moves, this Lakers team doesn't have a lot of depth. Third quarter, Dallas Mavericks outscored the Lakers 3223. Great halftime speech by the Lakers. Way to get ready. Way to come out fire to make a difference. It completely went the other way.

That's where the door was shut. At that end of three, Mavericks were leading 8773. Quentin Grimes, 17 points, four three-pointers through three-quarters. Spencer Dinwiddie, 16 points, Clay Thompson, 11, and then in the fourth quarter, complete mess, complete mess. Dallas Mavericks went 29, 21 in the fourth quarter. So the Mavericks lost the first quarter and they won the second, third, and fourth quarters, giving you the total score of 1187 for the Laker loss and frustrating.

And it seems like we do this a lot. We talk about frustrating losses. It's frustrating for a number of reasons. Number one is guys not playing up to their capabilities. Two, effort. And how does this happen? I mean, they're always going to be slip games in professional sports. And in the NBA, when they have the 82 game season, yes, in Major League Baseball, I'm sure you see it too.

But you just don't know because you have too many guys that can pick you up. If one guy's not 100% ready to go where he's banged up a little bit. But for the Lakers, when you have five guys on the four at one time, and you can see that it's contagious. And this team basically continues to struggle. very, very frustrating to see what are the answers. And if I'm JJ Redick, I'm sitting there and scratch on my head, and I want to know what are the answers. If I'm Rob Polink, I'm wondering, do I have the right coaches?

Because it's hard for anyone to point the finger at themselves. And so for Rob Polinka, as he's sitting here, judging, you know, what's going on with the head coaching situation, the Lakers of fire. A lot of coaches with a lot less success than, a lot more success, I should say, than J.J. Redick has had. This move of deciding JJ Redick was the right guy to communicate with players and come in and run his offense. And it's easy to sit there and be a couch quarterback kind of situation is not working right now. What the Lakers are doing is not working.

When you look at that fourth quarter and the Lakers desperately need a three with four minutes to go and the Lakers keep running the regular basic offense. Like the shot clock doesn't matter. Like the game clock doesn't matter. Yet they're running an offense that is basically low post basketball. ball and their ball movement. Let's get a shot. Do we have any kind of offense at all, meaning the Lakers, to shoot threes? These are three-point situations. This is where you need to make a comeback. This is where you need to go on a run. Yet the offense was absolutely ridiculous. How much to the play clock do they keep using and then to get a two? And it usually turns into a miss two. Another

mislayup, another bad shot, another bad jump hook. Another shot that does not go in. And even if it went in, it's only two because the Mavericks are coming back on the other end and shooting threes. Do the math. Figure it out. The Lakers right now seem to have no idea of what they're doing on trying to play winning basketball. This is bad basketball all the way around. And to sit there and say, hey, we went through a stretch where the Lakers won seven of 10, nobody cares.

Nobody cares until how you look today, how you look this week. Well, they didn't look good in Houston. And they didn't look good against the Dallas Mavericks. This is frustrating bad. basketball. And again, this is a situation of JJ Redick, let's say, was in a second or 30 year. This is the kind of road trip, even though it's two games, you get off that plane and there's a meeting with the front office to say, what are we doing here? This is bad. Rob Polinka right now, I'd be nervous because right now your trades right now have not been impressive. Your head

coaching hiring has not been impressive. Nate McMillan, Scott Brooks, whatever you guys do with your experience has not been impressive. The offense is weak. there's not enough movement. They aren't able to get the ball in the shooter's hands. Even when these guys shoot threes, they aren't even great three-pointers. Do you see where the Dallas Mavericks are shooting in the three-fums? Wide open, ball movement, corner, wide open,

uncontested threes over and over again. These are NBA players. They can make those. Austin Reeves can make those. Dalton Connect can make those. Even LeBron James can make those uncontested threes. Anthony Davis. Every Lakers shot is contested,

but it's not the other way around when the Lakers are sitting there plane, you know, when they're on offense. The Lakers get every shot is contested. The ball movement stinks. The lack of screen stinks. The inability to get a wide open three-pointer is amazing. And are the Lakers that bad of a shooting team, or is it just the fact that those have someone in their face

every time they try and shoot the ball? Because it seems like over and over again, the good teams find a way. Boston Celtics seem to do it. The Warriors seem to do it. Happens all the time. And now the Dallas Mavericks did it to you without two of their best players. unacceptable basketball.

Again, I'm here for your comments. Curious to know if anybody has answers, but it is extremely frustrating. I'm looking at Craig right here in the comments. Bad effort. You're absolutely right. Bad effort. Craig also says,

Gabe Vincent adds nothing. Every game, he adds nothing. Craig, I couldn't agree with you more. My son says this to me every day. Why is he on the team? It feels that way. When he was injured and he wasn't available, nobody missed him.

It's bad to say. nobody missed him. Losing by this many is incredible into a team that is short-handed. Dallas Maverick players and fans right now are getting in their cars going, how did that happen? How did we pull that off?

And I want to know the same thing. You want to know the same thing. How does that possibly happen? Very frustrating to see what happened. Again, I'm curious to know if anybody has answers. I mean, it's the best thing about when your team loses as a fan, you maybe have some answers. But for me, my frustration level is through the roof

when I see that kind of effort and that performance and that final scoreboard at the end of the night. Again, the Lakers lose 1,1897 to the Dallas Mavericks who haven't been able to beat anybody since Luke is out. And now Kyrie's out and they can't do a thing. Unbelievable. Oh, my gosh.

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All right. For this Laker team, what do they have to do to get better? I don't have the answer for you because my answer is they need to fix the offense. My answer is I'm calling these three coaches in if I'm Rob Polinka. I'm calling in JJ. I'm calling in Nate McMillan. I'm calling Scott Brooks. All three of these guys have had a coaching experience.

What did you guys do in the past to get baskets? What was the idea? Because right now, this move of saying, hey, we're going to try and get it to Anthony Davis, or if we don't, we're just going to give up on it extremely fast. I mean, it seems like they do that a lot. If the game plans to get the ball to Anthony Davis, then get the ball of Anthony Davis, let him get his shots. And he's the closest one of the baskets.

It's your most guaranteed way to score is by getting. Anthony Davis, the ball underneath the hoop. But yet if you aren't going to do that, then let's get the ball in the shooter's hands. And your so-called shooters, which don't compare to some of the best ones in the league, how are the Lakers going to do that? Well, they've got to figure out a way, again, to run a better offense. And right now, it's frustrating. Craig, good comment right here. I couldn't agree with you more on this one as well.

Good comments tonight, Craig. Says I think LeBron AD are fed up with these role players. You know what? I think you saw it tonight with LeBron. I think he saw it with LeBron at one point when he made a pass that Max Christie came around on a curl and stopped moving and then the ball went straight out of bounds. And he just kind of threw his arms up there like, what are you doing? Keep going. I'm throwing the ball to where you're going to be, not where you wore.

And there's a turnover and very frustrating. And LeBron's like, that's not a quality possession. And the Lakers, unfortunately, didn't have a lot of quality possessions. The night finished this way for the Lakers, by the way, if you're wondering, is Anthony Davis finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds. Only two of them were offensive rebounds. So 21 points in a night when it was such a mismatch, they should have closer to 40 or 50 points.

Not good at all. LeBron James almost had a triple double, 18 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists. I will say this for LeBron. Man, if you buy a ticket and you don't live in Los Angeles and they're playing Dallas or Houston, LeBron usually gives you your money's worth. When you're telling your friends, say, I'm going on the game tonight.

I'm going to see LeBron James. LeBron gives you your money's worth. Austin Reeves, we told you. the assists were way down in the first half. He only had one. Well, guess what? Austin Reeves, he finished with one. One assist on the night for a guy that wants to be a point guard.

15 points, one assist. Disappointing 5 of 14 shooting on the night. He did make three, excuse me, he did make four three pointers, four of them. And for the Lakers, the three-point game was bad tonight. Really, the only guy who was making threes was Dorian Finney Smith, who had three. Besides that, Max Christie had one. LeBron had one. But otherwise, you got a bunch of zeros.

Gabe Vincent didn't make any of them. Excuse me, Dalta Connect. Sorry, heads off to Dalton Connect. I wanted to get to him as well. Dalton Connect in 16 minutes had 13 points. I would like to see the nights where Dalton Connect looks like the shot is there to get more playing time. Reward him when he's hot. He's a streaky shooter.

Either he's really good or he's really bad. I'd like to see Dalton Connect who made five of eight shots, get more minutes. I don't understand why he didn't get more than 16 minutes. But again, that's what JJ Redick saw out there. You know, 13 points for Delta Connect. Shake Milton didn't play. Cam Reddish didn't play in the game. But for the Lakers, frustrating. So you look at their shooting. Field goal percentage for the Lakers. They shot 45% from the field, 31% from behind the Arctic, 75%. Free throws, not great all the way around. Very average as far as the field goals go. Three point shooting below average. Even the free throw shooting at 75% should be a little bit better. For the Dallas Mavericks, here we go. Their leading score. Shocker was a guy off the bench. was Quentin Grimes, 23 points, nine rebounds, six assists.

Again, before tonight, how many of you knew Quentin Grimes was? But, man, he was ready to play. He was ready to play tonight. Spencer Dinwiddie, again, former Laker finished with 19 points, eight assists, six rebounds. That stateline would have looked pretty good in a Laker uniform.

PJ Washington, 22.8 rebounds for the Mavs. But again, it was all Mavs right there. By the way, Clay Thompson, he finished tonight with 13 points, five or 10, three of six from three-point range. So Clay Thompson in 29 minutes had 13 points. For the Lakers, frustrating, because you look at what they did defensively. How was the Lakers defense? Well, they allow the Mavericks to shoot 52% from the field, 47% from three point range. Mabs weren't a great free throw shooting team either.

They only shot 72%, 71% from the line. So for this Laker team, again, not a good night. Again, outscored in every quarter, but the first quarter, and it just didn't get better for them. Lakers finished with 10 turnovers on the night. Mavericks also finished with 10. So the Lakers turned the ball over more in the second half than the Mavericks did. And it was just poor basketball. It was not good. Again, not an easy flight to get back and follow what's going on with the Lakers.

As you think about that loss for a couple of days, or even their Houston Rockets lost heading into Thursday's game against the Charlotte Hornets. For the Lakers, what does that mean? Standings-wise? Not a good sign for the Lakers because, again, they had the force. seed just a couple days ago, and now the Lakers with that loss. The Lakers fall to the sixth seed. Dallas Mavericks passed them up.

Again, Oklahoma City Thunder now with 15 wins, 15 straight wins, Oklahoma City Thunder. Houston Rockets are the second seed. Memphis is the third seed. Always say I want the Lakers to be a four-seed or better. Right now, those Denver Nuggets, the team that owns the Lakers are the four-seed. Mavericks are the five, Lakers six. Clippers are the seven, Golden State Warriors, eight, Minnesota, nine, and then the San Antonio Spurs 10. So that's where you're at right now. If you look at the playoff picture

right now and again, we're about halfway through the season. We're almost there. This is not where the Lakers want to be. Lakers are about, what, five games away from being halfway through the season. They've got to play better basketball. They've got to find an identity. They've got to fix this offense. They've got to find the right rotation. They've got to figure out exactly who's your starting lineup and which bench players can actually do something. Because right now, the bench is weak. The bench, unfortunately, is not a bench that is a playoff championship team. And for this Laker team, it's frustrating because the teams around them, they're young and they're motivated. And at the same time, the Dallas Mavericks will get better once they get their stars back.

This was a game the Lakers should have had. Unfortunately, the Lakers didn't get that. In the East, Dallas, I was excuse me, Cleveland Cavs that continue to win. Cavs have won 10 games in a row. Still the best team in the East at 31 and 4. Actually, the best team. in the NBA, just they have one game ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder, even though the West is much tougher. The Cavs right now have a five and a half game lead over the second seed Celtics. You have the Knicks, the Magic, the Bucs, Pacers, Pistons, Hawks, Heat, and the Chicago Bulls. Those are right now your 10 teams in the playoffs in the East.

Outside look it in, by the way, which is kind of interesting because the Lakers play some of these teams coming up. We don't talk about the East a lot, but the Lakers have the 76ers coming up. They have the Nets coming up. and the Charlotte Hornets coming to town on Thursday. Now, what does it mean for the Lakers to get healthy on Thursday? There's a very good chance, and it should happen. The Hornets, even though they won their last game,

the Hornets are 8 and 27 on the season, 23 games back of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Again, 8 and 27, they've won one of their last 10. This is a game right here where the Lakers should win, right? We say this a lot. Lakers should win. Lakers should have won tonight. Lakers should win on Thursday against the Hornets.

Hornets are 2 and 14 on the road. So it's a great opportunity for the Lakers to get healthy, turn things around, and again, coming back home, the embarrassment, the excitement factor playing at home, and getting things going. So what is the biggest issue with this Laker team? What do they need to turn things around? We'll see if it can start on Thursday against the Hornets.

I imagine because tomorrow they're coming back after a road trip that they won't have practice tomorrow. Kind of curious to know when do they implement things? When do they come up with the idea? changing things around. I know one thing is JJ Reddick does not take these loss as well. It's not like they lose and he's okay with it. The Lakers

fans don't take these loss as well and neither to the star players as you guys have mentioned in the comments. You know, I'm with you. I don't think LeBron and AD think this is acceptable basketball and as fans, we know it's unacceptable basketball either. So Lakers will be back in action again. Thursday, 7.30 tip off from crypto against the Hornets. I will be back with you as well talking

in Laker basketball, again, for the postcast, excited to do it, excited to talk Laker basketball. I'm looking forward to a win. These losses hurt me as well. I feel like JJ Redick, the more they lose, I think it was my hair turning gray, and I watch JJ, and I'm like, is his hair changing colors?

Are there gray streaks in his hair all of a sudden? I think it's aging them quickly. He gets paid for an age. I might just get here and watch these losses and stress out, and I get nothing out of it except just aggravation. And lucky enough, I'm here to talk to you. So if you want to follow Laker basketball all season long on a daily basis, don't forget about Brian and Andy.

You can catch their podcast every single day. Look, this show and that show can be heard anywhere you get your podcast. Don't forget, Lockdown Lakers, Los Angeles, just a great format for you to follow all your teams, no matter who you root for or who you hate. It's a great format for you to follow all your sports. But I'm happy to talk to Laker basketball with you. Again, final score tonight, Lakers lose 1187 in the Dallas

Mavericks looking at turning around on Thursday. Thank you so much for spending this 30 minutes with me. We'll see you Thursday night, hopefully talking about a Laker win. Good night, everybody.