Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST No Love For Lakers in Philadelphia. 76ers beat the Lakers 118-104

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

Tyrese Maxey scored a game-high 43 points and Kelly Oubre Jr. added 20 points as the Philadelphia 76ers blew out the visiting Los Angeles Lakers 118-104. The Lakers were led by LeBron James, who had 31 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists, and rookie Dalton Knecht’s 24 points in the loss. The Lakers' chances of winning went out the window when Anthony Davis left the game in the first quarter with an abdominal strain. The Lakers will look to get back on the winning side of things Thursday night when they visit the Washington Wizards.Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reeves, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dalton Knecht, Dave Palet, Lakers vs 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers vs Philadelphia 76ers, Joel Embid, Paul George, Tyrese Maxey  Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!FAN DUEL Super Bowl 59 is here—one game, two teams, endless possibilities! And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook.Whether it’s predicting the first touchdown, calling the MVP, or even betting on the coin toss, FanDuel makes it easy to get in on the action. With live betting all game long, you can adjust your bets as the game unfolds and feel the thrill from kickoff to the final whistle.The live betting feature lets you stay involved no matter what happens on the field, and the app is super easy to navigate. Plus, knowing that you can place a $5 bet and potentially win $200 in Bonus Bets for the Super Bowl? That’s the icing on the cake!Download the app or head to FANDUEL DOT COM to get started. Bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. That’s FANDUEL DOT COM.Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. 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. If you lose Anthony Davis in the first quarter, Lakers throwing the towel in the second quarter, but rookie Dalton Connect shows signs of heating up. We talk about it all on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. I'm Dave Palais.

Again, thank you for joining me tonight. Tough night for the Lakers. We'll talk about all of it and what they need to do to get better and also the seriousness of Anthony Davis's injury. So a lot going on with this Laker team and a lot to always cover with the Lakers. Appreciate you're joining me tonight. At the same time, I'll get to your comments. Appreciate you tuning in and sharing your thoughts as we move forward.

I want to mention Fandul Super Bowl 59 is here. One game, two teams, endless possibilities. And now there's no better way to make every play from an exciting game count with Fandall Sports. Look, Fandall Sportsbook is here for you, whether you're predicting the first touchdown, calling the MVP, or even betting on the coin toss, Fandle makes it easy to get in all the action with live betting all game long. Very simple. Download that app today.

Make sure you go to fandle.com to get started, bet just $5. And if you win, you'll score $200 in bonus bets. That's fandul.com, bet with Fandle, the official partner of Super Bowl 59. Lakers, tough night tonight. things didn't start off very tough for the Lakers, but boy, they ended tough for the Lakers. The way Lakers went about it, and we all know back-to-back games are always tough in the NBA. We spoke about it yesterday on how tough it was going to be for this team taking on the Charlotte Hornets. And in a game, we really should have blown Charlotte out and given your starters a chance to rest.

The Lakers weren't able to do that. They had to play tough all the way to the very end. And going back to the line that J.J. Reddick and LeBron James said a few weeks ago, and they're right on the money with this one. They said, we have to play almost a perfect game to win. That's not a good sign if you're Rob Polinka. If that's the way the players feel and we see it as fans, they're exactly right. You have to play almost perfect just to get a win with this team.

So Rob Polinka, where are you? You got to get help for the guys that need it. And so guess what? Here we go. The trade deadlines a few weeks away. Everyone's saying you've got to make a move. Anthony Davis came out nationally and said, hey, I want some help. I don't want to play the five.

I don't want to get banged up. I do best when I'm playing the four position. And now that Anthony Davis has hurt, the Lakers find themselves in a situation where they aren't in the best market to make a trade because everyone knows they're desperate right now. Not a good sign right here for the Lakers. This injury actually happened at a terrible time for the Lakers. Outside of this injury happening right before the playoffs,

this is a really tough injury for the Lakers because everyone knows that Rob Polinka isn't coming out of a position of a trade from a bargaining in. He's coming at up from a desperation in. And for the Lakers, they might have to give up more than they're ready to give up because you don't know how long Anthony Davis is going to be out. Now, Anthony Davis could be back for all I know on Thursday against the Washington Wizards. But when you talk about an abdominal injury, you're talking about an injury that can last for a long time. Think about it.

It's a core muscle, right? So whether he's getting up at a bed, whether he's going to the restroom, whether he's getting dressed, he's using his stomach. So when it's an abdominal injury and he's not able to play tonight and you don't know what he's going to feel like tomorrow, this could be an injury that lasts a day, could be an injury that lasts a month. We don't know how long this is going to take. We've seen these injuries before in sports, and they aren't easy. Of course, when you see them in baseball, it can put you out for a long time because you're using so much torque. But at the same time, if you're Anthony Davis and there's a lot of movement, it could be a long time for him to come back into this Laker lineup.

We don't know. So best case scenario is it's not that serious. Anthony Davis said, you know what, let's just give him the night off. He's banged up a little bit. It's back-to-back games. They've played a lot of games this week. or the worst case scenario is that this could be serious. JJ Redick after the game did not spend a lot of time talking about it.

We're not giving any information about Anthony Davis. But for the Lakers, yeah, can they get by the Wizards without them? Yeah, of course they can. But they have games coming up that they need to win. Actually, the Lakers need to win all these games. There's not a game on the schedule. The Lakers aren't a position to say we can let game slide. Look at the Dallas Mavericks when they lost Luca.

Look how that turned into a complete disaster. So for the Lakers, what happened tonight? And how do they lose this game? Because when you find out that the starting lineup of the 76ers, when the game starts, is missing two key players, no Paul George, no Joel Embed, and you're going, this is a win. Lakers are going to win this game. We get Rui back, which is exciting.

And the Lakers don't. The Lakers don't. Lakers got off to a really good start. The Lakers at the same times, you know, things were going their way in and things got off to a good start. Gabe Vincent, by the way, wasn't able to play. And Jared Vanderbilt didn't. play not because he's injured, it's because it's part of his rehab to take things slow.

As we're seeing, he's playing basically six minutes a half, back-to-back games. They decided to give them the day off. I don't know if it would have made a difference, to be honest with you, if they had either one of those guys in the lineup. Lakers just didn't play very good basketball. We'll get into all that and why things fell apart. But right now, in the first quarter for the Lakers, look, neither team could buy a basket. If you remember the beginning of the game and if you're one of those people that was home

at 4.30 and saw tip off to the end of the game, you saw that neither team was doing well. You expected the 76ers not to do well, but for the Lakers not to do well was kind of surprising. Neither team could score. The most shot at combined two for eight to start the game. 76ers actually scored their first basket of the game with 845 remaining in the first quarter. So you're thinking 76ers, they thrown in the towel who for the game even started without Mbid, without George, the 76ers didn't come to compete. Well, with 433 remaining in the first quarter, J.J. Reddick did something that was unusual. And if you watch, it in the first quarter. I'm scratching my head. Look, nothing against any player on this team,

but if you're like me, you don't care about individual stats. You care about the scoreboard and what it means to the Lakers and wins is all that matters. At 4 to 33, remaining in the first quarter, J.J. Reddick inserted Brony James into the game. The only time Brianne James has played in the first quarter was when they were doing that whole father-son thing on opening night with the Minnesota Timberwolves. We had Ken Griffey Senior and Ken Griffey Jr. there at crypto, for those all PR stuff. Look, nothing against Brony James. Everybody cheers for him.

I know at crypto and everybody cheers for him on the road. I don't know why. I'll be honest with that. I just don't know why. Most of people I talk to will say, hey, he doesn't belong in the league. I don't mind that he's in the league for the fact LeBron is LeBron and without LeBron

this team is nothing. But Brony James isn't going to help the team. So here we go. Lakers were up 18 to 9 when Brony came into the game. Okay. In one minute, The 76ers scored six unanswered points. And Brony had one turnover.

That turnover turned into a layup for the 76ers. The Lakers were then outscored with Brony on the court, 16 to 7. And that's why this core was tied at the end of one. And it's frustrating to go, how did this happen? Lakers were off to a really good start, 18 to 9, yet next thing of the quarter ends, it's 25, 25. What was the point? What was the point?

Again, your opinion is if Brony is an NBA player, not in any player. I have my opinion on that. But my thing is who's on the fourth can help this team win. Literally, if you're looking at guys like Jake Milton, who's a vet, or you're looking at Cam Reddish who's in the doghouse, you tell me those guys aren't better options than Bronte on the four? Because guess what? The proof is in the pudding. It shows that when Brony's on the floor, the Lakers are a worst team. They just are. Lakers shot 43% in the first quarter, 10% from three point range. One at 10. Lakers were led in the quarter by LeBroni at eight points, three rebounds for assist. Austin Reeves at five. And Anthony Davis, who left the game with four points and two

rebounds in about 10 minutes, that was it for him. He wasn't coming back. So Anthony Davis, when you look at, if you're a guy that looks at individual stats and it means something to you for players that you really don't even know personally, not like if somebody wins an MVP trophy, Anthony Davis will say, hey, you can keep it at your house for six months. It doesn't work that way. Who cares? We care about the Lakers winning championships. But if you're one of those guys that is more concerned about the players individual stats than you are about your team winning. Hey, Anthony Davis, guess what? His season averages went way down after tonight because it counts that he played a game, played 10 minutes, he scores four points, gets two rebounds, and that's about it. But again,

abdominal strain for Anthony Davis, and he's out, doesn't return. 76ers, by the way, led by Terrice Maxey, 15 points in the first quarter, 15, and it never stopped. He had a heck of a night. 76ers shot 48%, 17% with three-point range. They weren't lighting it up. They were one at six. Lakers were terrible at 1-10. Sixers weren't good either. They're one of six.

Rebounds, Lakers out rebounded the Sixers, 13 to 9. Lakers had seven assists, 76ers had two. And the bench points, Lakers at four. 76ers had none. All four, by the way, came from Jackson Hayes for the Lakers. Second quarter, it was all downhill. All downhill for the Lakers. 76ers started the quarter on a score on a score

run outscoring the Lakers 10 to 3. They never looked back. And look, the 76ers led in the quarter by as many as 16. 76ers scored 16 straight possessions. On 16 times down the floor, they scored. Some of those were off for turnovers. The turnovers will get into later on on why you lose a game. But come on. 16 straight possessions and the 76ers, this is 76ers. Not one of the better teams in the league. Actually, one of the worst teams in the league. Eric Gordon, always been kind of an Eric Gordon fan, even since Indiana, kind of like an instant offense guy. 11 points in the second quarter. Kelly Ubre, Jr., he had 10,

76ers scored a season high in the first half with 73 points. I'll say that again. 76ers scored 73 points in the first half against the Los Angeles Laker team that people are saying, this is a team right here that has a chance to win the championship. I don't know. Again, what's going on, Rob Polinka? The highlight for the Lakers in the second quarter was easily Dalton Connect. He had 13 points off the bench, but for the lake,

It was tough. Lakers get outscored in the second quarter, 48 to 32. Now, the 32 on the Lakers side sounds pretty good, right? We talked about the Lakers, how tough it is from the square 30 in any quarter. They get the 32, but they give up 48. 48's as many as you give up and a half. So what happens there? Is it a matter of effort? And when you're hearing guys like J.J. Reddick at the press conference and he's saying, look, you know what, back to back and we played a lot of games, we don't care. As Laker fans, we don't care about any of that stuff. You play basketball for living. You are living a dream. You are getting paid a ton of money. You're wearing the Laker uniform that we love. When you're done wearing that Laker uniform, we're still going to be rooting for the same franchise. You owe it to yourself, your name,

and the city and the organization that pays you to bust your rear in every single night. You only ask to show up to work 82 times a year. That's it. And to say in the second quarter that we're done to give up that many points, where is the effort from this Laker team? And that's where it becomes extremely frustrating,

extremely frustrating with this Laker team. Half time, we'll get into those as well. Again, I'll take your comments on everything, but very, very frustrating night tonight. And obviously, when we do these shows and the Lakers lose, it's pretty hard. Again, I want to mention Fandul, Super Bowl 59 is going to be here in about 11 days or so.

One game, two teams, endless possibilities. There's no better way to make every play more exciting than with Fandul's sportsbook, whether it's predicting the first touchdown, call them the MVP, or even betting on the coin toss. Fandul makes it easy to get in all the action with live betting all game long. You can adjust your bets as the game unfolds and fill the thrill from kickoff to the final whistle. The live betting feature lets you stay involved no matter what happens on the field.

And you can follow it all the way through their app. The app is super easy to navigate plus knowing that you can place a $5 bet and potentially win $200 in bonus bets for the Super Bowl. Dicing is on the cake. It's easy. Download that app today. That's fandul.com. Get started. just bet $5. And if you win, you'll score $200 and bonus bets. That's fandul.com. Bet with Fandul, the official partner of Super Bowl, 59.

So looking at the Lakers right now at the half, and he's going, okay, what does J.J. Reddick say? Teams down 73, 57. Lakers were led and scored by Delta Connects, 13 off the bench. That was a plus. LeBron James, 12 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists. At the half, Rui, he had 11, Austin Reeves. had nine and five assists.

But the big story is Tyrese Maxi. Incredible. I mean, if you watch him tonight, you say, this guy's a top five player in the league. Well, he's not. But the Lakers made him look that way because nobody would stop him, going to the basket. Nobody would get into his face and play solid defense.

There was like a zero pride effort from the Lakers in this game. There was nothing about this game that you can say was positive outside of Dalton Connect. This was bad. Bad defense, bad way of handling the ball. The turnovers are insane. The fact that the Lakers have 41 turnovers in the last. two games is crazy. The fact that the 76ers scoring than 20 points off the Lakers turnovers is unbelievable. Maxie again at 27 at the half. Eric Gordon, he had 11. Kelly Ubrae Jr. he had 10.

So for, excuse me, actually, it's worse than that. Tyrese Maxie actually had more. I'm sorry. I read the wrong one there. Tyrese maxi at 27, Kelly Ubre did have 10 and Eric Gordon had 11. So here we go. Shooting for the Lakers. Look at this. Not a bad shooting night. for the Lakers. Anything over 50% is a really good shooting night. Lakers shot 54%. Three points, not good. 25%. Again, the Lakers are not a great three-point shooting team. Some of the guys you rely on to shoot those three-pointers didn't come through tonight. 4-16-76ers. They shot 57% compared to the Lakers 54%. They shot 43% from behind the arc, 6 of 14. Rebounds, both teams had 17. Assists, Lakers actually did a better job. They had 18, 76ers at 12.

maybe because the 76ers had so many layups off the Laker turnovers. Maybe that's why he didn't see all those assists. And again, turnovers for the Lakers at the half. Lakers had 10. 76ers had three. Now the point scored off their turnovers. This is an amazing number. 76ers scored 15 points off the Laker turnovers in the first half.

Guess what? The Lakers only scored two. Points in the paint, each team had 32, which is embarrassing right there. Look, you know you have no MBEED. And there's no way that you can sit there and say, we aren't going to sit there intact the pain a little bit, but more than that, especially when a three-point shot, it's not falling. It's very frustrating.

Third quarter, Lakers, guess what, didn't play well in the third. So whatever was said at halftime, they completely ignored JJ Reddick because the efforts stunk. Lakers gave a little bit of an effort at the beginning to cut the lead down to 12, but that was it. It was over. It was a horrible night for the purple and gold in the third quarter. 76ers expanding that lead in the third quarter, it's 23 points.

Turnovers again, killed the Lakers all night long. they had, look, 10 turnovers for the Lakers in the first half. They had nine just in the third quarter alone. Nine. This is NBA basketball. How does this happen that Lakers think they continue to play solid winning basketball when they turn the ball over this much? They lose that battle almost every single night, the Lakers do.

Turnovers all over the place would turn into easy buckets for the 76ers, often uncontested shots. Extremely frustrating. Lakers were led by LeBron James and Dalton Connected, both at 16 through three. 76ers led by Tyrese, he had 41 on 14 to 24 shooting. And it was basically over. It was basically over for the Lakers in the second quarter. And the 76ers put the nail in the coffin in the third quarter to say,

there's no way you're coming back. We're going to close this thing down. And so final score tonight, 118 to 104. If it makes you feel any better, the Lakers in garbage time outscored Philadelphia, 28 to 19 in the fourth quarter. but they still end up losing that game by 14. If you just take away some of those turnovers, the Lakers are competing.

The Lakers are competing and the way it worked tonight, there's zero chance to compete with the effort they put out there. Embarrassing night for the Lakers all the way around. Curious to know what you think is well. As I'm looking at the chat right now, Craig, man, thanks for joining me on a tough night. Craig says right here, as the first thing I see, embarrassing game.

Embarrassing. Okay, now here's something Craig said that I wanted to get to as well. We talked about the lineup because Rui missed the last couple games, and we knew Rui was going to come back tonight. Is this team better with Doreen Fennie Smith starting? Guess what? I think the team is better. And when they made the trade, there's a lot of talk.

Do you put Rui on the bench? Do you put Fannie Smith as far as the starter goes? And the Lakers said, you know what, you aren't going to lose your spot because of injury. That's what J.J. Reddix, I guess, team rule is because we saw it tonight, even though the team played really well without Rui in the starting lineup. And guess what? Lakers lose, all right, they lose. And whether it's just one position in the starting lineup that makes a difference,

can't tell you. All I know is the Lakers, when they sat in here and made the trade for Dory and Fannie Smith, they expected the kind of numbers he put up with the nets. And he hasn't been putting them up, but he did as a starter. So tonight, when you look at Doreen Fennie Smith coming off the bench, you play 19 minutes, shot the ball six times, made one of those. He made one. That was a three-point.

He finished with three points on the night. Three. So many points as he had is turnovers. Three turnovers, three rebounds, three points. That was it. So is that something you want to look at as far as if you're JJ Redick and that coaching staff? Are they better off by maybe saying let's get a surge out of Rui

off the bench? Maybe he can do it. But right now, Dorian Finney Smith has proven, he's a better starter than he is a bench player. Rue, by the way, on the night in 24 minutes, he had 13 points. 13 points, 6 of 9 shots that he made. He made one three-pointer out of three at three.

attempts. And for for him, maybe he's a guy that, and he strikes me as a guy that's the ultimate team player. I think he would go to the bench knowing that he's going to be a six-man kind of player and you get maybe a better performance at him. Maybe that's what's best for the team, because Dorian Finney Smith seems like he's a guy that's used to starting for the fact you warm up, you go to the bench, you come into the game, six, seven minutes, and after you cool down after your warm-ups, maybe that's throwing him off. I don't know either one of those guys well. So I can't tell you exactly what's going through the mind, but when you look at the box, the Lakers seemed like a better team when Dorey and Finney Smith is starting.

And tonight's game was absolutely terrible. Look, here's the deal. We spoke about it earlier as well. Bronny James is an NBA player. Curious to know what you think. I hate to be hard on what I say is, you know, hey, here's a guy who's a rookie. Here's someone that, let's just take the James part out of his last name. He's a kid that needs time to become an NBA player if he ever will become a true NBA player.

But you could tell the game is too fast. for him. Also, he's undersized. In 15 minutes tonight, Brony was 0 for five shooting. I missed all three of his three point attempts, three turnovers, no points. It was sad. It was sad to watch. Bad basketball. Bad basketball for Brony and, and I know for LeBron and family that wants to see, this great story. Right now, it's not a great story. It is nothing close to Ken Griffey Senior and Ken Griffey Jr. Anyone who wants to make it that night and day, when Ken Griffey Sr. played with his son.

Griffey Jr. was already the better player. So for the Lakers, you know, they said we're going to put Bronte in in the first quarter. For me, it felt like then the game became kind of a joke, kind of like they're throwing the towel in, and they weren't going to compete tonight against a 76-year's team. It's 18 and 27 coming into the game. Very disappointing that that's the attitude the Lakers had going about it. Looking at the rest of the box score for the Lakers, as I mentioned, Anthony Davis only played 10 minutes. He made two of his three shots, but he was out of the game.

with that ab strain. Four points for him. No assist, two rebounds, one turnover, no block shots, and it was kind of a wasted night for him. Ruiz, again, with 13 points. LeBron actually started off kind of slow, but ended up with a big night for LeBron. And look, a loss of the loss. LeBron's been playing this game long enough to know that it doesn't matter about his individual stats of the team doesn't win. But LeBron was on pace for triple double. 31 points LeBron actually finished with. Not a bad night. 10 of 16 shooting for him. Free throws, he made 10 of 11, which is better than he normally does.

But LeBron and Philadelphia, the effort was there. No question of that 40-year-old man that sat there and came to play. He did definitely come to play. There's no complaints of what we saw at number 23 tonight, though. 31 points, eight rebounds, nine assists for him. Big number for LeBron, though, those eight turnovers hurt. Usually when LeBron gets five, it hurts. But he had eight tonight, not good at all.

Austin Reeves finished with 13 and 34 minutes. He had eight assists as well. Three turnovers for Austin Reeves. Disappointing Max Christie, not a good shooting night. 22 minutes for Max Christie, one of six. That was it. The one shot he made was a three-pointer. He finished with only three points on the night.

Cam Reddish, good to see Cam, by the way, back on the court. Cam, in 18 minutes, had five points. Jackson Hayes, he had four, had those in the first quarter, didn't do anything as far as scoring after that. Didn't shoot after that. Jackson Hayes didn't shoot much at all. Only shot one field goal, two free throws. And shake Milton, six minutes, nothing.

Bronte James, as we told you, in 15 minutes, no points. Dalton Connect, and we'll talk about Dalton Connect a little bit more in a second. But Dalton Connect had 24 points in 23 minutes. He was definitely a highlight for the Lakers in tonight's game and tonight's loss, which, of course, was extremely disappointing. So for the Lakers, that's tough. And it's tough to watch. It's tough to sit there and scratch your head and go, man, we've got to wait two days to try and get the bad taste out of our mouth.

They're very frustrating to see how the entire game went. When again, when I mention Fandall, don't forget, Super Bowl 59. It's almost here. One game, two teams, endless possibilities. There's no better way to make every play more exciting than with Fandall, the Fandall sports book. Whether it's predicting the first down, calling the MVP or even betting on the coin toss, Fandle makes it easy to get into all the action with live betting. all game long. You can adjust your bets as the game unfolds and feel the thrill from kickoff

to the final whistle. Live betting feature stay involved the entire time no matter what happens on the field and the app is super easy to navigate. Plus knowing that you can place a $5 bet and potentially win $200 and bonus bets for the Super Bowl. The icing is on the cake. Download that app today. It's Fandul.com to get started. Just bet $5. And if you win, you'll score 200 bucks and bonus bets. That's Fandul.com. Bet with Fandul, official partner. of Super Bowl 59. So let's talk about Dalton Connect just a little bit. Dalton Connect, obviously, if you heard the show from the very beginning,

and I appreciate the people that have been with me all season long, Dalton Connect is a player I've watched for a long time. I'm a huge SEC sports fan, love FCC football, SEC baseball, and SEC basketball. University of Tennessee, he was the best player in the SEC a year ago. One player of the year, Lakers got a steal in the draft when they got him. A lot of people said, man, how did he fall that far to the Lakers? Well, he did.

He falls that far in the draft. Lakers, again, and we're all excited for the people who didn't know Dalton Connect from college, looking at what he did in October, looking what he did in November, and you're going, this guy is a stud player. This guy's going to be one of the talks of the NBA and a player that the Lakers can rely on. LeBron James fell in love with him early. It takes a lot to get the trust of LeBron and these young players. LeBron right away, couldn't say enough nice things about him.

Went completely cold. He did from the second half of November through December and really through the first half of January, where he was like is this kid ever going to bounce out of it well he has shown signs of coming back to be the player the lakers thought he was going to be and so for dalton connect to step up and get an opportunity because j jrattic in my opinion has been mismanaging him meaning like when he does have his game and his shot is starting to fall then you leave him on the court give this kid as much confidence you can possibly give him j j j reddick who was a great shooter in the NBA one of the the best outside shooters of all time j j jrattie reddick you think he would understand what it feels like

to have your shot that can't miss feeling. Dalton Connect hasn't had that for about two months, but yet he is showing signs of getting a shot back, and JJ Reddick pulls him out often. Well, tonight he played a lot because the Lakers stunk, and the opportunity was there for him to stay on the court. And Dalton Connect wasn't in that situation where he's playing and he's looking over his shoulder,

am I coming out. So in 23 minutes tonight, Dalton Connect, 24 points, 8 of 13 shooting, you may fine. There we go, we're back, sorry about the technical difficulties, I'm not sure exactly how much I went out right there. It wasn't exciting because I was reading the 76-year box score, which wasn't a lot of fun. So there you go.

So apologize for the technical problems. But again, Lakers, they lose 118, 104, if you're back with me right now. For the Lakers, what does it mean for them? Again, on Thursday, they're back in action, taken on the Wizards, another game where they're going to face a team with a losing record. What does it mean for the Lakers in the standings? and as far as things they need moving forward. Well, the Lakers right now, because of the loss, you know, they fall,

they fall to 2619. There's still number five in the standings in the Western Conference. It's still behind the Denver Nuggets. Denver Nuggets are team they're trying to catch. Nuggets have lost actually two in a row, which is a good sign. Now, I don't think they're going to catch the Thunder. The Thunder are just too far ahead. Lakers are 11 games back when we're more than halfway through the season already.

And the Thunder are only going to continue to get better as players get health. the Thunder are 37 and 8 right now. Rockets, maybe the rockets are the real deal, beating the Boston Celtics last night. Rockets have won four straight games, 32 and 14. Memphis still the number three seed. Denver again, and nine and a half games out. The four seed, Lakers of the five seed, 26 and 19. Clippers, six seed, Minnesota, the seventh seed. Phoenix is eight, Dallas is nine, Sacramento is 10, and the spurs, of course, not in the playoffs right now. They're 22 and 23. They've only won four of their last 10 games.

If you want to know what it looks like for the Lakers, taking on the Wizards, guess what? The Wizards, if you aren't aware, are the worst team in the NBA. Maybe it's a great matchup for the Lakers at this time. You look at the Wizards, they're 6 and 39, 6 and 39 on the season for the Wizards. Now, this is the team that you go effort-wise. Hey, if they don't have their best effort, you take it. They're 5 and 17 at home.

For the Lakers, it would be nice to get a win against a team you're supposed to beat. if the Lakers lose to the Wizards on Thursday, I don't even know how we're all going to make it through this together. I just don't even know what to say. Lakers need to come out with a win, whether Anthony Davis is good to go or not. But that's kind of where we're at right there. Lakers need to come out with a win in Washington,

and that's the way it needs to go. That's what we're going to have to do to go with that. I want to read this real quick. Craig says, Hey, Dave, what do you think about Ben Simmons as a ball handler, defender, guard has sizes? Craig agree with everything you just said. Can't shoot for anything, but at the same time, he is a fantastic defender.

He's also a guy that LeBron James is really a big fan of as well. What I think he'd fit on in this team? Yeah, can you have too much defense? It sounds ridiculous to say, but you really can't. I mean, they have three really good defenders, right? You have Ben Simmons. You would have Ben Simmons. You would have Max Christie.

You would have Jared Vanderbilt. You'd have Anthony Davis. Those would be four outstanding defenders on this Laker team. What I really like to see the Lakers get is guys that could put the ball in the basket. But if Ben Simmons and somehow the money worked and it didn't seem ridiculous, I wouldn't be against it. Ben Simmons is not a bad player when he's in a situation, I think, surrounded by stars, meaning people aren't looking at him to play like the number one overall pick.

Has his career been a complete disappointment? It has. If you're one of those people that was a Ben Simmons fan in Philadelphia with New Jersey, he's not the player that you thought you were getting. So I'm not a Ben Simmons hater like a lot of people are. I think with the right team, Ben Simmons could be a plus. And it would be interesting to see, let's say the Lakers don't make a trade to acquire them.

Let's say he went to another team. Let's say he went to a team like even Boston, who has guys that can score from all over, but they want another defender. We'd all say, man, that hurts. Like Boston just got better. You'd say that about a bunch of teams in this league right now. If you added to Ben Simmons and what he can provide defensively would be a really big deal. I don't hate that.

I really don't hate that. And some people might shoot back at us and say, what are you crazy? We don't need them. They do need a score. The Lakers need more than one move. There are about three guys on this team that there's the door, and there's the door again,

about three guys that could bring in that I think we'd all feel a little bit more comfortable with. So I'd be all, I'll be for anything right now. I just know that what they have right now is not good enough to win an NBA championship. And as a fan, that's all I care about. That's all I care about. I'm getting older and I want to see the Lakers catch the Celtics in 18,

and then I want to see them past the Celtics. What I tell you a long time ago, my goal is a Lakers sports fan is to die with the Lakers having more championships in the Boston Celtics, and we're one behind already, and we can't sit in and waste the careers of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and Rob Polinca needs to make this year a little bit better for all of us.

For everybody there, he owes it to everybody. Get out there, make a move. Make a move, and if there's certain untouchable guys out there, it's amazing how people get creative. All of a sudden, by the way, Sacramento tonight says Fox is on the trade block. Do you want them as a point guard? Would you even trade a guy like an Austin Reeves and take draft picks for a guy like Fox?

One of the best players in the league, fast, it's hard to guard them, makes everybody uncomfortable. And when you trade draft picks, everyone starts to hold on in the draft picks like their gold, not like hockey style, but at the same time, the draft picks are important. But if you finish well enough into the season and you're making an NBA finals, those draft picks don't equal a lot anyway. So I'm one of those guys that's let's win now. Let's win now and not let's sit there and talk about winning in 2031. That's not where I'm at as a fan.

Either way, got to calm down. Appreciate you guys spending the night with me talking to Laker basketball. We'll give me back on Thursday. I want a better show on a better effort. I want to see the Lakers win and feel better going in the next few games because it gets crazy busy with the Lakers and this road trip. Let's all put our hands together and hope good things for Anthony Davis tomorrow when he wakes up in the morning.

We'll talk Laker basketball on Thursday. All right. obviously maybe it's JJ Radick messing with my internet here. All right, Thursday, we'll be back at 430. I apologize again. Holy cow. All right. So here's the deal.

We'll be back. We'll talk to Laker basketball with you. If you need more Laker basketball, Brian and Andy are here every single day talking Laker basketball. I'm here for the postcast. But again, thanks for joining me. Appreciate the comments as well, guys, for jumping in. Craig O is good to hear from you, BC as well.

And we'll see you on Thursday after the Wizards game. Have a great night. Enjoy the next couple of days. days. Again, go Lakers.