Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Rockets outlast the Lakers 119-115

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Anthony Davis scored 30 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to go along with 5 blocks, but it wasn’t enough, as the Houston Rockets outlasted the visiting Lakers 119-115. Jalen Green led the Rockets with 33 points, while Amen Thompson added 23 points and 16 rebounds. The Lakers will look to get back on the winning side of things Tuesday in Dallas against the Mavericks. Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reeves, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dalton Knecht, Lakers vs Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers vs Houston Rockets 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 Lakers start their road trip with the loss. The team comes out sluggish, and where's the coaching? We talk about it all on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. I'm Dave Palais. You're free to follow me on social media. I will respond to you. Again, it's right there in the corner of the screen.

You can catch me on X and all other social media platforms. But right now, we'll talk a little bit of. the Laker basketball as the Lakers start this brief two game road trip with a loss. Unfortunately for the Lakers, it was a bad start. It was a bad start in Houston because the Houston Rockets are a team that's ahead of the Lakers in the standings. It's one of those teams where the Lakers won't obviously pass the Rockets and finish, as I say, all the time in a top four position.

Rockets have been playing very good basketball this year to the surprise of many because when you look at the big name stars and really it's a team that has star players, but it doesn't have the star players that you remember from the past. There's no Russell Westbrook. There's no James Hardin. There's no Chris Paul. This is a different Rockets team. This is the Rockets team of the future.

When the Rockets decided to rebuild, this is the team that they were putting together. Did they think it was going to happen this soon? Well, if you ask the Lakers, they'll tell you, yeah, the Rockets are a very good team. The Rockets are known as a team, though, that is known for not finishing the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, for the Lakers, they finish the fourth quarter. And it's really because the Lakers fault. Not that the Rockets did anything outstanding, it was a situation where the Lakers looked like they weren't prepared.

Very frustrating things when you talk about this Laker loss, because not only the offensive fouls at the end, not only the bad shots, not only the inbound pass, that didn't make any sense at all for Max Christie. You had a timeout remaining. Where is the rush? And so here's the deal with the Lakers in that situation where let's go down to the last possession that really mattered

for the Lakers. The team's down by three. Lakers are going to get one last shot. And you're going to go, who's going to be the guy that shoots it? Well, let's look who's on the floor. Is it going to be Anthony Davis? We probably don't want Anthony Davis shooting a three in that situation. If Anthony Davis misses a three, all of us, including the Laker fans, excuse me, Laker coaches are frustrating. Laker fans are going to be frustrated. In your mind, you're thinking, well, this is going to be possibly an Austin Reeve shot. Maybe it's one where Max Chris, he gets the ball in bounds, gets the ball back. He knocks it down or is it going to be LeBron James, drawing Finney Smith. Look, if you look at

Finney Smith and that might sound crazy to you, he was brought over here as a very good three-point shooter. But let's all be honest. We all know that ball is going to go to LeBron. It's just the way it is. And we talk about it on the show all the time that, you know, the big three-point shots or the big shots at the buzzer, you know, what has LeBron done in your memory as a Laker to say he's the consistent guy that should be the one doing it. For the Laker fans, it's frustrating because we remember Magic Johnson doing it. We remember Kobe Bryant do it. Some of our best memories of former Lakers are those guys hitting those big shots.

For Bulls fans and NBA fans, they'll tell you about Michael Jordan. But Michael Jordan will tell you, he missed a lot more of those than the games than he made, but you remember the ones he made. Kobe Bryant, you can say the same thing. That is a terrible play that the Lakers drew up. If the idea was to get the ball to LeBron James, that was terrible coaching by JJ Redick and his staff. I don't understand how you can have one timeout remaining.

The last thing should be said, if the pass isn't there, just call timeout. At the same time, if you're going to get the ball to LeBron and no matter what, he's going to be the guy that shoots it, then set up a screen. Anything. To just be free reign, it doesn't make any sense at all. Then to throw a ball in that turns into a turnover is embarrassing. It feels like you wasted two and a half hours of your time on the court, your time traveling to Houston, your time staying in a hotel.

your time eating the food that's on the road. And for us as fans, it feels frustrating as well because that has to be as simple as can be at this point in basketball. If we all played high school basketball, we all remember we had an inbound play. For that to be the Lakers inbound play when the idea is to get the ball to LeBron James is insane. It wasn't a situation when he had a second left or two seconds left. You had time to set something up. It was bad. It was bad.

And so JJ Reddick, who's in his first year as a head coach of this team, very, very frustrating to see. the way the Lakers executed. That's not what championship teams do. The Lakers are so far off right now from looking like a team that contend, I don't even know what to say. I'm speechless to the point. I'm frustrated more than you can imagine

because I think about the teams that we think about chasing all the time. What were the Warriors have done in that situation? What were the Golden State Warriors done? What were the Boston Celtics done? What were the Denver Nuggets have done? Even Oklahoma City, a young team. What would they have done?

That is ridiculous. That is bad, basketball. And at this point in an NBA career, come on, you know better than that. JJ Reddick, you played in the NBA forever. Nate McMillan, you're his assistant for a reason. Scott Brooks, you're his assistant for a reason. For that to be the play they drew up and to have a turnover and really take you out of contention of winning after you work so hard to battle back, extremely frustrating. So as Laker fans, you watch the team lose tonight. It's a brief two-game road trip. Both of them obviously in Texas. You're sitting there facing the rocket. You're sitting there

facing the Rockets tonight. You fall to Houston, which means you fall in the standings. And then you have the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday. We'll talk more about that game coming up. But, man, what was such an incredible sports day. If you're like me and you watch NFL and you're looking at what do the Rams do today and you know the Rams played a bunch of backups, but yet the Rams are still pretty good. And then you watch the Chargers destroy the Raiders. And then, you know, the playoffs are going and you're going, man, even on the last week of the NFL season, the league doesn't disappoint. In the NBA, if you're like me, I'm not a huge fan of watching all 30 teams on a regular basis like I watch the NFL. But I love the Lakers. The Lakers are my favorite team. And so when the

Lakers lose, I always say, what could they have possibly done? Do they get beat or did they beat themselves? And tonight, the Lakers beat themselves at the end. It was too much of an effort where they could have thrown the towel in early in the game. And we would have been doing a show right now talking about where was the Lakers effort? How can this be that you get a day off after our four-game home stand and you don't come out with any effort. Well, that's not what the Lakers did. The Lakers looked like they were going to go that way in the first quarter, but that's not exactly what happened. Unfortunately, for the Lakers, they battled all the way back. We got excited. We're going, this is going to be one of the great wins of the season, especially after that third quarter,

but that's not what the Lakers did. They fell apart. They stepped in it right at the end of the game, and what do you always remember? You remember the end of the game. The Lakers have a lot of room to grow, not only as players, as teammates, but that coach and staff, for me, I point the finger at them. I point the finger at them where it's too late. If they mess it up in a game, it's too late because you didn't teach them the right way. What are you possibly going over if you aren't going over at inbound's place and how to get the ball to the guy that everyone knows is getting the ball. And on LeBron James case, everyone knew LeBron James was going to get that ball in the last second. And unfortunately, we couldn't even feed him the ball. And so very, very frustrating for this

Laker team. And overall, this team has to play a lot better. We'll go through it quarter by quarter and what the Lakers have to do to get better. But right now, my my frustration level is through the roof. It is unacceptable. Right when you think this team is making strides and going in the right direction, right when this team takes on four games at home and you finish three and one and the only one he lose to is the team that has the best record in the league and the Cleveland Cavaliers, you're going, okay, we can hang our hat on that.

We can move forward. This team is going to get better as they head towards the All-Star break and then eventually head towards the playoffs and be a team that people are concerned about. That's not where the Lakers show tonight and that's where the frustrating level was for the Lakers right there. So again, a lot of talk as far as what the Lakers can do to get better is what we'll discuss tonight. I'll also talk about which guys stepped up and which guys you want to see step up moving forward

because this team has to play better than what we saw tonight. And we'll see if they can fix it going into Dallas. Hey, want to mention the people over at prize picks. Right now, basketball season is heating up. And there's no better way to get real money action on the game or watching your favorite NBA stars with prize picks. whether you're a diehard fan or you just love some friendly competition. Price picks makes it fun, easy to turn your basketball knowledge into cash.

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How do things go this way? How did things end up where the Lakers into blues in this game, 119, 115. It's easy. It starts in the first quarter. And the Lakers were outscored and embarrassed in the first quarter, 3622. Rockets jump out to a 3622 lead. And like, do you guys even prepare? Do you guys even know who's the people who are dangerous when it comes to the Houston Rockets because it looked like the Lakers had no plan?

We saw it earlier in the week when the Lakers were playing the Blazers and their plan was we're going to stop Austin Reeves, which we thought was kind of wild, but at the same time, that was their plan. Do the Lakers know that, hey, maybe Jalen Green was the guy that they need to worry about. Jalen Green's very good. Jalen Green, if you don't watch a lot of rocket basketball, you know who Jalen Green is. There's even one benefit to the Lakers. Jalen Green got two quick personal fouls in the first quarter, but he finished with 18 points

on 7 of 8 shooting and he made three, three pointers. Rock gets completely dominated. Points in the paint, 20 to 10. When you're seeing 20 to 10, you're like, where is that? effort. What is happening on this team? How can that possibly be? Second quarter. Rockets win that quarter, but the Lakers play a little bit better. Rockets win the quarter, 31, 27. Lakers, though, did go on an 8-0 run and a 10-2 run in the quarter to cut the Rockets lead down. Rockets at the half led 67-49. And to that point, I think a lot of people are thinking it's not our night. Lakers didn't come to play. And very frustrating.

So when you're looking at those halftime stats, you're going, okay, turnovers, Lakers had five. Rockets had four. Rockets scored nine points, five Laker turnovers. Lakers scored zero points for rocket turnovers. Not good at all. Rockets out rebound the Lakers 2814, embarrassing. Rockets scored 12 second chance points. Lakers scored zero. Laker shot 49% from the field. Zero second chance points. That's just absolutely amazing to me. Amazing to me. And so when you look at that going, it's definitely not the Lakers night and how do you even address the media afterwards because all these stats point to a lack of effort in the first half for the Lakers. Rockets made 56% of the shots. Again, three point shooting. Lakers, you know, they struggled as well. Lakers struggled with

three point shooting rockets were eight of 21. Lakers, though, had 14 assists compared to the Rockets 10. So they're moving the ball around. But player comparison, Anthony Davis at the half, eight points, four of nine field goals, three blocks, and you're wondering, you know, exactly what is it going to be for the Lakers or someone to step up. Austin Reeves had 12 points, four of nine shooting to go along with six assists. LeBron James five point, six rebounds, four assists, and Jalen Green led the rockets at the half again. Amen Thompson, by the way, big night for him, 15 points, nine rebounds in the first half.

Lakers, though, went crazy in the third quarter. So whatever was said, whether it was J.J. Reddick getting on those guys or is the guys, is gut checking each other. The Lakers had a plan in the third quarter. And we want to say either the Lakers played red hot basketball or if it was the Rockets just kind of took their foot off the pedal. The Lakers went on a big run, 40 to 24 outscoring the Rockets. So after three quarters, all five Lakers starters had scored in double digits.

LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reeves, all had 19. So we aren't going anywhere, right? If you're watching this game and you're wondering, when do I turn this game off, this is one of those who are like, I'm staying because the Lakers are coming back. The Lakers are coming back, and this is the way things will go. Well, in the fourth quarter, guess what? They let Houston go on a tremendous run. I believe it was a 10-0 run for the Rockets,

and the Rockets end up outscoring the Lakers in the fourth quarter, 2826. Now, by being outscored in the fourth quarter, that means the Lakers were outscored in three or four quarters, but to only lose by four, shows you how dominating they wore in the third quarter. Again, if you're a Laker fan and you wonder, why can't you do that on a regular basis?

meaning if you can play that kind of third quarter, why can't you do that at least two or three more times throughout a game? Where's your rhythm as a team? What do you need to do to get better to make a run and actually look like a dominating team? Be the team that we've seen Laker teams in the past be. What is the missing piece right now? Because it is January 5th,

and we still don't know what the Lakers identity is. What Laker team are we looking at? Are we looking at just a team that is going to struggle to get in the playoffs? Are we looking at a team that can make a championship run? Right now it looks like with the trades they made a week ago, the Lakers are done making trades. The way the salary works out, it doesn't look like there's going to be room for the Lakers to pull off a big time deal. Again, you can find out in about six weeks when the trade deadline passes, what Rob Polinka can do. But right now, this is the bed that Rob Polinka made and the Lakers have to lie in it.

So again, they lose 119, 115. How do the box score look for the Lakers? Well, Anthony Davis, he came to play overall. Anthony Davis in 38 minutes. He had 30 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, five blocks. Turnovers, though, hurt. He led the Lakers and turnovers tonight. Anthony Davis had four of the Lakers, 10 turnovers. Very frustrating off of that, but overall, you can't sit there and complain. Anthony Davis gave you a pretty good performance tonight, and you'll take it. Five fouls, by the way, for Anthony Davis. Rui started off hot. He started with eight points and eight minutes in the first quarter, but Rui finished with 13 points overall.

So he kind of disappeared or his game kind of disappeared as other players decided to be more involved offensively. Again, 28 minutes for Rui, 13 points. And the disappointing stat for Rui is the one rebound. I mean, that's unusual to see a guy in that position to only have one rebound. He went kind of silent. You know, where was he? Zero assist. One rebound, not a lot.

No blocks, no nothing. Kind of just a disappointing game from Rui overall outside of the 13 points. LeBron James finishes with 21 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists. That means he was one assist shy of hitting a triple double, had a steal, only had two turnovers, which will take for LeBron. That's big. Here's, you know, a positive for you is Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves, what do we talk about all the time?

We love what Austin Reeves is doing right now as a Laker. What is the one thing Austin Reeves talks about all the time? Austin Reeves talks about not turning the ball over. So Austin Reeves tonight with his 21 points and 10 assists, zero turnovers. positive right there for Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves, again, playing the point guard position. He wants that position. He wants to be a guy that handles the ball.

But in 41 minutes, no turnovers. That is a big positive in Austin Reeves game because usually he leads to the Lakers and turnovers. And Max Christie finished double digits as well. So all five Lakers starters in double digits. When you look at those numbers, he go, well, that should equal to win. Not only does Max Christie get his 14 points in 39 minutes, he gets his six rebounds as well. He turns the ball over only one time, but the Lakers also had a six person get double digits.

And that's Doreen Fennie Smith, 13 points. So six players in double digit scoring, that's a great sign for the Lakers. And he got to be pleased with that. Doyen Fannie Smith, this might have been his best game as a Laker because it looked like he belonged. Like he's figuring out not only his teammates, but also what the Lakers are trying to do offensively. Joy and Finney Smith would have been a guy at the end of regulation to shoot that three when they're trying to get the ball of LeBron James. I would have been 100% fine with him shooting that three. He's actually a very good three-point shooter.

At least he was with the Nets. It wouldn't have been a bad situation then. Also, just throwing back to the end of the game. What about Dalton Connect? Even though Dalton Connect isn't shooting, the Rockids don't know Dalton Connect's not in the game to basically be a decoy. Why not? In 17 minutes, Dalton Connect, zero.

points. Oh, of two, three point shooting. You weren't going to have him shoot that last shot because he hasn't been shooting well. He missed all three of a shot from the field to three three pointers. He attempted zero points in 17 minutes. It wasn't for that one rebound. You wouldn't even know Dawn to connect played in the game. He didn't do anything. But at the same time, if you put him in at the end, when the rockets know he's a three point specialist, the rockets have to be accountable for him. They have to know, hey, you know, there's a reason why this guy's in the game and he's a guy that can possibly hurt you. So for the Lakers right there, very, very frustrating. You know, it bothers me that the Lakers can't close out games. It bothers me the Lakers, I haven't figured out the identity,

and that the Lakers right now aren't moving forward in the right direction and know exactly what you have night in and night out. So what can I tell you? But Lakers, again, there's reasons why they lost this game. We'll get into the bench as well, and we'll talk about the Rockets and why they had success in just a little bit. But first, I want to mention Fandall, don't forget right now from big upsets to game winning drives, NFL playoffs are better with Fandle because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $200 bucks and bonus bets. Guaranteed that's $200 in bonus bets.

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you'll have the chargers who are taken on the texans it's a one-thirty kickoff on saturday if you have that hunch right there don't forget fandle make the playoff season unforgettable with Fandle and official sports book's partner of the NFL. All right. So again, we'll take your comments as well tonight. You know I'm frustrated. You know, I'm bothered. You know, I'm sitting here irritated.

I'm looking at Max says right here. MacMall says J.J. Reddick was a problem the start of the fourth quarter with that lineup. I don't disagree. I don't disagree. Mac, that's a great comment right there because as much as I want things to work out for JJ Reddick and I was all for the hire,

just someone new, someone different, someone that LeBron James felt comfortable with because LeBron has that history of being called, you know, a coach killer. The fact that J.J. Reddick and him had, you know, a business and the podcast and they knew each other that maybe we'd see the best of LeBron's version at age 40 because he respected him. But J.J. Reddick's lineup tonight was terrible. That's where I wonder, how much is J.J. Reddick and why did the Lakers hire the coaching staff they hire if the three guys who now have head coaching experience can't put together,

a better matchup than that. The start of the fourth quarter is where that game was lost. It's a very, very frustrating. And so great comment right there. LeBron James, again, is he the guy you want shooting the ball at the end of the game? Look, I understand. He's the all-time leading score and he's one of the greatest of all time, if not the greatest of all time. Not saying that it's the wrong choice. I'm asking you as a fan. Is he the guy that you want shooting the ball when you need a three? When everyone else knows he's going to be the guy when he's definitely not your best three-point shooter. and you have other guys on the team that were traded for that are three-point shooters.

Is that what you want right there? Three-point shooting tonight in case you're wondering what your different options wore. Lakers were 16 of 36 from behind the arc. That's 44%. That's what they wore. So who made three-pointers tonight? Who looked good? Well, Anthony Davis was two of four.

I don't want Anthony Davis shooting that. Rui was 50% three-point shooter tonight. He was three of six. LeBron James four of seven. Not bad for LeBron. Austin Reeves 3 of 6, Max Chrissy 2 of 5. Again, your choices are, you know, who do you want to go to? But also at the same time, who are the Rockets thing that's going to get that?

What you want is you want a wide open shot, right? If you move the ball around and you get that wide open shot, like some teams are able to do continuously, whether it's even the Houston Rockets that do it, whether it's the Cavs that do it, or as we see all the time, the Golden State Warriors. Somehow the Warriors are able to set screens, move the ball around, and seems like Seth Curry gets wide open looks. The Lakers seem to do a lot of standing around, standing around, standing outside of that arc,

like they're at the local gym, and all the guys that don't want to go inside, the guys that don't want to sweat but want to play five and five, and nobody wants to go underneath, kind of just stand there, and then they rifle up a three. That's what it looks like with the Lakers. That's not the local gym. It's not a bunch of a 50-year-old guys out of shape,

just sitting a rifling up threes. This is the NBA. You've got to figure out a way to get these guys the ball. These guys are the best athlete. in the world. Unbelievable tonight on how this went and how their choices. Dorian Finney Smith, by the way, was two of six from behind the arc. Dalton Connect, as I said before, 0, and 2. But otherwise, the guys that were there all basically knocked down threes tonight.

So I'm not saying LeBron's the wrong guy. I'm just saying the Rockets knew he was the guy. That's why the ball was stolen. That's why Max Christie made a tremendous mistake at the end. And look, you can say that game was lost in the first quarter, but you're going to remember the game being lost in the fourth quarter. That's the way fans do it. That's the last thing in your memory is when does it count the most?

It counts the most at the fourth quarter in the last couple minutes. It's just the way it is in sports. All right. So Houston Rockets, again, if you aren't familiar with the Rockets, the Rockets played very good basketball tonight. Jalen Green looked like one of the best players in the league, right? Jalen Green, again, ended up with five foul, and he was able to play the entire game after getting two quick ones.

But right away, Jalen Green was on fires. we said 18 points in the first quarter. It finishes with 33. Would have had more if he wasn't in foul trouble. He was 12 or 24 from the field, made five, three-pointers, made all four of his free throws, six rebounds, four assists, complete player. If you've never seen Jalen Green play,

you'd say he's one of the best players in the league. And boy, he was outstanding, right? Can create a shot, can create space, a true athlete. He's very, very good at what he does. Amen Thompson with 23 points, 16 rebounds. and again, if you're the Lakers, like, how does that happen? Right? How does that happen and where the defense is on this team? So let's look at that real quick.

When you look at Amon Thompson at 23 points and 16 rebounds, well, I look at Anthony Davis's numbers. How do they compare? And you go, Anthony Davis, 30 points, 13 rebounds, not bad. But where it starts to hurt you is, you know, Rui, with his one rebound. How many of these rebounds did Rui not get that the Rockets got back and were able to get all the second chance points we're just discussing? So for the bench, Rockets didn't do anything crazy, but they were consistent. You had four guys that scored, four guys that jumped in and all of them scored. You had 8, 6, 8, 7.

So not a bad performance by the bench, not one of the best benches in the league, but those were your points. For the Lakers, they had a total of 16 points. Dorian Finney Smith, he had 13 of them. Cam Reddish in four minutes, no points, no shots. Jackson Hayes, two shots in six minutes. It made two points, but those are both off free throws. And Jake Milton, who, of course, is a new Laker, who was here not only for defense,

but also shake Milton here for shooting threes, didn't shoot one three-point or tonight. Nothing. Didn't shoot a shot at all. So shake Milton overall was zero for zero in both sides, got a chance to shoot two free throws, only made one of them, finished with one point on the night. Nothing exciting about. Nothing worth going. That's why we traded for that guy.

it wasn't that feeling at all for for shake mountain for the lakers and the way they move forward so again frustrating to see that the lakers not only lost this game but at the same time um what are their plans to get better bc says right here max shouldn't have been the inbounder you know what i was thinking bc at that time is that we saw max christie who has really come into his own and has done a better job with this you know with this team um i was thinking this might have been one of those situations with Max Christie where he comes into the game, throws the ball in, and then gets the ball back, and then shoots that three.

I don't know. I'm assuming that ball was going to stay with LeBron James, because why force it? If the idea was to get the ball back to Max Christie, meaning pass the ball in-bounds, step in-bounds, then get the ball back, and then you knock down your three-pointer. It didn't seem like that was the plan. If that was the case, then you're absolutely right.

Then why is he throwing the ball in bounce? If he's your best option. I mean, if Austin Reeves is your point guard and you have no desire to get him the ball to shoot it, or if Anthony Davis is a guy that's not going to shoot it, but he's tall enough to get the ball to the right person, why not Anthony Davis? I agree, B.C. on that one. It seems like it didn't make any sense at all that Max Christie would be the guy that inbound's the play. I think I was more frustrated, not from the past as much as far as the lack of play,

meaning there was no screen to get LeBron James the ball. I mean, what happened to one screen, two screens? And we see it all the time, double screen. some kind of movement, but to not even get an opportunity because you guys create a turnover. What are you doing, Lakers? What are you doing, J.J. Reddick? What are you doing, Nate McMillan? What are you doing, Scott Brooks?

Frustrating basketball with there. That's bad, bad basketball. Looking at the numbers for the night, just so you want to know. Lakers shot 49% from the field. That's fine. 44% three point range. 82% from the free throw line. All those numbers, percentage-wise, usually should equal to win.

Turnovers for the Lakers, 10. not a terrible number. Not concerning what the Lakers have been doing. For the Rockets, on the other hand, 47.5% from field goal range, only 35% three point range, and free throws, 58% for the Rockets.

So you can point to some things, like if the Rockets lost that game and we're talking Rocket Basketball for their postcast, you'd say, hey, you've got to do a better job with their free throws, got to do a better job with your three-point shooting, all numbers that usually when we talk about Laker losses, that kind of look like that. Rockets, though, turn the ball over only six times.

They held on the ball. Some like all the teams that beat the Lakers do not turn the ball over the way the Lakers do. And also, when you look at the other teams out there, we mentioned this before. Everybody seems like they want to play their best basketball against the Lakers. Like the energy level is through the roof, and the Lakers need to match it. And I'll go back to Dodger baseball and Mookie Betts in the spring when he said every game is the other team's World Series. Lakers have to look at it that way, too. And for the guys who didn't wear Laker uniforms their entire career,

they knew what it was like when you come in and face the Lakers. They knew exactly how that goes. The excitement factor of facing the Lakers, whether it's home or away. I think if I was a player, it would be extremely frustrating for me to wear my team's home uniform, look in the stands and see all those yellow Laker jerseys. I mean, you see them all the time. You see them, whether it's Kobe Bryant still or it's Magic Johnson still or

LeBron James, they're all over the place. There's so many Laker fans worldwide that show up to these Laker games in the other cities, it would bother me saying this is our home event. Why are there so many Lakers'allers'allists in the worst loss of the season? Let's take a look at the standings in the Western Conference right now. I always say to you the Lakers, we need the Lakers to finish as the four seed. Right now, it's Oklahoma City. They're the number one seed. Oklahoma City has now won 15 straight games, 30 and 5 on the season. Rockets are the number two seed. Frustrating because the Lakers, I think, honestly, are better than that Rocket team. They just didn't do what they're

supposed to do. So the Rockets are the number two seed, 23 and 12. Memphis is now the number three seed at 23 and 13. Denver has moved up to the number four seed. Last time we did a show was the Lakers with the number four seed. Nuggets are now the number four seed. Lakers fall to number five. Mavericks are number six. That's who the Lakers will face on Tuesday. Again, Lakers, Mavericks right now have the same record. Mavericks that are struggling. As I said, they've lost four straight games, not having Luca, makes them a completely different team and a very beatable team. LA Clippers that get Kauai back last night. Clippers are now 20 and 15 as well.

Ten games back. There's seven seed, golden states, they see, San Antonio 9 seed, Minnesota, 10th seed. So those are your playoff teams right now in the West. So in the West, that's the way things look right now. Still plenty of time, January 5th. Love to see the Lakers actually make a stand and move up. We saw the Lakers get by the Memphis Grizzlies earlier.

We want to see the Lakers beat teams in front of them, meaning that teams like the Rockets, the Thunder. we want to see the Lakers get by those teams as well because those are the teams you have to face in the postseason if you want a chance to add an NBA championship. If you're curious about what's going on in the east, number one seed still remains. The Cleveland Cavs are still 31 and 24.

Again, 10-game winning streak right now, Celtics, five and five in their last 10. Celtics are 26 and 10, five and a half games back of Cleveland. And I took some criticism when I said, those only two teams that I thought had a chance to represent the East. Some New York fans reached out through social media to me. They said, don't forget about the NICs.

The NICs are a team you have to pay attention to. Look, Knicks right now with the three C, they're eight and two in their last 10 games. Hats off to the NICs. I just don't think the NICS are the real deal. NICS are seven and a half games back at 24 and 12. So a lot to go on about talking about the NBA and what it's going to look like come, you know,

the spring when the playoffs start. we aren't even to the All-Star break. I understand that. I understand that. But there we go. Craig, you bring up a good point right here. I would have liked to see this, Craig, before we get out of here. Craig says, LeBron should have inbounded that and then have Austin Reef shoot it.

I would have been 100% fine with that. But again, how do you get him the ball? Because if LeBron's inbound on the ball, yeah, you're going to have the guy in front of them with the assumption that possible LeBron could be getting the ball back. But my second guy would be thinking about is Austin Reeves is going to shoot it. that means for me, how are you going to get Austin and use the ball? Because that's what the Rockets are thinking. You've got to come up with a better inbound play.

If I can figure out an inbound play for a ninth grade team, then come on, JJ Redick and his staff has to figure out an inbound play for an NBA team. Anyway, frustrated as can be. It's been a busy, busy Sunday, sports weekend, everything else. We will be back on Tuesday after the Lakers take on the Dallas Mavericks. Lakers need to win bad. Got to take advantage of Luke and not being in the lineup. have Lakers need a win bad.

It should be exciting. Thanks for joining me. Don't forget about Brian and Andy. You want to listen to Laker podcasts every single day. You can catch them. Also, I'm here, of course, for all the post game. Locked on Los Angeles, locked on Lakers post game. I'm Dave Pallet.

You can reach out to me on social media. But again, I appreciate everybody joining me, especially with the busy Sunday night football game tonight as well. So have a good night, everybody. Did not finish the way we had hoped is the Lakers lose 119, 115. We will see you Tuesday evening.