Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Steph Curry TOO MUCH for Luka and the Lakers

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

Steph Curry scored 37 points and Brandon Podzimski added 28 as the Golden State Warriors downed the hometown Lakers 123-116. LeBron James had 33 points in the loss for Los Angeles. The Lakers will look to get back on the winning side of things Friday night when they welcome the New Orleans Pelicans to town. Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reaves, Dalton Knecht, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dave Palet, Lakers vs Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers vs Golden State Warriors Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!FAN DUEL March Madness is here, and FanDuel is giving you the chance to get in on the action like never before!Right now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! That’s TWO HUNDRED extra bucks to use on everything from buzzer-beaters to Cinderella stories—and even who’s cutting down the nets!Picking My Favorites: I’ve got my eye on a few underdogs this year, and FanDuel makes it easy to back them with spreads, totals, and game props.Staying in the Action: With tournament games happening almost every day, there’s always something exciting to bet on!Easy and Fast: The FanDuel app is simple to use, and when I win, I get paid instantly—no waiting around.So, visit FANDUEL DOT COM and get in on the College Hoops action all tournament long! 5-hour ENERGYDaylight savings snuck up on us again, and if you’re feeling that lost hour of sleep, 5-hour ENERGY has your back! The extra sunshine means more time for fun, but sometimes you need a little boost to power through.Whether you’re staying up late watching the NCAA Tournament, squeezing in a round of golf after work, or just trying to keep up with your busy day, 5-hour ENERGY gives you that quick, refreshing pick-me-up whenever you need it.· Basketball Madness: I’ve been staying up late watching all the tournament action, and 5-hour ENERGY helps me keep up the next day.· Extra Daylight, Extra Activities: With longer days, I love getting outside for a hike or a run—Tropical Burst is my go-to for a quick boost!· On-the-Go Convenience: Whether I’m at a game or traveling, 5-hour ENERGY is easy to grab and keeps me feeling refreshed.CTA OFFER: Head to 5-hour ENERGY dot com to find over 15 flavors to choose from, including Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, and Peach-Mango. You can even build your own 12-pack or 24-pack, delivered right to your door!Need one now? Grab a 5-hour ENERGY shot at your local grocery or convenience store—they’re everywhere! Stock up today and stay energized. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are Locked-on Lakers Postcast, part of Locked-on Sports Los Angeles, on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Well, the Lakers and Warriors play what felt like a playoff game. The stars start off slow, but in the end, the Lakers have questions on how good is this team really when it comes to a chance of winning a championship? We talk about it all tonight in the postcast. Again, I'm Dave Pallet. Thank you so much for joining me tonight. Heartbreaking loss for the Lakers, 123, 1-23, 1-12. to the Golden State Warriors.

So much to talk about as far as what's going on with this team and the future of this team as the regular season starts to come to an end. Let's start with the most important topic. And again, I apologize for my boys still fighting a cold right there, but I will take your comments throughout the show because I think tonight's show is one of those

or really your opinion matters as much as mine feeling about the Lakers. Can this team be a championship team and what's missing? I have my thoughts as well. Curious to know what you think as well. So let's start right here. This is what you'll be talking about. What everybody's going to be talking about tomorrow when you wake up on all the national shows, they're going to be talking about, is this Laker team a championship team? And now everyone's going to jump on the bandwagon of saying the Warriors

are a better team than the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers have added their way with the Warriors the entire season, but it's different now. We have Luca. They have Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler, you can say what you want, what he adds to the Warriors. You can say what you want about Steph Curry being 37. LeBron James being 40, but this Laker team, what is missing right now? It could the difference be even the head coaching. J.J. Reddick in his first year, I think, has done a very good job and he relates to the players extremely well. But with the Lakers losing tonight, 123, 116 at home, there are serious question marks about this team. And for me, one of the frustrations is the Lakers bench. I said it on the last couple shows. I don't understand the

rotation exactly of what J.J. Reddick is doing. And again, you can say, I'm crazy on this one, but I don't think I am. This is a league that is built through three-point shooting, and this is the way the game is played now. It's funny. I was at a restaurant today, and they had basketball on, that is current NBA basketball,

and then basketball on from like 20 years ago. It was the Milwaukee Bucks against the Utah Jazz, and maybe even more than 20 years ago, because Car Malone was playing. Anyway, you're sitting there and you're watching the game, and you realize there are no three-point shots. The game has changed because there are more, is the one that figured out that three-point shooting is the way to win in the league.

And the game's completely different from back in the days of the 80s and 90s. And guys are firing threes. That being said, the Lakers for years have never had that dependable three-point shooter. And this year, they have a bunch of them. To the point where you go, this is a good team not only inside and outside, meaning that Jackson A's can play defense. He can block shots. He can do his thing.

You can catch the law passes. But for the Lakers, they have guys that can shoot the threes. And so if you have everyone here, that it's a chance of making your threes. You're Ruey Hatchamores, your LeBron James, your Lucas, your Austin Reeves, your Dorian Finney Smith, Gabe Vincent, those guys can all make threes.

When the team is trailing, and again, this team was trailing early on, 26, 22 after one, they were trailing again at the half as they're, scored 34, 25 by the Warriors in the second quarter. The Lakers needed to make up points. And the Lakers did. Not saying that Lakers played terrible in the second half, but it was late because they don't have guys that and sit there, and whether it's a Steph Curry or going to the Splash Brothers back in the day where you have guys that rifle up threes. And if you look at the Boston Celtics, that's all they do

is rifle up threes. I don't understand when you look at a guy like Dalton Connect who sits there on the bench and doesn't play. And Dalton Connect seems like he has fallen out of favor. I don't know what's happened. But we've seen games as recently as a few weeks ago with Dalton Connect discorn points in the 30s and in the 20s. And he's finding the shot. He's a rookie from Tennessee that all of a sudden is becoming the player, the Lakers thought he was going to be, but yet you leave a guy like that on the bench. And the Lakers, you can say whatever you want, their bench play tonight was terrible. They finished with total of seven points off the bench.

Seven. So you're going to say Dalta Connect was never an option. I don't understand exactly the thinking on this. I don't understand why Dalta Connect all of a sudden is becoming Alex Lynn, where you just don't play them at all. It's very strange to me. And it's not working this way. The Lakers haven't looked good.

Be honestly, the Wendalta Connect has not played in games or has played less than five minutes. It doesn't look like the Laker team we were excited about. Now, the Lakers starters were great tonight. Okay, outside of Jackson Hayes, who only had two points. You had obviously scoring of 33 points from LeBron. You had 31 from Austin Reeves. He had 19 from Luca. You had 24 from Rui.

But look, the Lakers play tomorrow night. Then the Lakers play again in Oklahoma City on Sunday. And then the Lakers play two more days later in Oklahoma City again. What is the plan here? How can you sit there and run these starters out here and run these minutes up and expect big time contributions from these guys night in and night out? And in this case for the Lakers tonight and tomorrow night and going against the best team in the league on Sunday and Tuesday and expect to get great results. You have to figure out what your bench rotation is. It's extremely important going in the postseason. And right now I'm extremely frustrated watching what the Lakers did.

Tonight's game was embarrassing, I thought. You know, you have weapons, but yet you aren't using the weapons the way, you know, supposedly the way this team was built. What happened to the guys on the team that you counted on during the regular season now all of a sudden not in the game to get you help? If it wasn't for Austin Reeves going crazy in the fourth quarter, the Lakers wouldn't be in this game at all. So for me, extremely disappointing. And that's the main thing I'm talking about tonight is, hey, don't change things up to the point you guys are never going to figure out your rhythm. short amount of time, JJ Reddick. Everybody knows the Lakers need to figure out what their identity is.

We've had situations where Luke could join this team, you know, halfway through the season. He was coming off an injury. LeBron goes down with an injury. Ruig was out with an injury. And now you're figuring out your starting lineup, what is your bench rotation? And how can you look at this bench rotation and say, this is successful on what the Lakers are doing? It's frustrating because I think this is a better Laker team that has been put together by

Rob Polinka than the way JJ Redick is using it right now. And I've been a fan of JJ Redick almost the entire season. But over the last week, it has been extremely frustrating watching this team and seeing where this team is at. Curious to know if you think the same thing as well. But this Laker team, I think, is capable of playing better than they've played. I think LeBron tonight played one of his better games, kind of curious to know what LeBron was going to look like.

But LeBron, you know, doesn't like to lose his stuff Curry. He doesn't like to lose national televised games. And he can say what he wants. He's been in the league for a long time that every loss. is a big deal. Sometimes it doesn't always seem that way to NBA players, but I think LeBron and Kobe and the great ones, they don't ever want to lose when they know the world is watching. And they know this is going to be the number one topic on all the morning shows. That's just the way it's going to go with this Laker team for a while is to figure out what is best

for this team in which direction they're going to go. They need to figure out quickly what is going to happen for this Laker team. I will get to your comments as well tonight. Again, it's only going to be a 15 to 20 minute show. But first want to mention the people over a Fandall. Look, the NCAA tournament is here. Fandall is giving you the chance to get on the action like never before. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. That's $200 extra bucks on everything from buzzer beaters to Cinderella stories and even who's cutting down the nets.

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Today, five hour energy. You've tried it in the past, and it's always worked. It's always something that is great to have by your side. All right. So let's get to some of your comments right now. I'm curious to know what everyone else thinks about this Laker team because I'm frustrated. I hate losses, but I hate losses, especially to a team when so many of you have said, the Warriors are a team I do not want to face in the first round.

can't run from everybody. Okay, can't run from everybody. And whether it's OKC, whether it's Denver, whether it's the Golden State Warriors, it's not easy to becoming a champion. That's why tonight was frustrating because I think the Warriors scared a lot of Laker fans, including myself tonight.

All right, Craig, always good to see you. Always good to see you, Craig. And at the same time, Craig's been supporting the show all season long. Craig, Luca off game, absolutely was an off game for Luca. Kind of disappointed, right? We needed a Luca big time. Craig's like me, wants to see more Dalt. and connect. Absolutely. J.J. is stubborn on his rotation. You know, you can be stubborn on it you want,

but when it's not working, it's frustrating. LeBron James 40 minutes, J.J. Clueless on managing minutes. Craig, I don't disagree with you right now. Again, you're playing a big, tough part of your schedule. Tomorrow is an NBA game. I don't care if it's the Pelicans or not. You need to get that win. Like, this is a necessary win on a Friday night when the Pelicans come to town. At the same time, you're going to get on a plane and you're going to travel to Oklahoma City. and you're going to face the thunder, the team everybody's been talking about, and everybody thinks is the best team in the West to face eventually, possibly the Boston Celtics or the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA finals.

Lakers need tomorrow nights win like nothing. I mean, it sounds crazy to say this is a must win. Lakers have to come out strong against the Pelicans, but you burned everyone down tonight. You burnt everybody down. And so it's extremely frustrating to see what the Lakers did tonight, and the fact they weren't able to come out and get a win with their new team that the Warriors have,

and everyone's super excited that the Warriors are in a situation where they think they can win a championship. When I think so many of us thought the Warriors did not have a chance at all this year. They're getting older. Their time has passed. But this Laker team has struggled. And so very frustrating. LeBron James, I thought, was outstanding tonight. I thought Austin Reeves was great as well.

And for the Lakers that got off to that slow start. And I think Luca will tell you, you know, we point the finger right at me. Luca's three point shots weren't falling. And when we sit there and we look at the bottom, score with what the Lakers had tonight. They shot 45% from the field, 38% from three point range. Free throws were fine. I mean, actually better than fine. 20 of 23, that's 87%. I'll take that any any day for the Lakers. Bench points, really frustrating. Again, Dorian Finney Smith in 29 minutes, one of six from the field for two points. Jared Vanderbilt, one of three. Never expect points from

Jared Vanderbilt. My opinion, anything you get from Jared Vanderbilt. And tonight it was a dunk after a pass from LeBron James, two points. Gabe Vincent one of five. So again, if all these guys are only making one shot and Jordan Goodwin, it comes off the bench doesn't make any shots, dude, you got to go to someone else that actually has a history of making shots. That's Dalton Connect. That's where the frustrating part is for me and for this team, I don't know what to tell you. So you have a couple guys that played 40 minutes night. LeBron played 40. LeBron with 33 points, five rebounds, nine assists was great. He made 10 of 15 shots, five of eight from three point range. LeBron James, you can't expect him as great

as he is to play any better than that. Luca, again, not his night tonight, 38 minutes, 6 of 17 from the field, 0 of 6 from 3 point range. Didn't make one 3 point shot tonight, but hey, have to keep firing them up to see if they're eventually going to go in. They were never going to go in. He didn't have a shot tonight. Didn't have at the beginning of the game, didn't have an end of his game.

Eventually, all it came down to were layups and mid-range shots and free throws for Luca, which gave him 9 points, eight rebounds and seven assists on the night. Austin Reeves, man, if wasn't for Austin Reeves, he would have turned this TV off in the fourth quarter. Austin Reeves gave you everything you possibly could. 40 minutes for Austin Reeves tonight, 31 points. He was 10 of 20 from the field, 9 of 16 from three point range. So out of his 31 points, 27 of them came from three point range.

Austin Reeves did everything you could to help Will this Laker team to a win. Not enough, not enough. It's not going to work when it's two guys. It's LeBron and it's Austin and Reeves. And for Hatchamore, fantastic, 24 points. But that's not what this team is built around. It's not built around Rui getting his points. It's built around LeBron, Luca, and Austin Reeves getting there.

So when one guy goes down like Luca, meaning that he's not hitting a shot tonight, but he's taking a bunch of shots, and the team can't knock him down, and then they're running back the other way in Golden State scoring. It's a big reason why the Lakers lost. And it's not very often that Luca gets off to a slow start in the first quarter,

but tonight was one of those nights where he got off to a slow start. Steph Curry, absolutely insane. 37 points was on fire in the second half, half. Again, Steph only had 12 at the half. It ends up a 25 in the second half. So 37 points and 34 minutes for Steph with six assists to go along with it. He was 10 and 21 from the field. Four of 11 from three point range made a 13 and 14 free throws.

And Steph Curry is, you know, again, does what Steph Curry does. Lakers lose, 123, 116. And it's frustrating. It's frustrating because I think people thought before the trades were made, especially Jimmy Butler, that the Lakers were by far the better team over, over Golden State. They'd proven it early on in the year. And tonight, I still don't think the Warriors are better. I think the Lakers need to make some adjustments to prove there are better because right now what JJ Redick is doing is not working for me and it's not working for the team,

especially when you sit there and you try and figure out what is what works as far as the bench goes. That bench play today was unacceptable. It's unacceptable bench play. And I think if you're in the media and you're in front of JJ Redick at the podium, it's one of the first questions you ask them, how can this be? How can this constantly go this way and go? This is what works for this team you think moving forward. Let's talk about the locked on player of the game. This is the locked on player of the game.

Locked on player of the game. It was LeBron James the majority of the night, but the guy that gave us hope it was Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves, again, 40 minutes tonight, 10 and 20 from the field, 9 to 16 from 3 point range, 31 points for Austin Reeves to go along with 6 rebounds, three assists.

He is my locked on player, game again you can catch this postcast every one of the podcasts from uh locked on locked on los angeles anywhere you get your podcast brian and andy have daily laker talk i'm here for the post game shows and uh we'll be back with you tomorrow night when the lakers host the pelicans again appreciate you joining me tonight and at the same time looking for a big laker win uh tomorrow night when the lakers host the pelicans a team that is honestly one of the worst in the league and it should be a necessary win let's see the lakers blow them out and give some rest to some of the guys that have been playing a lot of minutes lately.

Again, my name is Dave Palais. Thank you so much for joining me throughout the season. We're almost to the end, but it's been a great ride. Let's see the Lakers finish hot. Let's hope my voice comes back. Have a good night, everyone. Lakers lose 123, 116 to the Golden State Warriors.