Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST T-Wolves Turn the Tables on the Lakers in GAME 1

Episode Date: April 20, 2025

Jaden McDaniels scored 25 points, Anthony Edwards had 22, and Naz Reid added 23 off the bench as the Minnesota Timberwolves took Game 1 of their playoff matchup, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 117-95. Luka Doncic had a game-high 37 in the loss, as the Lakers hope to even the series in Game 2 Tuesday night. Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reaves, Dalton Knecht, Dorian Finney-Smith, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dave Palet, Lakers vs Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers vs Minnesota Timberwolves Anthony Edwards Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!MONARCH MONEY Ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it’s easy to lose track. That’s where Monarch Money comes in—your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances.Monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app—it’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place, so you stop just managing your money and start building wealth.Surprising Insights: When I started using Monarch, I realized just how much I was spending on food delivery—now, I budget smarter and save more.All-in-One Convenience: Instead of juggling multiple apps, you can use Monarch to check your finances, track spending, and even plan long-term goals.Easy Collaboration: Managing money with your partner is smoother than ever—you can track shared and personal accounts, set goals, and stay on the same page without the stress. UPWORKScaling your business requires the right expertise at the right time. With Upwork, you can find specialized freelancers in marketing, development, design, and more—experts ready to help you take your business to the next level.Upwork gives businesses flexibility by connecting them with top freelance talent across multiple industries, including IT, AI, web development, and marketing. Whether you need extra hands for a project or a long-term partner, Upwork makes hiring simple and affordable.Finding the Right Talent: If you need help with a marketing campaign, Upwork can connect you with a freelance expert who delivered incredible results.· Fast & Easy Hiring: Posting a job is free and simple, and within a day with multiple qualified candidates to choose from.· It’s Cost-Effective Growth: Instead of hiring full-time, Upwork helps find affordable, top-tier freelancers to scale my business efficiently. 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 podcast. Part of Locked-on Sports Los Angeles on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Well, Game 1 is in the book. Lucas sets the tone early. The Wolves out scored the Lakers by 18 in the second quarter. And who do we point the finger out for tonight's game one loss? We talk about it all on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. I'm Dave Palais.

Again, you can catch this show and all the shows on Locked-on anywhere you get your podcast. And again, thank you for joining me tonight after the game. Disappointing loss, Wolfs 117, Lakers, 95. Game 2 will be on Tuesday, but a lot to talk about as this game did not go the way the Lakers and many Laker fans thought this game was going to go. So overall, very disappointing to see the way things worked out. But how did we get here? How did we get here when it looked like things were so promising in the first quarter?

Well, we're going to start off with what everybody is talking about. This is what you'll be talking about. Here it is. It's the second quarter. I mean, the Lakers completely fell apart and the Lakers didn't have an answer. And the way it worked out was if you're watching this game right from the beginning and you're excited and you're counting it down and saying the Lakers are going to make a run for an NBA championship, I don't want to miss one minute of this run. Well, the Lakers do great.

First quarter to outscore the Wolf's 28, 21. Luke has 16 of those 28 points and we think we're rolling. But in the second quarter, it was where, where everything changed. Everything changed as the wolves continue to shoot the lights out. Wolves, again, they go on a 14 to 2 run in the first four minutes of the second quarter to make the score 35, 30. And all of a sudden, you're going, when of the Lakers going to stop the bleeding and they couldn't? Wolves opened up a lead as big as 4734, Nasreid's corner three with 519 remaining. Kind of showed that the wolves were going to own the entire quarter, and they did.

They did a fantastic job. Again, the wolves outscored the Lakers 30. 2820 and at the same time, that's where you sit there and say, we cannot wait for half time to get here because there have to be some changes by JJ Reddick and his staff. And the Lakers going in the half and things aren't going the Lakers way and you're going, what are the Lakers going to do? Well, again, the wolves have a halftime lead of 5948. So what is the answer going to be? And the Lakers didn't really have an answer. And I'll tell you what the problem was. And this is where I'm going to start pointing fingers as far as where things went wrong for the Lakers.

We've spoken about this in the past on shows, whereas Luca is a tremendous asset to have where he can score at Will, and he's always the guy that sets the tone. One of the things we discussed about a month ago, would the Lakers be better off if they went about it the opposite way, where Luca was a guy who distributed the ball, got other guys involved,

and then he took over when the opportunity was there. Instead of Luca always getting out into that race of, I'm going to score as many points as I can at the beginning, and wherever happens, happens, From there, we're going to be okay. The problem is we have guys that we now consider shooters on this team that become streaky, just like good shooters do. And for the first time and a long time, the Lakers have guys that can knock down three

pointers. And we have a guy like even a LeBron James and Austin Reeves, any of these guys that usually hit threes at the beginning of a game, that they're doing nothing but standing around and watching. They're watching the Lucas show. And so when it is their time and an opportunity to shoot, it seems like they don't have it. So not exactly pointing the finger at Luca, but at the same time, this doesn't seem to always work.

And if you've ever been to a Laker game in person, you've seen how it works out. There are guys that are there extremely early, the guys who are constantly working on their shots from all over, guys that find their one spot on the court where they know this is my shot, my best chance of making a three-pointer, and they continue to work at it over and over and over. And then all of a sudden, they go into the locker room, introductions happen. and it's about 25 minutes after the national anthem before actual tip off from the last time they shot a basketball. A real basketball, not this layup line stuff. I'm talking about working on their game.

And so the game starts and it's Luca. Let's go ahead and do your thing for the next 12 minutes while we stand around and run up and down the court. And then when you throw me the ball, I haven't shot a ball in a long time. I'm a shooter. I know when I feel good. Am I ready to go? I honestly believe the Lakers would be better off by going at it, the other way. And the reason I say that is I've seen it work before. I've seen it work

before with the Magic Johnson. I've seen it work before with John Stockton. I've seen it work with point guards that as dominating as Luca is where they get their teammates involved and then they take over when it's time to take over. And in the long run, I think this actually helps Luca's career because I think what it does is Luca takes a beating the entire game because so many teams saying either say one or two things. Either let Luca get his and let everyone else not get theirs and we're going to win because that's exactly kind of what Minnesota did today. Or are you going to go about it and saying, um,

Luca's distributing the ball. Now we're about four other guys on the four because he's such a good passer. All of a sudden, Luca's body's not bruised and batters as much early on and that he's able to finish the game strong because we see where there are times where Luca has shots that you expect them to make and he doesn't. And you go, is that just because he's taking a beating?

And we should be concerned about it because Luke is a guy that's supposed to be the king of this franchise for at least the next 10. 10 years and how much of a beating can his body take against some of these guys. And so it becomes frustrating. Again, I'll get to your comments as well. But right now, just a ton of opinions on what is going on with this Laker team and how their approach was to Minnesota. So in the first quarter, just in case you weren't aware of how it worked out, look, Luca again was great. 16 points.

LeBron and Austin Reeves did not score. They didn't score at all in the first quarter. So if we're talking about how the Lakers have a huge advantage, because technically they have three all-stars who are starting, well, two of your three guys didn't score a point. So combined those three guys, Luca, LeBron, Reeves, they had 16 points. Overall, it doesn't sound that impressive when you look at it that way. And then when you sit there and you go in the second quarter, how does it look for the Lakers? Are the Lakers doing enough to get other guys involved? Well, after two quarters, Luca had 20 points.

I mean, she only scored four in the second quarter. the bronze scored actually 10 in the second quarter and Austin Reeves only had two. So one of your best players on your team, a guy that many people are arguing, the most underrated player in all the NBA only had two points. Two points isn't acceptable for Jackson Hayes kind of stats. And so for the Lakers to sit there and say, we have a chance to win going about it this way. I mean, you could point the finger out a bunch. It honestly goes to JJ Reddick in this situation.

You have to sit there and understand what is going on. we'll get into the second half and now things actually went from bad to worse on how this worked out for the Lakers. But this was not good. This was not good overall at all for the Lakers. And it wasn't good for us because we lost home court advantage right from the beginning. They lost home court advantage. And overall, that's not what the Lakers wanted to do to start. And then, unfortunately, that's exactly what happened there.

Things do not go the Lakers way. And so very, very frustrating for us as Laker fans and at the same time for us as, as Laker fans that hope that, hey, this is a team that can win a championship. Unfortunately, it wasn't our opportunity to do that today. So anyway, I want to mention the people over at Upwork. Again, scaling your business requires the right expertise at the right time. With Upwork, you can find specialized freelancers in marketing, development, design, and more experts ready to help you take your business to the next level.

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So again, Lakers lose tonight, 117, 95 in Minnesota. They're back into action on Tuesday. Again, I point the finger at JJ Redick and his staff. And if you listen to the announcers today and they said, what was the difference on why Minnesota was different after the first quarter? Because Minnesota all of a sudden was very aggressive and they shot the last. lights out. They said they were going to be the ones that we're going to go through our opponents. We're going to sit there and be the ones that are their aggressor. And the Lakers were stuck in a

situation where they were stuck reacting. What could the Lakers have done different? I've pointed this out over and over again. And again, I'm not a not a basketball coach to say, hey, look, I'm a guy that should be, you know, a guy they keep on speed dial. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm telling to you is there's going to be a time when the Lakers are down. And the Lakers need to find guys who are shooters. And guys actually. who can come off cold off the bench and shoot the lights out. That's why I said, do not give up on Dalton Connect. But what do the Lakers do?

They gave up on Dalton Connect. I'm sorry when you have a LeBron and you have Austin Reeves. They start off 0 for 5 and they can't make a shot. And I'm not saying you bench LeBron James for Dalton Connect. But I'll tell you what, I don't have a problem taking Austin Reeves out for a guy that can knock down threes. You've got to get back in this game. And when you're trailing by more than 20 points and you need three-pointers in a hurry, you have a guy like Dalton Connect who's sitting right there that's been shooting

the lights out for the last three months, and he's not doing anything. Instead, Dalton Connect becomes a guy that gets garbage time. Dalton Connect tonight in three minutes scores five points. Guess what? He knocked down a three-pointer. But he's a garbage guy, I guess. That's the way they're going to go about it. This did not work. You go back to the drawing board right now if you're JJ Reddick and his staff and you say, what is going on? Scott Brooks. What's going on? There has to be someone that can get in his ear to say this isn't working. Lucas scoring 37 points is not going to be the answer if your team loses by 22. That's not the way it's supposed to go. Jackson Hayes, by the way, nice effort tonight. One point in eight minutes as I'm sitting here just looking at this

disappointing night. By the way, Minnesota's bench absolutely outstanding. Complete team basketball. Minnesota's bench was ridiculous. Nas Reed comes off the bench with 23 points. insane compared to the Laker bench who basically played without a bench tonight. Lakers bench was not impressive at all. The high point man for the Lakers was Dalton Connect, as I just said. I just realized he was the high point man. In three minutes, he had five points. But Gabe Vincent, who played 25 minutes, only had three.

That's not going to work that way. If you're a Laker fan, you have to be extremely frustrating. And I'm not saying it's at the end of the season. But man, all of a sudden, you just gave home court advantage to Minnesota going into game two. I understand the games in L.A. when you look at the numbers, Home Court Advantage now stays with Minnesota until the Lakers beat Minnesota on their floor. Lakers have to come out as a different team. This was not acceptable basketball if you're a Laker fan, not if you're used to watching this franchise Chase NBA titles.

Looking at some of your comments, Craig always good to see you, by the way, especially during playoff basketball. Man, he's been with me every single day. The Lakers didn't own the three-point line. They didn't guard the three-point line. Absolutely right. You know, I can't say Lucas is not in. in great shape. I think when we look at guys like that, you look at the Joker, you look at Luca, there are two guys right there. They're really probably the two best players of the entire

NBA overall, yet nobody wants to have a body like those guys. Nobody wants to look like those guys. They aren't going to be in any body calendars. Very frustrating to see how this is going right now for the Lakers. It was a bad day for L.A. sports overall, right? We saw the Dodgers losing a walk off home run and then you think, well, at least my evening has to be a little bit better. I see Lakers in six. Look, I still think the Lakers can win this series. I don't think that Minnesota comes out and they shoot the lights out consistently over and over again. But my opinion tonight is that the Lakers overall didn't make the adjustments they needed to. They gave up 11 straight points in the third quarter to Minnesota to basically stop nothing.

So as bad as you got whipped in the second quarter by being outscored by 18, you come out in the third quarter and you give up the first 11 points and really you're stuck chasing you're just chasing and I tell you my I tip my hat to LeBron James. LeBron James is a veteran who's been around for a long time who's seen it all. LeBron James played extremely hard. He never gave up. I didn't see quitters out there, but at the same time there are guys on that court that should not be touching the ball offensively.

I'll be honest with you. If Jared Vanderbilt never shoots the basketball again, I'm fine with it. If Hatchermore never shoots the ball again, I'll be fine with it. They have other guys on there. that can shoot, guys that are expected to knock down shots. Look, Minnesota has a lot of weapons, but at the same time, I think the Lakers have bigger, better weapons. Minnesota gets the ball in the hands of guys that you expect to make baskets.

Lakers seem to say, we're going to share the ball with everybody, whether they're guys we depend on or not. Unless it's a layup, I don't need guys firing up threes and playoff basketball in situations like this, especially if you aren't going to do it on the other side of the court. So it's, my frustration level is extremely high right now. as I see the Lakers who there's not one guy that, you know, had double-digit rebounds. There's not one guy had double-digit assists.

And overall, it was the Luca offensive show, you know, so it becomes very frustrating. LeBron finished from 19. Basically, it's 19 and 3 quarters because he didn't score any in the first quarter. And for Austin Reeves, who finished with 16, those are 16 soft points, 16 soft points for Austin, who wasn't reliable an entire night. I'm sorry, Austin, do you want to take the step to the next level? and it's just like this in every other sport where the game kind of speeds up and is a little bit tougher. It's like this in the NFL where there's preseason football, there's regular season of football,

and then there's playoff football. Basketball works the same way. There's playoff basketball. Postseason basketball is different. And you've got to raise your game. And a lot of guys on this team need to raise their game. This was an extremely disappointing, hopefully eye-opener loss. Look, I'm going to take you back to give you a little bit of hope here, by the way.

I know why it's not a complete disaster for the Lakers. If you go all the way back to, if you guys, it seems like yesterday for me, but if you go all the way back to 2001, when the Lakers face Alan Iverson and the 76ers, you know, the famous clip of Alan Iverson stepping over Tyrone Liu, I was at that game. And I couldn't believe the Lakers lost. But what do the Lakers do?

They rebounded. They made adjustments, and they were able to win four straight, and they won another title. And the Lakers can do the same thing in this. They can go on a tremendous run. At the same time, if they don't make adjustments, they can lose very quickly and they talk about how are the Lakers out in the first round. And then everybody starts questioning the Lakers.

The Lakers become the talk, even though the Lakers wouldn't be in the postseason, they still become the talk of the NBA because, again, it is the Lakers. And the Lakers have the best chance of beating Oklahoma City. Everybody knows it. This Laker team is what's best for the NBA to continue to advance, for the ratings, for the fan base across the country. That obviously are Laker fans everywhere. This is not acceptable basketball.

ball and we need JJ Reddick to grow up in a hurry as a head coach and make some major adjustments. The reason we weren't freaking out in 2001 is we had Phil Jackson, who had seen it all and was a Hall of Famer. JJ Reddick in his first year, man, he has a couple days to figure this thing out. I'm glad they aren't coming back and playing on Monday. I'm glad they get that extra day to put something together, but there shouldn't be one guy in that Laker locker room that shouldn't be embarrassed right now. And unfortunately, I'm embarrassed as a Laker fan the way it went as well.

So let's get to our players. This is the locked-on player of the game. The game, again, I hate giving it to somebody on the other side. I'm not going to give it to a Laker guy. Laker player doesn't deserve it. Now, look, you can go in a bunch of different directions on this one. Jada McDaniels was outstanding for Minnesota, he had 25 points. Anthony Edwards, he can make an argument.

He could be the locked-on player of the game because in the third quarter, he left with cramps, came back in the fourth quarter, talked that he might not even play. Well, the second he came in, he made a difference. Right when the Lakers are making a serious run. I mean, serious right to where you know you believed, like I believe, this is where the Lakers come back and win this game. Anthony Edwards silenced that. He played outstanding basketball, and he's trying to make a name for himself, meaning a legacy, name, a memory that we're going to go on forever and go.

Remember, this is where Anthony Edwards became a star of the 2025 playoffs. He knows this is where his career changes is in this series. Anthony Edwards is doing everything he can to outshine LeBron and Luca and everybody else, even though he only played in 35 minutes, he had 22 points, but he's not my guy. It's Nas Reid. Nas Reid coming off the bench for 23 points was absolutely ridiculous tonight for Minnesota. Good for him. Nas Reid, in 31 minutes, who was 8 to 12 from the floor, 6 of 9 3 point shots, and 23 points off the bench.

Absolutely incredible night for him. So he is the locked on player of the game. We're going to be back on Tuesday. Again, final score tonight, 117, 95 Minnesota. of Lakers now down 1-0 in the series. Lakers hopefully trying to even this thing out on Tuesday. If they don't, this season could very well be over for the Lakers. But we're going to be back on Tuesday talking about it as well. Appreciate everyone who join me tonight.

Hope you guys have a great holiday weekend. And we will see you Tuesday. Hopefully after a big Laker win and we feel a lot better about ourselves. Have a great night, everybody.