Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LeBron James (42/17/8) Leads Red Hot Lakers Past Warriors, 120-112

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

Thursday at the Crypt against Golden State, the Lakers picked up right where they'd left off, replicating the fantastic effort and execution used to beat the Knicks and the Clippers over the last week. In the first half, the Lakers went up by as much as 26, and went into the break up 20. Things weren't as smooth in the second half, as the Lakers let Golden State get back in the game. They never gave up the lead, but were forced to play through the tape in a 120-112 win. The Lakers are on the cusp of some seismic changes. Luka Doncic and Mark Williams are set to take the floor soon. Doncic becomes the new best player on the team, and the long-term future of the squad. But in the meantime, it's important not to forget about LeBron James. The old man was on fire Thursday, pulling the Lakers through to a win with 42 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists. He was, by a significant margin, the best player on the floor for either team. He provided support for Austin Reaves, who scored 23 points thanks to 15-16 from the line, but struggled with his shot (4-17) and turnovers (4). On a night where it looked like the Lakers might need another member of the supporting cast, whether Rui Hachimura (11 points) or Dorian Finney-Smith (7 points), to step up with a big night, LeBron made that unnecessary. In the process, the Lakers won their 10th game in 12 tries, moved to 11 games over .500 (with two games against the Jazz before the All-Star break) and put a little more daylight between themselves and the group of teams stuck in the play-in bracket. The beauty of LeBron's big night, other than the fun of watching James perform at that level (and yes, made cooler by the fact he's 40 years old in year 22) is that this sort of performance should be far less necessary going forward, once Doncic is available. Not just in in terms of scoring, but the work of orchestrating an offense and controlling a game. He'll still be able to do it, and at times certainly will. But with Doncic as the headliner, that burden shifts considerably and the fact that James—averaging 25.6/7.8/9.9 over his last 10 games—still has that level of production easily accessible is what will make the Lakers a very dangerous playoff team.  Moreover, it seems pretty clear that while LeBron said the right stuff before, he now sees far more potential for this team than he did a month ago. That's not a knock on Davis, but a reflection of how the team has trended over the last few weeks, and now the potential of the re-shaped roster. That sense of purpose is critical for most athletes (the Lakers are likely counting on it with Williams), but for a guy in year 22? It's even more essential.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: LeBron blows up vs. Golden StateSEGMENT 2: Has LeBron found the joy again? SEGMENT 3: Scouting Mark Williams, and setting expectations.  Your favorite podcast now has a newsletter! In One-stop for ultimate team and league coverage delivered right to your in box. Sign up for free now, at lockedondaily.com.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNBA BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Rediscover your curiosity with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDONNBA today to get 10% off your first month.RobinhoodWith Robinhood Gold, you can now enjoy the VIP treatment. The new Gold Standard is here with Robinhood Gold. To receive 3% boost on annual IRA contributions,  sign up at robinhood.com/gold. 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.FanDuelSuper Bowl 59 is here, And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Friday, Brian Keminetsky, Andy Kaminetsky. Yes, we're all waiting for Luca Donchich to make his debut as a Laker. That does not mean LeBron James can't put on a show. He certainly did on Thursday. We'll break it down next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network.

Your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen to Every Day. through Friday, sometimes on weekends, no matter how or where you get your podcast. This one's always going to be free and never behind a paywall. Nobody likes those. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where over 30,000 subscribers, a number that keeps zooming upwards. Thank you to all of the new subscribers to the channel. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Zadravo, people. Zadravo, Ola, hello to all of our new listeners around the world. We will get around to learning all of your languages. And your names. each and every one of you by name. It's the kind of personal service you get here at the Lockdown Lakers YouTube channel. So the Lakers are waiting for Luca Dantich to take the floor, Andy.

That looks less now like it'll be Saturday against Indiana, more like it will be Monday against Utah. As JJ Redick sort of shifted the timeline before Thursday's game. But in the meantime, Andy, the Lakers and everyone else were reminded that LeBron James still got a little something left in the tank for us. Man alive did he put on a show carrying a shorthanded Lakers squad against an equally short-handed Golden State Warriors team.

Lakers win 120, 112. LeBron goes for 42, 17, and 8 with a steel on a block for good measure, 14 and 25 from the floor, 6 of 9 from 3. Point range, 8 of 10 from the line. LeBron still very good at basketball, Andy. There was a sequence in the either, it was in the first half. I don't remember if it was in the first or second quarter, but LeBron hits a three. Then next trip down hits a three.

Then the third trip down, he not just hits a three. He took this shot. Like this wasn't just your garden variety logo three. This was like a half court. pull up three, nothing but net whatsoever. Golden State sensing, I think things might be getting out of hand, goes, calls time out, and LeBron just starts working the crowd in full on, are you not entertained mode? And LeBron spent the entire game in this mode. He was working the crowd all game. It was like LeBron. Like, if you ever go to a comedy show and there's the hype man

that's in between sets, getting the crowd like loose and in the good mood before the main act, it's like LeBron was the hype man for the main act, except he is the main act. Like he was serving as his own hype man. He was really animated tonight. It was, it's funny too, just because, you know, LeBron is nothing, if not aware of the moments and different moments, the wear of the situation, aware of the context. Who is he playing? He's playing the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry, you know, the ultimate, you know, great shooter of all time, all that stuff.

The team that everyone is trying to get into join for some reason. I don't get it. I mean, look, and they got Jimmy Butler and, you know, Godspeed to those nice folks up there. I look, I love Steph. I want Steph to be on a competitive team as long as he possibly can. Steph is impossible to dislike. So it's, you know, but he's up against Steph. He, you know, he and he's the one, particularly in the first half.

Steph struggled overall, got going in the second half, but the numbers aren't great for him. But, you know, LeBron is the one putting on the shooting show. And I texted you in the middle of that flurry. I'm like, you remember when LeBron couldn't shoot? Like that used to be the thing that you would make him want to do is take three pointers, stay away from the basket and all that. So you know, there is a part of him that relishes this ability to win games with his outside shot.

Like you know there's a part of him that remembers when he couldn't do it and now loves winning that way. And then also to do it against Steph. The man understands the theater of the moment. Lakers win 120, 112, by the way, I should make that abundantly clear. They moved to 11 games. Oh, good, I wasn't sure. Moved to 11 games over 500 and put a little more daylight in between themselves

and those teams in the 7 through 12, 7 through 10 spot for the play in. It's, you know, obviously, Andy, a night like this, The Lakers still haven't officially been able to welcome Mark Williams into the fold yet. That trade is not yet official. It will happen. But, you know, he obviously isn't available to play. And Luca is not available to play. The Lakers essentially played an eight-man rotation.

You don't necessarily gain a lot of lessons given how much change is coming from the Lakers. But, you know, this to me is a reminder of why the Lakers become. post-Luca such a scary, potentially scary playoff team, because this should be, might be the last one of these games, LeBron has to do, where he has to carry the team in this way with the ball handling and the passing and the sort of complete floor everything because he's going to be able to let Luca do a lot of this type of stuff going forward. Yeah, I want to make

a big thing. I want to make sure that over the course of the show we shout out in particular Gabe Vincent and Jared Vanderbilt, I thought both played really, really good games and I particularly Vando.

Yeah, for sure. And in ways that, you know, help LeBron beyond the counting stats. This was a night where Austin Reeves really struggled and it accentuated the need for LeBron to do a lot of that stuff

that eventually Luca will be helping out with. But I've mentioned this before, and I think we've seen this the last couple games. Like we've talked about LeBron over the last month or so has been really engaged on both sides of the ball. But the last couple games, there's been like a giddiness to him. And as much as Luca could theoretically extend LeBron's career

or make things easier for him because of all the different stuff he can do. There's also an element of excitement for LeBron simply because this is brand new. Like at this stage of LeBron's career, he's 22 seasons in. He has been there, done that as anybody in the league. It's hard to get yourself up for all this. Like remember early in the season, there was a school of thought that, you know, a reason that you sign brawny aside from the fact that it's lebron the politics of it all yada yada yada this is something that will keep lebron engaged and excited because he's playing with brawny and i'm

sure he loves that but at the same time like brawny's played something like 50 minutes this entire year like and they don't practice very often like there's only and now brawny is practicing more with the g league team and all that kind of stuff you know there's only reps there there's only so much juice you're going to squeeze from brawny and LeBron, like that thing. And as much as, like, I know on and off the court, LeBron truly appreciated and respected everything that AD does. Like, you know, they've been together five and a half seasons. Like, there's nothing new about it. I think there's a real value beyond all of the talent.

with with that Luca brings and the possibilities and you know the Lakers looking like they could be formidable in the playoffs the newness of it I think seems to be exciting LeBron and again yeah he has he's looked downright giddy the last couple games yeah you know over this last 10 uh he's about 25 and a half points about eight rebounds and almost 10 assists game so like the the quality of the play is still there no question doing it a lot people know that today's episodes brought to you by GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account, use code locked an NBA for $20 off your first purchase. You know, I wonder to, you know, that it's not just post-deadline,

you know, because, you know, he played like this in the Garden against New York, and that's something that, you know, that he just loves playing there. It thinks it's really for LeBron since that stretch where he was, by, his standard's kind of bad. Coming back and not just getting on track, but like reaching the form that he basically

has had pretty much in, you know, it looks slightly different. It's not like LeBron at age 30. But still, high level, all NBA caliber can put a game on a string, that kind of thing. And it's just, I

think, I wonder if it just took a little longer to kind of breakthrough and find the challenge this year and find the sort of the joy in it or whatever. But now, like you say, with this whole other thing of adding Luca and really, I think more than anything, again, 11 games over 500, I think there's a renewed sense of like, okay, you know what, we actually might be playing for something this year. So let's talk about that next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Robin Hood,

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LeBron is too old, Andy, and been here too long to fake the sort of enthusiasm, the natural enthusiasm that comes with knowing that you really are playing for something meaningful, potentially down the stretch. No, I'm not saying LeBron thinks like we're a finals team now

or we're going to go in a title. But I do think the way that they're playing, winning 10 of 12, they've won four in a row. They, you know, what is it? And five of six, I believe six of seven, I believe it is. They've added Luca Dantridge. They've got Mark Williams. You know, Vando's back.

All of this. And you just keep kind of stacking these things up. They figured out how play some defense, even without Anthony Davis available. that hope doesn't need to be manufactured anymore. And for a guy like LeBron, he started saying it. Like we don't have a roster with margin for error. All of these things basically say, we're not good enough.

But now I think there's that feeling that they might be, or at least are enough to fool yourself. and now you got that enthusiasm and that joy back. Yeah. Clarification, a couple of people who pointed out in the chat that the Lakers have actually announced the Mark Williams deal. It was about 30 minutes ago. We typically received emails about this stuff.

I haven't checked my email. Well, no, it has not arrived in the email. They just put it on the website. Ultimately, there was no reason to worry about it, but it is now officially official. There's no word yet whether or not Mark Williams is going to play Saturday versus the Pacers. JJ talked about how they've gone through the medicals. They've, they're confident or at least cautiously optimistic that they're going to be able to keep Mark Williams healthy.

They're very excited about what he brings to the table. There's that mention that feels along the lines of, we talked about before, envisioning what Luca had with Derek lively and Daniel Gafford and looking to recreate that particular dimension. We're also talking, too, about the margin for error being seemingly before so low, or not even seemingly. It was acknowledged. We talked about it all the time and how that can wear on LeBron. getting a guy like Luca raises those margins a lot.

But tonight, though, was a night where some of the margin raisers on this team really played well. Gabe Vincent, 15 points off the bench, five of eight from behind the arc. I thought his energy was really, really good in this game. And then Jared Vanderbilt, five points, but 14 rebounds, four on the offensive glass. Three assists. He actually moved the ball really well. Tonight we talked about before how Vando, he's not like a facilitator, but he can handle the ball reasonably well.

He used to be a guard when he was younger. He's good at making the right pass. You know, he can handle the ball in the open court a bit, blocking a steel. Vanderbilt was, I thought, next to LeBron, the best player on the court for the Lakers tonight and the most important player on the court for the Lakers. Yeah, he was quite good.

He was fantastic. And the joke, like, you know, going back even a few years, our friend Harrison Fagan over at SB Nation has leaned into this better than anybody. Like, you know, the season doesn't start until Blank comes back. And it was Trevor Reza for a little while and all this. But, you know, Vanderbilt actually is a little bit different in that, in that space of like, you don't you can't fully factor in what the lakers are and what they have until vanderbilt's able to play and give you you know meaningful minutes on the floor because his skill set is so

different than what what else the lakers had on the roster and beyond that they just they they you just you couldn't replicate it in any other kind of way it's like it's not that vanderbilt doesn't have prototypes around the league, but the Lakers just didn't have it. And so when you add him in, it injects something, even at 15 minutes, 20, we played 21 on Thursday, even at 20 minutes a night, his presence adds something significant, first on the glass, but also just as a guy who can put pressure on teams in different ways, defensively, who plays with athleticism, who plays with a certain natural energy, an energy guy, but just the way he plays provides that boost. He moves quickly. He can move from

like just he does stuff that other guys on the roster can't and unlocks a lot of stuff for Redick, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. So getting him back has been a massive help for the Lakers. This is the second game in a row too where Vando's gotten into a mini, you know, scuffle or brew ha ha you know he he and uh who was it got tangled up a little bit um and it was zubots yeah it was bejemsky against the warriors and zubots against the clippers and there is just an edge that vando brings that i think in a lot of ways is contagious like i don't think it is a coincidence that the lakers general verres on the court has picked up since Vando's return.

Like I think DFS has also been a really big part of that as well. Yeah, and Schmicki Originals, I'm pointing up here on the chat, like points out like when you put the two of them together on the floor, he calls them force multipliers, which is not a bad way of phrasing it. It's a great way of putting it. They just, that combination, like, because DFS has as some of those qualities as well. You know, the Venn diagram has a lot of overlap. not exactly the same. And the ability to put two of those guys on the floor, it's going to be particularly important now as you put Luca in, like the types of

lineups that you can create that actually do have some defensive presence. You know, this DFS trade has really looks spectacularly good in the wake of the Luca trade. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see when Luca, it's looking like he's, going to debut Monday against the Jazz. It's an outside chance he could be available Saturday versus the Pacers, but JJ pretty heavily intimated that he is expecting it more likely on Monday. It'll be interesting to see who starts between DFS and Rui. My expectation is that it'll still be Rui.

My hope is that it would be DFS just because I think it balances out the starters and the bench, Rui is still going to have a big role in this team, and he should have a big role. But I think especially with, you know, Dalton going over to Charlotte and, you know, Gabe had had 15 points tonight, but he is not as reliable as score. Like it, it would be nice to see the rotation just gain that guy that you know his job is to go out there and score and he can do it. plus two with Mark Williams when he eventually joins the foal. He's more of an offensive guy than a defensive guy anyway.

So it really eliminates even one more need to have Rui out there with starters. It's interesting to me because I think you and I both agree that it would make more sense to start DFS instead of Rui. I, after thinking I was initially I was like, well, this is like the perfect time. you slide DFS in and move Rui to the bench and do it. The more I've thought about it, the more I actually agree with you and think that Redick will, at least for the time being, stick with Rui because he's played both played well and really does seem to be trying to do what the coaching staff is asking of him. His defensive performance, while not perfect, it's never going to be.

he's part of this increased level of activity that you've had in these games without Anthony Davis going back to New York and the Clipper game and then Thursday night against the Warriors. And I wonder if from a politics makes it sound bad, but I don't mean it this way. Like locker room culture kind of way if it benefits the team to allow him to continue in that space. until there's sort of a compelling reason to change it. I wonder if that's what they'll do. I would like, I would prefer they just make a switch because to me at least it makes more sense to start DFS for the reasons you noted.

But I started to think they'll just stick with Rui there. Well, you know what? We can talk about it a little bit more when we get back. Also get into a couple of things in doing a deep dive about Mark Williams in preparation with the scouting reports. that I did with Doug Branson from Lockdown Hornets. A couple things jumped out of me that I wanted to make sure to mention. So I'll get into all that coming up next.

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Create an account. Use the code locked on NBA for 20 bucks off your first purchase terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem the code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-B for $20 bucks off. load game time today. What time is it? Game time. So, you know, Doreen Finney Smith, Andy is a quote unquote winning player. He's the kind of guy that coaches just love having on their team, particularly on this team. We've spent, you know, the last segment talking at length about Jared Vanderbilt as a winning player. The Lakers hope that they have acquired another one of those guys in Mark Williams. You did a deep dive with Doug Branson from Locked on Hornets to get a

little more information about Williams. Go back and check out that show if you haven't seen it. But it was a really interesting breakdown with good and bad, very honest breakdown of what Williams provides. Yeah, I saw in the comment section. Not surprisingly, our audience did not enjoy the stuff that Doug brought up that was negative about Mark Williams, but I will sure you, none of this was personal. No, none of it is. Don't yuck our yum. We're excited over here. Well, I mean, it's not sour grapes. It's not, it's not anything like that. This is just Doug's opinion of Mark Williams. And, you know, he described Mark as polarizing in the sense that I think the stuff he does well, he does very well, the stuff that he's struggled, namely,

defense or health has been very pronounced. And I think he's been kind of difficult, at least in Doug's eyes, but I think in a lot of Hornets fans' eyes, like to really get a bead on who he is and what he is as a player. I would not be surprised. It may be a little bit of armchair psychiatry on my part, but I would not be surprised if he just needs a change of setting. Like he has been around a lot of losing early on.

in his career that I think it's compounded and frustrated by his own injuries. There hasn't necessarily been a lot of veteran structure for him. Like, you know, Doug pointed out that Charles Lee this year has really put a premium on effort and a lot of stuff that you would look for, like for veterans to show the way. But it wouldn't surprise me at all. Like similar to the way Rui very clearly needed a change of setting out of, you know, the Wizards to the Lakers and it's brought the best out of Rui. One thing, though, that when I was going through some numbers with Mark Williams that

jumped out of me that I thought would be really useful for this team, he gets to the line a lot. Like, he is very good at not just getting the line, but drawing fouls while shooting. Like he was filed on nearly 20% of his field goal attempts, which put him in the 85th percentile for his position per cleaning the glass. He's in the 75th percentile for completing N-1s because he's a good free-throw shooter. This season, I want to say, is about 78%. And he's very good on the offensive glass. He averaged like about three-ish a game this season in Charlotte in about 25 minutes,

about three second chance points per game. And these are things that I think will be very helpful. In addition to his ability to just finish lobs, Doug was very complimentary of Mark Williams' hands. And he said he catches things very well. He actually... It sounded like a hand model kind of way. No, no, no, no, no.

Beautiful lengthy fingers or things like that. I mean, he didn't specify that they were ugly hands. I mean, I'll be honest. I didn't ask Doug about that. I should have, but I didn't. I'm going to be paying a lot of attention to that. maybe at Mark Williams's introductory presser, things like that. Like Bernie Mac.

You'd be like Bernie Mac in Ocean's 11 with the handshake. Exactly. The lotion and all that stuff. But he complimented him too as somebody that the sample size isn't big, but he thinks that he actually has acumen as a passer. And it sounded to me like Doug had been frustrated at times with Mark Williams. Williams and again, had a difficult time figuring out exactly who he is as a player. But he asked him at the end, like, do you think the risk on the Lakers part in, you know,

dealing connect, dealing the draft assets was worth it? He said, yeah. I look at it this way. The most important thing is expectations of what he's supposed to do here. You know, I think there is a, a. a natural improvement that's going to come from playing with LeBron James and Luca Donchich, suddenly on a team that not just, you know, if you play your cards right, you're going to be on a playoff caliber team for the next, you know,

decade of your playing career, however long it lasts. And that is not something that you could say about being a Charlotte Hornet. And so what are they? I think you have three playoff seasons in their last 20. So it's not been good over there. I mean, Malik Monk benefited a lot. Oh, hugely. And so he's had at least two coaches, possibly.

I think he played for two. Like he Clifford and then Charles Lee, but I think one more in there. I could be wrong, but he's had multiple coaches. He's had the cast around him goes, and he's been out of the lineup with health, come to L.A., assuming he stays on the floor, you're going to have JJ Redick as your coach for the foreseeable future.

You're playing with LeBron James and Luca Donchich. You're playing important games where you're a mental focus. The guy went to Duke. He's no dummy. You know, Reddick talked about that after the game. Smart guy understands the game, you know, good human. That was something else, Doug said about him, but he thought for whatever faults that he has, that he's actually a very smart player.

Right. And the Lakers want that. And so I would expect, certain things to get better. The flip side is the mistakes are going to be more noticeable and accentuated because it actually matters. Like there are stakes to what the Lakers are doing and things like that. So the mistakes will be amplified.

Certain things will cure themselves just by the change of context. But it's really just going to be really important to remember he's not here to replace Anthony Davis. He's not here to provide you with that. interior force in the same way that Anthony Davis did. Williams got an incredible almost a 10 foot standing reach. I mean, he's got insanely long arms. That's not a verbal typo.

It is almost 10 feet. It's crazy. He has, you know, Tail and Horton Tucker arms. Remember, like, you know, like, he had, you know, like, THT looked like he was put together with like a, like a, like with weird. parts where they ran out of the right kind of arm for him and God was just like just grabbed the long

ones from over there except so Williams has that except seven feet tall he's going to provide you know difficulties around the rim he's going to do stuff like he will be useful and he's going to be offensively I think he's going to be fantastic but he's not meant to be Anthony Davis and I think And if you go in with that approach and understanding, then, you know, it should work out pretty well over time if he stays on the floor. That's my thinking at least. Yeah. And we had mentioned this before. Like they, it's it's unproven yet what Mark Williams will do in the playoffs or these type of big stakes games because he's never played in them before.

He's never been in the playoffs. Charlotte has not been in the playoffs in almost a decade. But he's going to have more of a role in the playoffs, regardless of how ready he is or is not for it, than Dalton connect, because there are more guys on this team who can, even if they can't shoot at the level or in as many different ways as Dalton,

they can shoot well enough and do everything else better. And it wouldn't surprise me at all. Dalton, I think in the playoffs, would have been around like a ninth man. It wouldn't surprise me if he was out of the rotation altogether in the postseason. Doesn't mean I don't believe in Dalton Connect long term. I do. I think he's going to be a good player.

I don't think he is ready, especially defensively yet. Mark Williams may not be ready defensively yet, but the need for him ready or not, in the same way, the need for Jackson Hayes, ready for not, ready or not, it's going to be there to some degree for both because they're the only two guys who can do it, particularly in certain matchups. Yeah, and, you know, I think the Lakers are hoping that they can kind of continue this defensive momentum. It's going to be like, there's a lot to integrate here. You've got to figure out what kind of defensive center you have in Williams, how you

can make him as effective as possible. You have to put Luca on the floor. And I, you know, we'll quit here in a second. But like, we can also get past the, the sort of narrative that like you, Luca being on your team means you're not going to be able to perform defensively. The Mavericks were one of the best defensive teams in the league last year once they made some of these deals. And you were especially good in the playoffs.

Pretty sure, I'll go back and check the tape. I'm pretty sure. Luca played on that team. And so, you know, you can put, you know, Luca himself has certain attributes defensively where he's actually not bad. He just is not attentive enough sometimes and he's a, you know, a blowby candidate in a lot of ways. You can work around that.

The Mavs figured out how the Lakers can do the same thing. But on the other end, they can also help themselves on the other end by running a really good and efficient offense. And when you have LeBron James and now Luca Dantzsche, who is better than LeBron on that side of the ball and more versatile at this point and more capable. And you add a vertical threat in Mark Williams, who has his own offensive skill set.

Like they should, once they figure it out, be able to put up a lot of points and add stability to themselves on the other hand. Yeah, give yourself a cushion if the defense isn't always the thing you can hang your hat on. I also think, too, in these playoffs, they're going to go smaller a lot down the stretch of games. because that's where their most experienced players are

and where a lot of their better defenders are. You know, Mark Williams is a short and long-term play. If he's not a huge factor in the playoffs outside of certain matchups, it's fine. They traded for him with the intention of him being around a while. Yeah, for sure. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where I said, I saw this like, you know, somebody pointed out that, you know,

Luca got abused by Boston in the finals, which is true. in the finals. You will cross that bridge when we get there. If we spend the rest of June, the end of June complaining that, man, Luca's got to pick it up because he got burned in the finals, I'll take that.

Let's get to the finals first and then complain about how people played defensively in the series that happens when they get there. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 30,000 subscribers to the channel. Excited to see what the Lakers do on Saturday against Indiana. We'll bring you a little post-game report there.

And obviously, looking forward to Luca to making his debut probably on Monday. Everyone enjoy your weekend.