Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LeBron James Turns 41... Will He Miss the All-Star Game for the First Time

Starting point is 00:00:00 LeBron James is turning 41. Is he also going to miss the All-Star game? That's 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 of Every Day, Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends no matter how or where you get your podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Apple, Spotify, maybe you're one of the 37,000-plus subscribers to. the YouTube page, the Lockdown Lakers YouTube channel. No matter how you do it, you're part of making the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network. And this or any other known universe, I'm Brian Komenetsky, with Andy Kemenatsky, covering the Lakers for nearly two decades now, ESPN, the LA Times, the athletic. And let me tell you, Andy, you don't often get a chance to wish a player on the team. you cover a happy 41st birthday.

Starting point is 00:01:08 But that is where we are with LeBron James. And it comes Tuesday amidst some really interesting moments. It's a really appropriate time for that birthday because the All-Star voting, first round of that came through. And LeBron is not in his customary spot near the top, raises questions about whether he'll even make the team. what he's doing right now with Luke Adich, how much the Lakers can rely on him in a time where Austin Reeves is on the shelf and the Lakers need to win some games. So it is a busy time for LeBron James as he turns 41 on Tuesday.

Starting point is 00:01:51 Something that I thought JJ said that was really interesting in terms of the Lakers getting through this stretch without Austin that also coincides at a time where the Lakers were not playing well, but also Luca and Austin, I mean, excuse me, Luca and LeBron did not seem to be on the same page at all on the court and really did not seem to be in any type of synergy. I asked JJ, and I prefaced this,

Starting point is 00:02:21 I made it very clear. I'm not trying to create some glass-half-full explanation or perspective on Austin being out four to six weeks, I would think minimum. Like, that is not good for the Lakers full stop. That being said, though, with Austin being out and the things that need to be ironed out in terms of LeBron and Luca getting on the same page, does that make it in some ways a little bit more streamlined just because it's one fewer person that you have to work into that mix and figure out the dynamic and how all this stuff works. And while also making it clear, this is not

Starting point is 00:03:10 JJ saying, yeah, this is the good news about Austin being out. He did say it uncomplicated certain things. And I think we saw some signs of the decluttering in the win against Sacramento. We obviously need to see bigger sample size against better opponents starting Tuesday against Detroit. But I do think we saw some signs of how the two of them can work both together more effectively and separately togetherly in the way that, together in the way that JJ ran the rotation, some lineup tweaks, things like that. And also the best ways to get LeBron some of the easiest shots possible when you take into account. Just he's 41.

Starting point is 00:04:00 It's amazing that he can still play at this level at 41, but LeBron will be the first to tell you, man, it ain't getting any easier. No, I mean, look, there are the hard part with the three guys, with LeBron and Austin and Luca, obviously, has always been when the three of them play together. when generally speaking the two-man combinations since luka has arrived have been more successful you've had more success not the luka and lebron one though i'm getting there with luka and lebron or with luka and

Starting point is 00:04:38 austin it's been more so austin and um uh lebron and so the one the space where you can make that kind of work better is with luka and lebron and it seems to be easier to make that stuff work when there's two as opposed to three. And so, you know, yeah, I mean, Luca can create for LeBron in ways that LeBron really hasn't had over the course of his career, you know, guys be able to do that on a regular basis. Obviously, Wade, you know, Kyrie, there have been players. But LeBron has primarily been responsible for getting LeBron shots. Luca can do that with LeBron.

Starting point is 00:05:25 There are a lot of creative ways to do it. JJ talked on Monday about getting LeBron the ball on the move, making it so putting him in places where defenses can't key on him and key on Luca at the same time. Obviously, you can put the two of them together in screen and roll packages. And in the end, the idea is to make it so LeBron catches without the entire defense trained on him. That's where they kind of need to go

Starting point is 00:05:56 because, you know, and we learned on, we learned, you know, relatively late in the day on Monday that Rui Hachamura went from not participating in practice on Monday and just not, you know, kind of banged up to isn't going to play on Tuesday.

Starting point is 00:06:10 Yeah, I want to make it clear. I'm not saying that JJ was lying to the media post practice when he said that Rue didn't practice, he's a little bit banged up. We're not concerned that it's that big of a deal. And then we know he is at least missing one game. I have been done for a while, but I guess I'm done again with ever taking anything

Starting point is 00:06:33 this team says to us about a player's health at base value. Even if JJ legitimately was out of the loop with certain info about Rui, they said that they were doing some evaluations, it is quite likely possible that JJ was not fully in the loop with everything. It is also quite possible that JJ knew exactly what was going on and didn't want this to become known until after everybody was gone. Either way, it is... I don't know what that necessarily gains them, but either way, it's just become impossible

Starting point is 00:07:07 to ever take this team's updates or timelines or anything about health. Like, just you can't ever take it at face value. I just, you just got to look and wait until the... the game reports pop up and see where guys are listed. But Rui goes and isn't going to be available to calf injury that is technically going to keep him on the shelf Tuesday night, and hopefully not too much longer than that, the official injury of the 25, 26th season across the NBA. Congratulations to Big Calf for sponsoring this year's season.

Starting point is 00:07:46 the Lakers need to find offense. And they're going to need to create and find a certain amount of offense. But we've spoken at different times about how the Lakers on any given night need to generally speaking get 70-ish points from Luca, LeBron, and Austin and go from there. Well, with Austin gone, they need probably about 50 points, generally speaking. from Luca and LeBron and as sort of a starting point and can go from there. Without Rui in the lineup, we'll see where the rest of that offense comes, but they need to make sure that they're getting the most that they can from LeBron, that they're making it so they can get the 20 to 25 that they need from LeBron

Starting point is 00:08:41 in the most efficient way possible that is, for, you know, six weeks, it could be without, you know, with Austin on the sidelines. Well, I guess this is the upside for the last few weeks where they haven't been involving Rui at all offensively. There's very little adjustment now in terms of figuring out what to do, at least for this game against the Pistons, even without Austin, without Rui, because they've basically been ignoring the guy anyway. He did get 10 shots against the Kings. He was more involved against the point taken obviously but he did get more he was more involved against the king he was he was in other games and it took a concerted effort to get him 10 shots is my point it

Starting point is 00:09:28 took well it took a concerted effort and and your other main offensive right to be gone but you know be that as it may he was poised to get more involved in the offense sure and pickens get kind of slim when you take Ruby away, particularly from a shooting standpoint. Like this game against Detroit, and we'll get back to the LeBron stuff in terms of the All-Star voting that came out in whether or not he's to make a team and what this means and all this other kinds of stuff. But just from looking at the Detroit game, as we head into the break, like the Lakers are going to be at a major shooting deficit in this game.

Starting point is 00:10:09 the problems that they've had are going to be exacerbated without Rui in the lineup. It's going to put pressure on somebody like Nick Smith, who was 5 of 10 from 3-point range against the Kings, or Jake LaRavia to pick it up, or Luca to not both take good three-pointers and not, you know, hit at 25, 26 percent as he has been. So more on the Pistons game, more on the first round of All-Star voting, and whether or not this can be the first time since 2004. LeBron ain't on the team. next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by game time during basketball season. There is nothing like being in the building, the energy, the crowd, that first big run that gets everyone in their

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Starting point is 00:11:55 They're down Austin. They're down Rui. They're still without Gabe Vincent, who as much as he has sort of fluctuated in the quality of his play, plays a position. The Lakers simply don't have very many guys. You know, and they just as a depth play, the Lakers really need everyone they can get. you have Tuesday's game against the Pistons, back-to-back games against Memphis, then you play New Orleans,

Starting point is 00:12:24 it's San Antonio, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Atlanta, Charlotte, Portland. Like there are some important, and I mean important in the sense of, you know, games you got to win, games you got to bank against lesser teams coming up. Lakers got to make sure they are in position to win them because as much as they are kind of, you know, scuffling a little bit right now. You know, Nikola Yokic limped off the floor, didn't return after half time in Denver's game on Monday night. There is some concern he could miss, you know, weeks, perhaps in Denver. You know, guys are, you know, stuff is happening all over the NBA.

Starting point is 00:13:06 Lakers just got to kind of figure out a way to win games. It's interesting that, like, in that regard to hear kind of JJ talk about, on Monday and players talk about kind of it felt to me like sort of regaining a little bit of identity and culture that they had at the beginning of the season when they were playing through a lot of injuries but seemed to be playing in a certain way. Kind of finding their way back to that regardless of who's in the lineup. Because they, you know, you got to take advantage of back-to-back games against Memphis and a game against New Orleans and things like that.

Starting point is 00:13:41 I thought Vano said something really interesting during, Monday's practice about the defense in Sacramento versus Sacramento. And the need for the Lakers to be aggressive defensively, as opposed to the way he framed it, originally he said the words laid back, but what he really meant and he used this word was playing conservative defensively. And he talked up the importance of the Lakers being disruptive through steals and deflections and flying around through energy.

Starting point is 00:14:14 I think for this particular group with this particular roster and the lack of plus defenders, we have talked about this, some of the redundancies among the players that they have, like they have to find ways to end possessions that aren't necessarily about defending somebody into a miss, like to offset the lack of, again, the quality of defenders on a player by player basis on the roster. And like they have to make sure they're not gambling too much, but they are a team that I think actually has to gamble a bit, like especially just getting deflections, like forcing an offense to reset, getting them out of rhythm. Like they're going to have to find ways to be opportunistic and resourceful. Because if I think Vando hit on something

Starting point is 00:15:05 and talking about, you know, they got to play smart and they got to play within a structure and There's got to be communication, everybody on a string, all of that stuff. But they're not a group that's really equipped to play conservative. Like they have to kind of make things happen defensively. And it speaks to, again, just the general need for this group to play with urgency and an energy and all of that sort of stuff. That to me is really what it gets to because, I mean, I don't love the idea of this group getting kind of any sort of a gamble. mentality. I actually think they really do need to play as much in a structure where everybody can depend on the next guy to do what they're supposed to do. And when you start gambling,

Starting point is 00:15:51 that's when you end up in scrambling and things like that. And they don't have the athletes to really recover from that. But what I do think, I think it depends on how you're gambling and who's gambling. But sure, but almost sometimes it doesn't matter. You know, when one guy gets pulled out of position because they make a gamble, it tends to open a door for a smart and a well-run offense to basically get everybody scrambled around. But what I do think what Vanderbilt is saying that I think makes a lot of sense is that mentality, and you use the word urgency, if you have that feeling of aggressiveness, of activity, of, yeah, you get a hand on a ball, jump passing and hit the floor, get up on a body.

Starting point is 00:16:45 I think the biggest place where the Lakers, that easiness, that laid back, that conservative nature comes, is where you see when they are switching a lot. It's not just that they're switching. It's that they're switching very easily. and too passively without, right, too passively, without, you know, that switching defender being up on the person that they're switching to so that the defense, you know, the defense of the offensive player isn't really facing any resistance at any point. That's why that's the kind of thing where I think it, to me, it doesn't mean gambling. It doesn't mean, you know, taking too many unnecessary chances or calculator risks. there happen all the time. But do what you're doing with energy and aggressiveness and don't let

Starting point is 00:17:35 plays come to you. Try to force a little bit more of what the opponent, you know, of yourself onto the opponent. That to me, I think, is exactly the correct mentality for how the Lakers need to play defense. I mean, it's part of the reason that I don't like the way this group switches so frequently. in part because it hasn't been effective and I don't think they do it in a way that is particularly successful but no it is generally not the first thing that I think that they that they want to try to do but when they do it they don't do it well I think they actually do often do it as a I think they do often do it as a first resort and the reason I don't like it is because I feel like it lends itself a lot to this group, collective mentality, their worst habits of you're quite literally passing

Starting point is 00:18:34 off your assignment to somebody else. And I realize switching is a defensive strategy. Like there's a method to the madness of it. But I feel like for this group, particularly with sort of its collective personality and the way they can get too casual anyway, anything that encourages that encourages them not to be just fighting at all times. I don't like it for this group. I just don't think it works. I don't think they have great personnel for it anyway, all that stuff,

Starting point is 00:19:07 but I don't think it works for them as a mentality. Like I think it would be better for them to be fighting through screens more, to be really working to stay in front of their man more. I don't know if it's going to be more successful or not on a possession by possession basis, but I think it will raise the urgency and focus for this team in ways that in the long run will pay off. Maybe.

Starting point is 00:19:35 I think when they're not going well, when they try to fight through screens and fight over, and they have a lot of guys who are really bad at it. They're not good chasers. They're not good at getting over screens. They're not good at making. And so, you know, you have to compensate for that sort of thing. And sometimes switch strategies. Sometimes that means switching more.

Starting point is 00:19:54 and depending on who you have on the floor and things like that, these are things that you have to do. I don't think what, like, I agree with you that it can play into the sort of passivity, but I think sometimes, too, they get to that point because they're not fighting that hard over screens and they're not making the right, you know, decisions about, you know, closeouts and they're not, you know, their decision making on rotations as in all that stuff. And so whatever they do, you can switch really aggressively. They have had moments this season when they, you know,

Starting point is 00:20:35 deploy that sort of more frequent switching defense. And they do it with aggression and urgency. And they're up on their defender. They're up on their assignment. And they're, you know, kind of jumping the other team's offense or whatever. and it works very, very well. It doesn't matter what kind of defense coverage they're trying. If they're not going to do it with aggressiveness and urgency and all that,

Starting point is 00:21:08 it doesn't matter what they do. There's some truth to that for sure. And I think that is the bigger problem. They just don't move with enough aggression. And some of that is instincts. Some of that is collective motor. Some of that is, you know, skill set. They just, they don't have a lot of really good defenders.

Starting point is 00:21:30 And I think they just, they have to avoid getting discouraged on that end. Like they just can't allow two or three or four bad possessions defensively to kind of become five or six or seven or eight, which I also think tends to happen. They just get kind of put on tilt. and they can't figure out how to get themselves off of it. But we'll see. And, you know, the Pistons are going to be a good test. If the Lakers can figure out how to negotiate this one, at home, missing a couple really important players, that will, to me, be a strong signal that they are in the process, at least, of riding the ship.

Starting point is 00:22:15 It is going to be really interesting to see whether or not LeBron James makes the All-Star team this year. There's still a lot of time between now and then, but some information that came out on Monday puts that into question. We'll get to it next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Fandul. Fridays already feel different during basketball season. Fandual is making them feel even better. Every Friday night before the games tip off, Fandul gives fans a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. NBA happy hour is your official pregame.

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Starting point is 00:23:46 than the Kings did at gumming up what the Lakers do, like really throwing bodies at them, making them move, making them make decisions, making them shoot. But anyway, I do want to let people people know too before we get to LeBron, that the Everyday Air Club is a new part of the Locked-on experience. You've helped make Locked-on Lakers one of the biggest shows on the network. And some of you want a different experience. We know because we get your emails and we get your tweets. You might want something ad-free. That's the Everyday Air Club. You can join that for $5 a month, $50 a year. And you can get Locked-on Lakers delivered to you with an ad-free experience. You also get access to the members only locked on

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Starting point is 00:25:06 All right. So I am curious to see what the Lakers do against a much better Pistons defense than what the, uh, the Kings provide. You got a couple numbers. Um, if people are interested just to, uh, keep an eye out for with the Pistons, some potential vulnerabilities. They don't have a lot of them, but they are prone to turnovers. And this is an area where if the Lakers can be disruptive defensively,

Starting point is 00:25:32 even just get deflections, stuff like that, there may be some opportunities to, if nothing else, limit the amount of possessions that Detroit has. They don't give up a ton of points off turnover, not surprisingly, because they've got a lot of really good defenders who can get back in transition. But, again, just try to limit the amount of times they actually get to shoot at the basket,

Starting point is 00:25:57 it could help. The discrepancy in points per game in wins versus losses is pretty striking. It's 122 points per game roughly in wins, 110 in losses. One of the things I've noticed there is points in the paint in wins drops from 60 to 53 or excuse me, 51. And I don't think it's a coincidence that in wins Jalen Duren, who could be an all-star this year, the, Detroit Center. He's been fantastic. He's averaging 2011 and almost 67% from the field and wins, 1310 and about 54% from the field in losses. He's a big part of their pain attack. So if there are ways to get Jalen Duren either out of rhythm or maybe just in foul trouble off the court, however you look to do it, he is a big part of their off.

Starting point is 00:26:57 offensive attack, particularly around the basket. Detroit does not put up a lot of threes. They don't take a ton of them. They're really a two-point basket focused team. So I think that's going to be a pretty big piece of it as well. To that end, the Lakers will have DeAndre Aiton, but also Jackson Hates should be back in the lineup. He practiced on Monday. He's off the injury report.

Starting point is 00:27:20 I don't believe I saw him on the injury report. So that is, so this is going to be a fun game. game. It's fun. The pistons are good again. They with the Knicks are, you know, clearly right now the class of the Eastern Conference, and it's going to be a fun game to watch. A shot selection. Keep an eye on Lakers shot selection. I am fascinated by what happens if LeBron James does not move up in the fan voting. All right, right, because right now, LeBron is ninth. The first round came out. Luca is number one. It goes, Yokic is two. This is just obviously the Western Conference. Curry, Shea, Wembe, Edwards, Denia, Portland. He's having a great season. He's having a phenomenal season.

Starting point is 00:28:11 He's going to be on an all-star team, you know, one way or another. KD. And then LeBron and then AR. That is not likely to, you know, you got to get up. I figured exactly how this works, but you're certainly not going to be voted in in ninth. And so if he is not LeBron, I mean, finishing high enough, it calls into question whether or not he makes the team at all. But he's only played 14 games. And in those 14 games, the numbers aren't terrible. He's averaging 20 and a half, five, and almost seven assists.

Starting point is 00:28:50 He's shooting over 50% from the 4th. floor. But that would probably need to tick up a little bit over the next couple of weeks. And again, he just doesn't have a ton of games under his belt. It would be certainly very much in the realm of possibility. He just wouldn't make the team. I think he wouldn't make the team. In all honesty, like his numbers are not bad by any stretch, but they're not LeBron-esque numbers either. And when you when you take into account the amount of games missed where the Lakers currently are in the standings, which often affects how these choices get made by the coaches and, you know, the people that ultimately, the selections finally get narrowed down. And to be totally honest,

Starting point is 00:29:41 he has not had a huge consistent effect on the Lakers winning. Like they actually, it's been covered a lot. they have not been winning as much since LeBron's return. I want to make it clear. I'm not saying this is LeBron's fault. I'm saying the coinciding of them losing more games with LeBron's return, even though I think there are a lot of circumstances, including other guys. He's not LeBroning them to victory.

Starting point is 00:30:09 He's not had a great effect. It's like it's okay. It's not. No, he's not playing an effect on the team. in terms of really elevating their play. I don't think he's playing at an all-star level, to be perfectly candid. He's not. It doesn't mean he's playing badly, but I don't think he's playing at an all-star level.

Starting point is 00:30:28 And if he does not have that big bump from the fans, which in of itself is, it's frankly unusual to see them paying this much attention. Like typically a guy like LeBron is such an institution within the league. He can often get in regardless of, of what's going on just be through the power of the brand. Like I'm surprised he's at ninth. I was too. I was absolutely surprised.

Starting point is 00:30:55 I mean, certainly just, you know, Denny Obie has been phenomenal, but just to be behind him, you know, small market, you know, it's international boating and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, the hard part, you know, is originally the issue is going to be, can the Lakers have three guys? Luke is obviously going to make the team. But now Reeves being an all-star, which. seemed like it was going to be pretty inevitable.

Starting point is 00:31:21 That is kind of called into question if he's going to miss four or five, six weeks. Now he runs into a situation where he's not going to have enough games. And the Lakers no longer really need to worry about having, can you put three Lakers on the team if they're in fourth or fifth in the Western Conference? That may not be an issue because Austin may not be able to play. And then you start, you know, I hope it's not. I really hope it's not the case. But if Yokic misses six weeks, he may not be able to play.

Starting point is 00:31:52 And guys have been in and out of the lineup. It is getting really hard in today's NBA to find enough players to play in these games. Because so many guys keep getting hurt. Wembe, who is going to be on the All-Star team, has only, Wendy's not played 20 games this year. It's just everybody, the game's played thing, I think, is going to. going to be in the end among the less important things that I think people will decide whether or not to put LeBron on the team. And if he, if he, let's say, spends the next three or four weeks

Starting point is 00:32:32 without Austin on the floor and averages something closer to what he did last year, like really bumps it up, you know, 26, 27 points, six, seven rebounds, you know, shoots over 50 percent, has seven or eight assists tonight and the Lakers keep winning, he actually could play his way. Well, I mean, but at that point, LeBron is actually making more of a legitimate, oh, sure. I decided to keep, but like, I'm saying,

Starting point is 00:32:56 like, my point is like, there's still a way, you know, certainly room for him to play his way onto the team. It's just amazing. It's so crazy to be talking about the idea of LeBron playing his way on an all-star team. He has not been, uh, anything but selected, you know, for one of these things since his rookie season. I know. And

Starting point is 00:33:20 2004 was the last time LeBron James was not put on an all-star team. George W. Bush was president. The last time LeBron was not put on an all-star team. Yes. And first term. First term. First term. George W. Bush. And, you know, we've had, you know, a two-term guy, a one-term guy. A one-term guy. a one-term guy and a one-term guy. Like, you know, like, it's a lot of terms. It's just, you know, last year he didn't play. But he was still on the team. Like this is, it's just, it's both amazing to think about a guy like, you know,

Starting point is 00:34:02 having this streak intact. And then also the idea that like a 41-year-old dude in the Western Conference legitimately could play his way under the All-Star team. Well, he's not only not. I would agree with you, but he's not not on it. Like, you know, what's interesting about it. What's interesting about it, too, is if LeBron didn't end up making the team, I'm sure there would be a part of him that it could hurt, hurt his ego on some level. I don't mean that to say LeBron's egocentric, but this really would speak to basketball mortality, like in ways that LeBron is perfectly aware of it.

Starting point is 00:34:43 talks about it openly, but it's still a reminder of where he is at in his career. I disagree with the idea that it's not even just straight ego. Like the idea that you're telling LeBron that we think 15 guys are better, they're 12 or whatever it is, or better than you. Right. And like that's a, that is straight ego. Right. And there is a piece of that that I'm sure on a human level could hurt for LeBron.

Starting point is 00:35:09 The flip side of it, though, I think there is also a part of LeBron that if he, He's really being honest with himself and honest with other people, wouldn't mind having several days off. He's done this 20 times. There's nothing new for him to discover from it. He was already candid in ways that I'm not even sure was great for getting the team geared up against Houston on Christmas. But I wasn't that excited to be playing in this game.

Starting point is 00:35:34 He would have rather been at home with the family. Like there's a part of LeBron that I think would be perfectly okay with not dealing with the pieces of the All-Star game that, to be perfectly honest, are a total pain in the ass for all the players. Oh, I think he wants to be named to the team. Yes. Yes. I think his ideal scenario is I'm on the team and I don't even have to go. Right. I mean, it's in L.A. So it doesn't. But not because I'm injured. Just they don't make me go. I just don't want to do any. I don't want to do any of the stuff. I just want to be on the team. They name me. and out of respect for everything I've done for this league,

Starting point is 00:36:12 they say you can be an All-Star, but you don't have to go. We don't care that you're healthy. Actually, a lot of All-Stars would prefer that. But I will say this. I've said for years, the only people who should get a break during the All-Star are the guys that get named to the team. They're the best players. Everyone else should have to work.

Starting point is 00:36:29 I do think there's an upside to the Lakers, and we can quit after this if he doesn't play. Remember, like Damien Lillard every year would get snubbed from the All-Star team. and go average like 58 points a game in the second half of the season because he was so outraged that he didn't get named to the team. I actually think if you kind of take that shot at LeBron, like, you know what? Old man, you know, congratulations. You're 41.

Starting point is 00:36:58 You're still putting on a pretty good show, but you're not one of the 15 best guys. I actually think that could be a really strong motivating factor for him in the second half of the season. that could benefit the Lakers. So I say leave the old man at home. Let's see what happens. Lock on Lakers on YouTube is where you can hang out with over 37,000 subscribers of the channel. We will be back after the Pistons game

Starting point is 00:37:22 to tell you what happened. We hope you see you there. Everybody have a good day.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LeBron James Turns 41... Will He Miss the All-Star Game for the First Time

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