Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LeBron Returns, Dishes 12 Assists, Luka Doncic Scores 37 in Lakers Win!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone. Welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Wednesday. Brian Kaminetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, LeBron James, makes his debut for season 23. And the results pretty good for the Lakers. That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Lockedon Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Lockdown Lakers. First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, matter how weird, get your podcasts. this one's always going to be free for you as you take in a show in on the number one podcast network sports podcast network in the entire universe and we certainly appreciate your support whether you're downloading the show through apple through Spotify you're watching on YouTube with over 37,000 other subscribers to channel however you get the show we certainly do appreciate it and if you are one of the 37,000 perhaps subscribing on YouTube. You were excited about what you saw on Tuesday night, the Lakers in the season debut of LeBron James,

Starting point is 00:01:14 pull away with a strong second half over the Utah Jazz 140 to 125. Is the final. It was a little, I mean, as you would expect, Andy, I think a little clunky at the beginning. But certainly as the game went on, LeBron got more comfortable, particularly as a passer, finished with 12 assists in just under 30 minutes. 12 assists, 11 points,

Starting point is 00:01:39 a rare more points than assists night for LeBron. But he really did start as a season, game went on, I should say, to look more comfortable, particularly finding his team ends. 12 assists against just one turnover, and six of those assists, six of those assists came in about five and a half minutes of the fourth quarter, the only part of the fourth quarter that LeBron played.

Starting point is 00:02:07 He took his rest at the 639 mark and then never needed to come back into the game. But that point in particular, dude was just putting on a playmaking clinic. He had no looks going to DeAndre Aiton, great passes to Jake LaRavia. Like guys, to this point, he has not actually played in a game with. And by definition, it has only had like one practice with him. because he had not. He'd had more, honestly, it had more practice with whoever is on the G League these days than with Jake LaRavia or D'Andre Aiton.

Starting point is 00:02:42 And you wouldn't have known it based on the way he found those guys in rhythm. It was interesting. I thought as the game went along, like it wasn't just LeBron that found more comfort. He said afterwards that, you know, his wind and his conditioning for, took a while for him to really start feeling comfortable. it was what he expected. As he put it, found a second and then a third win. He wasn't surprised that this was a game within the game process.

Starting point is 00:03:13 And you could see, you know, watching him that he is not all the way back. But he looked more comfortable as the game went along. And along those lines, it took about 30-ish minutes, I think, for the team to, A, just start playing better defense. Their defense in the first half was atrocious. but also it felt like offensively there was a lot of, and this is not unusual when stars return, particularly to play with other stars, but there's a lot of not wanting to step on each other's toes, not looking like you're trying to do. No, no, no, you can do this. No, you can do this. No, no, no, no, no. After you, sir. And for about 30-ish minutes, it almost felt like tentative offense.

Starting point is 00:03:57 And then in this moment, as LeBron, I believe, was sitting at this point, it was really Lucas show. Luca just started letting it rip. And then from there, it felt like everyone began letting it rip, including LeBron and everyone around LeBron. And for the last, I don't know, 10 or so minutes of this game were the guys who are in the rotation played, they looked really good. Yeah, I mean, I think it's not surprising to me. And I should let people know that today's episode's brought to you by Fandul right now. New customers can bet just $5. And if you bet wins, you get $300 and bonus bets to use across the app.

Starting point is 00:04:39 Head to fendual.com to get started. I don't think it's surprising to me that the flow of things particularly offensively looked better when two of the three of the Lakers big three are on the floor. Yeah. LeBron's, you know, assist binge came while Luca was resting. And that gets, if you're looking for one place where you can say, okay, LeBron James is going to have a significant impact. By the way, there's more than one. But if you are focused on one, the minutes that Luca isn't on the floor are going to get significantly easier for the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:05:21 It's going to become significantly easier for Reeves, who finished this game with one assist, I believe, not because he was being super selfish. But just, you know, the demands on him to distribute in the same way are going to go down. But he was 11 of 12 from the line. He was 7 of 11 from the floor. His overall offensive, yeah, 26 points. His overall offensive game is going to be, you know, from a scoring standpoint, it's going to get a lot easier. It would not surprise me in the slightest if Reeves from this game through the end of the season average more points per game than LeBron. You know, something we can talk about over the course of the week.

Starting point is 00:06:06 But it's it's one of these things where, like, we'll start to see the impact of it. LeBron said a lot of interesting stuff about, you know, what he can do and how things can fit and all that kind of stuff. which we can get into over the course of the show. But it just, the amount of ball movement, the amount of ball distribution that they have now available to them, once everybody gets comfortable and, you know, Luca's not going to have to do quite as much. LeBron certainly is not going to have to score in the same way

Starting point is 00:06:39 that he has been accustomed to over the course of his career. He will on some nights, but he won't have to. Austin, I think. Well, he's going to keep that double digit. street going. Oh, yeah. He's never going to have less than 10. He's, he got to 11 tonight and, you know, needed one additional basket to get there. He's going to stay in double digits. Oh, yeah. That much I can promise that. In fairness, that streak is insane. Bunkers. It is bonkers. And he should try to keep it up. Oh, I say that with no criticism or shade whatsoever. Get after it,

Starting point is 00:07:15 dude. The one thing, you know, DeAndre 8 had 13 shots finished with 20 points. Like, I really do think that, you know, he's not going to average 11 points a game. But I don't think the Lakers, I don't think he's going to average 28 or 29. I think he's going to be in the low 20s when it's all said and done from a scoring standpoint this season, LeBron, because there is just so much other stuff that the Lakers can lean on to get buckets. and bucket getting when it's not in transition, when it's not catch and shoot threes, which LeBron had a couple of, which were really handy.

Starting point is 00:07:56 That's the hardest part. The other stuff's easy for him. Tonight was a reminder with those catch and shoot threes. We talked about this, I believe, either Mondays or Tuesday's show, kind of a forgotten part of LeBron's game that I think they've been missing. they need his three-point shooting.

Starting point is 00:08:16 Like as much as you don't want, you know, for much of LeBron's time with the Lakers, I've always said you don't want LeBron spacing the floor for everyone else. You want the floor spaced for LeBron because LeBron was the primary and by far best playmaker on the team, you know, when the rough patches were happening

Starting point is 00:08:39 between him and Russ or Austin was still coming into his own as a playmaker or, you know, DeAngelo Russell is a good playmaker, but he's never going to be the guy who has the highest usage. And also, D. Lo was often needed to spread the floor for LeBron on this particular team where you've got Luca Donchich as your best player and an all-world playmaker. Like, there was a baseball pass that LeBron made cross court to Gabe Vincent for a buzzer beating three. And I tweeted out the video of it. You can find it at Cam Brothers. And I noted there are only like a handful of players in the league who can make that pass with regularity. And the Lakers have two of them, which is crazy. But like on this team with Luca being who he is and Austin

Starting point is 00:09:35 continuing to improve as a playmaker, I'm not saying that LeBron's going to be a stand in the corner guy. But I'm saying now his floor spacing becomes more of an appropriate role, at least at times for him, especially when again, you need it. And the gravity issue with LeBron, like you can, see, he still moves people around. Like, you know, people can say, oh, he's older, is this, he's that, whatever. LeBron is going to move people around on the floor because he is LeBron James and he's going to garner attention defensively, particularly inside the three point line. Once he, You know, if he's got his back to the basket, if he's moving towards, like, all of those things are still a massive threat to a defense. And you can see how that's going to open up a lot of easy baskets because Luca has the same gravity.

Starting point is 00:10:26 Luca, by the way, was great. We don't want to, I mean, on a normal night, we would talk about 37 points on 22 field goals, 13 of 16 from the free throw line with 10 assists and five rebounds and four steals, by the way. We would talk about those things a little bit more than we will in this episode because obviously the big news is LeBron returning. But there are a couple other things that I think pop up that we saw with LeBron coming back. We also saw the starting lineup. That was a question of coming into the game. A bunch of other things to cover. We'll get to it all next.

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Starting point is 00:13:46 They were switchier with Rui Hachemura in the lineup and all these other things. It was sort of a defensive system that reminded me of last year. They were very, very switchy in that first half, I think even more than they had been over the course of the year. And they were not crisp with those switches. they were leaving too many shooters open. Now, some of it I think was a little bit by design. Some of it was, you know, Keante George was insanely hot early in the game. Well, it helped that he was being left wide open.

Starting point is 00:14:25 As George tends to do, he shot his way out of that hot streak eventually. But, you know, he had a good night. But like he was red hot, could not miss a shot at the beginning. You know, Svea Mikhailik, former Laker revenge game. He, by the way, still starting in the NBA, kind of good for him. But, you know, those kinds of things, they are going to have to fix. If that's the starting lineup they want to run with, they're going to have to fix it. But they do have, Andy, four days between games to practice, work on those rotations,

Starting point is 00:15:03 check on some, you know, really make sure the principles are driven home. It's a really good time for them to have days off between games. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, Utah, to give them credit, they're not a great team, but they run a very unusual style. It's a lot of movement. It's a lot to keep track of. And if it's your first time, you know, playing a defensive scheme with LeBron this season,

Starting point is 00:15:31 first time in a while with Gabe Vincent, the first time you've had your full choice of players to put in the rotation. As Brian and I, I believe, said heading into this game, we certainly suspected the odd men out for the rotation were going to be Dalton Connect and Jared Vanderbilt. It's what it's, it seemed like the way, you know, Vando's minutes have been trending downward and Dalton's had a nice couple games leading up to this one, but he wasn't in the rotation to begin with. I was going to say he's never.

Starting point is 00:16:02 That's what I was just about to say. He's never been firmly there to begin with. So it went in the direction that we expected. Utah does some quirky things that can make it, I guess, in some ways more difficult. They do score a lot. Some ways more difficult to cover, particularly if you're just getting used to playing with each other. That said, the struggles that they had were very predictable. and we talked about what we thought they would look like,

Starting point is 00:16:33 and they often did heading into this game when we were both saying we would prefer Marcus Smart start in Rui's place. Again, out of the motion of Rui, just about floor combination skill sets. For what it is worth, though, and I thought this was interesting. Marcus Smart was the first sub off the bench in the first half for LeBron. LeBron sat when he typically does between like the six and seven. Mark pretty normal for LeBron. In the third quarter, Marcus Smart was also the first sub off the bench, but it was for Rui.

Starting point is 00:17:09 And I have no idea what, if anything, that means. But it wasn't like Rui was in foul trouble or something like that. So this was a decision that J.J. made for whatever reason. So it'll be interesting to keep an eye on it. And, you know, Rui played fine in this game. And he did that or anything like that. But it just, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. It's just, it's a, I was correct in the sense that they were going to start with, with Rui and see if they can make this work.

Starting point is 00:17:51 I think that's the, that's the goal here from a, you know, politics standpoint, from a, you know, a team chemistry standpoint. from a, I think, to some degree, keep Marcus Smart, healthy standpoint, all of these other things. I think there is, the inclination is let's see if we can make it work with Rui. And, you know, Smart only played 17 minutes in this game. Some of it is because the Lakers pulled away in the second half. But, you know, I really do think they'd love to keep them, you know, between 20 and 25 on a night so that later in the season, especially, they can have. him healthy and, you know, use him more, all that kind of stuff. But it's, you know, it creates problems.

Starting point is 00:18:42 Like with, and we've outlined, we don't need to go through all of them, you know, a hundred times. Like, everybody knows what the sort of defensive balance issues are going to be with Rui next to LeBron, next to Aiton, next to Luca, next to, you know, and Reeves. And like, you know, Luca's playing. defense. Like he's, he's doing his best. He's jumping, passing lanes. He's very aggressively getting, you get four steals in this game. Really, the only thing you could criticize from Luke, and this one was three-point shooting wasn't great, and he turned the ball over too much. A couple of those were offensive files, like turnovers or he, at least two of them. It might

Starting point is 00:19:22 have even been three. And the Lakers got a little saucy periodically with their passing. I think, You know, LeBron coming back, got everybody a little bouncy, a little excited. Austin Reeves throwing lobs to Luca, which is a horrendous idea that it should never happen again. Like, Austin should volunteer to give up at least 10 million on the contract that everyone expects them to sign with the Lakers. just for thinking about doing that, much less actually doing it. Like, that is a, like, I'm not going to say a fireable offense

Starting point is 00:20:04 because that's not the way NBA contracts work, but it's kind of a fireable offense. It was one of these things, and I was like, look, had Luca gone up and flushed it down, it would have brought the house down for sure. Yeah, but instead he ended up colliding with someone on the jazz

Starting point is 00:20:21 and, like, blew out his knee. Like, No. Dial it back there. Dial it back there, Austin. And, you know, the Lakers is not a little careless. It's not a great lob team. But even that being said, like there are so many other options. Like, I'd rather him throw a lob to Gabe than with Luca. I mean, that's just. It's really not. Luca has one dunk as a Laker. I think. It's like, he has technically two. One of them was really more of a lay. than a dunk. It was not a real dunk.

Starting point is 00:20:57 So it's like, it's not much different than throwing a lob to us. Substantively. No, it's actually, it's actually much different. Nobody cares if we get hurt. That's true. It's actually far different. Well, that's not, I care, but nobody else does. It's just, you know, the Lakers, I were joking about this.

Starting point is 00:21:17 Like for a relatively unathletic team, the Lakers love throwing lobs that are like, at any time, like ridiculous lob opportunities. But anyway, like, I think they can figure out a way to make this work. And they found times last year where the defense was certainly good enough. I don't know if they're going to have to modify the super switchy thing. They're either going to have to get much better at it or modify it. But we'll see. Like, they've got time to figure this stuff out.

Starting point is 00:21:52 11 and 4 gives them some runway here to do it. And especially given the, you know, a relatively winnable schedule upcoming. We'll break some of those. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Rippling. And if you're a business owner, here's the truth. SAS promised to make work easier. But now the average company is buried by hundreds of apps that slow down your teams and simply don't work together. That's not SaaS. That's sad software as a disservice,

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Starting point is 00:23:06 Learn more at r-i-p-p-l-I-N-G.com slash locked-on MBA. That's rippling.com slash locked-on MBA for six months free. I'm just, I am excited about the potential of LeBron again, not averaging 11 points a game, they're going to need more than that. But what it looks like on a team where LeBron genuinely does not need to average 25 points a game, 28 points a game, 30 points a game. Particularly at this point in his career, I think that is if you're looking for something that can extend, really genuinely extend his career, you know, or maybe, at the very least, make him a guy who can be fresh in the postseason, which is something the Lakers are going to need. Let's set next year aside and just think about getting through this year, not having to grind your way through to 26, 27, 30 a night so your team can win is going to be a big thing.

Starting point is 00:24:25 And Reeves is going to be able to keep putting up 25 a night. certainly is capable of that. Luke is a 30-to-night guy. Aiton, if he gets shown, if he gets 10 shots, is going to have 16 points. That's just what he's doing right now. And all of those things put together

Starting point is 00:24:44 really truly legitimately means that LeBron does not need to score in the way that he has over the course of his career. Opens up a thousand other things he can do. Yeah, there's, I mean, as LeBron has said, He talked about this during Monday's practice. You know, he is somebody that prides himself on the ability, and it really is true, to do anything on the court.

Starting point is 00:25:10 Like, there's really nothing that LeBron is incapable of doing as far as skill sets with basketball. I mean, he has some things that are greater strengths than others, but he's reached a place where other than attrition from age, and how it may affect certain things, there's really no weakness to LeBron's game. Like, you know, it used to be, you didn't want him taking threes. Now, LeBron is a legitimate three-point shooter.

Starting point is 00:25:39 He's always been a great score, great passer, great rebounder. When he needs to, he can still find ways to be effective defensively. If nothing else, as we've talked about, his IQ makes him a hell of a defensive quarterback, and that's really valuable. He also got a,

Starting point is 00:25:57 got his chest out a little bit when asked about some of the instant chemistry with La Ravia and Dandre Ait. And he said, quote, said it yesterday's post practice. I can fit in with anybody. I don't even understand why that was a question. What's wrong with these people out here? I can fit in right away with anybody. But this is that quote, that kind of quote, which is a variation of different things that he's said, really since the arrival of Luca is kind of what I was getting at when we were talking on Tuesday's show about my impression

Starting point is 00:26:37 of how LeBron kind of looks at the process and looks at the challenge and things like that and enjoying the idea of having to do things a little bit differently, do things that might be unexpected to people, help carry a team in ways that are different than he has over the course of his career, in part because by the time you get to season 23, setting aside the practical stuff of,

Starting point is 00:27:04 he understands the less he has to do, like has to do during the regular season, the more likely he is to go far in the playoffs. He recognizes, I think, that this team has as good of a chance of any team he can play for right now of getting him far in the playoffs. And so set that aside, though, I think he just, by the time he gets season 23, it's fun to do new things. Well, it's, it's fun to do new things. I would caution into reading too much into tonight or that narrative into thinking that LeBron could. And I know this isn't necessarily how you meant it, but I've heard other people talk about it, where LeBron kind of becomes a passenger.

Starting point is 00:27:48 Like where his reduced, right, where his reduced role. where he starts looking more like a role player. And that's not going to happen in part because it's a waste of that much skill. It's also, too, a waste of, I think, in LeBron's mind, LeBron's time. Like, LeBron is not in the league to just hang around or just because he loves the lifestyle. Or, you know, he can't let go being in the NBA. A, as he said during Monday's practice, you know, he's missed being around the guys. He's missed being on the court.

Starting point is 00:28:26 He has not missed the travel at all. Like he just flat out said, I have not missed that one bit. I'm just going to be honest at this stage of my career. I don't need to keep doing it. Not like LeBron isn't going to do it now that he's back. But he wasn't getting the itch. But also, too, like I used to talk about this with Kobe all the time. Kobe played basketball in a very specific way,

Starting point is 00:28:49 for very specific reasons. And if he was not going to be the focal point of a, if not championship level team, certainly one pretty close, he wasn't interested in doing it. Like he was not interested in being the second option on a team. Or the third or the third or whatever. And LeBron and Kobe view certain things differently,

Starting point is 00:29:13 particularly scoring. I know LeBron is the all-time leading score, but LeBron is not wired to score. and to look to score in the same way Kobe was. Like, LeBron just happens to be incredible, but he happens to be an incredible score and played for so long. So I don't think LeBron cares about leading the team in scoring, but there is a requisite amount that LeBron wants to be doing at a pretty high level.

Starting point is 00:29:41 Otherwise, he's not going to be interested. Like, he just isn't going to be interested in doing this because dudes got 10 million other things he can do. He's already, he's been doing his post basketball career in real time for like the last seven years. He's got plenty of other things he can do. There's one thing that I think he takes a reduced role in, not a non-role, a reduced role. And that's scoring. That's it. And everything else. I agree. He is a frontline player on this team. He is only because Luca is you know, has, if you think he ever left it after a rough last year, uh, season last season, like he's clearly back in that ultra elite level in the NBA,

Starting point is 00:30:33 where I still think it's Yokic, you know, who is like Oklahoma City, kind of floating in his own territory. Um, you know, and there with Janus, uh, you know, Wembe, if you think he's, you know, before the injury got that, but whatever it is. I mean, Janus before the injury. Yeah, true. Janus has got a groin issue. So, like, whatever that next group of two or three guys is, Luke is in it. And it's only because Luke is that good that you could look at LeBron and say he's the second, you know, very clearly the second best player or the third best player, you know, I think second.

Starting point is 00:31:10 But, you know, if you really love AR, you know, and say that. So, you know, he's not going to take a step back in terms of his impact. He is not a passenger. I agree with you. I just think he doesn't have to score as much, which allows him to be, I think, more of a playmaker. More, I think he can put out more energy defensively on a more consistent basis on this team than he could have last year pre-trade. You know, and certainly last, you know, and all that stuff. That's all that I mean.

Starting point is 00:31:43 the only way he needs, the only thing he needs to do that I think he could step back a little bit. I'm talking to going from 25, 26, 27, 28 a game to 20, 22, 23, 24. Not some, not 15. I've described before on 710 ESPN, my weekly show Lakers talk. I picture him in kind of a role where, and it's not an apples to apples comp, but just in thinking about the different things that he can do that don't necessarily revolve fully around scoring, kind of like a souped down version of Dremont Green defensively. Like in the sense of you would emphasize the defense, but not at the level of what is expected of Dremon,

Starting point is 00:32:33 but like a souped up offensive version of Dremont. So he's like the Lakers Dremont Green in the sense that he's a more souped up offensive version of Dremont. more souped up offensive version, a little bit more of a souped down defensive version, but you see the importance of him on both sides of the ball, and he still remains a huge part of how the offense works. Like as much as Steph is what makes that offense scary and bend everything and like nothing we've ever seen before, Drayvon is just as important in making the thing work. Like as far as making the offense actually work. Dremont's huge. LeBron can be in a lot of ways that version of Dremont, but again,

Starting point is 00:33:17 souped up and having some of the same defensive responsibilities and that intelligence and all that, but soup down to some degree. Radio Starkela, I think sums it up well in the chat. Rich man's Dremont. I'm sort of thinking about him that way, like a rich man's Dremont. Very rich. And it won't very rich. And Dremont is. very much going to the Hall of Fame. Yeah. And just it's, it's, we'll see. Like it's, you know, we have, obviously they have a lot of time between now and Sunday.

Starting point is 00:33:48 It's another game against Utah that we, you know, you hope you end up with a similar result. And then next week they get back to a little bit more of a regular schedule before the, and then, you know, next month, it's three weeks on the road, you know, what's shaping up to be a kind of an interesting road trip. we'll see what it looks like. And again, I don't expect LeBron to be down at the, you know, 15 points a game. They're going to have to figure some stuff out defensively. It's not going to be smooth. The offense hasn't been super smooth through this point this season.

Starting point is 00:34:25 Don't expect it to instantly become that way. But you saw on Tuesday the potential of what this can look like, again, with the addition, not just of Reeves, kind of ascending as an offensive player, but a really viable score in the middle. The Aitin factor here with LeBron and Luca together is going to be

Starting point is 00:34:49 really important for the Lakers. The Lakers entered this game. Final thing to think about 27th and fast break points. I think that alone is a difference you're going to see with LeBron out there, not necessarily because they're going to be running up and down every possession,

Starting point is 00:35:06 but just more guys. who can push the ball ahead, more guys who can grab and go. I think that's going to make a difference. Even in year 23, nobody gets in the way of LeBron on a break. That is a business decision that nobody makes, or that everybody makes, I should say. All right. So we'll break more of this down through the rest of the week. More stuff coming out of practice for the Lakers as they continue to shore things up.

Starting point is 00:35:31 11 and 4, looking good, nice stretch of practice coming up. Things are looking pretty for the Lakers, locked on Lakers on YouTube. So we can hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. Thanks again for making us the number one podcast network in the known universe. And we'll see everyone tomorrow.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LeBron Returns, Dishes 12 Assists, Luka Doncic Scores 37 in Lakers Win!

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