Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LeBron, Rui Hachimura Return, But Unfocused Lakers GET STOMPED BY BULLS 146-115.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to a special bonus edition of Locked-on Lakers. The Lakers were whole again tonight and everybody was available, but that is not the same thing as everyone's showing up. I will break down what happened during this bleep show coming up next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts network, your team every day. And thanks for making Locked on Lakers your first.

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Starting point is 00:01:13 all of that good stuff. Lakers lose tonight 146, 115 to the Chicago Bulls in the crypt. This game was in L.A., although oddly enough, the Bulls are actually better on the road than they are at home, despite being 31 and 40. They are 18 and 18 away from whatever the hell they call that building in Chicago these days. And look, on the plus side and big picture, this is what matters most. The Lakers are healthy again. LeBron James, Rui Hachamura, both returned. Rui came off the bench tonight and per Mike Trudell during the Spectrum Sportsnet broadcast,

Starting point is 00:01:56 their sideline reporter friend of the show. Rui was likely on a minutes limit tonight. He played just 18 minutes, and Dorian, Finney Smith started. I don't know if that's going to be permanent for the rotation or not. We'll see. And while I don't think this was LeBron's sharpest effort, he finished with 17.7 of 16 from the field, six rebounds, four assists, three steals, did have five turnovers. The stat line itself isn't awful, but I thought it took LeBron a while to get going.

Starting point is 00:02:30 in this game. He finished the first half with just five points, two of eight shooting. But he looked healthy. Like LeBron did not look like he was holding back anything physically tonight. He looked active. He had a few big plays in transition. I thought he moved well. So that's the most important thing moving forward. I do not anticipate LeBron remaining out of sync particularly long. So those are the positives tonight in terms of, again, the big picture, getting LeBron and and Rui back. And hopefully the Lakers can remain intact with the rotation for the remaining games, really try to sharpen themselves up before the playoffs begin.

Starting point is 00:03:13 And let me tell you something. Tonight, the return of LeBron and Rui is about the best thing you can say about this game because they were very, very bad tonight. This was the most points that they've given up all season, 146. They looked progressively worse as the game went along. Like other than Luca Donchich and Austin Reeves, nobody seemed particularly in any type of rhythm at all. And then once the second half rolled around, even Luca and Austin started looking progressively like the rest of these guys. I mean, frankly, the team was dreadful in the second half.

Starting point is 00:03:55 And Domen Rangula, great Lakers follow on Twitter, a friend of Locked on Lakers. He had a tweet that said, quote, Lakers got some players back. Everybody took a sigh relief thinking this would be so much easier now. Disrespected the Bulls as an opponent tonight. They F-A-F-O F-Daround found out. And as I retweeted, I don't know if that's the entire story, but it was definitely several chapters of this book. And it's not excusable, like in the most literal sense, like when you take into account, everything that is at stake these days for the Lakers, trying to get as high as they can in the

Starting point is 00:04:36 standings, trying to make up some of the ground that they lost during that brutal stretch with six games in eight days, guys in and out of the lineup. And also knowing, too, Chicago is trying to at minimum rise as high as they can in the play in. Like Chicago, for better or for worse, they refuse to ever rebuild. And you knew going into this game, Chicago is better on the road than they are at home and they want this game. So that should have been something that at minimum would have kept the Lakers' attention. So again, it's not excusable, but it's kind of predictable and on some level understandable from a psychological standpoint.

Starting point is 00:05:18 Again, not the same thing excusable, but they have been playing a brutal stretch of games with multiple back-to-backs, guys in and out of the lineup, hard road trip. and there is a sense of comfort when you think, okay, the gang is all here again, and maybe it will be a little bit easier tonight, especially against a sub 500 team. God, we could use something easy these days. Maybe we can take a breath and relax. And they relaxed too much, whether you're talking about how hard they did not play on the court, the total lack of focus, the lack of execution,

Starting point is 00:05:57 all that stuff. And JJ Redick after the game said quote, the disposition and the mentality. I don't know if we assumed because we had everybody back. It would be like it was just going to be like it was three weeks ago. And that's not the way this works. I think the guys know that and I'm not saying

Starting point is 00:06:14 that's what they assumed. You'll have to ask them that. But let's be honest, if JJ did not think that was a factor, you don't put that out there. Like you put that out there at the very least to have guys account for it. like to get asked about it and to make sure they get asked about it because they probably were going to anyway. But when JJ says it, that guarantees that they will.

Starting point is 00:06:38 And it is sending a message. And JJ also said, look, there's a grace. He's talked about grace being a theme of this season because there's been a lot that's gone on. And he said the group gets some grace because of everything I talked about before. Like the last three weeks were really difficult for them. This was a difficult few weeks. The group had been very connected. Then you lose some guys, some availability.

Starting point is 00:07:05 You lose some games. It creates a disconnect and they got to get reconnected. And JJ said, I love my team. I love these guys. It was very positive. But then in saying the truth also said, getting reconnected, quote, it's got to be now. Like they don't have a lot of time. He said, like, this begins Monday morning in the film session, the walkthrough for

Starting point is 00:07:27 game against the magic. Sunday, they're obviously going to be on a plane flying to Orlando. But this was a game where they felt like they were mentally a bit checked out and like mentally trying to maybe give themselves a bit of a break. And in some ways, it turned Luca Donchich going ham in the first half. I mean, he was incredible. He had 29 points, 9 of 14 from the field. seven of 10 from behind the arc in less than 19 minutes. Like it's obviously really helpful getting that type of performance. It can be breathtaking to watch. Like seeing a guy put up that many stepback threes is amazing.

Starting point is 00:08:15 But I think with the context of tonight, it was almost like a double-edged sword because when you're talking about a team that already is dealing with some degree of complacency or lacking focus, and you've got a guy going nuclear like that, it can allow you to become even a little bit more complacent. Maybe check a little bit more out. It allows you to lower your guard a little bit more. Mind the details a little less. Brian, who could not be here, but Andy Kamenetsky, co-host of the show, Brother Brian's typically here.

Starting point is 00:08:48 He had a family thing, not anything serious, but he just wouldn't allow him to be here tonight. But he's watching the game. And he texted me, you know, and I think this is true, it reminded him. him of some of the games in the past where Kobe would go nuts and guys would sometimes just stand around watching him go to work. And it's not uncommon with superstar performances. That can be the give and the take. And like I said, the double-edged sort of it. And the team was definitely not focused when it came to taking care of the ball. Like they had 21 turnovers. And most of them were before JJ waved the white flag.

Starting point is 00:09:26 I want to say with about seven minutes left in the fourth court, I think JJ just recognized and it was actually smart. They don't have it tonight. Let's avoid somebody getting unnecessarily injured in a game. We're definitely not going to win. But most of the turnovers came before the white flag was out there. And like even Luca, who was brilliant offensively, he had seven turnovers.

Starting point is 00:09:50 A few of them were just bad decisions. like trying to force lobs to Jackson Hayes when Stu Lance even notices in the broadcast. Like he could have actually just gotten a layup if he went all the way in. Luke also got, he was very frustrated with Josh Giddy all game and got shoved from behind on a play where Chicago was, I think, looking for an offensive rebound. And he really did get pushed. It should have been a loose ball foul. But afterwards, he and Giddy were going back and forth.

Starting point is 00:10:20 He gave Giddy a few shoves, got teed up. So frustration building up as they weren't playing well. LeBron had five turnovers. Jared Vanderbilt had three. This was one of the worst games Vando's played in a while. He seemed to turn the ball over or lose the handle or get blocked. Like every time he touched it and he also got two early fouls, which hurt his defensive aggressiveness and effectiveness in the first half.

Starting point is 00:10:48 And Chicago turned those 21 turnovers into 27 points. And there were a few possessions where the Lakers got back defensively, like off the top of my head. I remember LeBron having a good sequence getting back. DFS once in the first half got back to block a layup. But for the most part, the Lakers were not good in transition. They got scrambled defensively, often even in the half court. But they gave up 44 points in the paint. JJ said, quote, our defense killed us.

Starting point is 00:11:16 I thought we did a poor job contesting. And look, I don't want to take away from the Bulls, individual performances in this game because they had a lot of guys who just played really well. Bazzellis had 31 points. Mattis Bizzellis, the rookie, really looks like he's going to be a good player. Josh Giddy, 15, 10, and 17, triple double against just two turnovers. Pat Williams had four threes off the bench. Kobe White absolutely carved up the Lakers inside and out, 36 points on just 17 shots. He hit six threes. I mean, their performance was not just the byproduct of bad defense from the Lakers,

Starting point is 00:11:56 because I don't think that's fair to them. Like, those guys really played well, and they earned this win. That said the defense was atrocious. And there was a tweet I saw from at Iggy Pop 120. It's been a longtime follower of Brian and I on Twitter at Cambrothers, who said, quote, the Lakers defense isn't some schematic genius idea.

Starting point is 00:12:15 It's just everyone plays hard. If they don't, then it falls apart. And I don't think it's quite that simple. like you don't distill it down that much. There's obviously strategy and precision and communication and everybody being hyper aware of what's going on. They have to do that off and do offset lineups without a true center, things like that, or sometimes being the best sum of their parts. But Iggy Pop's 20, Iggy Pop 120's point about the overarching point, the requisite defense,

Starting point is 00:12:47 that is true. Like the Lakers defense is fueled in. very large part through effort. And it's impossible to pull off the type of defense that they play without effort. Like, you know, the buy-in factor was something, Brian and I talked about a lot earlier in the season when the defense was well below average. And, you know, they weren't working, they weren't working hard enough then and they did not work hard enough tonight. And that played a very large role in this loss. Like in some respects, there's not even a ton to analyze just. because they played so badly pretty across the board.

Starting point is 00:13:27 I mean, defensively, it was pretty bad. Offensively, like I said, Luca was incredible in the first half. Austin Reeves, I thought he was pretty good in the first half, too, and I thought reasonably solid for a lot of this game. He finished with 25 points, 9 and 13. Actually, I mean, Austin was part of the defensive issues with everyone else, but offensively, he did his best to keep him, you know, 25 points and five assists from Austin. That's a, that's a efficient. It's a good night. Just, they did not have nearly enough

Starting point is 00:13:57 contributions from everyone else. You know, the bench as far as the guys who actually played tonight, like real minutes, they had a combined 13 points from four guys. Speaking of the bench, and I thought this was interesting, probably the last thing I'll raise before, before we go, and Brian and I will obviously talk more for Sunday show heading into Monday. But the rotation was different tonight with everybody available all hands on deck. And honestly, I didn't even notice until probably the fourth quarter because there was so much waves, arms around mess happening. Like I said at the top, it was kind of a bleep show. But until garbage time, Dalton Connect was a DNPCD. Like, and it's interesting because I don't know if that was a permanent

Starting point is 00:14:48 thing moving forward or JJ's just wanting to take a look at some stuff because it's the first time he's had everybody available in a while. But you may recall earlier in the week on the heels of the win against Denver where Dalton played well. And Brian in particular wanted to dig into Dalton a bit and what he showed over March where he's actually, he's had a very good month. And I said during that show like, yeah, he really has. And it's nice to see. Like he's really played well, his percentages are up, all that stuff. He looks like he's got that three going again, and that's all great. And big picture, I think Dalton's got a really nice future. But he struck me as the guy that is most likely to potentially lose his minutes or see them drastically cut once JJ

Starting point is 00:15:41 does what most coaches do, and I expect he will, whittle down the rotation in the playoffs. LeBron, Luca, Austin, Rui, DFS, Jackson, Gabe, Jordan Goodwin, Jared Vanderbilt. Those nine guys are not leaving the rotation anytime soon. And, you know, Dalton could end up a situational guy, like certainly if scoring is needed or a zone needs to be busted, something like that. But I'm not surprised that maybe I'm surprised he was a DNPCD, but I'm not surprised that his minutes went down pretty dramatically. It was something I thought could happen and definitely something to keep an eye on.

Starting point is 00:16:24 But like I said, this was a game that I think the Lakers are going to be looking to flush. I don't blame them. The important thing is they just use tonight as an example of what we cannot do again moving forward. And it helps the Warriors lost tonight as well. Hopefully they don't lose much tangible ground in the standing. and everybody moves forward and assuming that they do, it can be okay in the end. It's just disappointing because this is one of those games that you,

Starting point is 00:16:57 if not pen, certainly pretty deep pencil. This is a win, and you're going to have to make it up somewhere along the line. Again, we will be back a full show on Sunday heading into Monday, but before we go, going to make sure that everybody knows that Lock on Lakers is brought to you by Monarch Money. If you ever check your bank account and wonder where did all the money go between dining out, online shopping, entertainment? It's easy to lose track. And that's where Monarch Money comes in, your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances.

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Starting point is 00:18:31 And we will see everybody for Monday.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LeBron, Rui Hachimura Return, But Unfocused Lakers GET STOMPED BY BULLS 146-115.

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