Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LOCKED ON LAKERS POSTCAST Lakers beat the Warriors 115-113

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

In what was one of the best Christmas Day games ever, the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Golden State Warriors on an Austin Reeves game-winning layup with one second remaining, 115-113. With Anthony Davis injuring his ankle halfway through the first quarter, LeBron James picked up the pieces, scoring 31 points and dishing out 10 assists, while the star of the game, Austin Reeves, collected a triple double, with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. Future Hall of Famer Steph Curry led the Warriors with 38 points in the loss. The Lakers will look to extend their winning ways Saturday night when they host the Sacramento Kings. Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rui, Austin Reeves, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dalton Knecht, Lakers vs Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers vs Golden State Warriors, Steph Curry Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors! RobinhoodRobinhood Gold provides the privileges of a high net worth for any net worth. These generous benefits are now available for only $5/month. The new Gold Standard is here with Robinhood Gold. 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.Robinhood GoldRobinhood Gold provides the privileges of a high net worth for any net worth. These generous benefits are now available for only $5/month. The new Gold Standard is here with Robinhood Gold. Sign up at robinhood.com/gold.FAN DUELGet ready to tackle the NFL action with FanDuel America’s – Number One Sportsbook! Because right now, new customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS, if you win!Robinhood Gold provides the privileges of a high net worth for any net worth. These generous benefits are now available for only $5/month. The new Gold Standard is here with Robinhood Gold. Sign up at robinhood.com/gold.Mint MobileTo get the new customer offer and your new 3-month premium wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to mintmobile.com/lockedonnba. See Mint Mobile for details.Bilt Rewards. If you’re a renter, listen up – this is a total game-changer. Thanks to Bilt, you can now earn points on rent payments, just like you do with groceries or travel. Paying rent now comes with serious perks, and it’s completely free to join!Earn valuable Bilt Points on your rent and everyday spending – at no extra cost.· Redeem points towards flights, hotel stays, and even future rent payments. With over 500 airlines and 700,000 hotels in their program, the possibilities are endless.Access unique experiences that are exclusive to Bilt members.Start earning points on rent you’re already paying by going to joinbilt.com/LOCKEDONNBA. That’s joinbilt.com/LOCKEDONNBA – make sure to use our link so they know we sent you. Don’t wait, start earning rewards today!BILT PRIZEPICKS – is the best place to get real money sports  action. Run your game allseason long on PrizePicks. America’s#1 daily fantasy sports app. SKYLIGHT FRAMEIf you’re having a hard time finding the perfect gift, you have to try SkyLight Frame. You can try Skylight Frame today when you go to SkylightFrames.com/nbaROCKET MONEYCancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney dot com slash lockedon today. That’s RocketMoney dot com slash lockedon. RocketMoney dot com slash lockedon. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are a Locked-on Lakers Postcast. Part of Locked-on Sports Los Angeles on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Kids injured. LeBron James and Steph Curry, don't disappoint. Austin Reeves plays arguably his best game as a Laker. We talk about it all in the next 30 minutes on the Locked-on Lakers Postcast. This postcast is brought to you by Game Time and download the GameTime app, create an account, and use Locked-on NBA for your podcast. your $20 discount. Again, $20 off your first purchase. Terms Supply, download game time today.

What time is it? It's game time. What a game for the Los Angeles Lakers. This is a game the Lakers desperately needed. And again, when you talk about being around and watching Laker basketball on the holidays, this might be as good as it possibly gets. What a game for the Lakers is they hold on to win this game, 115, 113 over the Golden State Warriors. You have major superstars to start the game and Anthony Davis and Steph Curry and LeBron James, man, it was exciting from the very beginning. It did not disappoint all the way to the very end. Exciting. Again, my name is Dave Palais. I'm the one you're going to listen to through this postcast and then talking to Laker basketball. I love it. I've been covering Laker basketball since the early

90s and absolutely love to see this team where they're moving in the right direction. And this is something this team needed. They desperately needed this win after the disappointing loss to Detroit Pistons just the other day. So here's how it went and we'll talk about it from really into beginning. That's where we're going to go tonight. Because right now you look at what the Lakers had going on and you're saying, man, this game is in the bag. It's never in the bag, right? When it's Steph Curry on the other side, that can drain three pointers. So for the Lakers, they're sitting there, they're doing okay through the fourth quarter. And I don't know for you as a fan on how you say when a game is in the bag. But for me, I kind of always look at it with how many

points are we ahead and how many minutes are remaining? Until you get into the last couple minutes, then obviously if you're ahead by three points or three minutes remaining, you don't feel real comfortable. But when you're ahead by 10 points, let's say eight minutes remaining, you're going, okay, things are moving in the right direction. Guess what? The Lakers kind of messed that up at the end. And for me, it kind of felt like they just started to run out of gas. It wasn't that all of a sudden the players, you know, couldn't play good basketball, just you're asking a lot. And we're going to get into why they're asking a lot in a second. Most of you know the answer already. But there was a big point in the game where LeBron James, towards the end of the game with about two minutes remaining,

LeBron James made a great defensive play. He blocked a shot, and then the ball smashes on the ground, and then bounces back up, and there's nobody there to rebound the ball. And if you saw LeBron where he's yelling at someone to go, come back, come back, meaning you've got to come back and play defense. You can't just sit there and release and expect to get an easy two points or three points, whatever the plan was. You have to play defense, especially in a situation when you're winning. defense is the most important thing. Well, the player who was yelling at was Max Christie. And so Max Christie isn't there.

Ball ends up going back to Steph Curry, and Steph Curry ends up knocking down a three-pointer. It hurts. Then the Lakers get the ball. They go up to court. Lakers leading again at this point, 109, 105, and Austin Reeves, with nine seconds remaining on the shot clock,

decides he's going to rifle up a three. You have a four-point lead. You have nine seconds remaining on the shot clock, and all of a sudden, and Austin Reeves decides he's going to shoot a three. Well, it doesn't go in. And so it's very frustrating. It's bad basketball.

It's not the way to be coach. It's not the way you want your team to play. And if you listen to Doris Burke, she was calling guys out on it, which is, you know, funny because she was right. I'm not the biggest Doris Burke fan, but she made a couple of really interesting points at the end of the game.

And that was one of them where she says, what's the point? Why would you do that? You'd be better off in that situation if Austin Reeves didn't shoot the ball at all. And you just turned the ball over in a shot clock violation. But instead, you end up shooting the ball.

You waste nine seconds or you give them back to Golden State. And Golden State's able to come through. Boom, they knocked down another three. Then Max Christie, he goes to the line. Max Christie, he gets the two free throws. It's great. Austin Reeves, another three-pointer by Steph Curry. Austin Reeves goes to the line.

He makes his two free throws, makes the score. 111.110 with 8.9 seconds remaining. Curry, what can you say? Curry, again, with another three-pointer, There are 6.3 seconds remaining, and the score is tied. And so for the Lakers, you're going, okay, tie game, all the momentum's on Golden State side. They're playing at home. It's Christmas Day.

It seems like the biggest Christmas gift ever that the Lakers are going to gift Golden State a big win because they're in the same kind of situation the Lakers are in where they're looking for any kind of sign to show this is a team that can compete for the long haul. If you listen to people who follow the Warriors, they sound just like us as Laker fans. Like what player do they need to acquire to help Steph make a run? As Laker fans were saying, what player do we need to acquire to help LeBron and AD make a run one more time? So for the Lakers, 6.3 seconds remaining, who are you giving the ball to? Well, we have this discussion just the other day, right?

We were talking about what do you do? And LeBron James. And what I think about LeBron? Yeah, he's maybe the greatest of all time. But LeBron doesn't have a history wearing a Laker uniform but making a ton of these shots. Didn't matter. It's one of those where the game is tied. You can tell that the idea is to give LeBron the ball.

You kind of owe it to him. It's Christmas Day. Everyone nationally is watching. LeBron knows there's a game on game with him and Steph Curry. He wants to be the one to finish the show. Well, Golden State played great defense. They knew right away it was going to be LeBron. So the only choice they really had to make was throw it to the guy that's open.

That happened to be Austin Reeves. And Austin Reeves was outstanding. Takes the ball to the hole on Andrew Wiggins. Does a layup on the left side with his right hand. Ball goes in with one second remaining. The Lakers take a two-point lead, 1-15-11-13 and Steph Curry any other player you sit there and go we won but any other player if it's not Steph Curry yet you feel comfortable well stuff rifles the ball down the court from about 80 feet

and barely misses a game-winning three-pointer so lakers win doesn't matter good good things happen for the good guys today lakers win 115 113 13 and that was that was awesome it was awesome so when you talk about great Christmas games a lot of them jump into my mind memorable games even games that the Lakers didn't win. I remember the first time when we saw Shaq come back to Staples and play against Kobe and how it was weird to root against Shaq. But we knew that, hey, we're Kobe guys because he's the ones still wearing the Laker uniform and things exactly didn't go our way that day. But it was one of those can't miss games. Today is one of those where if you're a basketball fan and you know you're running at a time, meaning you are not going to see a lot of games remaining

with Steph Curry and LeBron James to see them on the floor at the same time, to see a national televised audience, it's a big deal. And so, you know, later on in life is we all know that pro basketball players, pro athletes in general, they get better in your mind once they retire. So when people ask you down the line, who's in your top five all time? You might have LeBron James and Steph Curry in that top five all time. Who knows what your thought process is might change? For me, I'll tell you, Steph Curry is the greatest shooter I've ever seen. I've seen a lot of good ones. And for me, it's really not close. It's Steph Curry's number one. And LeBron James for what he does. He's right there in the top five as well. So it was pretty cool to see two guys that

have a lot of respect for each other, but also, you know, two Hall of Famers, two of the best to ever do on the floor at the same time battling it out, not two guys that you go. Those are just two old guys that are past their prime, which both hanged up. For me, it was like, we're watching two guys that I wish could continue to do this for a long, long time. So that was a lot of fun. And we'll get into the box score and everything else that happened there. But for the Lakers, most importantly, they win, 115 and 113. You get the bad taste out of your mouth and what happened in the Detroit Pistons game. But very, very exciting. I'm on cloud nine right now as that was the second of the last game of the night. If you're still watching basketball right now, you're watching Phoenix and Denver. That's great.

You got two great players over there in the Joker and Durant. But for us as Laker fans, this is awesome. This was a great night. Would have been terrible if the Lakers lost this game because they had this all the way through. There's so many positives to touch on with this Laker game and this Laker win and how important it was. It was really outstanding and really fun to watch. So we'll get into the box scoring a little bit. We'll talk about Austin Reeves and everything he did there as far as coming through. It was great. By the way, I want to go to show everybody a Merry Christmas.

And I hope you guys had a great day. What a great way to wrap things up. Speaking of Christmas, got to ask you guys, what about the game time app? do you go and you buy tickets and say, what is the best way to get the best tickets, the games in person? For me, I'll tell you right now, my favorite Christmas gift I received today was from my son. My son and I do this thing.

Every year, we travel around and we try and hit at least one major league baseball ballpark a year. And so last year, we hit Colorado, never been to Colorado, but it was on the list. You got to knock it out. It's easier when you have teams that are closer together. But for us, we always use the game time app. And so last year, when we went to Colorado,

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watch three games. But again, we're using the GameTime app on every single one of these games. It's that real simple. I have to do is download the GameTime app, create an account, use the code locked on MBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply again, create an account, redeem the code, spell out again. Here it is. I'm going to spell it for you. It's locked on MBA, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-M-B-A for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. What time is it? It's Game Time.

Real simple right there. I use it all the time and absolutely love it. So don't forget the people over at GameTime. Also, we'll get back to the box score in just a second, but I want to mention the people over at Rocket Money as well. Here's the deal. How many of you have subscriptions and realize, oh, my gosh, I have more subscriptions than I thought I had.

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Things were pretty interesting to see the way they worked out because here's one of the big stories of the night. And we never want to see Anthony Davis get hurt, but at the same time, it feels like it's always a matter of time before Anthony Davis can get hurt. We've seen Anthony Davis get hurt early in games or some get it late in the games and we seem to miss a lot of time. And it's one of the most frustrating things about being an AD fan is that what do they say in sports? The best availability is, or I guess the best, the best abilities availability. I've ruined the quote right there. The best ability is availability. Real simple right there, Anthony Davis, and we don't know what he's going to be available.

So here's the deal. Seven minutes and 12 seconds into the game, Anthony Davis goes down with an ankle injury. And you're wondering, okay, does he just go back to the locker room, do whatever they do back there, tape it up? I don't know what they do medicine-wise. Can he come back and play? You know he wants to play at a big national game. He's unable to return. And you're hearing reports on television.

and the whole night, oh, I make it back for the second quarter. I might make back the second half. Then you get reported into the third quarter. He's not coming back. Okay, fine. He's not coming back. The team is rallying behind him. And the deal is with the team rallying behind him, that's great.

But the problem is they started to run out of gas. And we saw that at the very end. They needed Anthony Davis. And they'll need Anthony Davis, again, to get healthy really fast. The Lakers next game is on Saturday against the Kings. And hopefully, Anthony Davis is ready to go. Here's the deal, though. The Lakers, they did okay.

You know, the Lakers actually put together a pretty good run. They rallied in the first quarter. Cam Reddish found Daltock Connect for three-point shot at the end of the quarter to tie the game at 23. LeBron James led the Lakers in the quarter with eight points, three rebounds. But Daltock could act five points off the bench. I think that was big. We want to see Daltz Connect come back to being the player he can be. Andrew Wiggins, he had 10 for the Warriors.

Again, Dennis Schroeder, former Laker. He had six, Steph Curry had five. So at that point, I'm thinking Steph Curry is only down to five. That's a great sign for the Lakers that, hey, we can keep him in check. Well, you know, Steph Curry wasn't going to stay quiet forever. Second quarter, Lakers outscored the Warriors 3229. Steph Curry, LeBron James had 11 apiece. Anthony Davis, he stayed in the locker room, as we mentioned.

Lakers, though, at the half, shot 42% from the field, 32% from three-point range. And the Lakers, here's the deal, as I said, after the Pistons game. You want to figure out a loss really early and why you lost. Let's look at the free throws first and then let's look at turnovers. For the Lakers, they were nine of nine from the free throw line in the first half. That was big. I mean, for a team that has struggled with free throws, they were nine of nine from the free throw line. If you recall, when the Lakers weren't shooting well from the free throw line in the last game,

the guys who missed were our guys. It was Anthony Davis. It was LeBron James. So nine for nine was big and say, okay, they're doing what they're supposed to do for a reason. It's supposed to make those. LeBron James had 19 points, three rebounds, three assists at the half. Dalton Connect with 11 points off the bench. Austin Reeves had 10, six assists.

Now, here's the deal. The Lakers only had two turnovers, two turnovers, which is fantastic. Warriors had six. Lakers out rebound of the Warriors 24, 21, so you're feeling pretty good. So right now when you look at that situation, you go, okay, the Lakers are up by three at the half, 55, 52, they outscore the Warriors 32, 29 in the second quarter. You're going, things are moving in the right direction. Hopefully in your mind, you're thinking, well, at least if Anthony Davis comes back,

it will help balance things out for the Lakers and they should be okay. doesn't exactly work that way. By the way, at the half, Steph Curry had 16 points. So he scored 11, as I mentioned, 6 of 11 from the field, four of eight from behind the arc. Andrew Wiggins added 14. Here's my thing with Andrew Wiggins. If you paid attention, if you recall back in the day,

when Andrew Wiggins came out, he was the number one overall pick. Remember Andrew Wiggins went to the Cavs, and Andrew Wiggins goes to the calves. LeBron James leaves Miami and he comes back to the calves. What's the first thing LeBron James says? I don't want to play with a rookie. I do not want to play with Andrew Wiggins. And they trade Andrew Wiggins to Minnesota and they get Kevin Lovin return.

But ever since then, since LeBron has done that to Andrew Wiggins, I think Andrew Wiggins has held a grudge. I would too. You would too. Basically, you have one of the greatest players of all times and say, I don't want to play with you. Andrew Wiggins always plays great on no matter what team LeBron James is wearing, whether it's the Cavs, whether it's the Lakers, Andrew Wiggins is always dangerous. He saves his best games for when he's facing LeBron. I think it's bothered him for more than 10 years.

and this is where we're at where Andrew Wiggins are 14 points. I'm like, here we go again. We've seen this before. Warriors in the first half shot, 46% from the field, 36% from three point range. Here's the interesting thing for me is I'm not a big Draymond Green fan. I'm just not. I think Draymond Green is all about theatrics. I think it's more hype than what it really is.

When Draymond Green wants to compare him to himself to Charles Barkley, it always bothers me because I'm like, you're not even close to Charles Barkley. Barclay is one of the greatest players of all time. Draymond is not an offensive guy. and tonight he wasn't an offensive guy in the first half. O for four shooting, no points for him. He had a few assists, but Draymond's overrated. One of the most overrated players to me in the history of the league.

And I know in the NBA, everybody gets in the Hall of Fame. He'll end up as a Hall of Famer, but I'm not a Draymond Green fan, so I was happy to see they do win 0 for four. Lakers bench outscored the Warriors bench in the first half, 16 to 9. Moving to the third quarter, we know AD is not playing, but the Lakers gone in eight-nothing run. Lakers outscore the Warriors 29-24 in the quarter, through three quarters, the Lakers had five players and double figures.

This is great, great balance scoring. One of the first things coaches do when they get that sheet of paper, basically it's the box score that you see on your computer. The coaches get it, the players get it, as soon as that game is over, and they always look to see how many guys were in double digits. And the coaches want to make sure that they were sharing the ball. Does it show that there were assists,

whether it was everybody involved? Was it just a one-man game, a two-man game, or was everybody involved? And through three-quarters, five players and double figures, that was great for the Lakers. LeBron James 23, Rui had 12, Austin Reeves had 16, Dalton Connect had 11, Max Christie, who is coming into his own.

Max Christie with 10. Outside of that defensive snafew, at the end of the game that I was talking about, Max Christie looks more and more comfortable out there with the starting 5, 10 points for him. Steph Curry 21 through 3 quarters to lead Golden State. But here we go. Going into the fourth quarter,

it was something else pretty exciting. Lakers outscore the Warriors 29-24. So Lakers have a lead and going, things are going our way. Lakers should hold on and win this game. And the fourth quarter was what casual basketball fans say. I just got to turn the game on in the fourth quarter or maybe five minutes remaining in the fourth and I'll be fine. But that was a lot of fun to sit there and watch everything the Lakers did there.

So it was pretty cool to see what was going on with the Lakers at that point. We're going to get into into the fourth quarter in just a second. But I want to mention, again, the people over at Fandul. It's very exciting right now to see what's going on with Fandul. The NFL players are about almost here, but it's not too late to get on on the regular season action with Fandul America's number one sports book. Right now, new customers can finish the season strong, $250 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Again, Fandle, so many ways to pick up that W. Look, I love betting on what's going on with the players as far as who will score touchdown, how many points each one will score.

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And I don't know about you, but I kind of felt like the Lakers let Golden State back in the game just because they were kind of running out of gas. and with the Lakers running out of gas, you have to figure out how you're going to use your timeouts. What's going to use a challenge? A challenge actually can be used a little bit like a timeout as well because we know this take a long time. But can those guys get their legs underneath them?

You know, LeBron James, how many minutes are you going to have to play the king now that AD is not there? You know, there are a lot of minutes played by a lot of players. And so even though LeBron James is the guy that's always the one that's most talked about, how about a couple other guys on this team before I get to really the most underrated person today. Rui. Rui was outstanding today. 18 points, four rebounds, seemed to be active the entire time, hit some big threes, five of seven from three point range from Ruiz. Again, the ultimate team player with Anthony Davis out, Ruiz stepped up big, 18 points in 37 minutes,

and the five three-pointers. The Lakers needed every single one of them. LeBron James, 31 points, 10 assists, two steals, one turnover. That is it. That's a big sign right there that LeBron understands he needs to take care of the ball. Only one turnover for LeBron for a rebound. So he didn't get the triple double. Max Christie, 16 points and 34 minutes, four rebounds to assist. Two of eight from three point range. We'll like to see that number a little bit better.

But again, he made all of his free throws, four or four. LeBron, by the way, five of five from free throw line. Here we go. Start at the game right now. If you look at what Austin Reeves did, for so many people who don't follow Laker basketball nationally because the game starts so long. late you know if you're on the east coast the game started either 10 o'clock or 1030 it's hard to follow laker basketball you can listen to you know obviously those pregame shows on the national

level you can realize people don't know who a lot of the laker players are they don't aren't familiar with austin rives game and how good he is and you know as i said the talking heads but austin rives tonight 24 points 10 assists 10 rebounds and the game winning layup on andrew wiggins when everybody thought it was going on lebron james it was austin rives i said I got to take it myself. And with one second remaining, it's the game winning shot. So in 37 minutes, I'm going to give it that line again, 24 points, 10 assists, 10 rebounds, perfect six for six from the free throw line.

Outstanding game. Outstanding game for Austin and Reeves. And he needed that because I think he felt he wore that loss against the New Orleans Pelicans, excuse me, the Detroit Pistons the other day. And so he had trouble with the turnovers. And tonight, turnovers went down a little bit. He actually led the Lakers in turnovers with three. but turnovers were weighed down.

There are two stats that were outstanding for the Lakers. Nine turnovers overall in four quarters. So they didn't hit the double digit number in turnovers. For the Lakers, that's a very rare. Also, free throws, huge number. You guys might say, you're making too big of a deal about the free throws. Lakers were 18 for 18 from the line tonight. 18 for 18.

Outstanding. I can't get any better than that, and they needed every single one of them. Again, Lakers needed a winning basket with one second remaining. They needed all 18 of the, those free throws. Overall, Lakers shot 45% from the field, 36% from three-point range. Really, it was 35.7. So we'll just round that up. Outstanding job. 15 made three-pointers for the Lakers. If you watched it on television and then the microphone in the huddle and you heard of camera, excuse me, JJ Reddick say, hey, keep firing up threes. This is our opportunity to fire up

threes. Always makes me nervous. Sometimes I think J.J. doesn't understand the personnel that he has to sit there and tell the guys this free reign, just fire up threes. If they're giving you the two, take the two because the Lakers miss more threes than it's like anybody. They're only like the 20th out of 30 teams in making three-point shots. Yet our offense is very frustrating to watch because even when you watch Golden State, who's supposed to be a great three-point shooting team, they're constantly moving. There's motion all over the place, in and out and finding their spot, in and out,

finding a screen. But the Lakers just sit out there behind the arc and they look like they're playing basketball, your local gym with the guys who don't want to go inside and physical contact. The Lakers are not the Boston Celtics. They aren't that team. What I mean by that, if you watched the Celtics last year in the NBA finals, the Celtics do sit out behind the arc and just move the ball around. But you look at the Warriors, yeah, they work really hard for their shots,

but it takes a lot to create space to get those three point shots. And right now I'd love to see the Laker offense move a little bit more like Golden State's offense because this is not a quality three-point shooting team, not like the Celtics had last year. So Steph Curry, again, this looked like Steph at his best. And, you know, we mentioned only five points in the first quarter. He finished with 38 tonight. Steph Curry finished with 38 points, 8 to 15 from behind the arc,

14 to 24 from the field. And unbelievable, right? He said, what would happen if he didn't have, you know, more support? So it was interesting to see that Golden State went and did pick up a player. Unfortunately, he picked up a Formula Laker and Dennis Shrew. happened to be a fan when he's on the Lakers, not a fan that he's on another team. My son's a huge Laker fan.

He's never been a fan of Dennis Truder, but he does things that I think even this Laker team could have used. Somebody that can handle the ball, play great defense, very fast, very frustrating. But Dennis Ruter all of a sudden joins the Warriors. He's in the starting lineup, at 11 points, had five assists, and does his thing, even at a steel in there.

So he's only going to get better with that team. Clay Thompson was towards the end of the road, so I don't think they miss him a lot. But Buddy Healed is a guy. that has not been the player, the Warriors thought they were getting, a guy that you have heard mentioned as a Laker for years, that boy, the Lakers had Buddy Healed him. Buddy He'll tell him Jeannie Buss, he wants to be a Laker, and they could never make that happen. Well, he's with the Kings or the Pacers, but he'll never made it to the Lakers. So 105 from three-point range.

In 17 minutes, he only had five points. So the Lakers obviously didn't get buddy healed at his best, but right now that he has years, you know, underneath his belt, and it looks like he's towards the downside of his career. maybe it's best that the Lakers, dodged a bullet on that one, sort of speak. So Lakers win 115 and 113, 113. Box score is strong. And at the same time, we look at all the guys who scored in double digits to round it out for you.

It was Rui with 18, LeBron 31, Austin Reeves, 24, Max Christie, 16, Daltonac, Connect, 13. And then the Lakers won the game. Most importantly, Lakers win the game. So that was big. That was really big for the Lakers and very excited to see

what was going to happen there that was worth it on Christmas Day. So, Greg, I'm reading right here in the comments, you're saying Lakers need a backup center, they absolutely do. And whether it's a center for when Anthony Davis is healthy and he just need a big body in the middle, they do need a quality veteran center. Couldn't agree more. Craig also says the same thing, Doris Burke said,

don't disagree. So the Lakers should have fouled to prevent a three-point play. I think the plan was to foul because J.J. Reddick has said in that situation likes to foul. The opportunity wasn't there to foul. Again, I'll give credit to Doris Burke on this one, which is funny because I've never been a fan, but she hit on this perfectly. Why fall for all the cuts to the basket in that situation when you know the Warriors have to shoot a three? Give up the layup. Give up the two points because if you foul, they're going to get two more than likely anyway. But why would you sit there and be confused with that? Why would you fall for the shiny object and

fall for a player sprinting down in the middle of the key? Just let them go. Let them go. You need to cover everything on the outside of that arc, but they messed it up. They messed it up. So again, very frustrating to see what happens. Daniel says Reeves MVP. Tonight he definitely was.

Reeves was great. If Reeves could continue to play like that, there's some things that were promising for the Lakers for me tonight. Reeves game was great. LeBron James obviously loves the spotlight and you want to see that energy. Truth be told, look at LeBron since he's been back. His energy level has been through the roof, meaning that you're seeing, I think, the best version of LeBron James.

He is not cheating the fans, not cheating himself, not cheating his teammates. It's important for him to win. At the same time, if Rob Polinka looks at what LeBron's bringing every single day, the Lakers need to do something. I mean, you're hearing crazy rumors out there that even Kevin Durant could be available in a trade, right? Anything to throw in a big-time all-star, big-time name to go with two future Hall of Famers in AD and LeBron, the Lakers would be the favorites to win the NBA finals. and that would be amazing.

If they can pull off a major move, to sit on your hands and do nothing, we're almost at the end of December right now, and Rob Polinka promised something in December, if things didn't look right, things don't look right right right now. When I mean, don't look right, don't look right for a championship.

So it's Tom, Rob Polinkin can sit there and pull the trigger. I hope he's on the phone. I know things don't happen overnight, but I hope he's on the phone talking to other GMs, making things happen. And so we'll see how everything plays out in the end, but we'll be very frustrating if they don't.

Okay, so the magic number, for the Lakers. I say it every single show. I want to see the Lakers not only in the playoffs, but I want to see the Lakers in the fourth seed or better. With the win tonight, the Lakers moved up to the six seed. They move up to the six seats. The teams in front of them. Oklahoma City is one. Houston, two, Memphis three. Dallas, who by the way, looks like they've lost Luca for an extended period of time. Luca is, Luca and the Mavericks are four. Look for the Mavericks to start dropping. The Mavericks right now are 19-11. Lakers are 17 and 13. Mavericks should start falling back. Nuggets at six.

16 and 11. They're at the Phoenix Suns right now. They're number five, and the Lakers are number six. So a really good sign for the Lakers right there. But for the Dallas Mavericks, if you're one of those people that did a futures bet, and he said, Luca's my MVP.

For some reason, Vegas said that Luca was the favorite to win MVP this year. I wouldn't have put it on him. If he misses 10 more games, he's not even eligible to win MVP. So if you did one of those future bets, and Luca was your guy, you're hurting a little bit. You're hurting it for sure. So it's going to be exciting time for the Lakers.

Again, I'm extremely excited Christmas Day. This was a great gift here for the Lakers as they win this game, 115 and 113. Again, I want to remind you next Saturday coming up. The Lakers will host the Kings, the 730 tip-off. Also, you're Locked on Lakers Daily Podcast with Brian and Andy. You can follow that right there at Lockdown, Los Angeles. Lockdown Lakers Daily Podcasts of Brian and Andy.

They do a great job, but I will be back with you for the post-game show, talking Laker basketballs. We look for another win, looking for basically three wins in about eight days against the Kings. And hey, I'd play the Kings every single game if it means we get a win. So I'll take it right there. So I hope you guys had a great Christmas. Thank you so much for being with me on this night. I know a lot of you are extremely busy with family and friends.

But big win. Lakers win 115, 113 over the Golden State Warriors. I will see you Saturday after the Lakers hopefully get another win over the Kings. Thank you so much. My name is Dave Palais. You can follow me on social media. You can ask me anything through a direct message. And again, appreciate you joining me for the postgame.

So we'll be gone Saturday night right after the game. Again, locked on Lakers post game. I'll see you Saturday. Have a good couple days, everybody.