Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić (29 Points, 9 Assists) Leads Lakers Past the Clippers. Lakers Move to 2nd in the West
Episode Date: March 3, 2025These are heady times for Lakers fans, following Sunday's Luka Dončić-fueled, 108-102 win over the Clippers at the Crypt. It's the second straight win over a good Clippers squad, and was enough to p...ush the Lakers into second place in the Western Conference, percentage points ahead of the Denver Nuggets. This is not a place anyone would have expected the Lakers to be eight weeks ago. The pace of change has been incredible. First, the Lakers get LeBron James engaged defensively following that debacle of a loss in Miami. They trade D'Angelo Russell for Dorian Finney-Smith. Jarred Vanderbilt returned. They slowly add even more grit to the roster, adding Trey Jemison III and Jordan Goodwin to the roster. Oh, they also acquired Luka. The instant reaction to the big trade said the Lakers were setting themselves up for the future at the expense of today. That the loss on defense was going to be way too much for this group to overcome in the short term. Except the Lakers team has already started playing well defensively even before the trade, and continued playing good defense even without Davis in the lineup. They were supposed to struggle while Dončić got integrated into the lineup, a process that was going to be overly complex, given the ball dominance of Luka, LeBron and Austin Reaves. And so on and so on and so on. Except none of it has played out that way. Through all the changes, the Lakers have grown more cohesive, not less. They've played harder, and ramped up the buy in. They're doing things good teams do, starting with playing consistently and executing effectively even when guys are in and out of the lineup, as it was Sunday with Reaves and Rui Hachimura in street clothes. They're winning in bulk, with victories in 16 of their last 21 games. And now they're in a dead heat with the Nuggets for the 2-seed out West. With a 6.5 game lead on the trio of teams tied for the 6-seed, the conversation has moved past "avoid the play in," and the Lakers are now square in the "earn home court for a round or two." Again, a remarkable turnaround. There are plenty of challenges coming, and the schedule doesn't get any easier. But this is a Lakers team that believes in itself, and has backed that belief with results. HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: The Lakers beat the Clips again, behind a big game from Luka. SEGMENT 2: Things are really, really looking up. SEGMENT 3: Dalton Knecht has a big game. Your favorite podcast now has a newsletter! In One-stop for ultimate team and league coverage delivered right to your in box. 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Transcript
Discussion (0)
And welcome to Locked-on Lakers for Monday.
Brian Komeneski, Andy Komenetsky, 29 points from Luca Donchich, Lakers 108-102 over the Clippers.
Andy, they're the second best team in the Western Conference.
Number two, talk about it next.
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And locked on Lakers on YouTube, Andy, is where over 33,000 subscribers are marveling at the fact that Lakers have moved to a percentage points ahead of the Denver Nuggets for the number two seat in the Western Conference following Sunday nights 108, 102 win over the Clippers.
The Lakers sweep the home, home thing, whatever it is, head-to-head, back-to-back games against the Clippers.
Not an easy thing to do to beat a good team twice in a row.
The Lakers did it.
Luca Donchich gives them 29 points on a night where the Lakers were playing without Austin Reeves
and without Ruey Hacham.
We're a big night for Dalton-German.
And without Jordan Goodwin.
And without Jordan Goodwin, yes.
And a big night for Dalton Connect, which will get into over the
course of this game of this show but um andy if i had said i don't know six weeks ago eight weeks
ago that the lakers would be starting off march as essentially the two seed in the western
conference you would have congratulated congratulated me on a successful two-k season that i was playing
in parallel with the one the lakers were actually having because that did not seem like something that
going to actually happen.
I imagine I also would have congratulated you for somehow getting the Dallas Mavericks
and 2K to trade you Luca because all of this just seemed incredibly unlikely.
I mean, to be fair to the Lakers, they had been playing pretty well before the Luca deal
even happened.
They had been playing well despite not having Anthony Davis for that stretch when he was
hurt before they eventually traded him for Luca Donchich.
Like things had been.
Looking up for the Lakers, we've framed this often in a six-week period because that's often when JJ has talked about when LeBron James, for example, started really picking up his defense, which led to a positive team-wide trickle-down effect that I think has had as much to do with the defensive uptick as DFS's arrival, Jared Vanderbilt's return, gave Vincent rounding back and to form Jordan Goodwin down the line.
But the thing about adding Luca to this team is he raises the floor and the ceiling.
And the floor is what you need when things aren't clicking and you just need to try to find ways to win against all odds or against whatever circumstances.
But when things are going well, that ceiling factor that we're now seeing is coming into play.
because beating the clippers by six without two starters and a key rotation defensive guard,
like they're just now looking like a team that believes in themselves.
They're outside of the turnovers that we saw tonight,
well, we will get into that.
That was sloppiness that even then marks a certain improvement.
But just they're in.
great sync and they have such great confidence right now, you really start believing a lot
is possible with this group.
Well, I mean, at first one, I completely agree with you.
But, you know, you talk about the improvement as they integrate Luca and learn how to do this.
And look, Luca is no question.
They said, Luca is going to be the center of this offense.
We're going to run things through Luca.
and they, you know, for the most part,
we still have LeBron James here.
So it's like sometimes like LeBron's going to be doing stuff.
But for the most part,
Luca's got the ball in his hands.
You see LeBron cutting and moving and, you know,
giving Luca an outlet,
a lot of two-man game in the fourth quarter sometimes,
you know, between those guys.
And it's, you know,
but this is them learning to play with Luca,
learning how to do this.
And what I thought was kind of cool about Sunday's game
was that it was,
was a nine assist game from Luca, which like you start to expect, 29 points,
nine of 17 from the floor, five of 12 from three, like the step back is working and all that's like
he's getting the line. Like all it looked very much. He had at least off the top of my head. He had
at least two and one sequences in this game. Yeah. It just looked similar to the second half. Like I said,
I was excited that on the second half Friday, because he had been generally starting fast, maybe running
out of gas a little bit. Second half on Friday was better than the first. He had 10 points in the
fourth quarter in the victory Friday against the Clippers and carried that through throughout the
game, still had big moments in the first and second half of this game. But I loved nine assists
from Luca and nine assists from LeBron. You start to see the scope of the playmaking and the gravity and
the problems that, this is without AR, it makes things even more complicated, the, the amount of
attention that these guys draw is staggering. And like, and Luca is just so good at, um, seeing over
a double team, around a triple team and all that and finding the open man. Like the Lakers were
getting tons of as Dorian Finney Smith calls them, uh, butt naked. Um, what's the second part?
It's but naked wide open shots.
And particularly early, they were making them.
And that helped them get out to a nice start.
You know, as this offense sort of orients towards Luca, Andy, you're still seeing,
it's not like the effect of LeBron disappears.
And so, you know, if they can do all this and defend, and again, 102 points, it's starting to become a trend.
Teams don't score much more than 100 against the Lakers.
there are many reasons to be excited about what is coming up for the rest of the year.
Well, you mentioned that they were able to do this, the type of playmaking and looks that they could generate without having Austin there,
because Austin is, you know, he's the third ball handler in this group, but he's still a part of creating offense and part of the advantage that you have when at most times you have at least two of the three on the court.
but they were also doing this without having Rui as both as a finishing option, whether at the
rim or behind the art.
Like Rui is a big part of making the assist happen because he's somebody that can score in a variety
of different ways and somebody that can be set up in all these different places across the
court.
They still manage to make it happen.
And, you know, Luca got the team off to a 13 to 4 start.
early on there was a stretch where he had a steel that turned into, I want to say a Lucas
step back, but it definitely turned into a basket. He had a hit ahead to LeBron for an easy
dunk and then another step back three of his own. And that led to a Clippers timeout and a
13 to 4 lead like pretty early on from the jump. And you you just see also to the confidence
growing in Luca that, I mean, not that Luca lacks for confidence as a
player, but the confidence of, you know, to quote John Wick, I'm back.
Right. Confidence. Yeah. I'm thinking I'm back. Yeah. It's, you can just see it. Like,
it is when you don't watch a player every day, you don't see, you know, you don't get to see
everything that they do. You kind of get the highlights. You get the highlight package. Maybe
you play fantasy basketball, whatever it is. You know, and you, when you do get to see it, though,
You know, we're fortunate.
We had seen a lot of Luca.
But it's still a different experience when you watch them,
whatever it is, eight games in a row.
I didn't see every single game.
That evolution, and there is truly a belief you can tell from these guys
that when they walk out on the floor,
because they not, having LeBron used to give you a certain degree of confidence,
having LeBron and Luca, especially in like they're not putting up gaudy offensive numbers necessarily,
but having those guys and you knowing what the potential is of an offense that not only features Luca,
but has LeBron still there, you can just see that the additional, I hate the term,
but like the additional swagger that the team walks out on the floor with and their starting quarters.
You know, there's a good third quarter, you know, push to kind of, you know, I'll say this.
And we'll talk about maybe some this week.
We're getting into very first world criticisms of the team.
Oh, there they go again.
You know, letting a, you know, letting a 17 point lead get down to like 10 at the half,
as if 10's not a good half time.
Like these are very first world problems that the Lakers are having.
And they have come through, Andy, this stretch of chance.
of challenging games when the only, you know,
you're trying to do this with a new roster and they keep winning.
The only teams they've lost to are Philly, Utah and Charlotte.
And we can talk about this a little more after the break.
I also want to make sure that we get into Dalton Connect to at a huge night.
Absolutely.
And the bench in general, another really strong showing.
But two of those three losses were going into the All-Star break
and coming out of the All-Star break, which is often when teams are lacking focus.
I'm not saying it's justified.
I'm just saying it's hardly unheard of to have those type of losses.
And it was still at a period where Luca was getting himself back physically,
mentally, spiritually after the trade.
So talk about coming up next.
There's a lot to get excited about with this team.
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So Dalton Connect obviously was a huge part of this.
Like you, you know, LeBron, I think played a very nice game.
That wasn't, that's not what I'm trying to imply here.
But he didn't put up, you know, another 29 or 30 points to go with Lucas 29.
This was not one of LeBron's better games.
It was fun.
You know, he moved the ball okay.
You know, he hit a couple shots.
He hit eight turnovers.
Yeah, I didn't say it was perfect.
I said he was okay.
Did some good things, not, you know, not efficient from the floor.
and whatever, it was not a dominant LeBron game to go with it.
I would 100% agree.
So you're looking for like where he gave you 17 points.
So okay, normally if you get, you know, Luca and LeBron are playing with that AR,
you figure you got to get somewhere between 55 and 60 points.
LeBron didn't give that to you.
Where are you going to get those other points?
And it was Dalton Connect.
It was 7 to 10 from the floor, 5 of 8 and 3 point range.
19 points from Dalton.
It was the first game, Andy,
where you really could see the potential of
what Dalton could look like in this offense
if he's playing well and shooting well and all that kind of stuff.
We've talked about before in the past,
Dalton generally plays better at home,
which is not surprising between him being a role player
and a rookie.
You would expect him to have better splits at home versus on the road.
but this was a game where they really needed somebody to pick up that slack.
I think it also helped too that Dalton got hot early.
He had 14 of his points in the first half.
I think that's really helpful for him.
He also had two steals.
He hit the glass all right.
He had a few possessions defensively against Hardin where he matched up really well.
You mentioned earlier, second straight game where they really prevented Hardin from doing much of anything.
I was not five of 22 I think he was on Friday and in this one finished four for 14.
So a horrible weekend for James Hardin and you put a lot of that on the Lakers defense.
You and I were not at either of these games, much less in the Clippers locker room after,
but I am willing to go out on a limb and predict James Hardin despises Jared Vanderbilt
because the possessions where Vando has been guarding him
have been an absolute pain in the ass for James Harden.
And Vando also off the bench, really strong game.
In 22 minutes, 8 points, 4, 7 from the field, 9 rebounds, 5 on the offensive glass.
There was a possession where the Lakers ended up,
it was a LeBron Corner 3 on a fourth chance opportunity
that was created by two offensive rebounds,
Vando won by Trey Jemison.
And there was another play or there's another sequence where Vando had two
offensive rebounds, the second of which he converted into a dunk off of LeBron miss.
He had two blocks.
So you combined the eight points that he had off the bench with 19 from Dalton,
six from Shake Milton,
shake getting some rare play with all the guys missing, hit two threes,
which is, you know, that's what you're looking.
looking for from Shake is just provide some points and the stuff that he's not great at don't cause
any harm. Chips in a few buckets good enough. Like it's the bench has been needed these last
couple games with guys missing and the bench has stepped up. What I think is great about it too.
And we talked a little bit about this on Friday and it's certainly no less applicable after Sunday's
game. And this is what's great about Connect. It's like, part of,
of the reason that connect was put you know seemed expendable in the you know in the in the in the in the Williams deal that never you know that got rescinded was because of this idea is going to be hard to play defensively like in the playoffs you're not going to be able to put him on the floor because he's just not a good enough defender to hold up and so if you can't play them in the playoffs and you really do need a center and they still need to
center. That hasn't changed.
Then more centers at the very least.
Right. And that makes connect somebody you could put it in.
We talked after Friday after the game of like how the lake the way the Lakers are playing
especially defensively now, it kind of doesn't matter to some degree who is in the game.
They are all operating that scheme effectively.
So, you know, they've had a couple games.
Reeves didn't play much on Friday,
Rui didn't play at all. Like, okay,
like they've had games without AD,
okay, like,
it doesn't really seem to matter who you have to plug in,
whether it's Shake Milton or Jordan Goodwin
or Jared Bainerbilt or whoever's in or out of the lineup.
They are operating as a group.
And so if that's the case,
and that includes Connect,
that potentially makes him a far more viable player in the playoffs.
And, you know,
you want to design an offensive,
player that should thrive in a, in a, you know, a butt-naked, wide open offense led by Luca and
LeBron, you might draw up Dalton Connect, who can not only shoot from any position off the catch,
off the dribble, but also is totally fine putting the ball on the floor, cuts to the basket,
good offensive player. He's your template.
I'm going to try before Tuesday's show to look up some of the numbers.
I'm curious to see Dalton's percentages when A, on the court with Luca,
B, being fed by Luca.
Like, you know, they track all this stuff where you can see like when guys are passing
to whoever, their percentages on those passes, whatever.
It has seemed like Dalton has become a more productive offensive player since
Lucas arrival and particularly over the last few games,
when everybody's at full strength,
fingers crossed, that's going to be the case in the playoffs.
I'm still not convinced Dalton is going to play a lot
because there are...
Right. There are seven or eight guys on this team
who are firmly in the rotation ahead of them
when all hands are on deck.
Similar to what we had talked about when the Lakers were going to trade
Dalton for Mark Williams. We said at the time because Mark Williams had never been in the
playoffs, he has some defensive issues. We weren't even convinced Williams would necessarily play
a ton in the playoffs. The difference was just we knew that Williams would play for sure, even if not
a ton, versus Dalton, we weren't sure was going to play at all. But for the time being,
if Dalton is capable of stepping up and does,
you worry about the playoffs later.
You worry about all that stuff in April and beyond.
For now, what you need is if Reeves misses a few games,
if Rui's out for a few weeks,
Jordan Goodwin, JJ said afterwards,
it's a grade one sprain, which, as he put it,
is as good of news as you can get for bad news.
But Jordan Goodwin may be out for a little bit,
which means, like I said before,
shake might get some minutes,
but Dalton will likely get more minutes.
They're going to need him to step up so far he has.
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Think we're just having an earthquake.
Apologies, if we aren't, my house is shaking.
Anyway, I am, I'm just,
interested in how they sustain this stuff.
With guys going in out of the lineup, obviously this, yeah, some people on the chat are agreeing
with me that there was an earthquake.
I am really interested in this team concept because it was one of these benchmarks, Andy,
that I've been looking at.
Lion King says it's not an earthquake.
It's Lakers fans jumping up and down.
It's probably true.
Or the folks who made a Nora all excited cleaned up at the Oscars.
I know.
I just, there are these benchmarks that you place for being, like,
if you're really going to be a good team,
like the Lakers had beaten good teams earlier,
they had good games,
hadn't sustained anything.
One of them is,
do you play well with players missing?
Do you still look like you're all doing the same stuff anyway
and everybody understands the system?
The answer now is absolutely.
Like if Luca and LeBron didn't play in games,
the Lakers probably lose,
But I do think they would still adhere to the basic system.
Like they would all be pulling in the same direction
and executing the same game plan that they're being asked.
I think that is something that is impressive.
And then the other thing is,
I need, before I can believe that you're a team that can go on a long run in the spring,
I need to see you win 15 of 18, you know, 18 of 22.
You know, that happens in the NBA.
You get at least one of those runs if you're one of those teams.
And the Lakers are on that run now.
They're showing that they are on that run.
And they're doing it, Andy, I think maybe something we can talk about after the break.
They're doing that under circumstances that you would not think you'd be able to rip off this kind of success,
which to me makes it that much more impressive.
Get into that coming up next.
All right.
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Early returns on the earthquake, Andy.
I'm seeing something.
A preliminary 3.6 detected 9 kilometers from Beverly Hills would have felt pretty shallow.
Either way, a lot of people on earthquake Twitter.
If you are not familiar with earthquake Twitter, clearly you don't live in Los Angeles.
This is something that Twitter springs into action in L.A.
following an earthquake. Early returns on it, people are unimpressed. I see one guy commenting
weak-ass earthquake. I didn't feel a thing. Yeah, they want something a little more impressive.
People don't get out of bed for this type of thing. Do it remind people as well. Newsletter,
Lockdowndaily.com. Go to Lockdowndaily.com. Click on Lockdown on Lakers. And you get all this stuff
delivered to you every day. I am, you know, like I said, this, the Lakers,
showing the signposts of being a good team, doing good team things under difficult circumstances
against a tough schedule. It is well past, like, hmm, maybe they have kind of a punt. Like,
they're clearly one of the best teams in the Western Conference. They just are. This is one of the
things that jumped out of me in terms of signs that what we're seeing is real, in part because
it would not have happened earlier in the season. The Lakers turned the ball over 17 times.
in this game. Nine in the first quarter alone. They gave up 20 points in the process. They still
won. Early in the season, the Lakers were not capable of winning a game, certainly not with any
even semi-regularity when they turned the ball over that much because they were so effing,
horrible defending in transition. Every time there was at minimum a live ball turnover, they were at
risk of getting scored on.
And I mean, it was the reason why I remember earlier in the season, for all of DeAngelo
Russell's flaws as a player, he was consistently their best plus minus guy, their best net
rating guy.
And my theory on it was, Deelow was hands down the best on the team at moving the ball with
any regularity without turning it over.
So he was the guy that even though he wasn't the best player on this team, he was the best
at preventing the Lakers from being put in their absolute worst position.
Like, they could not have turned the ball over 17 times earlier in the season and still
control the game the way that they did.
Like, they were not capable of it beyond improvements and scheme and things like that.
Like, I don't think, frankly, they had even the desire and, like, the will, like,
to put themselves through the paces of defending.
in transition like that, much less what they were capable of.
Like, there's a lot that shifted on this team, whether schematically, whether the players
on the roster, but also the mentality has changed a lot.
I think the mentality is a huge thing of it.
I think it really does start with LeBron.
And it starts with the change in LeBron's defense following that debacle in Miami.
And it's really, that really was the sort of the.
beginning of sort of phase two of the season, we'll call it, where you have a far more
invested LeBron right away changes the way that the team operates when it's as cliche as it
sounds.
When the 40 year old guy in year 22 is playing as hard as anybody on the floor, everybody's got to play
that hard.
Like if you cannot watch LeBron and loaf defensively, if he's going to put in the effort,
you're going to put in the effort.
You do that and, you know, as much as you and I praise, Delo, the swap of Delo for DFS,
if you're trying to toughen up your defense, add more versatility to it, get a little bit
more of the proverbial dog in you.
DFS is a better fit for that.
and is going to provide that more than
DeAngelo Russell. There is no question.
And I say that even as somebody
who stuck up for DeLo
throughout both of his ten years in Los Angeles.
Then you get Jared Vanderbilt back
and he makes a huge difference like you say.
Just ask James Harden. And you start
to add in your two ways
guys like Trey Jemison, who is
not wildly
skilled, but
is a tough
man, I think we can all agree.
Nobody is tussling with Trey Jemison.
And then you add in the back court, kind of a backboard version of that.
I'm not sure side note with Trey Jemison.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a player on a two-way deal talk as much as Jemison.
Like Jemison, for like a guy that can't unless I don't know, maybe he comes from money.
I don't know if like, you know, the Trey Jemison the third does sound like if you don't know any
backstory at all. It could be a really good prep school.
There sounds like somebody went to prep school.
Right. So maybe, you know, maybe the Jemisons, you know, it comes from a long line of money.
But most guys who have been bouncing around, you know, the outer edges of the NBA and in the G League don't have disposable cash for technical files, flagrant files, anything like that.
Jemison jaws like a dude that does. Like he does not care if the league takes his money.
it's you know and we'll see there but you mentioned goodwin as a guy like he just plays
you would expect jemison goodwin guys like that to play really freaking hard they are
trying to find there a stable place in the NBA it's beats it two way there's no question
but again this just changes the sort of the tenor of your team and then you combine that with
oh, by the way, we've got Luca Donchich now.
That has a little spring to your step, I think, you know, because you know, look, we all
understand that part of what gets guys moving and playing well defensively, A, is just
the mechanics of good shooting, or a good offense, getting good shots, getting good touches
and things like that, keeps everybody engaged, keeps you, you know, more enthusiastic.
It also makes your offense run better, which sets your defense.
But you just, when you're, when you have that confidence and you know the,
ball is going to be moving a little bit. You know you're going to get good touches. You play harder
defensively. That is true all the time. If you know you can't score, don't feel like you're getting
any leadership on that side. It's hard to do it game in and game out every day. If you know that's
the end of it. And they just, they believe in both sides of the ball really strongly. It's
fun to watch. It also becomes easier to play defense and when your offense is actually just coming
easier. Like, you quite literally have more energy for the defense when the offense becomes simpler.
And even if they're not always making their shots, the offense itself often comes around
easier now. Like, you know, there are times, we saw there were times against the Clippers,
particularly in the first half on Friday, when they didn't have Ruy to start the game and Reeves went
out nine minutes in and they had to adjust on the fly. The first, I don't know, two and a half
quarters of that game, the offense was honestly kind of ugly at times. It was jumbled and
sloppy in ways that you would expect. And they kind of just had to figure it out on the fly.
But that's the advantage of having guys like LeBron and Luca is it becomes easier to
improvise and figure it out in real time when those are the guys.
guys running, you know, running the store, so to speak.
Like, it just becomes that much easier.
And then in a game like tonight where they went into it, knowing they weren't going to
have Rui, knowing they weren't going to have Reeves, and I'm sure some more just scheming
and like, you know, everybody was on the same page about how we were going to adjust to it.
It just runs smoother, especially when Luca comes out of the gate so hot.
I am excited.
I am thankful for Nico Harrison.
I am thankful for what what Nico is done,
not just for Lakers fans,
but for LeBron.
I am excited about what's coming.
I am,
you rarely get a situation,
Andy, too, where you don't know what like sort of the ceiling looks like.
You don't,
We still have so much to learn.
We've seen like one game in this setup against Denver.
We'll get another one on this road trip and see what that looks like.
We haven't seen Oklahoma City, but that's going to come up.
Like this ending of the season for the Lakers against some of these Western countries.
We've seen them beat the Clippers a couple times now.
That's a potential matchup.
Like who's, we haven't seen the rockets.
Like I want to, I'm excited to see what some of these things look like.
I haven't looked at the schedule to see how many of these contending teams they still have in the schedule.
but normally by now in a season you've got evidence of at least a couple things.
And this is like completely fresh and new stuff.
So not only are they winning,
it's like every matchup is intriguing because it's completely different.
If you played the Lakers more than a month and a half ago at the very most,
I don't care what the results were.
They don't matter.
We're starting over.
And that's a cool place to be in March.
Yeah, I'm very curious to see how they match up against a thunder, not just because of the Thunder to the One Seed, because last year the Lakers really were a bad matchup for the Thunder, but the compositions of both rosters are so different now.
And in particular, the size advantage the Lakers had last year over OKC has completely flipped.
Yes.
But the flip, but the flip side is, though, now the Lakers have more guys that they can put on Shea and Jalen Williams.
and maybe mess up some of the perimeter scoring
that really gets the offense going for the Thunder.
Like, Shea is the basis of everything they do offensively.
There's a lot, again, like you said,
there's a lot we're going to be learning about this team,
which is really unique this late in a season.
No question.
But it's also really fun when, again,
it feels like things are moving in the right direction for this team.
I mean, they're not, they're not hanging on.
We're not crossing our fingers going, okay, give it two weeks,
and then we'll see if they can turn it on.
They've already, they are, we are so far past, like,
making sure they stay in the top six.
Like, go look at the standings.
These two games against the clippers put an enormous gap between these two teams.
Like the Lakers are, the conversation is barring injury, you know,
knock on wood is not about top six anymore.
It's about top four.
They're currently six and a half games ahead of the clippers.
The clippers are the six seed.
What is it?
20 something, 24 games remaining or something like that.
It's not there are.
So like, it's not impossible, but you need a major skid for that to become a thing.
Right.
If guys don't, if guys are healthy, they're not going to lose enough games for the clippers to make up six games.
So like the conversation is now about top four, you know, hosting in the first round.
that kind of thing and it's just a stunning place to be and there's a reason why you can make
lakers fans are jumping up and down in excitement and that is what caused an earthquake on sunday
evening it wasn't but here we go um thank you very much for the 1,200 people joining us live on this
broadcast we certainly appreciate it make sure you're subscribing to the show whether here
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We'll see everyone tomorrow.
