Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić (31/12/9) Leads Lakers to Hard Fought Game 2 Win Over Timberwolves

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Wednesday. Brian Kaminetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, Game 2 was a rock fight. The Lakers threw more rocks. They win 94 to 85. And this series is tied up at one. That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen to every day. Monday through Friday, no matter how, you get your podcast. This one's always free. Never behind paywall. And of course, locked on Lickers on YouTube is where nearly 35,000 subscribers, Andy, are all hanging out and rejoicing in a very hard fought game to win for the Lakers, 94 to 85, a throwback game to like 1830,

Starting point is 00:00:58 or something like that in terms of offensive production. But the Lakers, they needed to bring it physically. They needed to bring it, excuse me, in terms of effort and energy. They certainly did that, particularly on the defensive end. We'll get into all of it. And of course, Luca Dantich one assist away from a triple double. But we do want to let everybody know that today's episode's brought to by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create account, use code locked on MBA for $20 off your first purchase. So look, I mean, this was kind of a do-or-die game for the Lakers. There's no no way around it. You do not want to go back to Minnesota down two

Starting point is 00:01:37 and needing to win four or five, three of which would have had to come on the road. The Lakers got it done, certainly led by Luca, 31, 12, and 9. I want to talk about the offense, you know, it's a little bit tonight and over the course of the week.

Starting point is 00:01:55 But it was a struggle, but it was a different, it was a better kind of struggle for the Lakers, certainly that in game one. But they won this game, Mandy with the requisite effort and intensity that JJ Redick and the team has been talking about since that game one loss. I think in particular it was a half of a struggle, like the second half offensively,

Starting point is 00:02:19 whether you want to consider it a struggle in terms of putting up points or a struggle to maintain the discipline of what they were doing in the first half. Yeah, I think that's right. We can talk about that, but the defense was spectacular throughout this entire game. I mean, there were very few possessions over the course of 48 minutes where forget whether Minnesota scored or didn't score, but just in terms of the defense that was being played, where I was like, what are you doing or pay attention or what, like, there were very few times where I was dissatisfied by what.

Starting point is 00:03:00 happened defensively. I may have been, you know, pissed that Minnesota got a basket or whatever, but as far as the effort and the intensity and just the desire defensively, and then we had talked about this all week leading up to this game, that narrative, not a narrative, it's accurate, like that talking point to a man that Minnesota was far more physical, that they dictated the terms and tone of game one, the Lakers needed to match it. It was like the Lakers switched from decath before game one to cocaine before game two, just because they were animated and edgy in a way that was just night and day different. Also, to be clear, it was not cocaine.

Starting point is 00:03:50 Just in case anybody from the league is list. Now, I don't want a drug test. It was not cocaine. All right. You had a scoop there for a second, but I guess if you want to leave that. No, it's not the type of scoop that I want. No. You want to pop the wolves or doing a bunch of blow.

Starting point is 00:04:08 That's fine. But no, I want to make it clear. It's just, you know, like, and it wasn't just the defensive intensity that they brought in the first quarter, you know, to build this, this large lead that they basically spent the rest of the game, you know, protecting. And it, it makes a huge difference. to play from ahead, like legitimately well and rightly ahead in a game, not like they were at the end of the first quarter in game one, where all of a sudden you blink three minutes into the second quarter and it's gone. The Lakers sustained this lead until, you know, got a little, you know, a little nervous there sort of near the end, but it never got below nine, I don't

Starting point is 00:04:48 think. And throughout most of the game, anytime Minnesota got it to within, you know, 11, 12, something like that the Lakers made a pit, you made a push and got it out back up to 15, 16, 17. And that's really where the game lived for most of it. But it was everything. We talked about it. It's matching them physically on the defensive side of the ball. But it's also move, move faster. Get into your offense faster.

Starting point is 00:05:16 If you have a miss from Minnesota, get up the floor. Like there were three or four plays early in that game where you're just like, well, that didn't happen in game one. you know, long passes, getting out on the break, urgency to get into an offense in the half court. They just moved with so much purpose on both sides of the ball. Yeah. Throughout the game defensively, I mean,

Starting point is 00:05:41 they were as locked in defensively as we've seen this group. Forget in a while. I would say what they did tonight defensively was as locked in as they've been all season. And like basically across the board, I think a lot of it was set by LeBron in terms of just the tone and his activity and his effectiveness. LeBron was really good. Rui was terrific. Yep. And so particularly in the second half.

Starting point is 00:06:08 And this was a game. Rui actually left for part of the first half. He got hit in the face by a forearm and an elbow and a hand. and basically everything from, I want to say, Nas Reid's right shoulder down to his fingertip, smacked Rui in the face on a drive. Like he actually floored Rui. And Rui went to the tunnel or like, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:37 outside the locker room and then sat down on the ground and he had a towel that was just filled with blood. He had been spitting. He needed to try two different. Right again, Bruce is important to point out it was his. So they didn't just hand him a towel of blood. That would be weird. But like just it was like, but he goes in and he's got the mask and he comes back and he's

Starting point is 00:06:59 throwing the mask off and he gets a different mask. And it's just like, you know, when when Redick was asked about it after the game, he's like, yeah, he's probably back there getting, you know, an x-ray. And, you know, whatever it is, unless it's something that is like literally dangerous for him to be playing some, you know, some sort of, he's going to play on Friday. But he's going to be playing uncomfortable. And, you know, this is not a series where anybody's going to back off of your broken face. That's for sure.

Starting point is 00:07:29 No. And we'll get it. I'm sure we're going to talk about the physicality more throughout this show. But beyond the Lakers matching the wolves physicality, and frankly, I think exceeding it and really dictating the terms of it, they were often the first to hit. I think they were the more aggressive team. Like, they were making it clear from the beginning, you are going to. to feel us over 48 minutes. The wolves, I think, were very often trying to match physicality in a way that would

Starting point is 00:08:01 irritate the Lakers and put them on tilt. There was a time where Julius Randall was driving against LeBron going for a dunk. And I think swung down pretty blatantly into LeBron's face. There was a sequence where Jaden McDaniels... Which they reviewed, by the way, to see if it was a tech. And I think probably in the regular season, it would have been in the playoffs. They let it go. Jaden McDaniels, there was a sequence where I think he pretty blatantly tripped Luca while he was on the ground.

Starting point is 00:08:29 Luca hit the ground hard. Nas Reed was trying to agitate Austin Reeves. He was trying to agitate Jared Vanderbilt. And the Lakers met all of this, but they kept their cool. And their attitude was very, you want to turn it into this BS? Go for it. We don't care. I think also, too, that one of, and it didn't necessarily result in more free throws for the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:08:55 Like, I know people always are focusing on the Lakers free throw differential and this and that. And in this game, it's worth noting that wolves actually shot more free throws than the Lakers, 25 to 20. But what I do think this did is when the Lakers came out with that physicality and Minnesota tried to turn it up, it put them in a lot of fouls. I mean, the Minnesota, the fouls slowed down. Both teams filed hard. It is. But Minnesota really started to pile them up early in the game. And in the second half, it was a little bit less.

Starting point is 00:09:31 Lakers weren't able to quite do it as much. But, you know, Minnesota sort of slowed the pace of the game down and stuff like that. But you had, you know, a couple early on Gobert, a couple early on DeVincenzo. You got three in the first, like, half. I want to say he played like six minutes. Right. Chris Finch. Chris Finch had to, I mean, this was not a great night for the referees, but, you know, Randall was in foul trouble enough to the point that Chris Finch actually had to keep using challenges to try to get files taken off of the board on Randall. And he was two for two. Again, referees, it's unfair. It worked out for the Lakers just in the sense that they're using up challenges. But it's unfair to Minnesota. Like, you have to use those things to correct calls that, you know, and all that kind of stuff. Lakers had one of those two where Dante DiVincenzo, ended up getting called for an offensive. Like it was a,

Starting point is 00:10:20 I don't remember who it was against, but it was against Vando. It was a way. We got him with his elbow and his neck. It was right. And Vando originally got called. They challenged it. They won,

Starting point is 00:10:29 but to your point, like call it right the first time. It is unfair to both teams to be in that situation where you have to use challenges. But I just, I feel like the Lakers, the way they match that physicality, when Minnesota tried to turn it up,

Starting point is 00:10:44 they lost discipline. And, you know, Nasree, getting offensive files on screen. greens and this and that, whatever. So that part of it worked really well. Another thing worked really well for the Lakers. Luca Donchich, 31 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists, fewer points than in game one, but a better game for Luca overall.

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Starting point is 00:13:17 31 points, 12 rebounds, 9 assists for Luca Donchich. The Lakers were significantly better when he was on the floor and things got a little worrisome sometimes when he wasn't. He was really good in one small thing that both of us didn't like about it. I've seen even a couple people in the comment section here on the live chat talk about it. But overall, this was a really good game from Luca on both sides. I think, you know, he played very, he was, he was a big part of this active and intense Lakers defense. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:13:52 I mean, Luca was on the floor too much for the defense to be as good as it was tonight and him be alive. Like that perk. Yeah. Says he never hits the floor. Well, he's so going to take credit for Lucas' performance in game two. Oh, I mean, Luca definitely hit the floor and Jane McDaniels tripped him. He hit the floor. That's the truth.

Starting point is 00:14:14 That was dirty. particular, Luca was spectacular in the first half. 22 points, 6 of 10 from the field, 2 of 5 from behind the arc, got to the line eight times, made all eight of them, five rebounds, five assists. He was just really, really quite good. He was doing a great job, just being a part of not just setting up teammates, but I think doing a really good job of creating an atmosphere.

Starting point is 00:14:42 And this is what we really saw in the first half for the Lakers. of moving the ball. Like everybody in the first half, and there's a very important distinction, in the first half, the ball was really pinging all over the place. And Luca, as the guy with the ball in his hands more than anybody on this team,

Starting point is 00:15:03 I think did a really good job of setting that tone of just having the ball whipping all over the place. And Minnesota, in the first half, particularly like the first, I don't know, maybe 18 minutes of the game, had an extremely difficult time keeping up with it. Well, yeah, and I think the Lakers as a team did a better job of finding ways to shake guys loose

Starting point is 00:15:23 without, you know, rather than just settling for an ISO or something like that, you know, the more effective screen and roll screens a lot, you know, often coming higher on the floor to give guys a chance to be moving more downhill and force, um, force Minnesota to have to cover a little bit more space. Um, you know, and so there, there were, there were, those opportunities you get into the paint, then the ball starts moving around. Guys didn't stand still when the ball got into the painter on the perimeter seat, guys cutting and things like that.

Starting point is 00:15:54 There was just all of that was better for the Lakers. And it starts, it just, but it just starts with Luca. I mean, like, LeBron is at this point, you know, I think, I don't want to say like a safety valve, but to some degree, like he is clearly the secondary score in this, in this setup. and you're not going to hear him argue about it. And I think is there to try to control games with passing, with defense, with, you know, and then, you know, being in voice.

Starting point is 00:16:30 I mean, with his communication. Right. He's still the best communicator on this team. And it's not like, it's not like the Lakers, there aren't going to be, you know, hopefully in a long playoff run, many, many points. over the course of, you know, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 games, whatever, you know, and beyond that they play that LeBron doesn't carry a team for eight minutes, 10 minutes, 12 minutes, a quarter, a game.

Starting point is 00:16:58 And like, he's still, you know, this incredible luxury, but, you know, the rhythm of the game offensively is going to start with Luca, because that's who the Lakers are built around now offensively. And I just, you know, it was an ugly game offensively. for the Lakers, but they did a lot of things. And Reddick talked about this after the game. It's like they didn't score a lot, but they executed better, particularly again early. They had some wonky moments in the second half,

Starting point is 00:17:28 but they didn't turn the ball over a lot. They didn't take crazy out of rhythm shots. When you have guys moving, you get better balance on, you know, going the other direction. And so they didn't give Minnesota easy opportunities to run. and get out in transition and do all that stuff. So, yeah, the percentages weren't very good,

Starting point is 00:17:50 but the quality of what they were doing was much higher. And for both teams, there's going to be a couple games where people just start hitting shots. Minnesota missed a lot of shots they made in game one. The Lakers continued to miss a lot of shots. They did not shoot the ball well and were really bad in the perimeter. you know, the Lakers made six three-pointers in this game. So it's coming.

Starting point is 00:18:15 It doesn't help that I think Rui in particular, because he's one of the guys that is counted on to hit outside shots and he's been good all season. He passed up a lot of threes that I think were directly correlated to this mask. I can't always see well. I can't see what I'm doing. Yeah. I really do think there were many open threes that Rui passed up that I honestly think were

Starting point is 00:18:39 directly related to that mask. Yeah. And I, you know, there were a couple that I wish, you know, you're sitting there going, oh, that's got to go again. Lakers six of 29. Minnesota was five of 25 and was barely, uh, worse from three point range than the Lakers. It was an ugly. Lakers marked their shooters. The Lakers did a such a better job marking shooter. They did. And then, and then again, when Minnesota had some open transition threes or something like they missed. I mean, they missed a lot of shots.

Starting point is 00:19:09 that they made in game one, but they shot unnaturally well in game one. And I just, you know, you look at what the Lakers did in terms of the balance of it and whatever. And, you know, there's still a lot of room for improvement there. Reeves struggled early, you know, struggled all night with his perimeter shot. He missed all six of his three-pointers.

Starting point is 00:19:36 Luke only made two of eight. LeBron only made one of five. most of, I felt like most of Lucas misses, and this is the one criticism I have of his game, were trying to execute stepback threes over Rudy. Or just, or just ISOing against Rudy. Like, I tweeted it out during the game at Cambrothers. Like, there's a fine line between trying to find a mismatch that works and taking advantage of it and getting too eager over it.

Starting point is 00:20:10 And Luca was really walking a tightrope when it came to specifically Gobert. I think he fell off a couple times. And he wasn't alone. Like Austin did it a few times. Like I was talking about this online with Aaron Larson, friend of the show, knows the game and the Lakers organization extremely well. Like, you know, and he tweeted out something to the effect of the Lakers need to have more offensive variance than try to get Rudy Gobert isoed in a mismatch.

Starting point is 00:20:40 I'll take it a step further. They need to stop fixating on Gobert, period. I think they are allowing Rudy Gobert, the presence of Rudy Gobert, what do we do with him in terms of the floor combinations they want to put out there to try to maybe get him off the floor or if he's on the floor trying to isolate him to the degree that they think they can need to take advantage or maybe get him off the floor. like treat him like Rudy Gobert. He's a good player.

Starting point is 00:21:08 Just treat him like a good player you can beat and stop the obsession over him. It's the equivalent of when you get a mismatch in the post. And you keep being able to switch yourself into a position where, you know, we'll just say for the Lakers, like Rui would get like Mike Conley in the post. And I'm making this up. It didn't happen a lot in this game. But you start tilting your offense towards something that looks like a mismatch. But it's so far outside what you're normally doing.

Starting point is 00:21:34 Like the Lakers don't run again, this is a hypothetical, but the Lakers don't run post-ups to Rui Hachimura. And so if you start doing that over and over again, whatever it might be. And I think that became something that just got too much into what they're, just go play. It's a weird combination of it feeling like they're both hunting for Gobert and afraid of Gobert.

Starting point is 00:21:57 Like just treat him like a center, man. Go play. But otherwise, like, I mean, Luca, was he was phenomenal. It's a minor criticism because, you know, Luca, this was a game where the Lakers needed a star, superstar performance in, again, a rock fight. This was not a game anybody who's putting up 39, 45, 52. Like, that wasn't happening in this one.

Starting point is 00:22:24 Like, you know, Anthony Edwards played a pretty good game and he was stuck on 25. And so, like, Luca's output was really impressive in a game. like this and he showed up big in a night on a night where the Lakers needed him to. He was pretty big in game one too, but Lakers had to have this game. Luca led them to it. We'll talk a little bit more about some of the supporting cast and what. Jay J.J's time out. And J.J.'s time out, which was important.

Starting point is 00:22:58 This was an important part of the games. We get to all these things next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Amazon. on Fire TV. Did you know your fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV stick 4K devices. There's no console required. Just grab your paired controller, subscribe or sign into Xbox, GamePass Ultimate with EA play included, and you're ready to play. You can dive in hundreds of premium titles from EA Sports College Football 25 to Call of Duty, Black Op 6 and Avowed.

Starting point is 00:23:32 Just as easily you can stream your favorite shows. It's gaming made easy, all on your fire TV. with 4K streaming. You can watch more than 1.5 million movies and TV episodes from your favorite subscribed services like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, Max, and more, or as I like to call those, everything I watch. A Fire TV stick 4K device is more affordable and easy to travel with. It allows your kids to never miss gaming with their friends so they won't bother you.

Starting point is 00:23:59 Head to Amazon.com slash Fire TV locked on to get started. Xbox GamePass Ultimate subscription and compatible. are required, available on select devices, including Fire TV Stick 4K, 2K, 2nd, 5K, 5K, max, 1st and 2nd gen, and Fire TV, Cube, 3rd gen. So the social media clip of the night, Andy, was the third quarter timeout from JJ Redd Lakers on the ball in front of the Lakers bench. and if you, let's say you don't get a, let's say you're listening in the morning as we were, you know, we're going live here on, on Tuesday night, but let's say you're at your desk on Wednesday morning.

Starting point is 00:24:55 And you look up this play. Headphones. Headphones, headphones, headphones. It is not safe for work. It is not safe to play around the children. So just be careful because you don't want to turn this into an age. HR thing. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:25:11 Man alive, the mics caught JJ Reddick getting salty with the Lakers. And it was at an important time and it was very effective. Yeah, JJ stormed out on the court. The last sequence before that was LeBron missed what I thought, at least, was a pretty quick three. And it led to the wolves getting rebound. Anthony Edwards driving to the rim is that this is coming off a fair amount of sequences where I thought ball wasn't moving, Lakers getting.

Starting point is 00:25:41 They were losing some of that intensity and purpose. And JJ calls this angry timeout, storms out onto the court. And as he storms out, he yells, time out, what the bleep is going on. Jesus, bleep in Christ, what the bleep are you guys doing? Come on. Like, somebody asked me, like, who is he yelling at? I said, I couldn't tell specifically if he was yelling at DFS or if he was yelling at everybody and happened to be looking in DFS's direction.

Starting point is 00:26:17 But regardless, he was pissed at everybody on the court. And whatever he told them in the timeout got through to them because they went on a 70 run like really quickly. And they were, I mean, they didn't maintain all the discipline from the rest of the third quarter and all the fourth onward. But for like a few minutes, man, they were on their peas and cues. They were not screwing around. Yeah, but like, and it was funny, JJ was asked about they see. I wasn't frustrated. It was just, just coaching.

Starting point is 00:26:46 I agree. He wasn't frustrated. He was angry. It was a different. Mad. And you know, like Reeves was asked about that moment. Again, like he lit into him in the timeout too, but this is just calling the timeout. You know, the act of calling timeout was was decidedly not saved for work.

Starting point is 00:27:05 Um, but, you know, Reeves was asked about it after the game. Like, what was his message? It was saying, play better. You know what I mean? Like, it, but like, sometimes like, guys, wake up. Like, you know, it's because a game like that, one of the things Minnesota did a really good job with, um, after Lakers built this lead was they didn't panic. They just kept, like, and I mean this almost in the most literal sense, they just, you know, kept slowing the game down and grinding and grinding.

Starting point is 00:27:38 They didn't get, you know, start, you know, they lost their composure more in the first quarter that I think they did in the remaining three. And the Lakers, because the game got so muddied up, naturally lost some on the offensive side, I think, never on the defensive side. But on the offensive side, lost some of that, that hop. Plus, I think they were getting a little tired. That game was brutal. You made the point before we came on about how both teams are probably happy they don't play until Friday. Oh, I think if they could stretch that in a Saturday, they'd all be happy. It is, I mean, that was just, that was a really unpleasant game.

Starting point is 00:28:21 And I think it was, it was kind of uncomfortable to watch. Like, it wasn't pretty. There was nothing elegant about it. I guarantee you it was unpleasant to play in. all the platitudes of we're blessed to play playoff basketball and all that stuff notwithstanding it was not fun it was not a fun game um but they won it and you know but that moment was just when we're reddick needed to like kind of wake them up a little bit hey guys you work so hard to get to this point if they score the next five points we got a real problem on our hands if we score the

Starting point is 00:28:56 next five points the game is back under control and the lakers as they did throughout Were the team that scored the next five points anytime Minnesota got close? I mean, to put what you're talking about in perspective in terms of the Lakers, even with it being just 94 points being the team that scored more often, Anthony Edwards had 25 in this game, like you said, 10 of 22 from the field. 22 of 8, 2 of 8 from behind the arc, 3 of 4 at the lines, so only four trips. You can live with that. He also had a 0 to 2 assist to turnover ratio, so the complete inverse,

Starting point is 00:29:32 of game one, the nine assists against one turnover. Again, indicative of the way the Lakers did a better job defending him, a better job, marking shooters, outlets for Ant on drives. I thought they did a better job of, frankly, not panicking when Aunt drove and just defend him, like just defend him, make him work. He's going to score some baskets. And then Julius Randall, you know, pretty good game for Julius, 27 points, 9 to 17 from the field, 2 of 4 from behind the arc out to the line,

Starting point is 00:30:05 nine times, made seven of them, six assists against one turnover. The next highest scorer among Timberwolves, nine points for Nas Reid. Like you had two guys with 20 plus and then nobody else reached double figures. Yeah, Reed, the Lakers did a much better, and it'll look. I mean, some of it was just, you know, he's going to miss some shots and he made six of nine from three point range in the first year. But he's a very good player. And the Lakers put a lid on him. And like that was a lot of that was the Lakers very effectively playing Nasreid. And like that was one of the big changes. You know, Jaden McDaniels comes back to Earth in terms of his shooting, three of

Starting point is 00:30:46 11. I mean, I just, you know, you look around what the Lakers did. Defensively, there was just, there was, it was, there was, there was very little to look at and say that wasn't good. And then you go back to the offensive side and you know 23 assists from the lakers is is lowish you know you're not going to get much better than that when you only score 94 points but you know you had lebron with seven against two turnovers you had luca with nine against four turnovers and you had uh a r with five against one and so you know like they again i go back to what i said at the beginning of the show like They weren't great offensively. It wasn't pretty, but they avoided a lot of the really bad mistakes that give Minnesota points.

Starting point is 00:31:33 They made Minnesota earn every point or every opportunity for a point. And then it should be noted, the Lakers made their free throws. And I, you know, Gabe Vincent came in, hit a couple big shots early, which I think was very helpful with the team. They're still going to need to figure out a way to get something off of the bench. and Jackson Hayes was awful. I think JJ went into this game really wanting to play Jacks. Absolutely. And I think he's going to give him a, there's no choice.

Starting point is 00:32:04 He's going to give him another try in game three. You're not predicting Lensanity? No, I'm not. But it's either Jackson or nothing. And look, it's part of the reason, like, you couldn't give him a longer opportunity here is because, you know, another, you picked up five fouls in nine minutes. in, you know, a terrible goal tend. And if it was going, you know, if they'd let him play for another three minutes,

Starting point is 00:32:26 it fouled out. I mean, it was pretty obvious. Terrible goal tend, but he did almost destroy the ball in the process. So you got to give him a little bit, I guess, of extra credit. Well, it was a frustration, goal tank because it came right after he was called for a terrible offensive foul 80 feet away from the basket trying to set a screen for Reeves coming up the floor. It's just like, don't do that.

Starting point is 00:32:48 And it was not his only a legal screen. in this game. There were many illegal screens. Most of his screens were verboten. He did have, I will say, Jacks had one of the most spectacular plays of the game when he had a bid on an ant

Starting point is 00:33:08 upfake on a three, flew by, but then jumped back and blocked Ant's actual three attempt. Like that was like in a vacuum one of the best plays of this game. It was just, it was just It was a, we'll talk, you know, about this as the week goes on. But it was just, it was one of those games where sort of Hayes kind of reverted to older habits. And look, it's the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:33:30 It's game two. I'm sure, like you said, J.J. was like, look, man, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to leave. We got, we're going to leave. We're going to lean. It was just over. Jackson was a little overcooked in this game. And, you know, hopefully it'll be better in games three and four where the Lakers just, look, they need to do what Minnesota did here. They need to go split and come back with, to, we, we.

Starting point is 00:33:50 with game five tied it to two. If you do that, the series is back in the order that it's supposed to be, and the Lakers are looking good. So, you know, Saturday, go get that win on Saturday. But if you don't,

Starting point is 00:34:05 you come back as Saturday and following Tuesday again, I believe. No, it's Friday and Sunday. Friday and Sunday. Yeah, sorry, thank you. Friday, Sunday. You know, if you don't do it Friday,

Starting point is 00:34:16 go get it Sunday. You know, so I'm pretty confident with it. I think this was a really important game that showed that they can win one of these rock fights against a team like Minnesota and match that physicality. And I love that they get these extra days off. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with a 35,000 subscribers to the channel. We, of course, will be back with plenty more to get you ready for game three. We'll see everyone tomorrow.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić (31/12/9) Leads Lakers to Hard Fought Game 2 Win Over Timberwolves

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