Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić (33 Points), Reaves (28 Points) fuel Lakers CRITICAL WIN Over Suns

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone. Welcome to Locked-on Lakers for Monday. Brian Komeneski, Andy Kaminetsky. 33 points from Luca Donchich helps the Lakers to a critical win over the suns at the crypt. Lots of contributors. Lots of breakdown. We'll do it all 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 Lockedown Lakers your first listen to

Starting point is 00:00:36 every day Monday through Friday no matter how where you get your podcast. This one's always free. It's never behind a paywall. And Lockdown Lakers on YouTube is where over 33, we're almost 34,000 subscribers are all hanging out and Andy celebrating a badly needed, very important, win over the Phoenix Suns at the Crypt on Sunday, 107.96 is the final score. Luca Dantritch leading the way with a near triple double, 33 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists. Austin Reeves right behind him at 28 with 4 and 6 to go with that.

Starting point is 00:01:11 Do it and let everybody know that today's episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code locked on NBA at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off. off your first year. We'll get into some news about when LeBron might be coming back. He worked out before Sunday's game, which is a good sign. Lots of people back in the lineup aside from him. But obviously, Andy, this was a game the Lakers really needed to have in terms of the standings with things tightening up considerably.

Starting point is 00:01:43 And Luca, particularly early, got them off to the kind of start that they needed to. I think he had 13 straight points. at one point in the first quarter was outscoring the big three by himself. Phoenix's big three really came up big for L.A. in a game where they had to have him perform like a star. Yeah, we can get into all the particulars with a lot of contributions, like you said, in this game for the Lakers. And it really, not that this is high-end basketball analysis,

Starting point is 00:02:16 but it really helped having pretty close to a full roster for this game. But JJ talked afterwards about how it's unusual for a team to come back. I believe the word he used was actually abnormal for a team to come back after an East Coast road trip that the back end included a back-to-back in a high-altitude place like Denver. And then on top of it, you're playing a Sunday afternoon game. So earlier than your body, your body clock is typically adjusted to. and you play harder and with more energy than your opponent. And he also talked about how, like, putting that in it. It does help that your opponent in this case is the Phoenix Suns.

Starting point is 00:03:01 But this is, his point is well taken. This is the thing about the sons. Like, they, I think they play too hard to say that they were completely mailing it in. And I think they're too, they've got too many guys on the roster who are either too professional, too competitive or both to just flat out quietly quit but you can tell that is a team

Starting point is 00:03:27 that is dying to quietly quit like they all want to I think I texted this to you they're not quite at one two three Cancun but they're at like one two three kank they're like one syllable away like in some ways they're playing hard enough

Starting point is 00:03:45 that it's almost more miserable but you're exactly right but you know what, I mean, that, and the Lakers, you know, four-game losing streak, notwithstanding, one of the things the Lakers have done really well is get themselves off to good starts in games and against a team like Phoenix that, you know, okay, yeah, they're not necessarily going to quit and fold up the game entirely, but they're not exactly, you know, like you say, fire in the belly, ready to compete with you tooth and nail to the very, very end. And they're not very good anyway. To get out in front in this game, and, you know, they were up by 20 with about a minute

Starting point is 00:04:24 and a half left in the first quarter, they obviously didn't push that to 40. Phoenix got within 10 a few times and stuff like that. But the Lakers held control over it, and they made it so in the third quarter when KD inevitably gets hot, starts making some shots because he was really, really cold. 15 points in the third quarter, four or five from the field, two or three from behind in the arc five of eight at the line it's the overwhelming majority of the damage kd did was in that quarter but it was it was nonetheless big it was big but it was also but the lakers were absorbing that inevitable kd burst with a you know with a big leap with a 50 you know there was a point in the you know before the end of the second quarter when phoenix had a chance to get to within

Starting point is 00:05:10 you know nine or ten at the half or seven or eight or something like that with a little bit of a run and the Lakers pushed it back up, you know, up higher there. And that to me was a critical, I was watching when I was watching that, that is critical because you know Katie is going to get hot. And the Lakers, when they needed it, they got buckets from AR, they got buckets from Luca, you know, Vincent got him a big three, I think near the end of the first half. Like, they pushed that lead back out.

Starting point is 00:05:40 And that to me was when they won the game, really won the game. But again, like I said, early on, Luca driving that building of that lead, showing everybody like, okay, don't worry. We got us. We're good. And it's interesting, too, you say that, like completing the thought that I was starting to get into with JJ before we just talked about the sadness of the Phoenix Suns. JJ talked about the Denver loss, which, you know, you weren't available for Friday's post game.

Starting point is 00:06:13 But I talked about afterwards, all in all, I thought that was a great game for the Lakers. When you consider the context of how many guys were missing that matter. I mean, they were missing six rotation players and Trey Jemison, the third, who had been their backup center for at least the last couple months of this season in Denver, second end of a back-to-back, playing against arguably the best player in the league with Yokage. That is a game that the Lakers could have. and the end of a road trip. That is a game that the Lakers could have entered,

Starting point is 00:06:48 just kind of shocking it up mentally, as there's no way in hell we're going to win this thing. Instead, they pushed Denver to the limit. And Denver began that game, clearly phoning it in thinking they could beat the crap out of these Lakers. And then quickly, you know, about a quarter half realized, no, we can't. Denver then was playing hard and trying to win,

Starting point is 00:07:11 and the Lakers still push them. And on one hand, the Lakers could have felt really good about themselves after that game. Context consider. But JJ said after the Phoenix win that the team was pretty dispirited after that loss, you know, whether because that's four in a row, whether because they're looking at the standings, whether it's because, God damn, man, we were so close. I think it's that. I think they tried so hard.

Starting point is 00:07:38 So I think when you mentioned Luca, starting. the game out so hot and so strong for the Lakers, building really the lead that never went away. And Denver was a game that Luca missed. There is like a symbolism to Luca coming back for this game and being like, guys, I appreciate everything you did in Denver when I was gone. I'm back. That ain't happening again. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:05 And obviously we're going to get into other contributions. Austin Reeves, we mentioned it had a fantastic game. The defensive contributions from Jordan Goodwin is something we'll talk about. Jackson Hayes. Oh, my God, welcome back Jackson Hayes. There's a lot. There's a lot in this that is worth a mention. But, you know, we can kind of round out this first segment.

Starting point is 00:08:28 Just look, the Lakers are now essentially, we'll see what happens with the late games. I'll forget who's still supposed to play later on Sunday. The Lakers are essentially going to wake up on Monday in a four-way tie. the loss column for two through five in the Western Conference. Minnesota, meanwhile, has gotten really hot. And Golden State has lost, I think, twice since they acquired Jimmy Butler and only once when he actually played. So they've gotten incredibly hot.

Starting point is 00:09:00 What seemed last week... The wolves actually play later today. They play Utah. We obviously don't know who's winning that game yet, although I can guess. we have seen over the course of a week what looked like Well, you're really guessing it hasn't even started yet. I know. Guessing.

Starting point is 00:09:20 My guess is that Minnesota is going to win that game. But either way, you're talking about Minnesota, like, you know, when LeBron got hurt, it looked like Minnesota was kind of flailing around enough. The Lakers had some wiggle room because the most important thing, stay out of that play in game. And now that is not guaranteed at all. And we're basically talking about the Lakers being in that five-way tie, four-way tie with the teams two through five in the loss column.

Starting point is 00:09:51 There are only two games up essentially with Golden State and Minnesota for six and seven. So with a back-to-back coming with Denver and Milwaukee this week, with LeBron perhaps probably not, we'll just say probably not available for those for the time being. this game, along with Tuesday's game against the slumping San Antonio team, these are got to have at games. And then you're got to have it game to have Lich there as you're still like you're talking about like, well, oh my God, LeBron's on the side.

Starting point is 00:10:22 Oh, oh, but we also have Luca Donchich. That is a confidence inducing thing. And you combine that with AR and we talk about this after the break. Clearly, I think having broken out of his slump. if you can stop getting hit in the face. And there are a few things, at least I think. It's part of his process. It's method.

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Starting point is 00:11:52 merchants. You must have an active dash pass account. Terms apply. Visit DoorDash for to learn more. Locked on Lakers is also brought to you by Fandul. March Madness is here. Andy. We're recording this on Selection Sunday, they call it. And Fandual is giving you the chance to get in on the action like never before. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. That's $200 extra bucks to use on everything from buzzer beaters to Cinderella stories and even who's cutting down the nets. I can't really offer you a lot of insight as to who to pick in the tournament, Andy, because I haven't watched a college basketball game in years, but you have, you out there have, and it's a fun, I know, it doesn't matter if you watch the NCAAs or not,

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Starting point is 00:13:20 I don't really think about that. Did you believe him? No. I didn't either. No. Oh, man. I mean, it's much easier to find a list of folks that Luca isn't feuding with, and the list basically begins and ends with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Starting point is 00:13:41 I mean, pretty much everyone else around the league, he's got some type of beef with other than Yokic. I think Ian Yokic are genuinely pretty tight, pretty sincere mutual admiration. It seems like everyone else, Luke has got some type of, you know, may not be a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 issue with, but it's at least a 1.5. Yeah, he, no, he comes up. And Booker's at like a 15. But beyond even like, you know, on court stuff, Phoenix is just, Phoenix is there just by being virtue of being on the list of teams that didn't draft him. like nothing.

Starting point is 00:14:16 Oh, nothing gets like Luca, like he's one of those guys with the list of the teams that did not take him. And Phoenix is on it. So I just thought that was really funny. He's like, no, I don't consider. I don't really think about that anymore. Dude, he started mean mugging KD after he hit a shot over him. And the thing between him and Devin Booker is well established over the last three or four years. I mean, I love it.

Starting point is 00:14:42 It's part of a longstanding thing between the Lakers and the Sons that goes back, at least in modern NBA terms, good 20, 25 years. You got Kobe and Rajabelle. You've got Kobe Duncan over Nash, you know, in almost a not-safe-for-work moment. You know, Ron Ron's put back, Phoenix knocking them out of the playoffs a couple times. Like the, the 2021 series that honestly had AD not gotten hurt, the Lakers. I think they were one. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:17 Yeah. So, I mean, there's a lot here. And it's Pacific division. And I'm glad Luca's over because we were starting to lose at least some organic reasons for this to be happening. It's always better when it's organic. And I, I, I look, he picked up another tea on Sunday. And that's 11. It's a lot.

Starting point is 00:15:37 I think it's 11. And we're getting there. And there are always going to be times when you kind of roll your eyes. But this, the edge that he plays with and the competitiveness and the swagger and the bleep talk and all that stuff is tremendous fun. And I think it just there are certain guys who you know, sometimes it feels like they're play acting when they kind of do that. And, you know, you're your, you're posing. It's not really part of like what you are. I want you to do. He's 100% authentic with Luca. And when he is rolling, it is tremendous fun to watch. It was also fun, Andy. The Lakers needed more than just Luca, though, to get it done. And Reeves, who for the first three games or so, when he came back from that calf injury, was not good, has definitely turned it around. You know, obviously was tremendous against the nuggets on Friday, helping the Lakers stay in that game. But he was,

Starting point is 00:16:36 fantastic again Sunday 28 points hit four three-pointers four rebounds six assists timely buckets and they're just a different team when he is this good again to call out john wick when it comes to austin reeves yeah i'm thinking i'm back i mean this is now a few games in a row where reeves looks more like himself and also too we're seeing now him and luka start to become more comfortable playing off each other. And that was that was really the big thing because LeBron and Luca, even with Luca dealing with the physical and mental adjustments coming back from the injury, the sucker punch trade, all that. And Luca did not look entirely like Luca for a few games. Him and LeBron on the court together, that was just easy. Yeah. Austin's place in all of this

Starting point is 00:17:31 has been a little more tentative. If you look at the history of, and I'm not saying the Lakers are a championship team yet, I'm just saying they're a team that is looking to make a championship run. The adjustment for the third best player is always the most difficult in terms of where you figure out your place and how you fit into this mix.

Starting point is 00:17:54 And a lot of times what makes it difficult is you are the guy that has to pick his spots, but then immediately adjust. Like you have to be able to turn it on really quick because you have to be like, it's like going, you mean like going back and forth between supplementary role kind of filling in around the starter of the stars, the two other stars. But when it's your turn, either when one guy's missing or the other guys are off the floor, for those three and a half minutes, you have to suddenly elevate back to, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:26 star caliber. Apologies, my dog sees someone outside the window and the, person's not going anywhere. So you may hear Christian the Bulldog mix barking for a while. Yeah, I can hear. There he is. It's cute. That's fine. It's a great point. Like Chris Bosch had to do him. Chris Bosch, a Hall of Famer. I don't know if Austin Reeves is quite, you know, on a Hall of Fame level. But Chris Bosch was a, an A-list, you know, all-NBA caliber player and had to really adjust what he did in Miami once, you know, Wade and LeBron were joined up there. And like that was a completely different role.

Starting point is 00:19:08 The guy's a Hall of Fame caliber player. And he had to do that. It is, I agree with you. It's a really tricky place to go on a lesser level with a, you know, lesser player still very good. Lamar Odom had to figure out, okay, I got to come off the bench now. You know, not an easy place for a guy who is, you know, sort of all-star caliber talent, if nothing else.

Starting point is 00:19:30 And Reeves is, you know, obviously when LeBron's back, he'll have to adjust again. But it's better to do that when you're feeling this confidence to, like you say, be able to turn it on when it's here to know that my, in my moments, I'm going to be excellent. And for LeBron and Luca to be like, you know what, let's let AR carry an extra five minutes tonight. He can do it. All good.

Starting point is 00:19:55 Well, the other thing, too, I mean, we've already. seen between the space that LeBron immediately gave Luca when Luca arrived, but also, and this is something you've hit on a lot over the course of the season, the space that LeBron has given Reeves to run possessions. Like at this stage of his career, you know, LeBron is still a great player. And LeBron is not going to be a bystander in basketball until he's done with basketball. Like he's not interested in being a purely... Or do you want him to be? Right.

Starting point is 00:20:28 No, you don't want him to be. Like, he's too big of a presence to be that guy. It's impractical for your team dynamic for LeBron to be that guy. But LeBron also recognizes I need help now more than ever. I need the ability to, in some ways, ration off what I do without it hurting the team. And these guys being able to handle the offense and run it as capable. as they do, particularly Luca, directly makes LeBron's life easier. And also, too, having, I think in a lot of ways, having a second ball handler as great as

Starting point is 00:21:07 Luca now, and an orchestrate as great as Luca, that now makes it so Austin can be the third best facilitator and playmaker on this team. And regulars, you know, the everydayers, no, I've expressed at times doubts about Austin's ability to be the third best player on a championship level team. And I will say the last month or so has gained more and more in my confidence in Austin being able to do it. But specifically, Luca coming over makes it easier for Austin because the asks of Austin now as a third best player, I think are actually easier on Austin than they were when he was the third best player with LeBron and AD. Because the responsibility charge is to him. Yeah. The, the, the,

Starting point is 00:21:55 asks become different. I'm not taken away, by the way, anything Austin's doing. He's playing great. I'm just saying it changes when he has to be the third playmaker slash facilitator as opposed to the second. It just does. And just the whole hierarchy. We'll get to Jackson Hayes and Jordan Goodwin here after the break. But the whole hierarchy is made cleaner because they've imported one of the only guys in the league. Really the only guy in the league, I think you could say, who does kind of what LeBron does, except better. Like he's younger.

Starting point is 00:22:35 He's like, he can do what LeBron does, except there's no, even LeBron's not going to sit there in RU as to like on a day-to-day basis, you know, night in night out. Who should this offense belong to? But should belong to Luca Donchin. LeBron's not going to argue that point. And like you say, he'd already deferred to Austin earlier in the year. What is certainly going to do it with Luca?

Starting point is 00:22:58 Now LeBron has this freedom to do everything he wants the court. He looks fantastic. He's doing all kinds of stuff. He's still putting up numbers and having a tremendous impact. So there's no, none of that weighed LeBron confusion that was there at the beginning when those two guys got together. And now it's just a matter of understanding exactly what it's. looks like when all three of them together. But I mean, you're going to get in the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:23:25 And how often do you think you're going to run into situations where two of those three guys aren't on the floor? When the playoffs come, I think that's really what you're going to see. And for second units, you know, talk about, you know, Oklahoma City, for example, part of what makes them so good is their depth is so. Let's talk about it coming up now. We got to, we got a break. Let's talk about next.

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Starting point is 00:24:45 That's monarchmoney.com code locked on MBA for half off of your first year. Yeah. So quick reminder, locked on daily. click on Lockdown Lakers. You have a Lockdown Lakers newsletter delivered to you every single day of the work week. Not committing to doing the newsletter on weekends. But again, you know, it's not just analysis from us. It's also great stuff from around the network. I've just finished that thought. All I was getting to was, you know, Oklahoma City, for example, one of the things that makes them so good is their depth. You know, and so at some point in a game, they always have a second unit that is particularly defensively and can really swamp another team's second unit. We'll see how that goes in the playoffs when rotations tend to shorten. But for the Lakers specifically, while Oklahoma City now has a size advantage over the Lakers that they didn't have last year,

Starting point is 00:25:44 that second unit advantage is going to be mitigated by the fact that Lakers will probably always have two of LeBron, Luca, and AR on the floor. And if it's only one, it'll be for a very short amount of time. J.J. Reddick was effusive, Andy, in his praise for Jackson Hayes following the game. I can certainly understand why. Hayes comes back, 8 to 10 from the floor, 19 points. The only downside, not great from the free throw line, but you could just see the difference what it meant for the Lakers offensively and defensively to have Hayes back in the lineup. And he just, beyond the talent upgrade with Hayes, as opposed to, either Christian Coloco, Trey Jemison III, Alex Lenn,

Starting point is 00:26:31 you know, Marquiv Morris, if he's going to be the backup center or the starting center, any type of five. Like beyond just he's a better player than all of them, he is such a valuable. We talked about this a lot of the four games that he missed. He's such a valuable source of easy points because if you can orchestrate, excuse me, the pick and roll well and just get him rolling. He can catch just about anything in his vicinity and then either finish it or he's become a good reader out of the short roll and good at kicking out, helping facilitate either an

Starting point is 00:27:11 assist or just keeping the play moving. And he's, he is a source of points, a source of offense and a source of options that Lakers simply just did not have while he was gone. And he also just, he occupies so much more attention than those other centers on the Lakers roster do. Like obviously, you don't scheme your entire defense around Jackson Hayes, but you can't ignore him. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:27:41 Respectfully to Len, Coloco, Jemison, you know, Jemison had had a stretch where he was playing very well as the backup five. I had lobbied for a while for Coloco to get more playing time. I'm not saying those guys are useless, but they can be ignored in the way you sometimes look to ignore certain players so you can prioritize other ones. You can't ignore Hayes. And that's just a huge difference. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:28:08 And I think what's critical here, I mean, look, Coloco had a lousy game on Sunday. I did not play well. Did a couple, you know, a couple nice ones. It works really hard. None of it's for lack of effort. But he wasn't very good on Sunday. And it's, he got blocked at least four times. The off the offensive awkwardness was there.

Starting point is 00:28:26 Like you could just see like in anything that isn't get lob, put lob through, he really struggles. And, you know, he's not, he doesn't have great hands. He is very athletic, but it's not super hefty. You know, he doesn't, he doesn't have a lot of weight behind him. And so, you know, is he their second best option? He might be. But like, he's not somebody you want to rely on all that much.

Starting point is 00:28:48 and Hayes, I think what's great, and Redick talked about it after the game. Like what has really changed, you know, Schmitke's originals, Schmicki original posted on the chat, if you're following along on YouTube, that last year, for example, Jackson Hayes was, you know,

Starting point is 00:29:07 couldn't play two minutes without a moving screen. Stuff like that. That would always pull them off the floor, the amount of fouls and this and that. We used to joke like, you know, you had a thing, like a long running track of like minutes that Jackson Hayes played without a foul last year. It was like a celebratory bit that we used to do on the show.

Starting point is 00:29:27 Sadly, we mined a lot of material. Yeah, it was, I'm not saying it was the wrong thing to do. I'm just reminding people it might be new to the program. But stuff like that doesn't happen anymore. And Reddick talked about it after the game. The biggest shift with Hayes isn't his physical. He's doing the same stuff. you know, it's not like he's hitting threes and putting the ball on the floor and spin moods.

Starting point is 00:29:52 It's the same repertoire of stuff. But what has changed is, as Redick said, his ability to process the game properly to make the right play, to not do something like the moving screen, which means getting to that screen with the right angle, holding it for the right amount of time, reading the correct role when you release, all that kind of stuff. He's doing all that stuff at a much higher level. level than he did before. And that's the biggest leap that he's made. And the reason that he and now with this very well-defined, very well-tailored thing that he's got to do, all of

Starting point is 00:30:27 which plays to his strong suits, playing particularly with Luca, but also with LeBron and NAR, like, this is ideal. It's an ideal situation for him. And the Lakers, similar to how they didn't have a Vanderbilt analog last year, somebody who could do what Vanderbilt did for them and we noticed while he was out, they don't have anything that can replace what Jackson Hayes. What Hayes does. The other guy who was getting a ton of praise for what he did, I think he only scored two points.

Starting point is 00:31:01 He just read the box score. What did Goodwin have on the night? Goodwin had two points on one of five shooting, O of three from behind the arc, three rebounds, two on the offensive glass, an assist and two blocks. and Redick said after the game regarding Goodwin that he's a reminder of why, quote, never judge a player based solely on his box score. Jordan Goodwin was incredible.

Starting point is 00:31:30 He had two points in four files. He set the tone for us. It was interesting when he got the start in this game because LeBron and Ruey are still out. I noted on Twitter at Cambrothers that Goodwin played 40 games for Phoenix last year. And I imagine spent a lot of time in practice guarding Devin Booker. And therefore, it would make sense that he spent as much of the time as he did in this game as the primary defender on Booker. It wouldn't surprise me, JJ didn't, to the best of my knowledge, clarify this afterwards.

Starting point is 00:32:04 But it wouldn't surprise me if that was that time in Phoenix was in part why he decided to start Goodwin. You know, Goodwin's played well lately, so he certainly earned the opportunity, but I would imagine familiarity played a role in it. Devin Booker, who had a lousy game, period. He had 19 points, but on 6 of 17 shooting. He did have 11 assists, so, you know, he did a good job as a playmaker, but you need Devin Booker in a game like this, particularly when Bradley Beale doesn't play in the second half to be both. Yeah, 19 points on 17 shots. He did not get his second field goal until, I think it was seven minutes into the second quarter. And Goodwin just was relentless defending him.

Starting point is 00:32:51 I mean, they were running him off so many screens. And he was fighting through everything. And just that we've talked about this, this physicality that he plays with. It's like having a ball handling forward on the court. He's like he is in a lot of ways the guard version of Vando. Because he does a lot of similar things. He has that mindfulness on the glass, but at least with the Lakers so far,

Starting point is 00:33:16 has a solid enough jumper, unlike, you know, that's not Vando's game. Yeah, and it's one of the reasons he was available to the Lakers is that throughout his career, he hasn't been. He shot the ball really well with the Lakers. I think he's like a 32% career three-point shooter overall, but whatever, what are you doing? What have you done for us?

Starting point is 00:33:35 That's all that really matters. Similar with Rui. Like, there's a lot of debate. I think across national media about how good of a player Rui is or like, what does it say about the Lakers if Rui is as important as he is? I'm like, look, if you're telling me the other 29 players, Rui wouldn't be this good or this important, that's fine. I don't care.

Starting point is 00:33:54 I care about this team. Rui's been really good and he's really important with this team. I don't care about the hypotheticals with the other teams. So we'll round it out before we go. We'll get into a few more things. You know, LeBron, day to day, worked out on the court before. the game, but still, you know, I'm not expecting him to play for the games they have this week, Tuesday against San Antonio, Thursday, and Friday, Milwaukee, and Denver, all these games at home.

Starting point is 00:34:20 So, you know, a little bit more of a puncher's chance in that, a little bit more than a puncher's chance. It's Monday against San Antonio, not Tuesday. I'm sorry, yeah, Monday. Thank you. But, yeah, so we'll talk a little bit more about those. But, you know, they got other little things in this game. You know, Gabe Vincent hit three shots.

Starting point is 00:34:39 them were threes and they were timely. D. Fas had a big, he's been struggling, but he hit a big three down the stretch. Two big threes. He had one that, you know, a wide open three in the corner that you know, because he was starting to, you texted me. He was like starting to pass up some shots. But, you know, he was in, he was, he played a good game.

Starting point is 00:34:57 Yes. You know, he was in plus 16. He had six rebounds. He had three assists. He was part of the reason that Katie got off to a slow start. There's nothing wrong with what he did. But they need his point. Yes.

Starting point is 00:35:06 They need, we've talked about it. They need that 10 to 12 from him. just to kind of fill in some of these things. He had a couple big threes that he needed. So just there's a lot to like in this game. And I think Reddick's reaction to it said a lot. Like JJ seemed as pleased with this win as he has with almost all of them. I think throughout the season because of how important it was and the circumstances

Starting point is 00:35:30 in the context that you laid out that first segment. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 33,000, damn near 34,000 subscribers. Of course, Andy, you mentioned it, San Antonio, Monday night. And that's another game. The Lakers need to be able to win, slumping team. And then again, give themselves a couple days off before the back-to-back at the end of the week. We will see everyone after the game.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić (33 Points), Reaves (28 Points) fuel Lakers CRITICAL WIN Over Suns

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