Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and Aggressive Defense Give Lakers a 120-106 Win Over Minnesota

Starting point is 00:00:00 Luca Donchage notches a triple double. The Lakers defense is dominant again, and the vibes they are a change in. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:28 Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. Your first listen of every day, Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends, even on holidays, and now a mandated multiple times. a day, no matter how or where you get your podcasts. It could be Spotify, it could be Apple. Andy, you might be one of the 37,000-plus subscribers,

Starting point is 00:00:49 the Locked-on Lakers YouTube channel where people are excited as all get up today because the Lakers, they register their second straight, impressive performance over a very good team. They beat the Knicks on Sunday who'd come in winning 16 of their last. 21 and they beat Minnesota on Tuesday 120106 is the final score.

Starting point is 00:01:17 Luca Donchich, a triple double, 31, 11, 11. Austin Reeves, a near triple double. He had 31 of his own with seven rebounds, eight assists, only one turnover for Austin. Good play from the supporting line or supporting cast, I should say.

Starting point is 00:01:32 But Andy, defense. Once again. Defense, defense, and I want to make sure we talk about DeAndre Aiton. DeAndre Aiton was massive in the first half of this game when the Lakers, frankly, both teams could not score. This was a raggedy-ass game. It was horrible.

Starting point is 00:01:55 It was a rock fight. And it was like not even a good, it was like just disgusting basketball in the first half. Everybody was past everybody's bedtime. Yeah, it was a raggedy-ass first half for both teams in terms of scoring. the Lakers eventually figured out their offense. But during that first half, DeAndre Aiton was the only Laker who could consistently get anything going at all. And obviously the Lakers floodgates opened and it's quite possible that they win this game with or without Aiton's start to the game in that first half. But I do think psychologically, if nothing else, Aiton's performance and allowing them to be tied at the half,

Starting point is 00:02:37 was huge for just letting them believe just chip away, chip away, chip away, it's eventually going to come around. Yeah. And, you know, excuse me, again, this game started late. He was particularly big on the boards early, you know, in addition to the defensive activity and things like that. And yeah, I mean, look, look, as bad as the game looked at the beginning, Luca couldn't hit a shot and Reeves couldn't hit a shot.

Starting point is 00:03:07 And, you know, Rui couldn't hit a shot. And the Timberwolves couldn't hit a shot. Like, the Lakers missed, I think, their first 15 three-pointers. They did. They did not hit a three until Luca checked back into the game. He, at the 621 mark, he had a step-back three, putting the game at a robust 33 to 33. But that was the first three that the Lakers hit at that point. It was like watching Iowa versus Wisconsin in like 1990.

Starting point is 00:03:37 three or something. Oh my God, it was terrible. They had gone a quarter and a half without hitting a three and it was not for a lack of trying. No, but Minnesota wasn't any better and so, you know, or was I guess marginally better. They couldn't buy a bucket either. And, you know, as aesthetically unattractive as the game was and it was. The Lakers carried the same effort and energy that they had. in the game on Sunday. They carried that into the game on Tuesday. And that made a big difference because they were focused in what they were doing. They were, I think, Minnesota obviously missed a lot of shots early.

Starting point is 00:04:23 So did the Lakers. But the Lakers were locked into what they were doing defensively. And they were careful with the ball. You pointed this out at halftime. The Lakers were very careful with the ball, despite playing. some terrible offense. Yeah, they only turn the ball over twice during the first half.

Starting point is 00:04:41 And that is huge in a game where you are struggling so much to score. When you can't get the ball in the basket, it lowers your margin for error, meaning you can't add to it. And the Lakers did a really good job not compounding their inability to score with execution problems. And like throughout a lot of the game, I don't think the problem was necessarily bad execution. They just were not hitting shots. And I think both teams were defending each other pretty well in the first half.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Like both were really active. The Lakers did a better job of maintaining what they were doing defensively in the second half than the wolves did. But I honestly thought both teams were doing a good job holding each other largely in check. Both teams were doing a really good job holding each other's stars in check. Ant had a miserable game. 14 points on 2 of 15 shooting. He had as many turnovers as he had as he had buckets in this game. And this has been Anthony Edwards' best.

Starting point is 00:05:52 I was, I previewed for my ESPNLA weekly Lakers show, Lakers talk of the game today with John Grisinski from the Athletic and the John Grisinski show podcast. Covered the wolves for years. team inside and out. And he said this has been Anthony Edwards's best season period of his career, but also, I mean, you just look at the numbers, his best offensive season. And the Lakers absolutely swarmed him this entire game and just made it impossible for him to find any type of rhythm at all. And what was impressive about it is even as the Lakers in the third third quarter, third quarter is really where the lakers um put some distance between themselves and

Starting point is 00:06:37 minnesota like you know that first half neither team really was capable of making enough shots to be honest to to get real daylight between uh between themselves and the opposition uh but in the third quarter the lakers combined the same level of effort and the same level of um of intensity, attention to detail, and all that stuff. And they actually started making some shots. And the gap between them and the wolves exploded. Because Minnesota was still stuck in that first year. And we should actually make sure people know.

Starting point is 00:07:19 LeBron did not play in this game. He was out with, I don't know if it's listed technically as the left foot arthritis or the right hip contusion. It was the left foot. It was the hip contusion. Yeah, I mean, there's been a few revolving injuries of late, but LeBron did not play in this game. JJ said, you know, he hopes he can play Thursday against Chicago, but this is going to be a day-to-day situation. Maxie Claibah was not available because of the back issue that's been bothering him for the last, you know, off and on a couple of weeks, but also Jackson Hayes could not play because of a back issue of his own, which seemed to be a pretty last-minute unexpected thing.

Starting point is 00:08:01 Like Jackson had not been on the injury report at all, and then all of a sudden was out. So again, it really speaks to the importance of the way Aiton played in this game. A, because he was the only true center that you have. And B, you're talking about a really big Timberwolves team with Rudy Gobert, who has, you know, he can control the glass. He can make things difficult around the rim. And Aiton outplayed Gobert.

Starting point is 00:08:30 And we actually talked about heading into this game that, you know, in previewing it both for the bonus show that we did heading into this game and also the bigger show that Aiton's had success against the wolves this season. You know, earlier in the year, the two October games, he played pretty well. But also that we thought Aiton would be important in this game because, again, of that size that Minnesota has, that physicality that they have, the Gobert factor. And again, Aiton was huge in the first half, huge. Yeah, he really was. And, you know, it's, we'll talk about Reeves and we'll get into, you know, Luca's night and, and all of that, you know, soon here.

Starting point is 00:09:20 But like, it is, you know, you can't win against good teams just on the strength of your stars. you're going to need other players to step up. So it doesn't have to be the same guys every time. You know, different role players can do different things and step up in different games and contribute in different ways. Jake LaRavia couldn't buy a bucket in this game, but finished with seven rebounds, four assists, two steals.

Starting point is 00:09:46 His third quarter, yeah, is great. Jake's third quarter was this combination of really effective and astonishingly ugly. Like he's getting his like, it's like he's being like killed by steel chairs in a wrestling match. Honestly, like I was worried like he kept getting these offensive rebounds or often rebounding his own misses or ending up on the ground. I'm like, I was worried about Jake's safety during the third quarter of this game. Like, I mean, he was putting himself through the ringer, but he was, it's the best game he's played in a while. He again, in terms of, you know, everybody. finding different ways to step up.

Starting point is 00:10:27 Rui had a tough one in this game. He was in, like, extreme foul trouble. But just about, and Rui actually had a big shot to close the first half. But broadly, this was not a great game for him. But to your point, though, this was really a team effort. And just defensively, it's the second game in a row where it did not feel like anybody was a weak link out there at all. Not in the slightest.

Starting point is 00:10:52 So let's talk a little bit about that defense. We'll talk about Austin Reeves, who played really well, finished the game, but did seem to be dealing with a wrist injury throughout. And so we'll talk about what might be coming up from that. And plenty more next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos, deadlines stacking up. The inbox is overflowing. And you got one position that you still need to fill and it's open. And when the pressure's on, you need to find the right hire.

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Starting point is 00:12:36 Fruity rainbow or cotton candy, there's something for everyone. Andy, the board is set. The flavors are ready. I've got my number one pick for the five-hour energy draft. You want to guess what it is? It's pomegranate. Do you know why? Because it is pomegranate delicious.

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Starting point is 00:13:44 You mentioned that stuff. The other big news, and this is not something that Andy and I are going to spend a lot of time talking about, but it is something just to be aware of with Luca. I can't call it a divorce because, he and his fiance aren't married, but it came out on Monday, or sorry, Tuesday that he and his fiance,

Starting point is 00:14:06 apparently have split up and are having, it seems like they're engaged in a custody battle. So that is something happening in the background with Luca. It's not something really neat to talk about, but it is on front page on TMZ and ESPN. So he wanted to acknowledge that the news is there, but short of it becoming something that needs, to be talked about. I don't see any need to talk about it here.

Starting point is 00:14:33 You've already said more than I plan to, too. So we're good. So there you go. So that's a thing that happened. You can read about it if you want. I was really, I was concerned about this game, not just because of, you know, the, the implications or whatever, but like, you could undo a lot of the good vibes and the good, you know, feelings of Sunday's win laying an egg Tuesday night. If they just get,

Starting point is 00:15:04 Minnesota comes in and beats them up, it's like, okay, you beat the Knicks, but you could not follow it up. In this case, though,

Starting point is 00:15:14 you know, now like almost the opposite happens. Like it was, what was it? Two weeks ago, three weeks ago, the vibes around this team were awful, but they're feeling a lot better now.

Starting point is 00:15:24 Well, I mean, I talked about this heading into this stretch of that began with the Knicks. And then we have the Timberwolves tonight. We've got Denver on Saturday. You've got two games in a row.

Starting point is 00:15:37 They're not back to back, but they're consecutive games against the Rockets in Houston. You've got the magic. You've got the heat. You've got the pistons. Like a bunch of pretty difficult games coming up. Difficult challenges, like I believe the heat are the second end of a back-to-back.

Starting point is 00:15:55 And who knows if BAM is going to put up 85 in that? I'm averaging 83 points a game in his last one game. But like they needed proof of concept of being able to beat these teams because it is something that they have been aware of all season that, yeah, they've got a good record. Like they, for all of the consternation and doubts and analysis of this team and stuff, we, you know, we've gotten into nitty gritty and the reasons that we think this team can't win a championship, which by the way, is fine. Like every year you're not going to win a championship. And saying that you can't win a championship does not mean you think that the team sucks. We've said all year, we think they're a good team, just not necessarily a great team. But they aspire to be more than that. Like what we think doesn't matter. What matters most is what they think. They want to do more. And in order for them

Starting point is 00:16:49 to do more, some of that comes psychologically with seeing what you're doing or trying to do, work against the best teams. There's only so many times you can beat the bottom feeders, lose to the best teams, and keep telling yourself, yeah, but we've got the pieces, we've got the roster, you know,

Starting point is 00:17:08 LeBron's got his championships and the MVPs and Luca's top five player in the league and Austin's ascending and yada, yada, yada, like you can only say that to yourself so many times while losing, often by double digits. That's the part of it too, right? They were just losing.

Starting point is 00:17:27 They'd get crushed. Right. Like you can only tell yourself so many times the opposite of what's happening isn't it might be reality. They need these types of wins. And even like the Denver game, they lost. But other than the opening two minutes and 55 seconds, you could argue they outplayed Denver. Like they were never able to fully sustain the momentum that they need.

Starting point is 00:17:57 needed because they spotted Denver 11 points in the first two minutes and 55 seconds. Right. But you could argue for the last 45 minutes, at minimum, they played Denver to a draw. I think you can reasonably argue they outplayed them. I thought they should have won. I thought they should have won the game. And it's an interesting, like, you go and, you know, we haven't forgotten about Reeves and the wrist and Luca and his triple double and all that stuff.

Starting point is 00:18:26 But like, you can go back and you look at the Orlando game where another game that was just incredibly frustrating. Yeah. Where the Lakers played 45 minutes of very good basketball and three minutes where they were outscored like 30 to 5. Like I'm making up the number, but I'm not exaggerating by much. No. And like since that, you. can start to see, you know, obviously they beat the bad teams. You know, they ran off those three games in a row against the bottom feeders and, okay, show me something against, they, they were

Starting point is 00:19:09 able to shorten up, like, tighten up those. You mentioned that, you know, okay, bad couple minutes against Denver, but overall, you know, then they played a good game. Really put it together against the Knicks, really put it together against Minnesota in terms of effort and energy. Because you, You on a normal night, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, even the Lakers aren't going to start off missing 15 straight three-pointers. And, and, and so not in the Luke Conard era. No. I mean, you just put him in. He's going to hit at least one of them.

Starting point is 00:19:43 You know what's funny, though, like really quick. I looked up some numbers since, uh, the Luke Conard trade. And they, they don't count tonight. And tonight might actually mess with them a little bit. But like, according to cleaning the glass, the person. like they are basically the same percentile of team in the Conard era as a three-point shooting team when Conard's on the court and when he's off the court in part because everybody, for the most part, has been shooting the three better during this time with Conard.

Starting point is 00:20:16 I think he opens up the floor and I think his presence makes a difference there. But they, like I said, they've actually been shooting well when he's been off the floor too. Where he's really made the difference is as a mid-rangee, team. They are far more effective and shoot that shot more when Conard is on the court versus when he's off. He's not missing. He's making 50% of his three-pointers. He's not missing anything, it seems like. It just was an interesting number that I did not expect to land on, but I thought that was actually, it speaks to the full effect of Conard's offensive game. Yeah. He's brought And again, the defense, you can exploit him,

Starting point is 00:21:01 you know, the right matchups. And he does work hard. He tries. None of the, you know, that part of what makes me think Kinnard will be a valuable player, particularly on this team in the postseason, it won't be necessarily somebody that you play off the floor. Is his offense is going to be, his offense is going to be his offense. You know, like that's what he does.

Starting point is 00:21:24 He's, you know, very smart player, cerebral even. and you know sneaky athletic this game the right way yeah extension of the coach on the court yeah exactly um and so brings the intangibles um but like

Starting point is 00:21:46 if he were an inattentive defender that would be different like at least as as a coach you know Luke is going to try he's going to give you whatever he can and he's going to be in the, he's going to be where he's supposed to be. It may not matter. But like that's easier to work around than a guy who is a space cadet on that side of the floor.

Starting point is 00:22:10 Right. Because at least you can keep some structure. Let's talk a little bit about Austin and Luca, who led the way as stars need to do. And we'll catch up on anything we know about Austin's wrist and what that could look like. We'll do it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Game Time. There's nothing like being in an NBA arena, the crowd, the energy, the moment. If you happen to be in the Cryptonite, that was probably a lot of fun.

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Starting point is 00:25:00 and if you have been thinking about joining the Everyday Air Club, this is a great time to do it. You get the ad-free shows, you get the access to the Lockdown Lakers group chat on Discord. And now if you signed up before the NCAA tournament tips off, you can get into our Everyday Air Club bracket pool on Discord for a chance to win Locked on merch. And that should be a lot of fun.

Starting point is 00:25:20 So right now you can use code March, not merch, March, to get your first month free. Head to Lockdownlakers. com or tap the link in the show notes. So Reeves played the game with a banged up wrist. You could tell it hurt. He didn't want to high five anybody. You know,

Starting point is 00:25:42 he didn't want to do anything with that right hand other than shoot and dribble. Yeah, and pass. And I will say, when the ball was going in, there were a couple moments where Reeves held that follow through with the, you know, the wrist, fully extended.

Starting point is 00:25:59 It looked better than. But clearly you've been a decent amount of pain. Your body always feels better when the shots are going down, when you're making good plays. The adrenaline and the excitement will get you through it. But I'm sure it is really sore. I mean, there were a couple times in this game where Luca, there was a play where Dante DiVincenzo and Jake got tangled up. And Dante shoved Jake down.

Starting point is 00:26:29 and Jake landed in Luca's knee. I thought I was concerned for a second. It was going to be a hyper extension. He was fine. And then there was another time on a drive. I want to say he and Jaden McDaniels bang knees. It wasn't anything like a foul or whatever. It just happens.

Starting point is 00:26:44 But it looked like Luca was also in pain. So there was a couple like hold your breath moments with Luca in this game. But he got through it. And like we said, his second half was incredible. There was a clip. of Austin post-game, you know, the Spectrum Sports Center interview, he's sitting in front of his locker room, he's crushing some grapes using only his left hand to eat his grapes. He didn't really reveal much about the injury, but that said, it would not shock me. Obviously, there's a limit as to how bad it could be because he finished the game.

Starting point is 00:27:29 it wouldn't surprise me much if he had to miss a game or two. Because of this, obviously the Lakers need to make sure they don't turn a three-day injury into a three-week injury, and so they'll be careful. But, you know, Reeves in that second half particularly really came alive. But I thought throughout he was, again, getting to his spots, he was making Minnesota to work by, you know, getting into the paint, making a pass to kick out and all that stuff. You could see it had a lot of control and a lot of command over what he was doing. And that benefits him.

Starting point is 00:28:09 It benefits Luca. It just so much confidence in how Reeves was playing on Tuesday. I think he had six assists in the first half, something like that. He was moving all well. And he could have been more, but anybody can make a shot. Yeah, I mean, him and him and Luca, both of them were being as productive as, you you can be offensively when their own shot isn't falling, but also everyone else's isn't.

Starting point is 00:28:31 Like other than setting up DeAndre Aiton for baskets, like nobody or Aitin putting back everyone else's misses, a few of his own misses. Like him and actually Vando in the first half had a couple of huge offensive rebounds himself. Like the Lakers work on the glass. Like DeAndre and Vando in the first half stood out, particularly in the offensive glass.

Starting point is 00:28:55 Jake in the second half on the offensive glass really stood out. Like Austin and Luca were finding ways to get other guys involved. And sometimes it registered on the score sheet. Sometimes it didn't because, again, everybody not named DeAndre or Aiton couldn't make a basket. But they were having an impact on the game, just not as big as you would have wanted. then eventually both of them really unleashed themselves. Austin had two four-point plays in this game. Luca really, he wasted no time when the third quarter began,

Starting point is 00:29:36 just starting to bust the game open. He had 14 points in the third quarter. He really clearly felt something different, saw something different, just got a couple more to go down, and that was all it took. But, you know, we're going to end up talking about this over the course of this week until LeBron gets back, you know, said this many times. You know, there's a discussion point earlier in the week, the question of,

Starting point is 00:30:04 are they better without LeBron, whatever? Some of this is how you define better, but what is incredibly clear, and this is the thing that needs figuring out, they are less complicated without LeBron. Yeah. There is more clarity with what everybody's supposed to do without LeBron. There is more clarity in how you can run the offense with more cohesion. There is, I think, a lot more consistent energy because LeBron at this age has to pick spots.

Starting point is 00:30:34 Like I'm not trying to pick on him. It's just it's the truth. And these guys, the way that it's true, man, it's just true. He has to pick spots. Not that he is pick spots, but I do think that the energy thing, the only thing I would say about that is it plays a little bit both ways. I think it's less about LeBron can't do it because when LeBron is, you know, has those stretches where it dominates.

Starting point is 00:31:03 I think it lifts everybody to see the old man do it. But what I think the energy drops, I think less, in my mind, less because LeBron just can't. more than it's just they get tentative. Like there's, I think everybody means well. And this is important because if you're going to figure it out, if you're going to find whatever the ceiling that the Lakers can find with those three. And before LeBron got hurt, they were trending in the right way.

Starting point is 00:31:34 There's no question. You've got to figure out how to do, I mean, statistically they were doing that. No, they were. Some of the trending was against. were not trending against good teams. They were letting a chance. They haven't played anybody. No, I know that.

Starting point is 00:31:49 I understand that. I'm just saying even some of the trending, I think there's a certain degree of caveat to it. Like I don't want to wait and see. And they have to keep doing it and whatever. But you, you, the parts, if it were three guys who didn't want to share the ball and we're, you know, fighting over it and all that stuff, I think that would be obviously a bigger problem. But that said, it's just, it's, there's this sort of stiltedness that gets

Starting point is 00:32:19 that becomes problematic. And you see the biggest difference is how AR plays when it's him and Luca or him and LeBron, quite frankly. But when the third guy is there, it's usually Reeves that, that sort of suffers. Although it has been better, though, with Luke and Reeves. And it has been with Luca and. No question. LeBron. And JJ said before the game, and I want to make it clear, I do not think this was a backhanded comment about LeBron or anything like that. It was not there, but I don't think JJ would do that anyway. But he described things over the last few games as less cluttered the way the Lakers had been playing. And they are less cluttered. No question. Without LeBron in terms of just there are things that are streamlined when he's not there. Now, there are also going to be times where if LeBron, let's just say LeBron could not, for whatever reason, play the rest of this season, there would be times where what he brings to the table would be missed. Like, that is true. And I think anybody who thinks they wouldn't miss him at all is fooling themselves.

Starting point is 00:33:31 But there's also increasing evidence over the course of the season that maybe with a talent drop, but more. cohesion, more streamlined, they are a better version of themselves or a simpler version of themselves. They're an easier version to figure out or it is just easier for them to do the things they need to do. And that is the riddle that still requires figuring out that unfortunately, they still keep not getting enough reps together to land on whatever it is. And like the way to reconfigure the rotate or keep configuring the rotation whatever but they've got to whatever like you it needs to be done in a way that allows AR to remain yes as aggressive as he's able to have been and it keeps him as involved and featured um as he has been over the last

Starting point is 00:34:33 couple of games both for the small and the big picture like that for sure Yeah, I agree. So obviously a lot to figure out first and foremost who's going to play when. We don't know. LeBron, no word yet on what he might play, whether he might play a Thursday. And obviously it's too early to know whether or not Reeves will be available. But a huge win for the Lakers. Or Jackson and Maxey for that matter.

Starting point is 00:34:59 But a huge win for the Lakers on Tuesday, one that should get them and fans feeling considerably better about them locked on Lakers on YouTube. is we're going to hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. It'll be a hop-in place to hang out. So make sure you're leaving questions, leaving comments, talk to each other. Go to that Discord channel if you are a member of the Everyday Air Club. And we will see everybody next time.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and Aggressive Defense Give Lakers a 120-106 Win Over Minnesota

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