Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić Dominates (38/6/11), Lakers Beat Clippers 125-122... Celtics Next!

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Lakers get everyone back on the floor and they get a big win over the clippers that showed what can work and where they need work. 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 Lockdown Lakers first listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast. Oh, by the way, sometimes on Saturdays. and even on holidays, no matter how, where you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, Lockdowne Lakers YouTube channel, where over 37,000 people are subscribers.

Starting point is 00:00:47 No matter how you do, you're part of making the Lockdown Podcast Network. The number one sports podcast network anywhere that you can find. And I'm Brian Komenetsky with Andy Kemenacki. About 20 years, we've covered the Lakers for the ESPN, the LA Times, and the athletic. The Lakers, Andy, coming out of the break. It looked like everybody's going to be there. It looked like they might not. But in the end, against the Clippers on Friday, all hands on deck, there were a lot of things to like, a lot of things to clean up.

Starting point is 00:01:20 But in the end, the Lakers get a big 125, 125, 122 win to start the stretch run of the season over the Clippers. We've been playing pretty good basketball coming in. So I, for one, at least thought it was a positive led by a pretty monster game from Luca. I think it was a really positive result, and there was a lot in terms of individual. So a lot in terms of individual performances and the collective energy and activity and spirit of the team, I thought was great. Like they looked like a team that was really excited to get these 28 games underway and excited to have the entire group together. It's insane that it took 55 games to have a healthy roster for JJ Reddick to put forth a starting lineup that was purely by his choice and not dictated by who was available, who wasn't available, who's on a minutes restriction. The starting lineup was Luca, Austin, LeBron, DeAndre Aiton, Marcus Smart, the lineup that both Brian and I thought was the logical starting lineup for the same.

Starting point is 00:02:33 team. I know a lot of people have been agitating for. And while at times earlier in the season, it looked like JJ might have been looking to get away from it in reality. He had never had the opportunity to do it even if he wanted to. This is the look that by now it felt like he was going to go with. And like we'll talk about, there was a lot from an individual performance standpoint that was good in this game. It was also a reminder, especially when we break down some of the context, there is still a lot of work to be done. Yeah, I mean, the context, Andy's referencing John Collins, who was very effective against the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:03:16 Early in the game, he left with a concussion, basically, concussion, somebody went to get looked at. They didn't bring him back. Kauai, who was tearing them up, didn't play the last, was it five minutes or four something or whatever it was. He went with, I believe, an ankle injury. Yeah. And so, you know, the Clippers playing.

Starting point is 00:03:35 And Benedict Matherin filed out. Right. And he was at that point. That's, I'm not, that one I'm, I mean, I'm including less in the good context because, you know, the Lakers had something to do with that. Right. But the reason it matters, though, is he was the only score remaining. Sure.

Starting point is 00:03:53 And the Clippers still found ways to score. They, they are a resourceful team. They play very, very hard. And they've been a good team over the last, you know, basically. two and a half, three months of the season. They've been quite good. So I, you know, that's your context. Obviously,

Starting point is 00:04:11 Lakers, given all that, should have won the game. You can argue, I guess, that it was closer than need to be. I would argue it was closer than it. I just liked the way that they played generally. I think if you look at this as a starting point and, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:27 we'll start with Luca, red hot from three point range, eight of 14 from three, got the line 11 times, made eight of them. 38 points, six rebounds, 11 assists. Austin, 9 of 15, 29 points. He had three assists, or sorry, sorry, two steals, two steals, two assists in a massive drawn charge

Starting point is 00:04:50 with a couple of minutes left on Matherin. That really, JJ Reddick called it the play of the game. It was certainly one of the most important ones that happened. You know, Mark Smart hit a couple clutch shots late, after basically not shooting the entire game. Not basically, he had not taken a shot until the fourth quarter and finished the fourth quarter and the game with seven points, three or four in the fourth quarter.

Starting point is 00:05:17 He drew a couple shooting files in the process. Very, very big fourth quarter for Marcus Smart. Plus he played some good defense on Kauai in the second half before Kauai eventually left the game. Yep. And, you know, DeAndre eight, very, you know, Reddick called him out on the podium after the game. You know, very strong game from Aiton.

Starting point is 00:05:39 He closed for the first time in Deon's. And it looked like, you know, he did not close the first half. Not necessarily because he wasn't playing well, but just because that was the way that the kind of the rotation broke out. But in I looked like, you know, maybe they would reach a point where they would either go small or swap that out. But Aiton, his energy was quite good. He finishes with 13 and 7.

Starting point is 00:06:01 but was working really hard throughout the game and was big on a lot of buckets down the stretch for the Lakers. So, you know, a lot to like in this game. Let's take a quick break and we'll talk about impressions of the roster in full because as you noted, Andy, it took until February for the Lakers to have the full roster at their disposal. What did they do with it? we'll tell you next. Lock on Lakers is brought to you by Fandil. The winner games are officially

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Starting point is 00:09:28 finishing you got those guys on there but you know it was the big three with the starting lineup to start the first quarter but it was the big three with rui hajamura and jackson hayes to finish the half so like you could see that jj is conscious of you know who you know who's matching up where um keeping generally two of those guys on the floor um at all times i didn't count a there may have happened where it was just one, but I think two of those guys were on the floor. It wasn't often. If it happened, it was not frequent. You could see, it looked to me like he was sort of trying to match a little bit of Aiton's minutes with Austin's minutes and Jackson's minutes with Lucas minutes, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:15 outside of the starting five. So like you could, you could see the outlines, at least to me it look like of what a rotation could look like. Yeah, not surprisingly just because we've talked about, thus far this season, the minutes with Luca and LeBron together, they have not been winning those minutes. They have not been as productive or effective as you would hope with those two guys. And while they did obviously play together and at times as a duo, it felt to me like JJ was trying to find spots where he wouldn't have to use the two of them together and maybe find different units where it could be LeBron and Austin or

Starting point is 00:10:57 Yeah, for sure. Although they did win the first block that the three of them were on the floor together. Yeah, they did. They did. But just I am expecting that over the course of this season, while clearly you need to find ways to make it so Luca and LeBron

Starting point is 00:11:15 on the court at the same time will work simply because there's going to be too many times over the course of this season where that's going to happen. But I think over the course of 48 minutes because also too you can just find different floor combinations where you may specifically need lebron or specifically need lucca and austin's kind of the bridge between both of them but i i would imagine that j jay is going to keep looking for the spots where those two can be separated a bit i thought lebron just and this could be related with lebron it's always hard to read too much

Starting point is 00:11:50 into anything specific just because hashtag 41, hashtag season 23, hashtag billion miles on the odometer. But I thought after what was a really, really strong first quarter, he lost some steam during the game. He missed a couple bunnies. He had some really good passes throughout the game. Like as a playmaker, LeBron played very well. Everywhere else, I thought it was very up and down. I thought his energy began to wane over the course of the game. Again, I don't know how much of that is just where he's at in his career versus the knee soreness that almost prevented him from playing in the first place. I really liked with D'Andre Aiton beyond just the activity that he had on both sides of the ball.

Starting point is 00:12:40 And, you know, this is the first time he had played after a few games off and on the All-Star game. And I'd mentioned that I had hoped in a weird way that, Aiton's play basically in 2026, which has been very up and down, largely down. Not great. Has been related to that persistent knee soreness that cost him like three of the last four games for the All-Star Break. And I believe five in 26 that this was related to knee-soreness and discomfort and decreased mobility as opposed to the concerns everyone has that DeAndre Aiton will. eventually just lose interest in basketball. And he played really well in this game.

Starting point is 00:13:24 And one thing I noticed, too, like a little wrinkle with Luca and Austin running pick and rolls with Aiton, they were running some delayed action where the screen would be set, but it would take like a beat or two before Aiton started diving. And those sequences, and he had him with both Luca and Austin, worked really well. And I have no idea if that's something they've been working on specifically or something that happened organically during the game. But in general, I thought Aiton looked really sharp and really synergized with the other guys. And it is important for him to get going if this team is going to reach whatever the ceiling is. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:10 And it's not going to be, you know, 18 and 13, you know, most because most nights, he's not going to get shots. to get the, you know, 10 shots in this game, that is generally speaking going to be probably close to on nights where everybody's available. Realistically, he's not going to get probably many more shots than that. You know, there just aren't that many to go around. You know, LeBron's going to get his 10 to 15-ish. Austin is going to get his, you know, 15-ish, possibly more. Luke is going to take 20-ish a game.

Starting point is 00:14:45 those guys absorb possessions with possessions that end up at the free throw line. So that's where a lot of it's going to go. And so whether you're Aiton, whether you're Rui Hachamori played shot four times in 26 minutes, Luke Kinnard, I think, was very effective in this game, at least offensively. You can see he has a tremendous impact,

Starting point is 00:15:11 not just as a three-point shooter, but as a player and a ball mover and a decision maker on the offense. It's just, you know, he also can get picked on defensively. But, you know, these other guys are going to have to kind of make sure that they can stay aggressive and stay confident only getting most nights five to ten shots. So that's when you watch Aiton, I think, you know, the activity level is really the most important thing. like, does he look engaged?

Starting point is 00:15:45 Yes. Is he, is he, you know, there were, there were possessions where, and I, it's, I, I, I don't always see properly who might have made a mistake here is that the correct rotation is especially in real time. But, you know, he's making multiple closes and multiple efforts on a play. Now, they'll go back and break down the tape. Hey, you should have turned left and you turn right here. But the fact that he's making the multiple, on many possessions, making multiple closes, making multiple closes, touching some. somewhere going and recovering somewhere else. It's all a good sign.

Starting point is 00:16:16 I just, I get what everybody, you know, the studio guys for Spectrum Sportsnet were like, meh, kind of disappointed about the, not the result, but just like some of the stuff you were talking about. Overall, we'll see what happens Sunday. Remember, too, Darius Garland did not play in this game on top of it. Like, I know he's not healthy,

Starting point is 00:16:35 but I'm just saying in terms of firepower for the clippers, no question. Post-hardened trade, post-Zubots trade, you lose Kauai in the game, you lose John Collins the game, Benedict Mather, and eventually files out, that the Lakers were not able to really take control of this game in the fourth quarter. There is an element of underwhelming to that,

Starting point is 00:16:59 even if, again, I think the knight is a, I want to make it clear, the night's a positive, and there's a lot that I saw that I liked. There's just, again, it's a reminder. There's a hell of a lot to clean up. But you've got to win along the way. We'll see what happens. You know, it's the Lakers open the second half, this stretch run against a very, you know, the Clippers team that, I can call them a very good Clippers team,

Starting point is 00:17:25 but a Clippers team that has played significantly better over the last few months, almost no matter who's in the lineup, assuming especially when Kauai plays, they generally play. And they were on a back-to-back on top of it. They've played pretty well. You got a very good Boston team. on Sunday, some good tests coming up on the road against Phoenix, against Golden State, against Sacramento, against New Orleans.

Starting point is 00:17:51 Just kidding, those aren't good tests. Those are games you need to blow teams out. So you get a good taste early in the second half of the games against the good teams and the games that you really should walk away with. And hopefully everybody can stay healthy for it. So obviously we'll be back after the Boston game to break it all down for you. Locked on Lakers on YouTube as we're going to hang out with over 37,000 subscribers. everyone have a great weekend.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić Dominates (38/6/11), Lakers Beat Clippers 125-122... Celtics Next!

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