Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić Drops 35, Austin Reaves 38 as Lakers Beat Dallas 129-119

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to a special bonus episode of Locked on Lakers for a Saturday. Brian Komeneski, Andy Kaminiski, the Lakers keep rolling. They knock off the Dallas Mavericks 129, 119, and we'll host the quarterfinals in the cup. Woo! That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. your first listen of every day, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the most popular sports podcast network in this or any other universe that you can find. And Andy, the Lakers,

Starting point is 00:00:49 they went into Friday night's game against the Dallas Mavericks. Little subplots here with Anthony Davis coming back into the lineup and all that kind of stuff. DeAngelo Russell not coming back into the lineup. No. The DNPCD for a perfect.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Dean and DNP stands where DeAngelo did not play. They've been working on that for a while. But yeah. That just came right up the top of the dome. No, I'm saying they have in Dallas. He's taking it to get here. Yes, they have. They've gotten to this point,

Starting point is 00:01:21 Ryan Nemhart starting and Brandon Williams backing him up and Deelow watching the entire experience from the bench in Dallas and didn't see a tribute video either. but the the uh for him for the lakers i should say they use you don't get two tribute videos this is his second time back you don't get a second one did you get one with them i don't know but that was several years ago i'm just saying when it's your second time back you don't get another tribute video i don't think i don't know andy i don't it's so rare for a player to come back like that i don't know i'm trying to remember how many different uh i'm trying to remember how many

Starting point is 00:02:03 different thank you videos Dennis Schroeder got. Right. I just I don't remember it's it's it's unprecedented territory here. But the Lakers use highly efficient offense on on Friday night to knock off the Mavericks. 129 to 119 is the final score. Luke Donchich leading the way with Austin Reeves for the Lakers, Luca. he finishes with 35 points, 11, 11 from the line. He only needed 18 shots to get there. That sounds incredibly good until you stack it up against Austin Reeves,

Starting point is 00:02:41 12 of 15 from the floor, 6 of 8 from 3 point range. Overall, the Lakers shot nearly 60% from the floor, over 50% from 3 point range, and over 80% from the free throw line. And when that happens, Andy, even when they are, I don't know, casual really, relationship with the defensive side of the ball, they will still win most games.

Starting point is 00:03:05 That is a highly efficient offensive effort. Yeah, I thought their defense was timely. And in those moments when they absolutely had to lock it down, they did. This will, I'm sure, talk about at some point over the show, but this game was a reminder of Marcus Smart's value to this team, not just in terms of what he does individually, because It was a game. I saw Nick Anstead over at Locked on Maps put out a quick reaction video to the loss on his side of the ledger. And he noted that this was one of the best games that Dallas has played all year offensively.

Starting point is 00:03:45 And his tone sounded like he might be one of the best games they play offensively all season. So whether that's because some of those guys, you know, JJ alluded to some. shots that went down above quality. You know, some shots you wouldn't necessarily expect them to make. I think that might be letting them off the hook at times for the defense. But it was good enough when they needed it combined with some very timely threes from Rui Hachemora in the second half. And like you mentioned, Austin and Luca combining for 73 points, you know, some contributions

Starting point is 00:04:24 from LeBron, some contributions from Dandre Aiton. It was enough to get it done. and they are going to host, as you said, the quarterfinals in the Cup against the Spurs on December 10th, and their 4-0 and Cup play. It's pretty nice. Yeah, and more importantly, when the 4-0 and Cup play helps translate to a 14-4 record overall 6-2 at home for the Lakers and an opportunity, I would say, Andy, to make that 15-4 on Sunday when a very, very bad Pelicans team shows. up to the crypto.com. And I just, yeah, I, they are a team.

Starting point is 00:05:06 It was sort of hit and miss, especially kind of in the first half. It wasn't that they weren't scoring, but the sort of aesthetics of it went up and down. They're a team that to me looks like they are finding, finding kind of what they can do and what they really can't do. What's the best way for us to score? What's not? but they are having a tremendous amount of fun figuring it out. They are extremely confident in how they go about trying to find buckets.

Starting point is 00:05:40 And that sometimes leads to some careless passing, some unnecessarily risky passing. But like Luca, for example, was just like, you know, Dallas has been a mess of a team this year, but defensively, they've been pretty good. They just haven't been able to score. Whatever Dallas tried to do, when they tried to blitz Luca, it didn't work. When they tried certainly not blitzing him, it also didn't work. But just the confidence that Luca is playing with to understand that there's just nothing an opposing defense can do right now to annoy him and to take him out of what he wants to do, it's really fun to watch. Well, especially, too, when you have as many safety valves as,

Starting point is 00:06:25 Because Luca has when he's being doubled up high, when they're trying to blitz him, when your safety valves include LeBron James, Austin Reeves, Rui Hachamura, who is a, he's just been a terrific safety valve for this team all season, five of 13 from the field for Rui, for that matter, five of 13 for LeBron from the field. But both of those guys, you feel confident when they have the ball. DeAndre Aiton was eight of nine from the field. for 17 points. I thought they did a good job tonight with DeAndre, to your point of them figuring out different ways to make the offense work. There were a few baskets where DeAndre got a deep seal

Starting point is 00:07:08 against, say, Cooper Flag or somebody else that clearly was not capable of maintaining position against DeAndre or keeping him getting closer and closer to the basket. They found him. They gave him the ball in an easy spot, great pass, easy baskets for DeAndre. And, you know, he, this was his, he only missed one game, thankfully, because of that knee contusion, but he looked very good. It's not necessarily a fair way to frame it because Anthony Davis was returning after missing 14 games and was on a minutes limit. But he outplayed Anthony Davis in a game where I know the Mavericks were hoping for maximum Anthony Davis effect, even in limited minutes. It didn't happen. Yeah, and I just, you know, whether it was near the bucket or, you know, the screen and roll chemistry with Luca is, he's getting strong.

Starting point is 00:08:04 Like, we, we, they highlighted some of these plays on the, the postgame show for Spectrum Sportsnet. Like, Aiton does things fundamentally in the pick and roll extremely well. He sets a really good screen. I mean, that's, that's, that's for starters. That's, you know, step number one to making this work. And, you know, he has the right speed going down the lane. He doesn't go too fast. He doesn't go too slow.

Starting point is 00:08:31 And that's, you know, the reason he's shooting about 75% from the floor this year is because he's picking up on those rhythms, whether it's Anthony, you know, whether it's, I'm sorry, you know, the Luca pick and roll, whether it's the games where Luca missed and he and Austin were working together. He just, he fundamentally times these things out. What we're learning and what people see is that, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:59 the lob threat, which Aten can provide, but he's not a high flyer, like hyper athletic, you know, Jackson had a dunk in this game off of, I don't think they actually credited Luca with an assist. He sort of fell down and all kind of ended up in,

Starting point is 00:09:15 in Jackson's hands. and he just picked it up to one dribble, I think, or may not even needed one, and threw down a monster dunk. Like, that was pure athleticism. Aiton had, by the way, one of those off a lob attempt from Gabe that was woefully short. I thought we established this.

Starting point is 00:09:33 The only Lakers on this team that are allowed to throw lobs are Luca when the opportunity is perfect and Jackson Hayes. That's it. Those are the only guys on this team allowed to throw a lot. Mostly just Jackson. Mostly just Jackson. Jackson is the only guy with the green light. He's got the greenest of green lights to throw lobs on this team.

Starting point is 00:09:55 Everybody else, pick your spots. But it's just, you know, being effective in that pick and roll game is more than just being able to get above the rim. And, you know, there is a timing to it. There is a pacing to it. There is a rhythm of how you, you know, you set screens and all these other things. And Aidan is very good at it. He's not a perfect player.

Starting point is 00:10:17 but he is very well suited for what the Lakers need. And having that thing where, you know, what do you want to say, 65% of the time, 70% of the time, the Lakers are going to have a player who's going to be able to give them, you know, 14 plus points on extremely efficient shooting. That's a really nice luxury for your offense. So we'll carry through a couple more things here in a lot. moment after the break. But there's, there's a, you know, they're starting to stack up wins here,

Starting point is 00:10:52 Andy. And it's, it's in you can argue, and maybe we will after the, the, the break here, whether or not they've reached a peak efficiency yet. So we'll do that next. Well, but first we're going to let you know that locked on Lakers is brought to you by DoorDash, the NBA season. It is heating up. And DoorDash has found the perfect way to keep fans in their bag all season long, whether you're for highlights or your fantasy team or your favorite player. DoorDash makes every game night even better. DoorDash is the official on-demand delivery platform of the NBA, and they are celebrating with something called the bag drop.

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Starting point is 00:13:11 partner of the NBA. So, Andy, one obvious sign that you can look at to say the Lakers are, you know, still have some room to grow is that they are operating in a way that LeBron James, you know, I mean, what do you have? I think you had a bucket, one one bucket at halftime. Something like that, yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I actually even texted you like, we're not quite there yet where we're at double digits watch for LeBron in the same. streak that goes back to like Eisenhower. But, you know, he got there.

Starting point is 00:13:54 But, you know, he's, this is sort of how it's been since he came back that, you know, he's very, very, you know, kind of biting his time a little bit and picking his spots early in these games. And, you know, not forcing stuff, generally looking at sort of the third quarter or, you know, occasionally that, you know, particularly that gap. between the, you know, right at the top of the fourth when, when the Lakers have often made a little bit of a push. That's when LeBron asserts himself a little bit, but, you know, he's not doing a whole lot of stuff at the beginning of games. You know, I think both by design, but also you could argue, you know, they just, they haven't totally found a rhythm there.

Starting point is 00:14:38 That, to me, seems like a place where, you know, the sort of the three-man chemistry still has a little bit of room to grow. and they're winning games in the process. It's definitely something that's not holding the team back because by definition, when you're 10 games above 500 and you are undefeated since LeBron's return, this is not anything that's getting in the way. As far as, you know, like that first quarter dynamic versus the fourth, I think there is an element still of LeBron just feeling himself back into shape

Starting point is 00:15:12 during a quarter that frankly has been over the course of his career very much Luca's quarter. You know, we've talked about that before, that it's typically been the, I mean, it's not even typically, it is factually. If you look at Lucas splits, whether this season or his entire career, the first quarter is where he averages the most points and the most field goal attempts by far. So in that sense, it's something to be expected. And this was a game where the Lakers actually won the first quarter.

Starting point is 00:15:45 It was actually a quarter where their defense got a lot better as the quarter went along. Then it began slipping a lot in the second quarter. I remember there was one point I texted you during the game. Dallas ended up crushing the Lakers in second chance points, 26 to 4. There was one point in the second quarter where they somehow had 10 second chance points and only two offensive rebounds. and I kept refreshing NBA.com's box score and those tallies. I'm like, that doesn't seem right.

Starting point is 00:16:18 I still understand quite how that worked. I don't know either, but if nothing else, it forecast a trend because Dallas continued just to crush them in that category, crushed them on fast break points 19 to 6. That was a lot of where the Lakers were loose. They only turned them all over 14 times, but there are different kinds of turnovers. You know, coaches will talk about this all the time.

Starting point is 00:16:43 They're the kinds that, you know, dead ball turnovers. We throw the ball into the fourth row and all these. And then, or, you know, under the basket of it, but then they're the kind that lead to easy breaks for the other team. The Lakers had more of that in this game. And, you know, the loose play, maybe a little unnecessarily risky play, that did help keep Dallas in the game. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see, though, how things evolve over, say, the next five to ten games.

Starting point is 00:17:14 Because remember, this is still essentially LeBron's equivalent of the preseason and training camp or maybe even the opening night of the season, because LeBron would have only played a few preseason games anyway. But he's still working through this in real time. So I think it'll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next five to ten games. It's funny. I know in the past since the Cup was invented, there had always been that school of thought of, you know, balancing the idea of wanting to win the Cup, wanting the extra 500K versus, I don't know if you want LeBron playing an extra game if you don't have to. I actually think the Lakers getting to the Cup finals beyond, again, the winning it all, the pride in that, the 500K, I actually think it would be good for LeBron because I think he could actually use. the extra game. And in LeBron's case, I think it would be beneficial for everybody else.

Starting point is 00:18:11 This team is collectively young enough that one extra game in the grand scheme of things should not be that big of a deal. No, I get what you're getting at. I don't entirely disagree. I mean, I certainly understand conceptually what you're talking about. I just don't want anybody playing games that don't count. Like, that's the thing. But here's the deal. It's not so much that they can't handle the workload. It's the, you know, it's just a, if there's a chance for injury. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:42 But, you know, these guys, from a chemistry standpoint, they, you know, they're, they're all on the same page. And, you know, half a million bucks, that's enough to get, you know, that's enough to get these guys moving. Certainly they under, even the guys who make, you know, tens of millions a year understand And first of all, still half a million dollars, but also too, like the value for the coaching staff, the opportunity to make, you know, the minimum guys, the rookies. Those like those guys make a half million makes a, you know, that's a huge amount of money. Drew Timmy, he, he may end up getting like a $500,000 bonus.

Starting point is 00:19:25 You don't get that much, but he, you know, it's, but he can get, you know, whatever. There's like a pro rated formula of it. But, you know, if he gets 200K for them going through and winning the thing, that's pretty good. And Austin talked after the game about how the money will often get trickled down to the video guys. Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of benefit that goes towards everybody behind the scenes and things like that. And other than the extra game, and as you pointed out, and it's true, the extra chance. at injury, these guys staying focused for the cup games is beneficial because these are

Starting point is 00:20:08 other than the final, these are regular season games. They count to your record. And I think what we've seen is while there is a risk of like, you know, kind of a post-NBA Cup final slump, you know, it seems to be something of somewhat real. it also is a really good thing early in the season for kind of simulating playoffs and simulating a certain level of intensity and stuff like that which for a team when you're a team with you know the type of aspirations that the lakers have to advance you know deep into the playoffs getting that kind of dress rehearsal in you know November into December there's value to that

Starting point is 00:20:55 And I think that's what teams look at as beyond the money, the value of it. I mean, I hear a lot of media and a lot of fans make fun of the cup or like, you're going to hang that banner, like when the Lakers hung that first banner, which was, to be totally honest, the Lakers doing a solid for the league. It's the right thing to do. They absolutely should hang that banner. It looks different than all the other ones. It's not treated like a championship banner because it's not.

Starting point is 00:21:25 not. It's a championship of the cup. But I'll tell you this much, the players care. And it doesn't matter if the media or fans don't care. The players actually do. It's become very clear now over three years of this. The players are invested. And the players are invested, then it becomes worth it. My God, we were talking about Austin and the night he had. There were so many times in the fourth quarter. And this was just depressing to watch. He's like targeting Clay defensively. Yeah. And JJ in his postgame presser mentioned in the fourth quarter, Austin identifying ducks,

Starting point is 00:22:08 you know, being like a slang for, you know, ducks in a, ducks in a pond, easy shooting. Like, I'm pretty sure he was referring to Clay politely. It's just, it's rough to see that not just because Clay was such a great player, but also that he's a great player stuck on this bad team, bad situation with a contract that I'm not sure a lot of teams are going to want to trade for. Andy, it was the Lakers try to give him $80 million. So better him be stuck there than stuck here. Locked on Lakers on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:22:41 It's written go hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. We will be back after the New Orleans game on Sunday. Everyone, enjoy your weekend.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić Drops 35, Austin Reaves 38 as Lakers Beat Dallas 129-119

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