Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić Injured, Austin Reaves Scores 35 as Lakers Beat Philadelphia, 119-115

Starting point is 00:00:00 Luca Donchich leaves with an injury, but the Lakers get arguably their most impressive win of the season anyway. We'll explain how next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen to every day Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends and even on holidays. and sometimes Andy, as the case was on Thursday, multiple times in the same day, third podcast of the day,

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Starting point is 00:01:01 Anyway, go look anywhere you want. Brian Komenesky with Andy Kaminetsky, long time covering the Lakers nearly 20 years for the LA Times, the SPN, the athletic. And Andy Trade Deadline Day is always a big one. It can be tough to play on deadline day just because there's a lot going on, a lot of guys watching, you know, Twitter feeds and stuff like that. And the Lakers kind of looked like that in the first particularly. in the first half of this game against Philadelphia on Thursday night.

Starting point is 00:01:39 But in the end, we'll explain how they got there and some of the bumps that came along the way. They got a really impressive 119, 115 win over a Sixers team that has played well with both Joe L. Embed and Tyrese Maxie available. And let's not forget Vijay Edgcombe because there were some plays in this game where that kid was fantastic. He's going to be so good. You and I were texting during the game, and I said that while I'm not enough of a basketball historian to truly say this with any authority,

Starting point is 00:02:16 if somebody that I considered a basketball authority, or at least somebody more of an expert than me, said that Tyrese Maxine, V.J. Edgecombe is the fastest starting backcourt in NBA history. I'd be like, yeah, that sounds about right. I buy it. Those guys get up and down the floor. It's funny when you were saying that the Lakers were playing like a team that had been distracted or preoccupied or maybe just getting through the emotional whirlwind of the trade deadline. And we've covered the Lakers, we've covered the NBA, you know, different sports for a long time. And the deadline in any sports, particularly the NBA, which can be really active, it is nervous time for a lot of players, even players who've been around for a long time.

Starting point is 00:03:01 I remember one of the years where Rondo was with the Lakers, you know, and Rajan Rondo was a pretty been there, done that guy in the NBA. He admitted one of those years like, yeah, I was concerned. I thought there was a possibility I could get traded. But what was funny is in the first half, the two guys on the Lakers, Luca Donchich and LeBron James, who knew more than anybody damn well, I'm not getting traded. Like the two guys. They were terrible. They spent the entire trade deadline going, I don't know who's going to be on this team after noon Pacific February 5th, but I'm damn sure I will be. Those two guys were struggling mightily.

Starting point is 00:03:43 Like we'll get into Luca's injury, which happened in the first half. He didn't finish it. But the first half of the game, Luca and LeBron had a combined 14 points on four of 18 shooting with nine combined turnover. The first quarter of this game in particular was possibly the worst quarter Luca and LeBron have ever played together. And I think it was definitely the worst first quarter, period, because that is typically Luca Paloza when Luca just goes off. They both were just struggling, turning the ball over.

Starting point is 00:04:22 I think Luca was getting unhappy with some non-calls. You know, LeBron, to his credit, fourth quarter played much better, but a lot of this game was a struggle. Luca did not play in the second half. To me, tell me if you disagree, because the other half of this was not just the deadline, but it's also, I think, you know, the first game back after a long road trip is often a challenging one. LeBron looked like a 41-year-old guy who'd been on a lot of airplanes over the last couple weeks. It took him a little while to get going. We've mentioned it's not that LeBron can't turn it up.

Starting point is 00:04:59 It's not that he can't have really good moments or really good game. And he turned it up in the fourth quarter of this game. He did, absolutely. His floor as a player now is just significantly lower than it used to be. Like you get more possibility of quarters, halves, even games, where it's just like, wow, that's a really bad LeBron or, you know, low output LeBron game. But he was able to come back in.

Starting point is 00:05:29 To their credit, they got a little lucky. The Sixers missed. Lakers turned it over, I think, was it seven or eight times in the first quarter. The Sixers were almost entirely unable to take advantage of it because they could not shoot to save their lives. You know, they would get up, they got up six, eight, twelve, a couple times. But they had the opportunity if they were. playing better, shooting better. They could have been up by 20,

Starting point is 00:05:58 25 in this game, and they weren't. And the Lakers just stayed persistent before Luca got hurt and especially after Luca got hurt. It looked like a hamstring injury. Lakers called lower leg's

Starting point is 00:06:15 soreness. JJ said afterwards that it was hamstring that felt sore. He said, we don't know enough yet to know whether or not it's an injury versus soreness. There really are no details beyond that. I think they're trying to remain optimistic that it isn't anything bigger than that.

Starting point is 00:06:35 Right. And, you know, he wasn't, he walked off the floor, clearly annoyed, clearly in pain, but wasn't, you know, like Peyton Watson, for example, he left the game Wednesday, I believe it was in the fourth quarter of Denver's game in New York and was holding. the hamstring the whole time, you know, clearly limping on his way off the floor, he's going to be out for probably a month to six weeks. So like you can see a little bit of a difference

Starting point is 00:07:04 just in terms of how each guy handled it. That's not a medical evaluation. But we'll see everybody's got their fingers crossed. The way the Lakers, I mentioned this in the open, the way the Lakers came back in this game and then took a lead and then kept a lead. It starts, and we can start here, with Austin Reeves, who was reminding everybody the season that he was having before he had

Starting point is 00:07:41 his own injury between changing speeds to get to the rim and some incredible perimeter shot making. It was like, oh, yeah, that guy was going to make an all-star team before he got hurt. He towards the top of the fourth quarter went on essentially an 80 run himself that shifted the game from 93 to 87. He had back-to-back threes followed by two free throws that put the game at 93-87. But keeping with just the nature of this game and how haywire it had been for the Lakers the entire time while they were somehow staying in this game and at times keeping the score inexplicably tight and you're like I don't understand how they're doing this the first of austin's two-threes in this sequence stew lance actually yelled no because the ball had been swinging

Starting point is 00:08:42 around as the clock was running down maxi cleba who we'll talk about later played terrific in this game. But he risked a shot clock violation, swinging the ball one last time to Austin. Even though Maxey was open and the clock was down, he left Austin with like 0.4 seconds left, which, I guess, lucky number for the Lakers, but 0.4 left. And he was at least four feet behind the arc. And he buried this thing. And then the next three he made, the next three he made, I'm pretty sure as Quentin Grimes, was all over him. But like that moment in and of itself was like, what are you doing?

Starting point is 00:09:23 And Stu Lance went, no, after Maxie passed it. And they still managed to make it work. So we'll talk. This is an important win. This is, it's an important win not just for keeping up with the Joneses in the Western Conference. You know, Denver continues to sort of figure out how to get it done. and you know, they're fighting injuries. You know, Minnesota got a little bit better on trade deadline day.

Starting point is 00:09:51 You know, there's just, it doesn't get easier in the West. So, you know, you need to keep winning to stay out of that play-in area. But this is an important win for how they got it. And sort of showing the team something about themselves because this was a top-to-bottom contributions from everybody who played in this game, from the guys you would expect to the guys you most certainly wouldn't. And we'll explain that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by DoorDash.

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Starting point is 00:13:25 you can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets if you win. Okay. So Reeves was insane in this game. And to do this while still on a minute's restriction, and in only your second game back, I mean, AR only played 25 minutes in this game, scored 35 points again, 12 of 17 from the floor, two assists, six rebounds, six of seven from the line, five of eight from three.

Starting point is 00:13:55 To do that in your second game back from a 19 game absence, when there really isn't anyone else there to take the pressure off, to take the attention away, because LeBron played better as the game went along, but he was not, this was not an end-to-end. The first three quarters of this game were not, They were not good for LeBron. They just weren't.

Starting point is 00:14:20 You know, AR, I mean, put the team on his shoulders and put them in a position to win. He's done it multiple times over the course of the season when somebody like Luca is out and just reminded everybody of exactly who the guy is on a night where the Lakers had to have it. Well, it was also really important, too. It's not just the 35 points, even though obviously. the 35 points were all needed. 21 of those 35 came in the second half. And like I said, there was an Ato run in the fourth quarter,

Starting point is 00:14:57 like an Ato Austin Reeves run just by itself. So you saw Austin not just coming through for this team, but coming through when they knew Luca wasn't going to be there in the second half. And as the game was going along, it took LeBron to get going. I don't want to downplay the contribution. from Rui and Vando and Marcus Smart hit some big shots. Jake LaRavia, I thought, bounced back from a pretty lousy. I thought he had a very up and down road trip.

Starting point is 00:15:33 He finished strong in terms of points scored against Brooklyn, for example. But a lot of that was sort of interior play, finishing, you know, with dunks or easy layups, you know, finishing on the break and stuff like that. certainly his his outside shooting particularly is has been troublesome maxi claba was getting more you figured he would play in this game because jackson hayes was suspended for shoving a mascot in dc something that i still can't quite believe that we are saying oh by the way just in case anybody was concerned, JJ clarified before the game that Jackson did in fact express contrition for shoving gee whiz.

Starting point is 00:16:23 It was, as JJ said, I believe, an error in judgment. He feels bad about it. He has not had a chance to apologize in front of the whole team because they didn't get together on. Nobody ever practices on the day of trade. Like you just don't do that. So presumably Jackson will at some point address the team and again, explain for explain himself and apologize for shoving what looks like to be Gonzo's long lost cousin. That's that's my bad, he might say.

Starting point is 00:17:00 You know, looking back on it, guys, it wasn't as good an idea. It felt like no, it was one of those things. It's like the equivalent of like, you know, when you have an obvious foul and you raise your hand. like that's me I did that or when a guy throws a turnover like five rows into the stands like that's my that's on me that's my that's yeah yep thank you um so I just I mean I think that you started kind of running through some of the the contributions of other guys La Ravia had 14 points four or five from the line he had three steals um maxi was a plus 23 led the team in 26 minutes of plus 23,

Starting point is 00:17:43 four rebounds, four assists, three steals. He had a couple buckets. And it's just all kinds of little stuff, little screens, sealing off players to provide a lane, good defensive rotations, not assist. And look, like DeAndre Aiton, who

Starting point is 00:17:58 I think struggle a little bit trying to guard Joe L.M.B., he wasn't bad in this game. DeAndre was playing hard. He had a couple blocks. You know, he had six, he only played 20 minutes. And so four or five, six rebounds, two blocks in 20 minutes. He's sort of on pace for his normal style game. Aiton didn't not play in favor of Maxi,

Starting point is 00:18:22 I thought because Aiden was really bad or inattentive. I thought he had some, my point is he made some nice contributions. Rui, 14 points, 5 of 7 from the floor, plus 16. He had an Aidan run himself towards the end of the third quarter. Ruey had 8-0 or 7-0 run. He had a 3, and then he had a turnaround jumper. Then he got to the line. It's like a 7- or 8-0 run.

Starting point is 00:18:48 And this was a period in the last couple minutes of the third quarter where both Luke, I mean, excuse me, both LeBron and Reeves were sitting. Yeah, LeBron needing some type of rest in Reeves on a minutes limit. And Rui was huge in helping the Lakers creep back into the game. Jared Banderbilt was a plus 16 and 20. 23 minutes and aside from three more corner threes, it looked like they were shot from like a catapult or something like that.

Starting point is 00:19:16 His defensive presence was important. His energy was important. His mobility in this game was important. Marcus Smart, who was like kind of a tire fire, especially offensively for a lot of this game, hits two huge fourth quarter threes. You know, it's just like everybody did something in this game to help the Lakers get this win. They do not get anywhere close to it if AR doesn't do what he's doing.

Starting point is 00:19:53 But they don't win the game. If AR does what he does and you don't get the performance for maxing, you don't get La Ravia and you don't get Rui. Like, they needed each one of those guys to do so. So, like, for a bench, I realize, you know, bench scoring, Reeves technically counts there today, but he's not a bench player. But for a supporting cast that has been often rightfully maligned over the course of the season to come up the way they did against a good team. Philadelphia at pretty full strength, no Paul George is still a good team.

Starting point is 00:20:30 and they got this win. I don't know. I think when Luca left the game, most people thought they would. Talking about just the, the hustle and physicality, which JJ talked about afterwards and praised them,

Starting point is 00:20:44 like pretty up and down for that in this game. Philly is not a great rebounding team overall, but what they are really good at is hitting the offensive glass. And the Lakers kept them off it. They won the rebounding battle big time. And they were winning it throughout the entire, entire game. And that was, I think, also a big piece of what kept them in this game, despite so much Helter-Skelter and so much WTF man, during, certainly in the first half, they played

Starting point is 00:21:16 in particular. First quarter in particular, they played really hard. And, you know, you mentioned M. B'd, he had, I think, 30 points through the first three quarters. He only had five in the fourth. and he was the one guy that was making shots, particularly in the first half. And they could not do a damn thing with Embed. A lot of the, I mean, they also, the Lakers, they kept allowing or not countering some of the, they kept getting themselves in these little switches on to Mb.

Starting point is 00:21:50 There was one, there were three sequences in a row. Yeah, or Lerra. Yeah. Where the Sixers kept just forced. a La Ravia switch on Some of it though I think too was I don't think they wanted They weren't having a ton of success with Aiton

Starting point is 00:22:06 On On Mbd A lot of Mbid's points weren't actually With Aten guarding him That's my point is but I think I think some of this was by design The probably because Aten Mbid plays he's obviously capable

Starting point is 00:22:20 Of getting You know into the paint and into you know To the basket but he plays so far away From the basket so often that with, I think there was a reluctance on JJ's. I don't think he was asked about this after the game, but this was my read, that they were trying to avoid putting,

Starting point is 00:22:39 just leaving their only big really on the floor on him because without, you know, there was really no other rim protection or help download a speak of. And if you put Aiton on MBE exclusively at the top of the floor, there's nothing behind them to, I think they wanted Aiton to be able to help. And they kept getting the switch

Starting point is 00:23:02 that they wanted to get Aitn off Embed in B'd anyway. So it was the worst of all worlds. Yeah, I think some of it was, I don't, I think some of it was the Lakers kind of allowing that because they wanted M. Bid, they wanted Aitn off of,

Starting point is 00:23:19 to be able to provide help and things like that on dry. But there was, no matter how, what I'm talking about though, Mbid was, I mean, Aiton was near and B'd just on the other guy at the top of the arm. I'm just saying, I think about my point, it's like no matter what they were trying to do, yeah, he had no ability to stop.

Starting point is 00:23:38 Next to let's look a little bit ahead. You know, the Lakers will welcome Luke Kinnard to the lineup. They got a very difficult schedule going into the All-Star break, some very challenging games. So we'll talk about what's upcoming next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fanduel. It's finally started. It's finally settled, I should say, the season as long since started.

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Starting point is 00:25:22 We are offering you a free month of the new everyday air club. Congrats to you. Yeah. I mean, so we'll see what happens next week when they update all this stuff. But for now, if you need a group chat to help keep up with the chaos of the deadline, the now past deadline, like what happened, the Everyday Club gives you access to the group chat on Discord for Lockdown Lakers fans. I was in there on Thursday talking with people inside there.

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Starting point is 00:26:20 I can't. I'm pretty sure we're still good for February 5th, but I don't know what happens on February. Right. So go fast. If you want this, go fast. Do it quickly. Anyway, so the Lakers had Philly on Thursday. They get Golden State at home on Saturday. The Warriors are kind of a hit and miss proposition to say the least these days. But those are always big battles, you know, especially national TV.

Starting point is 00:26:55 This one's the ABC game on Saturday. They get Oklahoma City on Monday the 9th. Although OKC's got some injuries right now. Shea's going to be out for a while. She's going to be out for a while. They don't have Jalen Williams. They're pretty banged up right now. They are very banged up, but they still got, you know,

Starting point is 00:27:13 they turn over a rock. There are guys like A. J. Mitchell, this is where like some of their depth guys are hurt too. So like, you know, AJ Mitchell's been out with an abdominal injury. So we'll see who is available. Shea will not be. He's not going to play until after the break. But we'll see who's available for the Thunder on Monday.

Starting point is 00:27:32 And then they get San Antonio on Tuesday before finishing the pre-break schedule with Dallas, who aren't very good on Thursday, 12th. Now that I think about it, this schedule may not be that difficult. Well, no, you're right. You are catching Oklahoma City at a good time. well I you know I again it's a few days out so I other than Shea I'm not totally sure who's going to play but you're right they could be you could be catching them at a good time now so but either way like at least on paper names of the jerseys you got to finish this this front and if you can

Starting point is 00:28:13 do you know there's at least a reasonable chance Andy um that they'll have to play some of these games without Luca. They are going to be monumentally careful with a hamstring injury for Luca Donchich. Of all the things, you know, sort of soft tissue

Starting point is 00:28:35 stuff, which has been a problem, you know, was an issue last year, soft tissue. The Lakers are not going to screw around with this. And so it is going to be incumbent on Austin Reeves to lead like he has before. and for LeBron James to kind of have to dig into whatever reserves are available

Starting point is 00:28:55 before, you know, finding a reason to skip the All-Star game. At least he doesn't have to travel for it. I mean, that's good. At least it's here. But, you know, sleep in your own bed. But, like, if Luca can't play, I realize context will help the Lakers. It's going to be a really tough stretch. Yeah, I mean, well, I, the Lakers are not.

Starting point is 00:29:19 good enough to ever not take an opponent seriously, at least not until they are up and in control of a game or if they're playing the Wizards or Nets, they have earned the right to take those games, not seriously. But anybody else, they need to approach the game with seriousness because we've seen what happens to this team when they don't treat it with a certain amount of professionalism, like a baseline of professionalism. I just thought it was worth noting some of those absences because Oh, for sure. Again, depending on who is available for the Thunder, some of the guys have been out sort of day-to-day maintenance,

Starting point is 00:29:56 but SGA and Jalen Williams are not going to be available for this game. And that is obviously a huge deal for the Thunder. And is Steph available right now? He did not play the other night when the Warriors beat. They actually beat Phoenix in Phoenix on Wednesday, I believe it was. But, you know, Steph did not play. you got to figure he'll be back. Like, you know, if there's any question, you know,

Starting point is 00:30:24 for a nationally televised ABC game in Los Angeles against the Lakers, but he did not play in the game the other night. And so obviously maybe the Lakers catch a break there would be very strange. I'm just so accustomed to other players on other teams who are injured, making it back to the lineup when they play the Lakers. Yeah, Porzingis is how it works. Porzingis is unlikely.

Starting point is 00:30:49 to be you know he just got traded the warriors he is unlikely i'm reading right now uh from nbc bay area unlikely to play in this game on saturday there's no update for curry other than he did not play in thursday's game versus the suns um so we'll see i he may he may not be available either way the warriors are going to be pretty depleted because they're not going to have jimmy butler and they traded Jonathan Cominga and Buddy Heald. So they're at half strength to begin with. Not having Cuminga available. I'm talking bodies, man.

Starting point is 00:31:29 I'm just talking dudes. They weren't playing him even that much when all these guys were out. I just mean that the roster is pretty thin at the moment. That's all. Yeah. And so I am very interested to see how Luke Knard should be in the lineup on Saturday. JJ talked about getting him

Starting point is 00:31:50 into the lineup and, you know, the ability to run him in a variety of different ways to get shots. You mentioned in our second bonus show of the day. Kenard's ability to shoot on the move, which is

Starting point is 00:32:06 super important. JJ did reference one of the major criticisms of Conard, which is he just passes up too many shots. So Luke JJ made that. reference that like, you know, we're going to encourage him to shoot a lot when he's open. That is a pointed thing to say because that's one of the big knocks on Canard. But it'll the Lakers haven't been able to get healthy really at any point in this season.

Starting point is 00:32:40 And so, you know, what is that? Four games left between now and the break, San Antonio game, particularly on the second night of a back. to back is going to be a tough one. If you can sneak out, you know, two, three wins in these final games, even if Luca isn't there, that's a big lift, you know, and then you have a chance to kind of get folks healthy in that stretch over the break. If my math is correct, we are now at nine and a half games this season where the Lakers have had Luca, LeBron, and Austin. And my math may be wrong because I'd have to look back at when did Austin leave a certain game or when did LeBron or Luca like it may be really in the aggregate close to like eight and three quarters or

Starting point is 00:33:26 whatever but they this would be 10 full games rounding way up and what are we at game 50 now 51 something like that I just I it's been a busy day I'm really tired I didn't really have to worry about getting traded today. But like it's it's been an incredibly busy day. Lord knows I tried. Yeah. Well, I am very similar to Dalton connect.

Starting point is 00:33:55 I didn't have enough sweeteners to it. Right. You don't have things that you can attach and I value around the league is just no. No, no, it really isn't. It's just very low. And you know, we all have to live and learn. I, I just this is coming off a long trip, losing Luca during the game, playing horribly to that point to find a way to stay in the game and win.

Starting point is 00:34:27 I will say the team has been inconsistent. They get blown out a lot, but there's a there's a underneath the service, a lot of this kind of stuff that goes on with this group. Like they're this is where like they're sort of grit guys, I think really pay off and set a tone and things like that. They got a lot of grinders on this team. So what Rob Polinkas said he won. Not a lot of defenders, but a lot of grinds. No, you can grind without being good at defense. Those are not mutually exclusive.

Starting point is 00:35:00 All right. So there's a game on Saturday. We will be back obviously after that one to kind of give you a little recap. We'll have a full show on Sunday into Monday. but in the meantime, enjoy your Friday. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube is where you can hang out with over 37,000 subscribers, and we'll see everyone after the game on Saturday.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić Injured, Austin Reaves Scores 35 as Lakers Beat Philadelphia, 119-115

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