Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić, LeBron James, Austin Reaves COMBINE FOR 92 in Lakers' 124-108 Win over Pelicans

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for a Saturday. Brian Kavanaugh, Andy Komenetsky, the Lakers get a 124-108 win over the Pelicans fueled by the big three. They were really big on Friday. We'll explain 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 00:00:35 Thanks to everybody for making Lockdown Lakers. First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, and sometimes on Saturdays, no matter how, where you get your podcast, this one's always free, never pine paywall. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube is where over 34,000 subscribers, Andy, are, I don't know if celebrating is the right word, but certainly not lamenting a 124-108 win over the visiting New Orleans Pelicans. A, you know, all in all, a workman-like victory for the Lakers,

Starting point is 00:01:04 one where they got done what needed to be done without really threat. to lose the game down the stretch. Big performances from the big three, 35 from Luca, 30 from AR, who set a Lakers record with 15 three-pointers over two games. So congratulations to him. And LeBron, chipping in with 27 and 8. So the good news is the big three were big.

Starting point is 00:01:32 The somewhat worrisome news is nobody else was. And here we are, Andy. the Lakers got done what needed to be done. They are back in third place in the Western Conference, heading into a stretch of four extremely difficult games. It took about a half for the Lakers to give any type of bleeps about this game at all. But once they, I mean, if I'm being honest, they were. It's fine.

Starting point is 00:02:00 You have your evaluation. Well, it wasn't just my evaluation. It was Stu Lance's evaluation. It was Billy Max evaluation. And it was clearly JJ Reddick's evaluation at halftime when he was just transparently displeased with the effing around that was happening. But once they did decide to turn it on, they absolutely controlled and went on to bury the Pelicans. And you mentioned the lack of production beyond the big three. It's another reminder of the importance of Rue Hachamura, who did not play tonight.

Starting point is 00:02:32 Unsurprisingly, we mentioned that we thought after the war, Warriors' loss Thursday night show that Rui would likely not play because of the second end of a back-to-back and that knee, according to Rui, 70 to 80%. You don't want to chance it in a game like this, but it's a reminder of how much the source of consistent scoring drops off between the big three and their 92 points tonight clearly qualified as production. And then there's Rui and then there's everybody else in terms of the guys that you really can count on on a game in, game out basis are close enough. Yeah. And, look, I mean, the Lakers, I feel like at this point in the season are expending the energy that needs to be expended in any given moment. We'll see what happens. Obviously, this sort of effort will not work on Sunday in Oklahoma.

Starting point is 00:03:34 City. It will definitely not work and it won't work on, what is it Tuesday when they're still in Oklahoma City. It probably won't work in Dallas and it won't work against the the rockets. So all that considered, I can certainly understand. Probably can pull it off though as a way of closing out the season against the Blazers. Maybe because the Blazers haven't been eliminated yet because nobody seems to want to be the 10th seat. So as far the last time I looked at least, Portland, that game could still actually matter. Hopefully it won't, but it could.

Starting point is 00:04:09 So, you know, but that aside, we don't need to argue about how hard they were trying. I think it's one of these games where, you know, it was good to see, if you want to try to pull some positives from it, obviously AR continues to be on just a royal heater. And, you know, the confidence with which he is playing and the way he has started. and impact games at really an all-star level at this point over the last few weeks is that continued on Friday. And then Luca, who got off to a tremendously slow start, when did he take his first shot? He was, I don't know when he took or made his first shot, but he finished the first half

Starting point is 00:04:54 with 13 points, which sounds great until you realize it was on 3 of 12 shooting. Right. And he looked like a continuation of the last. last few games that he's had were just offensively in terms of his shooting and scoring, he's just been out of sorts. And thankfully, the second half, he began looking more like himself, seven of nine for 23 points. I recognize it's against the zombie pelicans, but my hope. Definitely pelicans.

Starting point is 00:05:29 Oh, God. They're the Pella shouldn'ts. But like this, my hope is that even acknowledging the opponent, it represents rediscovering some offensive rhythm and flow because he really needs it. Yeah, I mean, it's funny. Like you talk about the difference between the first half and the second half, whether it's effort or Lucas starts making shots. I mean, there's all the. Well, I think in Lucas case, it was making shots. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:05:54 I'm saying, but like the influence that that has over the results over the way you can. can play defense over the rest of the offense. You know, when Luca is hitting his shots, obviously that changes drastically how defenses are defending the Lakers. You know, you saw plays where they would run actions and, you know, be able to get into multiple options and LeBron running back door and you lob to Jackson Hayes and all these other like these actions that are that are opened up and freed up by, in part, Luca really starting to hit his shots.

Starting point is 00:06:32 And that's like we talked about it for Friday. Yeah, for Friday. The Lakers have not seen consistent, fully realized Luca. And the ceiling that they have this year, if they're going to go deep in the playoffs, if they're going to get past Oklahoma City at some point, they know, hell, if they're going to get past the Warriors maybe in the first round or the second round or whatever it is. They beat Denver, by the way, on Friday night, which helps the Lakers move up, but also keeps the Western Conference standings absurdly tight.

Starting point is 00:07:06 There's just no good outcome. Three through eight in the Western Commons. Three through eight are separated by two games. The Lakers fortunately have tiebreakers basically down the row, down the ladder here, but they also play, I think you might have heard me mention, Andy, the, the Thunder twice, the Mavericks and what is going to be a hella emotional game in Dallas and then host Houston again. So two games between three and eight. That's cray.

Starting point is 00:07:43 It is nuts, man. Dalton Connect, I know we were going to talk about him a little bit. He played, as JJ Reddick, promised that he would, going into the game, did not play against the Warriors did play, play 20 minutes against Pelicans. He was the only, from a scoring standpoint, the only productive member of the bench, five of 10 from the floor, two of six from three point range, didn't really contribute much else from a stat standpoint, but he gave him a little bit of punch. And they got to find something because, you know, Jordan Goodwin's shooting has kind

Starting point is 00:08:21 of come back down to earth. It is the reason in part that he's been, you know, he was available to sign. The Lakers just have to figure out a way to get a little bit of bench scoring somewhere. Again, it becomes alleviated to some degree when Rui is available because there's a source of, you know, anywhere from 12 to 20-ish points that you otherwise can't rely on. I mean, you know, DFS or Gabe will have those occasional nights, but they're not somebody that you can really count on for scoring. Like Rui is a score. That's what he does first. It's also what Dalton does. And I have been wondering over the last few games, and it particularly came out tonight when Connect actually played, if JJ needs to consider putting him back in the rotation. Like, I get why he took him out of the rotation, and the logic makes sense.

Starting point is 00:09:14 And this is a time when coaches typically start whittling down what they're thinking is going to be their playoff rotation anyway. And we had talked a lot about how once that happened, Dalton could end up the odd. man out. But the bench production, unless JJ decided to flip-flop, Rui and DFS, just to spread things out a little bit more, although the way the rotation runs, I'm not even sure it would make that big of a difference. I think they really need another source as opposed to rearranging when guys come in and out. And whether that means expanding the rotation or Dalton taking the place of somebody else and it would be likely a choice between Vando and Jordan Goodwin because Gabe's too important.

Starting point is 00:10:04 My guess would be Goodwin would end up the odd man out. But it's becoming problematic the way the bench just cannot be relied on to score at all. It's one of these things that, you know, it's mitigated by a few things. You know, the Lakers are obviously top heavy, but they're top heavy in really impressive ways. You know, you've got Luca, you've got LeBron, you've got AR who aren't just scores, but also distributors. They all three of the, here's the other thing that I thought was interesting. It gives you an idea of what's missing, certainly when Rui is not there and then other guys. the Lakers, the big three combined for 28 free throws in this game.

Starting point is 00:10:56 The Lakers as a team shot 28 free throws. Those three guys had all of them. It's just it gives you, it's an indicator not just of, you know, what the offense looks like, but like it's mostly these guys that are around are just, spot up shooting. There's not a lot of attacking the rim. You're not putting it. It's the other thing about Kinect that differentiates him from the other guys in that potential pool of guys who can score. He will go to the rim. He will attack. He's not purely a perimeter guy where

Starting point is 00:11:34 the rest of them tend to be. So I just think that's it. JJ talked about after the game. He was asked about it and certainly seemed happy about like the offensive production of the big three when they're on the floor together had been a little iffy for a little while. It is trending in the right way. Defense still needs work, but the offense is trending definitely in the right way. So that also kind of mitigates some of the need for like great bench scoring. If AR is going to be putting up, you know, capable of 30 points a night and all that kind of stuff, it's just. it's just it's it's an uncomfortable way to go into the playoffs well i'm seeing a comment right now from lion king dalton k Dalton connect can't play defense and that's obviously the concern with

Starting point is 00:12:24 connect and it's the reason that you know his time in the rotation has gone in and out it's fluctuated and all that but where i think you might be able to get by with it is you know we've seen this lineup at times of as jj often refers to it like Luca and the banshees where it's Luca with Gabe Vincent, Dorian Finney Smith, Vando, and Jordan Goodwin, just Luca and four disruptive defenders. And on one hand, you know, you can see where those guys could be ideal to have around Luca, you know, particularly if DFS and Gabe are hitting shots. But a group like that, you've got a lot of needs covered. but it also makes it really easy to throw then multiple bodies at multiple defenders at Luca without the same threat off the bounce of a LeBron or of an Austin.

Starting point is 00:13:25 You will often take your chances with some of these other guys having the ball. Dalton just creates more dimension in terms of the different outlets for Luca. And again, it's imperfect because the defensive concerns with Dalton are real. we saw it in this game the night against the Pelicans, but it may be too imbalanced the way it is right now. Yeah, I mean, we'll see. It's how they handle the really, truly short in rotation. You talked about it like it may be Goodwin that sits.

Starting point is 00:13:58 I mean, in the end, when Rui plays, probably both of them, either one of them may play. So, you know, we'll see, you know, we'll see what happens. The Lakers got the win that they needed to get. yet. They go into Oklahoma City where they obviously know they are going to need to play better. And I think we're not necessarily looking forward to that game in a dismissive sense, but looking forward to that game with the understanding of we need to whatever amount of energy we can conserve for it to go win that game. They need to because they got to win.

Starting point is 00:14:36 They need to split these four games. they got to split them. If you want to have a chance to stay in that three, four area, at minimum. You got to split these games. At minimum. That still may not be enough, but that's not. But in the very least, if you split them, you probably don't fall to the six,

Starting point is 00:14:55 you know, fall to six or the seven, just mathematically. Also, before we go, I do want to let people know that I checked. The Bulls beat the Blazers tonight. So a costly loss for Portland, who only have four games remaining, as opposed to the Lakers, with five. But they are still technically alive because the sons refuse to win. And Sacramento is trying their darndest to fall out of the 10 as well. So Portland is still in it. They do play Utah and another sorry team in the West. I forgot which one before a game against

Starting point is 00:15:33 Pelicans. I mean, there are only so many sorry teams. Yes, it might be the Pelicans. And then they get the Warriors and the Lakers. So it's not going to be easy for Portland, but my only point is that game might still matter. We, of course, will be back after the game on Sunday. It's an early start. It's 1230 local time start if you're in, I don't know, Los Angeles. And yeah, so expect a post game Sunday afternoon a little bit different than normal.

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Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić, LeBron James, Austin Reaves COMBINE FOR 92 in Lakers' 124-108 Win over Pelicans

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