Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić Notches Historic first half Triple-Double, Lakers Destroy Wizards

Episode Date: January 31, 2026

The Lakers needed a bounceback game Friday in Washington after laying an egg in Cleveland on Wednesday, and Luka Dončić made sure they got it. Luka registered his second career FIRST HALF triple-double en route to 37/11/13, as the Lakers cruised past the Wiz 142-111. Needless to say, he was dominant from the jump, scoring with efficiency and moving the ball well. The Lakers as a group were making sure a lot of hands got touches possession to possession, built up a big lead after one, a huge lead after two, and were never threatened from there. Luka was obviously the story, but he wasn't the only one. Deandre Ayton, who badly needed a great game, got one. 12-14 from the floor, 28 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks. Engaged and active from the start, aided by a Lakers group that got him involved early. LeBron had 20, including some highlight dunks for the Washington crowd. All in all, a great night. The only downer was Austin Reaves, who had been upgraded to questionable heading into the game, but was downgraded before it started. No setbacks, said JJ Redick, just caution. He's still on track to play before the end of the trip. HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkyEverydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Turbo TaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDONGametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Godanjic has a first half triple double, and it wasn't the only star performance the Lakers got. They crush the Wizards. 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, Andy, some holidays.

We are, you know, we get your podcasts. through Apple. Some people like to do it. Spotify. Maybe you're one of the 37,000 plus subscribers to the Lockdown Lakers YouTube page. No matter how you do it, you are part of making the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network in any universe that you and I can uncover. And so this one, Andy, the Lakers, this is a significant game bouncing back from a bad one in Cleveland because the Wizards aren't good. They've got,

the Lakers have a difficult game coming up over the weekend. And what you want is the exact performance that you got in Washington on Friday. They crushed the Wizards. 140, it was a 142 to 111, I believe? 142, 111. That's a pretty decisive win, Andy. Yeah, this was exactly the appropriate win.

for the Wizards. Like beating this team tonight, obviously it counts as much as any other win in the record book. It puts their Grammy Road Trip up to four and two. Like, however you get the W, you get that result. But I think in terms of resetting after that loss in Cleveland, they needed to beat their next opponent in the most appropriate way possible. And the only appropriate way to beat a 12. 12-win Wizards team that is not even at full strength is to beat the absolute belief out of

them. And that is what they did from the first quarter on. They were in complete control of this game, completely dominating it. Other than maybe three or four kind of silly minutes in the third quarter and JJ, in so many words, told them at one point, knock it off. They did a really good job, to of not allowing Washington to even sort of get an idea that they could get back into this game. Oh, none. No. Even in that little mini comeback, by the way, we're going to promise. We're going to get to Luca here in a second, but like even in that little mini comeback that Washington had, they still got into within 20. It's not like they got it down to two. Right. And I was about to bring up Luca. I was doing the pre and post game coverage for 710 ESPN, the Lakers radio affiliate

tonight. And as I was doing one of my segments leading into the fourth quarter, I said typically Luca does not start the top of fourth quarters. With that in mind, he should not play in the fourth quarter at all. Like that should be a goal of the fourth quarter of this game. He should. just be able to go out with a historic 37 point triple double that was secured in the first half. We will break down just how statistically insane that is. But whatever we saw from Luca in the third quarter that got him up to 37, 11, and 13, that is the last we should see of Luca. It was the last we saw of Luca. So in that sense, they really did do everything the way they were supposed to in this game.

It was, you know, it was, it was really nice to see. And, you know, obviously, look, the story here is Luca and what he did, what made it nice and what it has been, what has been good with Luca over the last, you know, week or two now. Like, he is the efficiency. It's, it's very reminiscent of what he was doing early in the year. before he got selfish and had to go have a baby. It seemed to knock him off his game a little bit,

which, by the way, anybody who's had a baby, it'll tell you, that'll do it. But I don't know, the new one may be getting some better sleep or something like that, because Luca is cooking again, and he's doing so with efficiency. And it's not just the numbers that he put up, Andy. It's the incredible efficiency with which he finished, even with a couple kind of let's have some fun plays still 13 of 21 6 of 13 from three point range that three point shot which had been problematic for a while has become less problematic the ball was moving guys were engaged

luka has really found a kind of a like a real sweet spot here in terms of engagement and efficiency and performance and output and it is really impressive to watch yeah in the first half when he notched his triple double in 19 minutes. He was sitting on 26, 11 and 11, finished this game 13 to 21 from the field. Went to the line seven times, hit five of them. 13 assists against five turnovers. A few of the turnovers were of the, we're screwing around,

variety of, you know, maybe a little too much, whatever. Yeah. Luca is, there are six players in what is defined as the play-by-play era, beginning in the 97-98 season that have recorded a triple double during the first half of a game. They include Nikola Yokic, Russell Westbrook, DeMontas, Sabonis, Jalen Johnson, Kevin Johnson,

and Luca Donchich. Luca, if you want to peel the layers of this very impressive onion back a little bit further, Luca and Yokic and Westbrookic have done it twice. Luca, the first time he did it was in December of 2023, and then he did it tonight against the Wizards. He also, Luca is second in the end. By the way, he was the first Laker, self-evident,

to have ever done, well, I guess you could have thought maybe Russell Westbrook did it as a Laker. Russell Westbrook did not do this as a Laker. He did it with whatever other of the teams that he has played for, but it was not as a Laker. Luca is now second all time in NBA history for most 30-point triple doubles. He's got a little bit of catching up to do. Oscar Robertson is first with 106, followed by Luca with 53, Nikola Yose.

It seems good. Well, it seems good, but here's the crazy part because 106, 30-point triple doubles by the Big O is effing insane. Luke is only 26. It feels more than possible that he could do that. For that matter, even with Yokic being a bit older than Luca, it feels possible that Yokic could do it. It's just, you know, it's a, it's, it's one of these things where he's, he's so good that, you know,

and this happens with a lot of stars and a lot of places you see me with the pot, even Yokic, you know, he's not in good enough shape or he doesn't play good enough defense. It's like these players are so good and they make incredible performances so routine that you get kind of numb to them. Like, you know, just these huge numbers that get put up routinely. And we should not. We should not allow ourselves to let that happen. It is worth noting in this game, though, that, you know, it was not the only star performance the Lakers got. you know, LeBron, a very efficient and I think kind of happily quiet, 20 points, 8 of 16. Except for a few, except for a few loud and proud moments.

He got up in dunkle, but he didn't have to work too hard. No, no, but it should be noted. The dunks LeBron had in this game. He had a few. One he had on a drive against Alex Sar where he threw down over Sar. Saar is one of the better shop lockers in the league. He also had a left-handed lob finish on a kind of wonky lob from DeAndre Aten. Although I will say Aiton's lobs are still better than Marcus Smart's.

Marcus Smart. I said on Twitter at Cambrothers, his lobs are kind of like a David Lynch movie. Like they're a little bit scary. They will put you on edge. They're not for everybody's taste, but you cannot look away. and Marcus Smart, similar to the screen with Lynch. But LeBron had, I want to say, three dunks in this game that were like, damn, dunks. Yeah, no, it was really impressive.

And what I, the Lakers next, the sort of notable performance, and this is important for them because he definitely needed that in a big way, was DeAndre 8, who was very active early. You could see that, you know, the first bucket of the game went to 8, and the Lakers were very conscious about keeping him involved. But D'Andre himself looked like he entered this game, focused and moving and motivated. 28 points, 13 rebounds, three blocks for D'Andre.

Huge bounce back for a guy whose performances have been kind of all over the place in the last couple of weeks. And so hopefully this is something that he can kind of roll into this weekend with the Knicks and then obviously a lesser opponent coming up after that with the Brooklyn Nets. They're a different team. When Aiton is engaged and effective, you know, like quite literally, they are, I forget the exact statistical threshold, but it's something like when he has a, you know, 15 and 10 or something

like that, they haven't lost a game yet this year. So it's, it matters. I know he's frustrating, but to some fans, but if they can get him going and closer to the form that he had at the beginning of the year, it would be a big deal. The only other big note from this game is that before it started, Austin Reeves was downgraded from probable, I'm sorry, questionable to out. He did not play. And so, I mean, I think there was some hope that once he got upgraded from Doubtful, which is what he was. I believe he was listed as doubtful for the Cleveland game. And then, you know, upgraded a little bit to questionable.

They're like, ooh, okay, he's trending in the right direction. Maybe the Lakers, JJ Redick said before the game, there was no setback. It was just caution. It's the wizards. Like, you should need Austin to win this game. Let's give him another couple days to recover. Certainly does seem like he is still on track to play before the end of the trip. So we'll see what happens in New York this weekend.

Andy, that's going to be an exciting game. It is always cool when LeBron goes back to the garden. We will be back here to recap it afterwards. By the way, the Knicks, they are on a five-game winning streak. They beat the Blazers tonight at the garden by 30. Well, they're playing really well. They have been very heavily linked to the Janus drama, the Janus rumors, and these guys are playing, like,

at best they would like to stay Knicks at once. worst, they don't want to become bucks. And they're playing really well at a time where there's a lot of uncertainty swirling around this team, reports of guys not viving with Mike Brown in particular, Carl Anthony Towns. So they're going to be bringing it and that crowd's going to be buzzing because there's speculation, could this be LeBron's last time in the garden, all that stuff. So the Lakers are going to need to bring it well if they win this game, to win this game. All right. So before we go, though, Andy, we have to tell people about this. Well,

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