Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Doncic Puts up 34 Points, Lakers CLOSE STRONG in WIN over Grizzlies

Episode Date: January 3, 2026

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky Everydayer 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/everydayerclubSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $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.

The Lakers get a 128-1-21 win over the Grizzlies and reinforce a blueprint for winning while short-handed and offsetting their inherent weaknesses. A lot of guys got to be stars in their role and you got to control the controllables. That's all coming up on Locked on Lakers. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. your team every day.

And thanks for making Locked on Lakers. Your first listen every day, sometimes on weekends, wherever you get your podcast, it's always going to be free. It's never going to be behind a paywall. However, you are taking in Locked on Lakers, whether audio via Apple, via Spotify, or if you're watching on YouTube,

a community of 37,000-plus subscribers, part of a very active comment section on the YouTube page, Thank you for making the locked on podcast network, the number one, boom, sports podcasting network anywhere. It is hugely appreciated. Also, make sure you are subscribed. This is super, super important, whether on audio, whether on YouTube, preferably both, because that way you will never miss an episode because we occasionally have some special episodes, have some, you know, news reactions pop up, or we sometimes go. on weekends. Won't be a full show tonight,

but it will be a reaction to this game. I'm Andy Komeneski, co-host of the Lockdown Lakers podcast, along with my brother Brian, who has the night off, a buddy of his from childhood in town. Shout out to Michael, last name redacted.

So they are out tonight, but Brian and I have covered the Lakers for about 20 years for outlets, including ESPN, the LA Times, the athletic, 710 ESPN Radio in Los Angeles. Angeles where, by the way, I host my weekly Lakers show, Lakers talk, again, on 710 ESPN. And this was a game where the Lakers had a lot of strong individual performances.

Luca Donchich, 34 points, 8 of 18 from the field, one of seven from behind the arc, the three point shot just not falling for Luca over the last few weeks, but got to the line 20 times, made 17 of them, six rebounds, eight assists, six turnovers. Talk a little bit about that with him and LeBron and Marcus Smart. At times not taking as good of care of the ball as they should have needed to, but also two steals for Luca. And a game where as things went along, Luca increasingly began just putting his stamp and control over the game.

He was absolutely relentless in terms of getting himself to the five, line, just putting Memphis on its heels. And like LeBron, who I'm going to talk about just a second, when the Lakers needed big plays, Luca made a lot of them. LeBron 31 points, 12 of 18 from the field, got to the line six times, made all six of them, nine assists, six, excuse me, yeah, nine assists, six rebounds, four turnovers. Again, like Luca, a couple passes that LeBron would like to have back. A couple of mishandles, a game where LeBron for a lot of the first half was actually really having trouble hanging on to the ball. But from start to finish, LeBron was just really lively. I thought on both sides of the ball. I thought he was exercising

great control over the game. There was a lot of times in this game where the Lakers really needed something to happen. And LeBron was timely. He closed the second half. with six straight points down the stretch of the game. He made a lot of really big plays. So 65 combined points from Luca and LeBron, a night where the stars were stars as the Lakers are short-handed. No Austin Reeves, no Rui Hachamura, no Gabe Vincent, do Thero now on the injured list.

So not a lot of options for the Lakers right now. They need Luca and LeBron to play like stars. And those guys did. They got a huge third-guy performance. from Jake La Ravia, 21 points. He had 11 in the first quarter, 15 in the first half, 8 to 12 from the field, hit 3-3s, 9 rebounds, 4 on the offensive glass, two steals and a block. Brian and I have talked about over the last few weeks.

Like, Jake's, I don't think he's played badly, but as the Lakers have been missing players, they have often needed more counting stat performances. and that's not typically what Jake does. He is more of a crack filler, more of filling in the cracks in terms of the little things, the defense, he offensive rebounds, all sorts of stuff. But scoring isn't necessarily something you can count on from Jake, but this was a night where the Lakers needed it and he stepped up. Marcus Smart, 13 points, 5 and 9 from the field, hit 3-3s himself,

came close to a triple double, eight assists, seven rebounds, four turnovers like everyone else. There needs to be a moratorium, I will just say right now, on hit-ahead lob attempts from basically everybody on this team, eight rebounds, seven assists for Marcus to go along with four turnovers. Just knock it off. Like everybody, knock it off. If you want to try a lob from half court, fine. these hit-ahead lobs have got to stop. And Marcus attempted a few of them.

He eventually completed a lob. I want to say to Jackson Hayes, and I was like, I hope this is out of his system. But the offense was really key for Marcus Smart tonight, and he made, as you've come to expect from Marcus Smart, a lot of timely disruptive defensive plays. And then Jackson Hayes, 12 points off the bench, five of six from the field, two steals and a block.

his energy, particularly in the second half of this game, JJ opted to largely close with him and he was asked about it after the game and he just said, Jackson played better than Diannre Aiton. It's been a quiet last handful of games from DeAndre Aiton. Something if you get a chance to ask JJ about, I'd like to over the next couple of days. Aiton has been shrinking a bit.

And it's interesting as Austin and Rui are both not there, you would think this would lead to bigger production just organically from Dianne Aitin simply because the opportunities would be there. And that just has not been the case. But Jackson Hayes really big in this game. And when I mentioned at the top of the show, like the stars and also a few other guys were stars in their role. and the Lakers had those great individual performances. But this was also a game that reinforced a point that I've been hitting on a lot over the last couple weeks, whether we're talking in reaction to games the Lakers have lost or just the last couple of shows where Brian and I were talking about the Lakers trying to land on an identity,

which I think has been difficult in part because of roster limitations, in part because I think, frankly, at times style of play and not even trying to do something clear and coherent with the players that they have, especially offensively, and also some of the decisions and approaches defensively. But also, too, just this period with players in and out of the lineup. It is difficult to land on an identity when you're constantly shuffling the lineup.

The Lakers have had 17 different starting lineups in, like it's now 32 games. That's an enormous amount of change. But during this period, one of the things that I've talked about is just the concept of the Lakers needing to control the controllables. And whether you are talking about execution or whether you are talking about energy, focus, hustle, a determination to play the best defense possible, a desire and a focus. to control the avoidable mistakes. You're going to make mistakes over the course of a game. You're going to occasionally make bad decisions,

but the Lakers are not in a position where they can afford bad decisions. And at times in this game, like we saw, they built up at one point, a 15-point lead in the first half. And the Lakers were doing, I thought, you know, some regrettable decisions here and there, but for the most part, I thought they were doing a very good job avoiding the avoidable mistakes. But then Memphis got into the game in the second half via an 18-0 run that was fueled in very large part by, stop me if you've heard this before, Lakers turnovers, many of them just bad decisions,

bad shot selection, particularly with three-pointers, got off that will put the Lakers in a bad position defensively in transition, where they remain not very good. That's how Memphis ultimately got back into this game. And from there, it was a back and forth battle. But when the Lakers put their mind to making good decisions, to focusing on what they can control, to being patient, to trying to be as methodical as they can be, this version of themselves where, again,

short-handed and that is going to create inherent problems. But when they do that, I'm not going to say they can consistently be an elite team because we just, they haven't seen the evidence of it. We have not seen any evidence of this team being elite this season, period. But they can be a good team. When they do those things, they can be a good team. And some nights, even against some of the best competition in the league, they can stack up against them. They can make a game out of it. They can actually find ways to win, but it's got to be in a lot of ways them controlling the controllable.

So get into a little bit more of that and some of the highlights that I thought in this game in terms of the things the Lakers did really well, getting that coming up next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul Fridays like tonight already feel different. During basketball season, Fandul's making them even better every Friday night before the games tip off. FanDuel gives fans a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. NBA Happy Hour is your official pregame, a limited time window where special offers drop right inside the Fandual app before the action starts. Fridays from 6 to 7.30 Eastern time in the evenings have become appointment viewing with NBA Happy Hour. Opening the FanDual app during Happy Hour always brings you something new,

boosts, bonuses, surprises. It's easy to check the weekly special before the tip off and to make a move right before the window closes. So before tip off, check the Fandual app and see what's dropping during NBA Happy Hour every Friday from 6 to 7.30 p.m. Eastern, a little basketball, a little action,

and a whole lot of Friday energy. That's NBA Happy Hour only on FanDul, the official sportsbook partner of the NBA. So like I mentioned earlier, in the show. The Lakers, at times, became their own worst enemy. They had 20 turnovers in this game, which Memphis turned into 27 points. They had some runouts off Laker misses, some of them regrettable shots. You know, this is something that the Lakers are simply just going to have to be as judicious as possible. But there are also a lot of sequences in this game, and that would be expected,

given that Luca had, LeBron had six assists, Luca had eight, Marcus Smart had seven, where you just saw terrific both decisions with the ball and also execution. Like both LeBron and Luca had sequences where they drew doubles at the three point line and waited for both of those defenders to be close enough to be exactly where they needed. And they threw behind the back passes, each one of them,

to Nick Smith Jr. at the top of the arc. Nick Smith buried both of those shots. And throughout this game, I thought both Luca and LeBron did a really good job like negotiating when Memphis decided to put two on the ball against them. I thought they both were for the most part really patient. They read the floor extremely well. They were both of both of them had sequences where they directly set up Jake for shots in the lane just from allowing those doubles to come over being patient, surveying the floor, and just hitting pinpoint precision passes. And again, this was just a great example of Luca and LeBron being patient about this. It's something I've talked about a lot during this season, one of the reasons that I even accounting for the guys who have been missing,

Austin and Rui in particular and the effect on the offense, the Lakers have been at full strength. I don't think they've often just been methodical and patient and purposeful enough, intentional enough with the way they run an offense anyway. Like they have not been operating in a way that would, especially over the last month or so, and JJ acknowledged this, LeBron's return has just. It's muddled things in a way that isn't, I don't mean this is a criticism of LeBron necessarily. It just, it's created another wrinkle that they haven't quite figured out what to do with.

And the offense has not been anywhere close to elite. Tonight was a night where Luca and LeBron just both made really good decisions that led to the Lakers shooting 58% from the field, 34% from behind the arc. They got to the line 31 times and made 27 of them. Again, a lot of that was Luca. They led the rebounding battle in this game. They ultimately outscored Memphis 68 to 60. The paint, it's too many paint points for Memphis, but nonetheless, the Lakers got a lot of those on their own.

Another example of a great decision by Luca that I want to highlight because this was critical. Late in the fourth quarter during a possession that began with a near turnover and then scrambled ball movement, Luca short shot clock could have settled for. a three on a night where his three was not falling. He could have forced something, but instead he drove, he sucked in the defense, and then he kicked out to Jake La J.

La Jakea, who hit a three, put the Lakers up seven with about two and a half minutes in the game. And this is, Luca's game, like he ended up finishing eight of 18 from the field, which is not perfect efficiency, but it's not bad either.

At one point, he was four of 12 from the field. And like this was a night where things began, shots were not falling for Luca. particularly again from behind the arc, but he kept at it. Like he kept driving, got himself to the line. He put Memphis's defense on its heels. He drew fouls.

He finished almost 50% from the field when it was all said and done. And I just thought this was a night where as things went along, I thought Luca did a really good job of avoiding things that could have boiled over into frustration that led to bad decisions. and I thought as the game went along, Luca did a really good job of controlling that. And again, like I mentioned before, LeBron's control of this game,

other than a few bad passes, and at times just inexplicably kind of having difficulty hanging on to the ball, LeBron had a lot of control over this game. And again, both of them were huge. And then there were just a lot of big-ass energy plays in this game, man. Like from the top, and this maybe set a tone, Marcus Smart

dives to the ground for a loose ball after LeBron had gotten a one-handed rebound in traffic, but he couldn't hang on to it. And Marcus dives to the floor, gets the ball to LeBron. It sets up a transition layup for LeBron. There was an incredible play Jackson Hayes made defensively.

He jumped on a Christian Coloco upfake around the rim, but then tied Coloco up on the second jump and he forced a jump ball. And it was just, it was an incredible play. He also, an offensive energy play, he had this running dunk in the fourth quarter that brought the house down.

It forced a Memphis timeout, put the Lakers up a point 109, 108, 108. And it was also quite frankly, Jackson Hayes avenging his testicles in this game because the man got hit at least twice in like, just audacious fashion. I mean, like it, he was down for a while, like Billy and Stu couldn't even avoid the elephant in the room.

Like just man's getting hit in the nards. And like there's, it's, it's pretty, pretty blatant. It felt like he was throwing down on behalf of the jewels. And it was, it was a big night for Jack, big night for Jackson, particularly in the second half. I thought he did a lot just through energy. I mentioned D'Andre Aiton, been kind of absent, but he had a couple, I thought, really good plays in the second half where he got back in transition and challenged shots.

It prevented Memphis from getting pretty easy scores. And in both of those, at least a couple of those cases, that directly led to the Lakers scoring on the other end. In the fourth quarter, there was a stretch where Marcus Smart poked the ball away from Jock Landale as Landale was trying to post him up. And later on, he got a deflection that led to a second chance corner three for newly designated sharpshooter Jared Vanderbilt. Go figure.

But like there, and I mentioned Jake LaRoevier had four offensive rebounds in this game. That does not happen without hustle. And just everybody I thought in this. this game. Like everybody who got the regular rotation minutes, they were playing hard. Like there there were not many sequences in this game, even the ones where the Lakers screwed up something that they should have been able to handle better. There was not much in this game where I was like, guys, come on, man, get back. Guys, come on. Put in the effort. So this was a really good game for the Lakers. They remain undefeated in clutch situations. I, you know, I always bring up that

they are undefeated in losing by double digits. So I want to be fair, they are also undefeated in clutch situations. So they're managing to, when games are close, pull out wins. And it's really huge. They are now 21 and 11, 10 games above 500, despite a lot of adversity. It's not been a perfect season. There is a lot that they need to fix, some of which I'm not even sure is fixable. But bottom line is 10 games over 500. They're having a successful season by any reasonable definition so far, even if at times it is a frustrating maddening season. I appreciate everybody being here tonight.

Obviously, we will be back, Brian included, for Sunday's reaction. They play the Grizzlies again at home, unusual. But it could be worse scheduling quirks than two games in a row at home against the same opponent. They actually can prepare pretty well while also not having to leave L.A. Again, make sure that you are subscribing to Locked-on Lakers, whether audio, whether YouTube, both appreciate everybody being here. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and we will talk to you all on Sunday.