Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Doncic Scores 33, Deandre Ayton injured in Los Angeles Lakers Sloppy Win over Jazz

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

The Lakers are 12-4, and did in fact win Sunday's game in Utah, 108-106.After that, there wasn't a ton to love, because this was a pretty ugly win. The Lakers continue to be a tremendously bad three point shooting team. Sunday, their top three players, Luka Donćić, Austin Reaves and LeBron James were a combined 4-24 from 3-point range. That obviously isn't getting it done, and the struggle isn't exactly new for this squad.And it emphasizes how good the Lakers have been inside the arc. Luka, especially continues to draw tons of whistles, as does Reaves. And it also emphasizes how important shot selection is for the Lakers, given their potential defensive limitations. Poor shot selection off an imbalanced floor can leave them vulnerable for transition buckets.And it reminds folks that the Lakers are winning games with numbers you could either find encouraging—a lot of stuff that should improve over time—or might lead you to think they might not be as good as the record indicates.One big part of that strong mark has been Deandre Ayton, who didn't play in the second half Sunday because of a knee contusion. JJ Redick had very little to say about it after the game, so it's too early to say they'll be without him for any length of time, but if they are it would be a real loss for the Lakers. Maxi Kleber played well Sunday, and Jaxson Hayes has done his job admirably this year, but neither brings what Ayton does, whether as a scorer or a rebounder.So it's wait and see.HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: The Lakers win, but it's not pretty.SEGMENT 2: The shooting woes continue.SEGMENT 3: Ayton hurt.Support us by supporting our sponsors DoorDashNext time someone goes off for 50, use promo code  NBA50the next day to get 50% off on DoorDash with DashPass — plus your shot at the Bag Drop.DashPass members only. 50% off up to $10 the day after a 50-point game with promo code. Terms apply.No Purchase Necessary. Ends April 13th. Open to U.S. residents 21 or older. Visit https://DoorDashInYourBag.com for full details.DoorDash — In your bag all season long.DripDropStock up now before the heat hits hard — and keep your body and mind performing at their best with DripDrop.Right now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order.Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code LOCKEDONNBA. WayfairDon’t miss out on early Black Friday deals.Head to Wayfair.com now to shop Wayfair’s Black Friday sale for up to 70% off.GustoGusto is the all-in-one, remote-friendly payroll and HR platform. Try Gusto today at https://gusto.com/lockedonNBA and get three months free when you run your first payroll. RobinhoodYou expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at robinhood.com/yourmoney. Your money. Your move.All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Options, futures, and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Futures trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and not SPIC or FDIC protected. Crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840), not FDIC or SIPC protected. Portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies, an SEC-registered advisor.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.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting https://FanDuel.com to get startedFANDUEL 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.

Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Monday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminowski, the Lakers escape a tight one in Utah. And D'Andre Aiton is hurt. Not a great night overall, but we'll break it down 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 Lockdown Lakers first listen to every day, Monday through Friday matter how or we. where you get your podcast. This one is always free, Andy, and it is part of the number one rated sports podcast network in this or any other known universe. If you can produce a podcast network bigger and better than this one, I guess congratulations,

because you've done the impossible. No, you're just lying. You're just lying. I mean, you're making up stories. You're frankly talking out of your ass, and I kind of feel sorry for you, like that you've got so little going on in your life that you're producing fake information

about podcast networks bigger than us. But by the way, thank you for being here. You kiss your mother with that mouth? Thank you for being here, though. We appreciate you being here. Do you want to tell everyone that today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app.

Head to FanDuel.com to get started. And Andy, let's just say, we'll get to DeAndre Aiton here in a moment. Because that is the biggest sort of potentially long-term story coming out of the game. On Sunday night, Lakers do beat Utah 108 to 106. But man alive, this was a game that looked like the Lakers had salted away with approximately six minutes left. Lakers, according to the ESPN game tracker win probability index, had a 98% chance of winning. They were up by 13 against Utah. 98% at 5 minutes to go,

98% at 3 minutes to go. Andy, it was still even 92% with 1 minute to go. With about 17 seconds left, Andy, that got down about 50%. They let a lead get away quickly in those last couple minutes and turned a game that was not great, but they were kind of, it was going to get the job done into one that they darn near lost. And it was just kind of indicative of the way they played, I thought, on Sunday. It's not even that they looked like they were going to lose or could have lost.

Had I believe the Lakers coaching staff not been especially attentive about a Bryce Sensible Sensible three that was originally, it was late in the third quarter, I guess during a timeout or something, it wasn't made entirely clear during the broadcast, but there was Bryce Sence about three that got wiped away entirely because they looked at it during one of the breaks, saw that he had stepped on the line.

So three points got taken away from Utah. The Lakers won this game by two. This was quite literally a game-changing moment in the most like literal dictionary definition sense. and also, too, underscores just how in many ways the Lakers were fortunate to get this win despite themselves. You mentioned the close of this game. The close is on a rather long list of things that I did not like about this game, both that the Lakers damn near lost the game in the closing minutes.

I did not like the closing group that J.J. Reddick was running with. there was just a and that's just one part of the list of things I did not like about this game. They got the win and, you know, it matters. They are now tied for second with Denver behind Oklahoma City near the top of the standing. So in the grand scheme of things, macro picture, I guess, well, both macro, it's good and bad because if these things don't get cleaned up macro, they got a lot of problems. Well, we'll get into this over the course of the week because, you know, between games and stuff like that. But, you know, this is a time where the Lakers can make, you know, continue stacking wins.

They've got the Clippers on Tuesday. They've got the Mavericks on Friday. You know, so again, decent time in between games for them to, you know, both of those games are at home. They've got the Pelicans on Sunday. So those are three very winnable games and, you know, Phoenix visits. a week from Monday. So, you know, the suns have been playing pretty well. But again, you're on your home floor.

You can look at this in a couple different ways. They are doing a lot of things that need to be corrected over the course of the season, or they won't continue to win at this pace. But the flip side is they are getting these wins when, you know, when they're not performing in certain ways. The most glaring to me, at least thing, that and JJ Redick talked about it, they've talked about it in the locker room players. This team cannot shoot to save their lives. They are a bottom feeding three-point shooting team in just about every metric that you can come up with.

And in this league, in the modern NBA, it is very difficult to win. if you can't, you know, have some kind of effective infrastructure around threes. And, you know, Sunday night, Luca was three of 12 from three-point range. A.R. was one of eight. LeBron was over four. So that's four for 24 from your three best offensive players. that is wretched by any standard. Luca has gotten into this place over the last, I don't know,

a couple weeks in particular, as well as Luca has played overall. And he had 33 points in this game. He is a big reason that they managed to win this game, 10 of 24 from the field, got to the line 12 times, made 10 of them. He had eight assists, did have six turnovers. He, like a lot of guys.

tonight got careless with not just the ball, but I think careless with their decision making in general. They approached this game, I think very outwardly like, we're playing the Utah Jazz. They've won five times this year. We know we're better than them. If we can get this done with, you know, anywhere from 45 to 55% good execution,

that's what we're going to put into this. Like one of those games, too, because on they and they just had a demonstration on Tuesday where last week where they did they weren't great but they played like 15 minutes of really really really good ball where they kind of cranked it up a little bit and that was enough to really gain the separation that they needed and there was cruise control from there I think they thought they could replicate that formula at the very least well just look they've won a lot of games you know they're winning at a good clip. The season so far has been successful. And I don't want to take away from that because there's

no reason to. It's factual. They are winning at one of the best clips in the NBA. But there are times when it feels like they are winning either, I think like tonight in spite of themselves or winning in ways that feel like playing with fire or winning in ways where, you know, the play of Luca or at times the play of Austin Reeves or, you know, LeBron having six assists in the fourth quarter in his debut, or a hot night of shooting from Rui, like a few, you know, strong defensive plays from Marcus Smart, whatever it is, it will mask some of the larger problems over 48 minutes because those things can be so effective. But we were talking before about the three-point shooting. Since November 10th is the amount of three-pointers Luke has taken in a game. 15, 7.

8, 11, 10, 12, that's too many. Like, it's honestly, it's, I know when Lucas stepback is going, it can be a deadly, like, unguardable weapon. And it is often indicative of when Luca is just on one of those nights where you're not going to be able to do a damn thing with him. But when it's not falling, I think that shot can sometimes hijack the offense. ironically the one guy on this team who can shoot threes Rui Hachamura, who was two of four tonight,

he never gets enough of them, in part because the guys who are worse at shooting threes take too many. And I know there's a certain amount all these guys need to take to keep an opposing defense honest. Right. And you need to take open shots when they're there. You need to, you know, shoot to eventually rediscover your rhythm

and blah, blah, blah. The three point distribution on this team is out of whack in terms of volume. I think it is out of whack in terms of shot selection. That's the big one to me. And, you know, guys like Luca and LeBron and Austin, the three best players on this team, the three guys that are considered the leaders, they need to make more of these threes. But also, I think sometimes they need to set a better example in the threes that they take.

I let's stick on this for a minute. after the break because I do think, you know, Luca has not opened himself up too much criticism over the course of this. Agreed. Agreed. At all. Agreed. But if you're going to start picking nits about things that could be better, I think the shot selection aspect of it,

this is a little bit part of the Luca experience, but that's something we can look at next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Gusto. Let's be real, nobody starts a business. for the joy of calculating tax withholdings and managing payroll spreadsheets, unless you're just an antisocial weirdo. And if that's your thing, enjoy. But for the normal people out here.

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Sale ends December 7th. My biggest thing, Andy, with the shot selection. And I mean, look, this is, dial it back 15 years. We had these conversations about Kobe. Every team that has star players that don't shoot 78% like Nikolio Kitch have these conversations about shot selection. There were just too many threes that seem like they're. are settling. Those are the ones that I don't like. Because I do think, like, to some degree, they're contagious. Because we, I know we have on the, you know, we're hoping at least to talk

about Maxie Claibah, who was, I thought played really well in this game for, you know, as one of the bodies that came in as DeAndre Aten was unable to play in the second half. He has a knee contusion. Did not return to the game after half time. You could tell something was bothering him very early in the game. Like, it caught my eye, but then he played through it. So I was like, like maybe he just tweaked something and he's done with it. But then he didn't play it all in the second half, didn't emerge from the locker room. JJ's, the only update JJ offered was that he did not have an update.

So hopefully it's nothing serious. Right. And hopefully it's not too bad. But, you know, it's, and again, the Lakers play Tuesday and Friday. So they have a little bit, you know, it's a light week. If DeAndre needs like three or four days to recoup, it only would be one game that he would miss. Even if he needs most of a week, it would still only be two. So, you know, but with if Aiton is out for any amount of time,

it means Maxie Clave has got to play. And he and I thought Jackson Hayes filled in nicely in this game. But like one of the only shots that Maxi took, it might have been his only one. How many you take? He took two. You know, but his one three-pointer was almost, It felt like he needed his turn to take a bad three.

Like it just sort of launched for what seemed like no particular reason. And there were just sort of too many earlyish clock threes. Again, a lot of this coming from Luca that felt like they could have done better. Austin sometimes gets, I think, pushed into later clock threes that sometimes need to be taken. his shot selection, you know, it can be a little bit different. But like, Luke has got the ball on his hands early in these possessions. And I think sometimes does just kind of settle for that a little too often, even understanding how valuable establishing that early three is for his gravity,

for the ball distribution and all that kind of stuff. Just a little more judiciousness, I think, would serve the team well because their three-point shooting is so bad right now. And it is the kind of thing that when they're not really dialed in defensively to their transition, defense and all that kind of stuff, it can lead to too many easy opportunities going the other way for the opponent. And it also, I think, just becomes contagious. JJ noted afterwards that right now they're going through a spell where they can't make threes. He was asked if they're shooting with confidence in JJ deadpan, they're shooting.

And he acknowledged, look, it took a while. last year for us to become a good three-point shooting team, but they eventually did. So there's still a lot of time for this to work itself out. And look, in this game tonight, you know, just to make sure touch on everything, like I had a list of things I didn't like. It included three-point volume from Luca, the overall three-point shooting from the team, the overall defense from the team. I did not like the way they closed out the game. I did not like the group that JJ chose to close with. LeBron, Luca, Austin, Gabe, and Maxie Clava.

Three of those five guys have barely played this season, much less with each other. And I thought they looked like a group that was unfamiliar with each other. It's not even that all of them played badly individual. Like we noted, Maxi played very well in this game. Like he had two very big offensive rebounds. He had a really good challenge on, on George for the final shot that Utah missed from the corner.

A challenge without fouling. Without fouling. He did some good things in this game. Gabe only took one shot. He attempted to, but he stepped out of bounds on a three. But the one shot Gabe took, he made. But I thought that was an odd group to go with down the stretch with the lack of just sort of familiarity and continuity.

I thought they, we talked about at the top, played down to the level of competition. There was a few times where in JJ's post game, the lack of physicality came up. And JJ made a connection between physicality and awareness. And I think what he's talking about are certainly a connection I see is when you are lacking overall physicality as a team, I think it speaks to just a lack of engagement and a lack of how dialed in you are to what you're doing and then things like excessive backcuts for easy baskets for your opponent as just one example can happen. Like there was a lot in this game that again, I guess big picture they won and assuming they start correcting these things in

ways that feel tangible, then fine. But this game was in a lot of ways a reminder of the many things that still need to work on despite the fact that they are winning games. And if they do any of this without DeAndre Aiton for whatever stretch, it's going to be even harder and means they're going to have to be even more locked into the stuff they're supposed to be doing. Yeah, I, I will give a little bit of grace on the closing lineup only. because they were short, one of the guys who certainly would have been

on the floor in Aiton. And I could see, just given the sheer size that Utah can play with, thinking that Maxie is a better matchup in this situation. But I just... I mean, Rue was playing pretty well

in this game. And I... I actually think Marcus played well in this game, too. And guys are more familiar with each other. At least for a lot of some of you, finished the very end. But like, and Smart was a, you know, 18 plus 18 and 17 minutes.

Like I just, I, I thought it was a strange choice by JJ to be perfectly. Sure. I thought it's fair. That's fair. I just, I look at this and I, I am constantly sort of seeing what appear to be indications that the Lakers are trying very hard to keep Marcus Smart's minutes down. You know, I, I have an odd. asked them about it and all that, but it just seems given the amount of the,

given the impact that he has when he plays, and he's been quite good in terms of overall impact. They're not parlaying that into an extra 10 minutes a night on the floor. It's still, you know, he played 17 minutes on Sunday. He is averaging, I'll look at the exact number, but it's not.

28 minutes a game. Okay. You know, so like, you know, given the impact, it could be certainly, you know, above that, you know, into the 30s. And so I wonder how that, that affects the rotation a little bit. I just, the physicality part of it is interesting because there was a stretch in the third quarter, where they just started contesting everything at the rim. Like they had like a five-minute stretch where, you know, Maxie picked up a foul, but, you know, there was some block he had a block shot like he was just a but and you know lebron contested so like there was

just like a you will not pass kind of vibe at the bucket and i was like you know this team is sort of grinding out physically what they're doing but you're right like there's a physicality away from the ball there's attention to detail and all that kind of stuff and they just were they looked awfully sluggish for a team that hadn't played five days you know it's funny though as much as from a Totally, and then we can break. From a totally logical standpoint, a team specifically won with LeBron, who's going to be 41 at the end of December, and some of the injury concerns that they've had

and some of the general maintenance, you would think that multiple days off would be something that this team would gravitate towards and capitalize on. But the last couple years, they actually have, they don't have a winning record. in games where they have multiple games off, and they've consistently played best with just one day off. And obviously, I don't remember.

I will say it is out of the norm for these guys. And so, you know, in that sense, look, I don't remember all the details of all of these games. There may be specific circumstances, who was missing, who wasn't, whatever. I'm just saying the actualities of this run very counter to what we talk about with the benefits of, extra practiced rest for LeBron, yada, yada, yada.

Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about Aiton and what's coming up. Other things that they might need to tweak as they go forward. We'll do all that next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Fanduel, the NBA. It is in full swing. There is no better place to get in on that action than with Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA,

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You know, obviously, Andy, the importance of Maxi Claibah is enhanced and, you know, how Jackson Hayes is playing. All of these things become more important if the Andre Aiton misses any time. You know, look, the Lakers have had guys in and out of, like the injuries across the league this year have just been bananas. I lost three guys on my fantasy team this week. But Aiton has been such an important part of what they do, I think really on both sides of the ball early in the season.

I don't necessarily look forward to seeing what it looks like for any long stretch without him. I've gotten very accustomed to him being there, and I like it. Well, it takes away so much of what they can do in the paint from a scoring perspective without just talking about LeBron, Luca, or Reeves driving. Like an actual focal point of optionality in the paint because obviously you can toss lobs to Jackson Hayes and he is really good at it. But that's his offense. Like that is essentially all you can do with Jackson.

And it requires not just setting. up Jackson, but it requires setting up plays in a very specific way. You know, it's not like he can pick and pop. He can only pick and roll and that you don't want him putting the ball on the floor. You don't want anything like that. But he can't, not only that, but he can't, you can pick and roll, but he can't, you know, pick and post. He can't.

Right. Exactly. Just you got one option there. Right. He does a decent job, I think, actually. I think it's probably the most underrated part of Jackson's game is he's pretty good as a passer out of the short roll or better than you might expect. But again, it's not, it's not, it's not, doesn't give you much of a diet offensively.

And then Maxie is in theory a stretch five. In reality, I think he's pretty reluctant to shoot. So I look at Maxie as a new, you know, somewhere between a neutral and just a non-factor. Again, he played very well tonight. And defensively, I thought he was extremely impactful in this game. and if nothing else, JJ likes Maxie. You can tell.

Like he likes what Maxi brings in the table. I think he's confident in him. In his limited minutes so far, coming back from injury, I think Cleaver's actually looked pretty good. But neither one of those guys, they may be able to hold down the fort, but there's only so much you can actually do with them,

especially offensively. and, you know, even they're going to miss Aiton's rebounding. They're going to miss his. It's a huge. Right. Rebound is a huge part. Yeah. And he's been, I think, a very active lane to turn.

He's not perfect when he's out there. And, you know, he's not going to be mistaken for DeKembe Matumbo anytime soon. But he's working. And I think he's been reasonably effective. I, you know, there is a, the optionality. as Rob Polinka would like to call it, just goes down. You know, the amount, they've gotten really much better. They're getting there, the, the, the, the, the chemistry is getting much better.

Just finding creative ways to, to do things. And Aiton has a gravity as a player inside the, inside the paint. As a guy you have to pay attention to on a role, he's sets him, or, you know, you know, really good screen and stuff like that. And you just, you lose that with both Jackson and Maxie. Like Claibah, at least over the course of his career, has had times, hasn't done it in a little while, if we're being honest, where he is a viable three-point threat that you really do need to watch from out there,

where he could pull opposing centers away from the basket. Less of that now than he used to. And we already talked about what Jackson does offensively. And I mentioned these things as, you know, again, we don't know the prognosis for for aiden just as a means of comparison r j barrett on the raptors left his game on sunday and the team already has said he's going in for imaging on um you know uh for a monday aaron gordon left the game on saturday and they said saturday night he's going to be out a little while And then Sunday they did further diagnosis.

I'm not trying to diagnose what Aiton does. It's just, it really is just an opportunity for me to talk about how important he has been and what they would be missing if he's gone for any length of time with this knee contusion. Hopefully it's not that. But it's just, you had told me, what are they now? 15, what are they 16 games in? 12 and 4. Yeah.

So 16 games in that Aiton would already be. you know, like this sort of indispensable, it seems like. I wouldn't have said it was impossible, but I would have been very happy to hear that news. Look, it's indicative of the fact that this, that the Andre Aitin experience so far for the Lakers has been very positive. I mean, if we knew he was going to miss time, I think heading into this season,

we would have figured that's a big deal anyway, just because he's the only proven starting caliber center on the team. So that by definition means it, matters. But he has been, I think, a very quick good fit for this team. And you and I weren't particularly worried about that not being the case, but it still had to happen. And the fact that it has happened. And again, just you start getting to Jacks and Maxie. And I don't want to take away from, I think the way both of them played well individually tonight. Jackson, I think, this season has been very good and slotted into what I think is his proper role, which is a backup.

I actually think Jackson's had a really nice season. And I think he has shown that in the proper role, like he could have a role in the playoffs as opposed to what happened last year versus Minnesota. But there is a drop off, I think just in terms of overall talent, but just all the different things that you can do with DeAndre versus. Jacks and Maxie, again, even acknowledging, I don't think you could have much worse options than them, but they're still a gap. Yeah, I would agree. I would agree. And I just, we'll talk about it this week because it's interesting. They did, by the way, the Lakers did, Adam is pointing out on the chat. And it's worth noting the Lakers did make a change that, as it turns out, if Aiton were to miss a week or two could be well-timed.

They let Christian Coloco go and replace that two-way contract with Drew Timmy, who played some with Brooklyn last year. I think he's only played with Brooklyn. But he's put up some decent numbers when given

an opportunity to play with the Nets and kind of silly season time and it was just crushing it in the G-League. So certainly a more viable option as a player than Coloco is. And if you did, it's not a bad rebounder.

And so if you did need a player to bring up that part of it, much more likely to be able to contribute reasonable minutes than Coloco. So that's worth pointing out. But it's just, for tomorrow's show, this question of, are they,

how much, regression in a positive or negative direction do you expect from things like shooting, which direction do you think the defense will go and all that kind of stuff? Because that really fundamentally gets into whether or not you're believing that the 12 and 4 start is legit or not. And there are a lot of different things you can look at, both statistically and things like Strength of Schedule, which you pointed out for Friday's show, which actually been really strong for the Lakers over the course of the years.

So plenty to unpack from that direction. Locked on Lakers on YouTube. It's bringing hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel, Andy, no matter if you subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, you love the YouTube product. However you're doing it, you're engaging with the number one podcast network in the world. And it's, if we're being honest, it's about 73% locked on Lakers. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's mostly us.

Yeah, rounding down from 100. We'll see everyone Tuesday.