Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Game Winner Gives LA 127-125 OT Win Vs. Denver, Gain Tiebreaker

Starting point is 00:00:00 Aluka Donchich, game winner, pushes the Lakers past the Nuggets in overtime. Are they finally showing signs of being a real contender? That's 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,

Starting point is 00:00:30 no matter how or where you get your podcasts, we appreciate you helping make the Locked-on podcast Network. The number one sports podcast network in this or any other known universe. I'm Brian Komenetsky with Andy Kaminetsky. Cover the Lakers for nearly 20 years with the athletic, with the SPN, with the LA Times. And in all that time, Andy, I like most people, have never seen anybody throw the ball off the, off the rim for that old on-purpose missed free throw thing and actually have it work. But it worked for the Lakers on Saturday. And it worked in the most perfect way possible. It was a huge part of a 127, 125 win that was equal parts, thrilling and

Starting point is 00:01:14 cringe-worthy and strange. And I mean, it was just, there was everything in this one. Yeah, it was really exciting. You obviously were referring to Austin Reeves in the closing seconds of regulation, gets the line, makes the first, intentionally misses the second, gets his own offensive rebound and finds himself with a totally clear baseline and gets a pretty easy shot up, drop, sends it to overtime. At that point, Luca ends up hitting with point, I believe it was point five seconds left, both 0.5 for regulation and overtime in terms of the last Laker shot. And it's interesting, too, with Austin hitting that, making the free throw thing work, which, to your point, never happens. That moment was emblematic of the way a lot of guys in this game managed to overcome mistakes that they made in this game. Or, you know, Austin up to that point, it just committed two terrible turnovers that could have jeopardized everything,

Starting point is 00:02:29 DeAndre Aiton had a really great overtime after really not being particularly effective in the first four quarters, but he came up with huge, huge plays. Luke Donchich had a game winner after a second quarter where there were a decent amount of missed shots, like the percentages went down in the second half. There's just so many different guys found incredible moments or just like LeBron, When LeBron dove for that loose ball in the fourth quarter, like a true layout stretch fall to get that loose ball. And you know his 41-year-old body felt every single bit of that impact.

Starting point is 00:03:15 It just, it was emblematic of a team that made mistakes in this game. Their execution in the second half got sloppy. In all honesty, I thought they got away with a little bit of stuff in the first half. as well, but they simply refused to give up on this game at all. And it's a game that I know they're going to be really excited about afterwards. It's a game that I think could be signaling them figuring some things out. You know, the idea of that balance in the way the offense is going to work between Luca, Austin, and LeBron. Like these are things that have been difficult to figure out over the course of this season.

Starting point is 00:04:07 And now a couple games in a row, it's looked not necessarily perfect, but everyone has looked like they've been more on the same page with it, at the very least. Mark Smart, massive in this game, just absolutely massive game. Just so much I think Laker fans can be excited about, this win, even if all of it, particularly the second half, was nowhere close to perfect. Lakers were up 17 points at one point in the first half of this game and finished up 11 at the half. And it really felt like the Lakers were just catching the nuggets on a night where they could

Starting point is 00:04:48 not get anything going at all. And Jamal Murray, this may have been the worst game of his career, if it was not top five. He finished with five points, one of 14 from the field. At no point was he able to find any rhythm. He adding insult to injury. Thank Mark is smart for that. Yeah, adding insult to injury, he fouled out. It was just the intensity in this game, JJ said before,

Starting point is 00:05:17 JJ Redick said before the game was going to treat it like a playoff game. And, you know, I know, you mentioned LeBron laying out. And you mentioned, you know, obviously the play of Marcus Smart and, you know, the way they were able to kind of come together defensively. Reeves, who, you know, had a couple really bad turnovers down the stretch was also very good defensively late in the game. And Luca with some really strong defensive plays. I know you mentioned DeAndre Aiton what he did on, you know, four or five possessions in that final, you know, in that overtime. specifically against Yokic. Yokic and Murray.

Starting point is 00:05:56 He had to play where he was up out on the perimeter against Murray and forced to miss. He was very good, very quick on his feet, and it was well done. After the break, we can talk a little bit, too, about sort of what this means. Like the implications of this game, we'll have a little bit of time to talk about,

Starting point is 00:06:17 you know, more react to what they did in this one because it was inconsistent. The first 15 minutes were some of the best basketball they played this season by a lot. Slow bleed into halftime. Ugly third quarter, they actually fell down by seven in the fourth and managed to come back with under three minutes left. There was a lot going on in this game, but the implications of it are significant.

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Starting point is 00:10:01 Okay. So like I said, this was a game where, you know, the swings in play were sometimes really fast. You know, the Lakers came out, you know, just red hot. Their first seven shots were threes. They made five of them. you know, Reeves and LeBron in particular, I'm sorry, Reeves and Luca in particular were very active and very accurate early. The Lakers seemed to replicate that formula, Andy, where, you know, LeBron moves off the ball, you know, gives Reeves and Luca a little more space to really get going.

Starting point is 00:10:38 And, you know, strong, strong, strong start to the game. You wouldn't expect them to do that the entire game. you wouldn't expect Denver to miss as many shots as they did for an entire game. But the Lakers definitely hit some struggles in that lead up to halftime, certainly in the third quarter into the fourth. It looked like this could have become one of the more disappointing losses this season, how they let it get away. Yeah, and truth be told, even in the first quarter and change where the Lakers were absolutely dominating,

Starting point is 00:11:12 I do think they were playing good defense, but also they got lucky in the sense that there were some open threes that Denver just missed. Like there was a sequence where Denver got three possessions. Three offensive rebounds, right? Right. I guess, yeah, four possessions, three offensive rebounds. Yeah, whatever. They missed three threes is what you're correct. Yeah, sorry, my fault.

Starting point is 00:11:35 And they, all the looks that they missed were open. Like, Nikola Yokic missed the third three. he was so open, he actually hesitated for a second. It was like, you know, when that happens when guys are too open and it almost freaks them out. The Lakers got away with some stuff. Again, not for a lack of effort. I don't even think it was necessarily bad execution. It's Denver is a really good offensive team.

Starting point is 00:12:01 They have in, even in a game where Jamal Murray is struggling, Jamal Murray and especially Nikola Yokic, they can move the ball extremely well, make them difficult to cover. So the Lakers managed to dodge a few bullets. The second half, I thought they actually just grew more careless, particularly offensively. They were making some inexplicably bad decisions. But this was a game where you had mentioned it could have been one of the more frustrating losses of the season. Because, I mean, forget just losing, you know, blowing a 17 point lead in the first half, 11 at the halftime.

Starting point is 00:12:38 you're talking about a game with tiebreaker implications. Yeah, we'll get to that in a second for sure. Yeah, the Lakers now are up two to one. That's the end of the series. So they have the tiebreaker against Denver. They also have the tiebreaker against the wolves. They have to win both games next week against the rockets to get the tiebreaker, but that is still a live possibility.

Starting point is 00:12:58 If they had blown a game with tiebreaker implications like this, after being up so big, particularly on a night where, again, Jamal Murray was so bad and so ineffective and just missing shot after shot after shot eventually followed out. This would have felt like a borderline unforgivable game to these guys. Like that type of result. They'd have been they'd have been kicking themselves. They never something I think we have seen particularly of late with this group, but for a lot of the season, they don't give up on games.

Starting point is 00:13:35 Like some, you know, we have seen at times that they will let their foot off the gas, but they generally do not give up on games. And this was a game where they never stopped fighting. And that is in a lot of ways emblematic of the way they sent the thing into overtime with Austin's intentionally missed free throw, the offensive rebound, and the game tying shot. They essentially had to will the for all intents and purposes, was impossible into happening.

Starting point is 00:14:08 But it was a thing. But you can't make that happen unless you're willing to do it. You wouldn't expect them to give up on a game this significant. But to me, it's just it's also, you know, kind of finding, I mean, I'm not going to lie. Like the missed free throw thing is luck. I mean, there's a lot of luck to that. I mean, you know, he could probably do that 50 more times

Starting point is 00:14:31 and not replicate that exact bounce more than a couple times. or, you know, the scenario around it. It was a well-designed play, the Lakers, you know, he shot it to the open side, which is what they were, you know, it was trying to do. Aiton did a good job, you know, tying up Yokic to make the, you know, the rebound. Like all of it was all well executed. It was just there's a lot of luck that goes with that. But, you know, they also made some shots, you know, and certainly in the overtime,

Starting point is 00:14:59 continue to make plays. What I thought was interesting, too, is JJ mentioned this, like, you know, In a game with this sort of intensity, it was good for them to go through it because, like, you mentioned Austin in a couple bad turnovers in that first segment. Like, those are turnovers, especially. I thought some of their turnovers came when they were starting to get a little tight because they could sort of the offense wasn't working. They were trying to force things to try to get something that had. But a lot, you know, Luke through. LeBron, Bron couldn't handle it.

Starting point is 00:15:36 They were just trying to force too many things. But down the stretch, you get into these situations. Like the adrenaline starts flowing. It's a really tight game. You want to make a play. And those are sort of errors of commission. But they're also the kind of thing that you have to go through and do the mental training to slow down.

Starting point is 00:15:58 Can't make that pass. You know, I want to make that pass. I want to do the awesome thing and lift the team. But I can't. And so I was just, they could have lost this game, but they didn't. That's going to happen a bunch of times over the course of a season. But in the end, you look up, Andy, and they've got the tiebreaker. They're a third seed.

Starting point is 00:16:18 They own the tiebreaker over Minnesota. They at least have a chance to get it with these two games against Houston. They're in pretty good shape. And for a team that has been discounted all year long as not even really belonging in that second tier of contenders in the Western Conference after San Antonio and Oklahoma City, I do think they may be starting to change that list. Something I want to talk about a lot this week is like at what point do you

Starting point is 00:16:49 just have to accept the Lakers are winning a lot of games, particularly if the big three starts to play much better together and you get a this version of DeAndre Aiton, more or less the rest of the season. It's a different team than they were. in January. Yeah, I mean, I think there are a lot of people who just need to see more of it consistently against a stretch of good teams. Like some of, I think the lack of acceptance will get into it more over the course of the week. It's just been the way the schedule breaks down, the Lakers had not had an opportunity to start beating good teams. Now they're starting to do that. They need to do it

Starting point is 00:17:26 a little bit longer. But this is the first step in it. You have to beat those type of teams. Again, like so many different players, I think when you look back on this game, are going to have moments that you remember like, you know, D'Andre Aiton, his overtime, you know, four of his nine points came in overtime. He had a sequence where he defended Yokic into a miss, and that ended up an Aitin basket on the other end. He blocked Yokic on one sequence. Unfortunately,

Starting point is 00:18:02 inexplicably didn't go pick. I mean, I think 90% of the time that ball goes out. It's blocked out of bounds. I think he just assumed it was already out. And then when he saw it land, he was like, oh, shh, you know. Yeah, I, yes, it was a bit of a brain cramp. But his overtime was so good. And I think it was important too.

Starting point is 00:18:22 Like that was, A, it came on the heels of regulation where he was not particularly impactful at all. But Jay, he was, he spent a lot of the game. It was fine. He had some good moments. some bad. It was it was hard to get going. I think it's fair to say. Well, I mean, however you want to phrase it, he was not particularly impactful. But JJ mentioned afterwards, like it was a conscious decision to go with Aiton in overtime. Like he wanted someone, he said he wanted to, obviously, Luca LeBron and also are going to stay on the court. He wanted Marcus out there. So it's really that

Starting point is 00:18:57 fifth guy, you know, whether you're going to go with Aiton, whether you're going to go with Rui, whether you're going to go maybe with Jackson, any specific. wanted D'Andre out there to match up with Yokic to also, I think, rebounding purposes, you know, physicality. And again, my point even bringing it up with him being not particularly impactful in quarters one through four is that this was not an easy necessarily or obvious decision for JJ. And JJ decided to roll the dice on Aiton and Aiton paid it off.

Starting point is 00:19:31 like Aiden really paid off that belief in it, like that decision. And, you know, Marcus Smart plus 16 game high for either side, 21 points, five steals, five threes in this game. Like I had mentioned one of the things that jumped out at me in the Chicago win is just how much this team misses Marcus's urgency. Like just the urgency that he brings over the course of 40. minutes, I think just by virtue of having him active. And then, man, Luca, Luca down the stretch, man. That's his first game winner with the Lakers, isn't it?

Starting point is 00:20:14 I don't know off the top of my head. I think it is. Luca Caravnesia, man. Luca Caravnesia. That's Luca Caravnesia, man. Phenomenal. I mean, like, but, you know, it's just, it is a remind, like all of these teams in this,

Starting point is 00:20:31 bunch that the Lakers are in have some flaws. And we'll talk about like, you know, Denver made a big mistake. They sent the double, but they sent it in, you know, from a direction that made it easy for Luca to go the other direction. You know, he was away from the double. They didn't take a foul. They had one to give. They didn't.

Starting point is 00:20:47 I think there were, Spencer Jones might have been a little worried because Luca is very good at anticipating that and getting the shot up to make it. There was a play in this game where Luca was passing out got fouled and immediately turned back to put the ball up. Like, it's, it's trickier than it looks, but like these are all,

Starting point is 00:21:07 once you get those top two teams, San Antonio and Oklahoma City have clearly separated themselves. But the other, everybody else is like in a big pot. And the Lakers right now are playing better than any of those teams. You know, having won eight of nine. Yes.

Starting point is 00:21:24 Yes. And, you know, the, and now have beaten four really good teams in the last. you know week and a half or whatever it is so plenty to talk about from Monday show I'm excited to talk about Monday show it's gonna be it's me fun like people are excited it is so much more fun to do this when people are excited and believe in

Starting point is 00:21:43 what is going on Locked on Lakers on YouTube is we're going to hang out with over 37,000 darn near 38,000 subscribers will see everyone on Monday

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Game Winner Gives LA 127-125 OT Win Vs. Denver, Gain Tiebreaker

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