Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Scores 39, Lakers Beat Houston to Clinch 3rd Seed and Earn Extra Rest Before Playoffs

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to a special bonus episode of Locked-on Lakers for a Saturday. Brian Komeneski, Andy Komeneski, the Lakers take care of business on Friday night. And now get precious, precious, precious rest, Andy. We'll break it all down. 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 00:00:33 Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen of every day. Monday through Friday, no matter how. or where you get your podcast. Oh, by the way, sometimes on Saturdays, no matter how where you get your podcast, this one's always free, never behind a paywall because, good Lord, you wouldn't put a paywall

Starting point is 00:00:47 in front of a podcast with a third seed in the Western Conference. Nobody would do that. Locked on Lakers on YouTube. It's where you can go hang out with over 34,000 very happy subscribers to the channel, all of whom are very pleased

Starting point is 00:01:00 with what the Lakers did. They had a simple mission against the Rockets, Andy, on Friday night. Win, get rest, on Sunday and just get rest through the week and figure out who you're going to play. That was it, and they did it. Yep.

Starting point is 00:01:13 They are officially now locked into three seed. They are going to have at least one round of home court advantage in the playoffs. And I think it is safe to say things are looking pretty good right now for this team. Another really good night for Luca Donchich. He led the way with 39 points and just. 31 minutes. Honestly, could have had a 40 piece easily had he been better at the free throw line, which Luca very clearly was aware of and very clearly unhappy with himself down the stretch while at the line. I think recognized like, dude, come on. It's wrong with you. But just another

Starting point is 00:02:00 fantastic showing from him, really good balance from, I mean, to whatever degree you want to analyze a game where the Lakers played against these zombie rockets who were already locked into their two seed. They sat basically everybody that matters. Jaylon Green did 15 minutes. That was the only starter who played. Because he has a consecutive game streak going and he wants to keep it alive. And by the way, good for him, man. That's really cool.

Starting point is 00:02:28 You know, he's forget trying to catch A.C. Green. He's got to try to catch Miguel Bridges, who's, I think, at around 500 or so. Nobody's catching A.C. Green. No, but it's awesome to see a young guy like Jalen Green taking pride in something like that. But, you know, the Lakers still, there were a couple maybe three or four minute pockets of the game where I think they were having difficulty maintaining the urgency of a game where I think everybody, if they were being honest with themselves, could acknowledge there was no flippin urgency whatsoever. But for the most part, they took care of business. I mean, they won by 31 points. And the game was never, other than maybe the first eight minutes of the first quarter,

Starting point is 00:03:16 this game was never even remotely in question. Yeah, I think everybody knew what was going on here, including the Rockets. And it was one of these things like, you know, I'm sure around the conference, are people upset with, I don't know. And Houston, Eme Adoka made it very clear he doesn't care. His responsibility is not to other teams, it's to his own. And the Rockets earned the ability to make sure their guys are as healthy as can be down the stretch. And that's what they chose to do.

Starting point is 00:03:44 The Lakers, you get back home after a long and emotional road trip. That first game back is always a little tricky. You're playing a bunch of guys that you've never really seen play together. It's like you get off to kind of a slow start, but they very clearly knew they could put gain control of the game. And once they had it, they were very clearly not going to give it up. And Houston knew that too. And so I don't think they cared to be perfectly. It's interesting.

Starting point is 00:04:12 Side note, we don't have to go deep into this because it's not our team. And for the time being not our business until the Lakers potentially play Houston. Where I, Eme, Adoka, I would actually want these guys to play more or at least play a half just because they are so collectively inexperienced for the playoffs and they're going to be getting a long break anyway. I would want to be keeping them more in rhythm, more dialed in. Granted, Ime Adoka is a very intense taskmaster. So he might just feel like I got it under control.

Starting point is 00:04:47 Yeah. And I also think, too, like, they're almost surely going to sit people on Sunday, no matter what they do in this one because you really don't want to risk. But that's why I would go one. more game. And I can see your point, except if you're going to get out of rhythm because you have a week off, you're probably going to get out of rhythm. I don't think a half is going to save you. So I can understand both sides of the argument. Houston obviously decided to favor rest and making sure their guys are whole. The Lakers are the beneficiary of that, which, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:17 it's a nice little shift. The Lakers have had some scheduling challenges over the course of the last, you know, six to eight weeks. So getting one of these is well earned. The only time it looked like there might be any sort of hiccup was in the second half of LeBron, exited the game, looked like he sort of tweaked his groin again, briefly kind of, you know, he sat down on the bench, he didn't look happy, sort of tried to stretch it out, however, by, I don't know, five minutes later, 10 minutes later, he was feeling pretty good. He was, you know, by the end of the game, he was participating in sideline celebrations,

Starting point is 00:05:52 literally moonwalking at one point. Yeah, he's jumping up and down when Austin Reeves checked out of the game for good. I think they were acknowledging we got the three seed, we did it, all of that. Like, unless LeBron has decided he can play professional basketball without a groin, I'm guessing it's been concluded he's fine. Right. JJ, after game, said he's fine. If he's not fine, he's going to get probably nine days of rest. The Lakers obviously will sit everyone. They might even just, they might just play Brony and Jemison, like on Sunday. That's the team.

Starting point is 00:06:25 and Len, Alex Len. So, no, well, let's not get crazy. We'll see. Maybe if one of those two guys gets in foul trouble. I mean, what? I don't know if Len's playing. Do you know if Alex, do you know if he's been showing up? Like, no, I saw him actually come out of the tunnel.

Starting point is 00:06:48 He was there. Because he could miss games and I don't know if anybody would know. No, you want that game check. You want the game check. Like just, you're not going to get the game check unless you're there. If you're on the active roster, you've got to be there to get your check. No, I agree. I'm just saying I want, my point is I'm not sure anybody would notice.

Starting point is 00:07:07 Clearly you didn't. It was just overall, it was a very strong. I mean, I'm looking at the bench that closely. It was just an overall, a very strong night for the Lakers to accomplish exactly what they needed to. That third seed is a really remarkable accomplishment, especially when, you know, considering, where they've been for the first, say, six weeks, eight weeks of the season. And then the rally caps get put on. You have this trade.

Starting point is 00:07:33 There's just tremendous upheaval. And now they are playing as well as any team. Our friend Matt Moore at HP Basketball tweeted this out because it is still very much. Co-hoa of Locked on Nuggets, by the way, too. That's true. We will, we know the Lakers of the three-seat. They will play the six-seat. Who the six-seat is is.

Starting point is 00:07:55 yet to be determined. Denver is playing presumably the zombie rockets on Sunday. You would expect them to win. Minnesota is playing the jazz. You would also expect them to win. The big game on Sunday is Golden State versus the Clippers. If let's assume Denver beats Houston and Minnesota beat the Jazz. If the Warriors win, the Clippers the seventh. If the Clippers, the Seventh, if the Clippers beat the Warriors, it would be the Clippers in five, Denver in four, and the Lakers would play Minnesota. So barring something weird, the most likely teams that they would play would be Golden State or Minnesota.

Starting point is 00:08:47 Things change if Minnesota loses or Denver, you know, craps away a game against the Rockets. But let's presume that's not going to happen. Interesting first run matchups to say the least. So they'll have plenty of time to scout, Andy. They're not going to play for what, the Lakers always open on Sunday. Assuming the Lakers, the NBA sticks with tradition,

Starting point is 00:09:08 the Lakers won't play again until, or the Lakers starters won't play again until presumably a week from Sunday. Yeah. So they're going to have a lot of time. We obviously, too, we'll get more into this on Sunday and beyond, but we will be doing a lot of previewing

Starting point is 00:09:24 of the Lakers' first round opponent, whether folks from Lakers, Locked on Clippers, locked on warriors, locked on wolves, other people we know who cover those teams from different outlets around the league. We're looking to really give you guys some blanket coverage, stuff like that. But first of all, it is such a relief to know that we are not going to have to deal with the play in Mishagas, the nonsense. Like none of this is any of the Lakers business. As much as I love the play-in, and I think the play-in's really fun. It's fantastic. It makes things interesting. I don't want the Lakers involved with it.

Starting point is 00:10:06 I just want to watch other teams play in it. Yes. So it is, it truly is awesome to know that they're not going to have to deal with any of it. One other really fun moment in the night, I think it was in the first quarter, a ball got tipped out of bounds, and a court side Bruce Springsteen, The boss somewhere I think in his 70s caught the ball, like flipped it over to an official or whatever. And the replay was on the Jumbotron and Rui was watching it. And all of a sudden it dawned on him. Holy bleep. That's Bruce Springsteen.

Starting point is 00:10:44 And Rui was literally like jaw dropped, which was hilarious. I tweeted this out at Cam Brothers on Twitter or Blue Sky. as well if you guys want to see the clip it is so funny it's really really hilarious i mean i'll be honest with you i i get it like these guys you know NBA stars meet a lot of people i mean ruy is not lebron he's not luka he can't open every single but like these guys have met a lot of people they've met a lot of celebrities they know some folks um it always is kind of fun when you see them kind of get star struck and i'll be honest i'm not even that big a spring spring spring spring And if I ever saw Bruce Springsteen or met him even, I would probably freak out.

Starting point is 00:11:28 Because it's Bruce Springsteen. We've talked about this before. Like Kobe was quite literally a global icon. I mean like Kobe was for his era and certainly everlasting now. Like one of the biggest stars, like one of the biggest star athletes who had a crossover appeal, like truly a global icon when, you know, his passing became a one of the biggest star athletes. became a worldwide recognition and mourning. But when Kobe won the Oscar and he was at the Academy Awards and afterwards,

Starting point is 00:12:01 you could see Kobe was overwhelmed by this particular surrounding. And it's not like Kobe playing for the Lakers for 20 years didn't meet his share of actors and musicians and celebrities. But being in that setting, even with was kind of overwhelming for Kobe. I mean, side note, I know we've told this story before. Our favorite story ever is when Kobe used to talk about one of our favorite stories, how Kobe used to talk about because he was genuinely intellectually curious, all these other businesses, side things, interests and stuff.

Starting point is 00:12:36 He wanted to learn from people who he knew knew more than he did. And so he would talk about how he would cold call, you know, all these experts in the field. Spielberg, Oprah, John Williams. Yeah, like all these guys, you know, tech executives, business executives, other stuff. And he would use that expression, cold calling. Like, nobody's going to, like, they're not going to take Kobe. Like, when you and I. Like he's Jack Lemons character in Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross. Right. You know, work in the phones. Right. No. If you and I call Steven Spielberg, that's cold calling. That's cold calling. When Kobe calls him, that's an unexpected call. But it's not cold calling.

Starting point is 00:13:13 One last actually very funny story with that before we let everybody go until Sunday. There was a documentary that came out maybe 12 years ago called Yiro Dreams of Sushi. And it's it's about this man Yiro who was considered the greatest sushi maker ever. And like the world like leading expert, Japan's greatest sushi maker. And it was about his legacy and his sons looking to take over his sushi restaurant and the pressure on them. And it was also about process. And you know, Kobe was as anybody knows, really into process.

Starting point is 00:13:50 And Brian and I interviewed the director of that documentary. And he told us this story about how he gets this call from his assistant. And the assistant tells him Kobe Bryant's on the phone. And he's like, yeah, okay, whatever. Like what are you calling? He's like, no, really. Kobe is on the phone. And Kobe reached out to this director because he wanted to learn more about Hero.

Starting point is 00:14:17 And like, you know, was there anything else about his process that didn't make the movie or whatever. Like that's a great example of cold calling, even just the guy who was adjacent to the expert. Like it was really, it really was something that Kobe did regularly that impressed Brian and I a lot. So, all right. We will obviously have much more clarity on Sunday in the afternoon. We will do a show, obviously our regular show for Monday following the Lakers Blazers.

Starting point is 00:14:48 expect to see a lot of brawny. Jemison. Pick your favorite reserves. If you see them frequently in the rotation, you probably won't see them much on Sunday. But before we go, Andy, we really, it would be a mistake if we didn't tell people about this. It would be a mistake and also a...

Starting point is 00:15:09 Whoa, whoa. It would be a mistake and a reference. The button's done gone crazy. Locked up to be a mistake. let you know that lot not to let you know that locked on lakers is brought to you by game time there's nothing like watching basketball or a post game podcast live the energy of the crowd the sound of sneakers on the hardwood the messing up of the buttons seeing bruce springsteen sitting courtside if you want to catch a game in person game time makes getting tickets easier than ever game times new

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Starting point is 00:17:43 All right. We will see everyone Sunday evening on YouTube and whenever we put the audio up. Maybe Sunday evening or Monday morning. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Scores 39, Lakers Beat Houston to Clinch 3rd Seed and Earn Extra Rest Before Playoffs

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