Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Stays Cold, Lakers Punished on the Glass, Lose to Golden State, 123-116

Starting point is 00:00:01 Hey, everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Friday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Komenetsky, LeBron versus Steph, lives up to the billing. But the Lakers fall short on Thursday night. Break 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, no matter how or where you get your podcast. This one's always free. Excuse me, never behind a paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where over 34,000 subscribers to the YouTube channel are all hanging out.

Starting point is 00:00:49 And quite frankly, Andy, a little disappointed in what happened Thursday night the Lakers. They lose to the Warriors at the Crypt. Rare home loss for the Lakers, 123, 116, the final score. Not,

Starting point is 00:01:05 it's not a good night. But we will start the The LeBron Steff part definitely lived up to the building. It was just the rest of the team in a variety of ways that didn't quite get it done for the Lakers. Do you want to let everybody know today's episodes brought to you by Fanduel. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. We'll get to Luca. We'll get to the bench.

Starting point is 00:01:34 We'll get to the offensive rebounding issues. I should say defensive rebounding, the offensive rebounding of the Warriors. All of these things that ultimately hurt the Lakers here. It is worth noting, though, Andy, we talked about it hoping Wednesday, you know, for Thursday show, we'd get a classic LeBron versus Steph. We were hoping maybe this could be the kind of thing that is a first-round matchup so we could get one more playoff version of LeBron versus Steph. And if this is what it's going to look like,

Starting point is 00:02:07 I definitely hope it happens in the playoffs. It was everything it was cracked up to be. Well, let's be clear. Short of the game. I was going to say you, it was everything it was cracked up to be and you hope this would be the playoff matchup, assuming the Lakers end up winning four of seven.

Starting point is 00:02:27 But as far as the entertainment value of it. I just want to accentuate the playoff. positive before we get to the negative. Right, but it's just important to point out that that is part of the thing that you are wishing for because simply having fun over seven games, four to seven games while the Lakers lose, that's not what our audience is here for. That is not how they define entertainment. But as far as the LeBron v. Steff of it all, which, as you said, did live up to the hype,

Starting point is 00:02:56 Steph had 37, LeBron had 33. There was a moment, I don't know if you caught this or not, but with about two minutes left in the game, Steph hit a three, and then LeBron answered with a three. It pulled the Lakers within 7, 114-107 with 151 left. And, you know, this is a point where the Lakers are still in trouble for this game, still need to make up a lot of ground. but LeBron could not help himself but smile because I just think he recognized like, God damn, this is fun. Like, we need this game.

Starting point is 00:03:36 I want this win. Obviously, the entertainment value that LeBron gets from a game pales by comparison to his desire to win said game. But LeBron even recognized like, holy bleep, man, like, this is the good stuff. Yeah, for sure. It is so easy.

Starting point is 00:03:58 We talk about it all the time. It is easy to be cynical in sports media. Quite frankly, it often pays to be cynical in sports media. Media generally, I don't think that is a secret. And we live in a deeply cynical time. You're giving the Jerry McGuire speech right now. I am. I need you to help me help you.

Starting point is 00:04:25 Andy. Is this a cynical world, Brian? It is a cynical, cynical world. Who's coming with me and bringing a fish? I, I, it's just important to step back and appreciate what makes sports fun.

Starting point is 00:04:40 Like, not everything has to be count the rings and not everything has to be, well, if it doesn't end in the title, it's useless. It's like sometimes watching people who are some of,

Starting point is 00:04:55 the best to ever do it, do it. It's just, that can be the enjoyment. And I realize we're going to spend 23 of our 30 minutes talking about what was wrong about this game and what was disturbing about it and what the Lakers did wrong and why JJ Reddick, quite frankly, seemed as irritated and annoyed after this game as he has with any loss over the course of the season. actually except for that other one where you got was really clearly disgusted but we'll get to all that I just wanted to get the

Starting point is 00:05:34 that was a fun basketball game part of it out of the way and I apologize if that makes me soft or you know an apologist or whatever sometimes I just like watching incredible athletes do stuff that

Starting point is 00:05:50 nobody else can do. Again we talked before about how LeBron, I guarantee, is cognizant of the idea of this has been my biggest rival in a 22-year career. This is the guy that I have faced the most with the most stakes on the line. Like, this is the guy that has been my contemporary, like all of it, I relish it, I appreciate it. And I think in that moment, again, he recognized this was awesome. Yep. But you are correct. There is an awful lot that on one hand, you could say that despite a lot not going well for the Lakers, they manage to keep themselves in this game.

Starting point is 00:06:37 And we'll get into some of the details, but you could say if say this ended up a series, you trust Luca to get it going better in the playoffs where he has a great track record than say Brandon Pajamsky to go off for 22. and a half like john i think you're going to get an 18 on seven of 12 you know right like but but there were things that went wrong for the lakers in this game that have been recurrent at times for the lakers when things do not go well and while you may still believe in luka and the overall track record which you should this was a rough game as j jay said by the way i We should note the final lines for Steph and LeBron, 37 for Steph, 10 and 21 from the 4th, 13 to 14. From the free throw line, LeBron finished 10 of 15 from the floor, 33 points, five rebounds, nine assists, a steel and a block. He was, he and Austin Reeves, at least in the fourth quarter, the fourth quarter version of Austin Reeves,

Starting point is 00:07:45 was the LeBron was the reason the Lakers were tight in this game at least in spitting distance throughout there were it was Luka was not good

Starting point is 00:07:59 as as J.J. said after the game asked about Luca it was like a question with three or four different parts talked a little about the offense shot not falling and defensively they were switching on or they seemed to be hunting for him

Starting point is 00:08:15 and all these other things, kind of set up this tableau of a question. Redick's response was, it wasn't his night. Very short, very curt, very annoyed, I think. And I don't know if there was something that Luca was or wasn't doing specifically that annoyed JJ. But it was he blew through that question with a very short, didn't gloss it over, didn't, you know, we trust Luke. He didn't play well. And I, and that's true. I mean, I think there was a part of JJ that did not want to give a quote that would enter the locker room.

Starting point is 00:08:54 Everybody has to get talked about. It leaves first take and sports center and yada, yada, yada, you know, big mouths like us having to address it, all that sort of stuff. I also think that quite frankly, there, in terms of what LeBron didn't do tonight, there was an awful lot that I believe I lost Brian for a second. There was an awful lot that Luca just didn't do on both sides of the ball. Luca was struggling to get his offense going and in struggling to get the offense going. He was, I think, forcing some shots. And then in the meantime, defensively, he just, he was often getting targeted. There were times where I thought he got caught ball watching and left the defense vulnerable for offball cutting, stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:09:47 It was just a night where, you know, he got a tech arguing. He got a tech arguing a three-point foul against Steph that was a foul. He was saying he was arguing that Steph kicked out his leg. And I don't. He really didn't. It's the wrong time to do that anyway. Right. He wasn't, that was a frustration tech.

Starting point is 00:10:11 It was a T because he was. angry with how he was playing. I just, I'll read some numbers when we get back of the slump that Luca is currently in. But there are, we've seen enough of him to know, like, he's not, he's not fast. He's never looks like speedy around the floor. But there are nights when he looks spry, when he looks active, when he, you know, by his standards, he's moving with some quickness, short distance, you know, short space quickness. He's got, you know, none of that was there on Thursday.

Starting point is 00:10:45 He looked tired. He looked heavy. I don't mean like he's like he's too fat kind of heavy. He just looked heavy. Everything was weighty with what he was trying to do. Easy, Nico. I know that none of these words, it's like, we need a new vocabulary for these things. You know, like I, you know, I can't even say weighed down.

Starting point is 00:11:05 That doesn't help either. But I hope people understand what I'm trying to do. It just He looked like I did Is just a night where he was weighed down? Is that what you're saying? I tried to avoid it. But he looked like I do when I like walk the track with angle weights on.

Starting point is 00:11:22 Just, you know, you're not moving quite fast enough. And, uh, he calls those ankle weights as calves. It is. Kidding.

Starting point is 00:11:29 I'm kidding. I'm joking. It is, uh, it's indicative of a slump that he is in. That is problematic for the Lakers, and I'll explain why next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by five-hour energy drink. Daylight savings sneaks up on us,

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Starting point is 00:14:36 So if you go back to his last three games, you're looking at 0 of 6 from 3, 1 of 7, and 2 of the game before that he was four of 12 so 33% 22% 14% zero this was Luca's first game without a made three since 2023 like it's been two years since he's gone a game where he was 04 behind the arc and it is kind of the finishing touch in terms of what you're talking about with that slump from behind the ark that he's dealing with right now. And so if you if you look since mid, we'll pick it up in, you know, mid March, you know, the game against Phoenix, eight of 20 there, 40 percent, five of 20 against San Antonio, 25 percent. The one game, he's, there have been two games since in that stretch where he's been

Starting point is 00:15:29 over 50 percent from Florida. He was 10 of 18 against the Bulls. He was 11 of 21 against the Pacers. every other game since March 16th, he has been under 50%. And in one, two, three, four, making sure I'm not miscounting, five of them, he's been at under 40%. Under 40%. When your star, I mean, he is as close to a high-volume shooter as this team has. To his credit, he's not putting up 25, 30 shots a game while he does this. He was 17, 16, 18 in his last three. but still when your offense is kind of built around one guy who is going to take a lot of shots,

Starting point is 00:16:14 is going to have the ball in his hands a lot. It does gum up the Lakers offense when Luca is this inefficient. Yeah, and he did some other good things offensively in terms of setting up teammates. He had, I believe, seven assists tonight and could have had more if more shots were dropping. And he clearly was not just to make sure it does not sound like we are piling on Luca. He had company in terms of other guys not making open shots. Like the Lakers had no scoring off the bench of any kind. Excuse me, Andy.

Starting point is 00:16:51 They had seven points, I believe, as a team. Yeah, they had seven points between DFS, Vando, Gabe, and Jordan Goodwin. Three field goals, one of 11 from three-point range. Right. And I was going to say Gabe and DFS were a combined. one of 10 from behind the arc and surely some of those were off passes from Luca. It's interesting. DFS followed up one of, if not the best game he's had as a Laker against Houston with one of the worst that he's had against the Warriors tonight.

Starting point is 00:17:26 So, you know, there were other guys who had an opportunity to step up. Sure. didn't. But to your point, when Luca's shot is not falling and, you know, his line 19.19.6 to 17 from the field, like it's not very good. And in a lot of ways, it was kind of backloaded. Like it took Luca a while to even get that good. When you're talking about the guy that is, as J.J. Redick said, the number one conveyor of offense, the, guy that is going to be controlling the offense the most, the guy that is, even as the shot disbursement and this is a good thing, the allocations of shots has started to even out a bit

Starting point is 00:18:12 more. When it's not falling for Luca, you just feel it across the entire offense. Yeah. And it just, it needs to get better. And I, I personally, I don't think he's healthy. I mean, I don't think it's, you know, his, you know, warm, he finished the game the other night with like a big wrap around his elbow and it was wrapped up in pregame and you know he's playing and I think he's trying to work through it I don't think this is an issue of you know it's not he's not trying it's not he's not he's not suddenly you know deeply flawed as a player is exactly the same guy that has been dominant in the league he's I just don't think he's healthy and so it's making a challenge for him to kind of respond to this heavy scheduled

Starting point is 00:19:01 the Lakers have had. It's one of the reasons I really am disappointed they weren't able to win this game because it makes it harder to sit everybody Friday night against the Pelicans. And like that's a game you ought to be able to win whether Luca plays, doesn't play with a LeBron, who by the way left the floor in the first quarter with what looked at the time, like it was going to be a really bad ankle injury or foot injury or something. and quickly ended up back on the floor and didn't seem any worse for where.

Starting point is 00:19:34 But, you know, they actually thought I got the wind knocked out of him. I was concerned in where with where LeBron was grabbing. I was concerned it was the groin again. Yeah. And then I was like, oh. He was sort of holding us. But like it looked like on the replay, it looked like he sort of got his foot almost like jammed into the ground. Like there was just all he was hitting the, you know, pounding the floor in, in,

Starting point is 00:19:59 some pain. And needless to say, that was terrifying. But you now kind of need, if people can play Friday night, they kind of got to play because you can't risk losing that game with two games against Oklahoma City followed by Dallas, followed by Houston. That is too hard. You're, you're trying to stay in that three, four range. You don't want to fall down to five. You certainly don't want to threaten getting anywhere near the play in with a bunch of losses in a row, you got to make sure you win the game against the Pelicans. And so they're going to have to turn around and play guys. And that part of it's disappointing.

Starting point is 00:20:45 They just need more from Luca. He is providing the rebound. He's providing the assists. He is tilting the floor. He's doing all that kind of stuff. He's special even when he's slumping. They need the slump to end. Yeah, and coming up to, I want to make sure we shout out a couple of other guys who did play well,

Starting point is 00:21:04 because on a night where the Lakers ultimately disappointed and did not get enough to get over the hump, there were a couple other guys that played well and deserved mention. I also want to get into one other thing that maybe above any individual performance on either side from either team, I think did the Lakers in. So we'll get into that coming up next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Open Phone, running a small business means you're wearing a lot of hats. Your personal phone becomes your business phone.

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Starting point is 00:23:22 Analysis from us and from the rest of the network. Great way to keep up with what's going on in the NBA. You had a point that you wanted to make about why the Lakers lost this game. I think we might be on the same page here, but I'm curious if we're both pointing to the same thing. The rebounding battle, and then in particular, the second chance points battle was a big, first of all, that was a big reason that despite the fact that the Lakers ended the first court, I want to say shooting 30-ish percent from the field and 20-ish percent from behind the arc, and they had not gotten to the line at all, they were able to stay.

Starting point is 00:24:04 in the game because, A, they were doing a good job taking care of the ball. And B, they were making the most out of their opportunities on the offensive glass. They won the second chance battle 10 to 2 in the first quarter. And 10 second chance points is a lot in one quarter. And it felt like the Lakers, best case scenario, building towards a way that they were eventually going to dominate Golden State. be just the formula to stay in it until everything else clicked. From the second through the fourth quarter, Golden State outscored them on second chance points 21 to 5. You cannot allow that against a team that their offense is clicking more than yours anyway,

Starting point is 00:24:54 and their defense is clicking more than yours anyway. And they won the rebounding battle 13 to 12 in the first quarter. and from there they were out rebounded 34 to 26. Again, the battle of the boards, and in particular keeping Golden State off their own offensive glass, and then if they get the offensive rebound, preventing a score, that was a massive factor in this game. You know, as badly as the Lakers played,

Starting point is 00:25:24 if they had done a better job there, they might have been able to pull this thing out despite all the other issues. But also, too, when you're constantly unable to clear your own glass, it ruins any opportunity to get out on the run. Like the Lakers were bogged down in the half court all the time. This is a, it is not new a lot of teams that can go full red, as JJ Reddick likes to say, just switching everything. Teams that do that are giving the Lakers a lot of trouble because they can't create type of mismatches. Which JJ said afterwards as well.

Starting point is 00:26:03 Yeah, they got to fix it. And this is the stuff that's happening. It screws up some of the ways that they want to attack. And so they were struggling in the half court with what the warriors were doing, especially in the first half. And so if you can't rebound, then you don't even have any opportunities to get out and run. You can't try to get Golden State on their heels. And look, the warriors have been, I think they have a third round,

Starting point is 00:26:30 record in the NBA since they made the Jimmy Butler trade. You know, the defense has gotten way better. The offense has gotten considerably better because they're getting the free throw line a lot more than they were before. And you just, you can't rob yourself of opportunities by not being able to rebound. Lakers had a great rebounding game against the rockets on Monday. And they just could not get it done. I mean, Golden State is a good team.

Starting point is 00:26:58 And Draymond was doing some stuff. defensively that he's just been doing for years at this point that screw stuff up and it makes them a real challenge and you know, Pajemski was fantastic and Kaminga hurt them and, you know, but if you can rebound, you mitigate a lot of that damage. And I agree with you. They would have had a chance to win had they been able to control the glass. There's fewer second chance points for Golden State, they're won and done more often. And I think it would have led to six to eight points for the Lakers just being able to get out in transition, which they could never do. It's also disconcerting may be too strong because I don't want to read too much into a one game

Starting point is 00:27:45 a one game sample size, but against a team like Golden State that is not considerably bigger than them to lose that particular battle. That's concerning. If nothing else, it speaks to things that need to be addressed as a team that, regardless of how much Jackson Hayes does or does not play in the playoffs and his minutes have started to drop of late, teams are very clearly trying to scheme him out of the easy lob points. they're going to be a smaller team regardless for most of the time because they're best getting their best players on the floor

Starting point is 00:28:29 unless the matchup absolutely dictates Hayes has to be out there just because you need pure size. Most of their best players, it's going to be playing a lot of big fords. You know, their closing lineup most nights is going to be LeBron, Luca, Austin, DFS, Rui, because those are your five best players on this team. So or, you know, maybe a little bit of Vando mixed in there, maybe Gabe in certain matchups,

Starting point is 00:28:57 but Hayes as a closer and, you know, somebody who's going to gobble up a lot of minutes, that's not likely to happen a ton. So they have to figure out ways to make sure they don't get beat on the glass that way. I think they've often done a very good job with that. Tonight was not one of those nights. Yeah, but it's like there's, there's different ways that teams rebound. You're right. Golden State's not a huge team. They don't play, you know, Quentin Post is their biggest guy,

Starting point is 00:29:27 and he's not a rebounding player. He's not a big physical guy. It's three points here. But, you know, they're an excellent rebounding team, and they rebound with activity and athleticism and things like that. I actually think to some degree, that's harder for the Lakers to defend against than just big guys. Like, they have a pretty good scheme to figure out how to body up

Starting point is 00:29:49 and defend large people. because you've got strong players you know ruy's strong lebron is strong like they've got you know luca's an excellent rebounder obviously they're they can do that stuff it's more i think the athletic teams um you know the teams with a lot of motion motion movement and motion or as i like to call it motion um those are the teams i think that that give them a little bit more trouble and again it's not like this like golden state did something out of character their top five rebounding team in the league but the Lakers are going to have to do better. Right.

Starting point is 00:30:22 I mentioned in terms of it being disconcerting against a smaller team, not because I think this is out of character for Golden State, but more just because when rebounding comes up as a concern, if nothing else from a lot of Laker fans that we hear from, it's often with the idea of they're not a big enough team. They don't have a center that they trust other than Hayes. So naturally, they're going to get beat on the boards. and tonight was an example of the Lakers can get beat that way against the team that pound for pound isn't considerably bigger than them.

Starting point is 00:30:57 That's my only point. I understand what you're saying. And it's you're not wrong. It's just I think to some degree that the size part of it is an easy thing for, you know, kind of just look at it and be like, oh, small team, you're not supposed to be you. They shouldn't be out rebounding you when, you know, it's really kind of a matchup question. And we'll see what happens over the weekend. end, you know, you see the matchup against Oklahoma City who have both size and

Starting point is 00:31:23 athleticism, and we'll see how the Lakers are able to defend against that. And it's, I, it's, they didn't shoot the ball well. They came out in the second half, and as Redick said, you know, as bad as they were in the first half with 47 points, he said, look, we scored 69 points in the second half against the same defense. I still don't think they were very good. and a lot of that they just finally started hitting shots late in the fourth quarter. Austin Reeves had 20 of his points were in the fourth quarter, which matters.

Starting point is 00:31:55 And it's important. But like, it just goes to show how stuck in the mud they were for three quarters that, you know, that he ends up of 31 and it's that backloaded. And, you know, Luca didn't get going to the extent he got going at all. It didn't happen until that, for about four minutes after he got the T. He hit a shot. He got to the line a couple times. It looked like he was.

Starting point is 00:32:16 going to get going and then it kind of fell back again. The offense still has these moments where it doesn't flow effectively and it tends to be against physical teams, athletic teams that are very switchy and are able to kind of gum up what the Lakers are trying to do. That's been basically the through line for teams that have hurt the Lakers, you know, post-Luca. Well, I mean, we saw this against the Rockets as far as another athletic team that can be very switchable. The difference is the rockets have a far more troubling and problematic offense than the Lakers, particularly in crunch time. Like they have nobody that you really feel comfortable

Starting point is 00:32:59 running anything through as a go-to guy, but it's conceptually the same thing. And the Lakers, you know, relied on huge knights from DFS and Gabe, who were dared to make shots and to their credit. They each scored 20 points off the bench. But that is going to going to be a formula. I want to make sure also to shout out Rui, who was very good in this game, 24 points, 9 of 15 from the field, 3 of 6 from behind the arc, 6 rebounds, 3 assists. Rui actually played a very big role in the first half of just keeping the Lakers in this thing. Also, 15 shots. I will make my at least twice weekly PSA, get the guy more shots. Like good things tend to happen when Rui gets more opportunities.

Starting point is 00:33:48 Like he's a really, for the most part, very efficient scorer. But there's only so much efficiency you can get out of him on those nights where only gets seven field goal attempts. Make it more like tonight. I think you're going to generally be happy. Quick. And he did a good job, by the way, in the first half, too. Identifying that Steph was often the guy guarding him and that Steph,

Starting point is 00:34:12 is way, way too small for that. And he abused it. Quick update on where things are in the standings following this game. This game will test my theory as to Adam Silver canceling the season the rest of the regular season as soon as the Lakers and Warriors would be matching up with each other. That is technically true after Thursday's games. So we'll see if they get to stop the count from the commish. Otherwise, the Lakers slide to fourth a half game behind Denver.

Starting point is 00:34:41 do keep in mind the Lakers have the tiebreaker over the Nuggets or should maintain the tiebreaker over the nuggets and we'll have a chance to get back into a statistical tie tomorrow night, I should say tonight, depending on when you're listening, against the Pelicans. The Warriors move up to fifth. Memphis is now sixth, thank to a Jha Morant game-winning bucket on Thursday.

Starting point is 00:35:06 So things remain extremely tight. The Lakers are only a game and a half. Only a game and a half out above Minnesota, who is currently occupying the seven spot. So two games separating Denver at three and Minnesota at seven. It's pretty crazy out there. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 34,000 subscribers, all of whom we're pulling for a Lakers victory, a must-win game against the Pelicans Friday night. We'll see everyone after the game.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Stays Cold, Lakers Punished on the Glass, Lose to Golden State, 123-116

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