Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luke Kennard Scores 27, LeBron Dishes 13 Assists, Lakers Win Game 1, 107-98

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Lakers get 27 points from Luke Kinnard and take game one. Let's tell you whether or not it's going to sustain the momentum to game two. Next. You are locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks, everybody for joining Locked on Lakers, Brian Komenetsky, Andy Komenetsky, huge night for the Lakers Saturday.

Starting point is 00:00:33 They win game one. 107 to 98 against the Rockets. The day started with surprising news, I guess, that Kevin Durant would not be available for this game. So we'll break it all down what that meant, what it meant for the Lakers, what it did for the Lakers, do want to let people know first that today's episode is brought to you by Fandul.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $250 in bonus bets if your first bet wins, head to fendell.com to get started. So the Lakers, we'll talk about all these incredible performances that they got, what they did really well from, you know, obviously they shot the ball well, they distributed the points around the starting lineup, especially, a lot of things to like about what the Lakers did. But the whole, Andy, the whole tenor of what was going to happen in game one changed when Kevin Durant went from questionable, which was.

Starting point is 00:01:33 a late designation based on an injury suffered in practice. Rockets practice, he went from questionable to out, which I'll be honest, surprised me a ton. I heard about that bump knee and the bruise and the questionable designation, and I was still convinced he was going to play. I was stunned. I was absolutely shocked. It must be something that is really. giving him trouble like he apparently tried to give it a go and just it was not responding well.

Starting point is 00:02:10 No word as to what this means for game two. Ime Adoka, the Rockets coach, said that he's day to day. But you obviously could see a difference without Kevin Durant, you know, as far as the way Houston operated and the way their offense struggled. I will say this right now for any, you know, for any of our audience, anybody listening, anybody watching who knows Rockets fans and starts hearing, well, Kevin Durant didn't play Kevin. You tell those people to kiss your ass. I don't want to hear it.

Starting point is 00:02:42 I don't want to hear it. You know who else? You know who was not available? Luca Donchich and Austin Reeves. So star power and overall talent gap still favoring Houston. Houston still had more of their primary players. You tell those people to kiss your ass. Yes, I agree.

Starting point is 00:03:01 But what's, you know, it changes a bunch of things. Obviously, the Lakers prepare for Kevin Durant and they're preparing for a Houston offense that is centered around Kevin Durant. And when Durant doesn't play, even though that's an advantage, it does change your preps. I mean, there is something going on there.

Starting point is 00:03:21 But what I find really fascinating about it, it's how it changes the dynamic. There are much worse late-minute adjustments you have to make then the best player on the opponent isn't going to play. No question. I don't think anybody in the Lakers locker room was objecting. But what I think is most interesting about this sort of the shift, other than like the Lakers' little fist pump here, whatever,

Starting point is 00:03:49 but like the whole series, like the whole lead up to the series was no pressure on the Lakers, all the pressure on the rockets, It's like, you know, get out there, play free, play easy, this, that, whatever, and let the chips fall where they may, you know, surprise, shock the world, all that kind of stuff. The minute Durant can't play in game one, that shifts completely. Because now if the Lakers want to have any chance, like realistically be like, you know what,

Starting point is 00:04:21 we have a chance to win that if you have to win game one. The pressure shifts from the rockets to. maybe not entirely on the Lakers, but suddenly the Lakers are in a pressure situation because whether you want to debate, you know, how much that levels the team outs are the Lakers better? Are they about equal?

Starting point is 00:04:44 Whatever it is, that gap narrows. And now you're at home in game one, and you better go win. And the Lakers responded to that, I thought, incredibly well. To me, it felt like they didn't even see it as pressure, even if, I mean, I don't, I don't disagree with the way you're framing it, but it is very clear they saw this as an opportunity.

Starting point is 00:05:08 Absolutely. That's what I mean. That's exactly right. From the minute the game began and their energy and the way that they were playing and really the first quarter was the best offensive execution they had in terms of the entire game and the other three quarters, you could tell that they saw this as, you could tell that they saw this as a real chance for a team that, you know, the expectation we will see is that Durant is going to play at some point during the series. And without knowing any insider information when it comes to the Rockets, we are obviously not around that team.

Starting point is 00:05:47 If I had to bet on who plays first, Kevin Durant, Luca Donjich, or Austin Reeves, based on what we know, I would bet on Kevin Durant. Absolutely. Right. So the point being, the Lakers saw this clearly, this is our chance. Forget how much we needed to win game one anyway just to try to turn some of that pressure even further onto Houston to try to just even up the odds, like not just the odds of winning the series, but just like our odds of trying to give ourselves a chance to do this, we got to

Starting point is 00:06:25 make this happen now. And other than Jackson Hayes, who had a very forgettable game, a couple, a couple good scattered moments, but for the most part, very forgettable for Jack. Top to bottom, I thought everybody who played real minutes in this game for the Lakers found ways to contribute. And four or five guys especially well. Yeah, I completely agree with you. And this gets to another one of my big points. But even before, again, before we get in, to 27 points from Luke Canard, 9 of 13 shooting 505 from three point range. LeBron, 9 of 15 shooting very efficient from the floor, eight rebounds, 13 assists.

Starting point is 00:07:06 The Lakers turned the ball over a lot, but it wasn't because of LeBron. No, you had 13 assists against only two turnovers. You mentioned DeAndre Aiden. He was 8 of 10 from 4. There are a lot of good and team performances in here. But one of the things that I thought was great about this victory is it, it was also, validating in a lot of ways of how they won those last three games. And again, I realize there's a little bit of okay again, you know,

Starting point is 00:07:36 because all three of those games down the stretch were against teams that were missing good players or quite literally trying not to win. Houston plays game one without Kevin Durant. But the Lakers controlled this game, you know, from basically second quarter on, I thought. And the way they did it, it wasn't they came out in game one and LeBron went nuclear and, you know, all these other things. LeBron played a very good game. Don't get me wrong. But they didn't lean on him to score 35 in this game.

Starting point is 00:08:08 They didn't have him starting every possession with the ball. They still put him in a position to do a lot of damage on the move, catching. the second guy to catch the ball in a possession and all these other things. Like they, you know, the team defense was active. DeAndre Aiton was really great on both sides of the ball in terms of his activity and his effort level. They played in a way that looked a lot like what they did in those last three games. And I think that's super important for them to build confidence about their group. going forward to the rest of the series with the assumption.

Starting point is 00:08:54 I'm assuming Durant's going to play in game too. But the Lakers now can look at this series and say like, hey, guys, this is a fourth win in a row. Like we have a blueprint with this group that we have with us to go out and play successful basketball against anyone. Before we go to break, something you'd said about like this game tonight was not that type of beat down against, you know, the jazz or what they did against the warriors or whatever,

Starting point is 00:09:22 I think it is important for everybody to recognize. They don't have the capability to do that. Like, they don't have the talent available to really, I think, stop the life out of an opponent in a game. Like, Houston got back in a few times. And I know just from seeing Twitter comments and stuff, it was frustrating for a lot of fans, you're going to have to accept that.

Starting point is 00:09:49 as part of this series because they're not, forget the fact that Houston's good. The Lakers are not equipped with who they're missing to be able to really. I don't even think you would expect, even if they had their guys and everybody's playing at full strength. It's the playoffs, man, against good teams against good teams.

Starting point is 00:10:06 You're not gonna go up and win these games by 25 points. I get it. I'm just saying it's something that people need to recognize because I, again, I saw the commentary. I saw people, getting frustrated, Houston would get back in. Beyond the fact that it's the playoffs and everyone's fighting hard to win, the Lakers are not equipped to do anything like that. I just think it's important. No, I will. After the next, I want to talk about what they are equipped to do and then we'll get

Starting point is 00:10:37 into some of these performances because holy Luke Kinnard, people, that's next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos. Deadlines are stacking up. The box is overflown and you got one position that still is sitting open. You got to fill it. And when the pressure's on and you need to find the right hire, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Indeed sponsored jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for, skills, experience, location. So you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post. And here's a stat that says it all. A minute I'll be talking with you. Companies like yours make 27 hires on Indeed according to Indeed data worldwide. Spend less time

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Starting point is 00:13:29 okay, you have that game won and you look at it and you say, okay, well, blank did this, this and this, and that's not going to be like, these guys did this, this, this, and it's always you're looking for things, or at least I am. Like, what's sustainable

Starting point is 00:13:42 and what do you not expect to repeat? And if you're a Lakers fan, you're looking at this and you're, you know, you're like, okay, Luke Kinnard. He was awesome. Can we expect Luke Kinnard to do this, like where he doesn't miss a three-pointer? And, you know, it was 8 of 11 from the foot. No, probably not. Like, I think Luke's not going to shoot 100% from three-point range in this series. But, you know, I think you can expect performances like this from LeBron.

Starting point is 00:14:15 probably even with a little bit more scoring. I think, you know, the type of defense, the activity from D'Andre 8 and all these other things, the Lakers' shooting percentage will probably go down over the course of the series a little bit. They shot 61% from the floor in this game. That's probably not sustainable. Flipside is they turned the ball over 18 times,

Starting point is 00:14:37 and that's a number they can cut down. They shot 65% from the free throw line. They almost outshot their free throw. throw performance from the field. Like that's a number, even with the Lakers not being a great free throw shooting team, that's a number you would expect to go up. So like, what they did broadly to me in game one didn't feel unsustainable. I would expect Houston to shoot better in game two and beyond than they did in game one,

Starting point is 00:15:09 just some regression to the positive regression. I think there were 38% from the floor, 33% from three. That'll get a little bit better. They missed a lot of open shots. Well, I mean, look, to be to be perfectly honest, a lot of what Houston did tonight immediately changes if Durant plays. 100%. But I'm just saying like in terms of what to expect moving forward,

Starting point is 00:15:35 like what we saw in terms of defending Houston completely shifts if Katie actually plays. But like you brought up Luke Conard, for example. And by the way, a stat I tracked down that is pretty amazing. This was Luke Conard's playoff career high, 27 points is obviously his debut with the Lakers. 27 points for Luke Conard in his first playoff game. Gabe Vincent in 10 Laker playoff games, 21 points. I'm going to say the Lakers won this trade. And what I don't expect Luke Canard to average 27 points in this series. But what is sustainable, I mean, beyond the fact that he's a really good shooter, he's an elite shooter. So he led the league in three-point shooting this year. So you expect him to make threes. Right. It's not like Jared Vanderbilt went three for five

Starting point is 00:16:28 or four for five, something like that. But what is sustainable for Conard, if not necessarily at this high ever percentage in terms of success is we've seen this season. He is able to put the ball on the floor and pop up at the elbows to hit jumpers. He's actually able to get to the rim. He, they created a lot of baskets tonight off. You know, JJ said this was one of the best paint touch games they've had this season. Like it's, it's certainly, it's among the best they've had. Some of that was Luke Knard collapsing the defense. Like LeBron obviously, you know, LeBron operating out of the post was huge in this game. Marcus Smart had a lot of drives in the paint. DeAnd And by definition, his points are in the paint.

Starting point is 00:17:15 There was a really good sequence where that began with Rui posting up against Luke, against Reed Shepard. Of course, that required a double. Kick out comes. I don't remember. It might have been Conard hitting a three. But like the Lakers were able to do a lot in the paint in this game. And the ways Conard was scoring didn't feel out of character for what we've seen this season.

Starting point is 00:17:41 No, it was just it was it was the. rate of conversion. But, you know, it's, you know, you are correct that, you know, the success, this is what I'm getting at, like the success that they had defensively is going to be harder to replicate exactly even if Durant doesn't play just because you would expect Houston hit more shots. If, if and when Durant does play, obviously, I agree with you. Like, it's going to be, it's just going to be different. But the Lakers showed a level of cohesion on that side of the ball

Starting point is 00:18:19 that assuming they can kind of keep the spirit up when Durant hits some shots or creates things for other people, whatever, will, that is something that they can. They worked as a unit in ways that I think are encouraging. And I'll tell you this. The other thing that I found encouraging about the way that this game played out they were expecting Houston to give them enormous trouble on the offensive glass. And you know what?

Starting point is 00:18:53 They did. And so, like, I actually take some solace in the idea of, like, some confidence, not solace, confidence. Because the Lakers actually do have room. It wasn't like they played some, like, perfect rebounding. scheme that they're going to have to replicate over and over again for the rest of the series. Houston kind of did to them, I thought, more or less on the glass, what they expected. And they could get a little better at that. Or if nothing else, they showed they can kind of weather that storm.

Starting point is 00:19:27 Well, what I thought the Lakers did really well, like JJ, his mantra all week was ball security, box out, ball security box out. And in particular, keeping Houston off the offensive glass. Like they knew Houston is going to get their offensive rebounds. As LeBron said, they're like the best offensive rebounding team in the last 25 years. And the Lakers are an average at best defensive rebounding team. So middle of the pack and defensive rebounding percentage. So some of this is going to happen regardless.

Starting point is 00:19:59 But Houston had 21 offensive rebounds, which is obviously a lot. Some of that is the byproduct of them missing a lot of shots. And I will say, if Durant doesn't play in game two, I would expect Houston maybe to shoot better than they did in this game. But I'm going to be honest, I don't expect them to shoot a lot better. Their offense is pretty clunky and raggedy, often with Durant. Without Durant, as both an individual score and as their best safety valve, I actually think their offense could remain pretty ragged.

Starting point is 00:20:35 But anyway, the 21 offensive rebounds, the Lakers gave up. Houston scored 23 second chance points off that. That's actually not terrible for that many offensive rebounds. Sure. Along the same lines, they gave up 20 total turnovers. The Lakers turned the ball over 20 total times. They gave up 24 points off turnovers, which in a vacuum, 24 points off turnovers is a lot. But off 20, it's not terrible.

Starting point is 00:21:05 And what I think the Lakers did very well, in this game was not give up on mistakes that they made. They did not give up on plays. There were, I believe, back-to-back possessions, or actually it happened twice in the same possession, where after Houston got a miss and they were tapping around the loose ball, the Lakers forced a jump ball because somebody was on the ground. And like they stayed with plays really well

Starting point is 00:21:35 and did a good job just off. setting some of the weaknesses that came through in this game or some of the areas where they were going to be disadvantaged. Like pretty much everybody down the line who played real minutes in this game had at least one standout hustle play. And those all add up after a while. The Lakers are going to have to work harder than Houston to mitigate some of those disadvantages they have in athleticism in overall roster depth, whatever.

Starting point is 00:22:09 might be. They're going to have to do that. But like you it's it's it's it's hard for them I think sometimes necessarily to elevate. You know there are limitations. You know you're talking before about you know they can't just stop teams out of games. It's hard for them to run a team out of the gym with with how they have to play offense, how they have to play defense. But what they can do is is they can show and display some consistency. And we talked a lot about mental toughness and all that kind of stuff coming into the series. One of the ways the Lakers

Starting point is 00:22:48 are going to have to show them, but they're going to have two more home games, at least with this much we know, and all that kind of stuff, assuming Houston wins a game, which I am. So we know they're going to play, like the Lakers have to be

Starting point is 00:23:05 consistent in their execution and in their effort and in their intention, even when the results aren't good. And in game one, the results generally were. Again, they can improve in the offensive rebound and they can improve in the turnovers. But by and large, this was a very good game. Like, Houston's a good team. They're going to force the Lakers to do some things wrong.

Starting point is 00:23:28 But the consistency with which they approached all of this stuff, I think was great. and I just can't emphasize enough how important it is that they did this without having to have LeBron go crazy in this first game from a scoring standpoint. He could do, he could exert control and direction, and I thought he did throughout the game, but it didn't require him to put up 35. That is a winning formula for the Lakers. Yeah, you mentioned LeBron. He had eight of his 13 assists in the first quarter, which is a playoff career high. I believe they said during the broadcast for any,

Starting point is 00:24:16 if not, for the first quarter. Any first quarter in the NBA history as well, if I remember that correctly, yes. And he had 10 assists in the first half, which tied a career high for LeBron. He had 13 total assists against just two turnovers, both those turnovers came in the third quarter. Otherwise, LeBron was completely clean.

Starting point is 00:24:38 He made some incredible passes in this game, whether you're talking about like left-handed shuffle passes, wraparounds behind the back, backward kickouts. He just was as a passer in this game, working out of the post, just seeing guys off cuts. He was, you mentioned his control over the game. like LeBron's control that he that he exerted was a massive difference maker. DeAndre Aiton, his first playoff game as a Laker, was terrific.

Starting point is 00:25:12 19 points, 11 rebounds, a block had a lot of challenges in the lane. Really frustrated Schengun, yeah. He absolutely outplayed Alperin Shengun by a wide margin in this game. And look, we talked about how DeAndre Aiton has been saying all. all the right things, you know, said he was doing backflips, that he was back in the playoffs. DeAndre Aiton has said the right things all season other than, you know, I know, Clint Cappella, but he has not always backed up his words with actions. This was a night where he had two also in the fourth quarter critical baskets when Houston

Starting point is 00:25:52 was starting to make a bit of a run, a bit of a push. He was just on both ends, terrific. Ruiz Hachamora, 14 points in five stocks. He had three steals and two blocks. That's got to be a career playoff high for stocks for Rui. He was quite good. I'm not even going to look it up. I did look it up.

Starting point is 00:26:16 He had at least one game as a Laker with five stocks, but I, the play, oh, I can tell just by looking at basketball reference, this was a, this was a playoff. for him. I thought Jared Vanderbilt had a lot of really good possessions defending Reed Shepherd and disrupting that rhythm. We talked about heading in this game. If you can get Reed Shepherd, and this is before we even knew Durant wasn't going to play, if you can get Reed Shepherd to play inefficiently,

Starting point is 00:26:47 that is going to lead to a lot of inefficient offense for Houston because he's a spacemaker. Without Kevin Durant especially, he is an essential spacemaker for them. but it was just a really, really good night for the Lakers. You know, there obviously were standout guys. Cunard and Aiton and LeBron, I think, are going to be the guys talked about the most. But it really was a great team effort tonight. So we'll see what happens in game two.

Starting point is 00:27:16 We'll get the news. You know, the Lakers, well, in this case, the Rockets really benefit from having what, you know, an extra day per se. You know, the Lakers don't play game two until Tuesday night. So there is an extra night in there. And they don't play again until Friday. So if were Durant who missed game two, he would have even longer to rest before a game three. But it's still good for LeBron to sit down and get an extra day. It's good for the Lakers to be able to practice and continue this rhythm that they've been able to build.

Starting point is 00:27:50 It's just this. We'll finish here. The Lakers were given an opportunity. They were given an opening and they took it. And it's, it, if Durant plays the rest of the series, the Lakers get a game, and I don't want to say they were spotted a game. It's not like you don't just waltz onto the court and beat Houston,

Starting point is 00:28:14 even when Katie doesn't play. But you were sort of spotted this game, given this opportunity to go take a game where the advantage was relatively even. And you did it. And now you steal a game here and there, whatever. Like the Lakers, the path to four wins in this series gets a lot brighter, a lot faster. So it's just a great night for the Lakers. We will, of course, we'll have more for this as the week begins.

Starting point is 00:28:43 Locked on Lakers on YouTube is we're going to hang out with our 38,000 subscribers to the channel. We will see everyone on Monday.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luke Kennard Scores 27, LeBron Dishes 13 Assists, Lakers Win Game 1, 107-98

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