Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Sloppy Lakers Lose to Jazz 131-119, Luka Struggles, Jaxson Hayes Injured

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everybody. Welcome to Locked on Lakers for a Thursday. Brian Kiminetsky, Andy Komenetsky. Lakers lose in Utah. They do not look good heading into the break. We will 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. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers, your first listen of every day Monday through Friday. No matter how or where you get your podcast, this one's always free. Never Behind Paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where

Starting point is 00:00:43 32,000 people, give or take, are all subscribed there and looking at the Lakers heading into the break and feeling reasonably good about where they are at 32 and 20, despite Andy losing pretty badly in Utah on Wednesday night, 131 to 119. And, you know, I look at this one and if they were let's say instead of 32 and 20 let's say they were 26 and

Starting point is 00:01:14 I'm not going to do the math 26 I'd be a lot angrier about this game than I am like this feels different given how well they've been playing still a missed opportunity still not something you want to excuse down but you don't feel as bad about these kind of clunker games when they've put together a really nice run of solid play. Let me. That's just me. There are a lot of extenuating circumstances to this loss. Contextually, there's the idea that they played without Dorian Finney Smith, gave Vincent and saved seven minutes.

Starting point is 00:01:50 Jackson Hayes, who got hit in the face, facial contusion. That's all the details we got. JJ Redick afterwards said just no further details beyond confirming it was a facial contusion. which is what we were told. You combine that with Luca and Vando still on minutes limits, and you start getting into this place where there are fewer opportunities for ideal and continual rotations for JJ and floor combinations. Combine that with what appear to be either undefeated nightlife in Salt Lake or guys, perhaps, looking ahead to the All-Star break for a variety of reasons.

Starting point is 00:02:36 Having visited Salt Lake, I'm saying it's the latter. I've been there before. No disrespect. It's gorgeous, but not exactly a hotbed of activity, at least in my time there. JJ also talked about afterwards without excusing it, but certainly, again, contextualizing it. There are a lot of guys, including JJ himself, given everything that's happened to him in the recent wildfires and house burning down, as he noted, he's trying to find a permanent apartment during the All-Star break and fill out insurance claims.

Starting point is 00:03:11 Everybody could use a mental break, and this looked like a game where they started their break at 6 p.m. local time. That's also the off time for this game. I'll be honest. I also thought the game started at seven, so I could understand, you know, the players on the team maybe being a little confused about, you know, in terms of when they, thought it started too. I think the point you're making about depth matters here.

Starting point is 00:03:39 Like obviously, again, the Lakers should, you had LeBron James, you had Luca Donchurch playing this game, you should beat the Utah Jazz. It's that simple. But without going too deep into the litany of cliches that surround this type of game, this is the NBA. You know, the jazz have players who get paid a lot of money. Laurie Markinen's a really good player. was shocked, actually, Andy, at the end of the game, to look up and see that Walker Kessler only

Starting point is 00:04:08 had 16 points because it seemed like so many more because he never missed because they were all dunks. But, you know, so they've got some decent players on this team, you know, young players who were playing fairly well. That doesn't mean they're good. When the Lakers- Walker-Cessler looked like he was having a revenge game against the Lakers for not putting out the most godfather of offers to get him the F out of Salt Lake, out of Utah, to go onto a team that actually matters. Because he, you mentioned eight of eight from the field, 16 points, eight rebounds, six blocks.

Starting point is 00:04:43 All of them felt like more. It felt like you could have doubled all three of those stats. So it's because, right, it's because they came in that stretch where the jazz were really pushing that lead out. You know, he had dunks in that 20 to, I think it was 20 to two run that kind of ended the game. in the second half. There was, you know, but we'll talk about this as the show goes on.

Starting point is 00:05:06 Like the game is not meaningful in the sense that the Lakers had a bad night. You know, they probably were looking past it a little bit. They were missing players. They had players who could play who were still on minutes restrictions, you know, between Jared Vanderbilt and Luca, who kind of. of put himself in his minutes restriction tonight anyway. He was going to meet his number just at foul trouble and then the Lakers getting blown out. You know, in that sense of the game is not meaningful, but it did reveal certain things.

Starting point is 00:05:42 You know, the rim protection, Jackson Hayes goes out with that injury, plays seven minutes. Rim protection, which is going to be an issue anyway, is really an issue when he didn't play. You know, against the certain types of centers. So it's going to be an issue, but we kind of already knew that. I just, I, I can't get that worked up about what it was, but I will say this, the Lakers were wildly out of sorts for almost the entire game. Utah's zone completely took them out of their offense. You know, maybe that's somewhere where, you know, Luca, the challenge of integrating

Starting point is 00:06:25 Luca into the offense gets a little bit different when you're playing against a different type of defense that the Lakers, quite frankly, looked poor against before Luca got here. They've not been good at beating zones. Austin Reeves was one for 10. The turnover numbers... From behind the arc. What? Behind the arc, yeah. The turnover numbers were not crazy bad in the first half, but they weren't great. You know, just they, that shot balance that had helped them defense, completely disappeared because they couldn't navigate this zone that Utah was throwing at them. They looked really unfocused, I thought, for a lot of this game. I mean, beyond not looking at all on the same page, they just looked, I mean,

Starting point is 00:07:11 Austin Ritch said afterwards that he thought just from the jump, there was a disconnected vibe. And, you know, I don't think he meant it as anything in terms of team chemistry or anything like, I just, they did not begin on the same page. I also wonder, or maybe even hope, that Luca tonight, you know, he played on Monday his first game after a 22-game absence. And I wonder if his body was feeling it because I don't think he played particularly. He had a couple of incredible passes. And he had a couple nice step-back threes. But he had five turnovers, a few of which were just not even just bad.

Starting point is 00:07:54 decisions but I thought actually bad badly executed passes is he looked to me like he was just trying to squeeze things into windows that even for Luca were too small and even by the standards defensively that I nobody is expecting Luca Donchich to come in here and remind people of prime Michael Cooper but even by those standards I thought some of Luca's closeouts were in incredibly slow and not unattentive, just flat out slow. Like Luca looked slow on the court tonight. Again, in ways that I do wonder if, you know, I know conditioning at this point is a loaded term with Luca,

Starting point is 00:08:42 given everything Dallas is trying to message about, you know, we had to send fat ass out the door because he'll never stop eating. But, you know, he is still ramping himself up to prime. game shape and I do wonder if his body was feeling the effects of 24 minutes after that long of an absence because he just he did look a few steps slow to make right yeah then you know the the pace of the week and I mean it's it's like a lot of stuff has happened and you know the lakers are I think fortunate that Luke is not playing in the all-star game like he's yeah you know this this helps the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:09:26 You know, he can stay in L.A. He can get settled. I mean, he may end up going to, to San Francisco for the game. But like, you know, but he's not going to be doing stuff. He can get a little, you know, get a little rest in, get a little more workout in, get more acclimated to L.A. and kind of work all that stuff out. But, yeah, I mean, like the game itself on Monday was such a blowout.

Starting point is 00:09:55 It became very easy to sort of get excited, maybe even forget a little bit that there is going to be a learning curve here. There's going to be some adjustment. There's going to take, it's going to take time. And there will be moments where it looked clunky. I was hoping they would be able to steal two wins against the jazz. So they didn't have to kind of, you know, figure stuff out as much on the run. Get a little bit more of a cushion. But, you know, you split and now you have the break.

Starting point is 00:10:23 It's not the end of the world. It was a great night to remind you why the role players matter on this team. So I want to talk a little bit about that. And Dalton Connect, getting back on the floor next. Locked on Lakers is brought to by Wayfair after the holiday hustle. I guess mid-February still considered hustle adjacent, if nothing else to the holidays. There's nothing like giving your home a little TLC, a makeover, a little treat. and for many people, decluttering and refreshing their space helps them get into a routine,

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Starting point is 00:12:01 You click there, and you go to Locked on. Lakers and you can have this show and a bunch of really great analysis from around the network delivered to you every single day of the week except weekends because we're not doing that on weekends. But anyway, a couple questions in the chat. And reminder, you know, you obviously can sign up for and subscribe to Lockdown Lakers on YouTube. You can also subscribe to it.

Starting point is 00:12:28 The audio version, you know, at wherever you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify or whatever. another way to get the show delivered to you every single day. You don't have to click and hunt and find it. It will show up if you subscribe. This was a bit of an object lesson, Andy, in the relative importance of Jackson Hayes. Small sample size, he was a plus two in his seven minutes. And late run, meaningless run and garbage time, notwithstanding, pretty much once he was out of the game, the rest of it was minus for everyone. Yeah, when he got hit in the face,

Starting point is 00:13:09 I'm going to be honest. Nothing about whatever really led Jackson to leaving the game jumped out at me like, oh, that is bad. Like that is really whatever. But started noticing he's not reentering the game. Then it was announced at halftime or right after halftime. We were told by the Lakers that he wasn't going to be reentering the game. But, look, Alex Len made his debut with the Lakers, and he looked a lot like we told you all that we thought he would look.

Starting point is 00:13:41 He is a massive human being that will occasionally be able to use that size to good effect, good rebounding, stuff like that. But he's pretty slow on both sides of the ball. He doesn't, you know, he had seven rebounds in this game, some of which were in garbage time and a block. but he was often beat defensively. He hasn't played meaningful minutes in a while. JJ conceded that this was a difficult place to put him in in his first game. He said like this season, you know, talking about either Coloco or Jemison, like there's been a few occasions where the game he tried to sneak Blahawney in.

Starting point is 00:14:21 Right. There's been some times where either two-way players or deep bench guys have been put in difficult. even unfair positions, but Alex Lenn does not make you worry about or feel less worried about Jackson Hayes if he's missing time. I will say, though, I think Coloco is better. And I especially now, if you're going to play Coloco at all, like I understand the concern about trying to make sure he doesn't reach that 50 game mark before you're either ready to convert him or whatever. But if you're going to play him, frankly, if you're going to activate him because

Starting point is 00:15:03 it counts towards his 50 game limit, I would play him more for what it's worth. But they really need Jackson out there. He's by far the best center that they have. He also is the best lob threat that they have. That piece of their offense changes without Jackson there. And then the importance of Dorian Finney Smith and Gabe Vincent, who've both been playing very well over the last month on the whole. Their absences mattered. Mr. Matsuda pointed out in the chat, I think he's right. The small lineups without DFS really suck.

Starting point is 00:15:43 Yeah, who you put in. We talked about this a lot for Wednesday's show. Like the Lakers playing without a center that makes them technically going. small, but they've got a lot of size when they go small if they do it right. But that is compromised when you're missing two of your better defenders, arguably two of your best, two of the best defenders you have on team now post AD and Christie trade in DFS and Vincent. Those are guys that you depend on to prevent a little bit of that pressure from getting to the rim. So I mean, look, I'm willing to give Alex Lenn a little bit of grace on a night like Wednesday night,

Starting point is 00:16:28 dropped in there. He said after the games, like, I don't know any of the plays. You know, he doesn't know the guys on the team. The communication is different. He's playing the Lakers because they were so short-handed. We're playing with depth lineups where it wasn't that you had, you know, just Jordan Goodwin on the floor surrounded by three starts. and a top reserve. It was Jordan Goodwin with Alex Len with Dalton Connect and like, you know,

Starting point is 00:17:00 like that's you're going to start to see the drop off in players like guys like Goodwin can really slide in and play well when they're surrounded by better players. When that talent level drops off, you're going to see some of those differences. So it is 100% correct to say that Len, this is probably not the game to judge him on. Sure. But, you know, I just, I think he confirms some priors, though. I mean, I'm not saying he can't be better. Right. That's what I was going to say.

Starting point is 00:17:30 Like, as much as I'm trying to, you know, as I think, you know, people say I've been unfair to Hayes and we flesh this out a little bit too for Wednesday's show. Like, at the very least, he's going to be asked to do things he's never really done in high leverage moments in his career. He's played well. And even with that, he's kind of limited and you know what those limitations are. Alex Lenn has a 10-year track record in the league. We kind of know what he is.

Starting point is 00:17:57 And I don't object to having him around, but I don't think you want to necessarily be leaning on him to play big minutes. I don't think the Lakers are. I don't think they wanted to play him tonight. They kind of had to because they ran out of centers. I think they planned on playing him tonight. Maybe a little, but not. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:15 The reason I say that is I, sat in on the Sedano and Kaplan show in 710 ESPN and actually did the Lakers pregame for 710, the Lakers radio affiliate. And before that, and actually during the pregame, I was talking with John Ireland from 710 as well. And he made it sound like they had intentions of playing Alex Lenn tonight. But he certainly would have been. Maybe the sort of matchup based, big body and Kessler. They would not have played them on the floor.

Starting point is 00:18:48 It wouldn't have played them in the same way. And certainly for not as long or in the same minutes. But yeah, you know, it's, it is the certain, it's a certain type of center that is going to give the Lakers trouble. Anyway, and it doesn't have to necessarily be like just Nikola Yokic. It's certain guys with size, you know, a little bit of quickness, whatever it might be. The Lakers have done a decent job of, against Zubats. against Carl Anthony Towns of putting guys in, you know, putting guys in places to double teams, a soft double to change the coverages and do that kind of stuff.

Starting point is 00:19:26 But that requires players who know each other to be on the floor together. And they didn't have that option on Wednesday night. Again, another reason that while they should have won the game and if they finish sixth instead of fifth by a game or they're tied for something that they wouldn't have been tied for whatever it might be. You're going to look back at this and you'll put it in the list of games that you wish the Lakers hadn't lost. I just feel differently about it than I do the others because of the previous two and a half weeks or whatever it's been. I feel better about it because I think they are closer to being able to play in a sustained positive way than they were

Starting point is 00:20:09 in November when they were all over the freaking map. Yeah, the game doesn't give me pause about who they are as a player, I just feel like there is a non-zero percent chance that this is the type of game that they look back on and say, I wish we had been more serious for that game because it would have been nice to have that even with all of the things we talked about, that winnable game. I mean, plenty of, I have not seen every single game of the NBA season this year, but based on their record, I will say plenty of teams have overcome whatever shortcomings they were dealing with to beat the Utah Jazz. Yes.

Starting point is 00:20:52 That's safe to say. Yes. I mean, look, I mean, look, Memphis is, I think you're going to lose to the Clippers on Wednesday, but they're, you know, they're 36 and 17 heading to that game. John Moran's been out. Desmond Bain is missed time. Like, they've had more guys in and out of that lineup. up and they still have managed to figure out ways to win.

Starting point is 00:21:15 Like, it's something that good teams do. It's something that Robert Ory talked about in the post game on Spectrum Sportsnet. Good teams go out and win these games. And the thing about it is, for the most part, the Lakers have. Sure. Their record against sub 500 teams is excellent. And so, and they really, they've been so good that what they looked like Wednesday was really jarring because of it.

Starting point is 00:21:39 It was actually more jarring because of it. because of how well they played. The Dalton Connect saga, Andy, though, seems to be over. He played. He, at least on one half of the floor, looked pretty good. And after the game,

Starting point is 00:21:55 everybody seemed to put it to bed. We'll talk about it next. So, connect, Andy. Back on the floor. You had your suspicions as to whether or not it would take place. And, you know, I guess for better and for worse, he looked exactly like Dalton Connect. In that sense, I thought it was good.

Starting point is 00:22:22 Like I said, I was not sure from a logistical standpoint with this trade being up in the air or contested or however you want to put it, at the end of the day, I would be stunned if the league tells the Lakers they have to honor the original trade agreement and you have to take Mark Williams. I would be shocked. I just did not know if from any type of either logistical or cost, you know, cautiousness on the Lakers part. Like anything would, I didn't think it was a question of Dalton not being allowed to play

Starting point is 00:22:54 as much as the Lakers perhaps opting not to play him until this was fully, truly resolved. But either way, yeah, he he looked like Dalton, JJ said that, you know, he's good. Like he mentioned that a couple times like we talked. He's good. Then he said, we're not talking about this anymore, whether he meant. me and Dalton, the team and Dalton, whatever, or we as in JJ Reddick and the media, we are not talking about this anymore. I think they are looking to put this behind them.

Starting point is 00:23:32 I think they've acknowledged the weirdness of it. It is weird. You and I've covered the league for a long time, and it's been about 20 years. There's been like two rescinded trades, something like that. Like this really does not happen particularly all. often it's about once a decade. And it's weird for Dalton Connect because he's a rookie on top of it all. But this is part of the deal with becoming an NBA player.

Starting point is 00:23:58 You have to deal with this stuff. I mean, if Luca Donchich can get sideswiped into getting traded somewhere else, then Dalton Connect is certainly fair game. And it's not like they traded Dalton for a better version of Dalton. They traded him for a completely different type of player. it may hurt, but he should be able to intellectually understand that. I didn't expect any of this to be a problem, to be honest with you. I mean, I know like these are people.

Starting point is 00:24:29 And JJ Redick had a great reminder of that when he, like you referenced earlier, when he was talking about what he's planning on doing in the All-Star break, coaches kids' teams and try to find everybody a place to live. You know, it is easy to forget sometimes these are like, human beings. They are regular people and they they they are not robots. Um, so that said, Connect when he was talking after the game basically said like at the end, I just want to hoop. And he said, he must have said in that interview, I just want to go out and hoop, um, five, six times in that interview. And I, I don't mean this, you know, in a negative for, I mean,

Starting point is 00:25:16 like Dalton Connect is a basketball player. That is what he does. I don't think he's got a ton of other interests. I don't think he's got a ton of other stuff that he likes to do. The dude loves to play basketball and he just wants to go play. And he's got an opportunity to play here. I think we saw the good and the bad, like the shot still kind of coming around.

Starting point is 00:25:36 And like it feels good. He looks like a useful player offensively again. And you can see defensively why he is potentially going to be difficult to play in the playoffs because while the Lakers were struggling, he was really struggling. Well, it really is a prime candidate to get targeted if he gets on the floor in the playoffs. Well, it's especially difficult to play Dalton

Starting point is 00:26:00 when you're missing guys like DFS and DFS and Gabe and Vando's on a minutes limit. Like for the time being, we're talking about not just three of the more defensive-oriented players on this team, you're talking about three guys who come off the bench and three guys who will often be playing with Dalton and can help Dalton out in that way. Like with those three, with those three guys either unavailable or compromised with how much they can be on the floor, Dalton's defensive issues really become magnified at that point.

Starting point is 00:26:35 Yeah. It's just every team, almost every team is going to have a guy, two guys, three guys. So you kind of want to hide defensively. And, you know, the Lakers are going to, in the playoffs, will, I don't know if hide is the right word, they will certainly try to deemphasize the relative importance defensively of Luca, for example, both because it's not a strong suit, but also because he's going to be doing a lot of work

Starting point is 00:27:01 on the other end of the floor. LeBron, who's a better defender than Luca when he's engaged, they're still going to try to, you know, at the very least pick their spots with him to make it easier. But when you start to put three or four guys on the floor at once, who in a perfect world you'd like to hide, it gets to be problematic. You know, Reeves works really hard, for example,

Starting point is 00:27:26 and can get picked on pretty frequently by the right team with the right matchups. And so, yeah, again, this to me was a game where you see the, some of the red flags, they are there, they're out there. They don't disappear because of the don't disappear. because of the Dantzit strid. And in some of them, you know, get flaggier. But I am choosing right now to focus on, I think, of where they are. And if you would have taken a poll, Andy, and said the Lakers would be 32 and 20 going into the All-Star break, would you take that?

Starting point is 00:28:05 What percentage of Lakers fans do you think would have said? If you'd ask them on October 20th, what percentage do you think would have said 32 and 20 sign me up? 90? 95? Why so low? I mean, for real. Because Michael Thompson thinks they should win every game. Michael doesn't know how to do an online poll. So he's left out of this survey.

Starting point is 00:28:32 I think most Laker fans heading into this season, if you had said they'll go into the break 12 games above 500, Will you be cool with that? The answer would be yes. Just tell me how. I don't believe they're actually capable of doing that. Explain this to me like I'm a seven-year-old and really make it simple because what you're saying sounds like bull bleep. I, you know, another thing to remember when the Lakers get out of the break, they are a week further along without playing any games. They're a week further along in Vando getting further away from a break.

Starting point is 00:29:08 minutes restriction. Gabe. You know, in, in, uh, Luca moving further away from, from minutes restrictions, whatever lingering, um, issues that, that DFS has should go away. I mean, I understand every team gets healthy over the break, but Gabe as well. Yeah. The Lakers need those guys. And it's a, it's, it's, it is critical.

Starting point is 00:29:35 Like this, the thing that makes me. sort of sad about losing this game is the Lakers schedule coming out of the break was hard anyway. Now they have two extra games that have to be kind of wedged in there because of the scheduling changes because of the fire disruption. It's like it's going to get that much more challenging. They have extra back to backs, all that kind of stuff. And it will be really important that they can maximize every player that they have available to them. And that means getting Vanderbilt up to a higher level of intensity. It means wiping out any other restrictions.

Starting point is 00:30:14 And it means getting the Luca LeBron thing going as quickly as you can with as little friction as can be expected. And also figuring out what's wrong with Jackson Hayes and if need be using this week to find him a really good mask. The facial confusion was the official. Sure, I know. But we don't know anything beyond what that means. I'm just saying they really need to get Jackson back. Like it's say whatever you will about what it means that this team needs Jackson Hayes, but the reality is this team needs Jackson Hayes.

Starting point is 00:30:52 And he has played on balance better than anybody, including I think if they were being honest internally, the Lakers have expected, you know, certainly over the last few weeks. And now his importance on this team, even. Though we've talked about, like, crunch time will likely be spent going small. I think JJ's going to look to go small with a full roster often because that's some of their best players. Jackson Hayes really matters on this team now. Like, that's just reality. It's a little like we used to talk about Vando, where the issue isn't just a matter of, like,

Starting point is 00:31:29 is Jared Vanderbilt a great player? No, he's got holes in his game. He's got, is Jared Vanderbilt really important? important for this team because nobody else can do what he does. Well, yeah. And that's where it was. The skill set that he provides, there was such a gaping hole and it couldn't be replicated by other people.

Starting point is 00:31:52 I thought you could put, you know, between two or three guys, kind of make that up and you feel it just didn't work. And, you know, there's, Coloco is a sort of Jackson Hay. This sounds weird to say. Coloco is kind of Jackson Hayes light. You say, because Jackson Hayes. and Hayes is sort of other people light.

Starting point is 00:32:12 But it just, there isn't anybody who is, can get above the rim like Hayes can, who, you know, rebounds really, who's, he's a little more polished at this point than Coloco is. And they just don't have anybody else. And so, yeah, he matters. And so preserve that young man's face, fix out and figure out how to do that. Yeah. Again, find him a really good mask. over this week, if needed.

Starting point is 00:32:41 Like, hell, let him take Jordan Goodwin's mask. He seems to hate wearing it as it is. So might as well put the thing to good use. So we'll see what happens. As the Lakers get out of the break, still some roster tweaking that might happen between now and the end of the year. But obviously, the emphasis when it starts,

Starting point is 00:32:59 will be hitting the ground running as much as possible with Luca and LeBron with this new combination, really working effectively. and hopefully Luka kind of ramping back up to regular season form after a very, very long layoff. Locked on Lickers on YouTube's, we'll go hang out with over, we'll just call it nearly 32,000 subscribers. Reminder, we will be doing our regular schedule of broadcast during the All-Star break, so you don't have to go away.

Starting point is 00:33:31 We will be here Monday through Friday, as we always are. but a lot to be excited about with the Lakers heading into the second half of the season. We'll see everyone tomorrow.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Sloppy Lakers Lose to Jazz 131-119, Luka Struggles, Jaxson Hayes Injured

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