Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Get Crazy 116-114 Win over Suns, Led by Energy from Deandre Ayton, Jarred Vanderbilt, Jaxson Hayes

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Lakers hang on and win the craziest game of the year, led by a bunch of guys you might not suspect. That's next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to make all of you for making Lockdown Lakers your first listen to every day, Monday through Friday. No matter how where you get your podcasts, you are part of the crew that has helped make the on podcast network. The number one sports podcast network in this or any other known universe.

Starting point is 00:00:45 We certainly appreciate it so much to cover whether you're getting the show through Apple iTunes, Spotify, maybe you're a subscriber, 1 of 37,000 on YouTube. Andy, however you get the show, Andy, you are, you're focused on, I don't know if the game was drunk. the game could have been on drugs. Could have just been misbehaving. This game was insane. The Lakers do pull out a 116, 114 win in Phoenix. And they did it without Austin Reeves.

Starting point is 00:01:20 They did it without Luca Donchich having a good game. They did it without a lot of things that normally go into a game. They turned the ball over a million times. They couldn't hit a three-pointer, and yet they managed to win the game this one. was insane. Yeah, as I tweeted out at Cam Brothers, this game would have been arrested for public drunkenness

Starting point is 00:01:42 if it already hadn't died of alcohol poisoning. I mean, like, it was one of the strangest games I've seen in a while. It was strange in the way the Lakers played it. It was strange in the way the sons played it. It was its own category of strange in the way Dylan Brooks decided to approach waves, arms around all of it.

Starting point is 00:02:07 It was strange in the way the refs decided to review every sixth play of the game, yet let the physicality get, while very entertaining, really chippy, spilling on the verge of out of control, yet Dylan Brooks also got like 15 warnings in this game before a vet. Like, it reminded me of in the karate kid when Mike Silver, the villain, or excuse me, Mike Barnes, the villain trained by Terry Silver, is fighting Daniel Oruzzo in the tournament. And he hits Daniel Oruso at least 10 times illegally.

Starting point is 00:02:50 And the refs says, okay, you do that one more time. You're disqualified. That's the way Dylan Brooks, until the point where he eventually got ejected, that's the way the rest were playing it. And we'll get to this. Everything was just strange. He got ejected after making what could have been the game-winning shot. But he still lost his mind that he went and tried to pick,

Starting point is 00:03:14 chose that to be the time he tried to pick a fight with LeBron. His like fifth. He'd go to LeBron into some sort of stupid play. It's not that he tried at that point to pick a fight with LeBron. He tried to pick like his. fifth or sixth fight with LeBron at that point. This wasn't even a one-off. This wasn't even like a four-off.

Starting point is 00:03:37 Right, because they'd already reviewed the play where he swatted the ball LeBron's head and the referee was like, I mean, I guess they couldn't prove intent in the video, but like, it's like, you really think that when Brooks didn't do that on purpose? It was the Mike Barnes, Daniel Leruso. Okay, one more legal hit and we are going to. I feel like the referee in the karate tournament knew that those plays, those hits were illegal. and like it was right in front. The whole thing was so stupid.

Starting point is 00:04:02 I do need to let people know today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fandlew.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. The Lakers went into the half of this game. I mean, I will say, we got to talk about the bench, which was the deciding factor of this game. the defense, rotation changes, all of these things.

Starting point is 00:04:32 The Lakers played a bizarre first half, where they really didn't deserve to be anywhere near tied, which is what they were, again, thanks to some strange Phoenix fouling near the end of the half. But they turn the ball over a ton. They couldn't hit a shot. They weren't playing particularly good defense in the first. first half. I thought they were parts. I actually thought in the second quarter when it was a lot of

Starting point is 00:05:04 the bench heavy lineups led by the surprise hero of the game, one Jared Vanderbilt, who I had basically turned into a political cause, put this effing dude out on the floor, JJ. Like I, I really, I feel like an activist who finally got his cause. I hope this piece I'll stop getting texts. I mean, because throughout this, throughout last week, I think our everydayers know on Locked on Lakers, I had been bringing this up a lot. I brought this up. It was a big conversation point on my weekly 710 ESPN Lakers show, Lakers talk, which all you all should be listening to. And I noticed over the course of this week that more people were asking JJ about this. Jared Vanderbilt was getting put in front of the media specifically to answer,

Starting point is 00:05:55 hey, why ain't you playing? Do you think you could make a difference? Like, I'm not going to say this only happened because of me, but I frankly don't feel it happened not because of me either. I feel like I had a small role, again, as an activist and my political cause was Jared Vanderbilt. And, you know, JJ had foreshadow that he was going to play in this game. And that was before we knew even that Austin Reeves was not going to play. He's going to miss about a week, hopefully not more than that, with a calf strain,

Starting point is 00:06:30 the official injury of the 2025-26 NBA season. But, you know, teams rightly being careful. I hope that sponsors paying big money, man, because it's hurt in the league. Big calf. You know, really. But like, every team is being super careful with these calf injuries after what we saw happen. at the end of last year with, you know, Halliburton and Tatum and all these,

Starting point is 00:06:53 these torn Achilles, and that's often the precursor for it. So the Lakers are being careful. They're obviously, you know, Vanderbilt was going to play. JJ had said it was going to happen. The Reeves injury makes that a little easier because,

Starting point is 00:07:11 you know, obviously you're opening up a rotation spot. But, like this, Vanderbilt was part of, a big part, a big part of a, we'll just get to this thing, stuff now, a bench group that I think played its best game of the season. We often judge these things based purely on bench scoring, which I think for this group of Lakers is often not going to be the best way to do it in terms of full-on

Starting point is 00:07:43 end-to-end contributions from multiple people on the bench, I think this was their best game. Yeah, I know we're going to end up talking at length about Vando in this game and, you know,

Starting point is 00:07:55 the effect that he had, because from moment one, he entered the game at the top of the second quarter and immediately got an offensive rebound and put back basket of a miss from Gabe Vincent. But if you look at the four main guys off the bench, Vando, who were going to get into at length. Jake Laravia, just six points, two and nine from the field,

Starting point is 00:08:17 but eight rebounds, three on the offensive glass. The offensive glass was massive in this game for the Lakers. I believe they had 24 offensive rebounds, which led to 25 second chance points, which played a big role in offsetting the fact. Andy, at one point deep, not to cut you off, but just to drive home how good they were on the offensive glass, At one point, deep into the third quarter, they had more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds.

Starting point is 00:08:46 It never happens. No, it does not, but it played a big role in offsetting the fact that the Lakers shot 19% from behind the arc on much too high of volume for that crappy and out. I mean, to put in perspective how just bad and again, the three-point shooting was also bizarre theme of the night, I believe they had I think four threes in this game let me double check they seven threes they hit seven of 37 one of them was from Jared Vanderbilt like that's just how insane the night went they even went back to that when he had a heat check he hit the corner three and then like a minute or two later he's like let's try this again didn't go down but uh van really really quick La Ravia eight rebounds three on the offensive glass had two steals two blocks plus 13 Gabe Vincent five points and a steal, you wouldn't know the impact that Gabe had if you hadn't watched. He drew at least three or four fouls in this game, just off ball. He really worked hard in this game. Jackson Hayes, 12 points, 4-4-4-field, 4-5 at the line, nine rebounds, three on the offensive glass, plus 11. Those three guys and Vando. And just in case we don't get deep into

Starting point is 00:10:04 him, DeAndre Aiton, who was a supporting guy who was huge tonight as well, 20 points, 13 rebounds, six on the offensive glass, two steals and a block. It was really a night where the supporting guys and I think some critical moments from LeBron, but really the supporting guys were the story of this game. Let's stick on that because I think it's really important for a maligned group to have the kind of night that they did on Sunday. We'll explain how the Lakers got a big lead and then almost let it get away. All that coming up next.

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Starting point is 00:14:15 So again, go to, sorry, go to Lockedonleggers.com. You can also check the show page notes to get more information. I mean, Vanderbilt, I think, was the catalyst for a lot of these things. And he's also the big story because he had played, I believe, three minutes in the last 10 games. So as he put it after the game, he hadn't played in about a month.

Starting point is 00:14:42 Yeah, he was fresh. I mean, he was, it's not just that he was out of the rotation. He was as buried as you could be. He was not playing minutes that mattered. He was not playing garbage time. When JJ was throwing anything and anyone at the wall to see if it stuck, it never included Vanderbilt.

Starting point is 00:15:03 Like he was basically buried under the bench. Yeah. I mean, the garbage time stuff is always interesting because I do feel like certain veterans reach a point where they almost feel, coaches almost feel like it's insulting to put them in with two minutes left in a 40 point game. But that said, you know, you notice it then. And then you also notice like, geez, he seems to be trying just about every floor combination he can think of when games are still in question. And so, you know, we knew he was going to play. He comes in.

Starting point is 00:15:34 offensive rebound put back, like right away. Like there was, you felt the impact there right away. And I think he was part of this group with Jackson Hayes, with Jake Laravia at different spots and all that, that just, especially in the third quarter when the Lakers went on this big run to build what we thought was a 20-point lead that was going to let them cruise to victory. How silly of us, Andy. Vando was really a core component of that bench push, that energy elevation that helped the Lakers turn it up in a gear that Phoenix just wasn't ready for.

Starting point is 00:16:17 Yeah, these are just some of the things that happened in the second quarter. As the Lakers, I wouldn't say were taking control of this game because there was no such thing as permanent control by either side in this game. And as we mentioned at the top, things were often haywire. just these were some of the things that Vando was doing in part of a second quarter. We mentioned he opened the game with a putback of a miss from Gabe, then draws an illegal screen on a pick and roll. It leads to Luca getting a jumper along the baseline, part of a 6-0 run, prompts a timeout from Phoenix, gets a steal of a cross-court path.

Starting point is 00:16:56 It's fouled, clear path, gets the line, makes both of them. Later, he gets a defensive rebound over old friend Jordan Goodwin. then gets two offensive rebounds on missed threes from Jake LaRavia and the ensuing possession. All that work eventually leads to Luca getting to the line. Finish the game with seven points, seven rebounds, six on the offensive glass, two steals and a block, as we mentioned, a corner three plus seven for the game. And to be totally on this, by the way, this is all just in 15 minutes of play. his plus minus actually would have been higher except the Lakers where things started to unravel with them in the fourth quarter.

Starting point is 00:17:41 I think in some ways, and it was not Jared Vanderbilt's fault, there were back-to-back turnovers from Marcus Smart on the break trying to throw a pass back to Vando trailing when he had the opportunity for a layup. That led to a turnover. And then LeBron also, I think having a reasonable shot around the basket, trying to kick out to Vanderbilt. That's a turnover. It felt like they were both trying to essentially dapp up during the game, Vando for everything he had done and celebrate him. And it's like really nice gestures, guys,

Starting point is 00:18:17 but let's just play the game and give him the game ball in the locker room. Say something nice in the post-game. And this mattered because I think this started, this began a, process of the Lakers in those moments taking their foot off the gas because they weren't playing they were playing with I think like heartfelt intentions but not the right way and then they just stopped running their offense they stopped playing with intentionality it was the prevent it was the basketball equivalent of a prevent defense they tried to take the air out of the ball they tried to bleed every shot I mean you had bad

Starting point is 00:18:55 possessions from LeBron, who I thought overall, you know, he got off to a bad start. He was part of the turnover parade for the Lakers early in the game, but made a lot of big plays in this game. You know, and overall was pretty good. This was not a good game from Luca. 7.25 from the field, 2 of 14 from 3 point range. I mentioned last week, he's taken too many threes. He just is.

Starting point is 00:19:26 That is, you know, he, last I checked, maybe things have changed over the last three or four days, but Luca led the league, I believe on at least Thursday or Friday, in three-point attempts, you have to shoot better than then 34% rounding up from three, which has certainly gone down if you're going to take that many threes. You just, it's irresponsible.

Starting point is 00:19:53 But it's also, too, it's like in that, fourth quarter stretch. Like there were just too many possessions where, you know, Luca dribbles the clock down and it doesn't necessarily even take the shot himself. But, you know, there was one where, you know, you get one little piece of penetration and you

Starting point is 00:20:08 kick it out to Marcus Smart or something like that. It's like, that's like, that's it. And like Marcus has to shoot because the, the shot clocks down to like one. And stuff like that, just too many of those types of of possessions for the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:20:25 and it almost cost in the game, they went from up 20 to actually down. And if Dylan Brooks doesn't completely lose his mind in the final minutes of the game, it's hard to know what would have happened. He gave by getting this technical foul, gave the Lakers an opportunity to tie in the moment, which they didn't.

Starting point is 00:20:50 LeBron missed the free throw, but it also set them up for a final possession, in which LeBron gets filed. Misses the first one. I think that's when everybody started to get really nervous. But then makes the next two. And he ended up helping, you know, he blocked, got a piece of Grayson Allen's attempt to try to tie the game.

Starting point is 00:21:12 I can't even begin. The end of this game and the Dylan Brooks, LeBron stuff, was just so bananas throughout the entire game. And the rest clearly had no idea how to handle it. it was we let's let's talk a little bit more about this after the break and let's also get back to dandre aidan and i also want to talk about what comes now because vanderbilt played really well there is a rotation spot open right now a lot of minutes available with austin reeves unavailable but what happens when reeves is back we'll get to it next locked on lakers is brought to you by

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Starting point is 00:22:58 and kind of you're really symbolized exactly both how the Lakers were playing and got them but like the work that I think I know where you're going

Starting point is 00:23:09 continue the supporting players were doing and then just his own really good play Lakers miss a shot and it's like D'Andre Aiden

Starting point is 00:23:21 with like seven Phoenix sons around him and he just keeps the ball alive keeps the ball alive and finally eventually gets the offensive rebound in what really seemed like an improbable moment to be able to do that sort of thing.

Starting point is 00:23:38 And it was emblematic of not only, Andy, you gave the offensive rebound numbers earlier in the show, but just how well DeAndre Aitin played in this game. Obviously loves to stick it to Phoenix, I'm sure. But again, 10 of 11, 13 rebounds. bounds, two steals and a block. He was, you really can't overstate what it does to your offense to have a guy go 10

Starting point is 00:24:09 of 11, you know, 6 of 8, 9 of 13, 10 of 14, 10 of 12. Like, these are the numbers that Aiton put up puts up basically every game now. And it helps support a Lakers offense that is still often quite clunky. He is so efficient and not just around the rim. Like Jackson Hayes, four or four to nine, and Jackson was, like we mentioned before, was very good. I think it's been a very good season for Jackson Hayes, and not just because he is back to a proper backup slot,

Starting point is 00:24:48 second string center, you know, not the period post-A-D where he was a starter. And while he played well for a while he played well over his head, he's doing a better job this year. as a backup than he did last year. But Jackson Hayes, his range is the rim. And he can be really effective around the rim. But if you cannot set him up right around the rim,

Starting point is 00:25:10 you know, he has some sneaky ability as a short role playmaker. He had a phenomenal offensive rebound fell to his back and then somehow managed to shuttle the ball to LeBron from his back. And it led to a basket. like he's a sneaky solid passer, but Aiton is shooting like 70 to 80% from the field. And a lot of- 71, I think, on the year.

Starting point is 00:25:37 And a lot of his shots are mid-range baby jumpers or hooks, 15 feet between the circles. Like, it is incredibly valuable to be able to provide that type of efficiency from places around the floor, that aren't just right in the basket. I don't think this could be going any better for the Lakers. I mean, it's going better to the extent that like if he keeps doing this, it's going to be hard for Lakers keep Aiton next year,

Starting point is 00:26:15 but that's, you know, a problem. You know what? We're going to talk about that late. I mean, it's obviously too early. Right. It's way too early for that. I don't actually agree with you, but continue. Okay.

Starting point is 00:26:25 At least it could, depending on. I know the theory. I don't agree. The theory is plays really well, ops out of his contract for $8 million next year, because he can make more. Oh, I think he can make more, but we'll talk to.

Starting point is 00:26:41 The Lakers could resign him, but they're limited in how much they could pay. So it just depends on what the market is. But in theory, he's making it harder for the Lakers to keep it. Not impossible. I think it's a fair point. See, I actually think he's making it easier,

Starting point is 00:26:54 but we'll talk about it. We'll have that discussion. I'm interested to hear what you mean. by that. And so it's it is you know, this was though if you just sort of accept that as like a potential outcome

Starting point is 00:27:07 for next year. The scenario that the Lakers kind of hoped that they would get was an Aden that plays well, that plays defense, that is active and engaged, that is a high efficiency player offensively that provides a really

Starting point is 00:27:23 strong screen and role architecture for Luca and for Austin Reeves especially. And they can do that. And if that means that he's outplayed his contract, that means they got the results, like the high end of the results that they wanted. The worst case scenario is, well, DeAndre Aidan is a shoe in to come back for $8 million last year.

Starting point is 00:27:52 Because this year, he kind of sucked. We are not getting that. And it just, I am waiting for a time when this offense kind of gets a 48-minute groove. It's good for 10 minutes at a time, 7 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, whatever. But if it ever gets a real consistent groove, this underlying phenomenon of 8 and shooting in the 75% range is going to be a huge, huge, huge building block of what the Lakers do as a fully realized, I hope, offensive team. Well, this is, this gets to why, you know, once Austin is back and we know he is going to reenter the starting lineup, that is just a factual eventuality, I believe Marcus Smart should

Starting point is 00:28:44 remain in the starting lineup, move Rui to the bench, not just because of, you know, we saw just a glimpse of the more, it's not completely fixed because with Marcus as the lone guard, you still have some of the same defensive imbalances, but at least you see what happens with Marcus's

Starting point is 00:29:04 presence to start a game. I think some of the energy and the urgency he brings defensively just being there to start out a game. But my philosophy has always been, you have gravity all over the floor between

Starting point is 00:29:20 LeBron, Luca, and Austin, wherever they are. They're always going to draw at least one defender because they're at that level. DeAndre Aiton is too good of a player to ignore. You have to account for DeAndre Aiton. He is somebody that is capable of scoring 20 points a night if you fed him enough. Right now, you can feed, you don't even have to feed him that often. He looks like he's scored 20 times because he's not going to shoot a free throw and he's apparently not going to miss. 10 times. Right. So you've got four high-level scores who all have gravity in their own right.

Starting point is 00:29:58 My basic philosophy is if you can't make that work without Rui spaced out, largely not getting the ball, then there's something wrong with your offense. Like it is better as a concept. It is better on paper than it is in actuality in terms of how you run it. like Rui's presence should not be the difference between and and the everydayers no I'm a big Rui proponent I want Rui I would like Rui to be a part of the future for this team right this is not a this was not a game on Wednesday where I'm sorry Sunday where Rui was deeply involved you only had five shots so I mean like but that's continued it yes it's going to continue

Starting point is 00:30:44 because particularly with first quarters which are essentially Luka time like this was among the more balanced first quarters we've seen in a while, but they are often Luca dominated. That's a big chunk of Rui's minutes that he's not going to be involved anyway. So at that point, you might as well crank up the defense because you're not involving the guy in the first place. No, I agree. And I think what will be interesting to see is when Reeves comes back,

Starting point is 00:31:13 Gabe is going to play when Austin doesn't because you can't just play LaBron Bron and Luca as you're and smart as your ball handers you know somebody else can have to stick you know get on the floor for a little bit of that and I thought Gabe played really well you actually got the defensive impact that I think JJ visualizes you don't always get you always get the effort with Gabe but like and Phoenix maybe isn't as well suited to pick on Vincent from a size standpoint as some other teams are but either way you got really good results from Gabe on Sunday. Well, it also helped that they play.

Starting point is 00:31:50 Like, they started out in the second quarter. The top of the second quarter was the lineup was Gabe, Smart, LeBron, Vando, Aiton. That's three guys with size and Marcus Smart who plays up physically. Like, in a lot of ways, he's more capable of guarding up than down. A lot of protection. Yeah. Like, that makes it easier. And, like, it makes it harder to just switch to pick on.

Starting point is 00:32:17 game. Like, it's actually, that's a protection type of lineup for his size. I wonder over time, though, if Vanderbilt continues to play well, because like, there is, it's an interesting thing with Vanderbilt because there is both a phenomenon of coaches kind of losing, JJ certainly included, losing patience with Vanderbilt's shortcomings, finding the tradeoffs to be not worth it, a diminishing return, whatever it might be. And there's a sort of a lost patience with that. I think there is sometimes a lost effectiveness with Vanderbilt.

Starting point is 00:33:00 And like, which is which? You know what, though? Honestly, if you look at Vando's history throughout the league, the coach who's played him the least is actually JJ. Most of his minutes have been consistent. Does. But we saw what. with Darwin that, you know, it ebbs and flows sometimes with Vanderbilt.

Starting point is 00:33:19 His effectiveness sometimes ebbs and flows. A lot of it. It's like any role player. He's had trouble staying healthy. But figuring out sort of where you want to use them and how to use him is, has been, is not always easy. Is it, so I think some of this is on Vanderbilt to sustain the impact over multiple games.

Starting point is 00:33:41 Then I think it's on JJ, if that, happens figure out how to keep him in the rotation I still think the easiest way to do it is going to be to take minutes from Vincent because both guys are kind of offering similar potential benefits obviously Gabe gives you a little bit of a back corpment they don't play the same position but some of the intangibles that you're looking for are similar if And you can't get in Vanderbilt's bigger. So I just I I am very interested to see what happens when Austin is back, hopefully sooner rather than later. If Vanderbilt plays well in the Lakers, you know, he's certainly going to play, you know, in the in the games upcoming, how that rotation shakes out because, you know, I,

Starting point is 00:34:42 Jay is going to have to play him if he plays like he did on Sunday. I think there's a big piece of this is, and we saw a magnified version of this during the playoffs, JJ is going to have to learn to deal with imperfections of players, particularly when they're imperfections, I think don't align completely with what he finds most important. important in the game. Like I think JJ, he definitely values physicality. He values effort. Like, he preaches that a lot. But I think at the end of the day, he is an offensively skewed coach.

Starting point is 00:35:22 And that's fine. Like, there are plenty of offensively skewed coaches in the leagues. There's plenty of defensively skewed coaches in the league. And sometimes they skew too much in either direction. Like, it doesn't make JJ unique. But like, JJ had an interesting comment after this game that I thought represented sort of the game as a whole. where, you know, he said we made a lot of mistakes in this game. There was a lot of ugliness. But the goal is growth, not perfection. And I think there's a lot to build on from this game just in terms of mindset and attitude and bleep you.

Starting point is 00:35:57 We're not taking any bleep from you. We are setting the tone. We are going to go out there and make you feel us for 48 minutes. They need to do it in a way that is more cohesive over 48 minutes and doesn't at times. feel like it's on PCP. It might have felt a little too much. But it starts with wanting to do that. And Vando is a guy that like Marcus Smart, we've compared them before.

Starting point is 00:36:27 I think Marcus is the more refined, better overall rounded version of it, but they both have that quality. If you want a certain degree of chaos, and that's what Vando brings, you have to accept a certain degree. of chaos. Yeah, that's the, we can talk about it a little bit, you know, as the week goes on. It's just, it's getting the right volumes and combinations and stuff like that. And I do think it makes a difference.

Starting point is 00:36:57 Like, this is another place where if you swap out that starting lineup, it may, you may find it easier to play Vando and get him some minutes with the bench, you know, with Rui there. you are higher on the sort of consistency of Vanderbilt than I am. I think he is a more sort of challenging player than you do because he is not, he is so bad often offensively, so bad that he's got to be uniformly awesome, often on the other side and disruptive and all these things, and he's not always. but they got to figure out they have this thing on the bench and they got to figure out how to do it.

Starting point is 00:37:43 So they play again against Utah on Thursday. We had a couple days off in between. We will bring you everything from practice and all that kind of stuff as the week goes along. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube. We're going to hang out with over 37,000 subscribers. Thanks for everybody for popping in tonight. We'll see you tomorrow.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Get Crazy 116-114 Win over Suns, Led by Energy from Deandre Ayton, Jarred Vanderbilt, Jaxson Hayes

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