Locked On Lakers podcast is your daily ticket to stay ahead of the game and the first to know the latest news, analysis, and insider info for the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA. Hosts Andy and Brian Kamenetzky, who have covered the Purple and Gold since 2005 for media outlets including the LA Times, ESPN and The Athletic, offer traditional journalism, informal commentary, and offbeat humor to provide expert, local analysis. Locked On Lakers takes you beyond the scoreboard for the inside scoops on the biggest stories from within the Lakers locker room and all over the NBA. The Locked On Lakers podcast is part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.
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episode 1546: The Lakers Have Won Five of Six, Face (and Scout?) Myles Turner, Buddy Hield Monday Night
The Lakers were once 2-10. Today, after winning five of six, they'll enter Monday's game against Indiana (one of only six home games between now and early January) with a 7-11 record. Still not good, but trending in the right direction. And most of that progress has happened without a full roster available to them. So now that Anthony Davis and LeBron James are both expected to play against the Pacers, can the Lakers continue their momentum?
How much of that upturn was legitimate, anyway, and not a product of a (finally) softening schedule? We'll all find out soon enough, but at the least, the Lakers were due to some positive move to the mean. They weren't, for example, going to shoot 20 percent from 3-point range all year. Over their last 10? About 35 percent. Not great, but not catastrophically damaging to the offense, either. The Lakers were always better than a team paced to win 12 games all year.
Good enough to finish over .500? Top eight? Top 10? We'll see. But not 12-wins bad.
Hopefully the momentum LeBron found in the second half Sunday carries through, because apparently someone on San Antonio poked the bear, and the bear won. The Lakers controlled the stretch run of Saturday's win, in large part because of the dominance - extremely efficient dominance - of James.
The Lakers need that, with an elite Davis, to carry them going forward.
And not for nothing, this Indiana game carries some real intrigue. If Buddy Hield and Myles Turner, both a target of many Lakers fans affections, if not the Lakers front office, go off and the Pacers win? Wow, are people going to come down on GM Rob Pelinka.
Either way, it's going to be very interesting!
HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky
SEGMENT 1: The Lakers have won five of six. What has changed relative to earlier this year?
SEGMENT 2: LeBron bounced back in a big way in the second half of Saturday's win, and also may have provided another galvanizing team moment, as well.
SEGMENT 3: The schedule gets really hard again, starting... now.
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