The Clippers need picks. We have picks to give. I think as a backup he would be really good on the boards and enforcing the physicality. I think we could figure out some deal involving Hardy and picks maybe Looney too. Thoughts on him?

We have been so spoiled by the Stu and Bill combo that the drop in quality with Danny, is just so apparent. Hopefully they can come up with a better replacement by the time Stu officially hangs it up, because I don’t wanna deal with Danny for long.

Nets are 0-3 and likely not improving. They've got 4 big men of value (Randle, $33M; Porter Jr, $40M; Sharpe, $10M; Wagner, $9M). Which one of these guys can we get? I'd take Sharpe for sure. Wagner if easier to get. The other two are making too much.

To explain myself better, Pat Riley's mantra "no rebounds, no rings" sometimes feels like a curse to me, especially looking at the game stats. Still, I loved our late-game execution. The Utah Jazz are a great squad—they were buzzing around the Lakers like a swarm of hornets and look capable of doing real damage. A few of their players really impressed me, and while it's early in the season, they look like a solid playoff team. The Delta Center is going to be a tough fort to conquer for anyone this year.

Setting that aside, I was concerned about Kessler's minutes—I get the emotions, but he looked powerless out there. The Jazz completely exploited that to dominate the glass, out-rebounding us 52 to 31. That just shows how impressive this Lakers win actually was.

In my opinion, the Lakers started rolling in the 2nd quarter when Austin Reaves brought the energy and sparked the team—especially Luka, who went absolutely nuclear with 52 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds. He drained 8 three-pointers, and the Lakers shot over 40% from deep overall. That hot shooting was the main reason we survived Utah's rebounding dominance.

That said, wouldn't you agree it was a rough night for our rim protectors? A couple of Utah's plays looked downright brutal. I couldn't wrap my head around how Kevon Looney (6'9", 222 lbs) was getting pushed around so easily by smaller wings. After seeing him get outworked twice, I was begging JJ to put Mamu in the paint to add some physicality down low. And it actually worked... kind of.

At the end of the day, the board reads 132–123, and we get another mark in the W column. Take it easy, Lakers Nation—greetings from Croatia!

Great win today but back to back games in which the Lakers end up in a wonky matchup, seemingly by choice. One of those silly things the team needs to clean up.

To clarify, this was before any action by the Jazz, there wasn't a switch that made Sexton end up on Lauri. We just lined up this way. The shortest guy in the rotation definitely shouldn't be checking a 7.1 sharpshooter.

Not a spurs fan by any means, but the way this kid moves and poise he has at this stage is special. Watching his footwork, able to get into the lane I just can't help but see shades of Kobe in him. It made me pull up some old Kobe highlights on youtube.

Danny’s delivery is just really flat to me. There’s barely any change in his tone, and the chemistry with Billy Mac feels awkward so far (especially today vs. Jazz). Even when he makes a good basketball point, the way he delivers it makes it hard to stay engaged. Bill brings all this energy, and Danny doesn’t really give him much to work with.

Obviously we’ve been spoiled with Stu, and building chemistry takes time. But being knowledgeable about basketball is only part of being a good commentator. You also need personality, timing, and some energy that matches what’s happening on the court. Hopefully Danny gets more comfortable as the season goes on, because right now the road broadcasts feel noticeably less enjoyable from the Lakers broadcast.

How’s everyone else feeling about him so far?

Off night for the big man. Perhaps he's still dealing with conditioning issues, perhaps he stayed up a little too late the night prior, maybe he had jitters making his return to the team that drafted him, maybe the Jazz game planned to neutralize Kessler. I don't know, I wasn't there. But let it go and prepare for another big matchup against Clingan in Portland.

Luka’s defense and rotations were really bad early. I think the first 12 points scored by the Jazz were basically Luka falling asleep on defense or forgetting to box out his man. (But this also proves that letting LeBron go was definitely the right decision. LeBron has started off slow defensively too, and having both of them together would only compound the issue.)
Thybulle is really playing at an elite 3&D level. As I predicted, he’s better than Smart. He provides the same level of defense with longer reach, better shooting so far, and none of the boneheaded plays.
We have a lot of good rotation players this year who are hungry on the court. Jake, Mamu, Grimes, Sexton, and Ziaire. I think Carr will get around 10 minutes a game too when he’s back. These guys are playing with maximum effort and intensity. A lot of dogs on this team, and Jake seems to have leveled up his game defensively.
The Jazz’s plan of doubling Kessler without the ball was just the stupidest game plan I’ve ever seen…
Reaves needs to stick to quick and efficient moves. Whenever I see Reaves trying fancy dribbles, attempting to become Iverson with the crossovers, or dribbling into heavy traffic, it’s almost a guaranteed turnover. He’s also risking his body when he goes flailing into multiple big guys in the paint.
He played excellent basketball tonight, but to take his game to the next level against elite competition, he needs to cut out those inefficient moves.

The rebounding was really bad tonight. I’m not sure if we can fix it or if it’s just a personnel problem, but we definitely need to put more emphasis on boxing out. And yes, we need a backup center too.
I think we’re one or two moves away from being an extremely deep team. If we can get a backup center and turn some of our dead weight (Vando, James, Hardy) into another legitimate rotation piece, I believe we’d be very, very deep.
I’d trade Thiero too if we could get a rotation piece back. I honestly don’t think Thiero will have a great career despite his raw potential. His movements are too forceful, and the way he lands just looks injury-prone. I feel like that’s going to be very hard to fix at this point.

I watched the entire game yesterday and man was the defense bad the first quarter. 47 points bad! sheesh. The rest of the game they gave about 25 points a quarter but watching them get overpowered like that was tough. Why do you think that happened? What changes did they make the rest of the game?

Thank you Luka! You are the man, you have Laker DNA all over. Making Laker basketball exciting and fun to watch. Can’t wait to see ya win NBA MVP and a championship with the Lakers soon….. god bless ya and give you good health you the man!

It seems personal now between JJ and Vando. Adou has been out every game, Jake missed last game, Looney is a disaster in his 5 minutes every game, and we just got killed on the boards by Utah with them exposing our lack of size and physicality at forward and center. Kessler has an off game and we literally have nobody. Still not a single Vando minute across the first three games.

It’s getting to the point where I think JJ has to swallow his pride and play Vando here and there. Some matchups may not be for Vando, but you’re telling me he deserves 0 minutes when JJ can barely field a big man rotation? It’s getting ridiculous

He showed respect and class to us when our guys were down. Even though OKC fans had zero compassion for Luka and AR, lets show class.

With the Jazz sending 2, sometimes even 3 bodies in the paint to ensure that Kessler does not get a lob dunk, put back or rebound, it created 14 wide open 3s for Ziaire and Matisse, who were exceptional shooting the ball tonight.

While I do think Kessler could have done a bit more on the offensive and defensive glass, getting bear hugged by 2 big men on your first game in your old city isn't always easy.

I hate to get hyperbolic but watching Luka has me feeling like a kid watching Kobe again. Absolute killer on the court. How lucky are we as fans to got to witness Kobe then Bron now Luka Magic 🙏🙏🙏

Just watched the replay of the game against the Jazz with the Jazz's own commentary team.. It's always satisfying to hear an opposing broadcast team feel worried and frustrated while their team is getting torched 😅