The Land O'Lakers Podcast by the Kamenetzky Brothers

The Lakers had a busy week, and lost two of the three games they played. So why do we declare it a success? And what exactly does success look like on the upcoming road trip? We explain. Because while LeBron and Anthony Davis are still out, Andre Drummond is nursing his nail-less big toe and so on, success is a relative term, with a very specific meaning. From there, it's on to Drummond. How hard is it to play without a toenail? How long might he be out? What did we see in the one half he...

The Lakers played, and won, two games this weekend, one against a conventionally bad team (Cleveland), and the other against a catastrophically awful group (Orlando). Even shorthanded, they might not seem like much, but it can be argued these were the most important wins of the season. Without LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the lineup, the team is poised to lose a lot of games. They're rarely going to have the best player available in any game, and often won't have any of the top three....

The news is big, and it ain't good. Saturday against the Hawks, LeBron James suffered a very nasty looking high ankle sprain, and has been declared "out indefinitely" by the Lakers. Whether that means seven, 10, 15 or more games remains to be seen, but with only 29 remaining following Sunday's loss to the Suns in Phoenix, the Lakers don't have much time to get their house in order before the playoffs begin. The margin for error, if it's still there, is shrinking. And just where might they...

The Lakers announced this week that Anthony Davis is healing, but it'll be at least two more weeks until he's cleared to play. At the least, Davis won't see game action before the end of March, and more likely it'll be a week or two into April. So what does that mean for Davis? For the Lakers? We break it down in the newest edition of the Land O'Lakers podcast. -When does Davis return? How do the Lakers handle that, so injury doesn't recur? And how much time do the Lakers need at full...

He's the big cheese over at Silver Screen and Roll, and one of our favorite people out in the NBA universe. Harrison Faigen of SilverScreenandRoll.com joins the show to review what we've seen to this point in the Lakers season, and preview what's to come. Plus... we dive into some of the more controversial aspects of the All Star Weekend! No shortage of options, there. And that's actually where we start. First, what was the reaction to the game? Clearly, investment from players on the floor...

As the Lakers endured a four-game losing streak, we said on this show the losses, while frustrating, revealed little about the makeup of the team, short of the obvious: When the Lakers don't have Anthony Davis and Dennis Schröder, they're too short on talent to win a lot of games. Particularly on the offensive end. If the losing continues after they return? Now they've got a real problem. This week, though, showed how that may not be an issue. Schröder returned from his stint in the...

That the Lakers are slumping without Anthony Davis (calf strain) and Dennis Schröder (health and safety protocols) in the lineup isn't exactly a surprise. Most teams would suffer without an all-world guy like Davis, and the type of dynamic scorer that Schröder is, particularly when nobody left on the roster not named LeBron James can serve as that type of offensive catalyst. The Lakers, in short, are having trouble scoring. Why? We mentioned the absences, and then there's the shooting. It...

The Lakers and Nets were supposed to have a marquee, earth-shaking tussle on Thursday, but instead had it derailed by player absences. No Anthony Davis, no Kevin Durant, and then in a surprise, no Dennis Schroder, who was a late scratch after being put in the COVID protocols. More information about that will surely emerge in the next few days. But in the meantime, it meant there wasn't much to learn about what a Lakers vs. Nets NBA Finals might look like. One thing is clear, though, the...

The Lakers got bad news on Monday, though it certainly could have been worse. Anthony Davis, who re-aggravated his Achilles tendinosis Sunday in Denver, will almost surely miss the nine games remaining for the Lakers before the All Star Break. But an MRI revealed no structural damage to the tendon itself, meaning long term hopes for the season are still, like A.D.'s leg, still intact. But what happens now? The Lakers first have a decision to make about who starts. It's likely Kyle Kuzma,...

As much as anything can be in this day and age, the 2020-21 season for the Lakers has been pretty smooth sailing. No COVID-19-related cancellations, little by way of injuries, piling up wins, and so on. Now, we seem to be passing through a potentially more challenging stretch. Anthony Davis has been diagnosed with tendonosis of his right Achilles. The Lakers don't seem to be overly concerned, and reports say structurally the Achilles is fine. He's likely to miss Monday's game vs. OKC, and...

For one half on Thursday, the Lakers looked vulnerable. The visiting Denver Nuggets made Anthony Davis uncomfortable. They crashed the offensive glass and built a 12-point lead at the half. Then in the third quarter, the Lakers hit a gear on defense the Nuggets couldn't overcome. That spilled into the fourth quarter, too, and in the end LA walked away with a 21-point win. That's a 33-point swing. And it happened in a way that had to be really discouraging to the rest of the league. Not...

The Lakers have played some impactful games on the road trip, but none going forward might be more impactful than Saturday's win over Boston, not because of the final score (though the Lakers were happy to break a two game losing streak) but rather who Frank Vogel had on the floor during those 48 minutes. That's where we start (4:45) in the latest edition of the Land O'Lakers podcast. Who was in, who was out, and what does it mean going forward? Does THT really squeeze Wes Matthews out of...

This week the Lakers will pass the quarter pole on the 2020-21 season, and things on the court are going well. The Lakers start the week 13-4, and on most nights find their biggest flaw to be a tendency to let teams eat into large leads they've built up, rather than continuing to roll that opponent out of the building. Of course, that means they have to build that lead to begin with, no easy feat in the NBA. First world problems, for sure. That the Lakers are good isn't surprising. That...

So.... that happened. The Lakers got off to a great start on MLK Day at home against Golden State, but ultimately blew a 16 point halftime lead, then an 11 point margin after three quarters, ultimately losing 115-113 to the Golden State Warriors. What happened? How a bad alchemy of bad offense led to easier opportunities for the Warriors... or was it bad defense letting the Warriors score too much and then set their defense? It was also a little different, not just because the Lakers lost,...

Wednesday morning, we thought we'd hit two of the bigger stories of the NBA this week with guest, Jared Weiss of The Athletic. First, his great feature this week on how COVID-19 has hit the NBA hard, forcing cancellations and changes in the league's virus protocols. Are they giving enough attention to the possibilities of on-court transmission between players? And while we had him, we figured we'd talk a little Kyrie Irving, currently on what is being described as personal leave with the...

The Lakers picked up another win Sunday in Houston, dominating the Rockets on both sides of the ball to run their record to 11-3. After a quick breakdown - including some speculation on the future of James Harden - we look at some early season surprises for the Lakers, 11 games in. For starters, there's the emergence of a mid-range game with Montrezl Harrell, something that definitely wasn't a thing last season with the Clippers. Is it real? Trezz says so, but he might be biased. Then...

When the Lakers won their 17th championship this fall, it was history on a few levels. One piece that may not have received enough attention? Jeanie Buss became the first woman to lead a team to a title in American team sports as an owner. We spoke with Katie Rosman, features reporter at the New York Times, who authored an excellent story about Buss earlier this week. We covered a great deal of ground, including questions about... -What drew her to the story, and why, particularly as a...

The Lakers are still a work in progress, but they're a winning work in progress, kicking off the week with five wins in seven tries and the best point differential in the Western Conference. So what's working and what isn't? How are the new guys fitting in? To break it down, we welcome @Tim_NBA - known in NBA Twitter circles as Cranjis McBasketball - to the show. Tim runs the outstanding bball-index.com, and hosts the equally excellent Lakers Exceptionalism podcast on Twitch. He deconstructs...

After pasting a Karl Anthony Towns-less Minnesota Timberwolves squad Sunday night, the Lakers are 2-1 through three and aside from the first quarter against the Clippers in the opener, have looked pretty good or better. So what accounts for the solid beginning? For starters, the Lakers simply have more talent on hand than last year, and can attack opposing teams in more ways. Frank Vogel says they're a work in progress for another month or so, and that from the perspective of the coaching...

So apparently, the Lakers know a winning formula when they see it. Losing to the Clippers in the opener worked out last season, so Tuesday night, as the NBA kicked off the 2020-21 season, they tried it again. The LAC beat the Lakers 116-109. But before that, we got another example of just how good the Lakers are at stagecraft, as they turned what could have been a sad and underwhelming ring ceremony, staged in an empty arena with rigid social distancing guidelines, into something really...