Mavericks BEAT THE LAKERS With Luka Doncic Out | The Big 3 in 30 NBA

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Today on the Big Three in 30, the Mavericks get a win over the Lakers.

Cuba flag goes off for 45 points, as LA misses out on a win to help its playoff position.

The news for the Lakers just kept on getting worse and worse, and the Celtics take down

the Raptors.

An incredible game from Hemiish Keda.

This is the Big Three in 30 NBA.

The three biggest stories in the NBA from our local experts at the Lockdown Podcast Network.

We bring you the real story, why it matters.

What's next?

Who wins the big game and more?

All in 30 minutes.

The Big Three in 30 NBA starts now.

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The Mavericks picked up a win over the Lakers last night, and Dallas got another huge performance

in the process.

Here's Nick Angstad with slightly biased to explain unlocked on Mavericks.

The Dallas Mavericks, winning this game against Los Angeles Lakers, Luca Al Austin Reeves

out, Marcus Smart out, but Kyrie out, lively out.

The Mavers decided to keep all the guys in, and Cooper Flag goes off for 45 points, becomes

the, you know, the first rookie since Alan Iverson to have 40 points in back to back games

in his rookie year, absolutely insane.

And to follow up a 50 point night with a 45 point night is legendary.

That's insane.

That is not something that a normal rookie does.

Even last game, when you and I sat on here and were like, you know, 50 as a rookie

and credo, 50, the youngest player ever to get 50, the first teenager ever to get 50,

all that, all the different things.

There's still that.

Well, you know, you know, Brandon Jennings at 50, Brandon Jennings at 50 is a rookie.

Undisputed the two back to back, 40 point plus games and a 45 and a 51 point game shows

just how much you can do on the NBA level.

Yes, it's April basketball, sure you can say that.

Yes, it's this magic team that's really weird.

And yes, it's this, you know, Lakers team that didn't have a lot of guys, but in an NBA

basketball context, doing what he did without real guards to set him up without a great

maps context.

So we've been talking about all season.

Cooper Flag went out there and just showed what he's fully capable of.

If his jump shots going down, if some threes are going down, and if he can get to the

line any single time he wants, this is what can happen.

Yeah.

The last two games are just the dream when you think about Cooper Flag, his scoring profile,

what he can be moving forward because the game against Orlando, the 51 points, it was

a three point shot that really kind of turned on for him.

You know, tonight it was getting to the free throw line and shooting 17 free throws.

I think two of those were intentional at the end, but 17 free throws made 15 of them.

I thought you were going to go grift angle.

I thought you were going to go, no, two of those were gripped.

Yeah, I mean, I don't care.

All of them could be gripping.

I'm a gripping defender.

I think they still count.

It's no count.

I support gripping 100%.

I think you're an idiot if you don't.

So Cooper Flag, it's the free throw line.

It's a three point shot.

It's back to back games where it's, yep, if he gets to a place with his jumper, which

all of the priors tell us that he's a good three point shooter, you know, all of the,

you know, the free throw shooting percentages.

All these things point towards him becoming, at least a, you know, a solid three point

shooter at some point in his career and getting to a point where you're doing that comfortably

in taking threes.

And then tonight, tonight, when he's so good at getting downhill and getting to his

spots, where you just imagine him getting stronger and becoming a little bit more of a physical

presence in that leading to higher free throw attempts, you know, these games back-to-back

just, it's, you know, because he had these, he had this stretch, obviously not this much

scoring, but, you know, he had that stretch before he got hurt, where I was like, oh, yeah,

Cooper has, Cooper has turned a quarter somehow in some ways, something clicked and now he's

just become the scoring monster.

And tonight, in a couple nights ago, you've seen him just really tap back into that.

And coming back from injury, like there's something going on, his jump shot was not going

down.

That's where a lot of the concern came from.

That's where a lot of his like rookie, the year momentum really got, got to take it

away or like, or like lost a lot of steam because of how much he was struggling.

But these last two games, man, like first half, he was two or three from three.

He only took one in the second half, but he looked like he was more confident in that

shot.

And then he just didn't really even need to go to it because he was hitting his mid-range

shots.

He was hitting floaters, hitting runners and that, that's stuff to touch around the rim.

Just separates him from so many other players that have come in with the same kind of get

to my spot and, and rise up or get to, you know, some spot or have a mismatch against

somebody because I'm bigger and can dribble.

Like, there's so many other guys that come into the league and have that kind of stuff.

They go high in drafts, but then you don't have the touch, you don't have the, you know,

the ability to score in multiple different ways.

And then you just kind of get phased out and Cooper flag, I mean, that, that ability is

just next level for somebody as young as he is.

It was incredible to watch eight rebounds, nine assists to a couple of, couple of steals.

He had three steals at halftime, so they took a steal from him.

Is that, is that, is that, can we just talk about what an injustice that is?

Yeah, congratulations on your trash garbage league out of so many, at home, too, at what

about home cooking?

What about home cooking?

A couple of days ago, it was the most blowouts, biggest marketing thing across the league.

And it was the second biggest, or whatever it was, then a month ago was the last time it

was as big as it was.

And today, you had a team, the biggest point spread in the last 30 years and the thunder

still covered against it.

Great league, Adam.

So if you let us have nothing fun and you would give us nothing but slop, what was that

thunder?

Jazz Gore?

Yeah, it was like 30 points and the 35 points, the thunder were 25 point favorite.

Yeah, great league.

But anyway, yeah, that's like a first round, women's basketball, college women's

basketball game, they were all like 50 point favorites.

Yeah, I mean, a nice one, and at halftime, I tweeted this out, but I guess it's no

one void now, because Adam Silver's league, but 20, it was only the second time an

NBA history that a player and a half had 25 plus points, five rebounds, four more

assists, three steals on a block, and Dwayne weighed no nine when he was just like insane.

Yeah, he was the other time.

So again, it got taken away from us because you know, Adam Silver's league is horrible,

but we did have that for a tiny bit sat the takeaways that that's take away from today.

Yeah, Cooper Black's living in a failed league.

Yeah, he definitely is.

What do you think about the way the Lakers defended him?

It was it was driving me and saying where I was like, am I actually seeing what I'm seeing?

Because it just felt like every single shot was overlooked, canard.

And then you mean defensive juggernaut, Los Angeles, Lakers.

Yeah, I mean, this, this Lakers team going into this game, I told as many people that I mean,

so many of you came up to me during games and people were like, what do you think about the game?

What do you think about that?

I'm like, they're going to win this game.

The maps will win this game because this Lakers team without Luca without Reeves just is missing

so much.

I mean, we know what happens when Luca is out for games, right?

Yeah.

And LeBron, give LeBron credit.

It's you and me on the show today.

And if Isaac was here, he wouldn't, but I'm glad it's you and me.

30 points, nine boards, 15 assists, 15 assists, four turnovers.

Like with as much as he handled the ball.

And he had some dunks that just reminded you of just how one of one he is as an athlete.

And at 41, I mean, the amount of steroids he's probably is taking to be able to do the thing.

Well, did you see that?

Luca, Luca's not getting treatment in the States.

He's going to Europe.

What's going to go?

I'm not going to make that through.

No, he's going to, he's going to,

he's going to Germany to get the good stuff.

Hey, you know, maybe he learned, maybe the Lakers guys have that Kobe Bryant.

Yes, I recommend recommendation.

Still from when Kobe went to Germany.

Honestly, maybe Dirk told him, maybe, maybe, maybe, yeah.

Dirk should go get that done with his ankles.

Yeah, I didn't, but I think we're broad.

We literally went to, oh, that was Kobe, wasn't it?

Yeah, Kobe, Kobe did that famously.

But I mean, yeah, this Lakers team was just obviously under match,

but the maps that maps played all their guys and Cooper flag led the way.

And it just so much stuff became easy.

And you saw what a Cooper flag led team is going to be able to do no matter what.

They're going to be able to get out and transition.

They're going to be able to get stops on defense sometimes, you know,

and push and push the pace.

They're going to be able to score because Cooper in the half court,

because Cooper flag can get you a bucket whenever, whenever he wants.

The maps have to put a lot of those things together and make it coherent basketball.

But I mean, we just, we saw, I mean, I think the last two games,

we've seen the peak of Cooper flag.

Like what, what is, what he's capable of.

Yeah, and tonight, and I don't know if it was just because Luke couldn't,

the new canard piece of it all.

But tonight was like really the, the, I wouldn't say the first time,

but this was out of any game we see from Cooper this year.

This was the game where I was like, man, he's just beating his defender off the

drip, like one step off the dribble all the time.

Like he's just getting into the paint whenever he wants

without even really needing a dribble move.

Like this was, I wouldn't say the first time,

but just the, the most I've noticed it in a game where it's just like,

oh, Cooper's just like blowing by whoever's in front of him at will,

or especially if they get out and run or in transition,

he is getting to the paint no matter what.

So, yeah, I mean, to have all this wrapped up,

all that stuff we already knew was there with the playmaking feel,

the defensive stuff.

And now it's, again, the game, it's just the best of both worlds.

The game a couple nights ago, he's shooting a bunch of threes and you're like,

oh, wow, if that gets there, you see it.

He did attempt another one of those going right step backs tonight.

Did miss it, but and then tonight was getting to the free throw line of

time. So he's just got so many options.

And that's what makes a superstar.

You've got all the options in front of you.

I said this a lot about Luca as he was coming up.

I say it a lot about so many different players.

It's like the difference between a Cooper flag and a Chet Homegren is they both

had all the options in front of him.

And Cooper flags putting on a lot of them together.

Chets doing a lot of great things, you know, defensively and all that,

but like the scoring and the, you know, getting to the basket and all that,

like this shooting has just not all come together for him.

And for Cooper flag, you see the, you see the vision.

You see where it could go in these two games.

Man, he was good.

And then drawing in the defense and getting, you know, getting more

assisting and kicking out to guys and finding, finding open players.

He's, he's just next level, man.

He's 19.

He's the youngest player in the league.

We cannot, I cannot state that enough on this show that he's another level.

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This is Jake from Lockdown.

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Like, do you remember waking up Thursday morning going like,

I am so excited about this game.

It's going to be, you know, a measuring stick and you look

versus shape for the MVP and all that.

Oh, my God.

I'm like, when I woke up on Thursday morning,

I can't stress enough how I was like, oh, this is great.

You can get another tape, another tester for the Lakers and see where they're up

because we know the gap between them and Oklahoma, the city,

especially the San Antonio Spurs that they have been playing.

And then, of course, as you said, the MVP race,

we've seen how the numbers have shown,

especially in the month of March,

where the Lakers were 15 and two and Luke and Don,

which average in 40 points in that month of March.

And we're like, okay, we can see if the MVP race can get nailed down.

This is a little bit of a bad chance.

Luke and Don, and then, oh, no.

That game happening at the Oklahoma City of Thunder.

And then went down in a way where like, oh, man,

it went really, really fast, quick.

And then Luke and Don just going out with the injury.

And then, in a span of 24 hours, we see news,

not only Luke and Don just having to be out for the rest of the regular season,

we see news at Osiris, where it's going to be out with the left oblique.

So the news, but the Lakers just kept on getting worse and worse and worse.

And it was like delayed.

Did you see the news that it was, you know, JJ was talking about this,

the practice on Saturday,

the news on Reeves was delayed because the folks doing the MRI and Dallas,

like, scan the wrong part of his body, like, I mean,

it's that kind of like when it rains, it pours sort of thing.

Like, yeah, it's like when you go in for surgery,

like they have to make sure they label like the right leg to do the operation on it,

whatever, they did the wrong leg.

It was like, oh, my God, they can start to see more and more like,

Jason Redding, seeing his frustration.

Now it's to the point where, okay,

where they're going to do with this whole Lakers,

the medical team and stuff like that,

because if they can't narrow it down and get something right like that,

then, I mean, what are we going to get this department right?

Yeah, I will get to this the game again in a second here,

134, 128 again, as the finalist.

There's, there's stuff to talk about with this game,

but there's at the same time,

you know, there's certain things that you just kind of can't really,

you know, you can't fault the effort, you can't fault, you know,

there are only so many things you can kind of criticize

about what the Lakers did on Sunday.

I mean, the point you're making is an interesting one,

because the Lakers have had, I mean,

it seems like every other year,

they're turning over some portion of the medical staff,

they're, you know, the training staff is turning over,

the surgical staff there.

Now they're aligned with UCLA and then they weren't before like,

I don't know exactly what happened.

Like, I wasn't there.

I'm always really careful to be like,

somebody screwed up medically.

They didn't diagnose Luca properly.

I think Reeves, they recognize what was going on.

We're like, it is what it is.

It's not going to get worse.

And, you know, you can play if you can get through the pain,

because tomorrow you're not going to be able to move.

But with Luca, like, I don't know, like,

he's been grabbing that hamstring for, I don't know,

six weeks and grimacing and clutching and grabbing

different parts of his body.

But the larger point, like, does,

does, especially does new ownership believe

that they have like the best training staff.

Did they have the best medical support system,

all this stuff like this is all stuff

that's going to be looked at in the off season.

And you, I mean, just seeing how the turnaround has been

with the whole new ownership group of Mark Walter,

the whole Guggenheim group.

And honestly, we're seeing that the Lakers don't even have

a real legit scouting or, you know, scouting team.

You know, I mean, so that's not admired anyone,

as far as I know, I'm not hired anyone.

So that's another thing that they got to look into,

heading into the off season.

Then, I mean, you see the frustration,

you've seen Jay-Jay to make in the comments,

like you said, as far as like, you know,

they did testing on awesome reason,

the testing didn't go as expected.

And so now you got to look into it.

Okay, is this going to be the right medical staff

heading into the off season four,

look at Dodges and Osiris and making the right decisions

because, you know, all the stuff that came out as far as,

look at Dodges was already grimacing in pain

throughout the, you know, that, you know, that first half.

And then the question Mark comes in as far as,

should he have continued to play,

knowing that he was already dealing

with some hamstring sornis?

And so, I mean, you can have those conversations,

you can have different types of opinions on it,

you know, how Jay-Jay's are ready,

and how the Lakers have been, they always have been a team

that they're going to compete.

No matter what the score is,

they're going to compete for a full 48 minutes.

I mean, they've shown, especially due to second half

of the season.

And I get both sides of it as far as take them out

because you know that you're not going to win this game

against Oklahoma City.

Oh, they're already down by as much as 40 points

at the end of the first quarter.

You can make that argument as well.

Just sit them down, don't, you know, just rest them,

get ready for a Dallas Marvick, get another day off

in between that game.

And then as far as on some reads,

you can make that case as well.

You know, because he had that possession

where he was chasing after a loose ball.

Yeah, and he saw him immediately

reach out through his left side

and then keeping them in the game.

Yeah, actually, he left the floor

and went back to the locker room,

they checked him out and he came back

and he did okay, alien, it's all relative

for the rest of the game.

Like the thing about Luca too, that it's like,

I mean, obviously had they known he was going to,

you know, hurt it worse in the second half,

they wouldn't let him play.

But like you obviously don't get the benefit of that.

But I think, you know, JJ said

that the reason they left him in was, you know,

he was going to play six minutes

and we were going to try to eat into the lead

and see what we could do.

And I actually don't believe that.

Now that's sort of the standard, you know, NBA head coach,

you never give up on a game very rarely

does the starting lineup not come out

for the second half of the game

just because of the score.

And so it's like, I really actually don't believe

JJ's explanation there.

I think they were trying to find

with another game coming up on Tuesday

and a potential first round matchup against these guys,

or they believe an opportunity to see them

in the Western conference finals

if they maintain that three seed and kept playing.

I think they were looking for something

that they could put on tape

that would give them a little bit of confidence

and like, okay, here's where we can attack them

because they played Oklahoma City really well last year,

two out of the three games this year,

they've gotten their asses kicked.

And so I think they were trying to find some

something that they could use to attack

so that whether it's Tuesday or down the road,

they feel like there's something in the tool belt.

That makes sense, it makes sense,

it's obviously not worth Luke getting hurt

and we know the answer now,

but like, does that at least

from a theoretical standpoint make sense to you?

Now, it doesn't make sense to me because,

I mean, if that was the goal

that you're trying to accomplish

and seeing what, you know, in the margins

and how you can get better at as far as defensively or

how can you, you know, attack Oklahoma City,

you know, as far as an offensive standpoint,

then, I mean, is that really much a good sample size

because, I mean, the Oklahoma City was,

again, they were up by 20 plus points

at the end of the first quarter

and then the lead just kept on growing and growing.

I mean, they were not gonna win,

they were not gonna win the game.

They were not gonna win the game.

They were not gonna win the game that much.

So if you have that mindset that, okay,

what can we grab from these moments

to see what we can approve on knowing that

this could be a potential second round matchup

with Oklahoma City, that okay,

but it's just hard to kind of look at that perspective

only because that you can just see

the gap between the Lakers and the Oklahoma City.

That's just the only reason why I just keep on coming back

to that is that just, just sit them out.

Just sit them out, let them rest, take,

you know, just take that loss and then get ready to go,

you know, for the game, you know,

it would have been nice to see them heading into

the Dallas-Marx game, get some more momentum

and then you go, Oklahoma City, coming to work,

to LA on Tuesday.

And so that's another matchup to kind of get them back,

you know, they got a travel to LA.

So that could have been a different approach.

That's, I feel like this is home again.

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The Celtics took care of the Raptors last night

as Boston keeps stacking winds with the postseason

getting nearer.

Here is John Corralis with locked on Celtics with more.

The Celtics got an incredible game from Namiish Keda.

Who is just absolutely, I think, rolling right now.

He had 18 points, seven rebounds.

He's just been phenomenal for the Celtics recently.

And as I try to call up my box score,

things just disappear on me here.

The way he's been able to hear on offense,

read read the what the defense is doing,

and make the appropriate play, especially in the pick and roll,

just when to get in and out of the picks,

when to stick on the pick, when to slip,

just the variety of things that he is able to do

and how he's able to execute these things offensively

has been great, not just the finishing,

because he's a big guy, he's going to finish at the rim.

He has a nice little floater and all that stuff.

But for him, understanding offensively,

the defense, are they switching?

I'm going to slip.

I'm going to get out of this quickly.

I'm going to, if they're up to touch,

and you need them to, you need to just free up,

take them a little bit, it's the sticking on the screen

or the re-screening.

If, whatever it is that they're doing,

he's understanding it better than he ever has before,

and it's opening things up for everybody,

especially Tatum and Brown.

And this is an important, I think, element to what he's been able

to do, you can't blitz Tatum and Brown.

You can't blitz when Keta is setting a pick,

because he now understands, okay,

I need to short roll here and give them the option.

And when he short rolls, he's making the right reads.

And it's still work in progress.

There's still things that he can improve on.

In fact, there was one play here,

where he was looking specifically to get a hand off.

I think it was the paint and pritchard.

Jaylen Brown cut down the middle and was open.

Sam Hauser was wide open for three.

And Nimi got a little too singularly focused on the play

and not understanding what was going on behind him.

Still a work that's something that he needs to work on.

But even though, even so,

he's still able to, hey, make that next right play,

make that next right read,

he's able to find guys and make the passes,

move the ball, do these things.

I said the other day,

I wrote on Celtics on a side that he's doing kind of

a Luke Cornett impression,

which is a compliment and some people might say

it's unfair because he's his own player,

but in what he is able to do in terms of

Luke was able to move the ball.

He never held the ball.

He never stuck with him.

He would get it if it was in a short roll.

He would just get it and move it.

He did it.

He was great at just changing,

getting the ball to change sides of the floor.

So it's not just stagnant.

It's not just on one side.

It's, okay, defense is stacked up over here.

Just get it to me.

I'm gonna move it to the other side of the floor.

We're gonna get the defense moving

and see if we can't get something free.

That little stuff,

like those little things are,

those were Luke Cornett specialties,

are Luke Cornett specialties.

Those are things that Mimi is starting to really excel at.

Now, is he gonna be better than Luke, as good as Luke,

whatever it is,

Luke was really good last year.

If Mimi can be better than that or as good as that,

then fine, whatever he is, he is,

whatever he's gonna be, he's gonna be,

I'm not putting a ceiling on the guy.

I'm just saying that right now,

he's doing these little things that open things up.

So offensively,

he is setting the screen, rolling,

is it a roll all the way to the basket to score?

So be it, he's done that now.

Two games in a row where the defense

is reacting to Tatum with the ball

and Tatum is just like, yeah, point, there you go.

You get the pass, you get the finish,

you get dunks, you get easy assist.

Tatum is racking up assists

off of Namiish Keta finishes.

Is it passes?

Then so, yeah, then it's passes.

And I don't even know how many assists Keta had.

Four assists.

So that's perfect.

If you can get three, four, five assists out of that guy,

oh my God, then everything changes.

If you now are watching the Celtics

or the other team, right?

If you're scouting the Celtics and you're watching,

I think the book is gonna start to be,

starting to be out on them now.

The offense is, I don't wanna overreact

and say it's unstoppable.

It's unstoppable in some senses

if you can get them to turn the ball over,

which they're generally pretty good at,

but every once in a while, when they turn it over,

they really turn it over.

But you're watching Keta and it's like,

how do you attack Tatum and Brown?

If Keta is capable of beating you now,

that's gonna be the conundrum for other teams.

That's the major factors to why,

this is such a huge development, why this is a big deal,

why I'm starting with Keta above Tatum

and above Brown in a game they combined for 49 points.

Because now Keta has developed to a point

just from beginning of season to now.

He's improved so much that Jalen,

he called it, what do you call it, a privilege.

Jalen Brown called it a privilege

to watch Keta improve the way he has

and he said from beginning of the season to now,

it's like night and day.

So that kind of stuff makes Keta incredibly valuable.

And that's just on offense, on defense,

I swear something I've never seen before.

How many raptors were more afraid to go into the paint

when Keta was there?

They weren't challenging him.

I saw in this game more than I've seen in any other game,

I think,

drivers, wings, getting into the paint, seeing Keta

and then deciding, making their business decision,

we're not going to, I'm not going to attack this guy.

We're going to go reset it

and we're going to do something different.

And it's a big difference, I'll get to Vouch later,

but Vouch of Vitch was in there

and Murray Boyle's tried to end him with a poster dunk.

Mama Cale's really had a drive

when he was looking right at Keta and was like,

nah, I'm not going to do that, I'm going to move.

So in almost within like a minute or two,

you had plays where one of the centers was challenged hard

at the rim, your other center, your defensive center,

kind of scared the raptors off, scared a driver off.

So more than, hey, he had three blocks in this game,

which is always nice,

and he had that one monster block from behind

that he hit off the rim and off his own face, which is funny.

He had, yet another block where somebody was being posted up

and he just rose up behind the guy, behind his own teammate

and blocked the ball at the top at the apex.

That's just hard to do, but he's doing it.

Beyond those plays which are great,

he is now entered rim deterrent,

not just a rim protector, he is now a deterrent at the rim.

So I am, again, for the second podcast in a row,

I'm going to say how impressed I am with this guy

because it's been just this incredible run

and he is playing his absolute best basketball right now

in early April, heading into the playoffs.

It's incredible to see,

and I remain just impressed by everything that he's been doing.

That's all for today's Big Three in 30 NBA.

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