Lakers Lounge

Luka Doncic is off to one of the best starts in NBA history. Anthony marvels at it, enjoys that win over Miami, offers up what he saw that helped Austin Reaves turn things back around and just generally wonders what the hope is for Miami. He wraps with a Q&A with the live audience.

Anthony starts by breaking down the Lakers' win over Miami, segues to Luka Doncic's early-season MVP campaign and wraps this part by talking about what helped Austi Reaves bounce back.

Anthony explains why the Heat seem like a fairly miserable experience right now and compare them to one of his least favorite Lakers seasons ever. He wraps with a Q&A session with the live audience.

The Lakers beat the Raptors behind Luka Doncic's historically impressive stat line and Walker Kessler bouncing back. The bench made the game a lot closer than it needed to be, though, so Anthony tries to figure out what can be done to fix it. He also discusses Quentin Grimes looking rather pedestrian, national media biases and wraps with Q&A.

Anthony marvels at what Luka Doncic is doing on a night by night basis. Against the Raptors, he finished with a stat line literally no one else has ever had. He compares the Lakers' bench to the Vikings run game, which says a lot.

Anthony is getting increasingly worried about Quentin Grimes, so he offers up a couple potential solutions to what has made Grimes so ineffective this year. From there, he wraps up with a little Q&A with the live audience.

The Lakers haven't opened strong. Things are rolling in the right direction. Injuries just keep stacking up for other teams. So long as those things continue? The guys talk about the early returns one week or so in, Jarred Vanderbilt finally getting a shot, and plenty more -- plus why both the guys think Rob Pelinka should cash in every asset he can this season.

Anthony steps aside and lets Raj get as nerdy as he wants about the early returns on this Lakers group.

Anthony and Raj both hope Jarred Vanderbilt is now a cemented part of the Lakers' rotation. How does that change the rest of the pieces around him?

The west is now wide open with a few tough injuries to key figures. The Lakers look good. There's a clear hole in the roster they NEED to address. They only have so much at hand to do so. So... Once again, Anthony is asking the front office to go all in. Raj agrees.

Luka Doncic and Ziaire Williams got the night off. Austin Reaves didn't really have it. The Clippers sold out to stop Walker Kessler. This means other guys would have to step up if the Lakers wanted to win this one. Well, they sure did. This was a fun, albeit ugly win. Anthony breaks it down.

Collin Sexton and Quentin Grimes caught plenty of criticism from the loss to Portland only a day ago. Well, they responded with two very solid performances when the Lakers needed them. Anthony breaks down the win over the Clippers zoomed out, then celebrates Grimes and Sexton's success.

JJ Redick is almost famously online, which means he hears or sees all the criticism of his coaching. Sometimes (as we saw with Darvin Ham), coaches will stick by their instincts out of spite because of that criticism. Anthony was happy to see Redick not do that with Jarred Vanderbilt.

Anthony breaks down the game from a macro point-of-view, then zooms in on some of the individual performances than led to the outcome. Luka and Austin did more than enough to earn a win. Teams have adjusted to Kessler on both ends. Can the Lakers counterpunch?

Sometimes in a loss like that, it's easy to focus too much on the negative. What we can't lose sight of is how ridiculous Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves has been. Anthony discusses that, then wraps with a little live chat Q&A.

Utah sold completely out to make sure Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves couldn't just keep lobbing the alley-oop over the top to Walker Kessler. This put the impetus on shooters to open that lane back up. Portland went with a similar strategy that likely isn't going anywhere.

Anthony runs through all the ways OKC's injuries (and the salary dumps this summer) impact this season and how the Lakers approach it. He then opens the mailbag where everyone is preeeeetty worries about the Lakers' backup center disaster. He laughs at the Celtics a bit to wrap things up.

OKC suffered two brutal injuries Sunday that completely alter what the entire Western Conference might look like. Anthony explains everything going on there and the impact that should have on how the Lakers approach this season.

Rob Pelinka has either had an elite center with no backup or a meh center with an ok backup ever since the Lakers won a ring with an elite center and depth behind him. Anthony explains how not learning from the mistakes made since that championship led directly to Kevon Looney being on this roster right now. He wraps with a couple more questions and a few minutes laughing at the Celtics/Jaylen Brown situations.

Anthony breaks down the Lakers' third win of the season against a Jazz team that presented some unique challenges. He marvel's at Luka's incredible production and Austin being a chameleon depending on what the Lakers need from possession to possession. Walker Kessler had his first bad game as a Laker and, in the process, highlighted just how thin the Lakers are behind him. Anthony wraps with a few questions from the live audience.