Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily.

Coming up, the Lakers get a big win in their playoff push to move up the standings.

The Celtics hand the Grizzlies another loss.

And we have Anthony Slater after Josh Giddy's return.

That did not go well against the Thunder.

Good morning, everybody. Good morning, S. Josh Giddy. Man, the Bulls kind of got blown out by the Thunder.

We thought we might get a good game because of the way the Bulls have been playing.

It was Bulls week last week, Dave.

Yeah, yeah, it was not there night.

But guys, stick around after the break.

We got Anthony Slater to talk about that game.

And really to set up just how historic the Thunder season has been is pretty good talk. But, hey, the Lakers played last night, S. How about that? Picked up a big win over the Rockets. Of course, the Rockets playing on the second night of a back-to-back. They had the short flight from Phoenix to L.A., which means they probably had an opportunity to go out in L.A. That would be impressive. I would say, a little rainy out here, though. So, you know, but they did, they kind of got dead legs toward the end of the game. And it felt like the Lakers were able to just stay out in front of them. And again, it's nice when you have the luxury of LeBron James and Luca Dachich to control pace.

In this game, I think the biggest takeaway for me is Luca Dachich continues to just look better each and every game, I think, coming back from this calf.

Even on the defensive end, I mean, he had a couple of plays on defense in this game that stood out to me.

One in particular was, you know, he shoots a shot and misses, gives up a rebound, and then he

actually runs and cuts off the man in transition.

This is the kind of stuff you normally don't see out of Luke until the playoffs.

Yeah, you usually, and look, this is just the reputation Luca has ended up getting, but, you know, he's usually complaining for a foul call or he's like jogging back.

But honestly, ever since he's been with the Lakers, I've noticed that he's actually getting back in transition on defense.

And maybe that's a testament to the Lakers coaching staff and kind of pointing that out to him or motivating him to be that kind of defensive player.

I think Luca can be a pretty good defender when he locks in like that.

So when he's doing that, it's a bonus.

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