The Los Angeles Lakers picked up their first preseason win on Thursday night over the Milwaukee Bucks. Trailing in the fourth quarter, the reserves led a big comeback which had an unlikely catalyst in undrafted rookie guard Quincy Olivari.
Olivari led the way in the fourth with 11 points, five rebounds and two assists while knocking down three 3-pointers as the Lakers outscored the Bucks by 13 in that final period. Afterwards, head coach JJ Redick had high praise for Olivari, saying he showed the blueprint for what he is looking for from some of his role players, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Ray Allen used to always talk about every time you step on the floor, it’s a tryout essentially. There’s always people watching you. There’s guys that have earned a roster spot for their play in Summer League, for their play in training camp, a preseason game, guys that run rotation minutes in garbage time in a regular season game. So I don’t take what that group did lightly at all. Really impressive. I thought, in particular, Quincy (Olivari) just completely changed the game. And to me, and I told our guys this after, what he did is the blueprint for what we’re asking for a few of our players in terms of just picking up full court, being disruptive, taking time off the shot clock. I thought he just executed exactly what we want from someone in his position and we’ve challenged a number of guys and they’ve done it well to varying degrees. But I haven’t seen it executed that well until tonight with Quincy.”
Redick makes an excellent point in that, for players like Olivari, there is always someone watching and you must take advantage of every second you are on the court. Olivari is unlikely to make the Lakers roster, but these kinds of performances could lead to him perhaps landing a two-way contract either in L.A. or elsewhere.
And this performance was not a surprise to Redick or the Lakers as Olivari is someone who has been standing out throughout the offseason:
“So he’s got a background running cross country. So he’s in unbelievable shape at all times. When we did all of our conditioning in September, he won nearly every run. For August and September when we had our light days and we did our shooting drills, he I think has the highest score in nearly every shooting drill we have. He takes the game very seriously. He’s a player who I talk about care factor, like, he’s a player who has a care factor for doing it the right way and wanting to execute whatever vision you give him. I’m excited that he’s in our program. I really am. We we look at him as a coaching staff in very high regard.”
Redick would continue on in his praise, noting how the way Olivari carries himself and goes about his business just leads people to responding well to him:
“Quincy, again, he’s been in our gym now for a couple months, besides just the Summer League. He has a he has an infectious spirit and soul about him. It’s not that he’s some super talkative, boisterous guy, but he just carries himself well, he carries himself with intent, his work ethic is really high, and I think people respond to that. And when you have someone who cares, who’s a good teammate, who does all the right things, and then he comes in a game and is picking up full court with a bloody mouth and changing the entire dynamic for us as a team, it’s easy to respond to that as a as a teammate and as a coaching staff. And I thought he just he lit a fire for us.”
Whether this could lead to the Lakers choosing to keep Olivari around remains to be seen. All three of their two-way contracts are accounted for in Colin Castleton, Armel Traore and Christian Koloko, so they would have to release one of them in order to make room if that is the route the franchise wants to go in, but it may be worth it.
Quincy Olivari discusses leading Lakers fourth quarter comeback
Quincy Olivari was the big talk of the night following the Lakers’ comeback win over the Bucks and the guard spoke on what was going through his mind as he was leading the way during that fourth quarter run.
The undrafted guard said he told himself to “just keep going” and was focused on keeping his energy high in order to get JJ Redick his first win as a head coach.
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