The Los Angeles Lakers badly needed a win in their return home from a road trip against the Portland Trail Blazers. But with LeBron James joining Austin Reaves and not suiting up, a lot more pressure would be on the likes of Dalton Knecht to support Anthony Davis.
Knecht didn’t have the best shooting night finishing with just six points, but his eight rebounds were second on the team and, most importantly, the Lakers picked up a nine-point victory. Both D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura had big nights and the Lakers overall had much greater energy overall, something Knecht believes playing at home helped with.
“Like you said, we’ve got back to playing in our home building and I think that kind of helped us,” Knecht said after the win. “Especially with Rui going on his little stretch and then D’Lo (D’Angelo Russell) as well. It was good to be back in our home building.”
Russell was outstanding with 28 points and 14 assists off the bench while Hachimura added a season-high 23 points to go along with five rebounds and four steals. The performances were needed as the Lakers came into the game on a three-game losing streak after another rough road trip and Knecht believes being on the road affected the team.
“I think it definitely, not having all of these home games kind of affected us,” Knecht added. “But at the same time, we lost some games that we should’ve won. So at the end of the day, we just gotta keep going out there and watching our film and try to get better and learn.”
That game in Atlanta is definitely one the Lakers would like to have back but as Knecht noted, the team simply has to put their heads down and continue to work to get better. What will help the team is the four days off until their next game and the rookie is definitely looking forward to that.
“I think it will be good having a complete off day tomorrow, that will be great. I love that,” Knecht said. “And then Tuesday is a recovery day and we get back at it Wednesday to get ready to play Minnesota, we go back on the road. So it will be good to get those rest days, for sure.”
Head coach JJ Redick has spoken recently about the team needing some more practice time, but with the injuries all around this team, getting healthy and a little rest and recovery time is just as important.
Lakers’ Dalton Knecht looking forward to showcasing other aspects of his game
Thanks to his outstanding performances earlier this season, defense have begun paying a lot of attention to Dalton Knecht and not allowing him to get the open looks he was seeing a couple weeks ago. But that doesn’t bother the Lakers rookie.
Knecht spoke about the respect he is getting from defenses recently and said that teams pushing him off the 3-point line will simply allow him to show his ability to play off the dribble more and do work in the midrange.
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