The Los Angeles Lakers moved to 10-4 on the season and 2-0 in the NBA Cup on Tuesday night with a 124-118 victory over the Utah Jazz at home. The story of the victory was the explosion from Dalton Knecht, who finished with 37 points on nine made threes, but head coach JJ Redick had some other top performers as well.
One of those was D’Angelo Russell, who lost his place in the Lakers’ starting lineup earlier this season but has been effective in a bench role thus far. He didn’t do much in terms of scoring on Tuesday night (eight points on 2-for-8 shooting), but he was legitimately impactful in all other phases of the game.
Russell had six rebounds, six assists — most of them to Knecht during his hot streak — and added both a steal and a block in the process. Redick spoke about Russell’s performance and what impressed him.
“I thought, you know, they tried to run that zone and he kind of shot them out of it,” Redick said of Knecht. “But that was all DLo (D’Angelo Russell).
“We had talked during a free throw to just get to this, and you know DK (Dalton Knecht) is going to be open. D’Lo hit him two or three times in a row. Bron (LeBron James) checked into the game, DLo sets the flare screen for him for that fourth or fifth one in that run. I don’t know what his stats were offensively, but DLo was great tonight [with] orchestrating defensively and his activity. The guy had a low man blocked shot against John Collins. Like that stuff does not go overlooked. He was great tonight.”
Russell has been criticized over the course of his career for not being a consistent contributor to winning basketball. But this season, his tone and play style have been completely different. He took the move to the bench incredibly well, and is playing effective basketball with or without scoring.
It’s that type of stuff that allows players like Russell to extend their careers and continue to get big paydays beyond the prime of their scoring abilities.
Lakers’ Dalton Knecht knew it would be a special night
From the 3:29 mark of the third quarter to the 11:08 mark of the fourth, every single Laker point was scored by Knecht. He went on a personal 21-7 run, hitting six threes and making three free throws on a fouled attempt. It was perhaps the most untouchable any player has been in a short stretch this season on any team.
Tying the all-time rookie record with nine threes in a game is a remarkable feat. And as is the case with most sharpshooters, Knecht could feel it was going to be a good night right away.
“The first shot. Every time I see one go in, I think the next one’s going in. Even if I miss it, I always have confidence that my next shot is going in. My dad always told me that so that’s just my confidence.”
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