The Los Angeles Lakers had no time to enjoy their huge comeback victory over the L.A. Clippers as they were set to host the Washington Wizards in a back-to-back on Friday night. What could have been an easy victory against one of the worst teams in the NBA instead was an extremely tight affair as it took overtime for the Lakers to finally come out on top.
One player who contributed nicely was Spencer Dinwiddie, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers to finish with 10 points and three assists off the bench. And as Dinwiddie is noticing since joining the Lakers, they are gonna get everyone’s best shot every night.
“Yeah, back-to-backs are always difficult,” Dinwiddie noted. “As I’m realizing being a Laker, everybody is gonna give you their best shot. I knew that from the opposing side but obviously now too. So we just have to be prepared every night, be focused. I think it came in waves tonight, but we did enough to get the win.”
Regardless of record, the Lakers’ franchise is so iconic that it just means a little more to defeat them. As the veteran point guard is experiencing, every time the Lakers take the floor, the atmosphere and intensity of each game is at a much higher level.
“Yeah, it’s a show. There’s time where you’re on other teams or whatever, even home games can feel like road games,” Dinwiddie added. “Every game is not necessarily impactful, half full arenas, etc. From what I’ve noticed (with the Lakers), every game is sold out, every game is intense, every game is meaningful. And that’s what makes it fun.
“You want to be doing something that’s worth doing. You don’t want to come in half full arenas and win 20 out of 80 games, that’s not fun. Especially at this stage. I understand young teams growing, etc. Everybody is at different stages of their lives at different times. But to be able to come here and be at home and do that, I can’t even put it into words.”
Dinwiddie has been on some good teams in his NBA career, but putting on that purple and gold is something different and he wants to find more success with the Lakers. The question is whether the Lakers can consistently play at the level needed to compete with the top teams and Dinwiddie believes they have the talent to do so when they lock in, especially on defense.
“Yeah, I think that goes back to what I kind of said when I first got here just observing from afar,” Dinwiddie said. “When we’re on and we’re playing at our peak, you can argue we’re the best team in the league. But we have too many stretches where like you said, they shoot 57% or something of that nature and we kind of drop the ball.
“So it’s just on us to be more consistent, more focused. Obviously I’m not necessarily the best analyst of everything that’s going on because I’ve only been here for a couple weeks, but it’s pretty evident that we have the talent level to beat anybody on any night.”
The Lakers have shown just that with some big wins over many of the top teams in the league. But consistency is key and if the Lakers don’t play at that level every night, this season will end earlier than it should.
Darvin Ham believes Spencer Dinwiddie still acclimating himself to Lakers
Spencer Dinwiddie hasn’t quite had that breakout game yet for the Lakers, but head coach Darvin Ham isn’t concerned as he believes the veteran guard is still figuring things out with his new team, but will be fine overall.
“Spencer is a high IQ, smart, intelligent human and basketball player,” Ham said.” So yeah, you’re gonna go through that process when you come into a new situation, that process of discovery. We just told him to be aggressive, attack when you’re able to attack and continue to learn the system […] But I’m not worried about Spencer. He’s gonna figure it out, we’re gonna figure it out and help put him in a position where he can be ultra successful.”
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