Aloha,
AD had a monster game. 37 and 15 but in the post game interviews, to a man everyone acknowledged that they would have lost without Lonnie. OKC is a good young team, they had won 8 of 10 until they lost to the Clippers. When I found out that DLO was out, I was very concerned. But Lonnie came to the rescue.
He was our 3rd leading scorer until a series of injuries derailed him and he had not been the same after the last one, and he kept falling further down the rotation until he was out. If he can regain his form that would be huge for this team, especially since Beasley has struggled with his shot. Lonnie is a 3 level scorer and more dynamic than Beasley when he is on his game.
Then there is Dennis. On a night Austin struggled to score Dennis put up 21 points and demonstrated his never ending hustle to the point of exhaustion when he laid on the floor and had to be taken out to for a blow. We have to figure out a way to keep Dennis. I hope he will play for the mini MLE of 7 mil. If not I would cut Beasley and Bamba in order to sign some of our role players and give Dennis the equivalent of the full MLE 11 mil that is probably his market right now.
Several other guys also chipped in. Austin’s shot was off but he had 9 assists. And Vandy played great defense again. One point but 10 boards. He was the primary defender on Shai. Shai scored 27 but on 22 shots. Considering he averages over 30, I’ll take that every day.
This Laker team is actually deeper than our championship bubble team. And that depth is paying off. We are 8 and 5 since LeBron went down and we were without DLO for some of those games as well. And one loss came without AD. . Over the last couple of years we would have been doomed with LeBron.
I hope Rob is paying attention to the Mav’s. They made the big trade for Kyrie and are actually a worse team then before the trade because they no longer have any depth. With the time missed due to injuries that AD and LeBron have suffered, I think depth is much important than a third star. We are in a position to bring a lot of our depth back next year. I hope we do.
Great take on Lonnie’s terrific performance, Michael.
What was just as important as Lonnie staying ready was how much support and love he got from the team. His injury cost him a starting job. Great to see him stepping up. He’ll get more chances too. Team chemistry will be critical.