D’Angelo Russell was a late scratch for the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night due to a non-COVID illness. This only meant that the rest of LA’s backcourt had to step up amid the absence of their star point guard.
Enter, Spencer Dinwiddie.
Spencer Dinwiddie Comes Up Big fo Los Angeles Lakers
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham turned to Dinwiddie for what was just his second start for LA since joining the team after the trade deadline. The 30-year-old responded by turning in his best performance as a Laker.
Dinwiddie finished with 26 points on 8-of-11 shooting, to go along with two triples, two rebounds, five assists, a steal, and two blocks in 35 minutes of action. After the game, Coach Ham just had to give LA’s unheralded hero his flowers after Dinwiddie’s eye-opening performance:
“That’s the type of players he is, he’s multi-faceted. He’s willing to accept and embrace whatever role is put in front of him,” Ham said of Dinwiddie. “We’ve asked him to defend some high level perimeter guys, play-make, and be aggressive… Tonight, he did all three.”
Darvin Ham on Spencer Dinwiddie: “That’s the type of players he is, he’s multi-faceted. He’s willing to accept and embrace whatever role is put in front of him. We’ve asked him to defend some high level perimeter guys, play-make, and be aggressive… Tonight, he did all three.” pic.twitter.com/u6Y0ubSwyv
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 25, 2024
It remains unclear when Russell will be able to return to action, but if he misses more time, Dinwiddie should get more opportunities ahead of him in the interim.
“Just being aggressive,” Lakers star Anthony Davis of Dinwiddie, via Ryan Ward of Lakers Nation. “I said last game, he started to find his way and he was aggressive last game. He just carried that over by being himself. Hit some threes. Attacking the basket. Being the Spencer that we need him to be.”
Dinwiddie did not do it alone, though. Davis was totally dominant in this one, amassing a game-high 36 points (tied with Pascal Siakam) on 15-of-21 shooting. AD added 16 rebounds, three assists, two steals, a block, and one triple in 40 minutes.
LeBron James got loose too, logging a 26-point, 10-assist double-double as the Lakers widened their gap to 2.5 games against the Golden State Warriors for the ninth seed in the West.
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