LOS ANGELES — From an on-court perspective, Spencer Dinwiddie’s first few weeks as a Laker haven’t been the smoothest transition, but Wednesday night’s victory over the Clippers provided optimism that he’s finding his groove.
Dinwiddie had arguably his best game with the team in the Lakers’ win against their Crypto.com Arena co-tenant, recording seven points on 3-for-6 shooting to go with six assists in 20 minutes.
The 30-year-old guard, who signed with the Lakers as a free agent earlier in the month after being waived by the Toronto Raptors following the NBA trade deadline, entered the game averaging 4.8 points on 31% shooting to go with 3.4 assists.
“I basically told him to be aggressive and let us figure it out around you,” Coach Darvin Ham said a few hours before Thursday’s home game against the Washington Wizards. “So many times he penetrates the paint looking for the right pass or the right play to make for his teammates, which is a great thing. But a lot of times, probably 90% of the time the defense is going to tell you what to do with the ball once you penetrate.
“So just telling him to be aggressive. It was one play in front of our bench, second half he’s bringing it and he ends up going into an EO attack, early offensive attack and gets to the rim and finishes and I yelled at him attack. I want him to be aggressive and feel comfortable being aggressive because everybody in the locker room is comfortable with him being aggressive. That’ll come. He’s working through it. [Wednesday] was a big step in the right direction and I expect it to continue.”
REDDISH’S DEFENSE
Cam Reddish’s return against the Wizards after missing a month of action because of a sprained right ankle gave the Lakers one of their better perimeter defenders back.
His impact was felt immediately in his 20 minutes, especially in moments defending former league MVP James Harden.
“Just his movement, being able to stay in front of guys, and obviously he was on a minutes restriction, but as he got more minutes under his belt, you could just see, you know, him starting to shake off the dust a little bit.
“It’s a God-given talent of his and his ability to avoid screens, whether it’s off ball, on ball, his height, his athleticism, his knack for getting, you know, deflections and steals rebounds. Um, that’s all of that is very much needed with, with our group and, you know, it, it sets a tone as well, you know, other guys see what he’s doing out there and it, it rubs off.
JAMES ACTIVE
After leading the Lakers to the comeback win against the Clippers, LeBron James was available against the Wizards, the second night of a back-to-back, despite the left ankle peroneal tendinopathy the 39-year-old star has been dealing with.
James scored 19 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter to punctuate the Lakers’ 116-112 victory over the Clippers, playing 37 total minutes.
The future Hall of Famer entered Thursday just 40 points short of becoming the first player to score 40,000 regular-season points.