Tuesday night’s final home game of the regular season for the Los Angeles Lakers against the Golden State Warriors had massive seeding implications, although Anthony Davis was sidelined due to headache and nausea. This meant that bench players, like Spencer Dinwiddie, had to step up to fill that void.
However, L.A. struggled to contain Golden State’s 3-point shooting as they made 26 out of 41 attempts, a whopping 63.4%. It was the best 3-point shooting performance ever for a team that had taken at least 40 attempts.
Despite this historic shooting, the Lakers made things interesting by cutting the lead down to five in the second half, thanks to LeBron James leading the charge.
Unfortunately, the Warriors continued to make timely 3s to take away any hope of coming back for the Lakers. Dinwiddie shared how deflating it was to see multiple Golden State players shoot the ball well from distance.
“Yes. Yeah. Brutal,” Dinwiddie said after Tuesday’s 134-120 loss. “They made runs and we couldn’t put enough stops together in critical moments. Draymond starting off 5-for-5, I think Wiggins started off 3-for-4. Obviously Steph and Klay, some of those you kind of tip your cap to in a sense just understanding that they’re gonna hit tough shots, but I mean, you don’t really anticipate Draymond going 5-for-5. Obviously a Hall of Fame players and whatnot, but not necessarily a shooter.”
It is hard to overcome the absence of Davis due to him being the heart and soul of the team’s defense. Dinwiddie spoke to what changes when the All-Star center is not in the starting lineup.
“It changes a ton,” he said. “He’s arguably the best defender in the league. But we got to roll with the punches. Bron got here, he was feeling under the weather, so we were kind of shorthanded today, but we’re not in the business of making excuses and we don’t really have any time for that. We got two more games that we got to win, that’s really all there is to it.”
While Davis is stationed down low in the paint waiting to help, Dinwiddie believed that not having him in help side impacted the perimeter defense and the Lakers’ inability to close out to shooters while in rotation.
“Anytime you can get penetration to the paint and kick out, you get higher quality 3s,” Dinwiddie said. “Not having AD back there as an anchor and safety valve in a sense, we had to overhelp at times. But again, credit to them, they hit a lot of shots. Shots that the game plan kind of intended to give up just in terms of Draymond and stuff like that. And they made us pay for it.”
With no update on Davis for the final two regular season games, this could impact any chance of moving up in the standings. Tuesday was a disappointing loss, but L.A. has no choice but to move on and win these last games.
Spencer Dinwiddie ‘1,000%’ wants to remain with Lakers past this season
The Lakers brought in Spencer Dinwiddie to provide a little more depth to the roster with the hopes of making another deep playoff run. It was a great opportunity for the 31-year-old to return home, and he has expressed that he wants to remain in L.A. past this season.
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