Channing Frye’s spark off the bench helped the Los Angeles Lakers snap a three-game losing streak.
With an overtime win at Staples Center, the Los Angeles Lakers completed a smooth 3-0 regular season sweep of the San Antonio Spurs for the first time in 20 years.
It came a bit as a surprise with a depleted roster still missing many of its core players against a Spurs team almost at full strength (as much as it can be without Kawhi Leonard the whole season).
The Lakers’ bench boosted the team to catch the victory in overtime, with many guys stepping up to lift the team over Aldridge & Co.
While Kuzma, who was promoted to the starting lineup to fill the void left by Ingram, was undoubtedly the star of the night with 30 points, Channing Frye was the unexpected contributor for the purple and gold.
Expected to add the much-needed outside touch to one of the worst three-point shooting team in the league (25th in three pointers made and last in percentage before the deadline), Frye and fellow Cav Isaiah Thomas turned the Lakers into a 12-made-threes-per-game team (6th in NBA since the All-Star break).
Following an appendectomy which forced him to miss some time, the forward-center has started to crack the rotation of the short-handed Lakers, lately.
In this last outing against the Spurs, he proved critical to keep L.A. into the game with his scoring punch. In a game where big men Lopez and Randle failed to deliver on the offensive end as they usually do, Frye shined.
The former NBA champion scored 19 points in 26 minutes with 4 rebounds, 1 block and +11 in Plus/Minus. Most surprisingly, he shot an incredible 8-for-9 from the field and 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. He provided exactly the floor-stretching Luke Walton expects from him, plus some more.
Unfortunately for him, the highlight of his game will be that only miss in his stat sheet, a wide open dunk he tragically failed to slam into the basket, comically accompanied by a shout let out before rising (sure to already have the two points in the bag).
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The 34-year-old veteran has provided some guidance to the young Lakers team in this last stretch of the season, but it is encouraging to see him also produce on the floor. Considering L.A.’s need of shooters and experienced veterans, a return next season cannot be ruled out.