Lonzo Ball
Since the injuries to LeBron James and Rajon Rondo, the Lakers have been asking a lot of their second-year point guard, Lonzo Ball. For the most part without James and Rondo since Christmas, Lonzo has played well. However, there were two really poor games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Even though Ball hasn’t been much of a scorer so far in his career, the Lakers have needed him to be more aggressive on the offensive end of the court. This is something that we have seen in spurts from Lonzo, but not all the time.
When Ball is aggressive, good things tend to happen for the Lakers. Whether he is scoring at the rim or finding a teammate in the corner for an open shot, the offense looks better when Ball is aggressive. In the win against the Mavericks, we saw that aggressive Lonzo, and he played a very good game.
In the win, Ball totaled 21 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Lonzo shot the ball very efficiently from the field, as he was 8-for-15 and 4-for-eight from beyond the arc. However, he was just 1-for-4 from the free throw line, as that continues to be a huge problem. Despite the poor free throw shooting, it was a strong game from Lonzo, and he certainly answered the call of his head coach.