South Bay Lakers face challenging schedule ahead

A month into the 2019-20 NBA G League season and the South Bay Lakers are asserting themselves, looking to get upcoming wins. They are currently 5th in the Western Conference, with a .500 win percentage.

The G League is of course known for development, but the South Bay Lakers are already in a good position with a roster full of contributing players. Statistically, the Lakers have a handful of players in the top five of league-wide stat categories, some leading them. Not to mention, the team as a whole is 5th in the league, 2nd in the conference, for points per game.

Gary Payton II entered the league in 2016 undrafted and has been bouncing back and forth between the NBA and it’s G League affiliates since then. Last year he helped lead the Rio Grande Valley Vipers to a championship.

This year, he has played in all eight regular-season games averaging 17.8 points per game. However, it’s not just his scoring that’s been helpful. Payton II is leading the league in steals per game, averaging 3.4.

Another player that has made a name for himself is Devontae Cacok. In his first season in the G League and professional level, the forward is averaging 15.8 points per game.

More importantly, he is leading the Western Conference in rebounding, with an 11.3 average per game. On top of that, he has collected double-doubles for six of the eight regular-season games. The two games he didn’t hit double-doubles, he still had 10+ points and eight rebounds.

David Stockton is helping to make all this scoring possible too by leading the Western Conference in average assists per game, with 8.7. He has been trying to break into the NBA since 2014, playing for the G League, NBA and overseas.

Aside from his rookie year in with the Reno Bighorns, this is the best rebounding Stockton has done in his G League career. His scoring has only slightly decreased but he is still averaging 16.1 points per game, so nothing to complain about.

In the past week, the Lakers had three games, facing the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Austin Spurs and Rio Grande Valley Vipers, respectively. They won the first two, not surprisingly, coming in as the better team. What did come as a shock was losing to the Vipers, a team that is ranked last in the Western Conference.

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The Vipers came out hungry to get a win off the Lakers and outscored them in the first two quarters. So much so that even though the Lakers outscored the Vipers in the third and fourth quarters, it wasn’t enough to dig themselves out of the 19-point deficit from halftime.

The second quarter defined the game, the two teams entering it one point apart, but Vipers’ Jaron Blossomgame went off. In the second quarter alone he scored 12 of his 22 points. The Lakers also shot 37 percent in the second quarter while the Vipers shot 60 percent.

Going forward this week, the Lakers will face the Grand Rapids Drive at home on Wednesday, December 4. After that, playing back to back, they will head to Salt Lake City to play the Stars on Thursday, December 5. Saturday, December 7, will be their last game of the week, against the currently undefeated Western Conference leaders, the Memphis Hustle.

Sioux Falls will be their easiest matchup of the week, especially since the Skyforce is 1-5 on the road. The Stars are currently on a 5-game win streak and will have home-court advantage, as well as be rested from a multi-day break between games.

The Hustle will have been on the road for over a week by the time they face South Bay, but the way they’re playing so far this season, the Lakers can’t afford to count them out for a second. Beating them would be a great testament to how well they can really play together.

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The Lakers will have a tough week, but with only a few adjustments needed they should come out with a winning record this week.

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