Los Angeles Lakers: 3 main takeaways from scrimmage vs. Mavericks

2. Dion Waiters looked great, J.R. Smith looked… okay

The story of this game, at least if you were scrolling on Twitter while watching the game, was how good Dion Waiters looked in his first time on the court with the Lakers. Now, he probably was not as good as Twitter will lead you to believe, but it was a really promising first game for Waiters.

Waiters is likely going to be tasked as the new secondary ball-handler behind LeBron James with Rajon Rondo’s thumb injury. He took on that role in this game, often taking the ball down the court when he was on the court and hitting some impressive shots.

He did not facilitate as much as I would have expected but he did make some good passes to open teammates. Waiters finished with nine points on 3/7 shooting with one assist and three rebounds in 13 minutes.

J.R Smith, on the other hand, was okay. To be fair, I was not expecting much out of Smith at all as he was not that great the last time we saw him in November of 2018.

Smith did not do a lot outside of being a spot-up three-point shooter and he did not shoot all that great. He did make two of five attempts from the court but made just one of four from beyond the arc.

If Smith is going to get more playoff minutes as a spot-up shooter next to LeBron James he is going to have to be a more consistent shooter. This is just a scrimmage and his first time on the court in almost 20 months, so it should not be looked into too heavily.