Los Angeles Lakers: 1 stud and 1 dud from preseason loss to Nets
By Jason Reed
Dud for the Los Angeles Lakers: Wayne Ellington
It was hard to pinpoint a true dud on the Los Angeles Lakers even though the final score was a bit lopsided. Nobody in this game truly played awfully and we are not going to pick someone who is not even going to make the roster.
Yes, Mac McClung may have had a -16 in 10 minutes with only one point without a made field goal but he is not going to be on the Lakers roster this year. He is going to be in the G League so while he might be a future Laker, we are not too concerned with his performance in this one.
When it comes to the actual rotation players, the one player that we can make a case for being a dud is Wayne Ellington. In a sense, Ellington was the antithesis of Malik Monk in this game with Monk being the hot shooter and Ellington being the one that did not knock down shots.
It totally makes sense that this happened because this is how the NBA typically works. You have two sharpshooters that you are watching and one shooter is red hot while the other cannot knock down shots at an efficient rate. The NBA always moves towards the mean and not everyone can be red-hot.
Ellington was not downright terrible, either. He played 22 minutes and made 3-9 shots from the field and 2-7 shots from three. He was ironically second on the team in scoring with 11 points but the important thing here is efficiency, not overall points scored.
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We are not worried about Ellington whatsoever. His shooting will come around and there will be games where Monk has the kind of shooting night that he had in this one.