In a year that has already been so chaotic on and off the floor, the Los Angeles Lakers picked up a feel-good win against a promising young team in the New Orleans Pelicans. Moving Russell Westbrook to the bench has apparently given this team a surge of energy.
A clutch 3-pointer by Matt Ryan sent the game into overtime, where LA worked their magic. Buoyed by 28 points from Lonnie Walker and 40 points from the LeBron James/Anthony Davis tag team, LA is starting to slowly pull themselves out of their self-inflicted doldrums despite a dud from Patrick Beverley.
Ryan’s triple was set up by Pelicans lottery pick Dyson Daniels missing two free throws while New Orleans led by three points. Making even one of them would have made a Ryan 3-pointer ineffective. Daniels had his “Welcome to the NBA” moment last night in LA.
As Lakers fans are usually want to do, legions of more active social media users went in on Daniels, comparing him to former Cavs point guard George Hill and his missed free throws in the 2018 NBA Finals. The Australian rookie is not going to live this one down for a while.
Los Angeles Lakers fans ripped Pelicans guard Dyson Daniels.
Daniels recorded eight points and five rebounds in 16 minutes, going 3-5 from the field. If the Pelicans had won that game, fans would be talking about how unacceptable it would be that a rookie point guard was able to play this well against the second unit. Those misses changed it all.
Some Lakers fans were sarcastically thanking Daniels for missing those free throws, as it gave LA all the momentum they would need to get Darvin Ham his second win as a head coach. With Zion Williamson in the lineup for this one, this is a fairly impressive victory.
CHANGED THE GAME, BOW DOWN TO DYSON DANIELS #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/7A8kCECVpq
— 🏆🏆🏆³³ (@thirtythreemax) November 3, 2022
Pelicans fans were not kind to Daniels on Instagram either, as his latest post was littered with comments ripping him and his basketball ability. Let’s just hope that none of these comments got too pointed and nasty toward someone so young, as he is a big part of their future.
https://twitter.com/BronGotGame/status/1588096425715548161?s=20&t=NPJl6bvB19wPv9u3XK7ATA
Daniels has put together some solid games in his first NBA action, showing what the giant point guard can become if he checks all of the requisite developmental boxes. However, that is not going to save him from drawing the ire of New Orleans fans and mocking cheers from those in KA.
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