2025-26 was largely a year to forget for Dalton Knecht. The former first-round pick only scored 10 or more points seven times out of a possible 54 appearances with the Los Angeles Lakers. However, one of those instances came in the Lakers' last 131-107 outing against the Utah Jazz on Sunday.
Knecht subbed into the game for the fourth quarter and started lighting up the scoring department. The game was already comfortably trending towards a Lakers win. Even so, it was still encouraging to see a shooting touch that had not been on display for a while.
Knecht poured in 17 points in his 12 minutes of action against the Jazz. That included going 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. After dropping those 3-pointers, the Lakers wing punctuated the performance with a slam that reminded everyone of his athleticism too.
It has not been a great year for Knecht. That much is true enough to the point that most are expecting him to be on his way out of Los Angeles in the summer. Until then, the second-year scorer just reminded everyone that he's perfectly capable of catching lightning in a bottle every now and again. That trait may come in handy for JJ Redick in the postseason.
Dalton Knecht gives Lakers one more bench spark amid their injury woes
No one should be expecting to see Knecht suddenly become a mainstay in Redick's nine-man rotation during the NBA Playoffs. However, Sunday's performance was a great reminder to reassure another option is available for the Lakers head coach.
Los Angeles will be undermanned without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Everyone knows this. With the reshuffling of the rotation, offense could be even harder to come by for a bench unit that struggled to deliver a ton of scoring throughout the year.
The Lakers' ranked 29th, only ahead of their looming first-round opponent, in bench scoring throughout the season. They only put up 29.3 points per game in that department.
There was not much improvement after the All-Star break either. Los Angeles marginally bumped themselves up to 29.4 points, keeping that 29th position.
Scoring is scarce among the second unit. That is where Knecht could come in.
In a "break glass in case of emergency" type of scenario, Redick was reminded of yet another option to turn to off the bench. If Knecht is scoring right, it could situationally help the Lakers wrestle control of a game or two against the Houston Rockets in the first round.
This will surely not be anything that is regularly anticipated. However, Knecht's timing in serving up a scoring jolt right ahead of the playoffs could not have been any better for a Lakers team that could be stuck looking for answers on more than one occasion in the NBA Playoffs.