What a seriously awesome night for Lonnie Walker IV.
Thanks to an unexpected late-game surge by Lonnie Walker IV, the Los Angeles Lakers took a convincing 3-1 series lead against the Golden State Warriors.
The 24-year-old wing managed to score 15 points (6-9 FG, 1-3 3P, 2-2 FT) in the fourth quarter during the victory in Los Angeles. This performance marked the first time a Lakers reserve notched at least 15 points during the fourth quarter of a postseason game since Kobe Bryant did as much in 1997.
Walker, who was selected in the first round of the 2018 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs and signed with Los Angeles this past offseason, actually achieved this impressive feat exactly 26 years after Bryant.
Lonnie Walker IV is the first Laker to score 15+ points off the bench in the 4th of a Playoff game since Kobe Bryant…
May 8, 1997: Kobe with 17 PTS off the bench vs. Jazz May 8, 2023: Lonnie with 15 PTS off the bench vs. Warriors
According to Stathead, the only other examples of a Lakers reserve scoring more than 12 points in any quarter of a playoff game were both recorded by Bryant as well.
This game could hold some personal significance for Walker, too. Before he ever even played for the Lakers, while in San Antonio on the Spurs, Walker honored Bryant with purple and gold shoes.
Walker signed with Los Angeles on a one-year contract, and after what he showed he could do last night despite not playing in the rotation for much of the season, he deserves serious consideration for a longer deal.
The Los Angeles Lakers have taken a 3-1 series lead after beating the Golden State Warriors 104-101 with a key performance by Lonnie Walker in Game 4. Stephen Curry had a dominant triple-double with 31 points, 14 assists, and 10 rebounds. However, …
Stephen Curry had a dominant triple-double with 31 points, 14 assists, and 10 rebounds. However, the Lakers outscored them 27-17 in the last 12 minutes. LeBron James scored 27 points and added nine rebounds and six assists but the star of the night was Walker with a 15-point fourth quarter and as expected, NBA Twitter reacted to it.
The Lakers are having an absolutely abysmal season, but it looks like they may have struck gold in free agency by signing Lonnie Walker.
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The Lakers are having an absolutely abysmal season, but it looks like they may have struck gold in free agency by signing Lonnie Walker.
Walker is averaging a career-high 16.5 points per game, which is more than anyone else on the Lakers except for LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The 23-year-old wing is shooting 55.2 percent on 3-pointers over the course of his last six games.
No one on the Lakers has connected on more shots from beyond the arc than Walker has so far this season. He looks good in the pick-and-roll, and he’s not turning the ball over very often.
All things considered, at a salary of $6.5 million, he looks like a good pick-up for Los Angeles! These are the kinds of moves around the edges that the front office has to make in order to stay competitive.
As noted by CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn, the Lakers can offer Walker a starting salary of $9.7 million during the offseason. That means another team would have to extend the full mid-level exception to beat that offer.
Because they traded so much youth and draft collateral to land Davis and Westbrook, the Lakers are fairly thin in the department of young talent. They clearly have found something with Walker, and they need to keep him around to develop a core group to maintain some consistency and continuity.
The Lakers have been like a revolving door for the past few seasons, and it would go a long way for them to keep someone like Walker around for the fans to latch onto and believe in as their own.
The Tip-Off
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
“It was the story that had NBA fans calling out LeBron James for what they thought was very much a lie: The Los Angeles Lakers superstar said that he had been listening to Migos back in 2010 … but their mixtape dropped in 2011.
That’s the same LeBron James who said he predicted Kobe Bryant was going to go off for 70 points on the night he scored 81, just one of the many times fans have noticed his embellishments.
Now, there’s a meme I’ve seen everywhere on Twitter, particularly this weekend — using a screengrab from that infamous moment he said he predicted the big Kobe game and fake-quoting James.”
These white lies never really hurt anybody, did they?
Bucks (-175, -4.5) vs. Hawks (+140), O/U 224.5, 8:00 PM ET
Trae Young isn’t having the best start to the season, but the Hawks and Bucks are two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Giannis Antetokounmpo is having an MVP-caliber season, and this one is worth watching.
Lakers fans would love it if these guys could host a podcast together.
The Los Angeles Lakers have reportedly agreed to terms with two former first-round picks, Troy Brown Jr. and Lonnie Walker IV.
Brown and Walker represent a change of pace in how the Lakers approach the offseason. For the past few seasons, we have seen the organization target aging veterans including the likes of Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard, and Rajon Rondo.
On the other hand, Brown is only 22 years old while Walker is only 23. It’s a wise investment in two former first-round picks who are still young. But it’s also an investment in two best friends, according to Basketball News content chief Alex Kennedy.
Lonnie Walker and Troy Brown Jr. are best friends, and now they’re teaming up on the Los Angeles Lakers. Love these signings.
Brown was selected at No. 15 overall in the 2018 NBA Draft, and then Walker heard his name shortly after at No. 18 overall. The two were both summer league standouts when they faced each other as rookies.
But they had extensive experience together long before that.
Both players were later named McDonald’s All-Americans and played together on that roster in 2017. You can watch one of their highlights from the game below:
If you are interested, you can watch a recent video of the two players working out together in Los Angeles. Around the 5:30-mark, they start playing HORSE.
Here are six of the players to keep an eye on as we inch closer to the trade deadline.
The NBA trade deadline — February 10 at 3PM Eastern — is hard to predict and players may unexpectedly find themselves on the move. But there are some trends we’ve learned.
For example, NBA teams often make a decision about a player’s free agency before the free agency period actually begins. If an organization decides that they are going to move on from a player, it makes sense to see if they can get any assets in return.
That is one of the reasons why the Knicks recently moved on from Kevin Knox, who was recently traded to the Atlanta Hawks in a deal to land Cam Reddish.
Of course, some teams may be reluctant to trade for an upcoming free agent like Knox. But it’s occasionally advantageous because if they are able to bring a player into the fold before he actually hits the open market, they get the first opportunity to establish chemistry between the two parties. If it doesn’t work out, meanwhile, it’s a way of clearing up cap space on their salary books.
As such, when surveying the league to find the players most likely to see their name in trade rumors, upcoming restricted free agents are a good place to begin.
Here are six of the players to keep an eye on as we inch closer to the trade deadline:
Here’s a look at those players that will be headed to restricted free agency in 2022 after the rookie-scale extension deadline passed.
The rookie-scale extension deadline has passed with a flurry of extensions for the 2018 draft class. Eleven players were extended, including four players signing maximum extensions. These extensions combine for a total of $1.146 billion in guaranteed money.
Twelve players on rookie-scale contracts that were extension-eligible did not extend and it will be interesting to see how the 2022 free agent market shakes out for them. There are now only 4 teams that can generate significant cap space next offseason, which explains why so many players extended now. Here’s a look at those players that will be headed to restricted free agency in 2022.
