Category: Los Angeles Lakers Blog

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Lakers forward LeBron James named NBA Western Conference Player of the Week

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James has been named NBA Western Conference Player of the Week for games played Jan. 2 to Jan. 8, it was announced today.

James averaged 35.0 points (.548 FG%), 8.7 rebounds and 7.7 assists in three games as the Lakers finished the week 4-0 with victories over Charlotte, Miami, Atlanta and Sacramento.

To start the week, James recorded 43 points (16-26 FG), 11 rebounds, six assists and one steal in a win at the Hornets on Jan. 2, good for his second 40-point game of the season. James joined Michael Jordan as the only players in NBA history to record consecutive 40-point games at age 35 or older.

In a home win over the Hawks on Jan. 6, the 38-year-old recorded his 11th double-double of the season with 25 points, seven rebounds and 10 assists. James then recorded 37 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and one steal in a 136-134 road victory over the Kings on Jan. 7, extending the Lakers’ current winning streak to five consecutive victories. The performance marked James’ 13th consecutive game with at least 25 points, good for the fourth-longest streak of his career.

In 31 games (all starts) for the Lakers this season, James is averaging 29.1 points (.510 FG%), 8.2 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 1.0 steals in 35.9 minutes. James has scored in double figures in all 31 games this season, extending his NBA-record double-digit scoring streak to 1,127 consecutive games.

The 18-time NBA All-Star owns a league-record 66 career weekly awards, including five weekly honors with Los Angeles. This marks his first weekly award since Dec. 13 of 2021.

Lakers sign Sterling Brown to a 10-day contract

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed forward Sterling Brown to a 10-day contract.

Brown (6’5”, 219) has appeared in 264 games (29 starts) across five seasons with Dallas (2021-22), Houston (2020-21) and Milwaukee (2017-20), averaging 5.4 points (.364 3P%), 3.3 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 16.8 minutes. He has played in 24 career playoff games (five starts) for the Mavericks and Bucks, averaging 2.6 points and 1.7 rebounds in 8.5 minutes per game.

Most recently, the 27-year-old appeared in four games (all starts) for the Raptors 905 of the NBA G League this season, averaging 11.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks in 32.2 minutes per game, while shooting 38.1 percent from 3-point range.

The five-year NBA veteran was selected 46th overall in the second round of the 2017 NBA Draft after a four-year collegiate career at SMU (2013-17).

Injury update on Lakers center Anthony Davis

Via the Los Angeles Times:

Lakers star big man Anthony Davis said pain in his right foot has been significantly reduced and imaging has shown that he’s progressing in his healing.
Though Davis hesitated to put a timetable on his return, he said things are moving in the right direction.

“It’s healing pretty quickly,” Davis said. “So when we get back to L.A., we’ll do another image of the foot, and see how far it’s healed since the last time I did it, which was the 22nd or the 23rd. And it’s really just about pain. The pain is still there, I still feel it a little bit, not as much as I did before. More like a two [out of 10], trending down to one. I’ve been lifting, and lifting is fine. Everything I do in the weight room is fine.

“If I see that it’s healed properly, or enough where I can go start ramping up on the court, then we’ll start that process.”

The Lakers are 15-21 this season, which is the 13th best record in the Western conference.

Davis is averaging 27.4 points, 12.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists in minutes per game.

Scotty Pippen Jr. named G League Player of Week

Los Angeles Lakers two-way guard Scotty Pippen Jr. has been named the NBA G League Player of the Week for games played Monday, Dec. 12, through Saturday, Dec. 17, the league announced today.

Pippen Jr. averaged 26.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.3 steals while shooting 51.0 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from 3-point range as South Bay tallied a perfect 3-0 record for the week.

In South Bay’s win over Santa Cruz on Wednesday, Pippen Jr. scored 30 points (10-20 FG) with five assists, one rebound, one steal and one block, good for his fourth 30-point outing of the season. He finished with 27 points (9-14 FG), four rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block in South Bay’s road win against the Clippers on Thursday. He also tallied 22 points, three rebounds, five assists and a career-high four steals in 32 minutes on Saturday night against the Kings, helping South Bay clinch the No. 1 overall seed in the NBA G League Winter Showcase.

Through 15 games this season, Pippen Jr. is averaging 23.6 points (.453 FG%, .364 3P%), 3.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.7 steals in 28.8 minutes. Additionally, the guard is leading all reserves in scoring amongst players who have appeared in at least 10 games off the bench.

Anthony Davis exits early in Lakers win over Nuggets

Via the OC Register:

The start of the second half featured a concerning moment for Lakers fans everywhere: Anthony Davis didn’t come back out on the court.

Teammates, coaches and team officials have tied the success of the franchise to Davis’ high performance and good health – which has been seen too infrequently over the past two years. Davis sitting out the second half Friday night against the Denver Nuggets with a right foot injury struck as an ill omen.

Except something funny happened: It didn’t slow down the Lakers.

LeBron James and Russell Westbrook, the two stars who have often seemed like a clunky on-court fit, powered a surprising 126-108 victory against the Nuggets, the third-place team in the Western Conference. After two disappointing overtime losses in their previous three games against high-level opponents, the Lakers (12-16) came out hungry and hustling, in spite of a size advantage that never really became an issue.

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Lakers guard Patrick Beverley suspended three games for incident with Deandre Ayton

Los Angeles Lakers guard Patrick Beverley has been suspended three games without pay for forcefully shoving Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton from behind and knocking him to the court, it was announced today by Joe Dumars, Executive Vice President, Head of Basketball Operations. The suspension was based in part on Beverley’s history of unsportsmanlike acts.

The incident, for which Beverley was assessed a technical foul and ejected, occurred with 3:55 remaining in the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ 115-105 loss to the Suns on Nov. 22 at Footprint Center.

Beverley will begin serving his suspension Nov. 25 when the Lakers face the San Antonio Spurs at AT&T Center.

To view the incident, click on the following link: https://www.nba.com/watch/video/lakers-vs-suns-11-22-22

After loss to Clippers, Lakers fall to 2-9

Via the Los Angeles Times:

His team is in the midst of yet another losing streak and his star player left the game Wednesday because of left leg soreness, but Lakers coach Darvin Ham said his mental state is not that of, “Woe is me.”

As a first-year coach, Ham said his spirits have been “great” despite a 2-9 record that has left the Lakers with the second-worst record in the NBA and LeBron James injured during the fourth quarter of their loss to the Clippers on Wednesday night.

The Lakers opened the season with a five-game losing streak, won two straight and now have lost four in a row.

Yet Ham’s view is more positive during these troubled times for the Lakers, saying things like how “blessed” he is to coach the Lakers and to live in sunny Los Angeles.

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On the Lakers and their roster issues

The Lakers are off to a rough start this season, and if you look at the roster breakdown past the handful of obvious big names, there’s no clear reason to expect a big reversal of fortune. Via the OC Register:

Coach Darvin Ham called it being real. But for the Lakers, the truth might be a little too real.

On the heels of a 139-116 loss to the Utah Jazz, the Lakers’ eighth loss in just 10 games, Ham said his team needed to defend better, rebound better and communicate better. Then he reached outside of normal coaching discourse – into the Lakers’ payroll.

“We’re tax offenders, right?” Ham asked rhetorically. “We just can’t go out and start spending money everywhere to build a team. We have three big-time first-ballot future Hall of Famers that a chunk of our budget is being spent on. And there’s only so much left.”

The rookie head coach somewhat awkwardly exposed the flank of the front office, which would like to focus on anything else except the shaky build of the roster around three max-contract salary stars who still haven’t played well together, complemented by a host of largely veteran’s minimum contract players. And yet, after a discouraging start to the season, it’s an unavoidable sore spot as the organization teeters on the edge of another letdown year.

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