After struggling mightily during his first official NBA game last Thursday night, Lonzo Ball rebounded nicely—both figuratively and literally—over the weekend to record two stellar performances. He dropped 29 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists during an impressive win over the Suns on Friday night. And while the Lakers lost to the Pelicans on Sunday night, he nearly nabbed his first triple-double with 8 points, 8 rebounds, and 13 assists. Not bad for a guy who had the weight of the world on his shoulders after just one game.
It looks like Lonzo learned a very valuable lesson on Sunday night, too. With the Lakers up by 2 and just about 3 minutes left on the clock in the fourth quarter, he decided that he was going to try and extend the Lakers’ lead to 4 by going right to the rack on a fast break. There was just one problem: Anthony Davis was waiting for him down low, and if Lonzo didn’t already know this before, he now knows that you don’t challenge AD at the rim—especially when he’s in prime position to make a play.
The Lakers would only score one more bucket after that block and would go on to lose 119-112 after overcoming a huge first-half deficit against New Orleans.
After the game, Lakers coach Luke Walton said he liked what he saw out of Lonzo and credited his "aggressiveness," in particular. But in this instance, he would have been much better off dishing the rock to someone else instead of going at AD. Davis had 2 other blocks during the game to go along with 27 points, 17 rebounds, and 3 assists. You live and you learn.
