One little known fact about basketball! If you’re a bad basketball player after 20 games, you will (a) never get better, (b) are a bad person, and (c) and actually deserve to be sent to Mongolia to become a cattle farmer. Somehow Lonzo Ball avoided that, and that’s great news, since the hyped Lakers rookie is starting to figure things out.
NBA scores 2018: Told you Lonzo Ball would get better, and 3 more things from Thursday night
Ball has steadily improved and might be on his way to his best month yet.
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
Here were Ball’s averages in December: 12.2 points, 42.2 percent shooting, 37.7 percent three-point shooting, 6.7 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 3.4 turnovers.
Here are Ball’s averages so far in January: 11.8 points, 42.9 percent shooting, 36.7 percent three-point shooting, 8.8 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 2.3 turnovers.
Granted, he has played only four games so far this month, but Ball’s 18-point, 10-rebound, six-assist, four-steal performance on Thursday in a win against the San Antonio Spurs stood out. Plus, he was a plus-17 for the game, best in the starting lineup.
Ball’s passing and rebounding have been above-average skills for him from the moment he entered the league. Sure, he was possibly the worst rookie shooter of all time during the first dozen-and-a-half games, but that just gave Ball room to improve. And improve he has, even despite that funky release.
As long as Ball can hit, like, 45 percent of his two-pointers and another 35 percent of his threes during a full season, he’s a starting NBA point guard. Ideally, he does even more than that.
The Lakers-Spurs game, non Lonzo Ball factor
The Lakers topped the Spurs, 93-81, on Thursday. Los Angeles hit over 10 threes as a team, including a killer shot from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
LaMarcus Aldridge and Bryn Forbes led the Spurs with a valiant effort of 38 combined points effort; San Antonio was clearly hurting without Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, and Tony Parker.
That being said, it’s still a good win for a young Lakers team. Brandon Ingram dropped 26 points, and it was the Lakers’ first home win against the Spurs since 2013.
Another wacky Celtics comeback
Seriously, how do these keep happening?
Markelle Fultz, um, what, no:
Thursday’s final scores
Celtics 114, 76ers 103 (Celtics Blog recap | Liberty Ballers recap)
Raptors 133, Cavaliers 99 (Raptors HQ recap | Fear the Sword recap)
Clippers 121, Kings 115 (Clips Nation recap | Sactown Royalty recap)
Lakers 93, Spurs 81 (Silver Screen & Roll recap | Pounding the Rock recap)
Boston’s dynamic duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown
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