Unfortunately for the Los Angeles Lakers, they were unable to leave Madison Square Garden with a victory, falling to the New York Knicks, 113-109, in overtime. That being said there were some positives, and one of the biggest was rookie Lonzo Ball.
In his first game at the world-famous arena, Lonzo put on a show and finished with 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals. Perhaps most notably, he even hit three of his six 3-pointers.
While he played well for the majority of the game, it was his run third quarter that had the entire New York crowd on its feet. Lonzo went on a spurt where he was responsible for 10 straight Lakers points, scoring seven and assisting on a Brook Lopez 3-pointer.
The icing on the cake was a big-time slam dunk with one hand on an alley-oop from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Check out the play via the NBA’s Twitter account:
Lonzo Ball gets up and hammers home the one-handed jam!
The @Lakers lead the @nyknicks 74-71 in Q3 on @ESPNNBA. pic.twitter.com/iEzPnx4gV7
— NBA (@NBA) December 13, 2017
The fastbreak looked like it was going to sour, but it was saved in a big way. Caldwell-Pope put the alley-oop pass on the money and Lonzo threw it down, bringing the Madison Square Garden crowd to their feet.
Overall, the performance was a great one for Lonzo and he showed some flashes of his all-around potential and the different ways he can affect a game. He also sent a reminder to the league that if they aren’t careful, they could end up on a poster.
One of the most underrated parts of Lonzo’s game is his athleticism as he can really rise up when he gets a head of steam. The Lakers have taken advantage of this on a number of occasions, running plays for him leading to such moments as his huge dunk over Willie Cauley-Stein in Sacramento, but this may be his best yet.
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