LA’s promoted point guard made a huge impact last night.
Los Angeles Lakers point guard Dennis Schroder, elevated to a starting gig last night with D’Angelo Russell (right ankle sprain) still sidelined, put on a scoring clinic in the second half of pretty much a must-win game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, another club on fringes of the Western Conference play-in hunt. LA did win the matchup, 123-117, to improve its record to 30-33.
Despite rolling his ankle in the game’s first half, to the point where it needed to be worked on by LA’s medical staff in the visiting team locker room, Dennis Schröder managed to stay in the game and mount a monumental second half push. He scored just four points in the contest’s first two quarters, then piled on 22 in the bout’s second half.
All told, he finished with a team-high 26 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the floor, plus six assists.
Afterwards, Schröder spoke with Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet about his performance.
“I mean everything for the team,” Schröder said of why he stayed in the game after his ankle injury. “We’re trying to get to the playoffs. AD was down tonight, LeBron was down. I just tried to help get a win for the team.”
“Everybody chipping in” helped the Lakers secure the win last night, per Schroder. “Everybody just being competitive, playing together no matter what… and we pulled out the win and that’s the most important [thing].”
Schröder has had a productive season, mostly starting for LA, though that will change a bit whenever D’Angelo Russell does return. Across 49 games for the Lakers (five starts), the 6’2″ vet is averaging 12.7 points on .423/.345/.874 shooting splits, 4.5 assists, and 2.6 rebounds.
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