Dalton Knecht, the Lakers’ rookie guard, clutched the game ball inside his locker after he dominated the final minutes of the Lakers’ overtime win Thursday in Phoenix, a proud moment for someone who isn’t a stranger to dominating a game.
“This felt just like Auburn,” he said with a smile, remembering the game last season where he scored 39 points in a win over Tennessee’s SEC rival.
The differences, though, weren’t actually that subtle.
That game in Auburn? It didn’t come with LeBron James and Anthony Davis fanning Knecht on the sidelines after he metaphorically caught fire. It didn’t happen with one of the NBA’s best shooters ever, Reggie Miller, on the broadcast. It didn’t happen with Knecht’s all-time favorite player, Kevin Durant, on the other sideline encouraging him to keep going.
It didn’t happen, preseason or not, as a Los Angeles Laker.
As he walked onto the court for overtime after shooting the Lakers back into the game, Durant found Knecht on the court and gave him a message that might be even more valuable than the game ball.
“Go take over the game,” he told the rookie.
His future Hall of Fame teammates had just given him the same advice.
“Bron and AD said, ‘It’s time.’ So it was just time to take over,” Knecht said.
It validated the early praise heaped on Knecht, who looks like he’s going to undoubtedly be a part of the team’s rotation out of training camp.
“Reggie [Miller] and I were talking about it before the game and he was like, ‘It’s high praise to say he’s in the 1 percent of shooters.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, he’s in the 1 percent of shooters,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “The thing about him is just the mentality. It’s been very obvious in pickup before the season. In training camp, thus far in games, he’s got no fear. He’s not afraid of the moment.
“That was a show that he put on.”
The show — 35 points, including a stretch where he scored 20 in a row late in the fourth quarter and into overtime — certainly makes it seem like the Lakers got a steal in the draft. Knecht fell to the team at No. 17 due to concerns about his age and defensive limitations, league executives say.
And the questions about Knecht’s defense, coaches and teammates say, aren’t going to be impossible to overcome thanks to his coachability and desire for improvement.
“The way that he shoots the ball and the way that he listens, like you say, ‘Dalton do this,’ he’s going to do it. Like no ifs, ands, buts, Austin Reaves said. “No, ‘I thought it was this, I thought it was that.’ Like you say, ‘be low man (on defense), go vertical.’ That’s what he’s going to do. So having that trait as well is good and being able to, like I said, shoot the ball the way that he does, it’s going to be hard for him not to be on the floor at times. Obviously, you know, defensively, he’s working his ass off every single day to get better. He’s asking questions, and that’s all you can ask from a rookie.”
The Lakers have taken a long look at Knecht this fall. He’s leading the Lakers in minutes and is averaging 10 three-point attempts per game. Before Thursday, he was shooting just 27%. He missed a potential tying three earlier in the preseason against the Suns.
“Just those moments that you dream of as a kid, and you can tell that he wants those moments. He wants to, the shot that he missed in, I think it was Palm Springs, right? To tie it. You could see in the locker room, like how much, you know, that shot meant to him,” Reavers said. “He was pissed. You could tell by the way he was looking at him like he was he wasn’t happy with himself. And that’s a that’s a very good trait to have.”
The Lakers and Redick already seemed committed to him before he showed the kind of scoring prowess that made him one of the big stories of college basketball last season.
“He’s just got, he’s got a mental toughness about him,” Redick said. “And whether it’s the offensive rebounding, the competitiveness on defense. He’s trying. He’s got some things he’s got to learn and get better at, but he’s trying. And honestly, that’s half the battle sometimes.”
And Thursday, he got his first real moment as a pro — while Durant, James, Davis and others watching.
“For him to go out there and put on a performance like that in that second half was unreal to watch. It was … I almost hit a hole-in-one the other day. I hit it off the pin and like that excitement that I had then, like I had it for that whole fourth quarter,” Reaves said. “So it’s beautiful. You see how much work that he puts in every single day. He’s hunting people down right after practice to shoot. So you tip your hat to a guy like that. And, you know, I expected all those shots to go in, to be honest.”
