The Lakers guard showed up big on the defensive end.
The Los Angeles Lakers topped the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-104 on Monday night, and Spencer Dinwiddie’s defense is a major reason why.
The Lakers guard only had two points, but was an astonishing +35 in the game thanks to the way he clamped up the opposition. Naturally, the internet is reacting:
Lakers Lead – “SPENCER DINWIDDIE WAS A +35 IN 24 MINUTES TONIGHT”
SmokeyCarmichael was impressed buy the Lakers guard – “Spencer Dinwiddie only had 1 bucket tonight, but he was +35 for a reason. His defense was a revelation, and should earn him more minutes”
Lucas – “Spencer Dinwiddie was an astonishing +35 in 24 minutes tonight for the Lakers. Unreal impact. 6-3 in the Dinwiddie Era”
Shawn – “Spencer Dinwiddie with a +35 +/- He only has 2 points. It’s crazy how he’s impacting in other ways he’s usually not known for.”
LAbound – “Spencer Dinwiddie’s reputation in prior stints was that of a poor defender I won’t pretend to have watched him enough to have an informed opinion on that What I will say is that his performance with Lakers doesn’t align with various metrics He’s been downright good defensively”
uno – “enjoyed spencer dinwiddie on defense today. if he’s gonna continue to get run hopefully we see more of that”
Dinwiddie has struggled offensively since joining the Lakers, but head coach Darvin Ham told him last week to just go out and play his game.
“He just needs to go out and play, man,” Ham told ClutchPoints at Lakers practice.
“The guys have totally embraced him. The coaches have totally embraced him. The organization.
That’s why we wanted him here. He has a huge factor to him, in terms of wanting to make sure he’s doing the right things to help his teammates and to carry about the execution that the coaches is asking for.
“And sometimes you just have to go out and hoop. And that’s what I told him. Don’t worry about making a mistake, man, we’ll figure it out. Just go out and play your game.
We’ll adjust.”
If Dinwiddie continues to play defense like this for the Lakers, he’ll have no problem fitting in the rotation.
