The Los Angeles Lakers crushed the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night at the Staples Center. It was an impressive team effort from the purple and gold as they humbled the visiting Nuggets in Los Angeles with Lonzo Ball and Julius Randle having some solid performances.
Brook Lopez, who scored 21 points in the win, talked about Randle's impact on the game on Sunday. Randle finished with a game-high 24 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists in 31 minutes off the bench.
“That's what he does,” Lopez said of Randle's play. “He comes in, plays with energy, and both offensively and defensively it makes a huge change to what we do.”
Randle is having a career year in what may very well be his last season with the Lakers. The Kentucky product is adjusting to a bench role under Luke Walton and it appears to be what was needed for the fourth-year forward to take his game to the next level.
“That's just me,” Randle said. “We just have to be there every night for our team. That aggressive, that assertive, decisive, and quick.”
With Randle adjusting to his new reserve role and doing it well early in the 2017-18 NBA season, head coach Luke Walton still has yet to figure out why he's excelling off the bench.
“I'm trying to figure that answer out, because when he plays like he did tonight, he's as good as anyone in this league, especially with the way the league is now, so many switching lineups,” Walton said of Randle. “He had, the majority of the game tonight, where he was playing at that high level, which we show clips on. We keep trying to encourage him to make that his norm.”
With Randle coming off the bench, Walton has turned to rookie Kyle Kuzma as the starting power forward with Larry Nance Jr. dealing with a fractured hand injury. Kuzma has played exceptionally well as he's far exceeded expectations thus far as the team's leading scorer at 16.5 points per game.
Randle has yet to start a game this season with 17 straight appearances in the second unit. The 22-year-old is currently averaging 12.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game while shooting 55.2 percent from the floor.
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