#133.The Lakers’ sixth man Lou Williams makes history in the midst of a losing streak.
The Lakers have lost 5 straight games. Their losses have largely coincided with their latest injuries. Although the Lakers have continued to lose, certain players are stepping up in the absence of key players like D’Angelo Russell. One of the players that stepped up the most recently is none other than 2014–2015 Sixth Man of the Year: Louis Williams.
Louis, often called by the shortened version of his name, Lou, has been a prolific scorer ever since coming to the NBA straight out of high school. He’s bounced around a little in his career, but has recently found a home in LA
Since 2 of the Lakers’ point guards are injured, Lou’s usual running mater Jordan Clarkson has been pushed to the starting lineup. Before then, they shared the scoring load for the best bench in the league. With more weight on Lou’s shoulders he stepped it up recently. In the last 4 games, he has scored 137 points, the most by any bench player in NBA history. He’s leading a bench unit that is setting the gold standard for bench performance around the league, averaging over 55 points per contest. In this span, Lou is averaging a ridiculous 34.25 points per game, making his season average over 19 points per game. That puts his scoring almost a full 4 points over his Sixth Man award winning season. Lou is also shooting more efficiently than he has in 6 years. If he continues his amazing work, there’s no reason he shouldn’t win Sixth Man of the Year for the 2nd time in his career.
So, with this record setting bench stepping it up for the guys that are injured, why are the Lakers in the middle of this losing streak. It’s simple, they won’t play defense.
The Lakers are ranked 28th in the league defensively. That’s straight up terrible. They lack focus and consistency defensively. So, oftentimes their defense depends on how their offense is flowing at the moment. That’s why they go on huge runs and horrible dry spells. When they are getting the open shots and dunks that they love, they get back on defense and get stops with some regularity. When they lack flow offensively, they are killed in transition and allow easy buckets.
So, no matter how much Lou Williams and his gang of merry men score, their opponents are scoring much more. The Lakers losing streak has been longer than expected, but as their injured players ease back into the lineup, they should be able to sneak themselves back into the playoff hunt.
