The Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs last evening, 121-107. The Lakers were led in points by LeBron James at 26, but the story of the night had to be Wesley Matthews having his first good game with the Lakers, and boy was it a great one.
Matthews ended with 18 points on a perfect night from the field, only taking six three-point attempts in the evening, finishing all six of them. Although Rob Pelinka and the Lakers definitely weren’t expecting 100% shooting on six attempts per game, this was the type of random three-point scoring outburst that they hoped to occasionally get from Matthews in addition to his perimeter defense.
After the game, Wesley Matthews was asked if he felt the perfect night from the field was unusual, saying the following (quote transcribed from Spectrum SportsNet):
“How unusual was it? I don’t know, I feel like I can get hot. I feel like I should make every shot that I shoot so I won’t say it’s unusual. I’m definitely grateful for my teammates, credit to my teammates and the coaching staff for being consistently supportive and consistently optimistic. Obviously I did not start the season out shooting the way I would like to from behind the arc, or just period, so to have a game like this it feels great but it feels even better to win. So “unusual”, I don’t know. But I’m grateful for the night and the moment.”
"I feel like I should make every shot that I shoot so I won't say it's 𝒖𝒏𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍." @WessyWes23 (6/6 3PT) talks about his incredible night from beyond the arc with @Mike_Bresnahan. pic.twitter.com/0UGZkzmqtt
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) December 31, 2020
The confidence will definitely sound great to Lakers fans, as these types of shooting performances are what they probably expected from Danny Green last year, and are what they hope to get out of Wesley Matthews as the season goes on. Just like Green, his defense is just as much a strong-suit of his as his three-point shooting. Frank Vogel acknowledged this in the Tweet below from Matthew Moreno of Lakers Nation, saying the Lakers don’t worry about him.
"We don't worry about Wes," Frank Vogel said. "We know what he's done throughout his career. He's a knock-down shooter and great defender."
— Matthew Moreno (@MMoreno1015) December 31, 2020
Hopefully, this is a sign of Matthews continuing to get acclimated with the Lakers, and that we see more scoring performances like this in the future!
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