Imagine it’s May, finally playoff time, and you haven’t played back-to-back games with over 20 minutes since December. Your team just got blown out the game before, and you got some garbage time minutes. You’re sitting on the bench and told to enter in the 1st quarter. Three games later, you have played 3 straight games of 20+ minutes. You’re Lonnie Walker IV.
Last week, Digits examined the players that embraced the “next man up” mentality in the playoffs due to injury. Injuries aren’t the only way for players to step up, obviously. Sometimes, an opportunity arises with a team’s need for something new or with them just adjusting amidst a series, like Lonnie Walker IV.
Within the last week, three of the four conference semifinals series have seen this exact scenario play out: a team bringing a player onto the floor to provide a huge role after not seeing minutes and playing time before.
Lonnie Walker IV:
Continuing from the aforementioned portion about Walker, he played a total of 13 minutes and 50 seconds in the first round series against the Grizzlies. He was a DNP in Game 1 versus the Warriors and only saw minutes after the Lakers had secured a loss in Game 2.
Walker’s ability to create his own shot edges out that of Troy Brown Jr. and Jarred Vanderbilt, the two players who have seen their minutes decrease with the Walker rise. He’s shot 58.8% (10-17) on pull-up jumpers in the postseason. In Game 4, his 15 point offensive explosion in the 4th quarter was absolutely huge to extend the series to a 3-1 lead.
Although I find his defense generally overrated, he has done a relatively good job of chasing Klay Thompson around screens and limiting his impact. Overall in these playoffs, the Lakers have a defensive rating of 100.0 with Walker on the floor, but admittedly, playing a lot of minutes with Anthony Davis will make this number look quite good.
In these three games, Walker is averaging 10.3 points on 68.1 TS%. He has solidified himself back into the rotation with what he is able to provide offensively for the LakeShow. Walker and the rest of the squad will look to eliminate the Warriors from the postseason tonight.
Landry Shamet:
Landry Shamet missed about half of the regular season due to a foot injury and returned to action about a month prior to the postseason’s commencement. In the series versus the Clippers, Shamet averaged 11 minutes per game, including 4, 5, and 9 minutes in the series’ final three games. He didn’t even see the floor in Game 2 of the current series against the Nuggets.
He found the floor once again in Game 3, scoring 4 points in 25 minutes, but Game 4 was the Landry Shamet game. With the season practically on the line, fighting to avoid a 3-1 deficit, Shamet scored 14 of his 19 points in the 4th quarter, going 4-5 from three in the quarter. The Nuggets were routinely sending double teams to Devin Booker, opening up wide open opportunities for Shamet.
In the postseason, he’s shooting 40% from three and 1.32 points per possession on spot-ups (numbers entering Thursday night action), providing the much needed floor spacing for the Suns while they were alive in the postseason. His defense, ultimately, leaves a lot to be desired, as he gave a lot of buckets to Jamal Murray in the series. Perhaps his Game 4 performance is truly what extended the series versus the Nuggets for one extra game.
Danuel House Jr.:
Entering Philly’s Game 5 action versus Boston, House played 13 minutes and 24 seconds in the postseason. In this game alone, he saw 15 minutes and 10 seconds of time, scoring 10 points on 5-7 shooting while also bringing energetic defense. He was huge in helping Philly secure a victory to take a commanding 3-2 lead on the series.
He deserves a shoutout for his performance, as Doc Rivers and company did not have to go to him at all. They had just won Game 4 to tie the series up, but with Jalen McDaniels losing his minutes in the series, they felt that House would provide more offensively with hopes of similar defense (though McDaniels is certainly the better defender).
In last night’s Game 6, he saw 8 minutes in a 76ers loss, scoring 3 points on 1-3 shooting.
Charlie Spungin , NBA Analyst