Lonzo Ball First Top-5 Pick Since 1992 to Go Scoreless in 28 Minutes
Lonzo Ball struggles from the floor continued on national television Thursday night. Ball went 0-2 from the field in 28 minutes during a 3-point loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. His performance was… historical?
Lonzo Ball is the 1st top-5 pick to play at least 28 minutes and go scoreless as a rookie since Dikembe Mutombo in 1992. pic.twitter.com/JqjJSuRrzX
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 3, 2017
First time in a quarter-century! Impressive. While he did go scoreless, at least he lead the team with a +10.
Lonzo Ball had a career-low 4.8 usage rate today (previous career low was 11.8 against Pat Beverley in opener).
— Michael Gallagher (@MikeSGallagher) November 3, 2017
Four. Point. Eight.
Oh.
We’re now 8 games into Lonzo’s rookie season and his averages now dipped to 9.1 points, 6.6 assists and 6.8 rebounds. Nearly half (29 of 73 points) the points he has scored came in one game against the Phoenix Suns, the team with the second-worst defense in the league. He’s shooting 33% from the field and 28% from 3.
His True Shooting Percentage is .393 which is good for 293rd in the NBA among qualifying players. He’s 13th on the Lakers. He’s 9th on the Lakers in PER. And the team is worse with him on the floor than off.
Maybe most telling is that it has been days since we’ve heard from LaVar.
The Lakers are home Friday night against the worst defensive team in the league, the Brooklyn Nets, so expect a bit of a bounce-back from both Lonzo and LaVar. Unless D'Angelo Russell has something to say about it.