Dennis Schroder was mighty confident of his abilities, and an ankle issue didn’t deter him from leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 112-109 win against the Miami Heat.
The guard had his second 30+ point outing this season, notching up 32 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists to help the Lakers register their third win in a row. His performance was all the more timely, considering the side was without the services of their superstar duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
One of the instances saw Schroder limping during the game, at which head coach Darvin Ham told the German that he would pull him off the game, only for Schroder to dish out a quickfire response.
Darvin Ham says that he told Schroder that he was gonna take him out of the game if he was limping because of his ankle but Dennis said he wanted to stay in. Darvin then said "alright, then you better be good" and Dennis responded:
"I'm not gonna be good, I'm gonna be great."
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) January 5, 2023
Darvin Ham says that he told Schroder that he was gonna take him out of the game if he was limping because of his ankle but Dennis said he wanted to stay in. Darvin then said “alright, then you better be good” and Dennis responded: “I’m not gonna be good, I’m gonna be great.”
Safe to say, he was good. His efforts had some good contributions coming from Thomas Bryant and Russell Westbrook, who had 21 points each to help the side hold their nerve and pull off a win.
LeBron James Hails Dennis The “Menance” For His Dominant Performance
The Los Angeles Lakers were short-handed and even had Lonnie Walker IV out of action, leaving the likes of Schroder, Westbrook, Bryant, and Austin Reaves to do the heavy lifting.
James, who was ruled out of the clash due to a non-COVID illness, took to Twitter to praise Schroder for his dominant performance.
MENANCE!!!!!!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) January 5, 2023
Adding to James’ thoughts was Westbrook, who highlighted the team’s mentality. With the superstars inactive against a stern Miami outfit, the 34-year-old said the locker room message was to compete.
“Compete. Our guys are down. We got a bunch of feisty young guys ready to compete and today, we competed our ass off. Big win. Excuse my language.”
The Lakers are still far from being a perfect unit, but their consecutive triple wins will surely give them the much-needed momentum they will need when they host the Atlanta Hawks next.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.