The Los Angeles Lakers faced the Chicago Bulls on Friday night trying to bounce back after losing to the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday. They succeeded and earned a 117-115 win over the Bulls to get their 7th win of the season. It was a good game, even though they didn’t have Anthony Davis, but LeBron James and co. did the job against an ambitious Bulls team.
One of the young figures of the team is Patrick Williams, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft. Williams is still raw but he’s expected to become a very good defender in the association and he had a big task on Friday when he had to step for Otto Porter and guard LeBron James down the stretch. It was a very good moment for the Florida State product and LeBron didn’t hesitate to praise him after the game.
It was only his 10th game in the league and Williams had the job to guard the best player in the world. Although Bron finished the game with 28 points, he predicted Williams to have a very good career in the league.
“I think he’s going to be an exceptional talent,” James said of Williams, via NBC Sports Chicago. “Long arms. He has Kawhi-type hands that I noticed out on the floor, so I knew I couldn’t play with the ball much. And you could tell that he’s just laser-sharp on trying to get better and better.”
When asked if Williams told him anything during the game, the King said that Williams was only worried about playing and not much about who he was guarding.
“(He) Didn’t say much at all,” James said. “He just stayed sharp on the game plan. I think he’s going to continue to get better and better. Has a great in-between game. But if you notice his hands, though, he has, like I said, Kawhi-like hands. That’s gonna benefit him a lot throughout the course of this season, throughout the course of his career.”
The 19-year-old kept it real and explained that he got better at every aspect of the game after facing LeBron, one of the greatest NBA players in history. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar is a big challenge for anybody guarding him but Williams wasn’t afraid of it.
“I can’t really say much except I got better. I got better tonight as a defender, as a player. Just being around him, watching him, guarding him, I got better,” Williams said of defending James. “In the 10th game of the season, that’s all you can ask for. I took on the challenge.”
Patrick’s future is bright. The Chicago Bulls are already showing flashes of what they can do in the future and this guy is expected to be one of the leaders of a competitive Bulls squad.
