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Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James played the final seven minutes of his team’s 126-105 road loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday evening.
The Lakers were missing Luka Dončić (personal reasons) and LeBron James (right sciatica and left foot joint arthritis). L.A. struggled from the jump, falling behind 39-17 after the first quarter and never getting closer than 15 points from that moment forward.
L.A. head coach J.J. Redick cleared the bench with 6:33 remaining and his team down 113-90. That’s when James arrived, and he finished with five points on 2-of-3 shooting, one assist, one steal and two turnovers.
It was a decent shooting night for James, who hit 1-of-2 threes and made an uncontested dunk when he was in the right place at the right time following an offensive rebound and dish from Drew Timme.
On the flip side, he had an ugly turnover, tossing the ball into the Celtic bench. However, a closer look of the play reveals Maxi Kleber raising his hand and perhaps owning the fact that he should have been in the corner, where the ball went.
Overall, most Lakers had rough nights on Friday, with Austin Reaves (36 points, eight assists) being an exception.
Fans were ultimately unimpressed with James’ efforts.
James has struggled offensively in limited action in his second NBA season, shooting 32.3 percent from the field and averaging 2.0 points in a little under 10 minutes per game (13 contests). This year has featured some struggles.
Of course, it’s important to note that the 21-year-old James is just 40 games into his NBA career. He also excelled during a great stint in the G-League last year, when he averaged 21.9 points, 5.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds during the regular season (11 games).
The NBA game has been a challenge at the moment, but there’s still plenty of room and time for him to develop.