{"id":698778,"date":"2026-04-05T01:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698778\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T01:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:04:27","slug":"lakers-recall-dalton-knecht-and-kobe-bufkin-just-before-nba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698778\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Recall Dalton Knecht and Kobe Bufkin Just Before NBA Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dalton Knecht has been away from the NBA<\/a> for the past few days as his Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> fell 139-96 to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> and the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> on Thursday. Now, the Lakers will turn their attention to Sunday’s matchup, closing out a two-game road trip with a battle against Cooper Flagg<\/a> and the Dallas Mavericks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Knecht found a solid role with Los Angeles during his rookie season in 2024-25, averaging 9.1 points on 46.1% shooting and 2.8 rebounds in 19.2 minutes per game. This season, however, the former Tennessee Volunteers<\/a> star has seen his playing time decrease significantly, tallying 4.0 points on 44.6% shooting and 1.4 rebounds in just 10.3 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers forward Dalton Knecht (4) against the Phoenix Suns.Mark J&period; Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(Mark J&period; Rebilas-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

As a result, Knecht has spent significant time this season with the Lakers\u2019 G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers. He was most recently assigned to South Bay on Wednesday and saw extended action in the G League playoffs, where the team has advanced to the Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n

In the first round<\/a>, South Bay defeated the San Diego Clippers, the G League affiliate of the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>, 122-119, with Knecht tallying eight points on 2-of-8 shooting, along with six rebounds and three assists. He showed significant improvement in the 112-97 conference semifinal win<\/a> over the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the affiliate of the Houston Rockets<\/a>, recording 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting, 13 rebounds and two assists.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, after seeing significant action in the G League playoffs, Los Angeles recalled Knecht<\/a>, along with guard Kobe Bufkin, with just five games remaining before the NBA playoffs begin.<\/p>\n

“The Los Angeles Lakers have recalled guards Kobe Bufkin and Dalton Knecht from the South Bay Lakers,” Lakers reporter Ryan Ward wrote on X.<\/p>\n

The Lakers will face the Mavericks on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET before heading back to Los Angeles to take on the Thunder once again on Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Related: Celtics Announce Jayson Tatum News on Monday<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dalton Knecht has been away from the NBA for the past few days as his Los Angeles Lakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,225,149,1250,194,2822,251,150,6,11,179,15851,209,23393,3113],"class_list":{"0":"post-698778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cooper-flagg","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-dalton-knecht","12":"tag-houston-rockets","13":"tag-kobe-bufkin","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-playoffs","18":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","19":"tag-san-diego-clippers","20":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","21":"tag-south-bay","22":"tag-south-bay-lakers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116349415178574175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}