On January 18, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, and the Lakers beat the Jazz 101-95. In this game, Stanley Johnson, who just renewed his 10-day short contract with the Lakers, played well, playing 24 minutes and 32 seconds, scoring 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks on 7-of-9 shooting.
Especially in the fourth quarter of this game, Johnson was transformed into a miracle soldier, and repeatedly played gobert successfully against singles. According to statistics, in this quarter alone, he scored 10 points and 4 rebounds on 5 of 6 gobert.
After the game, Johnson gave an interview to the media about why he had the confidence to play against Gobert on the offensive end, to which Johnson revealed that it was because James asked him to try to play against Gobert, because in the past few years, there have been several teams that have used similar tactics and achieved good results. Vogel also revealed that the team did not arrange this tactic, but James found Gobert's weakness and made this suggestion.
James' guidance proved to work, and after the game, James commented on Johnson's performance, saying, "People have forgotten that he was a top 10 pick lotto show, and he has always been hungry for victory." ”
For today's Lakers, the front line is short of manpower, so Johnson can become a Surprise soldier, which is very important for the Purple and Gold Army. The reason why Pelinka only signed a 10-day short contract with him for the time being is probably to facilitate the transaction operation, after all, the 10-day short-term work does not account for the team's quota.
Regardless of whether the Lakers can complete the transaction during this time, with Johnson's performance, after his 10-day short contract expires, the Lakers will renew him to the end of the season, and there should be no suspense.