On January 22, 2022, the Los Angeles Lakers played the Orlando Magic on the road. In this game, the Lakers trailed by 8 points in the first half, and in the third quarter, they played a wave of flow to complete the reversal, and finally beat the Magic 116-105. In this game, the Lakers' two core James and Westbrook have a good performance, and Anthony on the bench also scored 23 points. In addition to this, the Lakers' short-contract worker Stanley Johnson also continued his excellent performance.
Throughout the game, Stanley Johnson played 20 minutes, scoring 11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block on 3-of-5 shooting, and was very efficient. During his time with the Lakers, Stanley Johnson's performance has been recognized by many fans, and even Big Mouth Klee said that he was the second best performer in the Lakers in the past month. In addition, James also highlighted Stanley Johnson's defense in a post-game interview.
James said: "Stanley is on the court, we can perform a lot of defensive changes, and when the opponent breaks through the basket, he can maintain a defensive position in front of them. Having a defender who was able to perform a positionless defense allowed us to stay defensive and the opponent did a good job of blowing up our defense at a single point in the first half, and we didn't change that until the third quarter. As can be seen from James's words, he has a lot of recognition for Stanley Johnson's contributions on the defensive end. In fact, Stanley's role on the defensive end has always been greater than on the offensive end, and his scrambling stats have always been among the best in the team. If Davis returns, Then Stanley and Davis can even form an effective complement on the defensive end, and I believe that the Lakers' defense will be far better than it is now.
However, whether Stanley Johnson can wait until Davis returns is unknown, because Pelinka has not regularized Stanley until now. With the trade deadline looming, many playoff teams are reinforcing, and while Stanley isn't a star, there's a market for players like him. If the Lakers have been procrastinating and not turning right, maybe after the 10-day contract expires, Stanley Johnson will wear the jerseys of other teams