{"id":263195,"date":"2026-04-11T23:26:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T23:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/263195\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T23:26:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T23:26:34","slug":"how-luke-kennard-became-the-lakers-emergency-late-season-point-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/263195\/","title":{"rendered":"How Luke Kennard became the Lakers’ emergency late-season point guard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From AAU games in Ohio to college gyms up and down the Atlantic Coast Conference to the NBA, Luke Kennard<\/a> always has been met with the same warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cShooter!\u201d<\/p>\n

LeBron James<\/a>, however, knows better than to put Kennard in a box.<\/p>\n

The Lakers<\/a>\u2019 superstar watched Kennard\u2019s career grow since he was playing on James\u2019 AAU team in Ohio, where, yes, Kennard shot the lights out, but he also displayed the same versatility that made him a fitting emergency point guard during the Lakers\u2019 shorthanded late-season push.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just a ballplayer,\u201d James said. \u201c… People just kind of gave him the narrative of just being a shooter. But he does so many more things. He can handle the ball, he can rebound the ball, he can make plays. … And what we\u2019re missing right now, we need it [from him]. We need it more and more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond being the league\u2019s leading three-point shooter, Kennard has 31 assists in the last four games, stepping up his ballhandling responsibilities for the Lakers, who must finish the regular season Sunday against the Utah Jazz without Luka Doncic<\/a> and Austin Reaves<\/a>. Kennard had three assists with 19 points in the Lakers\u2019 101-73 win<\/a> over the Phoenix Suns on Friday that clinched home-court advantage in the first round.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old has averaged 2.3 assists per game in his NBA career and 2.5 per game for the Lakers (52-29) since he joined in a midseason trade. But without Doncic and Reaves, the Lakers have relied on offense by committee. During the last four games, 77.3% of the Lakers\u2019 made field goals have been assisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being organized, controlling pace,\u201d Kennard said of the team\u2019s ability to share the ball in recent games. \u201cGuys not overthinking too much, just playing within the flow of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers guard Luke Kennard celebrates with LeBron James\u2019 after James scored at Crypto.com Arena on Friday.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Kennard\u2019s poise was paramount for the team during an emotional week. The eight-year veteran who has cycled through five teams and been traded at midseason twice provides steadiness, Lakers coach JJ Redick<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a professional,\u201d Redick said. \u201cHe comes to work, he\u2019s a great teammate. He does what the team asks him to do. \u2026 No matter what you sort of give him, he\u2019ll embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennard was, in fact, a point guard in high school, he said proudly. While at Franklin High, he passed James on Ohio\u2019s all-time scoring list. He solidified his status as a prolific shooter at Duke. Redick, the Blue Devils\u2019 career scoring leader, is familiar with that plot twist, he said with a wry smile.<\/p>\n

Redick approached Kennard after Doncic and Reaves were injured against Oklahoma City on April 2 to discuss the contingency plan of him taking on more ballhandling responsibilities.<\/p>\n

The Lakers had a day of practice in Dallas, and the team walked through several plays with Kennard at different positions. It was the only practice day they\u2019ve had since the injuries. The rest of Kennard\u2019s learning has been through conversations with coaches, film study and instinctual play on the court.<\/p>\n

He responded with his first career triple-double in the first game in his new role: 15 points, 11 assists and 16 rebounds in the Lakers\u2019 loss to the Mavericks.<\/p>\n

But Kennard is famously hard on himself. He lamented Tuesday \u2014 after he scored 10 points with nine assists but missed both of his three-point attempts in a loss to Oklahoma City \u2014 that he wishes he was shooting better recently. During the first four games in April, he was just three for 13 (23.1%) from three-point range. He still leads the league at 47.8% .<\/p>\n

Despite playing with a splint on his left index finger after suffering an injury in the Lakers\u2019 win over Golden State on Thursday, the left-handed Kennard made his first three-pointer Friday, getting fouled to earn a four-point opportunity. He finished two for four from three-point range against the Suns and six for 12 from the floor. It was the first time he made multiple threes in a game since March 30 against Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all feel like every time he shoots the ball, it\u2019s gonna go in,\u201d Redick said. \u201cWhether that\u2019s a floater, a middy, or a three, I think he\u2019s got a great deal of confidence, and a lot of that comes from his preparation and his work. I think the biggest thing for us is, with our current group, having those other ballhandlers so we can give him breaks from being on ball all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting Marcus Smart back from injury Friday helped ease the ballhandling burden on Kennard. Smart had missed nine games because of a lingering right ankle injury.<\/p>\n

Smart had six points and seven assists in his first game since March 21.<\/p>\n

The Lakers waived guard Kobe Bufkin on Friday to open a roster spot for the postseason, possibly to add a veteran guard to bolster the backcourt while Doncic and Reaves are out. The Lakers have until Sunday\u2019s regular-season finale to sign any player waived by his former team before March 1 to standard contract.<\/p>\n

James, playing for the second consecutive night Friday, had a team-high 12 assists and 28 points with six rebounds. In three appearances since the injuries to Doncic and Reaves, James has averaged 28 points, 12.6 assists and 7.7 rebounds on 60% shooting from the field.<\/p>\n

Fitting James, Doncic and Reaves together came with growing pains, but pairing James and Kennard has felt simple. These two of the most prolific scorers in high school basketball history in Ohio are cut from the same cloth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just because it\u2019s two cerebral basketball players,\u201d James said. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s seamless. He\u2019s smart as hell. I\u2019m smart as hell at this game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From AAU games in Ohio to college gyms up and down the Atlantic Coast Conference to the NBA,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[115528,115529,6265,19538,115530,115531,35682,80281,48,52,51,1415,47,50,49,7551,2959,1420,9437,1417,1414],"class_list":{"0":"post-263195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-aau-game","9":"tag-aau-team","10":"tag-assist","11":"tag-austin-reaves","12":"tag-ball-player","13":"tag-emergency-late-season-point-guard","14":"tag-james","15":"tag-kennard","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-lakers","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-luka-doncic","24":"tag-march","25":"tag-marcus-smart","26":"tag-ohio","27":"tag-point","28":"tag-redick"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}