Walker Kessler after going 12-for-12 in his Lakers debut: ‘Contrary to my name, I run a lot’

Walker Kessler went 12-for-12 in his first game for the Los Angeles Lakers, and he would not take much credit for it. “I wish I could say it was, you know, really difficult, but, you know, they’re just so good,” Kessler said after the 127-105 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night. “Their court vision is insane. So yeah, they found me in the right spots.”

Kessler scored 26 points with 9 rebounds and 2 blocks in 30 minutes and was plus-24. Ten of his 12 baskets were dunks, the most by a Laker in a game since Shaquille O’Neal in 2003, and many of them came on passes from Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.

“It’s not what I saw. It’s what Luka and AR and all the other guys saw, you know, throwing me the ball, honestly,” he said. “I think just being in the right spots and being vertical and just trying to dunk everything. That’s really the biggest thing, is having the attitude and mentality to try to dunk everything.”

The video above was posted by Spectrum SportsNet, the Lakers’ local TV home.

‘Contrary to my name, I run a lot’

Lakers coach JJ Redick said the night started with Kessler running the floor, and Kessler said that was nothing new. “Contrary to my name, I run a lot,” he said. “I’ve always been like that. When I run, it keeps me engaged in the game. I mean, there’s times where I’ll run needlessly, you know, just because. Every once in a while, one might come off the rim, whether on offense or defense, you might get a rebound or a putback, and then it opens up a lot of the shooters on the perimeter.”

He also admitted to some nerves before his first regular-season game in purple and gold, after he played only five games last season because of a torn labrum in his left shoulder. “I definitely was a little nervous going into the game, but, you know, just so thankful, you know, and so grateful for how it went,” he said. “I got the win, which was the most important thing.”

The halftime fix

Stephen Curry scored 16 points in the first quarter, and Kessler said the Lakers’ defense was the halftime topic. “JJ was like, hey, we got to clean up some things, specifically the backdoor cuts,” he said. “I got to pressure the ball more. You know, Draymond was picking us apart a little bit, so that’s on me.” Draymond Green finished with 8 assists. Curry did not make a field goal after the first quarter, and the Lakers led 102-68 after three.

“Our wing defenders, you know, we really picked it up in the second half, obviously, and we looked like the defensive team that I know we can be,” Kessler said.

Redick: ‘A good opening statement’

Redick said he had installed a new spacing set for the game. “I wouldn’t even call it a play, but it’s just a spacing set for us that we hadn’t put in and talked about all preseason. We put it in two days ago,” he said. The idea was to keep Golden State’s two best defenders, Al Horford and Green, out of the action, and Kessler “was able to benefit from our dribble penetration with that spacing and scored at the rim a bunch out of that set.”

The video above was also posted by Spectrum SportsNet.

Asked how much the debut meant after so little playing time over the last year and a half, Redick said it mattered either way. “I think it’s a big deal when it’s your first game as a Laker, and, you know, we’ve had conversations. He understands what this is and the pressures that come with it,” he said. “I think it was a good opening statement for him.”

Redick had no update on Jake LaRavia, who rolled his right ankle late in the fourth quarter, saying only that he was “probably more positive than when it first happened.” The Lakers host the LA Clippers on Friday at 10 p.m. ET, which is 5 a.m. Saturday in Cairo.