The Los Angeles Lakers won their sixth straight tonight, 124-114 at Atlanta, and they did it without Austin Reaves or Quentin Grimes. That left the bench to decide the game, and it did: Sandro Mamukelashvili scored 23 points on 13 shots and finished plus-20, the best mark on the team by twelve. Luka Dončić had the bigger line and the narrower grade — 32 points and ten assists, but 3-of-11 from three and six turnovers in a game he played 39 minutes of.
The Reserve Who Was Better Than the Star
Sandro Mamukelashvili — A-. 23 points on 13 field-goal attempts, 7-of-13 overall and 5-of-8 from three, with eight rebounds, three assists and zero turnovers in 32:16. His season rate through 11 games is 8.6 points and 4.3 rebounds in 22.5 minutes on 31.4 percent from deep. He nearly tripled the scoring, doubled the rebounding and shot 62.5 percent from a distance where he has been a 31 percent shooter all year. The plus-20 is the loudest figure on the page and the one a reader should be most careful with, but it is sitting on top of 1.77 points per shot and a clean turnover column. We defended this bench after it blew a 25-point lead in October; tonight it won a game the starters did not.
Luka Dončić — B+. 32 points, ten assists, eight rebounds, five steals and two blocks in 39:23 — and that is a night below his own standard, which is the strange thing about grading him this season. He is averaging 40.1 points on 49.8 percent shooting and 41.9 percent from three. Tonight he took 22 shots for 32 points, which is 1.45 per attempt, went 3-of-11 from deep, and turned the ball over six times against a 4.9 average. The ten assists and the five steals against a 1.67 average are well clear of his rate and are what hold this at a B+. He said last week his defense had improved, and seven combined steals and blocks is the best evidence he has offered for it.
Collin Sexton — B+. 18 points on 11 shots, 6-of-11 from the field and 3-of-4 from three, with six assists and one turnover in 26:32. Against a season line of 9.5 points and 2.2 assists in 17.3 minutes on 41.3 percent shooting and 24.2 percent from three, every column here is up, most of them sharply. Six assists from a player averaging 2.2 is the figure that mattered most with Reaves out. The 3-of-6 at the free-throw line against a 75 percent season mark is the one thing he left behind.
Walker Kessler — B+. 21 points and ten rebounds on 8-of-12 shooting with 5-of-6 at the line, plus four assists in 30:04. The scoring is seven above his 14.4 average, the rebounding sits right at his 10.9, and four assists from a center averaging 1.5 is a genuine surprise. Two things pull it down: four turnovers against a 1.6 average, and a single block against an average of 2.45, which is the part of his game the Lakers pay for. His minus-three tied Matisse Thybulle for the worst mark of any Laker who played 20 minutes.
Holding Serve in the Middle of the Rotation
Ziaire Williams — B. 12 points on ten shots, 5-of-10 overall and 2-of-5 from three, with two steals and no turnovers in 28:15. That is his 11.1-point average delivered in four more minutes than he usually gets, at 50 percent shooting against a season mark of 55.4 and 40 percent from three against 45.9. Slightly below his efficiency, slightly above his volume, nothing damaged. The clean turnover sheet in 28 minutes is the best thing in the line.
Jarred Vanderbilt — B-. Perfect from the field on two attempts for four points, with two rebounds, a steal, a block and no turnovers in 13:27. Four points against a 1.3-point average is above his rate and 2-of-2 cannot be criticised. But two rebounds in 13 minutes from a player averaging 4.2 in 12.2 is a miss in the one column he is on the floor to fill, and that is what separates this from a B.
Matisse Thybulle — C+. Six points on five shots, all five from three with two made, and no rebounds at all in 23:28. His scoring sits just under his 7.1 average and his 40 percent from deep is right at his 39.1 season mark, so the shooting was neutral. Three steals against a 2.0 average is the night’s one clear positive. An empty rebound column across 23 minutes, against a 1.7 average, is why this is not a B.
Thirty-Two Minutes for Four Points
Jake LaRavia — D+. Four points on six shots in 32:03 — the third-most minutes any Laker played tonight, and 0.67 points per attempt from a player shooting 55.0 percent on the season. He went 2-of-6, missed his only three, and finished with three turnovers against three assists and five personal fouls. His three rebounds were all offensive, which means no defensive rebounds in 32 minutes against a 3.6 total average. The Lakers were exactly even in his minutes in a game they won by ten, and that is the clearest reading of the night: the time was there and almost nothing came back from it.
Under the Minutes Floor, and Who Sat
Cameron Carr — 7:19, 1-of-2 from the field for two points with three rebounds. Too little time to grade.
Adou Thiero — 7:13, 1-of-2 for two points with two rebounds and an assist. Too little time to grade.
Austin Reaves — did not play. Listed out, illness.
Quentin Grimes — did not play. Listed out, finger injury.
Kevon Looney, Bronny James, Jaden Hardy and Lawson Lovering — did not play. All four were listed as coach’s decisions.
No judgment adjustment was applied to any grade tonight. Every letter above rests on the minutes and production in the box score, with no reliable play-by-play available to support a case the numbers do not already make.
How We Grade
| Grade | What it means |
|---|---|
| A | Won them the game |
| B | Did his job, at his level or better |
| C | Neutral — present, not decisive |
| D | They were worse for his minutes |
| F | Actively cost them the game |
Grades weigh production against opportunity and against each player’s own rate through 11 games, plus up to half a grade of judgment, noted where used.
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