Luke Kennard receives praise from his Lakers teammates, coach

SAN FRANCISCO — After a game in which the Lakers’ top three players (Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reeves) delivered solid performances, the team’s newest addition received a first name drop from coach JJ Redick afterward. Surprise win over the Warriors on Saturday night.

“Boy, Luke Kennard, he just turned on the blender for us,” Reddick said. “We honestly didn’t have a lot of blender appetizers.”

What does Kennard look like while creating the mixer?

Like what happened at 7:14 of the fourth quarter When Kennard hid (faked) Jake LaRavia’s back screen Before flying off the Maxi Kleber and moving beyond the 3-point arc in a Screen-the-Screen move.

This forced Warriors big man Quinten Post to step out and close in on Kennard, who has shot 44.2% on 3s in his career and is making a league-best 49.1% on 3s this season. Kennard drove past Post to force the Warriors’ defense to collapse on him inside the arc, where Kennard kicked to Jared Vanderbilt in the weak corner.

Three passes later, Kennard took advantage of his own mixer, dropping a step-back 3 over Guey Santos.

“Obviously Luka gets two goals, AR gets two goals, LeBron gets two goals,” Redick said. “But just to be able to create a penalty kill and then make the right read and make the right play from there…Luke was great for our offense.”

The play was part of Kennard’s 16-point performance (6-of-10 shooting, 4-of-7 on 3s) against the Warriors, his highest point total since being traded to the Lakers on February 5.

“Obviously I’ve been here for a short period of time, but when we’re a team that paints and shares the ball, and gets multiple passes on possession, I feel like we’re a different team,” Kennard said. “We have a lot of great looks, and we can score a lot of points. Obviously we need to have the ball in (Doncic, Reeves and James) hands to play for us, and that’s the way it should be. But for us guys on the bench, we need to be ready to play the right way, move the ball and play with some speed.”

On the Lakers’ next possession and with Pat Spencer closing him down from the top, Kennard actually set the back screen for the LaRavia By forcing Spencer to make contact with a LaRavia defender (Nate Williams) to free up LaRavia for an alley-oop layup with the help of Marcus Smart.

“That’s just a connected crime right there,” Reddick said. “And that’s exactly what Luke does.”

Kennard was not credited with the stats on the box score, but his check made the play possible.

“Being a good screener is something you don’t talk about a lot,” Kennard said. “You kind of don’t see the impact of what can happen. But JJ put me in positions to be a marker. I think the appeal I have is being one of the best shooters in the league, and teams don’t want to let me go. So being a marker, getting guys open, gets me shots if I set good screens. I pride myself on being a good marker.”

The Lakers value not only Kennard’s shooting, but also what other parts of his skill set can open up for the offense.

“His ability to make plays and get to the paint is used as a (shooting threat) because he shoots the ball so well, a lot of teams like to keep him off the goal line,” James said. “But his ability to get into the lane and make plays for others as well was a big part of what we wanted to do as well. Just making that extra pass, that extra shot and that extra shot, he’s very good at that.”

Kennard appreciates his ability to showcase his offensive tools.

“It kind of gives me confidence, not just being a flash player,” Kennard said. “I think there are stops, where that’s where I’ve been, and I’ll find my role and try to do the best I can with that. But I think just creating havoc offensively, just getting into the paint… when we get into the paint and getting multiple passes on possessions, we’re a completely different team. I can kind of kick some of that in. If there’s a couple of guys, like Luka or Bron or Austin, and I get a swing pass, if I don’t have it I can get in the paint and try to make a play, and I’m proud of that, and I try to make the right play in Every time I have a good time.