Last night, I watched Spencer Dinwiddie, a player that was known as a streaky, ball dominant role player in Brooklyn and a spark plug offensive playmaker off the bench in Dallas…consistently be a defensive menace. Which is weird because while he’s never been a \*bad\* defender, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him take the challenge like he has since he got here.
First, his POA defense has been exceptional. He’s been pretty damn good fighting through and around screens, his fundamentals seem to be solid, and he get into an attacking player’s body without fouling too much. We saw him lock up Dame in Milwaukee at the buzzer, which was great, but I also saw him torture Tobias Harris, who is three inches taller and ten pounds heavier, as well, multiple times last night. He also held up when matched against an also bigger Kelly Oubre. [Here’s a twitter thread](https://twitter.com/LAbound2/status/1771562579426455628) with some of his standout defensive plays last night
Over the last seven games, Dinwiddie has led the team in DRTNG (admittedly an extremely noisy stat) over even AD.
If Dinwiddie continues to play POA defense this effectively, Vando is able to come back, and Cam is healthy enough to give us 10 minutes a game of that stifling defense he played against Maxey, I think we just might surprise people come playoff time.
by ProblematicAndCrazy
13 Comments
If he’s good and is willing to return, we will have an interesting trade chip in Gabe
We beat the sixers without embiid and now all our role players are specialists. Calm down, where was this specialist in the last few games that actually would have mattered?
Forget Cam
If we can add Vando and Gabe to this team we’ll finally have some defense
DLO
Reaves
Rui
Lebron
AD
W/ Vando, Prince, Gabe, Dinwiddie off the bench
I have to admit the Spence we got was not the one I expected. Like you I expected a spark plug off the bench. This has been a welcome and needed surprise. I’m not gonna say he’s been amazing by any stretch but he fills a need we desperately had
Mofo put the clamps on everyone. He looks like he is coasting but all of a sudden blocks the shot. He is lenghty and sneaky strong.
He’s lowkey decent
I tried to tell ppl he better than dlo & reaves
His role with the Lakers is more on utility and POA defense. I believe he mentioned in one of his interviews that it’s his first time playing that kind of role compared to his usual offensive role. He bought in and thankfully it’s working out so far.
Spencer Dinwiddie has one good game and everyone here wants to keep him. Yeah let’s ignore the 15+ terrible games that he’s had for the lakers. 😂
I hope y’all are ok with Max Christie walking this summer.
I’ve been telling everyone to forget about him getting buckets, he is doing the job they’re asking him to do! We have enough ball handlers, we need solid defense!
If he keeps it up I can see Spencer factoring into a post season run off the bench with crucial minutes.
Finally found his shot in March too, and he’s always been clutch 📈
High IQ + Big Guard + Effort = great defender
Dinwiddie always had IQ + size advantage for his position, but this role forces him to finally put effort into defense.
This has been the most surprising aspect of his game. He’s not known to be a defender. But he’s been playing more than adequate defense for us. He has the size and length to stay with guards. If he can make his 3 like yesterday, I would even replace him with Reaves in the starting lineup. Or play him 20-25 mins off the bench