Knecht stars with nine 3s, 37 points, Jordan shrug

LOS ANGELES — After Lakers guard Dalton Knecht tied an NBA rookie record with nine 3-pointers en route to 37 points in a 124-118 win over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday, LeBron James wanted to clarify just how Knecht landed in L.A.

It wasn’t so much the Lakers’ superb scouting department that identified the 6-foot-6, 215-pound wing after an All-American senior season at the University of Tennessee as the ideal prospect to select with the No. 17 pick.

It was all the other teams who passed on him.

“They didn’t ‘find’ DK,” James (26 points, 12 assists) said. “The other 16 teams f—ed it up. Did anybody watch him? S—. They just didn’t f— it up. You don’t ‘find’ a SEC player of the year.”

And the Jazz couldn’t seem to find any effective defense to stall Knecht, who exploded for 21 points in the final 3:29 of the third quarter to double the Lakers’ lead from 11 to 22 heading into the fourth.

Knecht hit four straight 3s — the first three coming off assists from D’Angelo Russell — and with each make, the Crypto.com Arena crowd got louder and louder.

With seemingly everyone in the building anticipating his next attempt, Knecht got Utah’s Cody Williams to bite on a move and foul him beyond the 3-point line, earning three free throws. He made all three.

To cap the flurry, he hit another 3 — again off a pass from Russell — with 26.3 seconds left in the third, to finish a perfect 6-for-6 for the quarter.

He finished the game going 12-for-16 from the field, including 9-for-12 from 3, with five rebounds and a steal.

“I’m not concerned at all with Dalton in terms of meeting the moment,” said Lakers coach JJ Redick, who hit nine 3s in a game just once in 940 career games — Knecht did it in his 14th as a pro. “He’s fearless. … it’s a real weapon for our group beyond just the score. It’s a weapon that energizes us.”

Knecht, who tied Keyonte George (Feb. 15, 2024), Yogi Ferrell (Feb. 3, 2017) and Rodrigue Beaubois (March 27, 2010) for the most 3s in a game for a rookie, mimicked a famous gesture made by Michael Jordan in the 1992 NBA Finals — nine years before he was even born — to soak in his success.

“Rui [Hachimura] was talking to me about I need to get a 3-point celebration,” Knecht said. “I didn’t know what to do. So, I just gave the shrug.”

Knecht became the fourth Lakers player in team history to hit at least nine 3s, joining Russell, James (who did it twice) and Kobe Bryant (who did it four times).

The Lakers extended their winning streak to six games and improved to 2-0 in NBA Cup group play.

“We just urge him to shoot the basketball,” Anthony Davis (26 points, 14 rebounds) said of Knecht. “He can do more than just shoot. But he’s really good at shooting the basketball. We get mad at him when he don’t shoot.”

Since going into the starting lineup three games ago for Hachimura, who is dealing with an ankle injury, Knecht is averaging 26 points on 63.6% from the field and 61.5% from 3.

“I know he’s capable of doing that,” said Austin Reaves. “And honestly, I expect him to do it multiple more times this year.”