In the Los Angeles Clippers’ 105-93 win against the Lakers, Lance Stephenson threw down a vicious poster dunk on Julius Randle.
The Los Angeles Clippers have more dunk artists than anyone. With Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, L.A. is the home of Lob City, and without doubt those two run the show. However, on Friday night against their hometown rival Lakers, it was Lance Stephenson who pulled off one of the Clippers’ best dunks of the season.
In fact, it’s probably one of the better dunks in the NBA for 2015-16 all together.
In the fourth quarter as the Clippers held a 92-82 lead, Stephenson received the ball from Chris Paul in transition. He had an opening to the basket, but Julius Randle was still in his way. Unfortunately for Randle, though, he had no chance of getting a block, and got absolutely destroyed as Lance soared to the rim.
As you can see from the Vine and Jordan’s reaction as he flailed his arms before running back on defense, it was a seriously impressive poster dunk. What makes it even better is that Stephenson has hardly played this season, so the anger and energy he must have built up all seemed to be unleashed in that moment.
And Randle was the victim.
Stephenson even said himself that is was a nice dunk, and he knows just how high he got in the process.
Lance Stephenson on dunk over Julius Randle: "It was nice. I've seen a replay. I felt like, hey, I got up high."
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) January 30, 2016
After a play like that, his nickname of “Born Ready” certainly seemed pretty apt. He finally got on the court with 22 minutes playing time and scored 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting, five rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.
DeAndre Jordan walks into interview room and yells, "Born Ready!" Lance Stephenson responds, "Hey, what's up?"
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) January 30, 2016
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Friday night in the Clippers’ 105-93 win against the Lakers was the 6th biggest game of Stephenson career in L.A. in terms of minutes. It says a lot about Doc Rivers’ demotion of him to the bench as he only played 22 minutes, but at least he made them count. Over the last 14 games he’s received eight DNPs while averaging a mere 12 minutes in the games he’s actually made it onto the court.
What the future holds for him with the Clippers is still entirely unclear. Even after a great showing against the Lakers it’s hard to rule him out of trade talks, especially after Doc traded his other bench recluse Josh Smith back to the Houston Rockets. Not to mention, if Paul Pierce wasn’t out against the Lakers, Stephenson would have received even less minutes.
Next: The good and the bad without Blake Griffin
That being said, his performance did show that he can contribute. He may have his inconsistencies and he’s been far from an ideal fit, but he brings energy, athleticism, and he may actually be able to make a difference if he’s given a small role to do so.