Every game, the Los Angeles Lakers thank the 16 teams that picked ahead of them in the 2024 draft and let them land a superstar in the making in rookie Dalton Knecht. Last night’s game against the Utah Jazz showed Knecht’s potential.
In a 124-118 win, Knecht tied an NBA rookie record with nine 3-pointers en route to a 37-point performance, with Knecht hitting four straight threes. “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, 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.
Knecht was drafted as the 17th overall pick after an All-American senior season at the University of Tennessee as a 6-foot-6, 215-pound wing. “They didn’t ‘find’ DK,” Lebron 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’ an SEC player of the year.”
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. “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 doesn’t shoot.”
He finished going 12-for-16 from the field, including 9-for-12 from 3, with five rebounds and a steal.
Knecht is just the fourth player in Lakers history to hit nine 3s, joining Russell, James, and Kobe Bryant. The Lakers extend their winning streak to six and are 2-0 in NBA Cup play. Their next game is against Orlando Magic.
