Luke Kennard Discussion

Weezy · Mar 22, 2026 at 12:06 PM

Luke Kennard’s last-second 3-pointer clinches Lakers’ 9th straight victory

Just that morning, the Lakers’ trade deadline acquisition had a heart-to-heart meeting with Coach JJ Redick, reviewing the ups and downs of being the new guy on a team hoping to make a deep playoff run, trying to fit in during a grit-filled stretch of the season.

Kennard had been frustrated, admittedly hard on himself, during his recent shooting stretch, knocking down just 23.1% of his 3-point attempts over his last five games after he had made more than 50% since joining the Lakers.

“Obviously, you’re never going to be perfect, but he just told me to stay with it,” Kennard said. “I’m here for a reason.”

Redick shared stories with Kennard about his own shooting woes during a 15-year NBA career, a former 3-point threat who had been in similar situations. At the end of Saturday night’s game, Kennard did what he had been acquired to do, the reason the Lakers call him off the bench, draining a 3-pointer with 0.6 seconds left, sending the bench into bedlam and giving the Lakers (46-25) a 105-104 victory over the Orlando Magic (38-32).

LeBron James pulled Magic defenders toward the rim on what each Lakers player and Redick called an executed play, leaving Kennard with the opportunity to drill the shot as Marcus Smart found him on an inbounds pass from the baseline. As the shot swished through the net, James lifted Kennard off his feet. The 29-year-old, who has made a career out of making 3-point shots, blacked out in basketball ecstasy. He only knew it was James, the NBA’s new career games played record holder as of Saturday night, who picked him up after Jalen Suggs’ unsuccessful full-court heave, after being told by a reporter after the game.

“Just being part of a new team, obviously, you’re building new relationships, trying to find your role, what you do,” Kennard said. “But they brought me here for a reason, and that was to shoot. And it feels good. It feels good the way that everybody reacted, obviously. We’ve had a really good stretch of games, so the win was the most important thing, but it definitely felt good.”

Kennard finished with 13 points, making three of his four 3-point attempts. Doncic led the Lakers with 33 points on 12-for-30 shooting, while Austin Reaves added 26 points on 10-for-20 shooting. Doncic recorded his 40th 30-point game of the season, becoming the fourth player in franchise history to do so. He joins Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant and Jerry West on the list.

On Feb. 26, the Lakers bungled an after-timeout play to lose to the Orlando Magic when Luka Doncic passed up an open look at Crypto.com Arena. The loss was part of a three-game skid before the Lakers began to build a rhythm, finding a balance between Doncic, James and Reaves.

This time, Kennard got the ball. And he made no mistake on his follow-through. The Lakers have now won nine consecutive games, clawing the victory away from the Magic in the final seconds after a back-and-forth fourth quarter.

“That was probably the happiest I’ve been in a long time,” Reaves said.

Assistant coach Greg St. Jean drew up the game-winning play for the Lakers, Redick said after the game. Reaves said he gets so fixated on his task during plays like that one that he asked St. Jean to redraw the play on the handheld white board so he could properly understand his assignment.

James drew attention, driving into the paint. Doncic was a backup option if “they messed up on a red,” Redick said. Reaves fell over after Suggs “barely touched” him. And Smart, checking each player on the court, identified Kennard all by himself, ready to make a shot.

“As soon as he caught it and then released it, everybody knew it was in,” Redick said.

And so did James.

“When I turned and saw who the ball was in his hands on a wide-open 3,” said James, who forced a turnover on an inbounds play, trailing 104-102 with 4.7 seconds left. “I pretty much knew it was cash.”

“I knew I was open,” Kennard said of his second career game-winning shot. “It definitely felt good when it left my hand. So I thought it was good. But yeah, it’s a big moment. It’s kind of hard to explain the feeling when you’re in that position, but when it went in, it felt pretty good.”

After Doncic picked up his 16th technical foul of the season with 1:19 remaining in the third quarter – one that, if not rescinded, will result in a one-game suspension to be served Monday against the Detroit Pistons – the Lakers made a valiant effort to grab their ninth win in a row, their longest winning streak under Redick and since the 2019-2020 season. They improved their record to an NBA-best 22-6 in clutch games, defined as games within five points with five minutes remaining.

Doncic’s pull-up jumper with 1:32 left in the game brought the Lakers within 100-99, but Wendell Carter Jr., one of seven Magic players to score in double figures, spotted up from mid-range to push the Magic lead back to three points. The Lakers had a chance to tie the score when Reaves missed an open look from 3-point range with 9.5 seconds remaining, but Deandre Ayton grabbed the offensive rebound, getting fouled before he could pass the ball out for a second-chance look.

Reaves temporarily provided the Lakers with a one-point lead earlier in the fourth when, with 5:25 remaining, he drilled his first 3-pointer of the game with a step-back look from the left wing. But over the final five minutes, he and his teammates shot a combined 3 for 12 from the field. During one 3-minute span, the Lakers missed seven consecutive shots until James scored on a layup with 2:02 remaining.

Earlier in the fourth quarter, while trailing 89-82 after Magic guard Desmond Bane cut to the hoop for a driving layup, Lakers backup center Jaxson Hayes converted an alley-oop dunk off a feed from James before converting a layup on the Lakers’ following possession.

Reaves made a floating jumper with 8:22 remaining to cut Orlando’s lead to one as a part of the 6-0 scoring surge.

The Lakers led by as many as 14 points in the first quarter, but across a span running through the middle of the second quarter, the Magic outscored the Lakers 22-2 to take a lead that held up for most of the night. Squandering a 16-point first quarter from Doncic, which helped stake the Lakers to a 37-30 lead at the end of a period in which they shot 69.6% from the field, the Lakers had to grit their teeth to avoid losing for the first time in 16 days.

Doncic picked up his 16th technical foul of the seasonafter getting in a heated back-and-forth with Magic center Goga Bitadze, alleging afterward that Bitadze made a vulgar remark in Serbian to him about his family.

While Doncic was shooting free throws during the third quarter, Bitadze directed the remark Doncic’s way, leading to a stoppage in play. While Doncic ran back down the court to play defense, the officials deemed the language the players were using as worthy of a double technical foul.

But even Doncic, on a night when drama swirled around his postgame allegations, couldn’t help but smile when thinking about how Saturday ended.

Kennard, his newest teammate, sent the Lakers into the final two games of their six-game trip with something to smile about.

“It was just beautiful to see,” Doncic said.

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