After kicking off the unveiling of the all-time Los Angeles Lakers bench players (from 1980s and on) with Michael Cooper, next on the list is Lou Williams at No. 4.
Coming off a career season with the Toronto Raptors in which he won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award, Williams signed a three-year, $21 million contract with the Lakers in July 2015.
He immediately provided them with a scoring threat off the bench, and the following season began to make a bit of history with the Lakers.
On Dec. 3, 2016, Williams scored a season-high 40 points off the bench in a 103–100 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. His 40 points were the most ever scored by an opponent’s reserve against Memphis, and Williams became the first player to score 40 points off the bench since Jordan Crawford in April 2014.
Two days later, Williams had 38 points, six rebounds and seven assists in a 107–101 loss to the Utah Jazz. It nonetheless was good for the first back-to-back 30-point games of his career. Williams also became the first Lakers player to score at least 38 points in successive games since Kobe Bryant did so in March 2013.
Over four games between Dec. 3 and 9, 2016, Williams scored 137 points. That was the highest four-game scoring performance by a reserve since the NBA began keeping track of stats in 1970. But Williams’ most impressive statistic is actually the efficiency with which he was scoring the ball, shooting 53 percent over that stretch.
With that said, if you’ve ever seen Sweet Lou play, you know he wasn’t taking easy shots. He was most interested in a variety of contested floaters and fading threes, and somehow still managed to stay productive.
Top Lakers bench players
No. 4: Lou Williams
No. 5: Michael Cooper
