File it under sports science.
“The law of averages will come back around: If you have a bad night, typically you’ll have a good night the next night,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel hypothesized when asked Tuesday what he expected from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Danny Green before the Lakers’ 102-96 victory in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
“We expect both of them to have strong nights tonight,” Vogel added.
It’s as if the coach who has the Lakers within one victory of the NBA championship knows a thing or two about this game: Green rebounded from a scoreless Game 3 with 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting. And Caldwell-Pope, well, he was “huge,” Vogel said.
KCP, as he’s known to Laker Nation’s resident fans and critics, finished with 15 points on 6-for-12 shooting. That offensive production included a couple of big buckets late that helped L.A. wrestle a hard-fought victory away from the Miami Heat in the bubble at Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
With the Lakers leading only 90-88 and about 3 minutes left, Caldwell-Pope sprinted to the corner in transition, ready and awaiting LeBron James’ pass, which he caught, shot and converted for one of his three corner 3-pointers of the night.
“That’s really one of my specialties,” Caldwell-Pope said. “I’m always running from end to end, corner to corner.”
Moments later, Caldwell-Pope let the Lakers breathe yet easier when he got Duncan Robinson to bite on a fake at the top of the key, blew past the Heat guard and flew all the way to the rim for a soaring and sensationally timed layup off the backboard that made it 95-88 with 2:02 to go.
“We wanted to score our mismatches,” Caldwell-Pope said. “… he closed out, which they were doing all night, closed out hard and gave me the lane down the middle.”
And Caldwell-Pope did it without a hint of hesitation — noteworthy considering both the high stakes and the fact that Caldwell-Pope entered Game 4 having shot 8 for 29 so far in the series, including going 1 for 5 on Sunday. It was production far less than what had come to be expected from him during the regular season, when he was a 46.7% shooter overall and a 38.5% 3-point shooter.
“You’re not going to knock down every shot you shoot,” Caldwell-Pope said after Game 4. “But just stay with that flow. Drive, get a foul, go to the free throw line and try to get a rhythm there. Just play the game. Make plays. Do other things. Try to stay in the rhythm. That’s what I do.
“I try not to worry about it if I’m not getting shots or not. I know they are going to eventually come.”As Vogel was saying…
“He’s a confident young man,” Vogel said of the 27-year-old Caldwell-Pope, who’s in his third season in L.A. and one of the longest-tenured members of this Lakers team. “He’s been a huge part of our success this year, for what he does on both ends of the floor … (and) KCP down the stretch? Big guts to take and make those shots that he took.”
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