L.A. Notes: Stephenson, Walton, SGA, KCP

The offseason addition of Lance Stephenson is already paying off for the Lakers, who saw Stephenson put forth an impressive performance in Wednesday’s road victory against the Suns. He scored 23 points, dished out eight assists and grabbed eight boards in 25 minutes, shooting 10-14 from the floor.

“With [Rondo] being out, he’s our backup point guard pretty much right now, and he controlled the game,” LeBron James said of Stephenson, as relayed by Joey Ramirez of Lakers.com. “He had great pace and found guys.”

Stephenson, a former nemesis of James, did his work off the bench on Wednesday. Since leaving the Pacers in 2014, he’s grown accustomed to coming off the bench and providing depth for teams in the backcourt.

“He still goes one-on-one, and he’s really good at it [so] we’re not gonna take that away from him,” head coach Luke Walton said. “But he’s doing more of how we want him to do it. He’s sharing the ball.

“He danced a bit late in the game, but for the most part he’s playing within the style we want to play. And he’s competing on defense, and that’s why he’s winning so much favor with the [coaching] staff right now.”

There’s more from Los Angeles tonight:

  • Lakers coach Luke Walton was fined $15K (full release) for publicly criticizing the officiating after the team’s overtime loss against San Antonio on Monday.  Walton was upset with what he perceived as excessive flopping from the Spurs, coupled with the various missed calls for his own players.
  • Clippers guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has already become a rotation player that the team can depend on, writes Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times“He’s just a really good player,” coach Doc Rivers said of the rookie.
  • Just three games into his new contract, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has moved from a starting role with the Lakers to coming off the bench, Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register writes. The impressive play from Josh Hart earned him a starting spot on Wednesday, forcing Caldwell-Pope to the second unit.
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