When the Los Angeles Lakers drafted Lonzo Ball with the second overall pick in 2017, they probably were thinking about his incredible floor vision, the shooting skill he demonstrated at UCLA and the defensive advantages his long arms would give him at the point guard position.
What they probably weren’t thinking about was Ball standing up 6-foot-10-inch Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in the post, forcing a miss from the same traditional big man who had given every single small-ball five option the Lakers had thrown at him fits over their last three games against Denver, but that’s exactly what Ball did when it mattered most on Thursday night.