Over the past two games, Collin Sexton has been indispensable in powering the Los Angeles Lakers to wins with their star guards, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, each missing one contest.
Against the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, the veteran guard tallied 17 points (5-of-10 shooting), two assists and two rebounds. A day later, he followed that up with 18 points (6-of-11 shooting), six assists, two rebounds and one steal in Monday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks.
If those consecutive performances are any indication,
Sexton could be finding his footing after a slow start to 2026-27, which featured a calf strain that hampered him during training camp and preseason.
Through his first nine appearances, he averaged 8.7 points while shooting 40% from the floor and 25.8% from deep (49.5% true shooting). In this week’s pair of victories, he’s averaged 17.5 points on 52.4% shooting and 50% from deep (64.4% true shooting). Following those laudatory outings, Sexton said he feels he’s inching closer to fully being himself again.
“I think maybe another week and a half, two weeks and I think I’ll be back,“ he told reporters Monday. ”Right now, these last two games felt really good. So I’m moving in the right direction.”
As Sexton works to rediscover his rhythm, he’s embracing patience.
“That’s one word I’ve been using each and every day,” he said. “I would say each and every day is going to have its ups, have its downs but I’m blessed to be healthy enough to go out.”
Head coach JJ Redick is counting on Sexton to help steady second units for the Lakers, given he’s their most talented scorer and qualified initiator off the bench. After Monday’s win, he spoke about Sexton’s role in keeping the offense humming when the speedy guard is at the forefront.
“I think the biggest thing [is] we’re trying to get organized and and there’s glimpses of really good organization when he’s out there as the primary ball handler,” Redick told reporters. “We got a little squirrely there at the end of the second quarter. I thought, for the most part, outside of the first few minutes in that third quarter where I had to call the early timeout, I thought we did a good job of just being organized and trying to get good shots. That’s how you end up with 124 points against a good team.”
You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.
