Lakers’ Walker Kessler Makes Candid Admission After Difficult Utah Homecoming

The Los Angeles Lakers earned their first come-from-behind win over the Utah Jazz on Sunday.

It was a gritty, tough win for the Lakers, and they also earned their first road win of the season, moving to 3-0. The Lakers have proved tough and resilient so far, and they'll look to carry that momentum into the next game.

While the focus after the game was on Luka Doncic after his stellar 52-point performance, not everything went smoothly for the Lakers. Winning can cover up a lot of issues, but it's hard to ignore Walker Kessler's performance.

Walker Kessler Admits He Struggled to Handle Emotions Against Former Team

After two stellar games to open up the season for the newest Lakers big man, he was a shell of himself against his former team, the Utah Jazz.

Sunday marked Kessler's first time returning to the team he spent the first four seasons of his career with, and his former team got the best of him.

After the game, Kessler admitted that the emotions of being back in Utah got the best of him.

"Definitely let my emotions get the best of me. But you got to learn in those moments and move on," Kessler said.

The 25-year-old had his worst game of the season thus far. He recorded only two points on 1-of-2 shooting from the field, seven rebounds and one block in 28 minutes of action.

The entire Lakers starting five was a plus in the plus-minus column, with Kessler at +6.

Luka Doncic Tells Walker Kessler to ‘Move On’ After Struggles Against Jazz

The Memphis Grizzlies drafted Kessler with the 22nd overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, then traded him to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Two weeks after the draft, the Timberwolves traded Kessler along with four other players in exchange for Riby Gobert.

Kessler had played his entire career with the Jazz before this season and established himself as one of the league's better interior defenders. With the Jazz, Kessler averaged 9.5 points per game, 9.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 2.4 blocks while shooting 68.1% from the field.

Kesler played in a total of 201 of a possible 328 games.

While Kessler didn't have his best performance, Doncic revealed that he encouraged his center to keep his head up.

“Obviously it wasn’t his best game, Doncic said.

"But we won the game and he had two fantastic first games. I told him just move on, we won this game and we got your back.”

Through three games in the season, Kessler is averaging 16.7 points, 8 rebounds and 3.0 blocks.

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