The starting lineup of the previous season is doing well for the Lakers. Do they need to rely on it more?
SAN FRANCISCO: Coach Darvin Ham had been reluctant to start the Lakers’ starting lineup from their playoff run the previous season until this past Saturday.
However, Ham relied on the starting lineup of D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Jarred Vanderbilt, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis during the most vulnerable points of the Lakers’ 145-144 double overtime victory over the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center.
And every time, the quintet performed
At the end of the second quarter, the Lakers went on a 12-5 run that gave them a 68-63 lead at the half. The Warriors’ momentum was halted midway through the third quarter by scoring four unanswered points in 1 1/2 minutes before Davis left the game for a brief period of time due to hip spasms. Golden State had opened the quarter with a 25-5 run.
When it mattered most, Ham played the lineup of Russell, Reaves, Vanderbilt, James, and Davis for the entire last fifteen minutes and thirty-six seconds of the game (fourth quarter and both overtimes), and the team won to start the Lakers’ road trip.
Russell remarked, “There was some familiarity among the group we had out there.” Thus, throughout the game, we didn’t feel like we were in the dark. We were sort of thinking. It was enjoyable. It simply seemed like a playoff atmosphere where performance at a high level was expected.
That familiarity is mostly from the previous season.
Before Saturday, the lineup of Russell, Reaves, Vanderbilt, James, and Davis had played just 11 minutes together this season. They played 19 minutes on Saturday against the Warriors, easily surpassing that threshold.
In the minutes that the aforementioned group was together on the court, the Lakers defeated the Warriors by a score of fourteen.
James stated, “We just have chemistry and we’ve logged a lot of minutes together so we know what we want to do.” “We just, we know where everybody is at and we work well together,” said AD. “It’s a team that was in the Western Conference finals last year and made some plays in the second round and things of that nature.”
The Lakers won the game thanks to impressive play from James and Davis and crucial late-game baskets from Russell.
However, Vanderbilt’s play—who finished with a career-high plus/minus of plus-30 in 41 minutes—made that group particularly effective against the Warriors. The game was changed by his defensive tenacity.
Ham remarked, “You can see the impact he’s having every single game.” “Taking the hardest matches and doing all the grunt work.” He recovered well. However, the time to return to peak performance was inevitable. Now he is there. In addition, he is unrelenting, has excellent screen reading skills both on and off the ball, and is a skilled pass-lane runner who can deflect and steal the ball. He has also been aggressive to the rim, which is a nice quality that he has been displaying lately. We are utterly devoted to him. Simply said
In just thirty minutes, the Russell-Reaves-Vanderbilt-James-Davis lineup has a net rating of plus-30.3, making it by far the best lineup for the Lakers, despite the small sample size.
Now that Vanderbilt is available again, would the Lakers like to use it more frequently after missing the first 20 games of the season?
Coach, that’s on you, Davis remarked.
And when Ham was asked, he sidestepped the question.
“Well, I’ll think about getting something to eat, having a nice glass of wine, and thinking about going to bed very soon,” Ham remarked. Having a restful night’s sleep. Please, no questions about the lineup.
However, it was impossible to ignore the group’s chemistry and ease on the dance floor.
“They have complete faith in each and every one of their teammates, especially those five,” Ham remarked. “Since they unified at the trade deadline the previous season and the manner we battled through the remainder of the regular season and the postseason, they have endured numerous battles.” The way they know each other, that group of five. They are aware of one another’s pulse. Having that luxury is wonderful.
You know you’ll get there, but it’s not about starting that way every time. Every coach has a group of six or seven players that he knows he can finish with; these are his finishing six or seven. We can achieve that balance in a number of ways. However, you can bet that having those five in your back pocket will come in handy when it comes time to finish the game and put it on the line.
