Gabe Vincent recalls frantic moment upon hearing wild Luka Doncic trade
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LOS ANGELES – Gabe Vincent may have only been on the Los Angeles Lakers roster for one and a half seasons now, but his name is one that's come up in trade rumors, especially this season as the Lakers' search for a big man has dominated recent headlines. So when he first got wind of the Luka Doncic blockbuster trade, you couldn't blame him for thinking it was him who was being moved.
Following the Lakers' dominating 122-97 win against the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, Gabe Vincent shared the details of his initial reaction upon hearing about the Luka Doncic trade.
"I was with my girl at 7-11 getting Gatorade and getting some water and my phone was going crazy. . .it happened to be a friend of mine calling, he was like, 'is everything good, did you hear the news?' At that point I thought I got traded," Vincent recalled. "I called my agent and was like what's going on? He's like, 'I think someone got hacked, but this is what happened. . .I went to our team group chat and people were sending messages from there, and things just happened fast."
In the Lakers' first game since the trade, Vincent stepped up off the bench, as he's done in recent months now. He finished with 12 points, three rebounds and two assists while shooting 4-of-8 from the three-point line.
Lakers' defensive outlook after Luka Doncic trade
One of the biggest areas the Lakers are going to have emphasize in the wake of Anthony Davis' departure is defense. Davis did a lot defensively for the Lakers that is not going to be easy to replace or replicate.
He was the team's anchor in the paint and a perennial All-Defensive Team selection. While the Lakers could still potentially make another move by the NBA trade deadline to strengthen their frontcourt defense, in the meantime, or should that fail to materialize, it's going to be a team effort.
Vincent is among the team's better defensive players. After one of the team's best defensive games of the season, holding the Clippers to under 100 points, he spoke about how critical the Dorian Finney-Smith trade and the return of Jarred Vanderbilt were in that aspect.
"Without having AD down here to just clean things up, and then to make up for a lot of mistakes, guys are forced to take a little more pride," Vincent said. "And obviously the addition of Dorian, the addition of Vando, just takes our defense to the next level. As point of attack defenders, guys that can switch to multiple positions. . .some of those plays are just really inspiring. They make other guys make small efforts that lead to big plays."
The Lakers have gone 8-2 in their last ten games, and over that stretch, they've had the second best defensive rating in the NBA as per StatMuse. And what's even more impressive about that stretch is the last three wins have come without Davis.
While there's obviously going to be an adjustment period, early returns are promising in terms of if the Lakers can continue this type of defense without having a defensive anchor like Davis in the paint.
The post Gabe Vincent recalls frantic moment upon hearing wild Luka Doncic trade appeared first on ClutchPoints.
