Magic Johnson celebrates 2 key Lakers reserves after win over Rockets
Today at 09:22 PM
The past few weeks have seen the Los Angeles Lakers play some uneven basketball, with LeBron James still getting his legs back from underneath him after returning from a groin injury. But on Tuesday night, the Lakers showed how dangerous they can be when they are at their two-way best. The Lakers still took a 104-98 victory over the Houston Rockets even though James and Luka Doncic only combined for 36 points, and Austin Reaves wasn’t at his best as well, scoring just 12 points.
Plenty of credit must go to two key Lakers bench players in getting them the win despite not getting the best of performances from their three most important players. On Tuesday, it was Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent who stepped up, scoring 20 points each and drawing some praise from Lakers legend Magic Johnson in the process.
“Laker Nation, I'm really excited about the outstanding play from our bench lately. Both Gabe Vincent and Dorian Finney-Smith had six threes and ended up with 20 points in the win versus the Rockets. If they can keep hitting threes at that pace the Lakers have will have a deep run in the Playoffs!” Johnson wrote on his official account on X (formerly Twitter).
Indeed, both Finney-Smith and Vincent have considerable playoff experience, having gone as far as the Conference Finals and NBA Finals, respectively. Both are valuable 3-and-D players who can run hot and cold, and if they can find the shooting stroke consistently, then the Lakers stars will have so much space to operate.
Of course, those players will not be making six three-pointers every night. But if they can establish themselves as scoring threats while playing excellent defense alongside the Lakers’ star ballhandlers, then the Purple and Gold will be a difficult team to stop for any team come playoff time.
Can Lakers overcome lack of size as they look to make deep playoff run?
The Lakers are a very thin team in the frontcourt; they will have to rely on going small come playoff time, as there is simply no way that Alex Len and Markieff Morris will be getting minutes. Jaxson Hayes will, but he’s not expected to shoulder a heavy workload either way.
Jarred Vanderbilt will be expected to play a huge role as an all-around defensive disruptor, while Dorian Finney-Smith and Rui Hachimura will be the team’s nominal center in small-ball outfits. The Lakers will have to gang rebound like mad men and prevent other teams from getting deep into the paint if they were to find success despite their lack of size.
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