Lakers Fans Have Some Thoughts About LA's Bench Rotation Against Grizzlies
Your Los Angeles Lakers proved that they're at the very least not going to be pushovers during their 2-7 matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies yesterday, winning convincingly in hostile territory, 128-112.
In fairness, the game was much closer, just a 105-101 LA edge midway through the fourth quarter, when Grizzlies All-Star Ja Morant departed for good with a right hand injury.
Bench combo forward Rui Hachimura was the Lakers' high scorer with 29 points on 11-of-14 field goal shooting (5-of-6 from deep). His fellow reserves, however, had a fairly quiet night. Head coach Darvin Ham appears to have cut backup big Wenyen Gabriel from his main postseason rotation, making LA's healthy lineup a nine-man lineup: starters D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Jarred Vanderbilt and Anthony Davis, plus backups Dennis Schröder, Malik Beasley, Troy Brown Jr. and Rui Hachimura.
Gabriel, 3-and-D reserve Mo Bamba, and backup shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV only saw some run in the game's final 31 seconds.
After Schröder, Beasley, and Brown combined to score 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting (2-of-8 from deep) all night, LA fans had some thoughts about Ham's reserve wing choices -- and, in one case, his backup big man decision.
Brown scored just three points on 1-of-4 shooting (1-of-3 from three), grabbed three rebounds and dished out an assist, while registering a +1 plus-minus. At 6'6", Brown is a far better and savvier defender than the 6'4" Walker, who's a more willing three-point shooter and slasher. Bamba was slotted behind Gabriel by the end of the regular season as the Lakers' third center. He's a good three-point shooter (he converted 38.7% of his 2.5 treys a night overall in the regular season), and ostensibly a good rim protector, but he never seemed to make much of an impression on Ham.
Beasley's timid zero-point night on 0-of-2 shooting was a bit more concerning, as the supposedly high-volume three-shooter played 10:23 and was an afterthought on both sides of the ball. Like Brown, Beasley is a better defender than Walker, and unlike Brown is a very willing shooter (he's taking 8.1 triple attempts a night this year). His ceiling is just higher. Walker is not at the same level, though he's not without skill.
Spurs beat writer Matthew Tynan noted that Walker has been iced out of the team's rotation for a month.
The part in Walker's hair came under fire from an amateur trichologist, who interpreted it as a sign of LWIV's disengagement from the team now that he's a deep-bench reserve:
Another fan noted that rookie Max Christie, who's shown very promising minutes as a possible 3-and-D shooting guard in the limited situations where he actually has played, could be a worthy upgrade over Brown or Beasley.
It'll be fascinating to see if Darvin Ham makes any changes should these trends continue through at least LA's first home game in the series.
Whatever happens with the Lakers' lineups, I think you'll be hard-pressed to see Tristan Thompson, the fourth center on the depth chart, play for a single second.
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