This one, even against lowly Charlotte, must have made the FO happy.
1) Lakers bench stole the show. Not that they vastly outplayed the starters but they hit shots during a Hornet cold stretch and put the game away. This was the kind of Rib and Co. hoped the depth would provide.
2) Breaking Wood outta jail. Best game in a good long while from Wood. Must have showed up on time for practice and finished his homework. We need his shooting to augment non-LBJ and AD lineups at the very least.
3) Sharing the ball. LeBron got most of the flowers but DLo had 9 dimes of his own setting up easy buckets and the Lakers had a season-high 41 assists. That’s playing the right way.
4) Maybe keep Rui in the starting five? First off I think he’s earned it with his play, although I understand why they want to mostly split his and LBJ’s minutes. But he brings a two way force to the starting five and a scoring punch it lacks with Vando and Cam. Don’t much care which of the two doesn’t start, although my personal preference would be to bench Cam and add what scoring he brings off the bench.
5) Injuries or indecision? The Lakers have already gone through 9 different starting lineups in just 32 games. Some of that is due to injuries, but almost as much is Ham continuing to tinker in an effort to find the right mix of offense and defense. While his training camp comments echoed Vogel’s before him about finding a starting five and sticking with it the truth is some guys played so poorly in camp as to not be properly considered. Other guys got hurt. He doesn’t know his team, and LeBron and AD have basically said as much, but now he just needs to own it. Hopefully he finds some decent combos soon.
Kind of hard not to consider Rui as a starter. Since he and Reaves are the only ones who can’t be traded until Jan 15, Lakers should basically see what they can do with the guys who became eligible to be traded on December 15 and get the best they can with those. Lots of deals to upgrade roster to championship caliber.