Aloha,
On a night when AD was still hampered by that hip injury, we needed something extra to beat the Suns. And it came in the way of Cam Reddish. While his defense had been solid, his offense had been abysmal. 30% from the field and 12% from 3. Still, we as fans are not privy to what is going on in practice and Darvin followed a hunch and started Cam. The effect was twofold. Cam was huge starting, while Austin ran the 2nd unit to perfection. That’s something that had been missing.
After the 3rd loss in a row, panic had swept over Laker Land. Trade proposals were posted everywhere. I personally was not as worried. We had been slammed by injuries and as a group each player was shooting well under their career averages. I figured it would turn around at some point. It seemed that just about everyone contributed last night and that must continue. LeBron was LeBron, Rui had 4 steals and a block in 20 minutes and Wood pulled down 9 boards. Oh, shout out to Prince for that nifty little move to the basket for a game sealing layup. That was brilliant.
It will be interesting to see what the rotation looks like when Vando and Vincent return. I do think that Vando will become the 5th starter. He has definitely been the missing link defensively. Last year he allowed Austin and DLO to start together because they could put him on the best scorer. Now 6’ 10” I can’t think of another player in the league that size that can handle point guards.
I can see situations where they play 6’ 8” Cam with Vando and AD. That would be quite a defensive unit when you need to hold a lead.
I think at this point all we need to do is get healthy. But it’s good to know that we have options when we aren’t.
Before we get too giddy, they didn’t have Book. But, they were at home. Can you imagine if we had KD!