Heading into the Lakers‘ Sunday game against the Mavericks, with the team’s two leading scorers–Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (rib)–already ruled out for the remainder of the NBA season, there was some hope that perhaps a brigade of young Lakers could come aboard and lift the team through the remaining week and perhaps even into the early section of the playoffs.
There was reason to be optimistic. The Lakers had brought along a trio of youngsters who had excelled for the South Bay Lakers of the G League, a team that was 26-10, tied for the best record on the circuit. Bronny James would be back with the Lakers, where he has been getting more regular minutes lately. Also on board: Dalton Knecht, Kobe Bufkin, and Nick Smith Jr.
Lakers coach JJ Redick had said that the injuries meant the Lakers would expand the rotation, perhaps to 11 players, with some combination of the young players getting significant minutes. That’s not quite what happened, though, in the Lakers’ 134-128 loss to Dallas.
Bronny James: ‘We’re All Just Hungry’
In fact, before the game in Dallas, Bronny James said he thought the Lakers could get a boost from the players who have thrived so well in the G League. He told Ben Royer of the Orange County Register that he and his South Bay teammates are “hungry.”
Said James: “We’re all just hungry. We’re going to come and play as hard as we can and do whatever it takes to win, cause that’s what we’ve been doing in the G, and we’ve been successful in that so far.”
But to ease that hunger, Redick would have to pull the trigger on actually playing any of those guys decent minutes. And it was clear on Sunday that Redick is not about to go that far. Instead of an influx of youth, the Lakers gave 39 minutes each to LeBron James and Rui Hachimura. Luke Kennard had a triple double but also played a whopping 41 minutes. Jake LaRavia played 36 minutes.
For the young folks: a total of 14 minutes played. Nine of those went to Bronny James, and three to Bufkin. Smith played two minutes and Knecht (a first-round draft pick last year) logged a DNP.
Lakers Changing Style on the Fly
Of course, the Lakers are also dealing with and ankle injury for Marcus Smart, further depleting their depth. His absence only caused further speculation on the need to lean on young guards down the final push of this season.
On Saturday, Redick not only suggested that the use of depth pieces would change, but that the style as a whole would change.
“From a strategic, tactical standpoint, we are going to have to play a little bit differently,” Redick said. There’s enough that we have that we can play through LeBron, play through Luke, play through Rui, play through DA. And then wait and see until Austin and Smart are back.
“But our mission is, it hasn’t changed. We want to get the 3 seed and we want to win a first-round series and I know Luka is going to do everything he can to get back on the court. We don’t know what his recovery timetable looks like.”
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