With Davis’ return, Lakers can work out closing lineup
Whether it’s Thursday, Saturday or maybe even a little longer, the Lakers figure to add a powerful weapon when Anthony Davis wedges back into the lineup in the coming week.
It was easy to sense two months’ worth of fatigue and burnout from patchwork lineups and rotations as forward Kyle Kuzma offered some sentiments on Davis’ imminent return: “His (behind) better play . ... Hopefully, he’s ready to go.”
The Lakers (35-23) are a team that has been desperately waiting to be whole — not just because Davis himself is a force at his best, but because his presence and minutes allow the
Thursday: players around him to focus on supporting roles. For Kuzma, he sees that more clearly now, six months removed from their championship run, that the Lakers can “play around him a little bit.”
The only hitch in that idea: No one seems to know exactly role players will be alongside him and fellow All-Star LeBron James in the clutch.
“Obviously we have a little bit of a closing lineup we’ve had during this stretch, but that really goes out the window when those two are back and healthy,” he said. “So it’s gonna be some tough decisions. It’s gonna be some people who is playing well right now, playing a lot of minutes, those minutes get shifted just from the dynamic of having those two great players out there.”
The Lakers’ roster is built around options: They have defensive specialists, playmakers off the dribble, screen-and-roll bigs and spacing bigs who can knock down 3-pointers. The hard question is which combination they’ll use in a closing five, and because injuries and absences have rocked the regular season, there are no clear answers yet.
Under the narrow definition of “clutch games” in NBA statistics, the Lakers played 30 games when the margin was within five points in the final five minutes during the 202021 regular season: James played all 30; Davis played 27; Caldwell-Pope (25), Danny Green (26) and Alex Caruso (21) were reliably in the closing lineups, with Dwight Howard (17) or Kuzma (16) occasionally spotting in.
This season in the Lakers’ 26 “clutch” games, Dennis Schröder has played the most (23), but even he is not necessarily a lock to close games (the Lakers are comfortable using James as a solo point guard). While James (17) and Davis (11) are clear picks to be in any closing lineup, there are six other players who have closed in at least 10 games this season. That’s before getting to players such as Marc Gasol (four games) or Talen Horton-Tucker (seven) who are occasional hot hands or play to specific matchups. It’s also not accounting for recent addition Andre Drummond (three games), who is expected to start for the rest of the regular season but is less sure to close.
A striking example was presented in Saturday’s victory over the Utah Jazz, as coach Frank Vogel subbed out Drummond down the stretch in favor of a smallball lineup with Markieff Morris and Kuzma as the forwards. In the rematch Monday night, as the Jazz dominated the Lakers’ bigs, Vogel acknowledged that it was likely a game that he would look to use Gasol (who was dealing with lingering hamstring stiffness) to draw out Jazz center Rudy Gobert to the perimeter. The Lakers have the personnel to create many favorable matchups, but without concrete roles, egos begin to come into play.
“We kinda know the formula of what we want to get to with a healthy closing lineup, but that remains to be seen so far this year with not a lot of playing time and really cohesiveness, and a consistent closing lineup,” Kuzma said. “Even when those guys were healthy, we shuffled in and out, testing things.”
The Lakers see Davis’ return as an opportunity to see how the team functions again with their uniquely skilled big man, who can space outside and in the midrange, but who also is a finisher around the rim and in transition.