For the first time this season, the Los Angeles Lakers had all of their main players available. But it didn’t matter as they fell to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night in the first game of their road trip. One issue for the Lakers is that they got little production from their bench aside from Austin Reaves.
The return of Gabe Vincent gave head coach Darvin Ham another option off the bench, but it also caused another adjustment to Lakers lineups and rotations as the point guard hadn’t played in nearly two months. And these constant rotation adjustments have made things difficult for the Lakers.
Reaves spoke about that challenge after the Lakers’ loss to the Bulls, noting that the team needs time to figure out the best lineups and build chemistry now that they’re healthy, but have to win games while doing so, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Anytime you have guys in and out of the lineup, guys that have been out of the lineup for a month now, a little bit over, and you put them back in the lineup, it’s hard to just make things click right away. In the NBA, you don’t have really the time to practice and play in practice because you have so many games.
“So it’s kind of hard to figure it out then and then in-game you’re trying to figure it out on the fly. But we’ll watch film, we’ll figure out what we can do in those units to be more successful. But it’s gonna take a little time and we got to figure out how to do that at the same time but win games.”
Reaves then clarified that winning is always the expectation any time the Lakers take the court, he simply wanted to point out that it is a process to build chemistry and the players haven’t been able to do so because of injuries:
“Anytime we take the court, we want to win. That is the standard, is to win. And that will always be the standard. So when I say it takes time, it’s not like I’m saying we’re willing to lose games while we figure it out. We need to figure it out and win games at the same time.
“If we come together off the court and talk about it as well, I think that will speed up the process of learning what everybody likes to do. What we can do in units where AD and Bron aren’t on the floor. I feel like we could be a really good ball movement team in those times, be able to get the back side to side and play out of closeouts, things like that. But the standard is to win games. We have to do that regardless of figuring things out.”
Unfortunately for Reaves and the Lakers, time is something they don’t have on their side. So many injuries have caused lineups and rotations to change regularly so they haven’t been able to build that continuity.
The team has been stressing the need to get healthy and now that they are, they should finally be able to lock down their ideal rotations. But the Lakers can’t afford to keep losing while they do so or they risk digging themselves in a hole that will be tough to come back from.
Austin Reaves focused on Lakers winning NBA Championship
The Lakers recently raised a banner for their In-Season Tournament Championship, but now Reaves’ focus is on winning the main one.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s the first one, and it was cool,” Reaves said of the banner. “It was cool to be a part of winning that and that whole deal. But now that’s over, and we got to focus on the season and try to hang another one up at the end of the year.”
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!
