Gabe Vincent had only played in the Los Angeles Lakers’ first four games of the season before a knee injury knocked him out for nearly two months.
Vincent made his return to the lineup on Wednesday night for a road game against the Chicago Bulls in what wound up being a blowout loss. Vincent was a minus-12 in 14 minutes of action, and was still very much getting back into game rhythm.
With Vincent’s return, the Lakers are as close to full strength as they have been all season long. But they still have plenty of work to do, as they’ve now lost three in a row and have some decisions to make with their rotation.
But on an individual level, Vincent spoke about his return and how it felt to be back out on the court for only his fifth game of the season, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It felt better as the game went on, for sure. As we got warm, as we got up and down, my wind got a little better getting that first wind out. I started to find a little rhythm out on the court with the guys.”
Vincent has gotten an up-close look at the Lakers and had some very simple fixes that he feels he can contribute to now that he’s back in the lineup:
“Travel has been tough but I think we can just play harder, man, to be honest. I think we just got to challenge ourselves a little bit and give a little more and I think we’ll come together. We’ll grow closer, get better each day. Obviously Dec. 20 is not the end goal for us, we’re working towards a bigger picture and there will be highs and there will be lows. But day by day, game by game we’re gonna continue to get better.”
The Lakers are certainly not where they’d like to be 28 games into the regular season. A 15-13 record with a three-game losing streak and a 5-10 record away from Crypto.com Arena is not an ideal place to be. However, the NBA season is long and there will be plenty of twists, turns and changes between now and when games truly start to matter in April.
Getting Vincent back — and beginning to figure out a steady rotation with a healthy team — is a huge step towards fixing some of the issues that have plagued L.A. in the early part of the season.
Austin Reaves: Lakers need to win while figuring out rotations
The return of Vincent gave head coach Darvin Ham a full bench to work with, but it also caused another adjustment to 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.
Austin Reaves spoke on this 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.
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