On Wednesday night the Los Angeles Lakers welcomed back point guard Gabe Vincent, who hadn’t played in nearly two months due to a left knee injury. Vincent played 14 minutes in the Lakers’ loss to the Chicago Bulls, finishing with three points and three assists.
But with the Lakers on a back-to-back, heading to Minnesota to face the Minnesota Timberwolves, head coach Darvin Ham and the coaching staff chose to sit Vincent out. And this was something that had already been decided ahead of time.
Ham spoke prior to the game in Minnesota, saying that this is an injury where the team has to be careful so as to not re-aggravate it, adding that there will be some boundaries as Vincent works his way back, via Dan Woike of the L.A. Times:
“That’s one of those things where you just have to be careful,” Ham said pregame of Vincent. “There’s gonna be boundaries and parameters when you try to reintegrate someone that’s been gone that long. It was the same with [Jarred Vanderbilt]). And not playing in a back-to-back is something that was decided beforehand.”
This is the way to go for the Lakers and is in line with what Ham has done with other players as they return from injury. The team doesn’t want to put too much on these players too early and incur a setback that could see them back on the sideline for an even longer period of time and the Lakers see Vincent as a key piece to their success moving forward.
It’s not just the injury itself, but also the conditioning that takes some time to get back to normal levels, something Jarred Vanderbilt has spoken about as he has returned from his own injury. It takes time to get back in the flow and Vincent is just getting started on that process.
Ham and the Lakers want to ensure that Vincent is able to get back to full strength and will exercise caution until he is back to normal.
Gabe Vincent believes Lakers must play harder
Vincent was undoubtedly happy to get back on the court after nearly two months out. But that time on the sideline also allowed Vincent to get a look at what the Lakers need to do in order to turn things around.
He recently had a simple solution, believing the Lakers need to play harder and challenge themselves more and things will ultimately come together for them as a team with the wins following.
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