The Los Angeles Lakers were very much shorthanded against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night as four rotation players sat out. This led to head coach Darvin Ham playing only eight players in the game, three of whom were big men Anthony Davis, Christian Wood and Jaxson Hayes.
The Lakers have turned to big lineups recently, particularly with Davis and Wood, and with so few options on Wednesday night, the Lakers had at least two bigs on the court for most of the night. For his part, Davis believes the Lakers going big is a positive for the team overall.
“I think it helps us on both ends of the floor,” Davis said after the Lakers’ five-point overtime win. “Offensively, just the spacing with C-Wood’s ability to shoot and it’s not me just always running to pick-and-rolls, he can also run pick-and-rolls and I space or play in the dunker. And same for Jaxson, now I space out and get to play on the perimeter and he’s setting the pick-and-rolls. It gives us a chance for more offensive rebounds as well.
“And then defensively, just helping us rebound. When I’m playing the five and Bron is the four, especially when I go out on the perimeter and switch out, then Bron is on a big and now we’re small, which kind of hurt us in a couple games. When C-Wood is in the game or Jaxson, we’re able to get some rebounds and get out and run.”
Cleaning the glass has been one of the Lakers’ biggest problems this season as they have been crushed by allowing too many second-chance points. Against the Clippers, the Lakers did still give up 12 offensive rebounds, but limited their opponents to just 10 second-chance points. Both Davis and Wood grabbed double-digit rebounds and Davis added four blocked shots with Wood and Hayes also having a block each.
Davis believes the Lakers going big with any combination of himself, Wood and Hayes allows the Lakers to better protect the rim, rebound and get out in transition.
“We want to rebound the basketball, only allow one shot and get out and run,” Davis added. “All of us can push the ball or run the floor very well. We’re defending the rim, blocking shots. We’re everywhere. And then when you throw like Bron and TP out there, or Bron and Cam, Bron and Austin, you have even more length and size in the game and now we can switch 1-5 or 2-5 and just cause havoc for teams defensively.
“So it’s a good lineup, not sure how much we’ll get to it, especially with the three of us on the floor, but we’ve seen in stretches that it can be effective for us.”
Having all three on the court is likely something that won’t happen too much unless there are extenuating circumstances. But the three are different enough that any pairing of them can work well together and give the Lakers the size they prefer on the court.
Lakers’ Christian Wood figuring out how to best support Anthony Davis defensively
As Davis said, he can often be switched out defensively on the perimeter and is relied upon to challenge shots which can often lead to the Lakers being smaller down low in these situations if LeBron is the next biggest player.
This is something Wood has observed and is working to figure out how to best support Davis in these situations.
“He’s gonna always go for the block,” Wood said about Davis. “So I have to be that guy that’s gonna be the secondary guy to come help rebound or try and get the secondary block if he can’t get the rebound off blocking that shot. So that’s just me figuring him out and knowing how to play with him.”
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