After beginning the year with starting lineups placing Anthony Davis at the 4 and DeAndre Jordan at the 5, the Los Angeles Lakers have embraced the small-ball lineup.
Frank Vogel in recent games has slotted Davis at center right away instead of doing so later in the first quarter. The Lakers started Kent Bazemore, a 6-foot-4 wing, at the 4 against the Minnesota Timberwolves before he fell out of the rotation.
But with Talen Horton-Tucker’s return, Vogel has moved Carmelo Anthony to the starting group along with Horton-Tucker, Davis, Russell Westbrook and Avery Bradley.
It has not been the cure-all the Lakers hoped for, as Davis explained some cons to going small.
“It’s good when I’m at the 5; it gives us spacing. It gives Russ a lot of spacing to get downhill. But then on the other side, we switch our pick-and-rolls, so I’m guarding on the perimeter,” Davis said after the loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. “The offensive rebounding has kind of been a problem because we got smaller guys.”
Davis said the team needs to wait for LeBron James and Trevor Ariza to return for it to improve.
“It’ll look better when we have our bigger guards back: ‘Bron, Trevor. Now, we have size down on the glass,” the star big man said. “But guys are down there fighting, competing. That’s all we can ask for.”
There is optimism among the team that LeBron will return Friday against the Boston Celtics, though it isn’t confirmed yet. Ariza is still out after undergoing ankle surgery before the preseason started.
