They played. After seeing the financial and social costs of the NBA’s current relationship with China, the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets actually got to do their jobs on Thursday morning in Shanghai. And in the case of Lakers head coach Frank Vogel, he continues to shuffle through different lineup combinations, even though nobody was allowed to ask him about it in China.
Vogel gave Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope all a shot at the playing with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. That of course means that three starters from the preseason opener, Danny Green, Avery Bradley and JaVale McGee, all came off the bench in Thursday’s game in Shanghai.
Howard was 2-2 from the field with eight rebounds and five points in the start, while Rondo had 18 points, six assists and five rebounds in the team’s 114-111 loss to the Nets and Caldwell-Pope shot 3-8 from the 3-point line. LeBron James led the Lakers with 20 points and six rebounds. His star partner Anthony Davis had 16 points. Alex Caruso also had a team-high eight assists to go with 11 points off the bench.
Overall, it’s hard to gather anything from Vogel’s choices other than it was just the latest look in an ongoing process. Howard actually looked pretty solid, including a nice put-back slam where he looked very athletic.
Green, who the Lakers signed to a two-year, $30 million contract with the Lakers in July, was 2-8 coming off the bench for the Lakers on Thursday. But it’s clear that regardless of contract size, Vogel is taking advantage of a mostly healthy team and cycling through as many looks as he can before he has to decide what to do when the games start to matter.
