The Lakers returned to their opening-night starting lineup in Monday’s home win over the Thunder, and it sounds as if coach Darvin Ham will stick with it.
The starters: Forwards LeBron James and Taurean Prince, forward/center Anthony Davis, and guards Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell.
“Just wanted to put as much skill and shot-making on the floor around our two captains,” Ham told reporters. “And those five, they’ve been pretty much our most consistent guys throughout the season thus far. So just put them together. For the foreseeable future, that’s going to be our lineup, barring any type of injury.”
- Of course, LA has been the subject of multiple trade rumors, many of which involve Russell (and a few involving Reaves). So it remains to be seen if this is still the starting five after the Feb. 8 trade deadline.
- That said, Ham doesn’t appear to think the Lakers need any sweeping changes. “People talk about trades and this and that. No one’s sugarcoating anything. You have an opportunity to get better, you’re going take advantage of it,” Ham said. “That said, what we have in that locker room, we just need to buckle down, focus, take care of the details. We have more than enough in that locker room to make some things happen.”
- The Lakers do have one more win than they did at this point last season, when they reached the Western Conference finals. We have that full story here.
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