5.) The bench play was the difference
Listen to the Spectrum SportsNet crew here…
.@geeter3, @JamesWorthy42 & @Candace_Parker on the Spurs bench catching fire to stop the #Lakers win streak. pic.twitter.com/rnVSZqaCFF
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) December 8, 2018
But was it the bench? Or was it the substitution patterns of Luke Walton? With Brandon Ingram out of the lineup for the foreseeable future, Luke Walton had to make adjustments to his rotation. Josh Hart is an important player on the Lakers bench. With Hart being inserted into the lineup as a starter, the bench needed adjustments.
Let’s be clear. He barely used it.
Outside of Tyson Chandler’s 19 minutes and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s 27 minutes, the rest of the bench got spot minutes.
Michael Beasley got eight minutes spread over two halves and Svi Mykhailiuk’s eleven minutes, nobody got any run. Does anyone think that while the Spurs were hot, maybe Lance Stephenson could have made a difference? If not, do you think considering the circumstances, he could have at least tried? That’s my point.
On the other side, Gregg Popovich basically rode his bench out almost the entire 4th quarter. I mean does Luke Walton want LeBron James to play like he did Wednesday every game for the rest of the year? With these rotation patterns and adjustments, LeBron might need to get some sleep. It’s going to be a long season.