Talen Horton-Tucker needs to be in the starting lineup for the Los Angeles Lakers!
The Los Angeles Lakers should have been blown out by 40 points. The starters did not play well outside of Marc Gasol. Why was this game close? Talen Horton-Tucker.
After falling behind 14-2 to start the game, the Lakers were only trailing 31-23 game after the first quarter. THT led the contributions from the bench with 10 points to keep things close.
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1382887488079876099
Fast forward to the last quarter when the Lakers were trailing by as much as 27 points in embarrassing fashion. Let’s set the scene here…
Boston led 113-86 with seven minutes to play, shortly after coach Brad Stevens pulled his starters. Frank Vogel cleared the bench and planned to finish the game with a lineup of Horton-Tucker, Ben McLemore, Alfonzo Mckinnie, Kostas Antetokounmpo and Devontae Cacok.
If Lakers fans wanted to catch up on some much needed sleep, Lake Show Life wouldn’t have minded (The early post game was done except for the final score!).
THT led a group of two G-League players, a seldom used reserve and a guy that showed up ten days ago on an absurd 24-4 run to cut the Boston lead to five points. This forced Brad Stevens to sub Jaylen Brown, Luke Kornet and Marcus Smart back in to preserve the win.
Talen Horton-Tucker finished with 19 points (7-15 shooting!), 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals with only 2 turnovers.
As was stated in the Gasol lesson, Frank Vogel probably won’t make a change in the starting lineup no matter how well THT is playing but he needs to start. He’s starting to outperform the majority of the guards on the roster. The fact that he led that furious comeback at the end of the game shows enough that he is growing past the rookie status that he is boxed in at now.
But here’s the main reason THT needs to start. Read on.