LOS ANGELES — Going into Tuesday night’s home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lakers coach JJ Redick found himself with more options for his frontcourt lineups than he’s had in a while.
Not only was Dorian Finney-Smith available on Tuesday after the Lakers acquired him in a trade on Sunday, but backup center Jaxson Hayes was available after missing the past 14 and 20 of the previous 21 games because of right ankle ailments.
In light of Hayes’ absence over the last month, the Lakers had leaned more on small-ball lineups featuring Rui Hachimura or LeBron James as the center when Anthony Davis or two-way center Christian Koloko weren’t on the floor.
Koloko played in 11 of the last 14 games Hayes missed entering Tuesday, averaging nine minutes per game compared to the 17.5 minutes Hayes has averaged this season.
But with Hayes back, Redick was back to having a full-time backup center at his disposal. As well as having multiple players who could be the small-ball five, including Finney-Smith, who played a career-high 47% of his minutes as a center with the Brooklyn Nets this season before being traded, according to Cleaning The Glass.
Finney-Smith, a 31-year-old, nine-season NBA veteran, has played center more over the past three seasons after mainly playing the forward spots during his first six seasons.
“You certainly have to account for the matchup and you have to account for where you feel like you can create an advantage or potentially take away a disadvantage,” Redick said pregame. “Night to night, it will be different. Jaxson is our backup five. But there may be times that we play small. It’s just the reality.
“[Finney-Smith] has shown he can guard up. Rui has really improved from where we were three months ago, playing him at the five in our first preseason game to where he is now. He’s gotten a lot of work and a lot of reps. Credit to him and Beau Levesque, who’s his [player development] coach. They’ve put in a lot of work on it and he’s gotten a lot better there. And we know Doe [Finney-Smith] can obviously play at the five as well. So excited to have options for sure.”
Redick said it was to be determined what Hayes’ workload would look like after last playing in the Nov. 26 road loss to the Phoenix Suns.
“He had his best stretch defensively prior to the initial injury,” Redick said. “No one played defense in that Phoenix game when he got re-injured. But he had a 10-day stretch where, four or five games, on both sides of the ball was awesome. And what we’ve tried to do is create simplicity with some nuance in game-planning stuff. The simplicity has helped our guys. And I think the simplicity has, well, will help him on that side of the ball. I’ve been looking forward to having him back. And I’m excited he’s back in the lineup. Christian did an outstanding job, given the circumstances. He built a lot of trust with our staff and with his teammates.”
Backup guard Gabe Vincent wasn’t available on Tuesday because of a strained left oblique, the same injury that forced him into an early exit from Saturday’s home win against the Sacramento Kings.
With Vincent out, Shake Milton, the other player the Lakers acquired in the trade with the Nets on Sunday, was expected to be in the rotation.
