Not much went right for the Lakers in their opening night contest.
They had a third quarter collapse, their new big man Deandre Ayton couldn’t find pick-and-roll chemistry with Luka Dončić, and they easily lost 119-111 at home.
With plenty of things to fix, it’s hard to know where to start. However, one aspect people shouldn’t look at is Gabe Vincent getting targeted by teams on defense.
After Lakers practice on Wednesday, he encouraged teams to “go for it” and try to beat him 1-on-1 in the post.
Well, Jimmy Butler certainly did just that. He went right at Vincent and scored 10 of his 16 points when he was the primary defender. No other Lakers defender was scored on more by one individual player than Vincent was in his matchup against Butler.
So, it’s tough to have this kind of response resonate after a game where targeting Vincent was part of the plan and absolutely worked.
Kudos to Vincent for defending himself, but this defensiveness was needed for Tuesday’s game, not Wednesday’s practice media availability.
To be fair to Vincent, Butler is an elite player. Yet, the Western Conference is stacked with guards and wings that are bigger than 6’3 Vincent and are great scorers. This won’t be the last time a team looks at him as food on defense.
The only way for Vincent getting targeted to be a positive for the Lakers he has to makes stops. So, again, the responsibility is on Vincent to play better defense and stop his opponent from simply turning around and scoring over him like he wasn’t even there.
His lack of defensive eliteness, along with his size, is why starting him alongside Luka and Austin Reaves can be a problem for the Lakers.
None of these three players is known as a great defender, and teams might feast when the trio is on the floor.
The Warriors certainly did, as this 3-man lineup had a plus-minus of -11 against Golden State. That was the second-worst plus-minus for any 3-man lineup the Lakers had on the floor on Tuesday night.
So, yeah, maybe “go for it” isn’t the phrase Vincent should go with. On defense, perhaps “Help!” or “Switch!” are better words to use when he finds himself in the post or being the on-ball defender for multiple possessions.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
