While most of the attention goes toward the star players on a team, it is often the role players that make the difference in a team’s success. The Los Angeles Lakers obviously have great star power with Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves, but when they get support from the likes of Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent, they become an entirely different team.
That was the case on Sunday as both Finney-Smith and Vincent knocked down four 3-pointers in the Lakers’ 27-point win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers as a whole were on fire from deep, but getting 26 combined points from those two off the bench really took things over the top.
Finney-Smith spoke about this after the game as well, saying that when he and Vincent are knocking down triples, the Lakers are hard to beat, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It’s just make or miss… It was a great team win. It’s hard to beat us when me and Gabe are making shots.”
The Lakers brought in Vincent and Finney-Smith for games like this. Both are veterans with a ton of playoff experience who won’t shrink under the bright lights and they have proven as much not only with their shooting, but also what they bring defensively.
Against the Thunder, the Lakers jumped out early and never let up, which was impressive considering the Lakers have had a tendency to blow big leads at times. But Finney-Smith felt the Lakers simply did a great job at executing their game plan:
“We just executed the game plan and kept them off the free throw line. Attention to detail on the defensive end was there, and us just making shots. I think that was just the energy from our defense carrying over.”
The importance of Finney-Smith and Vincent was never more apparent than this past week. The two were also on fire in the Lakers’ win over the Houston Rockets, but were ice cold in their loss to the Golden State Warriors. But the Lakers are banking on them coming through more often than not and if that is the case, a long playoff run is in store for this team.
LeBron James: Lakers trying to build great habits going into playoffs
Obviously a dominant performance over the best team in the West is excellent for the Lakers. But more important, at least in the eyes of LeBron James, is building the right habits as the postseason approaches.
James noted that sometimes a team can play a great game and still lose and other times you can not play great, but still pick up a win. But it is all about habits and LeBron wants the Lakers to continue to build good habits going into the playoffs.
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