The Los Angeles Lakers have been hit by the injury bug lately, losing Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Jordan Goodwin to minor ailments. That hasn’t affected their ability to win, however, as they are currently sporting a six-game winning streak after back-to-back home victories over the L.A. Clippers.
In the absence of two starters and three rotation players, others have had to step up for the Lakers, and that’s exactly what they have done.
After Sunday’s win, Dorian Finney-Smith credited the team’s depth, which has largely been viewed as a negative when pundits talk about the Lakers.
“It just shows how deep we are [as a team]. Next man up like I said last game,” Finney-Smith said. “That is just part of playing 82 games. People are going to get hurt and next man got to step up and do his job.”
Finney-Smith also credited the Lakers’ defense and executing the coaching staff’s game plans for this recent stretch.
“Just staying together and playing defense,” he added. “We’ve been guarding, guys have been taking the challenge, coaches have been doing a good job of getting us ready and giving us the answers to the test, and we’ve been executing.”
The Lakers have now held their opponents to 102 points or fewer in seven straight games, making huge strides on that end of the floor. Finney-Smith has played a big role in that since being acquired, but like he said, the Lakers’ depth players like Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent and Trey Jemison have also stepped up their defensive efforts.
There’s still a long way to go, but this Lakers team is building chemistry quicker than anyone could have expected, making them a dangerous team down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs.
Dorian Finney-Smith confident about Lakers’ playoff chances
Speaking of the playoffs, the Lakers are currently the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, sporting the best record in the NBA over the last few weeks.
Dorian Finney-Smith knows this team has a lot of potential but stressed the need to stay healthy and take things one day at a time to reach their goals.
“We just gotta keep stacking days,” Finney-Smith said. “Whatever team I feel like is hot and healthy will do a good job in the postseason. So we just gotta stay healthy and get those guys back on the court, just keep stacking days as we get to know each other as a team.”
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