The Los Angeles Lakers’ bench has been much maligned throughout the season as they are the lowest scoring second unit in the NBA. But on Sunday night against the Phoenix Suns, the group of Jake LaRavia, Jaxson Hayes, Gabe Vincent and Jarred Vanderbilt gave the Lakers a needed spark.
The bench came in and was a major catalyst for the Lakers’ 24-0 run that pushed them far ahead and they ultimately held on for a 114-112 win in Phoenix. And perhaps the highlight of the night came courtesy of Hayes, who threw down a filthy poster dunk over Suns big man Oso Ighodaro.
When asked about the play, Hayes actually gave credit to LaRavia, who got the steal to initiate the fastbreak and made a great pass to for the slam dunk, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“Shoutout Jake, man. Jake finally made that pass. He made it once before in Milwaukee and every time he does it, we get a dunk. So shoutout to Jake. Hopefully he keeps making that pass. … It was a very unselfish pass.”
With his height and athleticism, Hayes is always capable of these kinds of plays, but for him to immediately point towards LaRavia shows how close this group is. Playing together and for each other is necessary for success.
LaRavia could have just attacked and finished himself or at least drawn a foul, but instead he made the right read and Hayes did the rest.
Hayes was huge for the Lakers with 12 points and nine rebounds and while LaRavia struggled with his shot going just 2-for-9, he made up for it with eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks in the win.
The Lakers bench unit isn’t the best in terms of offensive output, but what this group does very well is bring a lot of energy and cause havoc. They did just that in Phoenix with Hayes putting an exclamation point on things with that poster dunk, and even that was a group effort further showing that the Lakers are at their best when everyone is playing for each other.
JJ Redick happy for Jarred Vanderbilt
Another key contributor off the bench for the Lakers was Vanderbilt, who had been out of the rotation but got some minutes against the Suns due to injury and the team needing a spark defensively. Vanderbilt took full advantage of his opportunity and head coach JJ Redick was happy that the veteran forward played so well.
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