The Los Angeles Lakers picked up a much-needed win Sunday night over the Toronto Raptors and aside from Luka Doncic and LeBron James, they got some big contributions from their role players as well. was perfect from the field and Rui Hachimura had a strong outing as well, but one of the more underrated performers on the night was Jarred Vanderbilt.
While he scored just two points, Vanderbilt made a huge impact on the game as he also added nine rebounds, two steals and two blocks while finishing as a game-high plus-25. What Vanderbilt did was not lost on head coach JJ Redick, who praised the defensive-minded forward for starring in his role, not just against the Raptors, but over the last few weeks.
“Goes back to what I’ve said a number of times this season. That when our team is at our best, we have guys that star in their roles without necessarily scoring the basketball,” Redick said after the win. “For Luka to star in his role, he’s going to score, he’s going to get assists, and Vando now has had a basically a month-long stretch where he’s really, outside of a couple games, really just starred his role, and tonight was another great example of that.”
Every team needs players who do the dirty work and bring that attitude and toughness and Vanderbilt does that every time he steps on the court. Redick also made note of how big Vanderbilt was on the glass in this contest.
“One of the things that kind of gets overlooked when people talk about defense is defensive rebounding, and he’s had a number of games where it’s not just that he’s had high defensive rebounding numbers, it’s the contested defensive rebounding,” Redick added. “It’s his ability to get rebounds in traffic that’s really important to us because, as we know, all these young teams are crashing and they’re sending multiple guys on every possession, and he was great tonight, and sometimes that plus-minus, you’re like, wait a minute, that guy played really well, he’s a minus-14, that guy wasn’t good tonight, he was a plus-15. This is one of those instances where we all felt it as a staff, and we get back there, and he’s a plus-25. He really impacted the game tonight, of course.”
He may have started off outside of the rotation but since being given the opportunity, Vanderbilt has proven once again that he brings a lot to this Lakers team, even with his offensive struggles. As Redick said, the Lakers need players to star in their roles and Vanderbilt has done that time and again.
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