Sunday night marked the preseason debut of newly acquired Los Angeles Lakers center Brook Lopez, as he missed the first three games with a back injury.
Despite playing limited minutes, Lopez’s impact was noticed immediately as he scored in the post for the team’s first bucket of the game, and then later in the first quarter he knocked down back-to-back three-pointers.
Julius Randle was among the Lakers that were impressed with what they saw out of Lopez, as he called him skilled offensively, big and physical.
Lakers rookie Kyle Kuzma agrees with Randle’s sentiment, as he commented on the difference that Lopez made when he was on the floor, via Joey Ramirez of Lakers.com:
“He spaces the floor, gets rebounds, and when our offense is stagnant we know we can throw it down to him and he can go get a bucket down there,” Kuzma said of Lopez.
Lopez only played 15 minutes as head coach Luke Walton wanted to ease the veteran back into action, but in those limited minutes he scored 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go along with three rebounds in the Lakers 75-69 win over the Kings.
The thing about Lopez that makes him special is he has the ability to space the floor and knock down threes unlike many other big men in the league. Last season he knocked down 134 three-pointers, which is more than any other center in basketball.
Lopez just started shooting threes last season though, so he is also very skilled working in the post, using his size and ability to get a bucket almost whenever he wants to. Because of that Lopez will be a very important player on the Lakers this season, as young guys can struggle at times getting the ball in the basket, something Lopez can do with ease.
