Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham made another starting lineup change for Saturday’s game against the New York Knicks, inserting Rui Hachimura in the place of Taurean Prince.
It marked the first time all season that Prince had not started and the move seemed to do the trick as he had 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting with two rebounds and two assists.
Prince still played 33 minutes and closed out the game compared to only 19 minutes for Hachimura, so there really wasn’t a huge change other than the start of the first and third quarters.
When asked about it though, Prince said that moving to the second unit allowed him to be more aggressive offensively, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“I mean it does allow me to be more aggressive with the second unit but at the end of the day, my job stays the same, to do whatever it is to help us win as many games as possible. Whether that’s starting or coming off the bench, you can’t be salty about it. You got to be a professional and do what you got to do to get it right.”
Prince was part of the Lakers’ fourth quarter group that locked in defensively, holding the Knicks scoreless for seven minutes in order to earn the victory. He discussed how they were able to slow down Jalen Brunson and the Knicks:
“Just forcing other players to make plays. You got to realize that Brunson runs that team, takes all the big shots, takes all the end-of-shot-clock shots in the last five minutes of ballgames from what I’ve watched. Today we just made other people make plays.”
Prince has been the subject of a lot of criticism this season, although it isn’t exactly his fault as he is a solid role player that is capable of giving good minutes off the bench.
This change will likely give people a different perception of Prince, slotting him into a more familiar role where he can come in and contribute off the bench on both ends of the floor.
Darvin Ham explains Lakers’ starting lineup change
The Lakers have had a few different starting lineup changes this season, but Ham is hoping this one will stick. He explained the reasoning behind it, which was to be a little bigger to start while allowing Prince to be more aggressive.
“Just coming out and being bigger on the frontline, creating some balance. Taurean, he has to do it on both sides of the ball and I just felt like him coming off the bench just would allow him to not only help us sure up our bench in terms of not only a defensive presence, but also allow him to get some buckets too. We need him to score and be aggressive offensively. So he was able to do that, he came in and had 16 points, so it worked out well. It created a nice sense of balance.”
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