Even with Anthony Davis sidelined, the Los Angeles Lakers managed to string together an impressive five-game winning streak before seeing it snapped by the Western Conference-leading Denver Nuggets on Monday night.
A large part of the team’s recent success is Thomas Bryant, who has filled in admirably for Davis. Bryant has been a double-double machine since taking over the starting center spot, and his offensive production has helped power the Lakers to some impressive wins over the past couple of weeks.
After splitting their recent two-game road trip, Bryant sounded excited to be back home where he hopes he and the team can finally start getting healthier, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It’s good to be back home. Be back in a familiar environment, back in our realm. And the way to capitalize is just try and get our injuries down. Guys get healthy and get the treatment that we need and come back in ready to go in our next game.”
At 19-22, Los Angeles is officially at the halfway point of the 2022-23 season and Bryant believes the team is finally heading in the right direction after such a poor start:
“I believe we’re trending in the right direction. The start of the season was a little bit tough for us, but as of right now I feel like we’re in the right direction of just trying to get to what we’re trying to accomplish. So I am happy where we’re at right now. There’s still a lot of things that we got to work on, still have a lot of things that we gotta accomplish, but I like where we’re heading.”
At the start of the year, making the playoffs seemed like a stretch with how poorly the Lakers looked, especially offensively. However, they are currently only one game out of the Play-In Tournament and one-and-a-half games back of the No. 6 seed.
With Davis and other key rotation members coming back in the next few weeks, there’s real optimism that the Purple and Gold can turn things around and make the postseason. Bryant should have a larger role going forward, so hopefully he and the squad can right the ship in the coming months.
Thomas Bryant believes it would be special playing next to Anthony Davis
When Davis returns, it’ll be interesting to see how head coach Darvin Ham tinkers with his lineups. Most of Davis’ success came playing center, so that would nudge Bryant back to a reserve role. However, Bryant believes that playing alongside Davis would be special, so perhaps Ham gives that duo a chance.
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