Looking for someone to provide power against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday, the Lakers found Wenyen Gabriel.
And the Lakers drove Gabriel in the all-important fourth quarter, playing him alongside Anthony Davis and relying on a backup center at defense and rebounder.
Gabriel got the job done, playing to within a second of the fourth quarter, 23-16 overall, while still having 11 rebounds to go with nine points.
It was “just his energy” that allowed Lakers coach Darvin Ham to trust Gabriel.
“He’s got a big, big nose for the ball,” said Ham. “[He had] 11 setbacks. He’s trying to defend himself, trying to protect the edge. … He’s just a spark plug, another one of our spark plugs. His size, his ability to run up and down the floor, clean up loose balls and get offensive rebounds and rebounds. Defends really well. And he showed everything tonight. That’s why we stayed with him.”
Despite everything he did right and helped the dangerous Dallas guard Kyrie Irving in doubles, it was a painful night for Gabriel and the Lakers, who lost the game to a last-second three-pointer by Maxi Kleber.
“This hurts, brother, it really does,” Gabriel said. “I’m tired of losing these tight games.”
Entering the third quarter at 4:16, Gabriel played to the final buzzer, other than a temporary substitution and a quick return, his play was infectious and inspiring.
Gabriel had four rebounds in the fourth quarter, all of them offensive.
When Irving got the ball late in the game, Gabriel helped Dennis Schroder on defense, using his long arms and 6-9 body to prevent the Dallas star from taking any more shots.
“It’s part of my ability, that mobility, to do it with a player like Kyrie or me, guard a big one, be able to double up, slide a little bit and try to get the ball out of his hands and it was something that was my job,” said Gabriel. “And if my husband helps, I get offensive rebounds and that’s another thing I could add to the team.
“And just play with a lot of energy and play with a higher IQ and understand how to play with different players. Like today, I played with AD for the first time in a long time and I think those minutes looked good and hopefully we’ll get later more opportunities.”
free throw misery
The Lakers’ poor free throw left her badly injured. They got on the line more than enough, shooting 31 free throws.
But they only made up 19 or 61.3%.
It won’t make it. It didn’t.
The Lakers shot 64.3% from the free throw line in the fourth quarter as the game was over for them.
“And we did the work we wanted,” Ham said. “We aim to make every play and that means winning the free throw line. We have 31 attempts, but you have to do more than 19. We do our free throws, we probably don’t have that conversation.”
Davis made one of two free throws with 6.7 seconds remaining to give the Lakers a two-point lead but left the door open for Kleber to score a 3-pointer for Dallas’ victory over a stunned Lakers team.
“I shot a little to the right. After that point we would have been three,” Davis said. “It is still a kind of processing. I mean, think about it, three over, even if he works three overtime. … I mean, a big loss.”
Source: LA Times