For the second straight game, Lakers coach Frank Vogel waited until 30 minutes before tip-off to reveal his starting lineup. But even though the Lakers might be concealing their hand as long as possible these days, it doesn’t change the cards.
Devontae Cacok, the two-way contract player who entered Tuesday night playing all of 30 minutes this season, got the first start of his career as the Lakers threw him in against Steven Adams and Zion Williamson. The Pelicans’ 62 points in the paint were a harsh reminder of how undermanned the Lakers’ frontcourt is without All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis and veteran center Marc Gasol.
Cacok finished with humble numbers, going 2 for 5 from the floor with four points and two rebounds in just over 13 minutes, but Vogel applauded his effort with the team in a difficult situation.
“He has advantages in other ways: With his speed, running the floor, defensive activity,” Vogel said. “I thought he played a good basketball game tonight. It’s one of those things: you’re short-handed, and you call on the guys that you need, and you work these stretches.”
There remains some time before any of them return to the lineup. Gasol might be the closest: The 36-year-old joined the Lakers on their trip to New Orleans, but Vogel said the 36-year-old Spaniard is still working on his conditioning to game shape.
“That’s on the medical team to keep working with him and his build back up to return to play,” he said. “So we’ll see. Until they tell me he’s cleared, this is the group that we got, and we gotta go win a game.”
A Chicago native who played his college ball at UNC-Wilmington, the 6-foot-7, 240-pound Cacok has been with the Lakers since 2019, and joined them in the NBA bubble for the championship run last year but didn’t make any postseason appearances.
While the Pelicans clearly got the better of their Laker counterparts, Cacok, 24, said the adverse circumstances of his first NBA start didn’t discourage him at all.
“I’m on the best team in the NBA, in the world,” he said. “I take my time understanding that I was preparing, I’m going to stay prepared. Being able to get a chance regardless of what the situation might be is not going to knock me down. I’m still going to go out there just as if I was up there in the rotation.”
The Lakers have still only started Montrezl Harrell once this year, in accordance with the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year’s preference to come off the bench. But Vogel said Harrell will be willing to start when the Lakers need him to.
“If that’s necessary, we’ll do that,” he said. “If we decide we want to keep him in a bench role, we’ll do that. But he’s willing to do whatever the team needs.”
LAKERS HONOR BAYLOR WITH THROWBACK UNIFORMS
The white uniform with light blue stitching might not scream “Lakers” to the average fan, but the team’s “City” jerseys this season honor their era defined by Elgin Baylor. The throwbacks took on special meaning on Tuesday night, the team’s first game since the 86-year-old Hall of Famer died on Monday morning.
The Pelicans held a moment of silence in the Smoothie King Center in Baylor’s honor minutes before tip-off. Baylor coached the Jazz when they were based in New Orleans.
Vogel said his father used to regale him with stories about how good Baylor was as a player. Kyle Kuzma called Baylor “a great man” that he was pleased to meet during his Lakers tenure and marveled at Baylor’s 1961-62 season when he averaged a career-best 38.3 scoring mark while serving in the Army Reserve.
“He’s one of the pillars of not only Lakers basketball but of NBA history – one of the greatest players of all time,” he said. “For me, to be here in L.A. and just being able to meet one of the greats, I love it.”
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