{"id":94021,"date":"2025-12-14T06:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T06:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/94021\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T06:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T06:41:10","slug":"jarred-vanderbilt-hoping-for-an-opportunity-to-help-lakers-on-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/94021\/","title":{"rendered":"Jarred Vanderbilt hoping for an opportunity to help Lakers on defense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Perhaps Jarred Vanderbilt<\/a> and his ability to defend can help the Lakers<\/a> and their reeling defense<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Vanderbilt can return to the rotation to help the Lakers\u2019 defensive woes while guard Austin Reaves<\/a> is out for approximately a week<\/a> because of a mild left calf strain.<\/p>\n

And perhaps Vanderbilt and the Lakers can get some immediate results for shoring up their defensive shortcomings when they face the Suns in Phoenix on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-8 Vanderbilt is hopeful that his opportunity will come against the Suns and he turns that into a positive for the Lakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yeah, I\u2019m pretty eager,\u201d he said after practice Saturday. \u201cI mean, obviously, I think a lot of the stuff we lack, I think I can help provide on that end.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last 10 games, Vanderbilt had only a three-minute stint against the Philadelphia 76ers because Jake LaRavia took a shot to the face that loosened a tooth.<\/p>\n

The return of LeBron James<\/a> and Vanderbilt\u2019s offensive deficiencies left him out of the rotation. During much of that time the Lakers were winning, which meant Vanderbilt spent time on the bench.<\/p>\n

In 15 games, Vanderbilt is four for 15 (28.6%) from three-point range. He was asked how he has been handling things.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood,\u201d Vanderbilt said. \u201cControlling what I can control. Keep showing up to work, doing my part, supporting the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt was asked if coach JJ Redick or any assistants have spoken to him about his role.<\/p>\n

\u201cKind of here and there, I guess,\u201d Vanderbilt said.<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt was seen after practice Saturday working with an assistant coach on his shooting, just like he did after practice Friday and like he has done while not playing.<\/p>\n

Redick said Reaves, who played against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night, wasn\u2019t sure when the calf became an issue, and \u201cwe\u2019re obviously gonna be cautious with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a mild strain, Grade 1, and he\u2019ll be out for a week,\u201d Redick said, adding, \u201cI would venture to say every player is a little bit different, but players now are becoming more cautious \u2014 to use that word again \u2014 more cautious when they get those diagnosis with the calf. Everything looks clean. It\u2019s not in the deep part.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers have looked at the last 10 games during the film sessions as a barometer for their defensive problems. But in reality, the Lakers have not been very good on defense all season while producing a 17-7 record because of their stellar offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a trending thing even when we was winning, so I think like you said, the defense still wasn\u2019t there, but we was just outscoring everybody,\u201d Vanderbilt said. \u201cSo, I think obviously during the loss, it\u2019s an appropriate time to address certain things just so it won\u2019t keep lingering and get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers are 18th in the NBA in points given up (116.8), 24th in opponents\u2019 field-goal percentage (48.2%) and 27th in opponents\u2019 three-point shooting (38.5%).<\/p>\n

They will face a Suns team that defeated them Dec. 1 at Crypto.com<\/a> Arena. The Lakers were unable to stop Collin Gillespie, who had 28 points and was eight for 14 from three-point range, and Dillon Brooks, who had 33 points.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t gotten better in the ensuing days. The Spurs loss was the Lakers\u2019 third in the last five games.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody likes to go watch film after you get your ass kicked,\u201d guard Marcus Smart said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough because the film never lies. And it exposed us a lot, which we already knew. We were just winning a lot of games. So it was mitigated that way, but it was straight to it: We have to be able to guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scouting report against us is we\u2019re not guarding people. And if we want to be great in this league and do what we\u2019re trying to do, you have to be able to guard, especially in the West. These guys are no joke, and they\u2019re coming. And especially [if] you got the Lakers across your jersey. They\u2019re definitely coming with everything they have. So you can\u2019t be expecting any surprises. And that\u2019s what it was. It wasn\u2019t no sugarcoating anything. It was, \u2018This is what we got to do.\u2019 We\u2019ve been asked. Let\u2019s fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perhaps Jarred Vanderbilt and his ability to defend can help the Lakers and their reeling defense. Perhaps Vanderbilt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[51696,11155,51698,423,51697,48,52,51,1415,47,50,49,34060,1424,1417,135,6711,4610,43356,315,51510],"class_list":["post-94021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-calf-strain","tag-defense","tag-film-session","tag-game","tag-jarred-vanderbilt","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lakers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-opponent","tag-opportunity","tag-point","tag-shooting","tag-suns","tag-thing","tag-three-point-range","tag-time","tag-vanderbilt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}