{"id":898927,"date":"2026-10-29T16:34:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/898927\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T16:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:34:41","slug":"how-jarred-vanderbilt-led-the-lakers-bench-unit-against-the-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/898927\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jarred Vanderbilt led the Lakers’ bench unit against the Clippers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By the time Collin Sexton arrived at the Lakers<\/a>\u2019 practice facility Wednesday morning, just hours after a nearly three-hour slugfest against the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>, Jarred Vanderbilt was already deep into a morning workout. The Lakers were beginning a grueling five-game, seven-day stretch, but Vanderbilt was on the practice court in a full sweat at full speed. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise to Sexton that Vanderbilt approached his long-awaited regular-season debut the same way Wednesday against the Clippers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always going to be ready for whenever his name is called,\u201d Sexton said. \u201cBut that just shows a true professional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt starred in his bench role in his delayed season debut Wednesday in the Lakers\u2019 103-87 win over the Clippers<\/a> at Intuit Dome. The offensive numbers are unremarkable: no points, one shot, one assist and a turnover. The impact was undeniable. The Lakers outscored the Clippers (1-3) by 22 points in his 21 minutes and two seconds on the court.<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt, who had seven rebounds, was one of three Lakers bench players to have a plus-minus of plus-21 or better Wednesday, along with Sexton (plus-23) and Sandro Mamukelashvili (plus-21).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second unit, we have to come in and pick up where the starters left off,\u201d said Sexton, who had 21 points, including 11 during the third quarter. \u201cThat\u2019s the biggest thing. We got to come in and impact the game right away. We can\u2019t come in and ease into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt\u2019s energy helped the Lakers (4-1) win the rebounding battle for the first time this season. He didn\u2019t waste any time after he subbed in with 3:26 remaining in the first quarter. On his first possession in the game, Vanderbilt repeatedly tipped a loose ball up in the air to keep it alive long enough for Austin Reaves to grab an offensive rebound.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-8 forward did not appear in the Lakers\u2019 first four games. He has been on the fringes of the Lakers rotation in part because his three-point shot is not reliable enough to offset his consistent defensive tenacity and energy. But with the Lakers struggling to find a backup center behind Walker Kessler<\/a>, Lakers coach JJ Redick<\/a> said Vanderbilt could get an opportunity to play out of position.<\/p>\n

Redick said he had previously had conversations with Vanderbilt about ensuring he would be in a position to succeed. Redick views Vanderbilt more as a wing or a forward than a center, where he occasionally played during 2025 after the Lakers traded for Luka Doncic and were shorthanded in the frontcourt. But with Kevon Looney being the only other full-time center behind Kessler this season, there could be moments when Vanderbilt plays the five by necessity, Redick acknowledged Wednesday.<\/p>\n

When Kessler wasn\u2019t on the floor Wednesday, Redick said the duo of Vanderbilt and the 6-foot-9 Mamukelashvili was \u201cthe best pairing in terms of having another big out there that can space and shoot and play-make.\u201d Mamukelashvili had 13 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals in 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

Looney, who was minus-eight in five minutes on the court against the Trail Blazers on Tuesday, did not play Wednesday. The three-time NBA champion offers a completely different skill set than Kessler at the position, and only one week into the season, Redick said the staff is still figuring out how Looney best fits into the team\u2019s scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re trying to figure out who you are as a group [at the beginning of the season],\u201d Redick said. \u201cYou\u2019re also, like, for a team with a lot of new guys, you\u2019re trying to figure out what they are. You follow players for years. You can watch them play, and you got to figure out where they fit and how you can, again, put them in a position to succeed. So that\u2019s still a work in progress with all regards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers looked to bolster their depth at center by signing 7-foot center Lawson Lovering to a two-way contract Wednesday and waiving forward AK Okereke. Lovering was with Memphis\u2019 G League affiliate, where he averaged 7.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 30 games last season. He was undrafted out of Utah, where he finished his collegiate career that started at Colorado.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time Collin Sexton arrived at the Lakers\u2019 practice facility Wednesday morning, just hours after a nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[321379,7630,31765,9248,6306,38913,355,13544,3751,376680,17589,113510,5190,373271,99,21146,6601],"class_list":["post-898927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-backup-center","tag-clippers","tag-jarred-vanderbilt","tag-kevon-looney","tag-lakers","tag-minute","tag-nba","tag-point","tag-position","tag-practice-court","tag-rebound","tag-redick","tag-season","tag-sexton","tag-sports","tag-walker-kessler","tag-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}