LOS ANGELES — Starting wing Cam Reddish wasn’t available for the Lakers’ home game against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night because of soreness in his left groin.
Reddish first appeared on the team’s injury report because of the groin issue ahead of Monday’s Christmas Day loss to the Boston Celtics. Reddish had five points against the Celtics in 18 minutes, the fewest minutes he’s played since leaving their Nov. 21 victory over the Utah Jazz because of a groin injury after playing five minutes.
Without Reddish, who started in 26 of 31 regular-season games entering Thursday, Rui Hachimura was in the starting unit for the fourth time this season, alongside LeBron James, Taurean Prince, Jarred Vanderbilt and Anthony Davis.
Coach Darvin Ham continued to prioritize size and switchability with the first unit, a move that was first made when he swapped D’Angelo Russell for Vanderbilt in the starting group for the first time ahead of last Saturday’s road win against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“Defense is the foundation,” Ham said. “It’s our theme. It has to be our identity. We watched a really good edit [Wednesday]. It touched on some things from the last game. And just having the wherewithal to not commit self-inflicted wounds.
“We weren’t good in transition. We weren’t good in terms of playing [physically] without fouling, contesting without fouling. We gave up some untimely offensive rebounds to the Celtics. But we kind of focused on us [Wednesday]. No matter who is in that slot, they have the right mentality that we tried to reestablish and reenergize.”
The Lakers, who have primarily used a drop defensive coverage, have been switching more ball screens since moving to the bigger starting units.
The results have been up and down, with Wednesday being the first time they’ve practiced since the lineup change.
“You never want to minimize the game experience, but with the way the travel schedule is set up and the game schedule is set up, sometimes you have to try to work on things in real, live game minutes that you want to be able to add to your repertoire,” Ham said. “And that’s been the case with switching. We have certain groups out there, the big, long, athletic wings along with A.D. and other guys, we’re able to switch and also make adjustments when [Austin Reaves], D-Lo and those guys are out there – involved in pick-and-rolls and on the post.
“So it gives us a chance to again, work on something while trying to win a game. You can never lessen the importance of that. But at the same time, you got to be willing to go out there and throw some things out there that you can get footage on and study and try to be better at and make it a part of your war chest permanently.”
ROTATION
With Reddish out, second-year guard Max Christie was back in the rotation for the first time since the Dec. 15 road loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
Christie quickly set a new career high in blocked shots, swatting two in eight first-half minutes.
Christian Wood was also back in the rotation as the backup big – a role primarily played by Jaxson Hayes for the last couple of weeks.