Lakers coach Byron Scott has been hinting at lineup changes coming for a few days now. Well, Sunday night against the Pelicans Scott broke them out.
Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer will come off the bench. In their place, Ronnie Price and Ed Davis will start, something Lakers.com reporter Mike Trudell tweeted.
Davis for Boozer should have happened already. Davis is shooting 62.4 percent (compared to Boozer’s 49.8 percent) and the Lakers are +9 points per 100 possessions better than their opponents when Davis is on the court, compared to -12.2 per 100 for Boozer. Davis has outplayed Boozer all season.
Lin has admitted struggling in the Lakers offense this season, he prefers to attack off the pick-and-roll and Scott wants more Princeton-style ball and player movement. Lin’s struggles are not new, in fact it was Price who started most of the preseason for the Lakers until he was injured and Lin was pushed into a starting role. Lin is averaging 11.9 points and 4.9 assists a game.
Of course, with the way the Lakers are defending this season — 112.1 points allowed per 100 possessions, worst in the NBA by a couple points — this is almost rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And the Lakers do not plan to bring in help via trade. There are nights the Lakers offense will click — Kobe Bryant or Nick Young will get hot — and they will win by just outscoring the opponent.
Maybe they can do that more with this lineup.
UPDATE: The change didn’t really matter as the Lakers got the same result, a 104-87 loss to the Pelicans. Davis had 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting and 7 rebounds, Boozer had 12 points on 12 shots off the bench. Ronnie Price was 1-of-4 shooting, Lin was 1-of-5, and neither was impressive.
