DENVER — The Lakers received another potential boost for their frontcourt on Monday ahead of Game 5 of their first-round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets, with forward Jarred Vanderbilt being cleared to play for the first time in nearly three months.
Reserve big man Christian Wood was available for Saturday night’s Game 4 win in Los Angeles after being sidelined for 2½ months after having left knee surgery last month but didn’t play.
Vanderbilt, who has been sidelined since early February because of a sprained right midfoot injury he suffered in a Feb. 1 road win against the Boston Celtics, was listed as questionable Sunday evening before being upgraded to available an hour before tipoff on Monday.
He has played just 29 games this season after missing the first seven weeks of the season because of a left heel injury. Vanderbilt wasn’t in the team’s first-half rotation Monday.
“Another defensive presence,” Anthony Davis said of Vanderbilt after Monday morning’s shootaround. “Able to guard the ball, rebound. He’s very good defensively. We didn’t see it as much this year because he’s been hurt, but he’s been really good offensively as well. Shooting the corner 3, finishing around the basket, getting us extra offensive possessions.
“I’m not sure how much he’ll be able to play. But just having his presence on the floor will definitely help us.”
Vanderbilt, 25, was finding his rhythm on the court recently after missing the season’s first 20 games because of left heel bursitis (inflammation).
He averaged 10.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.8 assists in his last eight games (22.8 minutes) before suffering the foot injury. His quick-twitch was starting to show again in the way he defended opposing teams’ top scoring options, jumped in passing lanes and crashed the offensive glass.
The defensive-minded Vanderbilt, whom the Lakers acquired from the Utah Jazz in February 2023 as part of a midseason roster revamp, was a key contributor during their run to the Western Conference finals last spring.
Vanderbilt, who is in the final season of a three-year, $13.1 million contract he signed in September 2021, signed a four-year, $48 million extension with the Lakers last summer that will begin next season.
“Vando is a big piece of what we’ve all thought he would be, thought what he would help us do ever since he got with us last year,” Austin Reaves said Monday morning. “Energy, defense, and just does all the right things.”
Meanwhile, star guard Jamal Murray was available for the Nuggets after being listed as questionable because of a strained left calf.
“It was one movement that kind of worsened the calf,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.
Murray was officially upgraded to available 40 minutes before tipoff.
PAINT EMPHASIS
The Lakers scored 72 points in the paint in Game 4, the most points any team had scored in the paint in a game during the 2024 playoffs entering Monday.
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“Just relentless,” Coach Darvin Ham said. “Transition, a lot of it came from our defense. Post-ups, pick-and-roll, guards attacking downhill, just a variety of different things. But never once giving up or not being consistent at that approach. It’s been times early in the series where we’ve done that and we’ve kind of gotten away from it. But last game was the most consistent by far.
The Lakers also scored 70 paint points in Thursday’s Game 3 loss after averaging 46 points in the paint in the series’ first two games.
“That’s an area that was [our] number one concern going into the series, that and transition,” Malone said. “It always starts in transition. But the biggest problem is part of the reason we’re getting off to such slow starts, they’re averaging 58 in our paint; 20 of those are coming in the first quarter alone. And so what does that mean? We don’t take care of it, fuels their break. And then when it’s in the halfcourt, we’re doing a poor job of guarding, containing one-on-one.
“And we’re not shrinking – we got a lot of guys that are hugged up, worried about their guy, instead of having a shrink-the-floor mentality and making that paint look crowded.”