LOS ANGELES—Roy Hibbert was on the bench when the final horn of his very first game with the Los Angeles Lakers blew. Their opponent, the Minnesota Timberwolves—and more specifically, Ricky Rubio—were pick-and-rolling the Lakers to death, tossing in wide open jumpers down the stretch; the exact type of shot Hibbert can force but not contest.
“Roy is not a show guy, he’s a plug guy,” Lakers head coach Byron Scott said after the game. “So Rubio’s coming up just wide open, so we had to change it up.”
Brought in to upgrade a defense many confused for a layup line last season, one might argue that benching Hibbert on opening night was hasty. Rubio is not Steph Curry. The predicament popped up again last Friday night against the Toronto Raptors, when Hibbert sat the entire fourth quarter after Jonas Valanciunas left with a hand injury.
“They went with a small lineup,” Scott said. “I even told our coaches, I said, 'Man, this is a game I wish I could get Roy back in there,' but they had Patterson, James Johnson, and they were pretty small, ...
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Article written by Michael Pina
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