EL SEGUNDO — In some ways, there’s going to be a playoff-like feel to the Lakers’ In-Season Tournament quarterfinal game against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.
It will be a star-studded matchup, with LeBron James and Anthony Davis set to be available for the Lakers and Kevin Durant and Devin Booker expected to be available for the Suns.
It’s one of just two NBA games scheduled for Tuesday, with the Milwaukee Bucks-New York Knicks quarterfinal game tipping off 2½ hours before Lakers-Suns. The Lakers’ purple and gold in-season tournament court will make one final appearance this season, with the design of the NBA Cup – one of the prizes for winning the tournament – once again at center court, serving as a reminder of what the teams are playing for.
Because it’s still a regular-season game in the early portion of an 82-game schedule – 83 for those who advance to the tournament title game – the time for playoff-like preparation isn’t there.
“We didn’t get that deep into playoff preparation, but we got a little more detailed,” Anthony Davis said after Monday’s practice. “We got a little bit more in-depth and more comfortable with the schemes.”
And while the quarterfinal is win-or-go-home for the tournament’s sake, both teams will play a different opponent later this week after the quarterfinal – and several more afterward through at least April – removing some of the desperation that can be felt in the playoffs.
“You want to get to [Las] Vegas and have a chance to win it all,” Davis added, “but we’re not putting too much stress on or too much pressure on ourselves that this is an end-all, be-all type of game.”
But there’s still a buzz this week, which is exactly what the NBA hoped for when it instituted the inaugural tournament.
“A lot [is] riding on it, for the In-Season Tournament,” Coach Darvin Ham said. “I’m super-duper excited to coach it. I’m always trying to have fun out there, but it’s definitely with it being the In-Season Tournament, it adds a little juice to it.
“It’s not just your regular run-of-the-mill game. It’s going to be a high-level game even without the extras of the In-Season Tournament just because of the matchup. But adding the In-Season Tournament, just [puts] a lot more fire on it. It’s something at stake. When you play like that, it’s as close as you can get at this point in the year to the playoffs.”
The Lakers (12-9) beat the Suns, Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz by a combined 74 points to clinch the five-team West Group A and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference side of the eight-team bracket. Their 122-119 victory over the Suns (12-8) on Nov. 10 in Phoenix remains one of their best wins of the season.
The quarterfinal winners advance to the semifinals on Thursday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Eastern Conference teams (the winners of Indiana Pacers-Boston Celtics and Bucks-Knicks) face off at 2 p.m., with the Western Conference representatives (winner of Lakers-Suns and Sacramento Kings-New Orleans Pelicans) playing at 6 p.m. The tournament championship game is scheduled for Saturday, with every player on the winning team’s roster earning a $500,000 bonus.
“At this level, there are so many games, you are constantly looking for different things, whether it’s internally or externally, for motivation,” Ham said. “And there is nothing more [motivating] than an extra chunk of cash.”
There’s also prize money for players of teams that are the tournament runner-up ($200,000), a semifinalist ($100,000) or a quarterfinalist ($50,000).
“I like the feeling of the tournament,” Lakers forward Rui Hachimura said. “We gotta get this one [on Tuesday], go to Vegas and get the whole bag.”
Coaches will also get a prize pool, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
“I’m going to be coaching hard and everybody else will be yelling and screaming right along with me,” Ham quipped, “for personal reasons.”
Ham and the Lakers will also be working through adjustments to the rotation with the team getting healthier in the last week.
Forward Jarred Vanderbilt, who was sidelined for eight weeks because of left heel bursitis (inflammation), made his season debut in Saturday’s home victory over the Houston Rockets. Cam Reddish was back in the starting lineup against Houston after missing four of five games with a right groin injury.
Hachimura was available against the Rockets but didn’t play after missing over a week because of a nasal fracture he suffered in the Nov. 22 home loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
Hachmiura, who had surgery on his nose, said he was “in good shape now” and anticipates being ready to play against the Suns.
“You just fall back on what you’ve been implementing all year,” Ham responded when asked about the rotation. “Just the principles. And those guys, while sitting out, have had a chance to look and see what’s worked for us and what hasn’t worked for us. And they also bring some intangible positives from their size, their ability to get 50-50 balls, just making us bigger and stronger and faster at every position. But it’ll be a process.
“We’ll go through the process of figuring it out but, at the same time, these guys are all high-level basketball players and whoever is out there together, five at a time, I think will figure things out pretty quickly.”
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