On Tuesday, Nick Young returned for the Los Angeles Lakers against the Atlanta Hawks after missing time due to hand surgery (Sports Injury Alert).
In his first game back, Young had 17 points on 6/10 shooting and 5 rebounds in a win against the Hawks. On Thursday, the Lakers took a trip to Houston to face James Harden and the short-handed Rockets. With this being Young’s second game back, he had 16 points and 5 rebounds in another win for the Lakers. This is the first time this season that the Lakers have had consecutive wins. These next few games are going to be very important for the Los Angeles Lakers.
When you talk about Nick Young, you instantly think of an immediate scorer coming off the bench. After averaging 18 points per game last season, Young is picking up right where he left off. Even though he could work on passing the ball a little more, his scoring has greatly helped the second unit. And quite frankly, it’s taking a bit of pressure off of Kobe Bryant. With Young back, Bryant has a side-kick scorer who can help the team when going through slumps. Honestly, Swaggy P really is bringing some swagger to this Lakers team. Yes, he has taken some horrific shots (see Shaqtin A Fool), but he has also hit some big shots for the Lakers. Now I’m not saying that he’s one of the top players in the league or comparing him to a side-kick player such as Russell Westbrook, but he’s a great complementary player to a team. He accepts his role and has fun with it.
Let’s not go ahead and take these two games out of proportion. They’ve beaten two solid teams, but the playoffs are still a long shot for this team. It’ll be more exciting to watch this team with Swaggy P back, but it could still take some time for the Lakers to get fully back on track.
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