He might be 19 years old and just months into living in America, but Ivica Zubac isn’t afraid to make himself heard — both with his game and his voice.
In the midst of the Lakers’ near-comeback against Denver, Zubac attacked the hoop and then zipped a pass to the corner to a wide-open Nick Young.
Down by four, the Lakers’ best 3-point shooter missed the triple, and Zubac let him know that he needs to hit that one, much to the amusement of the 31-year-old Young.
“I was was serious: He’s gotta make that shot,” Zubac said at Wednesday’s practice. “It’s a great pass.”
Zubac was full of great plays in Tuesday’s loss, as he finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks in his first career double-double.
After watching the game tape, head coach Luke Walton said that Zubac looked as good as he did live.
“The great thing about it is it wasn’t like he did anything crazy,” Walton said. “He made the simple play. What I mean by that is he rolled hard, set good screens, made extra passes when he should make extra passes.
“All that offensively and defensively he had a lot of deflections for us, changed a lot of shots and had a lot of good verticality.”
Walton went on to praise the teenager’s feel for the game, which Zubac sees within himself.
“I think it’s just natural,” Zubac said. “I always had a good feel for the game — for the pass, to be in a good spot, to score or rebound, block shots.”
Zubac — who had family watching at 4:30 a.m. back in Croatia — said he wasn’t surprised by how well he played given the most playing time of his career.
Walton and the rest of the team have been able to see his skills up close in practice and know what he can do, unlike when he first came to the United States after the NBA Draft in June.
“He shocked us in Summer League, honestly,” Walton said. “There were some contract stuff with him being from overseas and he couldn’t practice leading into Summer League. We thought he was gonna look out of shape. He hadn’t been able to do any of the plays or offense. … From the first game, he was always in the right spot making good basketball plays.”
Zubac, who has been splitting time playing for the Lakers and Los Angeles D-Fenders, is not sure if he will continue shuttling to the D-League. And while both sets of teammates have expressed their fondness for the 7-foot-1 center, the currently injured Larry Nance Jr. might be his biggest fan.
“A lot of guys were really happy for me (after the game), but Larry was almost jumping around when I got to the locker room,” Zubac said.
Lessons for the First Unit
On two occasions against the Nuggets, Walton subbed his entire starting lineup out of the game. The Lakers fell behind by as many as 19 points until the cobbled-together unit of Lou Williams, Jordan Clarkson, Brandon Ingram, Young and Zubac nearly brought them all the way back.
The wild rally was encouraging to Walton in spite of his team losing its fifth straight game.
“I know we’re gonna get it; I just don’t know when we’re gonna get it,” Walton said. “We’re definitely gonna get it. … I know we have it in us. We just have to do it more often.”
Walton was happy with how his starters responded in practice and claimed that he was hoping that “some people (were) pissed off they didn’t play” in the fourth quarter when the aforementioned lineup was rolling.
“No one complained today in practice,” he said. “No one sulked today in practice. … There was also a nice, little feistiness to practice with guys getting after it. I would hope that some of that was from some people being upset that they weren’t playing yesterday.”
Walton said that he and his coaching staff aren’t currently considering a change to the starting lineup, but said that it could be a possibility down the road.
“There’s no Kobe Bryant out there that’s gonna start no matter what because he’s earned it and put in that time,” Walton said. “We have a bunch of young guys that we’re developing.”
Injury Update
Luol Deng is considered questionable for Friday’s meeting with Indiana due to a sprained right wrist that caused him to miss Tuesday’s contest.
Nance, meanwhile, participated in all of Wednesday’s practice, except for the final drill.
Zubac joked that Nance — who has missed 15 straight games with a bone bruise on his left knee — was intentionally dodging him.
“We didn’t play,” Zubac said. “He was scared.”