Ivica Zubac hammered the league’s best defense for a career-high 26 points. He battled some of the fiercest rebounders for 12 boards. And his favorite play of the night was … a pass.
Up by five in overtime, Zubac rolled to the rim and was immediately greeted by an Oklahoma City defender. The big man read the play perfectly, knowing without looking that this meant Brandon Ingram was wide open along the baseline for the game-sealing slam.
While that assist may have been Zubac’s headiest play of the Lakers’ comeback over OKC, he did his most damage by getting on the scoreboard and the glass.
He produced his 26 points in only 28 minutes, shooting a whopping 12-of-14 from the field against the Thunder, who own the NBA’s best defensive rating.
Zubac has been an excellent cutter this season (ranking in the NBA’s 81st percentile with 1.47 points per cut possession), and he showed that off all night against the Thunder.
L.A.’s perimeter players often beat their defenders, forcing Zubac’s man to challenge them at the rim. From there, it was Zubac’s job to find pockets of space to receive passes and score.
Much of this success stemmed from his greater understanding of opposing defensive schemes.
“Just rolling hard, trying to find that perfect position,” Zubac said. “Sometimes they were doubling on the screen, sometime they were in a drop [coverage], sometimes they were at the level [of the screen]. I had to find that perfect pocket to make it easy for the guys to find me.”
But most of his damage came in the half-court, where he peeled defenders away from his teammates with elephantine screens and found open space around the cup.
“Where he’s really grown is becoming more physical,” coach Luke Walton said. “I think playing behind Tyson [Chandler] and JaVale [McGee] this season has really helped with that.
“He’s setting solid screens every time now. That’s what gets big men open, and he’s really starting to understand spacing and pocket-passing more.”
When Zubac was on the floor, the Lakers outscored the Thunder by 35 points. His work on the glass had as much to do with that as his scoring.
In particular, he was tasked with grappling against human rebound-magnet Steven Adams, who had muscled his way to seven offensive boards.
After Adams beat the Lakers to a pair of missed free throws, L.A. changed up its strategy and had its bigs give Adams the Aaron Donald treatment, double-teaming him, with Zubac tasked with clearing him out.
Zubac even gave his own Adams impression on the other end of the court, hunting down six offensive rebounds.
“He’s really been big for us all year,” Lonzo Ball said. “Every time he’s gotten minutes he’s producing. Today we had him on the floor. Didn’t look like he was tired to be that big. I was proud of him.”
Zubac’s best work on the glass came with three minutes left in overtime. Up by three, Ball missed a triple, but Zubac had bullied his man under the rim to grab the carom. He missed his put-back attempt, yet fought for another chance, this time earning a trip to the foul line.
Zubac’s breakout was all the more impressive considering his position as a third-string center in a league increasingly reliant on small-ball lineups.
Nonetheless, Zubac has had himself a nice bounce-back season after last year’s disappointment.
His 60.5 field goal percentage is up more than 10 points. He has performed admirably when thrust into the starting five. On a team desperate for free throw shooting, he has gone 30-of-35 from the stripe (85.7 percent).
And his teammates have certainly taken notice of their 7-footer.
“Huge, huge, super huge,” Kyle Kuzma said. “He was huge on the glass, boxing out Steven Adams every time, getting rebounds.
Yep, there was only one word to describe Zubac’s impact.
“Zu was …” Kuzma continued, pausing to find the right word. “He was huge.”