Having won a season-high five straight games, the Los Angeles Lakers are getting a key piece of their rotation back as they continue on their current Eastern Conference road trip.
Per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, Gabe Vincent is expected to play for the first time since Dec. 20 on Sunday against the Brooklyn Nets.
Vincent had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Dec. 27.
The Lakers announced after Vincent’s surgery he would be reevaluated in eight weeks. He got off to a slow start this season with 5.4 points on 37.5 percent shooting and 3.0 assists per game in just five appearances.
Charania previously reported there was “hope” that Vincent would be playing in games by mid- to late-March barring any setbacks in his recovery.
Head coach Darvin Ham announced on March 12 that Vincent was cleared for non-contact work.
“He’s getting sprints up and down the court,” Ham said. “Everything else is pretty much status quo.”
Vincent signed a three-year, $33 million deal with the Lakers as a free agent last offseason. The 27-year-old spent the first four years of his career with the Miami Heat. He was coming off a season in 2022-23 in which he averaged a career-high 9.4 points per game in 68 appearances.
Miami’s surprise postseason run to the NBA Finals as a No. 8 seed last season was arguably the best stretch of Vincent’s career. He averaged 12.7 points on 37.8 percent three-point shooting and 3.5 assists per game in 22 starts.
It will be interesting to see how Ham integrates Vincent back into the lineup. D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves have been two of the most important players for the Lakers this season.
Russell, in particular, has given the team some much-needed outside shooting. He’s making a career-high 42.5 percent of his attempts from behind the arc.
Vincent will likely get some of the playing time that have been going to Spencer Dinwiddie, who is averaging 25.1 minutes per game since signing with the Lakers on Feb. 10.
Even though it might take time for Ham to settle on his rotation with Vincent added to the mix, this is a good problem for the Lakers to have. They are currently the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference, but are only two games back in the loss column of both the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings in the seventh and eighth spots.
The Lakers are in the midst of a six-game road trip that started on Tuesday with a win over the Milwaukee Bucks. They followed that up with a victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.
Next up for Los Angeles is a rematch of the in-season tournament final against the Indiana Pacers on Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse before traveling to Brooklyn.
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