Bronny James among Lakers who took advantage of playing time in loss to Spurs

LOS ANGELES — When an NBA team without several starters plays against a reasonably healthy team, like the Lakers did when they hosted the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday in their second night of a back-to-back, two things typically happen.

The short-handed team is likely going to lose, with the talent disparity and lack of on-court familiarity too great for the under-manned team to overcome. 

This came to fruition, with the Spurs blowing out the Lakers 136-108 in a game the hosts at one point were down by 41 points and trailed by at least 25 points for the entire second half.

But what also happens is that players who are either at the back end of the rotation or don’t regularly play receive playing time they usually don’t. 

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

Bronny James was among those players, with the second-year guard and son of Lakers star LeBron James having his highest-scoring and most productive game of the season so far. 

The younger James scored a season-high 12 points against the Spurs to go along with a season-high-tying six assists and three rebounds in 25 minutes. 

“Feel different,” Bronny said. “Feel way more comfortable. My teammates believe in me; my coaches beleive in me. That’s all I’ve wanted. It’s just good to get out there and take advantage of the minutes I get.”

What was different about the younger James’ performance against the Spurs is that it came without him receiving as much playing time with the franchise’s South Bay G League affiliate leading up to Tuesday.

In his rookie season, James played 18 games with South Bay as part of his development process, including 12 by mid-February. He didn’t go more than a month without playing a game in the G League, in addition to most of his playing time with the Lakers coming once the result of the game was decided. 

He’s played in nine G League games so far this season, with most of his playing time with the Lakers once again coming in garbage time outside of briefly being in the rotation in the early parts of the season when the team was short-handed. 

Despite the irregular playing time, James looked as comfortable as he has so far in his brief career.

He confidently shot and knocked down a pair of 3-pointers. There was the sequence where he blocked Kelly Olynyk at the rim before he knocked down a step-back 3 in Olynyk’s face on the ensuing possession. 

Coach JJ Redick mentioned he had two “really good” defensive possessions in the first half against Victor Wembanyama, who was virtually unstoppable en route to a 40 point-12 rebound double-double in 26 minutes. 

“I’d say defensively, that’s my role that I want to excel at, especially on this team,” Bronny said. “We have a lot of guys, Luka [Doncic], LeBron [James], [Austin Reaves]. Those guys can go get buckets whenever we need them. But they need guys like myself, [Jarred Vanderbilt], Jake [LaRavia], guys who can defend. Definitely get more satisfaction out of that.”

James provided another highlight during a night that didn’t feature many for the Lakers with his alley-oop in the fourth quarter to rookie forward Adou Thiero, who played in his first game since late December after being sidelined for six weeks because of a sprained right MCL.

“He had a great game, just shooting open shots, knocking them down, creating for others,” Thiero said. “I saw Bronny had the balI. I feel like we have the connection now to where I put my finger in the air and he already knows to throw the ball up.”

Tuesday’s performance likely won’t have any impact on James’ standing in the rotation.

But on a night in which the result was pretty much decided before the opening tipoff, James provided what you’d want to see from a player in his position. 

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com