6'9" Los Angeles Lakers backup center Wenyen Gabriel has firmly established himself as a reliable reserve reliant on energy and defensive moxie to get his kicks.
He's even impressing his starriest teammate with his activity of late.
Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times takes note of a moment, midway through the fourth quarter of LA's 123-111 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves last night, wherein All-Star Los Angeles small LeBron James advised Gabriel while he guarded the Timberwolves' most lethal frontcourt scoring threat, big man Karl-Anthony Towns.
Gabriel's modest counting numbers of four points and two boards belies his impact for the team, especially in defending some of the league's tougher covers in spot minutes.
“Yeah, I was balling,” Gabriel said. “We were talking about a specific play. I kind of let KAT get off a three and he was letting me know that he doesn’t like contact and he was telling me that I’m a dawg and ‘you got to be physical and do those things and that’s why you’re out here on the floor.’
“And he was kind of encouraging me right there. He was also saying, ‘Good job. You are a dawg.’ He was kind of reinforcing and encouraging me to do what I do best.”
James also raved about Gabriel to reporters separately.
“Wenyen gives us great energy and the best thing about Wenyen is he loves to be held accountable,” James said. “He doesn’t mind me going after him if he makes mistakes, or when he’s great, I always big him up. He’s been great for us all year and it was another moment tonight. He was just huge for us in the minutes that he had.”
It's a major sign of the trust that James and head coach Darvin Ham have in the young power forward/center that he was still on the floor playing key minutes down the home stretch of a fairly close game.
“I definitely played with as much energy as I possibly could out there, trying to play smart,” Gabriel said. “That was like a playoff type of atmosphere out there. It really charged me up and that’s the type of thing that I know we are going to see in games like that down the line and to see and to play well and be in the game in the fourth quarter in a game of this magnitude is something that is good for my confidence.”
Note his ability to rotate all over the floor here while tracking the rock:
For the year, Gabriel is averaging 5.7 points on .599/303/.619 shooting splits, 4.2 rebounds and 0.5 blocks.
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