Trevor Ariza made his return on Friday night, in the Lakers' 101-71 win over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals.
He broke his foot on Jan. 20, and the healing process has taken longer then expected.
He played six minutes in his comeback game, hitting his only shot and bringing down two rebounds.
Since being traded from Orlando for Maurice Evans and Brian Cook, Ariza had played in 24 games, averaged 6.5 points, 1.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals.
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The Spurs are already having trouble scoring against the Lakers, and the return of the defense-minded Ariza will make the job even tougher.
He is really going to strengthen the Lakers defense and will most likely take on the responsibility of guarding Manu Ginobili, although there has been talk of him guarding Tony Parker.
His size will be an advantage if he was to guard Parker, and Ariza's quickness could help him keep up with Parker on drives to the rim.
The Lakers already had a bench that was capable of scoring consistently. With Ariza's six points per game, the Spurs bench is going to have to step up.
Robert Horry, Ime Udoka and Brent Barry need at least one of them to score 10-15 points every game to go along with Ginobili's 19.
Ginobili has been struggling against the Lakers, and if Ariza is fit enough to play more minutes, Ginobili's job will be even tougher.
Ariza's return could be that extra bit off the bench to propel the Lakers into the NBA finals.
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6 months ago
I've liked Ariza since his days as a Knick, but I don't see him getting any significant minutes during the rest of this playoff run. Sasha Vujacic has been playing out of his mind and Farmar is just getting his confidence back. You have to remember that Ariza was scoring six points a game in that period when the Lakers were struggling to manufacture points before Gasol arrived. Since then the team has displayed great chemistry and been nearly unstoppable. It's a shame that someone as talented as Ariza won't even crack LA's top 10 playoff rotation, but that's how deep the team is at this point.
He may see some action if Ginobili really starts to catch fire, but I don't see Ariza becoming a big part of LA's game plans.
6 months ago
Lakers are much better off bringing Ariza off the bench in place of Walton. Walton has been very inconsistent throughout the playoffs, and that's being kind. Ariza's game is much more on the inside and on the defensive end, so his ability to get back into it quickly is much more likely than an outside shooter. It would be a definite upgrade to use Ariza in place of Walton. I hope Jackson doesn't wait too long to try this. But Jackson can be very conservative with things like this.
from 6 months ago
I agree Walton has been inconsistent. He is capable of so much more as he showed last season. He was rewarded with long term contract and in return hasn't produced the goods.
Ariza should be playing more because of his defense, but he might not be at full heath yet so we will soon see.
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