Former Kansas post players Tarik Black and Thomas Robinson aren’t the type of big men who can take over an NBA game with their offensive abilities. Still, every team needs post players willing and able to do the far-less-glamorous dirty work.
In fact, they both play their bit parts well enough that first-year Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton decided to utilize a two-headed hustle monster of Black and Robinson against Toronto on Sunday. While the combination of backup bigs weren’t enough for L.A. to defeat one of the league’s better teams, their coach — in need of some help in the frontcourt with Larry Nance Jr. out until the end of the month — came away pleased with the experiment.
> “They brought us an energy and
> toughness that we lack a lot of the
> time on the defensive end,” Walton
> said Monday, as detailed [on the
> Lakers’ website][1]. “So it was nice
> to have them out there fighting and
> battling and watching the other team
> get mad at each other for not matching
> that level of intensity.”
In 17 minutes off the bench against the Raptors, Robinson, who has seen his playing time increase in Nance’s absence, scored 12 points and grabbed 9 rebounds.
Black, while playing his first prolonged stretch in nearly a month after suffering an ankle injury, added 9 points and 9 boards in 14 minutes for the Lakers.
> “It’s kind of similar to what me and
> Larry Nance did,” Black said on
> Lakers.com. “Larry Nance got a lot of
> highlight dunks and tip dunks, because
> guys are trying to box me out, and
> vice versa. … T-Rob’s super-tenacious
> on the boards, so it works out.”
The duo combined for 10 offensive rebounds in the loss to Toronto, and Walton told reporters he anticipates going to them again in the Lakers’ next game, Tuesday night against Memphis.
As many who watched Black and Robinson at Kansas will recall, they have similar personas when they step foot on the court.
> “(Black) goes hard like I do every
> possession,” said Robinson, who is
> averaging 8.2 points and 8.4 rebounds,
> while shooting 71.4% from the field in
> just 17.8 minutes, during the past
> five games. “He gives me the
> comfortability of knowing that I got
> somebody that’s gonna go hard with me
> playing out there.”
As Robinson alluded to, the two spent some time manning the frontcourt simultaneously versus Toronto. It only lasted five minutes, as detailed [at SilverScreenAndRoll.com][2], but the two seemed to feed off each other.
> “We’re both Jayhawks … and we’re the
> best in the world,” Robinson said. “We
> both play with high energy, and so I
> think that was effective, especially
> in the first half when we first did
> it.”
Walton said the Lakers wanted to see what a bench unit with two traditional bigs would look like, instead of using a stretch-4. Exactly how long L.A. (12-25) sticks with the Kansas tandem remains to be seen. But Black and Robinson like the idea of teaming up for more grunt work as long as it remains part of the game plan.
> “We have a connection because we come
> from the same university. Honestly,
> it’s pretty cool playing with him, to
> be real with you,” Black said. “I
> watched him play at Kansas and I went
> there right after him, so now playing
> together and being out there on the
> floor with him, it felt good.”
[1]: http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/170102-practice-report?cid=tw
[2]: http://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2017/1/2/14147794/la-lakers-thomas-robinson-tarik-black-lineup