PORTLAND — Kyle Kuzma became a believer this summer, when he was looking for someone to work out with in New York.
LeBron James helped him make a connection with Carmelo Anthony, who at the time had been out of the NBA for almost a full season. Kuzma, 24, was struck by the energy he saw from the veteran forward: He could see then that the 18th-leading scorer in NBA history still had more to give.
“It really just inspired me,” he said. “It’s a grind through the uncertainty and he’s a testament of that. Not knowing that he may not be back in the league and what not but still working out, being ready and you just see it now after not playing for a year and a half. That’s a long time.”
It was just last month that the 35-year-old finally got a shot, signing with the Portland Trail Blazers and pretty quickly earning his first Western Conference Player of the Week award while bringing his signature blend of scoring and off-court ease back into the NBA.
He’s a player who other players have widely expressed pleasure in seeing him back in the game, perhaps none more than James, who relished a chance to enjoy their 34th head-to-head meeting Friday night. James scored 31, and Anthony scored 15, but the numbers didn’t matter to either man as much as simply playing on the same court again.
“I can’t even lie, it’s always special to be on the floor with a brother of mine,” James said. “It’s always great to be able to compete and just be on the same floor, period. No matter if it’s with Team USA, when we’re teammates, or just competing on our respective clubs.”
But that respect extends further outward, too, to players who have considerably less history than James’ 18-year friendship with Anthony. Kuzma called Anthony “a mentor to me,” someone whose brain he hoped to pick.
Dwight Howard, who has been working to make his own comeback story, now understands personally just how hard it is to come back from being virtually blacklisted by NBA teams. Even though Howard said he was “trying to whoop” Anthony on the floor Friday night, he can appreciate the similarity of their challenges when they were trying to convince the league they were worth a roster spot.
“The NBA is: Once you in, you in, and once you out, it’s pretty tough to get back in,” he said. “So I’m just happy that he’s in with us, and want to keep him in until he’s ready to leave.”
There was speculation last season and even this offseason whether Anthony might make that comeback as a Laker. James himself talked openly about the possibility “if it makes sense,” but apparently for the Lakers, it never did. The team went in different directions, notably signing Jared Dudley this summer to a minimum as some outsiders (notably Royce White) criticized them specifically for passing over Anthony.
It might have been a win-win. The 20-3 Lakers are currently gliding above roster second-guessing, and the Blazers have needed some of Anthony’s energy to salvage a start beseiged by injury. Portland made his contract fully guaranteed earlier in the week, which Terry Stotts said he thought Anthony had earned through his play so far (16.7 ppg, 38% from 3-point range).
Anthony and James have long discussed being teammates, but Anthony said earlier in the week he’d hoped to be organic rather than him trying to get a favor from a friend.
“Some people may say it was in his power, but it wasn’t something I was calling him and talking to him about and asking him, ‘Yo, can you do this for me?’” Anthony said. “I wouldn’t never put him in that position because a lot of times, it’s deeper than that. And I started understanding the business of basketball.”
While Anthony and James acknowledged getting together Thursday night before the game, their interactions on Friday were relatively restrained and brief. They hugged once moments before tipoff, then once more as they walked off the court. They only guarded one another for about 3-and-a-half minutes, in which the Lakers outscored the Blazers 21-8 according to NBA tracking data.
But the takeaway isn’t the numbers. It was that two old friends got to play against each other at all.
“It’s always fun going against him, playing against him in Year 17 for both of us,” Anthony said. “Being able to compete against one another at this level, and in now our 17th year, you can’t ask for more than that.”
Rajon Rondo plays it safe
Left hamstring soreness has been bothering Rajon Rondo for weeks. Finally Friday night, the veteran point guard though it prudent to rest. His team was up by double digits at halftime, and there was no good reason to risk further injury, as a sixth sense was telling him he might be.
“Tonight, I just told ’em I should probably call it tonight after halftime,” he said afterward.
While Rondo said only the tightness in his leg made the decision for him, it was perhaps a cautionary tale that Rodney Hood ruptured his Achilles in the first quarter, attempting to play through some soreness in his left tendon.
Rondo had a soreness in his right calf during the preseason, which kept him out of the season’s first nine games. Medical staffers told him as he recovered that he could be putting his Achilles at risk if he tried to play through it. So Rondo has been relatively cautious about pushing himself back too quickly, particularly after hearing firsthand from DeMarcus Cousins about his Achilles injury when both played for the Pelicans in 2018.
“Cous was the first one to say something to me about it: He said he knew right away when it happened,” he said. “But, like I said, just looking back when I did have Achilles problems, I’m just glad I waited.”
Rondo said no one has told him whether the soreness in his left leg is related to his right calf injury early in the season, but that he is still rebuilding strength in his legs from the early layoff. The injury scare comes just as Rondo is arguably playing the best basketball of his Lakers tenure: He’s averaged 9.4 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds coming off the bench while shooting an eye-popping 61.9% from three in his past nine games.
Frank Vogel predicted early in the season that Rondo would have a much better year as an outside shooter, which he’s delivered on so far.
“Just take ’em and make ’em, I guess,” Rondo said. “It’s kinda an even-keel mentality, never too high, never too low. Like I said, I’ve been getting a shot and feeling comfortable. Putting the work in and shooting.”
Bradley cleared for contact
After missing the last 13 games with a hairline fracture in his right leg, Avery Bradley is close to making a return to court: The Lakers announced Saturday afternoon that the guard has been cleared for contact.
He’ll still miss Sunday’s game against Minnesota, but afterward he’ll be considered day-to-day. Bradley has ramped up from not being able to put full weight on his leg when the fracture was discovered, to on-court drills during the Lakers’ last four-game stretch. Bradley is presumed to be the Lakers’ starting guard alongside Danny Green when he is fully healthy.
