Wenyen Gabriel came off the bench for the Lakers in the loss against the Mavericks and scored 9 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
The 25-year-old forward also had 2 steals and 1 block in 23 minutes of play. Lakers head coach Darvin Ham was asked after the game what he likes from the player.
“Just his energy,” Ham said when asked what he like from Gabriel in the fourth quarter vs. Mavericks. “He has a great nose for the ball. 11 rebounds. He tries to defend, he tries to protect the rim.
“It’s just difficult foul call at the end there on the verticality. I don’t know what else these players want to do in terms of defending the rim. He’s just a spark plug. Another of our spark plugs.
“His size, his ability to run up and down the floor, clean up loose balls and get offensive rebounds, putbacks, really defends well. He showed all that tonight. That’s why we stay with him.”
This season Gabriel is averaging 5.8 points and 4.1 rebounds in 15.1 minutes per game.
