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Isaiah Thomas is running it back with LeBron James after the Los Angeles Lakers sent several players into the NBA's health and safety protocols. After balling out in the G-League, Thomas received a 10-day contract from Los Angeles to help them replace some of their key players.
One of the players Thomas was seemingly going to replace, Russell Westbrook, was made available to play in Thomas' first game in his second stint with Los Angeles. Frank Vogel explained that Westbrook will cut into Thomas' playing time, as Vogel's original plan was to use Thomas with Rajon Rondo to replace Westbrook's minutes.
Vogel on if Thomas will play vs. MIN: "We’ll see. We’re going to feel the game out. I will say if Russell didn’t play, we definitely intended to split up Russell’s minutes with Rondo and I.T. We’ll feel the game out with Russ being back and obviously being a big-minutes player" https://t.co/gspM4UAPSV
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 18, 2021
Westbrook left protocols just as Austin Reaves heads into them, joining Malik Monk, Dwight Howard, Talen Horton-Tucker and Avery Bradley. While his return may take away some of Thomas' playing time, the Lakers will still likely have a use for him off the bench.
Thomas played 17 games with the Lakers in the second half of the 2017-18 season. He averaged 15.6 points and 5.0 assists per game. His last lengthy stint in the NBA came with the Washington Wizards in the 2019-20 season, where he averaged 12.2 points and 3.7 assists per game.
The Lakers have started to turn around their season, going 7-3 over their last 10 games. They are currently tied with the Los Angeles Clippers for the fifth seed in the Western Conference.
