Larry Nance, Jr. watched his Lakers teammates play for the D-Fenders on Saturday night

The Los Angeles Lakers sent Anthony Brown, Tarik Black, and Ryan Kelly down to the Los Angeles D-Fenders to get some game action on Saturday night. The parent team had the night off after practicing Saturday morning, and Larry Nance, Jr. had earned the right to relax given that it was the night after his birthday and he had just turned in the strongest five-game stretch of his very young career with averages of 9.8 points and 8.6 rebounds in 22.9 minutes per game as a starter.

Nevertheless, the rookie power forward was in attendance to watch his teammates get some D-League run in, calling Kelly (who scored 33 points for the D-Fenders) "a scoring machine" in a halftime interview with Christina Kaplan of Time Warner Cable Sportsnet. Nance, Jr. also praised Black's play at both ends of the floor and even did a bit of coaching, telling his fellow rookie Brown that he needed to shoot more coming out of the halftime break:

Nance, Jr. is not the first rookie to show up to support Brown with the D-Fenders, as D'Angelo Russell attended a game during Brown's previous D-League stint. As the Lakers attempt to build a young core that can last for year's to come, it's promising that the members of it seem to legitimately like and support each other.

Quotes transcribed via D-League YouTube livestream.