Jarred Vanderbilt even surprised himself at how good he was in return vs. Warriors

In his first game in nearly a year, Jarred Vanderbilt hit the ground running against the Warriors, leaving even himself surprised.

When Jarred Vanderbilt took the floor on Saturday against the Warriors, it was just a few weeks shy of a full year missed due to injury. Naturally, the expectation was that there would be rust to shake off and time needed before he hit his stride.

However, while it wasn’t at his peak disruptive Vando form, it certainly wasn’t a rusty version either. In 12 minutes, he finished with a pair of offensive rebounds as part of four total, two points, two assists and three steals.

More than his stat-stuffing, though, was the impact and energy he brought to the court that can’t be measured or seen in a box score. After the contest, Vando was asked if even if he was surprised at how quickly he got into the flow of things in his return.

“A little bit,” Vanderbilt said. “I knew I might be a little rusty coming in as far as rhythm and knowing the plays and all that stuff. My main goal was to just go out there, play hard, bring the energy, just control the controllables and everything else will play its hand.”

The type of plays that Vando makes has become a trademark of his. Whether it’s crashing the glass for an offensive rebound or darting between players to knock the ball away for a steal, his impact can almost always be felt.

His teammates were also surprised that he was able to make those types of plays from the start on Saturday.

“Besides his wind, it looked like he didn’t miss a beat,” LeBron James said. “What he does doesn’t even always show up in the box score. To come back in his first game…and have three steals, have the playmaking and assists – caught the ball in the pocket, found a guy on the opposite corner for the three – offensive rebound tip-in. Vando, we missed him. Was happy to have him back.”

It took quite a while for him to get back to this point. In recent weeks, workouts with coaches were some of his final steps before returning to the court. And while he obviously did enough during those workouts to prove he was able to get back on the court, head coach JJ Redick also had some jokes for Vando about those workouts.

“Vando was awesome,” Redick said. “[He] did all the things that we need him to do. I have a strong sense that he’s been sandbagging over the last three weeks just in terms of his intensity level playing against coaching associates because we have not seen that in the gym.

“It looked like the Vando that we know. He was great. I thought that run that he had in the second half, just that activity…just fantastic stuff from him.”

Fortunately, whether he was sandbagging or not, he did enough to prove he could get on the court. And once he did, he looked every bit like the Vando that Lakers fans have been yearning for.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.