After finishing with just 8 points and a team-worst plus/minus of -25 in Game 1 of the West Finals, mercurial Lakers’ point Guard D’Angelo Russell found himself back on the court later that night trying to find his stroke.
A big part of the Lakers late season finish and first two round wins, Russell struggled mightily in Game 1 and the Nuggets’ coaches and players publicly boasted how they shut him down and made him unplayable in this series. It’s easy to understand why the Nuggets would like the Lakers to not play Russell, who along with Reaves has been one of the four core starters who were behind the team’s late season finish and early playoff heroics.
On the other hand, you would think that teams facing the Lakers would stop poking the bear. It’s stupid to give the Lakers bulletin board material or make comments to wake up and motivate D’Angelo Russell for Game 2. Darvin Ham and the Lakers are not going to bench D’Angelo Russell. They need his playmaking and shooting. What they’re going to do is figure out ways to get him going because he’s a critical component to their winning.
The critics and doubters always point to Russell as the Lakers’ weakest defender but they don’t realize it’s his offensive prowess and his elite shooting and playmaking that make D’Angelo valuable, not his defense. D’Angelo Russell averaged 18.6/3.4/5.6 in 32.8 mpg for regular season while shooting 49.4/42.6/72.2% with a +/- of +8.9. In the playoffs, he’s averaging 15.1/3.0/4.8 in 31.1 mpg while shooting 44.0/33.3/77.3% with a +/- of +2.3.
One of the strengths of the Lakers post trade deadline is the army of guards who are outstanding at using pick-and-rolls to get into the paint and put their defenders in jail for easy floaters or lobs to the rim for easy dunks. The combination of LeBron James, Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell, and Dennis Schroder being able to get where they want in the paint has now transformed the Lakers half-court offense into a clutch playoff weapon.
The Lakers and D’Angelo Russell desperately need the him to deliver a monster game tonight to show why the team should re-sign him to a new contract and why he’s the right fit as the team’s point guard of the future.
Russell was always the wild card and inconsistency was always his biggest negative. So far, he has been much more consistent as a Laker in the closing run to the regular season and in the first two rounds of the playoffs. As a Laker, he’s really never had two bad games in a row so I expect he will have a big bounce back game tonight. Every edge counts. Lakers need Russell to win it all.
DLO is not on my keep list at $30+ Mil. Show up “ICE WATER!”