One player on the Los Angeles Lakers who really stepped up his game during the second half of the NBA regular season is D’Angelo Russell. The one-time All-Star heard all the trade chatter ahead of the NBA trade deadline and chose to prove his worth from there on out, which he accomplished while receiving high praise from his coaches, teammates and the media.
Although Russell has played some outstanding basketball this year, he still has yet to prove himself during the NBA playoffs, especially after last season’s performance, which had many believing the team would move on from him in the offseason.
On Saturday night, Russell had the opportunity to get off to a good start to his second postseason with the Lakers, but things didn’t go well, as he struggled from start to finish.
Russell took a lot of heat for the Lakers losing to the Denver Nuggets in Game 1, as he went an abysmal 1-for-9 from the three-point line and 6-for-20 from the floor, which obviously isn’t going to get it done.
After the game, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham talked about Russell’s forgettable performance and how he’s not giving up on his starting point guard.
“DLo is a huge reason why we’re here in the first place,” Ham said. “I’m not gonna bail out on my player just because he’s missing the shots he normally makes. Those same shots were going in against New Orleans and other teams that he’s played against to help us get to this point. It wasn’t his night. Shooters are gonna have nights like that. But I want him to remain aggressive. That was a good thing I saw. He remained aggressive. His energy remained great. He remained positive. We’ll go back and try to get better from the film and have a better performance in Game 2.”
Even though some fans may think differently, Russell’s performance in one postseason game is far too early to lose faith in the veteran point guard. He’ll have an opportunity to bounce back in Game 2 on Monday in Denver.
All Russell needs to see if a few of his shots go down early and then he’ll start to put some pressure on the Nuggets while contributing to the team like he’s been doing for the majority of this season.
It’ll be interesting to see if Russell can turn things around while changing the narrative and helping the Lakers get back into this series.
Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell ‘excited’ for bounce-Back opportunity in Game 2
Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell didn’t get off to a good start in the NBA playoffs against the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets, as he shot poorly from the floor and didn’t help his team secure the win in Game 1 on the road at Ball Arena.
Even though Russell went 6-for-20 from the floor on Saturday night, the veteran guard seems to be taking an optimistic approach while motivating himself to bounce back with a vengeance in Game 2. He’s excited for the opportunity to show what he can do on Monday.
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