Going into the fourth quarter on Thursday night, the Los Angeles Lakers held a 10-point lead over the Boston Celtics despite getting very little from Rui Hachimura.
With LeBron James and Anthony Davis out due to injury, and Jarred Vanderbilt having to leave the game early, the Lakers badly needed the talented forward to step up.
Through three quarters, however, Hachimura struggled mightily with just five points on 2-of-9 shooting. But in the fourth, with Boston furiously trying to come back, Hachimura was at his best, scoring 10 huge points as the Lakers left Boston with a nine-point win.
As for what sparked that effort in the final period, Hachimura revealed that he went back to the man that has been critical to his success as a Laker so far, assistant coach Phil Handy, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“During the game, I talked to Phil [Handy] because I wasn’t really, I couldn’t get in a rhythm. So during a timeout he came up to me and was like ‘Do you trust me?’ And I was like ‘Yeah,’ and he was like ‘You got to just shoot the ball. It’s wide open. I was trying to score so it made me think about it but he was like ‘Just shoot it.’ Then that’s what happened. So I give credit to Phil, for sure.”
Handy has been a voice in Hachimura’s ear since he was acquired by the team and the forward has credited him on numerous occasions for his growth. Hachimura knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in that fourth quarter as well and the Lakers as a team hit 19 shots from deep on the night, which was unexpected as they have not been great from deep for most of the season.
But in watching film, the Lakers knew those open 3s would be there and Hachimura says they came together and made sure they were ready to shoot with confidence:
“Yeah, we knew they were gonna give up a lot of 3s, so before the game we watched the film and we said that we got to shoot the ball and be confident. It’s gonna be free, that’s what we said, we got to be prepared for it and ready to shoot. So it was what we talked about it, we did exactly that and nobody was scared. We were ready to shoot all the 3s and everything so it was a good game.”
Just about everything went right for the Lakers on this night and it needed to be against a team who had just two home losses all season long. But Hachimura and the rest of the Lakers came through to give them their biggest win of the season.
D’Angelo Russell says every Lakers player was ‘dangerous’ against Celtics
Hachimura was one of six Lakers players in double-figures on the night as it was a true collective effort from the entire team.
D’Angelo Russell noted that every Lakers player was dangerous and aggressive from the beginning. Russell called it an all-around team effort as everyone stepped up without their two All-Stars.
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