3 takeaways from the Nuggets' game one win over the Lakers
By Ben Handler
The Lakers have a D’Angelo Russell problem
A big part of the Lakers' second-half success this season has been the play of D’Angelo Russell, especially on offense. Russell has played some of the best basketball of his career, creating offense and hitting shots. DAR was arguably the team’s third-best player after the deadline and it became clear that he’d be a big part of what they do.
Russell got off to a good start in the first quarter of game one but began struggling mightily in the second quarter and wasn’t able to right the ship. The shots stopped falling for D’Angelo and it seemed like everything else went off the rails as well.
It got to the point where he was genuinely hurting his team on both ends. He finished the game with just 13 points and 3 assists despite playing 41 minutes, shooting just 6/20 from the floor and 1/9 from three-point range. He wasn’t making plays or shots on offense and he was getting picked on defensively.
That is not going to be sustainable for the Lakers going forward. They are either going to have to get Russell going or find another option to try and replace his minutes and production. But it’s clear they can’t continue to play DAR for 40+ minutes if this is what he’s going to contribute.