Lakers surge comes with Rui Hachimura comfortable in starting lineup

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Rui Hachimura and the Lakers had just wrapped a 5-1 road trip as he stood by his locker near the door.

Being back inside the Wizards building felt a little weird to Hachimura, his first game back in Washington after the Lakers acquired him last year at the trade deadline in a move that’s run parallel to long stretches of winning basketball.

As he talked about the ways he’s grown as a pro since leaving the Wizards, he mentioned two of his teammates, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. These “big guys,” he said, “it’s a different game. But I’m used to it.”

“Used to it?” Davis parroted from across the room. Hachimura laughed and shook his head before continuing on.

Read more: LeBron James helps Lakers hold off Wizards to complete a successful trip

The joke wasn’t totally clear, other than Davis playfully hijacking Hachimura’s interview. But the undertone, that the Lakers and the Japanese star were comfortable, used to one another, was fully on display.

Hachimura, still just 26, is in the middle of his best stretch of pro basketball. He’s become an efficiency monster playing off the Lakers’ top offense options. On the six-game trip, his defense and rebounding ticked up.

Since moving into the starting lineup for good on Feb. 3, Hachimura’s made 59% from the field and 45% from three-point range.

“You can see, like on offense, I can cut to the rim, I can get wide-open threes,” he said after the Lakers beat the Wizards 125-120 — a game in which Hachimura had 19 points and seven rebounds. “And defensively, we’re all switching. It’s easy. We’re very physical, can get rebounds and all that. So I think it’s good. We just have to keep building this.”

The building to this might have taken longer than people, including Hachimura, wanted.

He began the season coming off the bench, his rhythm disrupted by three different multi-game absences due to injury. Lakers coach Darvin Ham experimented with different lineup combinations, with Hachimura’s minutes a regular casualty.

Asked generally about Hachimura before Thursday’s game, Ham offered some reasons as to why the Lakers didn’t just automatically…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lakers-surge-comes-rui-hachimura-144338981.html

Author : LA Times

Publish date : 2024-04-04 14:43:38

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