The Los Angeles Lakers have struggled all year to find a rhythm from game to game. They have yet to achieve a winning streak of more than four games and have won three games in a row only five times. While there are certainly reasons for this inconsistency on the court, there have been plenty of injuries on the team, from Rui Hachimura to Jarred Vanderbilt to Gabe Vincent and more.
Hachimura has been one of the biggest casualties of the Lakers’ inability to find a consistent rotation this season. He has 21 starts in 50 matches, but also has 13 outings of less than 20 minutes. He missed 14 games to go along with that. With all of this, it’s no surprise that Hachimura has issues with his own pacing.
He explained how injuries and returning players constantly changed the team’s rotation, which was a challenge for everyone.
“It’s tough, it’s definitely tough, and like you said that part, but also, Vando’s going to be back soon. Gabe [Vincent] will come back soon. Christian Wood will return soon. It’s going to be hard in terms of rotation, even me, you know? You have to understand it,” Hachimura admitted.
“I don’t know what the team is going to do but that’s what it is, that’s the NBA. Every game we just have to prepare for your role and you have to play hard, with a lot of energy and just play a role. It’s good. That’s the key, I think.
Playing the role of a player has been a theme for the Lakers for several seasons now, but it becomes especially difficult when players’ roles seem to change from night to night. But Hachimura is, at this point in his career, a veteran who knows what it takes to succeed.
Even when the Lakers are fully healthy, there is no doubt that Hachimura will have the opportunity to make an impact.
Rui Hachimura explains what went wrong against the Kings
Although Hachimura scored 29 points on 13-of-17 shooting and the Lakers had a 19-point lead early in the first quarter, the Kings flipped the script in the second quarter and never looked back. Hachimura described where he saw the game swingwhich was the second frame when De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk caught fire.
“I was speaking at halftime, I said we had the best start of the entire season,” Hachimura said. “It was a good start, and we were locked in defensively, and we were sharing the ball on the offensive end, and we were moving forward. All of a sudden, I think in the second quarter, they came back. Malik [Monk] And [De’Aaron] Fox got into a rhythm and we couldn’t figure it out the entire game. We tried to come back in the third quarter and a little bit in the fourth, but it was a little too late. They were already in a rhythm, and when they’re both in a rhythm, it’s hard to play defense because you can’t really double up and all that. So yeah, the second quarter was the game.
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