Following a weekend of catastrophic injuries that saw their star backcourt ruled out for at least the regular season, the Lakers still had a game to play on Sunday in Dallas.
The ripple effects of this will reverberate not only through the summer but also force an already thin roster to completely restructure its style on both ends.
In their first game since the announcements, the purple and gold fell to the tanking Mavericks. LeBron James led with 30 points, nine rebounds and 15 assists and Luke Kennard
notched his first career triple-double, but it wasn’t enough to overcome rookie Cooper Flagg’s 45 points.
A bright spot was Rui Hachimura’s ever-consistent, yet never flashy, game. All season, he has adjusted his role based on who’s available each night. On Sunday, in 39 minutes, he finished with 21 points on 9-13 shooting overall and 3-5 from three-point range with seven rebounds while finishing with a plus-minus of +5.
It continues a year of highly efficient shooting that led to him being labeled a “laser” by head coach J.J. Redick. He now slots up as one of the most important offensive pieces this year with major questions looming on a summer contract.
LA will rely heavily on pace-and-space basketball without Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves. They will be forced to lean on transition offense, with LeBron in control to find shooters. It’s a style suited for Hachimura as he has developed into one of the best spot-up shooters in basketball, hitting 43% of his catch-and-shoot 3-pointers.
Watch him sprint to the corner in the clip below for a semi transition three, after a swing pass by Kennard.
Where Hachimura brings his most versatility to the team is in the mid-range, where he’s been effectively the most efficient in the league. He hits a blistering 57% on the lost art long two, first among all players who’ve taken at least 100 attempts per the NBA’s tracking data.
It’s a necessary counter, especially in high leverage or postseason basketball, when teams scout and run the best shooters off the 3-point line. Watch below as he collects the swing pass and flows it into a automatic rhythm one-dribble pull-up jumper below.
“I would say the reason I’m here is the midrange,” Hachimura said in a recent postgame. “I’ve been doing it since high school. That was my thing. The first time I started playing basketball, those guys, the Carmelos, were my role models. I think I watched them a lot, that’s how I shaped my game.
“Those are never going to go away. I’ll always have that in my bag.”
LA will have to find creative ways to get Hachimura more shots, as he’s not one you can just hand the ball to at the top of the key. One option is to have him come off pin-down screens like below, flowing into his efficient mid-range shot.
The Lakers and Hachimura did not reach a deal on a contract extension last fall. How the sudden injuries to the backcourt impact all the pending free agents remains to be seen.
While not a perfect player by any means, Hachimura has made a case with his play that, at the right number, a return would make sense for both parties, no matter how this season ends…if it hasn’t already.
You can follow Raj on X at @RajChipalu
