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Los Angeles Lakers coach Darvin Ham chose Rui Hachimura to start in place of Jarred Vanderbilt, who will be out for a while.
Hachimura played for the Lakers in games against the New York Knicks and Charlotte Hornets and they won both games. Taurean Prince was starting for the Los Angeles team for most of the 2023-24 season, but the coach wanted to have someone bigger in the frontcourt.
The Lakers have had a hard time scoring points when LeBron James or Anthony Davis are not playing, but if they add someone like Hachimura, it will give them another way to score during the game. Even though Hachimura hasn’t scored a lot, he brings something new to the team.
James said he really likes the new starting five and talked about what Hachimura can do with the team on Spectrum SportsNet.
“We are large,” James stated. “We have many tall and athletic players on our team. ” Rui is good at working with us and we’re trying to find him, especially when he’s open and has good opportunities to score. “He does a good job working with us. ”
Davis said that Hachimura will attract smaller defenders because other teams will focus on stopping him and James.
“He’s 6 feet 8 inches tall so we can play him close to the basket,” Davis stated. He is good at catching rebounds and finishing plays well. We try to reveal that. The tall players will focus on guarding me and Bron, so the other team can put a good defender who is also tall on DLo and AR, leaving Rui with a shorter defender. So we want to use that to our advantage and have him stay close to the basket or move towards the basket to try to get him started.
In recent years, Los Angeles has relied on their big, strong players to win games. Starting Hachimura is a way to go back to playing that style of basketball. The team’s best lineup right now is D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Hachimura, James, and Davis. They played well in the playoffs.
Rui Hachimura says that Phil Handy told him to shoot the ball.
When Vanderbilt got injured during the game against the Celtics, Hachimura was asked to take his place and play better. He ended up getting 10 points in the last part of the game and he gave credit to Phil Handy for encouraging him to take shots when he had the chance.
