There should be two key takeaways for the Lakers after Sunday’s win over the Blazers:
They should look into scheduling Portland more often
They should get Shohei Ohtani season tickets
Jokes aside, “get right” games exist for a reason and the Lakers took full advantage of that on Sunday. Despite being down LeBron James and having some unserious stretches of basketball, the Lakers ultimately won going away in the fourth.
Portland is a very bad basketball team, which helped the Lakers get away with those unserious stretches while also making it look like a better defensive game than it perhaps was. But there will be no complaints here about how the Lakers win a game down half of their main roster and when all three two-way players got rotation minutes.
So, let’s dive into the win. As always, grades are based on expectations for each player. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.
Dalton Knecht
22 minutes, 6 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 3-9 FG, 0-3 3PT, +0
We’re seeing plenty of up-and-down performances from Knecht, as one would expect from a rookie. What I appreciate about his game is that no matter if his shot is falling or not, he’s constantly fighting for rebounds.
Outside of Anthony Davis, LeBron and Rui Hachimura, no Laker has more rebounds than Knecht. While it doesn’t completely cover up his defensive shortcomings, it makes them a bit easier to tolerate.
Grade: B-
Rui Hachimura
39 minutes, 23 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, 1 block, 9-13 FG, 3-5 3PT, 2-2 FT, +31
With his friend Ohtani in attendance, Rui showed out with his best game of the season. He was very active defensively, coming up with a number of steals while fronting the post on switches.
D'Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura get the defensive stop together, and then get the bucket together right after
Dlo and Rui have stepped up huge tonight for JJ Redick and the Lakers pic.twitter.com/rTu0bBZxsP
— LakeShow Highlights (@LSH_lakeshow) December 9, 2024
He also was aggressive offensively and didn’t settle for threes despite shooting well from beyond the arc. A really encouraging effort from him in this one.
Grade: A
Anthony Davis
32 minutes, 30 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 5 blocks, 10-21 FG, 1-4 3PT, 9-9 FT, +4
In the first half, it was a lot of AD that kept the Lakers afloat during some really nasty sequences. And that’s on both ends of the floor.
All five of his blocks were in the first half. With LeBron out, the Lakers needed a big AD game and he delivered.
Grade: A
Max Christie
26 minutes, 4 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1-6 FG, 1-4 3PT, 1-2 FT, -9
Christie’s plus-minus was pretty indicative of his night overall. He didn’t really have it on Sunday and it was when D’Angelo Russell replaced him on the floor that the Lakers found their most success.
Grade: C-
Gabe Vincent
25 minutes, 3 points, 1 rebound, 3 steals, 1-4 FG, 1-2 3PT, +16
As someone who was in favor of Vincent starting in Friday’s game, I was against it on Sunday. Starting him next to LeBron is one thing. Starting him sans LeBron is entirely different and it showed.
The Lakers started both the first and third quarters terribly. Vincent’s plus-minus was buoyed a lot by being on the floor when D’Lo was balling.
If you play him next to a primary ballhandler, I think you can find success. But he can’t be the primary ballhandler.
Grade: C+
D’Angelo Russell
34 minutes, 28 points, 5 rebounds, 14 assists, 1 steal, 9-17 FG, 5-10 3PT, 5-6 FT, +29
Welcome back, D’Angelo.
After a season of starts and stops, hopefully this is a start that doesn’t stop. He was another player that needed to step up with LeBron out and he did in a really big way.
The only negative play he had on the night was the remarkably bad decision to end the third to chuck the ball downcourt and let Portland get a chance at a heave that they converted. To atone for that, he had 13 points and six assists in the fourth quarter alone.
That’ll do.
Grade: A+
Cam Reddish
26 minutes, 6 points, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2-3 FG, 1-2 3PT, 1-2 FT, +13
On the spectrum of Cam Reddish games, this is about as good as it gets. He had a couple of nice passes, particularly on fastbreaks. He had a couple of steals. He knocked down an open 3-pointer in the fourth that was big.
It doesn’t get a whole lot better than this...which is quite the statement about a 6-point game.
Grade: A-
Christian Koloko
16 minutes, 2 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1-3 FG, +5
It seemed like we saw the end of the Armel Traore experience in the rotation on Sunday. Koloko replaced him and was largely unnoticeable, which I mean as a compliment. He does his job and offers the Lakers enough in the non-AD minutes to survive.
Grade: B
Armel Traore, Quincy Olivari, Maxwell Lewis, Bronny James
As noted, Sunday felt like the end of Traore rotation minutes. That was an adventure again for him and I think Koloko’s even-keel approach is much more desirable on a night-ot-night basis.
Olivari got his first run in the NBA and, while he made a shot, I also think it was the right call to not have him do another stint in the second half.
All four were part of the garbage-time group that looked AWFUL, a recurring trend over the last two seasons. None of them reached the 10-minute threshold to receive a grade.
JJ Redick
I didn’t think Redick got the starting lineup right, as I said above. It led to a really bad first quarter, but he figured out the rotations in the second quarter. He tried it again in the second quarter, but quickly pulled the plug and brought D’Lo in within two minutes.
Coaches are going to get things wrong. Realizing the mistake and adjusting is something not all coaches are good at.
Grade: B+
***Sunday’s inactives:***Jalen Hood-Schifino, Christian Wood, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Jaxson Hayes, Jarred Vanderbilt
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at@JacobRude.