In the midst of a four-game losing streak, the Los Angeles Lakers were desperate for a win and they played like it against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night.
The Thunder went into the night as the second seed in the Western Conference, but the Lakers took it right to them from the jump and ended up winning 129-120 to snap a disappointing skid.
LeBron James was the star of the night as he scored a season-high 40 points, but the main takeaway was the change in the starting lineup as Jarred Vanderbilt started in place of D’Angelo Russell. Russell had been struggling mightily in recent weeks, so head coach Darvin Ham finally made the decision to bring him off the bench.
Russell responded with 15 points and after the game said he only cares about winning when asked about being moved to the bench, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Obviously we switched the lineup and the result was a win, so for me, that’s all that matters. Just finding a way to impact winning and bring energy whenever I’m out on the floor. Starting is a different monster. You’re playing against starting units, you’re playing against the scouting report, you’re playing against a lot of things like that. When you come in [as a reserve] you got to jump back on where the starters left off at as far as matchups and things like that so figuring out ways to find some kind of advantage coming in at a later time.”
Russell also believes that he, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura can impact games as a trio off the bench:
“Huge. I think any aspect of the game that’s kind of lacking through those runs before we get on the floor, I think we make up for him when Coach [Ham] does those subs with that group. So it’s exciting to see what we can do with is.”
A large reason Los Angeles beat Oklahoma City was their outlier shooting night from the field, but there’s some credence to the new starting lineup as they’ve got more defensive versatility available. Meanwhile, Russell is able to go up against opposing bench units where he has a little more offensive freedom.
It’s just one game, but so far it looks like the move to the bench is paying off for both Russell and the Lakers. Hopefully it continues to work as Los Angeles draws the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day.
D’Angelo Russell addresses how Lakers can fix turnovers
Another reason the Lakers overcame the Thunder was their ability to take care of the basketball. Los Angeles only committed nine turnovers, an excellent mark considering how careless they’ve been recently.
Russell previously acknowledged that the team’s unforced errors were adding up, but against Oklahoma City they did much better in that area.
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