When the Los Angeles Lakers met the Memphis Grizzlies for the first time this season, much of the attention was on the team missing superstar big man Anthony Davis. But also of note was that the team was without Rui Hachimura, who has proven to be a thorn in the side of the Grizzlies over the past couple of seasons.
Hachimura was on the court Wednesday night and played a big role in the Lakers’ victory over their budding rivals, contributing 19 points and seven rebounds on 6-of-7 shooting including 3-of-4 from 3-point range.
In fact, performances like these have become the norm for Hachimura against the Grizzlies and he feels like it’s the product of how the Grizzlies defend him.
“I don’t know. For me, every game I try to play like that,” Hachimura said after the win. “But I think just the way they guard me, it allows me to get in a good rhythm. Also this game was very personal for us, we talked about it because we lost kind of bad last game. I didn’t play but I think that was in my head for today’s game, going in I think I was kind of thinking about how I want to help this team win.”
Hachimura has now shot at least 75% from the field in four straight games against the Grizzlies, averaging 22 points on a ridiculous 81% shooting and 83.3% from deep in those contests. Not to mention his coming out party against Memphis in the 2023 playoffs when he averaged 14.5 points on 56.9% shooting and 52.4% from 3-point range.
But the most important thing for Hachimura, as he said, was making sure the Lakers came away with a victory and their strong start was huge in that win.
“We needed a good start,” the Lakers forward added. “Sometimes we kind of have slow starts so I think today, of course I hit those two 3s, but defensively we were kind of moving too. We were guarding, they had almost no idea, we talked about how we have to get back because they want to play early. That’s the only way they could score, basically. So we talked about that and I think we executed so it was a good first quarter.”
Things got difficult for the Lakers after that start, but they were able to lock back in and pick up their third straight win and keep their perfect home record intact. And Hachimura’s performance ensured he will remain in the nightmares of the Grizzlies and their fans.
Lakers’ LeBron James becomes oldest player to record three straight triple-doubles
Aside from Rui Hachimura, another big reason for the Lakers win over the Grizzlies was LeBron James, who led the Lakers with 35 points to go along with 12 rebounds and 14 assists for his third consecutive triple-double, becoming the oldest player to accomplish that feat and surpassing his own record. And the Lakers star is just happy to still be able to perform at this level every night.
“I’m just living in the moment,” James said. “I’m just living in the moment, and it feels good to be able to go out and play the game that I love at a high level still and every night I step on the floor. I try to help our team be successful in any way, shape, form or fashion. So, in that sense, it’s pretty cool.”
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