Rui Hachimura has grown into an extremely important role player for the Los Angeles Lakers since being acquired back in 2022. In the Lakers’ season opener against the Golden State Warriors, the bruising forward was solid, if not unspectacular, as he finished with nine points, four rebounds and three assists in the 10-point loss.
While the Lakers played well at many points throughout the contest, their lack of chemistry showed, especially against a team like the Warriors who have had most of their core players for a while now. And Hachimura pointed out that this Lakers squad is still figuring things out at the moment.
“As you guys know, we just started,” Hachimura said after the game. “This is probably the second game we actually played together, everybody. So we’re still trying to figure out our rhythm. Everybody is kind of getting to know [each other]. We had kind of a lot of practices, but in the [preseason] games, somebody was out, somebody was in. So especially against Golden State, they’ve been playing together for probably four or five years. So I think that was the difference. Other than that, I think we did a lot of things that we’re supposed to do. And it’s a process. We’re gonna be better.”
There will be some growing pains for the Lakers, especially with LeBron James still out due to injury as well, but the pieces are there for this team to be successful. Many players spoke about how they still need to build chemistry together, particularly in the pick-and-roll between Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves with big man Deandre Ayton.
Hachimura has been a big piece of this Lakers team for many years now and they will be reliant on him on both ends of the court. While it was good for him to knock down 3-of-6 from deep, he and the rest of the Lakers will need to be better overall and continue to build that chemistry in order for them to be successful this season.
Austin Reaves says Lakers third quarter issues are on players
Another issue for the Lakers in their season opener was a familiar one in that they were blitzed coming out of halftime, being outscored 19-4 and seeing a one-point lead balloon to as much a 17 points. This has been a problem for this team for years and Austin Reaves puts that blame on the players themselves and their failure to execute, not the Lakers coaches.
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