On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Lakers lost a tough game to the Portland Trail Blazers. Despite the loss, Josh Hart continued to perform well.
The Los Angeles Lakers were a bit short-handed on Saturday night against the Portland Trail Blazers, as Brandon Ingram sat out with a quad injury. Luckily, this game was played in Los Angeles, so Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was able to play with his current plea deal.
Losing Ingram was certainly a big blow for the Lakers, as he has emerged as one of their best players, and also one of the top scorers on the team this season. However, stepping in for Ingram was Josh Hart, and he performed well.
Due to Caldwell-Pope being unavailable when the Lakers travel outside of California, Hart has seen some starts recently. As we have seen this season, Hart is another one of the talented young players on the Lakers, and he has performed well when given the chance.
In the loss to the Trail Blazers, Hart played 34 minutes and had a really solid all-around game. Hart was able to total 11 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, and one steal. Unfortunately for the Lakers, the solid game from Hart wasn’t enough, as the team really struggled to score on Saturday night.
While it would have been nice to see the Lakers get the win against the Trail Blazers, seeing Hart playing well again is good for the big picture. This is Hart’s second double-double in his last five games, as he continues to be productive when he gets playing time.
With KCP being out for road games for a little while, getting Hart minutes on the road will be rather easy. However, he has certainly played well enough to get consistent minutes in the rotation, even when KCP is in the lineup.
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As another part of what looks like a talented rookie class for the Lakers, it will be important to continue to develop Hart like they have with Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma. Even though the sample size isn’t huge, Hart brings a lot of positive things to the table for the Lakers.