1. Dennis Schroder
Dennis Schroder is the singular most important player on the Los Angeles Lakers with Anthony Davis out. Again, LeBron James is obviously going to be the main producer and technically he is the most important, but we are assuming that James is going to be great. The difference comes in the role players.
Schroder has been an interesting case study to watch this season. There are times where he looked more like the Atlanta version of himself instead of the Oklahoma City version and there are times where he would take over and put up big numbers.
My biggest problem with Shcorder is that he needs a high usage rate to succeed and that is why he was at his best with the two superstars out. With one star out he is going to have to get more usage and Frank Vogel is not going to have the luxury of sitting him down if he does not start hot.
It is sink or swim for Dennis Schroder in this game and is therefore sink or swim for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers need Schroder to have the kind of scoring explosion that he had in Game 2 of the series. If we assume LeBron takes a pick uptick in scoring, to somewhere around 35-40 points, then a 25-point game from Schroder would essentially offset the points lost by Davis.
Schroder is most important when LeBron is not on the floor. LeBron is going to have to sit and those are the moments where the Suns are going to look to take advantage. That is when Schroder has to buckle down, hit some shots and get his teammates involved.