The Los Angeles Lakers are down 0-2 in the Western Conference Finals after dropping two winnable games on the road against the Denver Nuggets. Game 1 was lost because of odd decision-making by Darvin Ham while Game 2 was lost because of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The one silver lining for the Lake Show is that the team is back at home for Games 3 and 4. Los Angeles absolutely has to win both games at home or else this series is as good as over. For the first time in the playoffs, the Lakers’ backs are against the wall.
And if the team is going to come off the wall and come back against Denver then some changes are going to have to be made.
Lakers tweak No. 1: Bench D’Angelo Russell
Darvin Ham had the idea to go small in Game 1 of this series with Dennis Schroder and D’Angelo Russell in the starting lineup. It didn’t work. Ham did a good job of changing the plan in Game 2 by inserting Jarred Vanderbilt into the starting five. But it was not enough of a change.
Schroder is simply the better starting option for the Lake Show in this specific series and he should be getting most of the minutes at the point guard position. Russell should not only see some of his minutes go to Schroder but to options with size as well.
Russell played 33 minutes in Game 2 and had a -16 plus/minus. That gives Russell a -40 plus/minus in two games. Plus/minus is a flawed stat but that tells a horrible story.
The Lakers are better off giving Russell 20-24 minutes as a heat-check scoring option off the bench. However, the big problem is that the team is reportedly worried that it will “lose” Russell if they make this change. Wonderful.