The Los Angeles Lakers host the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals on Saturday night. The Lakers are looking to remain unbeaten at home in the playoffs because if not, the season will essentially be over with a 3-0 series deficit.
What makes this current 0-2 deficit frustrating for fans is the fact that both games were winnable. Darvin Ham got in the way of winning the first game while LeBron James and Anthony Davis got in the way of winning Game 2 on Thursday.
Now that the Lakers have seen the Nuggets twice, the team needs to make some adjustments if it wants any chance of winning this series. That includes benching a specific player in Game 3.
Projected Lakers starting lineup Game 3:
- Dennis Schroder
- Austin Reaves
- Jarred Vanderbilt
- LeBron James
- Anthony Davis
In a perfect world, many fans would probably want to see Rui Hachimura in the starting lineup for the Lake Show. However, he does end up playing more than Vanderbilt and does play in crunch time, so starting Vando is not the end of the world.
The more important thing to note in this projected starting lineup is the exclusion of D’Angelo Russell. Will Darvin Ham actually have the gusto to sit Russell? We will see. But LA’s best chance of winning this series is if they manage Russell’s workload.
Russell has simply been too big of a hole when he is out there on the court. Bruce Brown outright admitted that Denver was hunting him in Game 1 and while his performance was better in Game 2, the worst moments of the game came when Ham went small with Russell on the court.
It is not a fail-proof stat but Russell had the worst plus/minus of any player on the team in Games 1 and 2. Through two games thus far, Russell has a plus/minus of -40. That is a horrible indication of the impact he is having on the game.
The best thing the Lakers can do is cut Russell’s workload in this series to 20-24 minutes a game. In that role, allow Russell to be a microwave scorer off the bench when Denver is rolling out a favorable matchup. That would get the most of his offensive impact without being burnt too badly on defense.
However, the Lakers are reportedly worried that they will “lose” Russell if they sit him on the bench, making this a balancing act for Ham. You would hope that a professional would understand what is best for the team and not take exception to it but if the team is legitimately worried about it then that is a horrible sign.