Getty LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, Los Angeles Lakers
Courtesy of an overtime victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Los Angeles Lakers are back in the postseason.
During the early hours of the morning on April 12, LeBron James shared an Instagram post praising his teammates and the Lakers fans shortly after Tweeting about being awake earlier than he would like.
However, LeBron probably didn’t expect Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum to jump into the comments section as he reminded the legendary forward that he had just played over 40 minutes of basketball and should still be in bed.
Dillon Brooks Relishing Facing LeBron James
When addressing the media following a recent Grizzlies practice session, Dillon Brooks revealed that he would like to face the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, most notably because he would like to send LeBron home early.
“I wouldn’t mind playing LeBron [James] in a 7-game series. The legacy is there. First time back in the playoffs, knock him out right away. It’ll test us good. They got good pieces, good players. That’ll be a good 1st-round matchup for us.”
—Dillon Brooks
“I wouldn’t mind playing LeBron [James] in a 7-game series,” Brooks said. “The legacy is there. First time back in the playoffs; knock him out right away. It’ll test us good. They got good pieces, good players. That’ll be a good 1st-round matchup for us.”
In 73 games this season, Brooks has posted a statline of 14.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.6 assists while shooting 39.6% from the field and 32.6% from the perimeter; however, his season will best be remembered for emerging as a true villain in the NBA.
Darvin Ham Still Has Faith in D’Angelo Russell
Midway through the second half of the Lakers’ win over Minnesota, Darvin Ham made the difficult decision to bench D’Angelo Russell, as the star guard had been struggling to score the ball and wasn’t having much impact on the defensive end.
The decision, while likely correct, certainly raised a few eyebrows among the fanbase, but when speaking to the media as part of his post-game press conference, Ham spoke glowingly about Russell, what he brings to the team, and why he benched the guard in the Lakers most important game of the year thus far.
Ham said during the postgame presser:
You’re gonna have rough nights out here. I have all the confidence in the world in D-Lo. We’re going to need him on this run that we plan to make. Starting with Game 1 at Memphis. You just got to be able to snap back and bounce back. It’s a long season. Some nights, it’s not going to be your night. Again, that’s why you try to fortify your roster with multiple players who are capable of, once you call their number, they’re able to not just go out there and gobble up minutes, but get minutes and play at a high level.
That just happened to be Dennis [Schroder] tonight. But make no mistake about it, we brought D-Lo here to come out here and be D-Lo, and to make plays. So, we’ll sit down, we’ll watch film as a group, and definitely communicate and just let him know that we’re going to need him. This may be a one-off, no doubt about it, but he’s going to be in the thick of things, at the forefront of us having success in the postseason.
Still, if the Lakers are going to have a legitimate chance at raising another championship banner, they will need some big-time performances from Russell, and it would appear everyone within the franchise believes he’s more than capable of answering that call.