Without more help from their supporting cast, which has been outplayed by Denver’s group, the Lakers will be looking at a missed opportunity to extend their postseason run.
LOS ANGELES — The Lakers needed more LeBron James and less Jamal Murray. They needed better looks from behind the arc and a lot fewer turnovers. They needed an eye-popping performance from Rui Hachimura, another heroic game from Lonnie Walker IV and something, anything, from D’Angelo Russell.
The Lakers, who had a hair’s width of a chance to reach the playoffs late in the regular season, managed to beat two higher-seeded teams en route to the conference finals. To get this far, several of their non-stars stepped up. This was not one of those nights. The rest, however, failed to make much of an impact. Rusell disappeared and scored just three points on eight attempts, far off below the 14.7 points he had been averaging in the postseason.Lakers coach Darvin Ham said Rusell had “all good looks. He just has to remain aggressive. All good looks.”
“For some of them, shots went down. For some of them, it didn’t. That’s just the way it goes, man. It’s their fight. Nobody was out there just going through the motions. Everyone I felt like everyone was competing and trying to get stuff done when they were on the floor.”
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