The Los Angeles Lakers got their first season-opening win since 2016 in a 110-103 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves last night. Rui Hachimura was an integral piece for the Lakers, emerging as their second-highest scorer in a game where he was aggressively attacking the Wolves defense. Hachimura explained to reporters after the game that the team had spoken about attacking Julius Randle on defense.
“We talked about Julius Randle, he sometimes is just standing and stuff. So we talked about, we got to kind of use that. I know I can be the screener. I can be in the corner to kind of attack the rim.”
Hachimura ended the win with 18 points on 7-14 shooting from the field and five rebounds. He had a team-high +19 because of his aggressive efforts from start to finish in 35 minutes of action. He was getting easy inside buckets in transition and attacking off-ball assignments through screens and cuts.
JJ Redick’s offensive philosophy is showing an emphasis on active movement on and off the ball, with Hachimura executing his game plan perfectly. With other decoys also constantly switching positions and attracting defenders, Hachimura could get into the right spots to get rhythm passes for easy finishes.
he's not wrong, hachimura kept diving to the rim with randle as his off-ball defender to positive results.
LA's screening with guards helped to keep randle on the back line and rui capitalized https://t.co/MtxUosdj4d pic.twitter.com/r0dZWXqoHy
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) October 23, 2024
Julius Randle put up 16 points on 5-10 shooting from the field and six rebounds in what was a decent statistical outing for his debut. He was the only Timberwolves starter to be a +2, but that is a little deceiving given how often the Lakers tried to attack him on defense.
Randle is adjusting to the Timberwolves style of play, but the team can’t rely on their defensive solidity if Randle can’t be a more active defender. Hachimura openly talking about the Lakers’ game-planning against Randle due to his lack of activity is a pretty revealing fact, as they relied on that being the case without even seeing him suit up for the Timberwolves in a competitive game.
Karl-Anthony Towns wasn’t a great defender, but he put a lot of effort into being competent on that end last season, playing a role as the team had the best defensive rating in the NBA. They still have the pieces to be a feared defense provided Randle can lock in on that end of the court.
Rui Hachimura Adopting An Aggressive Mantra
Hachimura spoke in detail about what the coaches are asking of him this season, with the Lakers forward making rebounding aggressively a priority as well.
“Me and the coaches have talked about offensively, they want me to do whatever I’ve been doing. But defensively they want me to be more aggressive on rebounds and stuff so I think that’s the key for me because if I get rebounds, I can push the ball and all that so I think I can get in a rhythm. Crashing for offensive rebounds too, that’s gonna be my next step and I think I want to keep doing that.”
He shared additional thoughts on the win and was happy with how the team executed their game plan.
“Yeah, I think tonight we did what we were supposed to do. I think right before the game, we talked about it. JJ told us that if we do what we’re supposed to do, we’re gonna win this game. So we were more focused on us. We focused on us and our basketball, our system, what we want to do and that’s why we got this win.”
Hachimura averaged 13.6 points and 4.3 rebounds last season. The 26-year-old will be hoping to take a step up on the Lakers this season and be one of their key wing contributors.
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