Drama inside the Lakers causes concern about All-Star vs. Nuggets

The stars were out and shining in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets but one All-Star struggled big-time.

While Laker nation is gassing up Darvin Ham’s adjustment to slow Nikola Jokic by putting Rui Hachimura on the Nuggets center, they’re missing something. Jokic still went for an absurd 34 points, 21 rebounds, 14 assists and two blocks even though was slowed by Hachimura late. To put Hachimura into the game, Ham had to take out D’Angelo Russell.

Los Angeles’ starting point guard was a game-worst -25 when on the floor and was held to just eight points on 11 shots. It was a big reason why Denver won 132-126.

“I felt we did a great job on D’Angelo Russell,” Malone said. “So great that he wasn’t even in the game much in the second half.”

It was a good adjustment for L.A. to get Russell off the hardwood and go with the line lineup of Hachimura, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Dennis Schroder and Austin Reaves that found success. But that success may come at the cost of bugging their former All-Star point guard Russell.

“There is concern the team could ‘lose’ the 27-year-old point guard if he views the adjustment as a demotion after starting every other game this postseason,” ESPN’s Dave McMenamin wrote about Ham possibly moving Russell to a sixth-man role.

Russell, a former top pick of the Lakers, was traded back to Los Angeles at the deadline and is a free agent this summer. The 2019 NBA All-Star scored 18 points per game in the regular season between the Lakers and T-Wolves. Any possible demotion could hurt his earnings, but so too could him pouting about being benched. Moreover, all of it is not good for a team fighting for a bid to go to the NBA Finals.

Bruce Brown was pretty spicy today. Pretty interesting quotes.

Said the Nuggets goal was to play D’Angelo Russell off the floor.

— Ryan Blackburn (@NBABlackburn) May 17, 2023

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