Even Patrick Beverley Was Shouting The Lakers Out On Twitter During Their Win Over Toronto
The Los Angeles Lakers are red-hot. They collected their third straight win on Friday night and are 7-3 in their last 10 games.
Most of those wins have come without their superstar LeBron James and their third-leading scorer, D'Angelo Russell). James has been out since February 26 and will be out for at least another two and a half weeks.
Russell sprained his right ankle in LA's first game back from the All-Star break, against the Golden State Warriors, and missed six consecutive games. However, he returned last night against the Toronto Raptors and looked better than ever, propelling the Lakers to victory.
D-Lo was doing it all, dishing to his teammates (he finished with nine assists), scoring at will inside the paint and at mid-range, and shooting lights out from beyond the arc. All told, he notched 28 points while shooting 10-of-17 shooting from the field (5-of-8 from three-point land). Laker fans clearly missed Russell, and he proved he could hold the fort with James being out.
D'Angelo was the talk of the night and even had former Laker and teammate of Russell, Patrick Beverly, in awe of his performance.
Russell and Beverly were teammates last season as members of the Minnesota Timberwolves. They were set to be teammates as Lakers this season before the Lakers traded Beverley to the Orlando Magic for center Mo Bamba. He was waived before playing a game, and signed with his hometown Chicago Bulls on the buyout market.
D-Lo had the Crypto.com Arena rocking as he scored a team-high 28 points, dished out nine assists, and snatched five rebounds in his return.
After the game, D-Lo told Lakers reporter Mike Trudell "they" were lucky he sprained his ankle. LA has missed their two leading ball handlers in Russell and LeBron James and still managed to pull off wins. Imagine if they had just one of them?!?!
Russell showed how important it is to have a point guard who can distribute the ball and score at will in all three phases. Lakers superstar Anthony Davis didn't have an impressive stat line on Friday; however, the supporting cast carried the load on both ends of the floor.
It was great to have D'Angelo back in the lineup, and we can't wait to see him continue to flourish in the purple and gold.
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