The Los Angeles Lakers are without LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reeves, Jared Vanderbilt and Cam Reddish, and likely without most of their fans, as L.A. The Dodgers play the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 3 of the NDL around the same time — and Wednesday’s preseason game against the Sacramento Kings.
It’s D’Angelo Russell time.
The Lakers point guard played well in the team’s 109-101 victory, scoring 21 points and eight assists.
He was one of five Lakers to score in double figures. The Kings’ star pairing De’Aaron Fox (18 points, 5 assists) and Domantas Sabonis (10 points, 16 rebounds, 5 assists) played well in this loss.
It was a rough night for Los Angeles sports fans — the Dodgers lost 4-2 to the D-Backs and were eliminated from the playoffs in the process — but DLo’s strong performance gave them some solace. :
Russell’s 2022-23 season doesn’t end on a positive note. He was completely absent from the Denver Nuggets’ four-game sweep of the Lakers in the Western Conference finals, averaging just 6.3 points and 3.5 assists while shooting 32.3% from the field and 13.3% from three-point range.
That put his future in Los Angeles into question, although the Lakers eventually brought him back on a two-year, $36 million deal with a player option for the 2024-25 season.
The Lakers performed strongly overall during the offseason, returning Reeves and Rui Hachimura, while also introducing Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Christian Wood, Jackson Hayes and Ray Dish. Russell will enter the season as the team’s starting point guard ahead of Vincent, a role he will likely retain given his strong preseason performance.