The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Brooklyn Nets 107-101 to snap an eight-game losing streak in a career night for rookie D’Angelo Russell.
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Notes: Russell, Baylor and Vern Mikkelsen are the only three Lakers rookies in Laker history to reach 39 points. DeAngelo Russell was simply too much for the Nets to handle, while Brook Lopez watched the end of the game from the bench.
There was room for concern that Clarkson’s growth and surprise development would stunt, complicate, or conflict with that of Russell moving forward – but against the Nets all of those rumors become nothing more than an afterthought. After the second triple, Russell could be seen saying, “I have ice in my veins”.
The Lakers’ rookie point guard was given leeway to create previously only given to Bryant this season, with 33.6 percent of the Lakers’ possessions against the Nets ending in a shot, assist, drawn foul, or turnover by Russell, and he made good use of almost all of them.
As the season progresses, D’Angelo Russell is showing everyone what he’s capable of – and if Tuesday night was any indication, he’s going to be ruthless in the near future. Williams scored six points….
If there’s anyone out there still maintaining that Russell is a bust, just show them this game and this shot on loop until they finally realize just how wrong they are.
Russell was the second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft and many saw him as undeserving pick at that spot for his underwhelming play in the first half of the season.
Nets center Brook Lopez scored 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds before fouling out with 2:43 remaining in the contest.
Jordan Clarkson added 16 points, seven assists and seven rebounds as the Lakers swept their season series with Brooklyn. Forward Thaddeus Young contributed 19 points and 15 rebounds, while forward Bojan Bogdanovic chipped in 18 points and seven rebounds.
Showing great signs of maturity went further than the scoreboard though, as Russell displayed the ability to play alongside Jordan Clarkson.
However, a pair of 3-pointers by Young and Clarkson allowed Los Angeles to take a 79-74 lead heading into the final quarter.
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Russell told reporters after the game that he had run out of celebrations and it was the first he could think of, and his performance served notice that he’s also run out of patience for sitting games in the fourth quarter, and that he won’t be giving his coach any reason to do so any time soon. “He wants to rest just a little bit more and try to give it a go tomorrow”, Lakers coach Byron Scott said….
