It’s no secret that D’Angelo Russell has been struggling to start the season. Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott running around without his pants on, shouting orders and not playing him in the fourth quarter to end games certainly hasn’t helped, but that’s beside the point. While Karl-Anthony Towns, Emmanuel Mudiay, and Jahlil Okafor have found their footing in the NBA relatively quickly, the 19-year-old out of Ohio State has yet to score big in a regular season NBA game. That is, until last night at least.
Russell went for 16 points on six-of-nine shooting along with two three-pointers in a matchup against the Nets.
60 🔥 seconds with D'Angelo
https://t.co/ijkLquWROV
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) November 7, 2015
There were a lot of concerns whether Russell could beat NBA point guards off the dribble or correctly leverage his shot to get to the basket coming out of college. Last night, Russell showed no hesitancy shooting transition three-pointers or popping midrange jumpers off the pick-and-roll. Whether he can do this over the course of an 82 game NBA season has yet to be seen, but at least he has a formidable showing under his belt now to boost his confidence.
There’s no hope for the Lakers though.
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