Rui Hachimura has been a shining mild for the Lakers of their previous two playoffs video games towards the Nuggets.
He performed a key position in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals after scoring 21 factors, two rebounds, one help and a steal off the bench on 80percent taking pictures from the sphere.
The 25-year-old has been making an attempt his finest to lock up Nikola Jokic on protection.
“I’m just trying to be aggressive on both ends, especially [against] their bigs so for this series the coach has been telling me it’s going to be a big series for me so I was ready for this. We lost this game [though]. It was a tough one for sure,” Rui Hachimura stated postgame.
With all of his nice performances, it reminded ESPN’s Myron Medcalf of a hilarious story in regards to the Japanese-born ahead, who mistook the phrase dumbass as a praise.
“One of my favorite Rui Hachimura stories is that one time he was in practice at Gonzaga and Mark Few said he’d made a ‘dumbass’ play. Hachimura, who didn’t speak much English then, smiled wide because he thought Few was comparing him to Domantas Sabonis who was nicknamed ‘Domas,’” Medcalf tweeted.
Hachimura went to Gonzaga University and performed basketball there for 3 seasons earlier than heading to the NBA the place the Wizards drafted him as a first-round ninth choose.
This historic choose marked the primary Japanese participant ever drafted within the first spherical of the NBA Draft.
In January 2023, Hachimura was traded to the Lakers whereas to Wizards obtained for Kendrick Nunn and draft picks.
Since this commerce, Hachimura has been a dependable participant for the purple and gold and within the common season he averaged 11.2 factors, 4.5 rebounds and 0.9 assists.
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