The Los Angeles Lakers have begun hitting their stride in recent weeks, and a big reason for that has been the play of LeBron James and D’Angelo Russell.
James has been able to manage an ankle injury and play some of his best ball of the season despite being 39 years of age and in Year 21. He and the Lakers recognize that it is now of never if they want to make a run similar to last year’s playoff push.
Meanwhile, Russell has been playing the best basketball of his career since the start of February, shooting at a very high rate from deep.
With winning and improved play comes some fun, and that’s what the Lakers have been having recently as they are a really close group.
That was evident during Friday night’s game during a sequence against the Philadelphia 76ers. On one possession, James found backup center Jaxson Hayes for a dunk. Then on the next time down, Russell passed to Hayes, who found a cutting James and returned the favor with a nice pass of his own for another dunk.
Hayes didn’t see him, but Russell actually was cutting first and would have had an easy bucket of his own. It would’ve been less cool if Russell had just laid it in, however. Instead, he cut in front of James and recreated the iconic Dwyane Wade and James picture from 2010 as LeBron finished a monstrous dunk:
This is SO TOUGH 😤 pic.twitter.com/9ogg4638BY
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) March 23, 2024
Now watching: All angles of THAT dunk 🍿 pic.twitter.com/iOFH4LSO7T
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) March 23, 2024
A lot of people remember the 2010 Wade-James photo as an alley-oop although that was not actually the case as it was a similar situation as this one.
It’s great to see Russell having fun on the Lakers considering everything he has been through over the last 12 months. He was a huge part of the team’s Western Conference Finals run last year but after a poor series against the Denver Nuggets, the point guard did not have much of a market in free agency.
Despite returning to the Lakers, his name was in trade rumors seemingly every day leading up to the deadline. That led to this hot streak and him ultimately staying with the Lakers though, and now he genuinely seems to be having fun, playing some of his best ball while helping L.A. reach the playoffs.
D’Angelo Russell broke Lakers’ 3-point record
Earlier in the night, D’Angelo Russell made history by making his 184th 3-pointer of the season, breaking a tie with Nick Van Exel for the Lakers franchise single-season record.
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