{"id":693322,"date":"2026-05-25T20:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T20:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/693322\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T20:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T20:24:09","slug":"how-did-each-los-angeles-lakers-player-perform-this-postseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/693322\/","title":{"rendered":"How Did Each Los Angeles Lakers Player Perform This Postseason?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>\u2019 season came to an end two weeks ago. They entered the postseason shorthanded, but the team stepped up to make it further than anyone expected without Luka Doncic<\/a> and, for part of the run, Austin Reaves<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how every Los Angeles Lakers rotation player performed this postseason.<\/p>\n

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LeBron James continues to amaze at age 41. When Doncic and Reaves went down, James took it upon himself to keep the Lakers afloat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What makes his postseason even more impressive is that he spent the entire season adjusting to a role he had never played in his 23-year career. Then all of a sudden, he had to abandon that role and be the player he\u2019s always been.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t disappoint. His 23.2 points and 7.3 assists per game both led the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Austin Reaves: C<\/p>\n

Reaves had a inconsistent postseason, and understandably so. He didn\u2019t return from injury until Game 5 of the first round, and thus, never really found his stride.<\/p>\n

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His highs included a 31-point Game 2 on 62% shooting and a 27-point Game 4 on 50% shooting against the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>. But his lows included an 8-point Game 1 in OKC, where he shot 16.8% from the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reaves averaged 20 points, 5.8 assists and 4.5 turnovers per game while shooting 40% from the field and 25.7% from beyond the arc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Lakers desperately needed consistency from Reaves in Doncic\u2019s absence. He didn\u2019t deliver.<\/p>\n

Rui Hachimura was a star in his role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He led the team in minutes but ranked<\/a> fifth among rotation players in usage rate. When the Lakers did get Rui a good look, he was extremely productive and efficient<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Hachimura averaged 17.5 points per game while shooting 56.9% from 3-point range. There was not a single game where he scored in single digits or shot below 50% from deep this postseason, and he currently still holds the all-time NBA record<\/a> for playoff three-point shooting percentage.<\/p>\n

His elite shooting was key to the Lakers\u2019 run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Marcus Smart is on your team, you have to live with the good and bad that come with the former Defensive Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

On one hand, he was the head of the defensive snake that held two-time MVP Shai-Gilgeous Alexander to 24.5 points per game, his lowest scoring average in a playoff series since the 2019-20<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

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On the other hand, he shot 39% from the field and averaged 3.5 turnovers per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Lakers needed Smart\u2019s defensive prowess, so they endured his offensive limitations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luke Kennard opened the postseason with the best playoff game of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He torched the Houston Rockets<\/a> for 27 points while shooting 5-for-5 from three. Then, game by game, he slowly reverted to the low usage, high efficiency three-point specialist he\u2019s always been.<\/p>\n

Even with his 27-point explosion in Game 1, he averaged only 12.5 points per game in the first round. He averaged 10 points per game in the second round.<\/p>\n

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His 11.5 points per game and 47.4% shooting from behind the arc were exactly what the Lakers wanted from their resident sharpshooter.<\/p>\n

Deandre Ayton started the playoffs with a solid series against the Rockets, but eventually he disappeared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He averaged 11.8 points and 10.8 rebounds per game while shooting 60.4% from the field in the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, he averaged 7.3 point and 7.8 rebounds per game while shooting 45% from the field in the second round. In Games 3 and 4, he grabbed a total of three defensive rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being outplayed by a deeper and more physical frontcourt is understandable. Failing to give effort isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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Ayton shrank as the competition and pressure rose.<\/p>\n

Jaxson Hayes was an energizer off the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Ayton was benched in the do-or-die Game 4 against OKC, Hayes stepped up. He scored 18 points and grabbed five rebounds in 27 minutes.<\/p>\n

His 5.7 points and 3.2 rebounds per game don\u2019t jump off the stat sheet, but the team fed off of his electrifying dunks and hustle plays all postseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jake LaRavia played himself out of the rotation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He averaged 1.1 made shots and 1.4 turnovers in 14.2 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, LaRavia was unproductive in his eight games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post How Did Each Los Angeles Lakers Player Perform This Postseason?<\/a> appeared first on The Lead<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 season came to an end two weeks ago. They entered the postseason shorthanded, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[45842,49,48,12882,8223,12886,45841,2327,8231,12887,82229,9472,459,3555,34450,82],"class_list":["post-693322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-austin-reaves","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jake-laravia","tag-jaxson-hayes","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-luke-kennard","tag-marcus-smart","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-rui-hachimura","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}