Player Grades: Lakers vs. Clippers

Grading every Lakers player’s performance from the team’s 122-97 win over the Clippers.

Welcome to the Luka Dončić era of Lakers basketball.

By just having him on the roster, the Lakers were able to snap their Clippers curse on Tuesday. The last time they had beaten their crosstown rivals when they didn’t have Russell Westbrook on the roster was to kick off play in the bubble.

Yes, really.

From the jump on Tuesday, the Lakers were the aggressors. In fact, the Clippers, who were at full strength sans Cam Christie, looked like the team that just had a shocking mid-season trade to reshape their entire identity.

The Lakers built on their win in Madison Square Garden by continuing to find success by spreading out the floor, making 3-pointers and playing fast. MIx in team rebounding, taking care of the ball and a connectivity on defense and you get a dominant performance.

So, let’s dive into the win. As always, grades are based on expectations for each player. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.

Rui Hachimura

34 minutes, 20 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 7-14 FG, 4-8 3PT, 2-2 FT, +15

In his final game before the trade deadline, Rui made one last impassioned plea to stick around. After missing a couple shots early, he barely missed any more the rest of the game.

Add in some hustle plays to help get some rebounds and you get a strong Rui game. There’s a good case to be made that he could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Luka being on the team now, but if the Lakers are going to land a center, someone has to go.

Grade: A-

LeBron James

31 minutes, 26 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals, 8-13 FG, 2-4 3PT, 8-11 FT, +19

Luka, welcome to the LeBron James Era?

Obviously, Luka is going to be the face of this franchise for the future. But LeBron is showing how much he has left in the tank in the last two games. We’re well past the point of trying to grasp what he’s doing at this age.

He’s putting up stat lines that would be impressive for 22-year-olds. He’s nearly twice that age.

Grade: A

Jaxson Hayes

24 minutes, 6 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 3-6 FG, 0-1 FT, +14

You know what, hats off to Jaxson Hayes.

Since AD went down with injury and then was traded, he has been more than solid. He first dealt with AD very publicly asking for another center and then everyone in the world, including Rob Pelinka, saying they needed a center and he’s responded impressively on the court.

Grade: B+

Dorian Finney-Smith

24 minutes, 7 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 3-7 FG, 1-3 3PT, +13

Considering the Lakers are assuredly going to start LeBron, Luka and Austin Reaves, this might be the beginning of a long spell in the starting lineup for DFS. He had his typical steady game, doing the little things. He also gets credit for how good the centerless lineups have looked when he’s on the floor.

Grade: B+

Austin Reaves

30 minutes, 20 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 block, 7-13 FG, 3-7 3PT, 3-3 FT, +9

Enjoy your final games as the starting point guard, Austin. He’s filled in magnificently since D’Angelo Russell was traded, but I think Luka might take that mantle back now.

Still, Austin unlocking this part of his game is going to do wonders for him and the Lakers offense once Luka debuts.

Grade: A-

Gabe Vincent

22 minutes, 12 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 4-10 FG, 4-8 3PT, +10

Are we finally seeing Miami Heat Gabe Vincent? It took nearly a season-and-a-half but he’s looked really good for quite a while now.

He got a little wild once the game was out of hand in the second half, but he also did more than enough to help them build that lead.

Grade: B+

Jarred Vanderbilt

18 minutes, 6 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 2-3 FG, 1-1 3PT, 1-2 FT, +21

It’ll be interesting how quickly Vando’s minutes go up now. There’s a massive hole at shooting guard for the Lakers and it could be filled by Vando,

However, the 18 minutes he played on Tuesday were the most since his return. The more he can play, the better it is for the Lakers because he’s all over the place, in a good way, on both ends of the floor.

Grade: B+

Dalton Knecht

21 minutes, 14 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 6-9 FG, 2-4 3PT, +15

Another player who could see a big bump playing alongside Luka could be Dalton, He’s about to get a whole lot of open looks, which means it’s a good thing he seems to have found his shot again.

Grade: A-

Shake Milton

20 minutes, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 2-3 FG, 0-1 3PT, +12

The Clippers were so bad that Shake even had a halfway decent game against them. He, too, has had a good response after Bronny James played over him in Philly.

But enjoy these final two games of playing time because Luka is about to take all those minutes.

Grade: B-

Bronny James, Trey Jemison III, Armel Traore

Shoutout to Bronny for his first 3-pointer and Jemison for a monster dunk in garbage time.

JJ Redick

To get the team to play like that given what they’ve had to go through over the last 48 hours is about as impressive a coaching performance as there is. He’s pushing all the right buttons and things are really clicking with the team.

Grade: A

Tuesday’s DNPs: Markieff Morris

Tuesday’s inactives: Cam Reddish, Luka Doncic, Christian Wood, Maxi Kleber, Christian Koloko

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.