Lakers News: Expert Believes LA Role Players Are Tipping Scale In Team's Favor

He may have a point.

Your Los Angeles Lakers find themselves on the brink of punching their ticket into the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. They're currently leading the higher-seeded Memphis Grizzlies 3-1 in their ongoing best-of-seven playoff series, and have a chance to close them out tonight at FedEx Forum in Game 5.

LeBron James has been a bit passive late in games, but has been playing pretty solid offense and, fitfully, pretty competent defense for a 38-year-old with a lingering tendon issue in his right foot. Anthony Davis has had two great two-way games and two "meh" nights on offense.

But John Hollinger of The Athletic writes that the reason LA seems destined to advance into the second round for the first time in three years ultimately comes down to the team's non-Hall of Fame players, and the advantage in death they give Los Angeles over the injury-depleted Memphis Grizzlies.

"James was largely a bystander as Austin Reaves and Anthony Davis took over the end of Game 1, was just one of several Lakers who had strong performances in Game 3 and again was a limited participant in the first 11:58 of the fourth quarter of Game 4 … when the big shots mostly came from D’Angelo Russell and Reaves," Hollinger writes.

"The Grizzlies have only three players they can count on for offense right now, and the bench has scored just 79 point in four games. Rui Hachimura has 72 by himself for L.A.; overall, it’s a plus-40 advantage in bench scoring for the Lakers over the four games," Hollinger notes, "[Beyond] the Morant-Bane-Jaren Jackson Jr. core, Memphis’ role players are shooting 39.7 percent from the floor and 27.1 percent from 3, with 19 free-throw attempts in four games. Yikes."

Though he's not shooting particularly consistently, Russell has made big shots (especially in the team's two home games), and is averaging 14.5 points on .368/.310/1.000 shooting splits, 5.3 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 0.5 steals. Reaves is notching 17.8 points on .490/.412/.778 shooting splits, 4.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 0.8 steals a night, while Hachimura is logging 18 points on .578/.625/.833 shooting splits, 5.5 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 0.5 steals a night. These three players specifically have been major parts of the team's offense in moments where James or Davis go cold, while Jarred Vanderbilt has been absolutely critical in his defensive coverages.

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