Many playoff series across the NBA each year feature a game won by a role player. Generally speaking, it’s not Game 1 of the series, but the Lakers won’t complain that it was Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves that guided them to a win on Sunday.
While Reaves closed the game out in style in the fourth quarter, it was Hachimura that got the Lakers to the point of being ahead late in the contest. To characterize it as catching fire would almost be an understatement.
Coming into Sunday, Hachimura had only 15 games in his career where he’d hit three 3-pointers in a game.