Grades for LeBron James, Austin Reaves in Lakers Win Over Clippers

Welcome to Luka Dončić era of Lakers Basketball.

By just having him on the guard schedule, Lakers was able to snap their clippers -Collapse on Tuesday. The last time they had beaten their crossing rivals when they did not have Russell Westbrook on the guard plan was to start the game in the bubble.

Yes, really.

From the leap on Tuesday, Lakers were de Aggressors. In fact, Clippers, who was at full strength, looked like Cam Christie, like the team, who just had a shocking mid -season deal to reshape their entire identity.

Lakers built on their victory in Madison Square Garden by continuing to find success by spreading out of the floor, making 3-Pointers and playing quickly. Mix rebounding in teams, watch out for the ball and a connection to defense and you get a dominant performance.

So let’s dive into the victory. As always, grades are based on expectations of each player. A “B” degree represents the average benefit of that player.

Rui Hachimura

34 minutes, 20 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 7-14 fg, 4-8 3pt, 2-2 ft, +15

In his last game before the trade deadline, Rui made a last passionate plea to stay around. After losing a few shots early, he hardly missed out on the rest of the game.

Add some congestion games to help get some rebounds and you get a strong RUI game. There is a good matter that must be made that he could be one of the biggest recipients of Luka being on the team now, but if Lakers wants to land a center, someone has to go.

Character: 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?

Of course, Luka will be the face of this franchise for the future. But LeBron shows how much he has left in the thought of the last two matches. We are well past the point of trying to understand what he is doing at this age.

He sets state lines that would be impressive for 22-year-olds. He is almost twice that age.

Character: 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 for Jaxson Hayes.

Since ad went down with injury and then was traded, he has been more than solid. He first treated ad very publicly and asked for another center and then everyone in the world, including Rob Pelinka, and said they needed a center and he has answered impressively on the field.

Character: B+

Dorian Finney-Smith

24 minutes, 7 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 3-7 fg, 1-3 3pt, +13

Given Lakers will surely start lebron, Luka and Austin Reaves, this may be the beginning of a long spell in the starting lineup for DFS. He had his typical steady game and did the little things. He also gets credit for how good the central lineups have seen when he is on the floor.

Character: 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 last games as a starting point Guard, Austin. He is filled in magnificent when d’Angelo Russell was traded, but I think Luka can take the mantle back now.

Still, Austin, who unlocks this part of his game, will make wonders for him and the Lakers violation when Luka debuts.

Character: A-

Gabe Vincent

22 minutes, 12 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 4-10 fg, 4-8 3pt, +10

Do we finally see Miami Heat Gabe Vincent? It took almost a season and a half, but he looked really good for a while now.

He got a little crazy when the game was out of his hand in the second half, but he also did more than enough to help them build this lead.

Character: B+

Jarred Vanderbilt

18 minutes, 6 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 2-3 fg, 1-1 3pt, 1-2 ft, +21

It will be interesting how fast Vando’s minutes are going up now. There is a massive hole in the slaughter guard for the lakers and it could be filled by Vando,

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

Character: 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 with Luka could be Dalton, he’s about to get a whole lot of open look, which means it’s a good thing he seems to have found his shot again .

Character: A-

Shake Milton

20 minutes, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 2-3 fg, 0-1 3pt, +12

Clippers were so bad that Shake even had a half -decent game against them. He too had a good answer after Bronny James played over him in Philly.

But enjoy these last two playing time matches because Luka is taking all these minutes.

Character: B-

Bronny James, Trey Jemison III, Armel Traore

Shoutout to Bronny for his first 3-Pointer and Jemison for a Monster Dunk in Waste Time.

JJ Redick

Getting the team to play so considering what they have had to go through over the past 48 hours is about as impressive coaching performance as there is. He presses all the right buttons and things really click with the team.

Character: 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 on @Jacobrud.