Lakers' Top Needs in 2024 NBA Offseason | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

L.A.'s shooting shortage isn't the reason this offense underwhelmed. It wasn't awful, obviously, but for a team getting 50-plus points per outing—and, more importantly, 147 appearances—from the James-Davis duo, you'd want more than mediocrity.

The Lakers didn't always have enough places to turn for self-sufficient scoring, though. Players like D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura all could catch fire, but they seldom stayed ablaze.

To dig into this even deeper, just look at Russell—the most productive of the three—and his performance in the Purple and Gold's five postseason games. He cooked in Games 2 and 4, netting 21-plus points on 50-plus percent shooting. He struggled in Games 1 and 5, needing 35 total shots to tally his 27 points. And he went totally absent in Game 3, shooting 0-of-7 from the field and 0-of-6 from distance over his 24 scoreless minutes.