Rui Hachimura has had a great year for the Lakers. He turned the team's season around after being inserted into the starting lineup on Feb 2, giving Los Angeles a great offensive punch and helping it finish the year on a 22-10 run (or 23-10 if you count the Play-In game).
Now, Hachimura's role becomes even more important in the playoffs.
It's no secret that the Lakers have struggled against the Nuggets. They went 0-3 in the season series against the defending champs and got swept during last year's Western Conference Finals.
Both teams are expected to have the same starting lineups as last year, so something needs to change if the Lakers want to see a different result. That something might be Hachimura, who has the talent to swing a few games in the first round.
Here's why Hachimura could be the X-Factor in this series.
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Why Rui Hachimura is the key to Lakers upsetting Nuggets
Rui Hachimura may have to guard Nikola Jokic
The Lakers haven't had a great answer for Jokic, who pummeled them in last year's playoffs. Joker averaged 27.8 points, 14.5 rebounds and 11.8 assists per game during the sweep.
Anthony Davis is a great defender, but he wasn't able to hold up in that matchup. The Lakers did a little bit better using Davis as a roamer and letting Hachimura take that matchup, which is a strategy that they started using toward the end of Game 1.
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According to the league's tracking data, Jokic shot just 40.0 percent from the field with Hachimura as his primary defender during that series. The Nuggets still cruised, of course, but Hachimura did a pretty decent job for the most part.
Hachimura is at a huge size disadvantage to the 284-pound center, but he stayed in front of Jokic and forced him to shoot over his contests.
The Lakers will probably try that matchup again at times during this series. Hachimura didn't have quite as much success during the regular season — Jokic shot 69.6 percent against him in 2023-24, looking a lot more comfortable. The Nuggets made some adjustments this year, using wedge action to get him deep positioning as soon as he saw that Rui matchup.
Hachimura doesn't have to be a one-on-one Jokic stopper, but he does need to try and force Jokic toward the help that Davis can provide. The Lakers showed in spurts during the regular season that they could make that strategy work.
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Rui Hachimura can score against the Nuggets defense
Hachimura has been an offensive spark plug for the Lakers all season. They were 21st in offense before moving him into the starting lineup on Feb. 3. After that date, they jumped up to No. 3 in the league.
Hachimura was also very good last year in the playoffs against the Nuggets. He was fourth on the team in scoring, averaging 15.3 points on 53.3 percent from the field. He had a lot of success last season posting up some of the Nuggets' smaller players.
He went right through Bruce Brown Jr. any time he had that matchup, and he did the same to Jamal Murray.
The Lakers can keep on exploiting these mismatches, where Hachimura has thrived as an ultra-efficient scorer. The Nuggets had to send doubles at him last postseason when Murray got stuck on him, resulting in kickouts for open 3s.
Another area where Hachimura can wreak havoc is on his weak side corner cuts to the dunker spot. Denver is comfortable with having its defense in constant rotation. These cuts are a good way to attack those rotations and something that the Lakers used a lot of in their Play-In victory over the Pelicans.
Los Angeles probably isn't going to slow Denver's offensive attack down all that much. The Nuggets are too good. The Lakers' best chance instead is to try and outscore them offensively and get some hot shooting to steal some games.
Hachimura can definitely help in that regard. He turned into the team's best 3-point shooter of anyone in the team's rotation, hitting 42.2 percent of his long-range looks during the regular season. He and D'Angelo Russell need to have it going from deep for the Lakers.
It's going to be an uphill battle for sure for the Lakers. Everyone is picking the Nuggets to make it through this series, but Hachimura is capable of having some huge games. A big two-way performance from him will give Los Angeles its best chance of pulling off the upset.
