Rui Hachimura got a career-best performance vs. Utah, he's going for more

LeBron James missed Wednesday's night game against the Utah Jazz where the team while shorthanded still got the win with Anthony Davis and Rui Hachimura being the two standouts even when the whole team gave a good performance.

Rui Hachimura had a career-high performance by scoring 36 points, and with Anthony Davis who scored 37 points, the duo became the first wince Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal to become two Lakers who scored 35+ points each in the same game.

Still, Rui Hachimura revealed what he is doing to improve even more and wants to become the team's X-Factor. “I think these past couple games, they asked as a team, the guys, the teammates, the coaches, they tried to engage me to offense, getting more touches. It just simple basketball. DLo has been great playmaking. Bron wasn’t here, but Bron has been great, and AD. So it’s just rhythm. I’ve been talking about chemistry, we all have a chemistry, the starting lineup. So just keep building. This is what I’m comfortable with. I just felt good.”

“When I get into the game, I want to impact the game. That’s always my goal. I want to win the game, but I want to be the X-factor for the team either coming off the bench or starting, whatever that is. Offensively, defensively, everything. Just got to be aggressive, use my size, whatever it takes to win.”

Rui Hachimura is happy the starting lineup has players from last season

“I’ve been telling y’all, this is who we are. We’ve been trying a lot of different things, lineups and all that stuff. But this is the lineup we had in the playoffs and that’s how we won, so it’s simple. We got to keep building chemistry for the playoffs. We’re really comfortable playing with each other, that’s how this lineup is. So we just got to keep doing it. We have a couple days with the All-Star break and then we’re coming back for the last push.”