Why is Rui Hachimura not playing against Pelicans tonight? Lakers star's absence from game explored (Apr. 4)

The LA Lakers will play against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday without forward Rui Hachimura. The Lakers have ruled out the Japanese star, who will play on the second night of a back-to-back. They are coming off a 123-116 loss against the Golden State Warriors and look to have a bounce-back win.

Per LA, Hachimura is still not 100 percent as he's still recovering from left patellar tendinopathy and the team will be cautious about incorporating the forward back into the rotation heading into the postseason. The 6-foot-8 forward played 33:43 minutes against the Warriors, amassing 24 points and six rebounds.

Fortunately, Los Angeles has enough wing depth and will put Dorian Finney-Smith in the starting lineup for Rui Hachimura. Finney-Smith - a trade from the Brooklyn Nets - has averaged 7.6 points and 3.7 rebounds on 37.5 percent shooting from deep for the Lakers.

Hachimura - who initially returned from a knee injury on Mar. 22 against the Chicago Bulls - has averaged 11.3 points and 3.3 rebounds on 44.4 percent shooting from downtown in his last six games. In addition to his offensive contribution, the Lakers benefit from his defensive play.

The Purple and Gold will have to work extra hard without him on Friday.

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Lakers HC JJ Redick states Rui Hachimura is key to the team playing small ball lineups

After the LA Lakers traded Anthony Davis, the roster took a hit at the center position. Jaxson Hayes is the only big man who spends most of his time on the court. With that, coach JJ Redick had to experiment with playing more small-ball lineups.

Per Redick, Rui Hachimura is one of the most important pieces for the Lakers to make everything work.

“Three things,” Redick said. “I’ll start with the fact that he’s a body. So if he’s not there, we don’t have enough players to do it. That’s just the reality.

“Secondly… We realized early on in the season, the best thing for us and for him defensively was just to have him switch. Whatever the switching groups were, he was part of each switching group.

“I think he’s done a good job, whether it’s been guarding a smaller player, guarding bigger wings, guarding bigs, he’s done a good job of navigating that. So that’s a big part of it, just his ability to switch.”

Lastly, JJ Redick said Hachimura is one of the team's most reliable shooters and credited Beau Levesque - one of his assistant coaches - with developing the forward's shooting.

This season, Rui Hachimura is shooting 41.4 percent from the 3-point arc. This is the second straight season the former Gonzaga forward has hit at least 40 percent from deep.