The Los Angeles Lakers escaped with a 108-102 overtime victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday in the NBA Play-In Tournament. LeBron James led the charge with 30 points and 10 rebounds, while Anthony Davis added 24 points and 15 boards. Dennis Schroder contributed 21 points off the bench. D'Angelo Russell, however, struggled mightily in the contest. Lakers coach Darvin Ham is remaining confident in the guard nonetheless.

“Darvin Ham says that he has all the ‘confidence in the world' in D'Angelo Russell and that ‘we're gonna need him' moving forward,” per ClutchPoints' Michael Corvo. Ham added that he expects Russell to bounce back against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Russell has been dealing with injury concerns, which may have factored into his forgettable performance against his former team. He ultimately finished the game with just two points while going 1-9 from the field and 0-4 from beyond the arc. Although his shot was clearly off throughout the game, Russell was still able to impact the Lakers in a positive manner. He dished out eight assists while turning the ball over just once.

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Nevertheless, opposing defenders are going to focus on LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the playoffs. As a result, Los Angeles will need D'Angelo Russell to figure things out from a scoring standpoint.

Russell averaged 17.4 points per game on 48.4 percent field goal and 41.4 percent three-point shooting with the Lakers after getting traded from Minnesota. When he's going right, Russell is a quality scoring threat. His production will be especially important against a pesky Memphis Grizzlies' defense in the first round of the NBA playoffs.