D'Angelo Russell reveals how it felt to put Paolo Banchero in a poster after his monster dunk

In a tight game, the Lakers got the victory at the last minute with a 106-103 thanks to a great close from the team, and the one leading the group was no other than D'Angelo Russell, even when Anthony Davis had a monster performance.

Russell had made it a point this offseason and during training camp to make necessary improvements so that he would no longer be benched for crunch time situations like he was at times during the 2023 Playoffs. And performances like Monday’s go a long way toward ensuring his spot in the final five.

One of the highlights for the game, but especially for D'Angelo Russell was a monster dunk poster he had on Magic's sophomore Paolo Banchero who won Rookie of the Year for the last campaign.

“Surprisingly, DLo dunked the ball. I mean, I always make small bets with my teammates and things like that. Always say I dunk when it matters and things like that. But I don’t know, it took me a lot to find myself and make my mind up to even attempt to dunk it, especially with him trying to contest it. I can honestly say I got lucky. … He got lucky. So if you guys can continue to try me, we’ll see what happens.” Said D'Angelo Russell about his poster on Banchero.

The Lakers are still figuring it out

“I mean, it’s pretty self-explanatory. When you get that time, you figure it out. I continue to stress it. But this is what you guys see as a team figuring it out. This is the product that we’ll be in a month or two from now. So every game matters. Every crunch situation matters. Every practice matters, so we’re figuring it out.” Said Russell.