Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry set the basketball world aflame with his performance for Team USA on Saturday as the U.S. men’s basketball team claimed gold in the Olympics with a win over France.
Curry had 24 points in the matchup and went 8-for-12 from 3-point range, and he was unstoppable down the stretch.
The sharpshooter’s performance sparked an interesting thought from one user on X, who claimed that Los Angeles Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell is capable of getting hot in the same way Curry did against France.
Russell posted a fascinating response that has since been deleted.
DLo 👀 pic.twitter.com/fs0UxJdJTo
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 12, 2024
It’s important to note that neither the original user nor Russell were seemingly trying to suggest that Russell and Curry are equivalent as players — just that they have similar hot stretches at times.
Russell is indeed capable of heating up from time to time. As mentioned, Curry made eight 3-pointers on Saturday. In the 2023-24 NBA season, Russell had two games with at least eight 3s. They came against the Chicago Bulls on Jan. 25 (when he went 8-for-13 from deep) and against the Milwaukee Bucks on March 8 (when he went 9-for-12 from deep in a 44-point performance).
The challenge with Russell is that he isn’t always consistent on a night-to-night basis. That wasn’t as much of a problem during the 2023-24 regular season, as he played an important role across 76 appearances, but he was iffy in the 2024 NBA Playoffs, shooting just 38.4 percent from the field and 31.8 percent from 3-point range.
The 28-year-old is going into the new season in a precarious spot. If the Lakers want to make an impactful trade at some point, there’s a good chance he will be involved, but until then, he projects as an important piece of the 2024-25 team. The Lakers have had a quiet offseason even though many felt like they entered the summer needing to make some legitimate roster tweaks.
L.A. lost in the first round of the playoffs last season to the Denver Nuggets in five games. If the Lakers want to get further this season without making any major changes to their roster, they may need Russell to have some Curry-like hot streaks along the way.
