In the fourth quarter of Sunday's Game 1 of their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Los Angeles Lakers were still holding onto a six-point advantage.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis each took just one shot in the opening 11 minutes of the fourth frame.However, L.A. came back to win 128-112 thanks to a bench player and a player who was undrafted after college just two years ago.
Nine of Rui Hachimura's 29 points came in the fourth quarter, tying Mychal Thompson's Lakers franchise record for the most points scored by a substitute in a postseason game.
Austin Reaves scored nine points in a row late in the fourth quarter and finished with a total of 23 points after going 5-for-5 in the quarter.
James, who finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks, remarked, "Our supporting cast won us the game tonight.
Because the situation was unsure at the half, the Lakers needed extra effort from their players. After getting a stinger to his right shoulder, Davis left the game late in the second quarter.
At that point, the Lakers were behind by six points. After six minutes of play in the third quarter, Hachimura went 4-for-4 from three-point range, and L.A. regained momentum.
With Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy monitoring the Grizzlies defence for any vulnerabilities that he could exploit, Hachimura said that all of these shots were ones that he had deliberately practised prior to the series.
Since May 15, 1988, when James Worth, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Byron Scott did it, the Lakers had not had four players score 20 or more points in a playoff game. D'Angelo Russell also came close to making it five.
To capture the No. 7 seed versus No. 2 Memphis, L.A. won 10 of its previous 12 games, including the play-in victory against Minnesota on Tuesday.