The Los Angeles Lakers are carrying a fresh talking point into Game 1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder: Rui Hachimura has made 50.8% of his 3-pointers in the playoffs, a figure the team said is the highest ever in the postseason. The Lakers posted the number on their official X account as they turned the page from their first-round win over the Houston Rockets.
That first round took six games, and it did not come easily. Los Angeles lost back-to-back games to Houston before closing the series with a Game 6 victory, then pivoted immediately to face the Thunder, the defending NBA champions and the only team to sweep its first-round series after beating the Phoenix Suns. The timing matters because the Lakers are trying to carry momentum into a matchup that will demand cleaner offense and steadier shooting from the group around Hachimura.
Hachimura’s numbers help explain why the Lakers chose to highlight him now. In 32 games since arriving in Los Angeles via trade three years ago, he has averaged 12.6 points and 3.9 rebounds, and his postseason output against Houston was even stronger. He finished the series at 15.8 points and 4.0 rebounds per game, while shooting 54.3% from the field and 58.6% from beyond the arc. For a team heading into a second-round opener, that kind of efficiency is not background noise. It is part of the plan.
There is a catch, though, and it is the kind that usually shows up when a playoff run gets harder. Hachimura has been steady enough to become a reliable part of the rotation, but the Lakers still came through the first round by the slimmest of margins they could afford, dropping two straight before recovering. The Thunder arrive with the cleaner resume, and their sweep of Phoenix gives them the extra rest and the cleaner path. Los Angeles has the hot shooter. Oklahoma City has the better recent record. Game 1 will sort out which matters more.
For Hachimura, the attention is the latest sign of how firmly he has settled into the Lakers’ postseason story, a development that has made him central to conversations about the club’s rotation and even broader roster planning. His rise has also made him a recurring figure around the team, from his role in the playoffs to the wider interest around his place in Los Angeles, the sort of profile that has followed him in coverage like Kelly Oubre Jr. future with 76ers unclear as Rui Hachimura emerges and Rui Hachimura says LeBron James’ role shift has fueled Lakers’ rise. The next test is simpler than the noise around it: whether his shooting can travel against a champion that has not yet been forced to chase a series.
