EL SEGUNDO – D’Angelo Russell has excelled in his early preseason appearances, and for good reason.
In Russell’s debut, Utah didn’t exactly offer up a blockbuster point guard matchup with Trey Burke. His second game was against Israel’s Maccabi Haifa.
Things are about to get significantly more challenging for the Lakers guard, who in the next three games will match up against Rajon Rondo, Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard.
Those players represent something Russell intends to be very soon: the upper echelon of NBA playmakers.
But the No. 2 draft pick is not dwelling too much on those individual matchups, focusing instead on one team against the other.