On Friday, the Lakers ended their two-game losing streak with a 123-120 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies. The win catapulted the Lakers to the eighth seed with just one game left in the NBA season.

The victory was the result of a 36-point performance by Anthony Davis and a 37-point game by LeBron James, including a monster windmill slam by LeBron to put the game away for good in the closing seconds.

Los Angeles probably should’ve cruised to victory given the group of young and inexperienced players Memphis put on the court on Friday. However, the Lakers haven’t made anything easy this season, so another ugly, hard-fought win wasn’t much of a surprise.

Even so, there were underwhelming performances throughout the roster, with D’Angelo Russell’s being the most concerning. The Lakers guard ended the night with just four points on 2-9 shooting and went 0-5 from beyond the arc.

Russell has had a few subpar performances recently, including his 3-11 shooting night game versus the Warriors on Apr. 9 and his six-point 3-14 shooting night versus the Indiana Pacers on Mar. 29.

After the loss, head coach Darvin Ham discussed how he could help Russell regain his groove as the team heads toward the postseason.

“Just encourage him to stay aggressive, Ham said. “I’m not worried about his confidence. He’s a guy that constantly goes back to the work floor, works on his game and I expect him to do the same. But just encourage him to stay assertive, stay deliberate, stay aggressive.”

“One thing about him, he has a strong work ethic. He goes back to the drawing board. Even when he was shooting lights out, he stayed on the practice floor working on his game. And, again, I love that. I applaud that. And then finding other ways to help us. Whether it’s playcalling for Bron, AD, AR, whoever, Rui, setting screens, had a big block down the stretch tonight. Just figuring out different ways to help the team. I’m not worried about his confidence. He’ll shoot his way out of it.”

D’Angelo Russell has consistently mentioned not getting too high or too low as a player during this up-and-down season. If he’s true to his word, this dip in performance will soon be followed up by a shooting night that reminds you he just set the Lakers record for most 3-pointers in a season.

The Lakers need that version of Russell back. The team is entering the postseason with a play-in spot in hand, but their seeding is still unknown and they must prepare for another uphill battle against the best teams in the Western Conference.

No one understands Russell’s importance more than LeBron and he discussed it after the win.

“When D’Lo plays well, we all play well,” Lebron said. “When D’Lo’s aggressive, we feel pretty good about that. He’ll find his shot. We’re not worried about that.”

The consensus appears to be to let Russell stay aggressive and get the best version of him back so we can go on a run. The Lakers saw what a poor performance from Russell led to when the Nuggets swept them in the Western Conference Finals. During that four-game span, Russell averaged 6.3 points, 3.5 assists and 2.0 rebounds, leading to his benching in the final game in a feeble attempt to shake up the roster and avoid elimination.

The Lakers opted not to trade Russell during the trade deadline and they rely on him to be good for this team to be great. Hopefully, his slump is just a bump in the road and he can go back to being icy in time for the looming elimination games.