Guys, the Lakers seem pretty good.

The Lakers hit a low point on their road trip, finishing with a loss to the Hawks. Since then, they have won eight of their last 11 games, with Friday’s victory over Atlanta showing how far they have come.

It wasn’t a victory without mistakes. The Lakers turned the ball over a lot, took Atlanta to the line a little too often and were lucky that the Hawks had an off night from beyond the arc.

At the same time, they dominated the glass, going 13:30 even from the 3-point line and putting up an impressive performance off the bench.

All in all, it’s a back-to-back and three home wins over four games.

So, let’s dive into victory. As always, grades are based on each player’s expectations. The grade “B” represents the average performance of that player.

Rui Hachimura

24 minutes, 13 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 6-9 FG, 1-3 3PT, 0-1 FT, +10

Rui thrived on baseline cuts in this game. Jalen Johnson spent a lot of the time “guarding” him, but no matter who was in charge of him, Rui repeatedly burned them by simply cutting behind them for easy completions at the rim.

He might be inconsistent and you might want him to score more, but it felt like a really nice game pitting him against the Lakers’ stars.

Grade: B+

LeBron James

30 minutes, 30 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 13-20 FG, 2-5 3PT, 2-2 FT, +4

I admit that I was very worried about what LeBron would have left in the tank after he played so hard against the Blazers on Friday.

I was completely wrong!

LeBron had an incredible finish to that homestand. Over the course of the game, he shot 28-45 from the field and 9-15 from the 3-point line. He also finished this game with incredible shots in the fourth period.

You couldn’t expect much more from him in a normal game, let alone on the second night of back-to-back games.

Grade: A

Anthony Davis

37 minutes, 18 points, 19 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks, 6-17 FG, 0-2 3PT, 6-7 FT, +17

It wasn’t AD’s best shooting performance in his return to the lineup, but he did just about everything else possible on the night. It didn’t drop off particularly much from a 5×5 either.

Defensively, he wreaked havoc at the rim and put the Hawks in fear of getting to the basket. He was dominant in that regard that night.

Grade: A

Austin Reaves

39 minutes, 20 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 6-18 FG, 3-7 3PT, 5-6 FT, +18

Austin found himself on the opposite end of the spectrum from LeBron this time. He finished the two games shooting 11-for-33 from the field and 5-for-16 from the 3-point line.

Even worse, him fought I’m taking care of the ball here. While he offset his shots with playmaking on Thursday, he added six turnovers to his struggles against the Hawks.

If you have concerns about Reaves’ ability to step up as a playmaker against a quality fullback like Dyson Daniels, Friday’s game didn’t offer much optimism.

Grade: C

Max Christie

32 minutes, 9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 3-4 FG, 1-2 3PT, 2-3 FT, +14

Christie followed up his career night with a much quieter but still productive outing on Friday.

One area that either needs some work or needs to be abandoned is the two-man game between LeBron and Christie. The Hawks put Trae Young on Christie and as LeBron looked for the mismatch, the two-man game between the two didn’t feel entirely smooth.

For now, give them a few more reps to see how it works. But in big games, how often LeBron chases mismatches could be an issue.

Grade: B

Dorian Finney Smith

23 minutes, 8 points, 5 rebounds, 3-5 FG, 2-3 3PT, +12

The two things I’ve enjoyed most about playing DFS with the Lakers so far:

1. He is always in the right place
   2. The team plays better when he is on the floor

These things don’t always show up in the box score, but if you watch the game it’s clear. However, winning two three-pointers on Friday helped prove his impact.

Grade: B+

Cam Reddish

13 minutes, 3 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1-2 FG, 1-2 3PT, +1

There really isn’t much I can add about Cam’s minutes at this point in the season. I don’t think he will play if the squad is fully healthy. Other than that, he is what he is.

Grade: B

Shake Milton

13 minutes, 2 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 0-3 FG, 0-2 3PT, 2-2 FT, +1

Milton is a perfectly adequate third point guard for a team. He’s okay in the crucial minutes, but otherwise you can’t rely on him and you don’t want him to play in important games.

Did I mention his sweater is hideous?

Grade: B+

Jaxson Hayes

11 minutes, 3 points, 1 rebound, 1-2 FG, 1-2 FT, +0

Here too I would like to withhold judgment. Hayes said after Thursday’s game that he was out of shape after a nearly two-month absence. I give him the benefit of the doubt and let him try to get himself back into shape.

That being said, I’m always more interested in what Koloko can do as opposed to what Hayes can do in a rotation.

Grade: B-

Dalton Knecht

15 minutes, 13 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 4-7 FG, 3-4 3PT, 2-2 FT, +6

I missed seeing those 3-point shots fall for Dalton. It was a pleasant sight and hopefully it’s a sign that he’s broken through the rookie wall.

Grade: A-

Bronny James

At the end of the game he played 101 seconds. No grade.

JJ Redick

I liked the return to more traditional casting, even if Hayes wasn’t very good. I didn’t like using a challenge early in the game with a pretty meaningless out-of-bounds call. JJ is very generous with how he uses his challenges, but if he wins them, I think that’s good enough.

Grade: B+

Inactive on Friday: Jalen Hood-Schifino, Armel Traore, Quincy Olivari, Christian Wood, Christian Koloko, Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.