D'Angelo Russell will start for the Los Angeles Lakers for the remainder of the season.
Russell was moved to the bench two and a half months ago.
"It was just time," Byron Scott said when asked why he moved Russell back to the starting lineup.
"Each month he has seemed to get better," Scott continued. "He's really starting to understand what this game is all about. He still needs to pick it up at times. Obviously on both ends he needs to continue to work, but I like what I saw [Sunday], and I like what I've been seeing from him over the last couple months."
Russell has a PER of 16.3 in February and 13.1 for the season.
"I just want to get better," Russell said. "Coach always said, you've always got something to play for no matter how many games we've got left. However many games we've got left, I feel like I've still got something to prove.
"And I don't want anybody to take it the wrong way, but you feel like your best players are your starters. And I feel like I'm going to keep the confidence and say that I'm one of the best players, so I feel like I just want to keep proving that I deserve to start, deserve to be out there and play crunch time minutes.
"With these last few games, I want to show that I have to be out there, like build that trust with my coach that he has to put me on the floor."
Russell likes the opportunity to play alongside Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle.
"We can grow. We can play a lot tighter," Russell said. "There's a time when you can learn from each other as far as when one or them or myself mess up, we can figure out how to grow or we can watch film together. We should've done it earlier in the year, but I guess we were caught up in different ways. We can really take this time to grow together."