Forward Rui Hachimura welcomed the extra time off after the Los Angeles Lakers punched their ticket to the NBA playoffs with a 112-97 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday.The 49-31 Lakers are currently third in the Western Conference and will finish the season no worse than sixth, avoiding the play-in tournament for the seventh and eighth seeds.For Japan national basketball team star Hachimura, it means a chance to rest a left knee still affected by patellar tendinopathy that led to a 12-game absence through late March, followed by further limitations on his playing time."I really wan…READ FULL ARTICLE