The Los Angles Lakers had a bit of a rough preseason, going just 1-5 in their six tune-up games. It’s a bit concerning for a team that missed the playoffs last season.
L.A. ended its preseason with another blowout loss to the Sacramento Kings on Friday, and superstar LeBron James later talked about teams like the Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns as contenders in the Western Conference.
LeBron James tonight acknowledging that Clippers are among the top teams in West and have built up chemistry that Lakers are catching up to pic.twitter.com/FzDCqeS2Vc
— Law Murray 📱 (@LawMurrayTheNU) October 15, 2022
“That’s just to name of a few of the teams that’s gonna come out and be ready to go right from the jump because of the chemistry they’ve had for quite a while now,” he said after listing the Clippers, Nuggets and Suns. “So, we’re one of the teams that has to continue to learn on the fly and not waste a day.”
James definitely makes a good point, as the Lakers are currently adjusting to the system that new head coach Darvin Ham is implementing. Ham and Frank Vogel, who coached the Lakers for the past three seasons, have two very different styles.
The Lakers also have a bunch of new faces on their roster after acquiring players like Patrick Beverley, Lonnie Walker IV, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Thomas Bryant and Damian Jones during the offseason in an effort to become younger. Kendrick Nunn also essentially counts as a new player due to the fact that he didn’t play at all in the 2021-22 campaign.
Beverley is 34 years old, so he goes against the idea of getting younger, but he plays with tons of energy. He’s an older player the Lakers definitely need on the team.
In its six preseason games, Los Angeles actually faced off against some pretty decent teams. It played the Suns once, Kings twice, Minnesota Timberwolves twice and Golden State Warriors once.
All of those teams should be interesting to watch in the upcoming season. Los Angeles is set to have a couple of tough outings to open its regular season, as it will face the Warriors on the road on opening night and then host the Clippers two days later.
It’s really a big year for James and company. After the disappointment and embarrassment of last season, the Lakers are hoping for a bounce-back season.
The talent is definitely there, but talent can only get a team so far. Chemistry is arguably the most important thing, and it seems like James knows that he and his teammates are going to have to put in extra work in order to really step things up this season.
