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The NBA season opener for the Los Angeles Lakers went about as poorly as possible. It’s definitely not time to worry but it is a reminder that it might take some time for this group to get going. Along with the Miami Heat, the Lakers had the shortest offseason of any team in the league.
The returning players from last season really haven’t had much time to rest. They also haven’t had much time to practice. Based on what we saw on Tuesday night, the team isn’t in shape quite yet. That includes LeBron James. If anybody deserves a pass, it’s the 35-year-old superstar. However, Skip Bayless went after LeBron for being out of shape.
LeBron isn’t a young man anymore so it’s going to take some time for him to get his legs under him. He didn’t have an awful game. He led the Lakers in scoring with 22 points and picked up five assists and rebounds. He did that while not playing most of the fourth quarter. He’ll get back into form eventually.
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LeBron’s Ankle Should Be Fine
A big reason he sat out for most of the fourth quarter is that he rolled his ankle in the game. While it doesn’t seem serious, there’s absolutely no reason to risk anything this early in the season.
“I turned it pretty good, but I don’t think it’s going to stop me from playing on Friday,” LeBron said Tuesday. “So, have a couple days, you know how I am about treatment, so I’ll do that around the clock and I think I should be fine by then.”
It’s possible that fans won’t be able to attend playoff games this season so homecourt advantage shouldn’t matter too much. If the Lakers don’t finish with the top seed in the Western Conference, they should be fine come playoff time.
Lakers Are Going to Be Conservative to Start Season
The Lakers wanted to dominate the NBA last season and they did. However, they’ve proved their point and don’t really need to go too hard this regular season. Head coach Frank Vogel isn’t going to risk anything early in the season.
“We’re going to be conservative with their minutes early on in the season, and we have the depth to do it,” Vogel said. “We didn’t play well enough to win the game tonight, but we have the depth to manage their minutes intelligently early on in the season while we’re trying to get our legs under us. And we’ll continue to do so.”
The Lakers have much better depth this season so relying more on new and younger players would be wise. Everybody knows LeBron and Anthony Davis are going to show up in the playoffs. They just need to make sure they stay healthy. The postseason is still really far off so the Lakers have plenty of time to improve. The Clippers whooped the Lakers early last season and we all know how that ended.
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