Led by Anthony Davis and LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers are off to a roaring 24-4 start to the 2019-20 NBA season.
This start gives them the best record in the Western Conference by several games and has them tied for the NBA’s best record with the Milwaukee Bucks. They’ll match up with the Bucks to determine which team will have the best record in the league for the time being.
Many didn’t believe the Lakers could get off to this good of a start, likely due to the number of new pieces the team added in the 2019 NBA offseason. However, the Lakers have taken some of the doubts that people had and converted it into their own chemistry, which has helped to develop this roster at an extremely quick pace.
Davis spoke about how connected this Lakers team is because of their ability to win in multiple ways while also playing great basketball on both ends of the floor, via NBA TV:
“Yeah, I mean as far as the things we’re doing on both ends of the floor, the way we’re winning games in multiple ways, this team is very connected.”
Despite this, Davis said the team does not feel any increased pressure to win a championship this season, even though that is their goal. He also said head coach Frank Vogel has done a great job keeping expectations in check:
“Not really because we know what we have to do and Coach always makes sure we don’t get too high, we don’t get too low. And we don’t really down ourselves like, ‘Oh man, we should’ve beat this team by 30, we only won by 6.’ You know, we’re going to take a win how they come, a win is a win, especially when we’re on the road. We want to make sure we do as much as we can to stay on track and get there and we want to make sure we stay in the moment. And that no matter what, whatever we do as a team, the Finals is our goal.”
This team as a whole has done a great job making sure they don’t overhype themselves. Often times, good teams overemphasize what they’re capable of and it can come back to haunt them.
But as Davis said, Vogel and his crew have done well to keep everything in check with this Lakers team and this likely contributes to the connection he spoke about. Good chemistry is everything for new teams and the Lakers seem to be flooded with it through the first quarter of the season.
