The Los Angeles Lakers have gotten off to a rough start this preseason, long their first four games with a majority of them being blowouts.
The reason their isn’t much cause for concern though is that the Lakers are a brand new team and their big three of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook have yet to see a single minute on the floor together.
That is expected to change on Tuesday night though as Anthony Davis revealed after Sunday night’s loss to the Phoenix Suns that all three of them will suit up together for the first time against the Warriors.
“Obviously we’re missing one of our key pieces and we’ll get a chance to see how that looks with everybody except Talen and Malik on Tuesday. But we showed some good things, we’re still trying to figure out like Melo said, rotations and work through the kinks of our defense and guys are getting on the same page, this was the first game I played with Russ. So just trying to get used to him, he’s trying to get used to me and then it will be a totally different story come Tuesday with Bron playing, all three of us and Melo, me playing the five. So we’re just trying to figure it out, that’s what preseason is for, that’s what film is for and we’ll work through it and be prepared come the 18th, 19th, whenever the Opening Night game is.”
With only two preseason games to go before Opening Night, this is huge for the Lakers as they have to build some sort of continuity.
Everyone knows that the pairing of James and Davis works really well together, but the addition of Westbrook adds more wrinkles that need to be worked out, and the only way to do that is with time on the court together. Davis also revealed that he will be starting at center on Tuesday, which could be a sign of where he will start on Opening Night.
Meanwhile, Westbrook has struggled in each of his first two preseason games with the Lakers, turning the ball over a combined 15 times. THat could just be a case of overpassing though as he continues to get used to playing with his new teammates, which is part of why it’s important for them to have as much time together in the preseason.
James doesn’t take much from preseason
For the most part though, James doesn’t agree with that sentiment as he recently stated that he takes more from training camp practices than preseason games.
“I just want to continue to play ball, continue to work our habits, things of that nature. Preseason is, I care more about the practice court than I care about the preseason games,” James said. “You get out there, you play rotations, they’re trying to figure out and things of that nature, so there’s no much you can get out of a preseason game for me individually. But I love our practices. I love to see what are we doing as a team to work behind closed doors. So I don’t know, I don’t really put too much in the preseason, to be honest.”
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