A heartbreaking overtime defeat to the San Antonio Spurs dropped the Los Angeles Lakers to 0-3 on the young season. It marked their first such start since opening the 2016 season at 0-4.
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For LeBron James, it’s his first time starting a season 0-3 since his rookie year with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Despite the unideal start to the season, Lakers head coach Luke Walton remains focused on the positives with his team.
He may have been critical of the officials following Monday’s loss, but Walton otherwise is content with what his team has showed so far.
“Overall, very pleased with our guys,” Walton said after his rant. “That’s three games we’ve been in and had a chance to win. Obviously, it’s about winning and losing at the end of the day here but for us, bigger picture, we’re working on getting better.”
There is no doubt that the Lakers still have plenty to work on. Primarily defending without fouling has been an issue and players such as James and Josh Hart are still struggling with the defensive rule changes.
With that, Walton sees the team improving already. “We’ve gotten better. It’s been a month together, really,” he said. “We’re rebounding the ball better. Our assist numbers are up where we want; we haven’t even started making shots really.
“The way we want to play, the pace has been great. All these things as far as who we are as a team, have been happening. Now we’ve got to close out games, we’ve got to get stops down the stretch, not foul down the stretch, things like that. I feel very good about where we’re headed.”
One thing that is for sure is that the Lakers have been in every game so far this season with a chance to win. They may have come up short, but if Walton’s team continues to improve in those areas he laid out, it’s only a matter of time before the Lakers start piling up wins.