The Los Angeles Lakers picked up right where they left off in their first scrimmage in Orlando. They may have lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 108-104, as their stars stayed in the second half after building a lead in the first half, but they showed many of the same strengths they had before the season break. (Anthony Davis and LeBron James), as well as some of the same weaknesses (lack of consistent bench play, or game makers outside of James).
James and Davis showed no signs of rust as they scored 12 points each in their 15 minutes each of playing time. James added 5 assists and 3 rebounds, while Davis stole 2 steals by offering a reminder of why he’s a Defensive Player of the Year contender. It’s just pointless scrimmage, but the things that worked for the Lakers seem to work, even after a long layoff. There were a couple of good runs driven by both offense and defense, and this team is making a lot of clicking with its stars on the ground.
The new Laker Dion Waiters also had an impact on his debut, scoring nine points and sinking as many Dion Waiters shots as he could have taken.
It seems like Waiters should be able to ease James’s burden on the ball a bit instead of Rajon Rondo, but bench play can be a problem overall (although to be fair, the Lakers missed Alex Caruso in this case). Purple and gold again seemed ineffective in their minutes without James and Davis on the floor after racking up an 11-point lead at halftime, outside of nearly returning behind a JR Smith / Quinn Cook barrier in the final minutes afterward. that the Mavericks had Abandoned.
Again, this was just scrimmage that doesn’t make sense in the long run, but finding the right lineup combinations for the Lakers to play surviving basketball without James on the floor will be one of the biggest questions Frank Vogel and his coaching staff will face in Disney world
We will have more information about this game later, but for now, the most important thing to keep in mind is that it was nice to have basketball again. For now, that’s the most significant conclusion of this.
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