Lakers: 3 Takeaways From the Preseason Loss vs Sacramento Kings
After three impressive defensive outings to start off the preseason, The Lakers struggled against a short-handed Sacramento team.
The Kings were deadly efficient from long range, drilling 13 of their 21 threes, many of them wide open. It was particularly bad day for the bench unit, who gave up seven threes to Tolliver and four to former Laker Jordan Farmer.
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While it was certainly their night from beyond the arc, poor rotations and slow closeouts from both the starters and helped Sacramento go on sizable runs quickly.
Outside of Timofey Mozgov, who continues to impress on both sides of the ball, nearly every Laker sputtered on the defensive end. Spurts of small ball with Julius Randle at center were particularly bad, as communication between the young group broke down consistency, especially on pick and rolls.
The result was several open layups and lob plays, easy points for a team that was already shooting 62 percent from three point range. While Randle showed some flashes on offense, especially pushing the ball in transition, the rotations are still a work in progress on the other end.
But enough of the bad, lets move on to the bright spots on offense.