Los Angeles Lakers: Luke Walton saw good things in loss to Nuggets

Despite the Los Angeles Lakers losing their preseason opener, Luke Walton saw things that he liked.

The Los Angeles Lakers were unable to win their preseason opener against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night, as they lost by a score of 124-107.

As expected, we didn’t see a ton of LeBron James in this game, as he played just 15 minutes. James played well in his preseason Lakers debut, as it was great to see him out there with his young teammates despite being a veteran.

The Lakers were only able to win one quarter against the Nuggets, as they showed some good moments, but their consistency wasn’t there the entire night. After the game, Lakers head coach, Luke Walton, talked about the game and what he saw from his team. Here’s what he had to say via LakersNation.com.

"“We know a lot of these guys are playing out of position. They’ve had some reps in practice but they hadn’t gone against other NBA guys. We knew that it could get frustrating, and it was at times, but we also had moments where it was really good. We got stops and were able to get out and run and see what that can look like.”"

Coming into the game, we knew that we were going to be seeing some interesting lineups for the Lakers. Walton did not disappoint, as we did see the small lineup with Kuzma at the center position. This was rumored to be happening, and we indeed saw it early on.

Playing the small-ball lineup against the Nuggets was certainly a good test for the Lakers. With a true center in Nikola Jokic, this was an excellent time to test it out. Overall, the Lakers did struggle to rebound as a team, as the Nuggets outrebounded them 50-37. This will certainly be an area for the team to work on for the rest of the preseason and before the regular season starts.

Even though it was a loss, the Lakers now have some experience with their lineups and there were certainly some positive takeaways from the game. The Lakers will be back in action on Tuesday night, and we will have to see if they can have a bit more consistency than what we saw on Sunday night.