Los Angeles Lakers: What to watch for in preseason finale

The final preseason game is here for the Los Angeles Lakers. Here are a few things to watch.

The Los Angeles Lakers gave the Las Vegas fans a lot to remember on Wednesday night! Let’s see if they can do it again tonight. The Lakers will suit up again and play the Golden State Warriors in a very hyped rematch (Twitter is something folks!) to Wednesday’s game in Sin City!

The Lakers beat out the champs 123-113  in probably the most hyped preseason game in history. Maybe not however, the game was the highest rated preseason game in ESPN history…

Hopefully the stars will come out and do a repeat performance for both teams. The Splash Brothers, Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry will probably score more than 20 points while Kevin Durant will probably get more than the 18 points he got in Las Vegas.

The one thing that ESPN, fans and more importantly the NBA hopes more than anything is that Kevin Durant doesn’t foul out in third quarter. That is not a typo…this is a true story! HE REALLY DID FOUL OUT IN THE THIRD QUARTER! I get that the NBA is implementing rules to stop the holding of the defensive players to open up scoring, but the game lost a lot of steam after Durant fouled out. Maybe that’s why he left soon after he fouled out…

Hopefully this doesn’t happen again. Okay, let me get off my soap box…

Anyway…here’s what Lakers fans need to look out for during the game…

How long will LeBron James play?

Up until this point, the Los Angeles Lakers have put together a routine for LeBron James and his minutes throughout the preseason. The magic number has been around 15 minutes for all the games he has played (He sat out the Clippers game for rest.) I’ve been saying that if LeBron James plays more than 20 minutes, somebody needs to be fired. Tonight Lakers fans AGAIN, things might be different.

He’s not playing…sorry!

Against the champs in Vegas, LeBron James logged 18 minutes and was efficiently off the charts scoring 15 points, grabbed ten rebounds and dished out five assists. To put this in perspective, the man was on his way to a triple-double in the first half! But the Lakers need him next week and not tonight.

Let’s reminisce shall we on the good times!

…the Lonzo Ball fans can enjoy the alley oop highlight again!

Okay it would have been nice to see LeBron James play. But before you get mad, I’ll say it again…one ankle turn or hamstring pull and the Lakers are one step to the lottery. They need James healthy for next week…That’s it, end of story. Moving on.

2. Will the backcourt score?

This will be very interesting considering Lonzo Ball will be playing. The major question going into this game is…how will Lonzo Ball fit into the scheme of positionless basketball that Luke Walton is trying to implement? He played well even though his first shot was an air ball (Again Twitter is brutal folks!).

I liked his aggressiveness on the floor…

I’m going to beat this quote into the ground…

"This is an extremely important area of emphasis. Eventually, teams are going to pack it in the paint and demand Rondo (and eventually Ball) to consistently hit the jumper during the season. That’s the NBA folks. Whatever this positionless basketball the Lakers are selling will not work if everyone is not contributing on the offensive end. Good teams will isolate these guys and take advantage if they don’t look at the basket. The backcourt has to look for their offense and not look to LeBron James for everything."

This is the barometer of the Lakers success…

They win when they get contributions from the backcourt. In their victory against the Sacramento Kings, they got 60 points. In the loss to the Clippers, the Lakers only got 30 points.

The Los Angeles Lakers basically split the difference and got 41 points from the backcourt. Good news right? Well Rajon Rondo and Josh Hart scored the same amount of points last game as I did writing this piece and you did reading it. There are a lot of moving parts and the Lakers have to figure out how to get these players in positions to succeed in this positionless offense.

Rondo, KCP, Josh Hart are not playing tonight which means…Lonzo Ball plays a ton tonight! Get your LaVar Ball quotes ready!

It is interesting that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is not playing tonight! I feel that he had to build on his 20 points he scored in Vegas. He has not played well this preseason, maybe this was a possible turning point.

Look for a post game report after the game. Leave comments below. Lake Show Life is about you, the Los Angeles Lakers fans. Let’s enjoy the journey together this season.