The Los Angeles Lakers are back in action and their second scrimmage game comes against the Orlando Magic.
The Los Angeles Lakers returned to our television screens on Thursday in a scrimmage game against the Dallas Mavericks. This was the first time that we have seen the Lakers in action in over four months, and while the team lost, there were some important lessons that we learned from that game.
Laker fans do not have to wait another four months for the team to be in action again as they are back on the hardwood on Saturday against the Orlando Magic. Tip-off is slated for 9 a.m. PDT, so get your coffee and Saturday morning breakfast ready for some Laker basketball.
Coming off the heels of the first scrimmage, with a different kind of opponent in the Orlando Magic, here are three things that we are going to be keeping an eye on during Saturday morning’s scrimmage.
1. How the bigs fair
The Dallas Mavericks are a team that has no shortage of size with Kristaps Porzingis and Boban Marjanovic on the roster but the Orlando Magic have the most talented center of the two teams in Nikola Vucevic.
Behind him is another talented, young big man in Mo Bamba, who still has not fully come into his own in the NBA but is still a valuable rim-protector.
One of the Lakers’ biggest advantages over other teams in the Western Conference is their size and ability to protect the rim. We saw how much of an impact the Lakers’ bigs can have as well, as JaVale McGee had a really solid 13-point game on 6/8 shooting in only 11 minutes.
Dwight Howard was less efficient than he typically was and there did seem to be some rust for the veteran big man. However, he still scored nine points and hauled in seven boards in only 14 minutes of play.
It will be interesting to see how much the Lakers can get the bigs involved in this game as well as how efficiently they can limit Vucevic.