The Los Angeles Lakers are officially back in action and started the 2020-21 season with a loss.
The Los Angeles Lakers received their championship rings on Tuesday night and also received their first loss of the season via the Los Angeles Clippers.
There is still a lot of basketball left to play (71 regular-season games, to be exact), so this one game does not really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. However, it was our first real look at the regular-season Lakers.
There are going to be hiccups. The Lakers are coming off the shortest offseason in American sports history and have a superstar who is turning 36 years old on December 30. It might get a little bumpy early on, and there will be improvements that need to be made.
Some will come over time, some will vary from game to game. Here are 3 improvements that the Los Angeles Lakers need to make ahead of their Christmas Day matchup against the Dallas Mavericks.
1. LeBron James and Anthony Davis need bigger games
This is going to be the story of the 2020-21 season. The Los Angeles Lakers are going to be extremely cautious with LeBron and Anthony Davis and that showed in this game. LeBron James played just 28 minutes, while Anthony Davis played 31 minutes.
Even with a smaller workload, the superstar duo definitely could have done more. LeBron and AD combined for 40 points on 15-32 shooting with 12 boards, seven assists and eight turnovers.
The Lakers need these two to combine for at least 50 points when they are playing top-tier competition like the Los Angeles Clippers. The Lakers lost by seven and the superstar duo came 10 points short of combining for 50.
They do not need to play crazy basketball like they did in the NBA Playoffs, especially this early in the regular season. LeBron at 22-25 and AD at 25-28 on any given night is doable.