1 stud and 1 dud from Los Angeles Lakers preseason loss to Kings
The good news is that the Los Angeles Lakers are at least consistent, going 0-6 during the preseason. On Thursday night, the Lakers had one last chance to snatch a win, but fell to the Sacramento Kings, 116-112. The Kings finished the preseason 4-0.
There’s only four days left until Los Angeles hosts the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 19 to kickoff the regular season. The Lakers have been hit with injuries and the Big Three only played in the final two games together, so there’s no need to panic. The preseason can be a slight indication into how the regular season will go, but it doesn’t mean everything.
Rookie Austin Reaves has made huge leaps forward in his progress, Kent Bazemore has been impressive on the defensive end and Carmelo Anthony’s last two games have shown that his acquisition is even more valuable now that Los Angeles is down a few players.
The issues in the preseason can be fixed, but now time isn’t on the Lakers’ side. Golden State beat Los Angeles twice during the preseason and will hope to do the same on Tuesday night, especially after falling short of the playoffs last year because of the purple and gold.
There was one stud and one dud for the Los Angeles Lakers against the Sacramento Kings.
The Lakers only lost to the Kings by four points, which was their lowest margin of defeat through six games. A loss is a loss regardless of if it’s one point or 20 points, but the best thing about all of this is that these losses aren’t going to count against Los Angeles’ final record.
Expect the Lakers to continue to work through some of their issues during the start of the regular season and wait to call them out only if their problems become more prevalent. The chemistry is still being formed and injuries haven’t helped at all. There are still at least 82 games that will be played, maybe more depending on if Los Angeles makes it to the postseason. If that doesn’t happen, then the overreactions will have been justified.
The Lakers formed an interesting lineup full of NBA veterans and that alone should help them to stay towards the top of the Western Conference rankings. There was the good that happened during Thursday night’s game, but also the bad. Here’s one stud and one dud from Los Angeles’ preseason loss to the Sacramento Kings.