The Lakers have not had the perfect start to the seeding games inside the Orlando bubble. They had a challenging fixture against the LA Clippers and managed to snatch victory in that one. But, when the Lakers took on the Toronto Raptors, they endured a defeat. Kyle Lowry and the Raptors registered a convincing victory that puts a question mark on a whole new area on how the Lakers should prepare for their upcoming games.
An injury blow to Rajon Rondo has definitely put the Lakers in a tough spot. However, the team has a very deep roster that is capable of winning them a championship. Besides the star performers in LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the team should also rely on other players to step up and contribute.
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Following the loss to Toronto, the Lakers had a shoot around session today and coach Frank Vogel addressed the media after the session’s completion. The 47-year-old head-coach touched in on the major improvement areas for the team. Here is what Vogel said, as per Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen & Roll:
“Frank Vogel says the top things the Lakers want to work on is their screening and spacing,” Faigen informed. “He says they obviously need to make more shots, but thinks those two things will help.”
Frank Vogel says the top things the Lakers want to work on is their screening and spacing. He says they obviously need to make more shots, but thinks those two things will help.
— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) August 3, 2020
The Lakers offense did not deliver against the Raptors
Playing in a closed bubble is definitely tough. Without fans to cheer the players, they might find it difficult to sustain the motivation. The Lakers have been recording pretty sub-par shooting averages, and we are not sure what might be the reason behind it.
In the Raptors game, the Lakers only had a field goal percentage of 35.4%. That is not a very good number if you are the top seed in the western conference. Their opponents clearly took advantage of this factor and cruised to victory. Now, would this might be the reason behind Frank Vogel organizing a shootaround for his team?
“Vogel also said he wanted to practice yesterday, but that because of the weird practice availabilities, the Lakers would have been forced to do so at 6 p.m. which he didn’t want to do, and is why they decided to have a somewhat-rare mandatory shootaround today,” Harrison Faigen further reported.
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The Lakers’ offense certainly needs some tweaking if they want to breeze their way past the seeding games and get ready for the NBA playoffs. Anthony Davis gave a calm response about his quiet performance against the Raptors, but seemed to have raised a small concern over the team’s defense in a press conference a few days ago.
SOURCE: Harrison Faigen – Tweet 1, Harrison Faigen – Tweet 2