4 Points of Improvement Early in the Lakers Season

The Los Angeles Lakers are six games into their 2022 season, and there have already been ups and downs as they have started with a 3-3 record. 

The Lakers are again one of the favorites to win the title this year after their haul of reinforcements this past offseason, headlined by former MVP Russell Westbrook.

The Lakers have certainly shown their flashes of brilliance.

Let’s take a look into what the Lakers can still improve on after seeing them in the first 2 weeks of action this season. 

Taking Care of the Ball

The fewer turnovers you have, the more possessions and chances you have to score the ball. It’s pretty simple. Every team should always be cautious and try their best to prevent turnovers. The Lakers have not done a good job on this so far, as they are in the bottom 5 teams in terms of turnovers averaging over 17 a game. 

It’s still early in the season, and the Lakers are working on getting their chemistry down, and hopefully, they start protecting the ball more as the season goes on.

POLL

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Better Defense

Defense wins championships, a line that has been heard time and again. It’s a fact that the better your defense is, the better chances you have at winning basketball games. The Lakers so far have not been playing good defense this season. They’ve been giving up the 3rd most points to their opponents, who have been averaging 116.5 points per game against the Purple & Gold. The Lakers also have the 4th worst defensive rating in the league. 

The Lakers are an offensive powerhouse with all the talent they have, but their defense needs to step up for the team to produce more wins. 

Crashing the Boards

The Lakers have a lot of dominant rebounders like Anthony Davis, Deandre Jordan, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, and even Russell Westbrook. With names like that, you would expect the Purple & Gold to be one of the best rebounding teams in the league. But that hasn’t been the case so far, as the Lakers are currently ranked 5th worst in the league in rebounds. 

LeBron and the boys must put a little more effort into crashing the boards to ensure they get stops and more opportunities on offense. 

Overall Aggressiveness

The Lakers have been quite lackluster in their overall effort and aggressiveness on the court. They are not hustling on defense, lacking the drive to get rebounds, and not attacking the paint as much as they should. 

It’s still early in the season for sure, and we all know Frank Vogel and the Lakers will surely make the adjustments needed along the way.

Hopefully, the team can get it going and start to make the charge towards the top of the Western Conference soon.

 Featured Image: Andrew Bernstein/NBA.com