With four of the Los Angeles Lakers’ six preseason games now in the books, it is time for them to start ramping up for the start of the regular season.
The regular season begins Tuesday, Oct. 18 at the Golden State Warriors, and given the Lakers’ tough schedule in the first few weeks of the season, it is imperative they’re ready to hit the ground running right away.
LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley missed the last two exhibition games due to rest that head coach Darvin Ham said was planned.
He said one reason for the planned rest was so the team’s rotation players can play something that resembles regular season-type minutes in the last two preseason contests.
Darvin Ham comments on his strategy to rest key players as #Lakers face the Warriors in their third preseason game. pic.twitter.com/O8mofETzpE
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) October 9, 2022
“You look at the preseason schedule and you sit down with your guys, your main guys, top guys. And again you’re strategic about which games you want to participate in. Leave some time in the middle to see how their body reacts, to build back up and then finalize with the last two preseason games.
“I mean, we went to Pechanga, back. Vegas, back. Now we’re up here, back-to-back in the preseason, so it’s been an interesting schedule to say the least. But we feel good about the plan that we’ve set forth and we’ve left ourselves some room at certain points within the schedule that we can pivot one way or another. And we feel good, we feel good about where we are. Those last two games will be more regular season like in terms of the rotation and who’s available so we feel like we’re right on course with what we need to do.”
Fans and even some players may get tired and bored with the preseason after a few games, but it is important for figuring out rotations, building chemistry and getting players into game shape, among other things.
For a team such as the Lakers, preseason is even more important, given they have so many new players on their roster who must get used to playing with James, Westbrook and Anthony Davis.
