Over the course of the first two games of the 2023-24 NBA regular season for the Los Angeles Lakers, the storied franchise hasn’t shown too much to be proud of, as the defending champion Denver Nuggets wiped the floor with them in the league’s season opener and the Phoenix Suns took them down to the wire without Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.
Losing to arguably the best team in the league to start the season isn’t anything to panic about, but they were more motivated than usual going into that game due to all the trash-talking the Nuggets were doing in the offseason.
As for the close game against the Suns, that’s inexcusable, as the Lakers were at full strength outside of missing Jarred Vanderbilt and rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino, who would not have seen the floor anyway.
It seems as though the Lakers can’t lean on Anthony Davis to shoulder the load as the team’s best player, as they always have to go back to relying on a 38-year-old LeBron James to help will them to a win.
This is obviously a concern, as Nick Wright of FOX Sports pointed out on “First Things First.”
“The Lakers are going to rely on their best player — LeBron. He is the oldest guy in the league, he’s 500 minutes short of Kareem’s record, and who had the most juice in the tank in the final 4 minutes? LeBron James.”
— @getnickwright on LeBron, AD and the Lakers: pic.twitter.com/OpIQDUlere
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) October 27, 2023
One of the biggest storylines about the season opener against the Nuggets is James being on a 30-minute restriction, which head coach Darvin Ham stuck with.
That minute restriction was broken two nights later, with James needing to play 34 minutes to get the best of a Suns team that was down two star players.
Even though the Lakers are a talented team that might be able to turn things around, there’s reason for concern in Los Angeles moving forward.
NEXT:
Chris Broussard Has Strong Criticism For The Lakers