Saturday marked the long-awaited Los Angeles Lakers preseason debut for rookie point guard Lonzo Ball, who was drafted with the second overall pick out of UCLA.
Much like his summer league debut, Ball struggled a little bit with his shot but still filled up the stat sheet as he finished with five points, seven rebounds and eight assists while shooting 2-of-9 from the field in a game-high 36 minutes in the 108-99 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Although it wasn’t his best game, Ball still demonstrated the impact he has on the game as he constantly was pushing the pace and finding open looks for his teammates.
But also as was the case in summer league, Ball was a bit too passive at times, as head coach Luke Walton said he wants him to be more aggressive looking to score.
Ball agreed with his head coach’s criticism, saying he is going to work on it moving forward, via Lakers Nation reporter Serena Winters:
Lonzo completely agreed with Luke on this postgame, knows he needs to work on that, says it'll come with time https://t.co/lUu9CdbI04
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) October 1, 2017
Ball has repeatedly emphasized that winning is the most important thing to him, and he has won everywhere he has gone, so if looking to score more is something that will help the team win then Ball will certainly work on improving in that area.
If Ball is able to do that then it will only help him do what he ultimately wants to do and has an unbelievable gift to do, which is get his teammates open looks.
Los Angeles Lakers(96) - Minnesota Timberwolves(103)