Through the first five games of the 2019-20 NBA season, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers are 4-1, but one major concern is the team’s slow starts.
While the Lakers certainly deserve credit for their second-half adjustments, it would be ideal to not always play from behind, especially against championship-caliber teams.
In the 119-110 win over the Dallas Mavericks, the Lakers found themselves down double-digits before Danny Green‘s eventual three-pointer in the corner forced overtime.
Following their fourth win, James detailed his thought process, according to Rodrigo Azurmendi of Lakers:
“I just tried to put it on time, on target,” a smiling James explained. “It was a little low, but he actually likes the ball sometimes a little lower for him so he gets his legs into it, and he was able to knock it down.”
While all of the attention has been on James and Green, head coach Frank Vogel deserves credit for that play and praised James’ ability to deliver the basketball to shooters:
“Nobody probably in the history of the game delivers the ball to shooters or to scorers better than LeBron James,” coach Frank Vogel said. “And when he’s scoring as well, he’s near impossible to beat.”
It was quite a start to the team’s three-game Midwest road trip. Along with James’ historic triple-double, Green showed why he is one of the best 3-and-D players in the league.
Although criticizing the slow starts may come off as nitpicking, the reality is the Lakers have a soft start to the new season. Outside of the Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz, they should be able to put together a lot of wins, which should establish and speed up the team chemistry process.
While it is still early in the season, the Lakers are showing why they are a championship contender. Led by James and Davis, their role players are starting to get healthy and Vogel will finally be able to test out different lineups soon.
After missing the NBA playoffs for six consecutive seasons, it takes good health and luck to win it all. If the Lakers stay relatively healthy and role players like Green can make clutch shots, they give themselves a legitimate chance.