One of the forgotten storylines as the Los Angeles Lakers took on the Phoenix Suns in the preseason finale was the first meeting between the team and former head coach Frank Vogel. It was Vogelm of course, who was at the helm during the team’s run to the 2020 NBA Championship led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Both LeBron and Davis had excellent games against their former coach as well with the latter wrecking absolute havoc on the Suns, particularly on the defensive end. The Lakers big man had 15 points and a ridiculous six blocks in his 23 minutes on the court.
Afterwards, Vogel admitted that being on the other end of Davis’ defensive dominance is much worse than being on his side and believes the Lakers provided a good test for his Suns, via Clutch Points:
“It’s a lot easier coaching him than coaching against him, I’ll tell you that. He’s a handful and it was actually a great preseason game for us because D-Lo and Austin and LeBron as handlers, with AD rolling to the basket, that’s as tough a cover as you’re gonna get. They beat us a bunch of times, and when you get beat like that it forces us to tighten the screws on our coverages and how we’re gonna try to limit guys like that. It was a good test for us.”
Davis showed last season that he is still one of, if not the best defender, in the entire NBA and he has carried that over to this year. Very few big men have the agility to switch out on the perimeter, but still protect the rim at an elite level like Davis. He is truly a one of a kind player.
Vogel also made sure to note how difficult the Lakers are to defend with three outstanding playmakers in LeBron, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell, along with one of the best roll guys in Davis. That group of four with a fifth shooter like Taurean Prince gives the Lakers everything they could want in an offensive lineup and dealing with it caused Vogel to see some areas where his Suns need to improve defensively.
Anthony Davis discusses what Lakers need to clean up after preseason
All eyes for the Lakers now turn to Opening Night of the regular season. There were a lot of positives for the Lakers this preseason, but Davis also knows there’s some things the team needs to clean up as well.
“It’s a lot of good. Things to clean up,” Davis said. “Transition which has kind of been the thing for us that hurt us last year, little bit in preseason this year so far. I like the team that we have, the spacing that we have on the floor, the continuity that we have from last season. New guys are coming in and fitting right in perfectly, getting acclimated very quickly.
“Defensive rebounding is still a point of emphasis for us, but overall I like how we looked from top to bottom. I think we came in and showed what we could be. Now you get a couple days to kind of regroup and tighten the screws up and then go back into an environment we just ended in and try to get our first win.”
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