This week in Lakers basketball

The Lakers went 1-1 this week with a loss against the Nuggets in Denver, followed by a home win against the Phoenix Suns.

While still very early, we can already begin to notice some patterns and themes from this team. Let’s recap what we’ve seen from these first couple of games and what we can expect going forward.

Shooting Struggles and Second Chance Points

The Lakers’ shooting performance so far has not been ideal. LA is just outside the bottom third of the league in FG% and is 28th in 3P%, at 44.3% and 25.9%, respectively.

Both would’ve been the worst in the league last year and while we can expect a bump in efficiency as the season goes by, these shooting struggles early will be something that we have to improve upon.

Not only has the Lakers’ shooting efficiency been underwhelming, but the lack of second-chance points has also been a severe detriment to the offensive output.

LA ranks 29th in second-chance points, averaging a mere five a game, significantly less than their average of 13.5 a season ago.

One sign of encouragement is the Lakers are averaging 10.5 offensive rebounds per game up to this point compared to last season’s average of 10, indicating that while they are not yet capitalizing on second-chance opportunities, they have been doing a fine job of getting them.

A bump in second-chance points can be expected going forward as the total shooting efficiency should improve.

AD’s Inconsistency

Anthony Davis’ inconsistency was a major point of conversation during the Lakers’ playoff run. Davis consistently flipped between strong and weak performances on the offensive end during that span, and it’s something we’re starting to see at the beginning of this season as well.

After scoring 17 points on 6-11 shooting in the first half of Tuesday night’s loss, Davis went 0-6 in the second half, which tanked the offensive production.

While Davis did bounce back and score 30 on 10-17 from the field on Thursday, AD may continue his offensive struggles game by game.

Most concerning is the quality of team performance with LeBron James off the court.

With James likely to be held to a minute restriction throughout the regular season, the Lakers must be reliant on AD to step into a more prominent role both offensively and defensively when James is out of the game. For more on that, read here.

LA has an abysmal net rating of -52.9 with James off the court and a -3.7 net rating with Davis on the court this season. Davis will need to be more capable of handling a larger responsibility with James off the court if the LakeShow is to be at the top of the west throughout the regular season.

While not necessarily the strongest start, we expect this team to bounce back into form quickly.

Against two quality opponents this week, the Lakers have shown they can compete with solid teams, even when they’re not at their best. Their next shot comes Sunday at home against the Sacramento Kings.