The good news is that your Los Angeles Lakers had a strong first half performance in their first preseason game of the 2022–23 season, when Darvin Ham actually implemented a rotation that was similar to what his club will use during the regular season. The bad news is that Sacramento’s transition-heavy attack ran over L.A.’s youthful reserves in the second half, leaving them helpless.
Malik Monk and Kent Bazemore, two longtime pals, were in town tonight. In a sluggish second half, their new club, the Sacramento Kings, destroyed L.A.’s youth to easily win 105-75 on the Lakers’ home court at Crypto.com Arena.
However, considering that it is only the preseason, several new Lakers have already made an impression in their purple-and-gold outings. In particular, Patrick Beverley, Juan Toscano-Anderson, and the team’s two hyper-athletic centers Thomas Bryant and Damian Jones impressed.
Russell Westbrook played a little more composedly than normal, LeBron James struggled from the field, and maybe most crucially, Anthony Davis didn’t appear to be bothered by his back.
The starting five that new head coach Darvin Ham had been using during training camp the previous week—6’3″ Russell Westbrook at point guard, 6’2″ Kendrick Nunn at shooting guard, LeBron James at small forward, Anthony Davis at power forward, and Damian Jones at center—was used during the first quarter.
