Full throttle for Lakers: Frank Vogel says L.A. will play hard from opening tip

Lakers have to balance recovery with recreating winning culture

Don’t expect the Los Angeles Lakers to gently dip their toes in the water and ease into the regular season.

According to Los Angeles head coach Frank Vogel, his Lakers are jumping head-first into the deep end of the pool -- to a point.

Vogel said his team’s competitive mindset and focus on the defensive side of the floor is the reason they emerged victorious from the bubble in Orlando with the franchise’s 17th NBA title.

“The first thing you have to understand when you’re trying to repeat is it’s going to harder than the year before,” Vogel said. “The bull’s eye is going to be bigger. We played longer than everybody else and have a shorter offseason than everybody else. So, the odds are stacked against us from that standpoint, and the identity of what and who we were last year has got to be repeated, if we’re going to try and repeat as champions.

“We’ve got to have that defensive mindset. That’s going to be the first message at the opening of camp. And togetherness. Sharing the basketball and selflessness, those two things were pillars for us last year, and it will have to be the same for this year.”

However, due to the condensed offseason and limited amount of time players got for recovery, Vogel will have to balance ramping up things at the start of training camp, which began on Sunday, to making sure players have let their bodies recover enough from a rigorous postseason.

Specifically, veteran players that logged a lot of minutes during the team’s deep playoff run like LeBron James and Anthony Davis will get ample time to recover in the lead-up to the team’s first regular season game on Dec. 22 -- and likely will see limited and perhaps no time in L.A.’s four preseason games.

“We want to make sure we’re easing guys in that did not have a normal offseason, the guys that are returning from playing in a championship last year with our team,” Vogel said. “We don’t’ want to overdo it early with those guys, but at the same time the games are coming up very quickly -- so also don’t ease in so much that we make them vulnerable for those games to injury.

“So, we’re going to have on a day-to-day basis try to strike that balance.”

Despite the condensed training camp, Vogel said his approach to the regular season will be the same -- play harder and care more about the game than their opponent.

“We will play every minute of every regular season game like it’s the championship,” Vogel said. “Because that’s part of what won for us in the playoffs last year is that mindset -- that every time we’re on the floor, we’re playing harder than our opponent, period. We’re caring more than our opponent, period.

“This is just a way of life for us. If I talk about -- so we’re not unclear -- if I talk about easing into this season, it’s really about understanding where guys are from a conditioning standpoint, from an offseason recovery standpoint and just making sure there’s a proper buildup in camp with that.

“Bu when we get into the season, for sure every game that we play, we’re playing to play harder than our opponent and care more about that night’s victory more than our opponent, because that’s the No. 1 habit that you can build throughout the regular season, is the habit of winning. Having that mindset every time we stepped on the floor paid dividends for us in the playoffs, and that’s going to be the mindset this year. And what I like about it is that doesn’t have to mean guys are going to play 45 minutes a night. We have such great depth, that we can balance that out, while still having the five guys on the floor competing like hell.”