Preview: Lakers Vs. Utah Jazz
Lakers coach Frank Vogel was asked Monday morning what the team needs to improve upon following their first two seeding games of the resumed NBA season.
"Other than everything?" Vogel asked, with a laugh.
The Lakers split their first two games at Walt Disney World near Orlando, beating the Clippers, 103-101, and then falling to the Toronto Raptors, 107-92.
The Lakers, who are atop the Western Conference with a record of 50-15, play the Utah Jazz, who are tied for fourth-place with the Houston Rockets with a record of 42-24, on Monday at 6 p.m. PT.
The Lakers had their worst shooting effort of the season in Saturday's loss to the Raptors, making only 35.4 percent of their shots from the field.
But Vogel said he's not too worried about that.
"I think we’re doing some really good things defensively," Vogel said. "I’d say the top things we want to work on is our screening and our spacing offensively. And we gotta continue to just be patient with our shooters. I thought we played a really good offensive game the other day, with the exception of finishing plays. We missed layups at the rim, and we missed open threes on the backside which were costly. The spacing and the screening were improvements. Hopefully we’ll cut down on some more turnovers as well."
The Lakers are third in the league in defensive efficiency, but have been sloppy on the offensive end in their first two games, finishing with a combined 33 turnovers.
Alex Caruso, who had an uncharacteristic three turnovers in the fourth quarter against Toronto, said the Lakers are still shaking off some rust and gaining back their rhythm after 142 days off after the NBA was suspended March 11.
"I was a little upset about it, just because that’s something that I don’t really do and need to be better at," Caruso said. "Just kind of miscommunication on one with AD [Anthony Davis] on an after-free-throw play that we run. That’s just me and him getting on the same page. And I think one or two other ones I was going a little too fast, trying to make a six, seven, eight-point play, when obviously everybody knows those don’t happen. I think it’s just being a little more sound and then making the right decisions."
The Jazz split their first two games of the resumed season as well, beating the New Orleans Pelicans, 106-104, and then losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 110-94.
The Lakers are 2-0 against the Jazz this season, beating them on Oct. 25, 95-86, and again on Dec. 4, 121-96.
If the Lakers win Monday, they will clinch the top seed in the Western Conference for the first time since 2010, when Kobe Bryant led the team to his fifth and final championship.
