5 in-person takeaways from the Lakers’ first two preseason games

After attending the Lakers’ preseason games, here are five key things I noticed.

The Los Angeles Lakers preseason has begun, bringing with it the starts of both the JJ Reddick era and the father-son LeBron and Bronny James era.

It all kicked off with two games this past weekend at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs with the Lakers falling to the Minnesota Timberwolves, 124-107, on Friday and dropping their second game to the the Phoenix Suns, 118-114, on Sunday.

Both games were starkly different as Friday’s opener didn’t involve LeBron or Anthony Davis, while Sunday’s game did. This naturally led to a much different dynamic and playing time distribution in each game and being able to see different variables across both games.

I had the fortune of being there in person and noticed a number of things, including the level of organization from the team as well as standout performances from players like Jalen Hood-Schifino, Max Christie and Austin Reaves, among others.

Here are my five early takeaways from these two games.

Obviously, it’s still quite early in preseason and things can change rapidly — particularly with a new coaching staff and the learning curve that comes along with it — for both players and coaches. But there are still key attributes you can pick out in the early days, especially when you compare them to recent Lakers preseasons.

With the Lakers set to play three more games in the next week, including a road trip to Milwaukee on Thursday, let’s see how they continue to evolve and adapt to the new staff and demands. At the very least, they’re taking these games quite seriously, which is more than you can say for previous years.

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, is a youth basketball coach at the U12 level and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training.

Combining his background in biomechanics, movement science, and learning science - he consults in a variety of sports including basketball on movement mechanics and skill acquisition. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC and analyzes the Lakers from a skills & medical perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.