Los Angeles Lakers: 3 takeaways from their preseason opener

The Los Angeles Lakers preseason slate started Saturday night with a 108-99 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Let’s examine what stood out in the opener.

The Los Angeles Lakers lost the first game of the preseason, 108-99, to the Minnesota Timberwolves in an up-tempo contest that had its fair share of sloppy moments. The teams combined for 35 turnovers, 60 personal fouls and plenty of missed layups on the night.

This lack of sharpness is expected in the first action of competitive basketball of the new season, but the fast-paced style looked great for the Lakers.

Throughout the summer, the Lakers brass talked about playing up-tempo and pushing the pace at will in an offensive attack spearheaded by Lonzo Ball, catering to his advanced passing skills. They did exactly that against Minnesota, with the ball being sprinted up the floor by the guards or kicked up to a player in transition on a consistent basis.

This system will take some time to get used to and is the best way to hide their deficiencies in the halfcourt offense. The Lakers finished with only 13 fast break points, which is correlated with the team finishing with only 98 points on the evening. The 27 assists are a positive sign on what the coaching staff is preaching in terms of sharing the basketball and ball movement.

There were many things to take away from this game, but it should be noted to proceed with caution since it is only the preseason. The young players are bound to make mistakes and the Lakers are without their best player in Brook Lopez. Here are the three biggest takeaways from the opener.