The Lakers, who struggled with the possession battle last year, stepped up their offensive rebounding and committed fewer turnovers to win their season opener
There wasn’t a shortage of eye-catching storylines coming out of the Lakers’ 110-103 season-opening win Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena.
LeBron James and Bronny James became the first father-son duo to play in the NBA at the same time, and they did it as teammates.
JJ Redick got his first official victory as the team’s coach. Anthony Davis dominated both ends of the floor, reminding a national audience of his place among the NBA’s elites. The Lakers got their first season-opening victory since 2016.
But the victory over Minnesota wouldn’t have happened without the Lakers winning the possession battle – which wasn’t common last season.
“The very first thing I said to our team – we have to be better at the possession battle, here’s how,” Redick recalled. “Minnesota, the least amount of turnovers they forced last year was eight and we came in with seven. Obviously, the offensive rebounds was a huge part. Got to the free-throw line. AD did a great job of that. We put ourselves in a position to win a basketball game because of that. We can offset bad shooting nights from 3 if we have more possessions.”
Despite having a subpar shooting game (44.2% from the field, 5 for 30 from 3-point range), the Lakers led for most of the game, including the final 34 minutes, because they won in the less glamorous but important details – especially in the first half.
