The Los Angeles Lakers are sitting at 2-4 with six games in the books to start the 2017-18 NBA season. The young team led by rookie point guard Lonzo Ball has shown a lot promise as well as a lot of flaws in the early going as head coach Luke Walton tries to bring it all together.
Following Monday's practice at the UCLA Health Center, Ball talked about what Walton has emphasized moving forward. Along with the team's problems on defense, the pace of the offense needs to change.
“More pace,” Ball said. “I feel like we're walking the ball up too much. That's obviously my fault because I'm a point guard, so we've just got to push the pace a little bit better.”
Although the pace isn't where Walton wants it at this point, Ball knows the squad can turn it around.
“Pace is messed up right now,” Ball said. “It's still early in the season, though. So we can fix it. We have time to fix it, but we just have to translate practice to the game.”
The second-year head coach also spoke on Monday about the team's loss to the Utah Jazz over the weekend and the way the franchise envisions the squad playing. Ball's style of play is the way they want it moving forward.
“The way that we envision our team playing is a big part of how Lonzo [Ball] plays,” Walton said. “It's obviously why we're so high on him and so excited about his future with us. That starts with him pushing the ball up court, throwing it ahead to wings, and that's not all on him.”
On Tuesday, the Lakers will have an opportunity to bounce back from consecutive losses to the Toronto Raptors and Jazz as they'll host the Detroit Pistons at the Staples Center.
Coming away with a win over Stan Van Gundy's team will be no easy task for Ball and company with Detroit being one of the hottest teams in the league to start the season. The Pistons currently sit atop the standings in the Eastern Conference at 5-2 having beaten some very good teams in the process with three consecutive wins over the Minnesota Timberwolves, L.A. Clippers, and Golden State Warriors.
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