After a week on the road, the Lakers (10-4) are back home where they will host the Utah Jazz (5-8) on Tuesday. The purple and gold will play in their only game this week before they go on a nice little four-day break until they face the Jazz again next week.
Start time and TV schedule
Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Utah Jazz
When: 7:30 p.m. PT, Nov. 18
Where: Crypto.com Arena
Watch: Spectrum Sportsnet
The Lakers’ most recent road trip, where they won three out of five games, revealed quite a few things about this team.
- They’re not on the same tier as the Oklahoma City Thunder
- They’re currently building and practicing habits that will get them there
- They have the right mentality early and have their fair share of strengths and weaknesses
And all that’s
why they rightfully sit in fourth place on the Western Conference.
To think that Los Angeles has achieved all of this so far without a big piece on its roster in LeBron James is a success. Now, with James’ return imminent, the team is nearly finally complete and can be appropriately judged.
While it’s not certain, there’s a good chance that James — who practiced on Monday — makes his season debut on Tuesday against the Jazz. It’s definitely going to be a big boost for the purple and gold, but the question is, will adjustments need to be made?
LeBron will definitely start, so that alone will lead to changes in the rotation and substitution patterns. What’s going to be interesting to look out for is what kind of role he will embrace on this team, something that will be seen as early as Tuesday.
Besides the focus on incorporating James into the system, the Lakers will also be tasked with stopping the Jazz’s offense. Utah may be viewed as a lottery-bound team, but they’re not playing like one. They can beat anyone on any given night, especially when underestimated. They’re an above-average scoring team (118.9) led by Lauri Markkanen, who is currently averaging 30.6 a game, and Keyonte George. The goal is to contain these two key players.
Ideally, the Lakers should be able to overwhelm the Jazz’s defense, which is not good. It also doesn’t help that they’ll be without Walker Kessler, who is out for the season with a left shoulder injury. So, the Lakers should take advantage of the paint and the fact that they just have more firepower.
As long as the Lakers take this one seriously and don’t face any disruption in incorporating James, then they should win their third straight game in a row. There’s nothing better than heading into a mini break with a strong victory. Let’s see if the purple and gold can do that on Tuesday.
Notes and Updates
- The Lakers will be sporting their city edition jerseys for this one along with a different themed court.
- For the injury report, besides James, Gabe Vincent has also been upgraded to questionable on Tuesday. Decisions regarding whether they will play or not will come before tip-off. Aside from them, the report is clear and hopefully stays that way.
- As for the Jazz, Kessler (left shoulder injury) and Georges Niang (fourth metatarsal stress reaction) are out.
- Taylor Hendricks (right hamstring strain), Kyle Filipowski (right wrist sprain) and Kyle Anderson (right lower back injury) are questionable.
You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.
