{"id":956574,"date":"2026-11-08T02:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T02:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/956574\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T02:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T02:20:15","slug":"lakers-showcase-early-resolve-for-best-start-since-2019-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/956574\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers showcase early resolve for best start since 2019 \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 A day before the season began, head coach JJ Redick eyed his biggest unknown<\/a> with his new Lakers team.<\/p>\n

Unknown wasn\u2019t how Luka Doncic could impact a roster, scorching the NBA en route to a league-leading 40.1 points per game<\/a> through nine games \u2013 the first to average more than 40 points across that span since Wilt Chamberlain. His 361 points scored through nine games is also the most since Chamberlain, who had 472 points in the same span during the start of the 1962-62 season<\/p>\n

Unknown wasn\u2019t how Austin Reaves would respond to his first max contract<\/a>, averaging 23.5 ppg \u2013 more than any other second-leading scorer on any other team in the NBA \u2013 after knotting his future to the Lakers on a four-year, $180 million contract during the offseason. Nor how Walker Kessler would play alongside the Lakers\u2019 star duo<\/a>, finding his rhythm already having recorded a double-double in four of his last five games.<\/p>\n

Redick\u2019s uncertainties until the Lakers actually took to the court for 2026-27 regular-season games, were attached to adversity, he said Oct. 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully there\u2019s growth throughout the season so that we can deal with adversity in the right way, and that ultimately will prepare us for a deep playoff run,\u201d Redick explained.<\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s 124-118 victory against the Portland Trail Blazers \u2013 in which Doncic recorded 53 points in his second 50-point effort of the season<\/a> \u2013 was proof of early-season grit building the Lakers\u2019 adversity through bounce-back response.<\/p>\n

Just 11 days ago, Portland completed a comeback to beat the Lakers 136-129 \u2013 sinking seven three pointers in the fourth quarter as the league\u2019s highest-scoring teams dueled at Crypto.com Arena<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Lakers (8-2) came out on top and overcame a poor first-half shooting effort to build a victory on the backs of stingy defensive effort \u2013 forcing 24 turnovers and tallying 15 steals. They tied their season high with 17 offensive rebounds, a far cry from the six they accrued against Portland a little over a week ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t become a resilient team in 10 games, five games, 20 games,\u201d Redick said Friday night. \u201cIt takes a full season to build that resiliency and hopefully you get to participate in the playoffs. And that\u2019s where your resiliency really gets tested, whatever you\u2019ve built throughout the season. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the fact that this is a very together group and we\u2019ve already shown a level of resiliency, it\u2019s exciting and it\u2019s promising. And I want to continue to build on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Kessler was asked about Redick\u2019s comments, he immediately backed up his coach\u2019s thinking \u2013 and referenced holding Portland at bay when they cut the Lakers\u2019 lead to six during the fourth quarter Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cJJ hit the nail on the head,\u201d said Kessler, who is averaging 14.6 points, on a league-best 71.6% shooting, and 10.4 rebounds through 10 games. \u201cWhen you face any kind of adversity or anything like that, how you respond is \u2013 because obviously you\u2019re going to face some tough times. These teams are the best basketball players in the world. So it can be anyone\u2019s night, and you have to respond.<\/p>\n

Since Jake LaRavia joined the Lakers\u2019 starting lineup six games ago, the Lakers are tied for 10th in the league in offensive rebounds per game (13.2) and are tied for 18th in total rebounding (42.8). LaRavia had five offensive rebounds himself against the Trail Blazers on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re playing good basketball right now,\u201d said LaRavia, who has turned the Lakers\u2019 starting lineup into one of the best statistically (30.9 net rating) since entering the five<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re just continuing to learn from each other, about each other, you know, continue to to learn this season as a group and just continue to get better each game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adversity and resilience may be needed on the stretch of four road games coming up, starting with a back-to-back set: Sunday night against the Detroit Pistons (6-2) and Monday against the Atlanta Hawks (6-4).<\/p>\n

Redick brushed off a question asked about the Lakers\u2019 record, sitting at 8-2 for the first time since the 2019-2020 season when they won the NBA title.<\/p>\n

Of course the Lakers want good results, he said. Their ultimate goal, however, is to become \u201ca great basketball team\u201d deep into the season.<\/p>\n

Doncic \u2013 who is questionable for Sunday\u2019s game with back tightness \u2013 said as such Friday night: It\u2019s a long season ahead. It\u2019s still early November.<\/p>\n

But when the sun rose Saturday morning, the Lakers \u2013 if only for a brief moment \u2013 sat atop the Western Conference with reason to dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re a really good team and we\u2019re gonna get better and I\u2019m really excited to see where that goes,\u201d Kessler said.<\/p>\n

On the farm<\/p>\n

The Coachella Valley Lakers won their first game of the G League season since relocating from South Bay to play at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, defeating the Salt Lake City Stars 104-98 on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Third-year Lakers guard Bronny James had 22 points, seven assists and five rebounds, while rookie guard Cameron Carr, the Lakers\u2019 2026 first-round draftee, finished with 13 points and four rebounds. Both players will rejoin the Lakers for the road trip ahead, Redick said Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Veteran forward Cole Swider led the Lakers with 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting and made three 3-pointers. Two-way players Chris Manon (17 points, five rebound and three steals) and Arthur Kaluma (seven points, three rebounds and three assists) also played, helping the Lakers to claw out a victory in their inaugural game in front of a sell-out crowd.<\/p>\n

Lakers at Detroit<\/p>\n

When: 3 p.m. Sunday<\/p>\n

Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit<\/p>\n

TV\/Radio: Spectrum Sportsnet\/ESPN LA 710, 980 KFWB<\/p>\n

Lakers at Atlanta<\/p>\n

When: 4 p.m. Monday<\/p>\n

Where: State Farm Arena, Atlanta<\/p>\n

TV\/Radio: Spectrum Sportsnet\/ESPN LA 710, 980 KFWB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 A day before the season began, head coach JJ Redick eyed his biggest unknown with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,2873,11473,590,85],"class_list":["post-956574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}