Walker Kessler<\/a> is making the Lakers brain trust look like geniuses for making the investment to acquire the 7-foot-2 center.\u00a0<\/p>\nReaves is playing at an All-Star level after securing a four-year, $180 million contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Doncic continues to be the focal point of the Lakers\u2019 success.<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves has also been a significant contributor to the Lakers\u2019 ball security issues. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s roster reconstruction is paying off with an abundance of role players stepping up.<\/p>\n
But the major early blemish that\u2019s carried over from the preseason: Turnovers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the turnovers are a problem,\u201d coach JJ Redick said. \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to work at it, continue to get better at it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lakers followed up recording 18 giveaways in their season opener against the Warriors by turning the ball over 21 times against the Clippers, directly leading to 29 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Doncic and Reaves were once again the biggest culprits, combining for 17 of the team\u2019s giveaways.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick had ideas on how his star players could turn the ball over less. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many did I have?,\u201d Reaves asked after Friday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Six.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh,\u201d Reaves responded, \u201cit felt like 10.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was actually Doncic, who recorded a career-high 11 turnovers \u2013 something pointed out to Reaves.<\/p>\n
\u201cY\u2019all didn\u2019t have to say that,\u201d he said. \u201cI asked about me.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Slovenian guard wasn\u2019t shy when it came to acknowledging his role in the Lakers\u2019 turnover struggles .<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of room left to improve,\u201d Doncic said. \u201cObviously, my game was terrible. But we are 2-0. Not playing a great game by me and AR, we have a lot of room left [to grow], so it\u2019s very exciting news, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Lakers\u2019 early turnover woes are, in a way, encouraging because of the results they\u2019re getting despite them.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve scored a combined 252 points through their first two games (127 against the Warriors and 125 against the Clippers).<\/p>\n
They shot 56.8% from the field against the Warriors, and 58.2% against the Clippers.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve been living up to the expectations of being an ultra-efficient, high-powered offensive team despite nearly a fifth of their possessions ended in a turnover.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But they aren\u2019t allowing their offensive success so far to take away from the progress they\u2019re hoping to make with taking care of the ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They know their ceiling can be significantly higher if they clean up the ball security, especially against teams looking to trap Doncic and Reaves.<\/p>\n
But some of the giveaways are also growing pains that come with such a significant roster overhaul.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is a lot of the turnovers are just the pass in front of them,\u201d Redick said. \u201cJust make the pass in front of you. We\u2019ve talked about it with both those guys. It\u2019s the familiarity. They trust their teammates. They want to be playmakers. It\u2019s building that over the course of the season to familiarity where guys are going to be in their spots. So we\u2019ll just continue to build out our options out of that and we\u2019ll be better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin Reaves was willing to throw himself under the bus for the Lakers\u2019 biggest issue through their first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[1013,7,160,559,1331,4034,192,4032,251,135,150,4033,4031,368,6,66,1405],"class_list":["post-866912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-austin-reaves","tag-basketball","tag-california","tag-clippers","tag-j-j-redick","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-walker-kessler"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117498162953586299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}