Davis, Westbrook not concerned about preseason struggles

Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook not concerned about Lakers' preseason struggles

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated 10/11/21

Sure, the Lakers haven't played with their full arsenal of big guns so far this preseason, but with the Los Angeles squad going 0-4 so far through exhibition play, it's fair to wonder if the preseason woes foreshadow some early regular-season struggles.

Anthony Davis told the press Sunday he isn't worried about what happens in the preseason — although his comments that the struggles could carry into the regular season weren't terribly encouraging.

"We know, possibly, there could be struggles to start the season," Davis said, via ESPN. "But we never want to get out to a slow start — 0-5, 0-6, whatever — we still want to be able to fight through our mistakes while winning games."

Davis played alongside new teammate Russell Westbrook in Sunday's 123-94 loss to the Phoenix Suns. While Davis fared well, Westbrook shot 3-for-12 from the field and had nine turnovers.

Westbrook also went 1-for-7 from the field in his preseason debut last week.

While he acknowledged he needs to work on the turnovers, Westbrook's general response was to shrug the two games off.

"I never had one good preseason, I mean personally," he said. "I never really worry about it because it's preseason."

Davis also insisted it will "be a totally different story" in Tuesday's preseason tilt against the Golden State Warriors because he and Westbrook will have Lebron James on the court to help the team turn things around.

Regardless of how many veterans L.A. has on the court, coach Frank Vogel didn't share Davis' and Westbrook's takes on preseason games not counting.

"We've got to get better," Vogel said after Sunday's loss. "Hopefully it doesn't take too much time to get everybody on the same page and in sync, guys getting legs underneath them and that type of thing, but we've still got to be better than we were tonight."

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