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
When: 7:30 p.m. PT, Nov. 18
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.
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.