The Lakers finished a five-game exhibition slate without playing a single game with the whole roster available. Collin Sexton missed all five games with a lower leg issue, and Walker Kessler played in just two because of a finger issue.
That leaves a fair question for a roster rebuilt over the summer: will those lost reps cost them once the games count, starting with the Warriors on Wednesday?
Five Games, One Half of the Real Team
The case for worry starts with how little the core played together. Luka Dončić played in three of the five games and sat the second half of one of them. Austin Reaves also played in three, and Ziaire Williams played in only two because of a foot issue.
In the end, Dončić, Reaves and Kessler played just one half together.
Redick only tried a likely starting five once, and the Lakers hadn’t been healthy enough to try one until Friday. The group he picked put 3-and-D wings Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle around the Big 3.
It looked bad in the 121-106 loss to Denver. The Lakers shot 42.7% from the field with 14 turnovers, six of them in the first period.
The turnovers are the most concrete problem. The Lakers averaged 23 turnovers per game during the preseason, and the lack of a third ballhandler showed throughout.
Sexton is the player who was supposed to fix that. He is projected as the team’s sixth man and first player off the bench, which makes him the one absence that hits the team’s biggest weakness directly.
The Lakers Have Survived Worse
Here’s why it probably won’t matter much: last October was messier, and the Lakers were fine. Dončić sat the opening preseason games for rest before debuting on Oct. 14. LeBron James was expected to miss the entire preseason with nerve irritation in his glute.
That team went 1-5 in exhibitions, then 4-2 in October and 53-29 overall.
This year, the missed games came with a lot more practice. Redick said cutting the schedule to five preseason games doubled the practice time compared with past seasons. He noted that last year the team had six total practices in preseason because of the games, back-to-backs and travel.
He also said they’ve installed more than in the last couple of years, particularly on the defensive end.
Skipping exhibition games also isn’t the same as not playing together. Before the season, Dončić, Reaves and the new players spent time together in Ljubljana. Practice reps count, and this staff had more of them than it has had before.
Sexton’s Leg Is the Real Risk
The schedule isn’t the problem. One player’s recovery is. The good news on everyone else is solid: Williams and Adou Thiero were full participants in practice, and Kessler is back.
Sexton is the only open question. He did everything but the live portion and is “trending in the right direction” for opening night, according to Redick. Still, Jovan Buha said there is no guarantee Sexton will be ready.
So SES lands on a narrow answer. A healthy core with double the usual practice time will not lose a season to a choppy October, and the precedent from last year points the same way.
What the Lakers will pay for is a slow start in the backcourt rotation, with too many possessions run through Dončić and Reaves while Sexton gets up to speed. That costs games in November, not playoff seeding in April.
Two things would change this view. One is Sexton’s leg lingering past the first couple of weeks. The other is the preseason turnover rate holding up in real games.
If the Lakers are still throwing it away at that pace through November, with Sexton in uniform, the problem isn’t missed reps. It’s a roster that lacks enough ball-handling, and no amount of practice fixes that.
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