Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis are set to make their preseason debuts

LeBron James and Anthony Davis will make their preseason debuts Sunday against the Phoenix Suns at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert. The two Lakers stars are ready to join their team after resting during a preseason loss to Minnesota on Friday.

“I think we want to build on what we did in training today,” James said on Saturday. “I think we were very careful about what we wanted to achieve in the future. I think yesterday was one of those first games. It’s been a while since many people have played in a gaming environment. And it looked like this.”

James said his son Bronny, who scored two points and blocked three shots in the opening game, always had to go through a real adjustment period. The two talked about the game afterward, but Bronny James said he preferred to keep the details of the conversation private.

“It’s obviously an adjustment for him,” LeBron James said. “Every rank you climb is always an adjustment to get used to. Going from middle school to USC and now to the pros, it’s always an adjustment you have to make. I think the more and more.” The time he’s on the floor with the pros, the speed, the cadence, the more time you have on the floor, the better you get. And you have to remember that he lost almost a third of last season because of the (). heart disease.

“But he’s getting better and better every day. He continues to put in a lot of work. And it’s up to us as veterans and the guys out here to try to help him and help Dalton (Knecht), help all the young guys.”

The runway could be tight for Knecht, who scored 16 points in his first game.

Read more: The Lakers lose to the Timberwolves in the start of the preseason

“He’s a professional,” LeBron James said. “He’s ready to go now.”

Bronny James said Knecht was a “great player.”

“I have been working with him for over two months now. And you know, I love this guy,” Bronny James said. “He’s great.”

JJ Redick, who coached the Lakers for the first time, said he thought the team’s defense was too chaotic in the opening game, which got him thinking

“I was most disappointed with our one-to-four reds, i.e. our substitution. I was just really disappointed,” Redick said. “We didn’t implement that at all. We may have run it less than 10 percent of the time. This is something we have practiced and in the pre-match meeting it was clear that this is exactly what we are doing. So you’re probably wondering, ‘Am I not making this clear? Is it something I’m doing?'”

The Lakers apparently responded on Saturday.

“The group is doing well,” Redick said. “And we talked about being a process team and just focusing on the day-to-day work of getting better. We did that and we did that again today. It was fun.”

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.