The Los Angeles Lakers have nine regular season games to get the team prepared for the playoffs. One of the challenges is to re-integrate LeBron James and get him used to playing newcomers Andre Drummond and Ben McLemore.

James returned last night against the Sacramento Kings from a 40-day break he had to take due to an ankle injury. His comeback was marked with a narrow loss (106-110).

According to the Lakers head coach Frank Vogel, the remaining regular season games will be ‘a little bumpy’ as the team tries to figure out their best lineups for the postseason.

“We certainly can draw some success that we were learning each other or re-learning each other during that restart last year,” Vogel said when asked if last year’s experience could help the Lakers handle the remainder of the regular season better. “It’s a little bit different, we have new teammates this year and guys coming off of long layouts because of injury, not long layout because of the pandemic which is what last year was.

“It’s going to be a little bumpy along these final nine games. But we saw last year that it was bumpy going into the playoffs. If you just have a growth mindset during this stretch, you can still prepare for the playoffs and have success.”