The Los Angeles Lakers will play their first preseason game on Friday, which also happens to be the two-month anniversary of the day the Lakers clinched their 17th championship with a win over the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. If it feels like that was just yesterday, that’s because it basically was.
While some teams haven’t played since March, when the season was indefinitely suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, the Lakers are still trying to catch their breath from their championship run. For that reason, Lakers head coach Frank Vogel isn’t expecting his star players, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, to be active for their preseason opener against the Clippers on Friday.