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Lakers must improve these areas before preseason ends: ‘It’ll calm down’

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Cite

Price, K. (2026, October 16). Lakers must improve these areas before preseason ends: ‘It’ll calm down’. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2026/10/15/sports/lakers-must-improve-these-areas-before-preseason-ends/

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

New York Post · collected 2026-10-16 · by Khobi Price

Quick Summary

Lakers coach JJ Redick emphasizes improving ball security and defensive rebounding before the regular season begins, highlighting areas where his team struggles after four preseason games with multiple key players sidelined. The Lakers have the third-worst defensive rebounding rate and second-highest turnover rate among teams that played in the preseason. Despite these issues, Redick remains optimistic about the upcoming game against the Nuggets on Friday as more players may be available to play together for the first time this preseason.
Written by AI on 2026-10-16, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

As of 2026-10-16, the Lakers are looking to improve before their preseason finale against the Denver Nuggets on Friday. Coach JJ Redick remains unconcerned despite key players like Luka Doncic and Ziaire Williams having limited participation earlier in the preseason due to rest or injury concerns. Thursday's practice showed optimism with both Williams and Doncic fully participating, suggesting they might play in the final exhibition game at Crypto.com Arena. However, even with a healthier roster, Redick emphasizes focusing on the players currently available rather than worrying about ideal scenarios.

Written for “Lakers Preseason Improvements” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Lakers Preseason Improvements
Sports · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 8% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
New York Post
Hedges 2 of 9 claims Outlet record 66/100
“The articles discuss different aspects of the Lakers' preparations for their upcoming season; Article A focuses on the challenges and concerns, while Article B reveals a potential starting lineup.”
New York Post
Hedges 3 of 24 claims Outlet record 66/100
“The articles discuss different points in time regarding the Lakers' preparations for the regular season, with Article A referring to potential debuts and practices around October 10-12, while Article B focuses on improvements before the preseason ends on October 13.”
New York Post
Hedges 2 of 17 claims Outlet record 66/100
“The articles discuss related topics regarding the Lakers' roster and preseason but describe different aspects of their situation, not the same specific incident.”
New York Post
Hedges 1 of 21 claims Outlet record 66/100
“The articles refer to different stages or aspects of the Lakers' preseason preparations and performance, not the exact same specific incident.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
24
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
8%
2 of 24 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
New York Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Sports
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-16 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

New York Post · 16821 article(s) · 36 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 36 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Khobi Price
65 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Luka Dončić, who had already scored 41 points by that point, had been out of the game for 45 seconds, with the Lakers and Redick believing the end-of-bench players would put the finishing touches on securing the victory.
🔮 The questions the Lakers had to face as they returned to Southern California after a one-game trip to the Bay Area revolved around how this new group would respond to early-season adversity.
🔮 The early-season success might’ve masked the reality of where the Lakers are at in their team-building journey.
🔮 Each week, the California Post will power rank the NBA’s 30 teams.
🔮 The game couldn’t have started better for the Lakers, who were fueled by a signature Luka Doncic scoring early scoring flurry Friday night in Chase Center.
🔮 The Lakers will be without one of their starting wings when they kick off NBA Cup Group Play action against the Warriors on Friday night at Chase Center.
🔮 It’s unlikely Doncic and Reaves will come even close to being the highest-scoring duo in a season.
🔮 When the Lakers would need to play or rely on players they normally don’t, for whatever the circumstances it may be for that given game. And against the Clippers, which was the second night of the back-to-back set after Tuesday’s home loss to the Trail Blazers, the circumstances were being without superstar guard Luka Doncic (back tightness) and Ziaire Williams (left foot soreness).
🔮 And he would’ve liked to return to the franchise.
🔮 The Lakers couldn’t stop Portland from anywhere on the court: The Blazers shot 59% from the field and 50% on 3s.
Also by Khobi Price
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 65 articles by Khobi Price →

Topics

Lakers Nuggets Warriors

Subjects

Lakers ORG · 9× Warriors ORG · 4× Nuggets ORG · 2× Williams PERSON · 2× JJ Redick PERSON · 1× Luka Doncic PERSON · 1× Quentin Grimes PERSON · 1× Redick PERSON · 1× Walker Kessler’s PERSON · 1× Ziaire Williams PERSON · 1×

Narrative

Like some guys play in certain preseason games, some guys don’t, but it’s getting those reps in with each other, figuring out where guys like the ball, where they don’t cut when you got the ball, stuff like that.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-16
🔮 In an ideal world, by now the Lakers would’ve already gotten at least one look at what their team would look like with close to their full roster available.

Claims (24 extracted, 2 hedged)

In an ideal world, by now the Lakers would’ve already gotten at least one look at what their team would look like with close to their full roster available. asserted
roster → get → what
But that’s not the situation the Lakers find themselves in entering Friday’s preseason finale against the Nuggets at Crypto.com Arena. asserted
Lakers → ’ → Arena
It’s also not a matter that coach JJ Redick is worrying about, with his team primed to getting closer to being whole before the games start to matter in the standings next week. asserted
games → ’ → standings
“Can’t control it, so it’s not even a concern,” the Lakers coach said. asserted
coach → control → it
“Play the guys you can play.” asserted
you → play → guys
Thursday provided optimism that the Lakers will have more guys available to play in their final exhibition after multiple key players sat out the previous four games. asserted
players → provide → games
Ziaire Williams is trending in the right direction after dealing with left foot swelling, fully participating in Thursday’s practice after sitting out the previous three exhibitions. asserted
Williams → trend → exhibitions
Luka Doncic also fully participated after getting the night off against the Warriors on Tuesday. asserted
Doncic → participate → Tuesday
Which means the Lakers could have their preferred starting lineup available against the Nuggets for the first time this preseason. uncertain
lineup → mean → time
But even with a healthier roster, the Lakers still need to show they can improve in two key areas before the Oct. 21 regular-season opener against the Warriors: defensive rebounding and ball security. asserted
they → need → Warriors
“I’d like us to do a better job taking care of the basketball, and I’d like us to do a better job on the defensive glass,” Redick said. asserted
Redick → like → glass
“And then defensively, we did three different box-out drills [on Thursday] at practice; it’s a point of emphasis going forward.” asserted
it → do → emphasis
It’s clear why those areas are being emphasized. asserted
areas → ’ → ?
The Lakers had the third-worst defensive rebounding rate (63.1%) and second-worst turnover rate (24.1%) among all teams that’ve played in the preseason entering Thursday. asserted
Lakers → have → Thursday
They emphasized reducing their turnovers before playing the Warriors this week but recorded 30 giveaways. asserted
They → emphasize → giveaways
“Just like a bunch of new guys,” Quentin Grimes said of the Lakers’ ball security issues. asserted
Grimes → say → issues
“You don’t know where guys might cut, guys might spot up, you don’t know guys’ tendencies right now. uncertain
you → know → tendencies
Like some guys play in certain preseason games, some guys don’t, but it’s getting those reps in with each other, figuring out where guys like the ball, where they don’t cut when you got the ball, stuff like that. asserted
you → play → that
So guys are just trying to figure out a rhythm, but once we get that rhythm and the spacing and stuff like that, it’ll calm down, for sure.” asserted
it → try → that
Walker Kessler’s return helped on the defensive glass against the Warriors — at least for the first half that he played before sitting out the second half. asserted
he → help → half
Having Williams, the Lakers’ second-tallest player at 6-foot-10, should also help. asserted
Williams → have → help
“It just takes all five of us to gang rebound,” Williams said. “Especially when [Kessler’s] not in. asserted
Kessler → take → us
We just gotta do a better job of just wanting it a little bit more. asserted
We → got → it
We’ll get there.” asserted
We → get → ?
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