NBA: 7 takeaways from the opening week of the regular season

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NBA Los Angeles Lakers Anthony Davis(Photo by Zhong Zhi/Getty Images) /

The Lakers’ defense is legit

The new-look Lakers always had the potential to be a dominant defensive team, but questions still remained about LeBron’s effort and engagement on that end as well as the team’s defensive gameplan.

Since their opening night loss to the Clippers, LA has been putting a lot of those questions to bed.
Obviously, everything for them defensively starts with Anthony Davis who has been his usual DPOY-calibre self but the other guys have come along for the ride as well.

The result has been a very impressive and disruptive defensive attack. They’re racking up blocks and steals with the best of them and being able to force a lot of turnovers is the key to unlocking their fastbreak offense.

It’s only been a few games, sure, but the signs have been encouraging thus far. Great teams will always have a chance to win, even on nights when shots aren’t falling, because their defense can pick up the slack. LeBron hasn’t really had this luxury since his Miami days and we all know how that worked out for him (two rings).