Name: Lakers slowly warm up to bubble life, work on conditioning in early practices
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Lakers slowly warm up to bubble life, work on conditioning in early practices

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By | | ORLANDO, Fla. — Sunday seemed like NBA summer camp at Disney World. Paul George . J.J. Reddick downed a .Anthony Davis … went outside for the first time.“We all realized how hot Orlando is,” the Lakers’ star said on a humid day with a high of 92 degrees. “I think for the most part guys are just sitting back in their room getting their me time and playing video games.”Whereas some teams have shown the full breadth of activities within the NBA’s Disney campus, the Lakers said they’ve largely tried to stay inside the Grand Floridian Hotel, where they could post up for the next three months. The NBA has taken pains to make sure players in particular are accommodated with entertainment, not all of which has been fully utilized. , the first of many NBA teams will spend here, at least one account was that they were sparsely attended.“The first time I heard of the DJ thing was today,” Davis said. “Dwight (Howard) told me he was the only one there.”But downtime is their own business, coach Frank Vogel said. Practice is another thing.The Lakers had their second practice of the restart Sunday night at the Visa Athletic Center, one of the playing venues at the Wide World of Sports Complex. It’s the first time the Lakers have been allowed to work out together — aside from being his birthday, Davis said he couldn’t even remember what that practice day was like., warming up possibly dormant muscle groups with defensive slides and full-court sprints.“I mean the plan is that we’re beginning a marathon, and we want to take it slow, take it at the right pace,” he said. “The takeaways were that guys, overall, are in pretty good shape.”There have been some early issues: Danny Green didn’t practice on Saturday due to a laboratory glitch with his COVID-19 test, which everyone on the NBA campus receives in regular intervals. The Lakers were also without Dwight Howard, who arrived separately from the rest of the team traveling from Georgia and had to wait out the rest of his 36-hour quarantine period.Vogel said Sunday that both issues had been resolved, but acknowledged these kind of absences could happen in the future with a “bubble” system that is being tested in real time. Testing delays could result in players missing practices now and then, in addition to run-of-the-mill reasons.“We’ve just got to roll with the punches,” said Vogel. “This is an imperfect environment but it’s a great opportunity for all of us to finish our season, which is what we’re all interested in doing.”The practice sessions, for now, are closed to outside media, but Davis described them as physically similar to training camp all the way back in September. While the Lakers have a lot to lean on schematically from their experiences in the season, rounding back into “basketball shape” will take an especially focused effort before the team’s first scrimmage against Dallas on July 23.In his off-court life, Davis said, he missed movies the most. But playing pickup with his Lakers teammates wasn’t that far down the list, either.“From a basketball standpoint just being able to play the game,” he said. “Luckily we have a chance now to continue to play and compete for a championship. But those four months when you can’t play pickup, you can’t practice, there was a lot that we couldn’t do especially in the early part of the quarantine. So now we’re getting a chance to get back in the swing of things, I’m excited just to be back on the floor, especially with my team.”Davis won’t wear a message on jerseyDavis became the second high-profile Laker in as many days to say . No. 3 will simply wear “Davis” when the Lakers suit up on July 30.Danny Green and JaVale McGee are among the Lakers who have committed to wearing a message on their jerseys among a list of league and union-approved messages, such as “Black Lives Matter” and “How Many More?” Like teammate LeBron James, Davis said he’d represent the causes he cares about in a different way — although it was a close decision, he said.“I didn’t know what to decide. Should I have a social justice message or should I have my last name there?” he said. “I just think my last name is something that is very important to me. Also social justice as well. But just holding my family name and representing the name on the back to go through this process and my name and people who’ve been with me through my entire career to help me get to this point.”We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.Get the latest news delivered daily!Follow UsMost PopularClose

By | | ORLANDO, Fla. — Sunday seemed like NBA summer camp at Disney World. Paul George . J.J. Reddick downed a .Anthony Davis … went outside for the first time.“We all realized how hot Orlando is,” the Lakers’ star said on a humid day with a high of 92 degrees. “I think for the most part guys are just sitting back in their room getting their me time and playing video games.”Whereas some teams have shown the full breadth of activities within the NBA’s Disney campus, the Lakers said they’ve largely tried to stay inside the Grand Floridian Hotel, where they could post up for the next three...

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Kyle Goon

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Reporting the news in LA since 1911. Subscribe here to support local journalism: http://checkout.dailynews.com.

Lakers slowly warm up to bubble life, work on conditioning in early practices

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