The Lakers’ temporary home near Palm Springs had a loading dock where people felt a little better.

First, the end of preseason games. The Lakers had just lost to the Phoenix Suns, and in the middle of the third quarter, their main players shut it down. They had made it through training camp and shown that they might be the special team they wanted to be.

“The guys are communicating so well that before I even have a chance to say something to correct something, whether it’s offensively or defensively, they’re already on it,” coach Darvin Ham said. “They had already talked about it with each other.” They were really taking their time to look at all of their choices, which meant making different play calls.

Still, the Lakers have some clear problems. Gabe Vincent and Jalen Hood-Schifino were both hurt, so the Lakers’ backups needed a scorer badly. Even though LeBron James and Kevin Durant played a good game for a half, the Lakers still lost in transition. This was a problem they had all season long.

“Work ethic and talking. “Those are the two most important things,” Anthony Davis said. “Running back and turning around to see that you don’t have a man in transition.” You have to find a man and then match up with him. Moving back, not running next to your man and then talking.”

The Lakers want to improve their transition defense before the season starts. One thing they want to keep up is D’Angelo Russell’s play.

Russell led the team with 5.2 assists in the preseason and shot 57.4% from the floor and 45.5% from three-point range.

“I’ve said it since the summer: I think he’s going to have a really great year,” Ham said. “Just by looking at how he was hitting his body. To see what kind of gym work he was doing. It also brings you closer when you lose together.He had a rough series against Denver in the conference playoffs, but that doesn’t show what kind of basketball player he is. Because I’ve known him for a while and seen how he works, I knew that kind of thing would only make things worse.

They start the season on Tuesday night in Denver and then play their first game at home on Thursday night against the Suns.

The Lakers’ best players, James and Davis, will also be fit for the start of the season. Austin Reaves, who led the team in scoring in the preseason after playing for Team USA in the FIBA World Cup this summer, will also be back.

Reaves said, “I feel great.” “We stuck to our plan.” I feel great, as I said. I think I did enough reps. The season makes me feel good, and the wind feels good. It feels good all around. “Can’t wait to begin the regular season!”

The Lakers went 2-4 in the preseason, which was good enough to live up to early hopes while also being bad enough to keep everyone from going crazy.

As the Lakers reached the end of the preseason, Ward-Schifino’s sore knee, Vincent’s sore heel, and Vanderbilt’s sore heel made it hard for those three to play. The team is ready for everything else, though.

“I liked how we looked all the way through.” Davis said, “I think we came in and showed what we can do.” “Now we have a few days to sort of get back on track, tighten up, and go back to the situation we were in before to try to get our first win.”