The Lakers are making team safety a priority this season

Over the past several days, the NBA has had to postpone a handful of games because teams across the league haven’t had enough players on their active roster to play a game due to confirmed cases of the coronavirus in their locker rooms, contract tracing or both. So far, the Los Angeles Lakers haven’t been one of those teams — even if they haven’t been completely untouched by the protocols — and they plan on doing everything possible to keep it that way.

Earlier this week, Kyle Kuzma emphasized how important staying safe and healthy is to the Lakers’ quest for a back-to-back championship.

“Obviously COVID is out there,” Kuzma said on Monday. “It’s alive and well. There’s still a lot of different cases out there, so it’s all about just being protective and just doing things smart: always wearing a mask; if you’re going to a restaurant or anything, just taking precautions.

“Obviously you can get it anywhere, but we have a very smart team and we’re doing things the right way with the guidelines because none of us want to get each other sick or miss games. We’re very cautious and we want to stay on top of the west.”

The NBA tightened up its healthy and safety protocols on Tuesday to try and stop the spread of the coronavirus in the league, and while some players have already taken issue with the new restrictions, Anthony Davis doesn’t see it as a big deal.

“There’s nothing that we haven’t seen in LA, with us being one of the hotspots,” Davis said on Wednesday. “They’re just trying to do everything and to prevent this from spreading like wildfire, and trying to keep it under control to where we can still play basketball.”

But the NBA can only do so much to ensure everyone is doing what they’re supposed to do. Ultimately, it’s on the teams and the individuals on the teams to do their part, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope thinks the Lakers have done a good job of doing that.

“We got coaches and a training staff that’s always reminding us and getting the memos out to us. Just making sure we stay safe and making sure we’re masked up everywhere we go. So, I feel like just being us, holding each other accountable, will get us through.”

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