Lakers Road Routines: From Napping to Video Games

Napping is a serious topic in the NBA.

Lonzo Ball may be out with injury, but the Los Angeles Lakers star rookie point guard told NBCLA.com what means the most to him when he does lace up his signature sneakers on the road: napping.

"As long as I get a nap, that's pretty much it," Ball said when asked about his pregame routine on the road. "I got to get a nap before games. After shootaround, take a shower, then eat and take a nap."

The rookie says he sleeps anywhere from two to four hours before games, depending on how long the morning shootaround and film sessions run. After pointing out that the cold is what stands out most to him about the road, Ball shares that he prefers staying indoors, rather than venturing into the winter cold to sight-see. Instead, he naps until it's time for the bus to take him to the arena.

For several players, NBA life on the road is better described by listing the various five-star hotel rooms, rather than the cities.

"I get in my room, take a little nap, wake up, watch a little film of me from the last game, how I did offensive and defensively," standout rookie Kyle Kuzma lists off his pregame routine.

When asked if he needs to nap before games, Kuzma answers, "I wouldn't say I have to, but a lot of times, I'm tired or what not. It just depends. More likely than not, I'll nap."

The rookie forward has made waves in the NBA and is considered one of the legitimate early candidates for Rookie of the Year. At the least, Kuzma projects to take home First Team All-Rookie honors, which is an impressive jump for a player that was selected late in the first round and can list all 26 players picked ahead of him by heart.

"It's only 26 names," Kuzma says, as if questioning why anyone would bother being impressed by that ability.

But back to the point, Kuzma's pregame routine may help explain why his rookie season has been so strikingly effective. Specifically, Kuzma is a film fanatic.

"Watching my makes, my misses--watching my form," Kuzma starts in on describing his pregame film studying sessions. "Pausing it to see what reads I could have made. Defensively, where I need to be: help side or whatnot; on-ball defense. And then, opposing team, I'm looking at my matchup, everybody that plays that position, guys I might switch on, see their tendencies and whatnot. Then, watch the extra game film of the team. Watch their sets, just try to picture how those guys get their shots, their offense."

Game-by-game, Kuzma studies himself and his opponents meticulously. His pregame process points to how he continues to earn the praise of opposing coaches and players alike.

"On practice days or off days, I don't have to nap," Larry Nance Jr. adds his input. "But on game days, if I don't nap, it throws me all off."

Nance, who is in his third year and a bit further along than Kuzma and Ball, adds, "On the road, it's more about rest. It's not like we're playing any more than we are at home, but it's easier to lose sleep. Whether you go back East and you gain three hours or lose three hours, whatever it may be, it's easy to let that become like, 'It's three o'clock here, which really means it's 12 o'clock at home, so I'm alright. I don't go to bed until one.' That's how I kind of thought my first couple years. But now, it's like, 'Alright, 12 is 12. I still have to be up at 10 their time tomorrow morning, so I got to get my sleep.' To me, it's more about sleep than anything else."

The Ohio native admits that his mentality has changed over time.

"The first year, it was all exciting," Nance says. "I'd never been to half these cities, so I was up all excited about it. But now, I've been here a couple times. I've seen it. I can go to sleep and not miss anything. Just take care of what I need to take care of."

"FOMO," or the fear of missing out, seems to dissipate as players grow longer in the tooth. Nance says that he's seen most of the museums and attractions NBA cities have to offer, so he'll put his feet up and get in some NormaTec recovery going instead of walking around the cold, hard streets.

As a veteran of the hotel life, Nance shares, "I carry my PlayStation with me or my X-box on the road wherever we go."

Nance says that rookie Josh Hart and him make the call on which gaming system will come along on a particular trip, and one of the first things he does once he gets into his hotel room is set up the gaming console of choice. Hart confirms that the current game the pair plays is Fortnight, which the duo plays together rather than against one another.

Of course, Nance has long been the top gamer on the team, especially when it comes to playing the FIFA series. While on the current road trip, Nance took the lowly LA Galaxy and beat Hart 6-0 even when the rookie played with Premier League club Arsenal. The ensuing trash talk made it all the way to Nance's social media.

One of the rare exceptions to the nap talk or the emphasis on routines on game day is fourth-year guard Jordan Clarkson.

"Once I'm up for the day, I'm up," Clarkson says. "I'll be up until I'm done with everything for the day."

The Lakers' sixth man adds, "I used to take naps, but it makes me sluggish a little bit. After you sleep for so much, you just kind of feel a little groggy. So, I don't really do the whole nap thing."

So, then, what is Clarkson's routine on the road? NBCLA.com asked the explosive scorer and fashion obsessed personality.

"I change it up," Clarkson said, before going on to explain his activities on game day in Chicago, which is where NBCLA.com caught up with the guard. "I lost my shoes. I FedEx'd my shoes to the wrong address, so I went to all these stores. I went to like three footlockers, but I didn't know that there was a Nike store that was right around the corner from the hotel. I went to the Nike Store. They had these (points to black shoes that have "Black" and "Mamba" labelled). So, I got those. Then, I'm watching a movie in the room and the doorbell rings. I'm about to go to the bus, and it's 10 minutes before the bus."

Clarkson starts laughing at what was waiting from him at the door, "I had spent all that time looking for these shoes, and there's a box with another pair of (the same) shoes."

It was the first time the Lakers would be playing in their Kobe Bryant designed black jerseys, and Clarkson is a fashion forward creature, so he had the right shoes for the occasion. Only, these shoes came with the uniform.

Clarkson may not be a typical creature of habit on game days, but he admits he has a routine of visiting the same restaurants in particular cities and performing city specific rituals like visiting the same shops on nights before games in New York.

When it comes to routines, one cannot help but ask the oldest man on the team, a.k.a. 32-year-old Luol Deng. The forward may be out of favor presently and the opposite of a fixture on the floor for the Lakers this season, but he is still the furthest along in his NBA career than any other player in the Lakers' locker room.

"I nap before every game, and it's the same routine," Deng says. "I always try to nap an hour and a half. Sometimes it's less, sometimes it's more, depending on what I need, but I always have to nap."

Deng adds, "I kind of thought most guys' routine would be the same, but it's really not. Later on in my career, when I talked to guys, some guys don't sleep. It's really what works for you. I don't think there's a set routine that's just the main thing. Everybody's different."

Pregame meals are also an important component of the habit, and Deng explained how his pregame meal of spinach, salmon and brown pasta, ordered from room service, came to be.

"My first pregame meal started because I had the same chef for my whole career—the same chef since my rookie year," Deng says. "So, my first pregame meal, he made it, and he made pasta with spinach and salmon. I think my first game, I had close to a triple-double. We went into overtime, and I had 10 rebounds and 21 points for a rookie, and I thought, 'That's it!' That's really what kicked it off and it's been that ever since."

In fact, Deng had 18 points, 10 rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes in an overtime loss to the New Jersey Nets, but those were still impressive numbers for a rookie in his NBA debut.

"Even though my diet changed a lot from a 19-year-old to what I am now, 32, what's changed is I eat a lot more vegetables," Deng explains. "I never really liked vegetables. Only reason I ate salmon that day is because it's the easiest fish to eat for someone who doesn't really eat fish. And so, that're really how it started."

Meanwhile, Kuzma chimes in to reveal that he's already made adjustments to his pregame meal, "I'm trying to eat healthy now, so I changed it up."

With a guilty smile, Kuzma admits, "It was a waffle with whip cream and extra syrup. Changed it up, it could be salmon. It could be whatever, just healthy."

From the video game fights, to making fun of wardrobe choices like Kuzma's recent pink fur jacket episode, the road offers the opportunity for teams to bond.

"I think so," Clarkson says when asked if the road helps teams grow tighter. "We don't got nothing else on the road. It's just us. We don't got friends, family, nobody. You know, a few of us travel with our homies, but for the most part, all of us are just like, 'it's just us.'"

Sitting in visiting lockers forces a more cramped environment, and even the nationally loved Lakers walk into hostile atmospheres on the NBA circuit.

"Yea, I do," Clarkson says when asked about whether he prefers playing on the road. "I like the energy of the crowd. I like everybody against you. Shutting people up is like the best feeling in the world. People hating on you and [expletive]."

Philadelphia and Boston, in particular, seem to be cities where Lakers' players notice the hate.

"New York was fun," Ball offers his thoughts on playing in hostile environments and says each arena is different. "It's a little different than playing in Utah. Yea, it feels a little different, but at the end of the day, you're just playing basketball. Boston was fun. All the fans are going crazy and stuff, and it's just us versus everybody when we're in there."

The reality is that every night in the NBA is an "us versus everybody" night, but on the road, that fact seems to become impossible to ignore.