GAMEDAY RECAP LAKERS @ WARRIORS 10-18-2022

Lakers (0-1) hope to spoil Warriors (1-0) Ring Night. 

(image courtesy @BasketballForever)

As Stephen Curry and the Warriors collected their 4th ring in 8 years, The Los Angeles Lakers stepped off the court back into the locker rooms. Maybe the sight of Steph collecting ring number 4 was too much for the King to take. We all know the warriors are much closer to repeating than Lebron getting the chance to tip the scales back in his favor for ring number 5. At the very minimum James could spoil the "Wonder Kids" big night. Let's see what happened.

First Half 

The Warriors looked like they were continuing where they left off last season. They opened the first quarter strong behind Steph and Wiggins shooting the ball well including a nice post shimmy from Steph view here.  AD came out and scored first for the Lakers as he looked to set the tone. Davis was aggressive on offense and defense. Deflecting would be assist and blocking would be layups. It was clear from the start the Lakers will run their offense through David early and often who is still nursing that lower back injury. Evident by Lebron not taking a single shot attempt in the first 4 mins of the game.

Lebron finished the first quarter with only 3 points on 1-6 shooting from the field. He still seemed to carry that rust from preseason into the opening frame. Most of James opening attempts were either from 3 or at the rim. AD finished the first quarter with 10 points respectively.

The lakers kept things competetive in the second quarter with Lebron coming out and establishing himself early with two easy layups at the rim. He bounced back from a bad first qtr with 11 points in the second quarter. Lebron finished the half with 14 points and AD finished with 15points. On the other side things continued to click for the Warriors with everyone chipping in with a much more even scoring effort from the team. Steph lead all scorers with 16pts, Poole had 10pts on 3-7 shooting and Wiggins chipped in with 7.

Russ who sat out the final preseason game with a hamstring injury took the start tonight at point guard. Even though he still was missing some easy layups at the rim and had some turnovers his first half stat line was decent at least on paper 11pts 6reb 3ast.

Jordan Poole came off the bench and was instant offense. Hitting pair of 3s to extend the Warrior lead to 12 early in the first half. Poole also connected with his teammate Draymond Green for a beautiful dime where Green finished it at the rim with a easy layup. view here. It seems like the offseason incident where Draymond sucker punched Poole in a practice earlier this month has not affected team chemistry.

Second Half

(image courtesy @warriors)

The Warriors are too much for Lakers.

The second half is where the Warriors started to put their foot on the gas and separate themselves from this Laker team. Lebron struggled to start the 3rd with Looney playing defense well on him early and often. Even with the fact this is Jame's 20th year he did show a flash of youth with this transition slam.

With that being said after two misses from Russell Westbrook the Dubs took a 16 point lead after a Jamychal Green and Steph 3 point shots.

It got even uglier after that with each Warrior possession feeling like a heavyweight boxer looking for a knockout punch! The Lakers abysmal shooting in the third did not help combined with a running total of 18 turnovers. Considering they are playing against arguably the leagues best team the Lakers need to take better care of the ball. 

Lebron finished the 3rd with a long distance 3 to cut the lead down to 20. 

4th Quarter 

The Lakers came out and tried to make a game out of it. Going on a Lebron James lead 13-2 run to keep things semi interesting. Bron followed a Lonnie Walker missed layup with the put back to push his scoring total to 28pts cutting the deficit to 16.

After the Steve Kerr timeout the Warriors scored 4 points to push it back to 20. That was pretty much all she wrote. The lakers did eventually cut down the lead to 12 in garbage time but there was really no doubt of the outcome of the game at this point. The last 5 mins of this quarter did get pretty entertaining with some nice back and fourth flurries from both teams.

My takeaways

• The Warriors looked like they picked up right where they left off.
• The young players on the Dubs are going to have a huge impact this season.
• Poole and Draymond seemed cordial.
• Steph with a near perfect game.  33Pts 7ast 6reb.

• The Lakers looked like the lacked chemistry.
• Bron got his stats but the game was never close. He finished with 31Pts 14reb 8ast
• Russ might need to be moved. He finished with 19Pts 11reb 3ast.
• AD looked good early but not dominate yet. He had 27Pts and 6reb.