Key Takeaways From Lakers-Warriors Opening Night Game
The Los Angeles Lakers went on the road to take on the Golden State Warriors in one of two games that were played on Tuesday night as part of the NBA’s Opening Night spectacle.
The Warriors celebrated their recent victory in the 2022 NBA Finals with their championship rings ceremony and the raising of their championship banner, but they also continued their celebration throughout this game, as the Lakers never seemed to make this a close fight.
Dominating this game on both ends of the floor, the Warriors led by as much as 27 points and they ended up defeating the Lakers 123-109, beginning their championship defense season 1-0.
2022 Finals MVP Stephen Curry led the way with a game-high 33 points, but Curry was not necessarily the storyline in this game for the Warriors. Getting things done on both ends of the floor with basically anyone who stepped in the game for them, Golden State sent a very clear message on opening night as to why they are still the team to beat this season.
As for the Los Angeles Lakers, many of their struggles from a season ago are still very apparent. LeBron James recorded 31 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists, plus the Lakers got 27 points from Anthony Davis, but it appears as if Los Angeles has bigger problems than staying healthy the entire year.
While they did go on a run late in the second-half, the Lakers never really seemed to have a chance in this game, which is why they have a lot of work to do if they are to be a serious playoff team this season.
The 2022-23 NBA season is in full swing and here are some key takeaways from this opening night game between the Lakers and Warriors.
Los Angeles May Be The Worst Perimeter Team In The League
Last season, the Lakers shot 34.7 percent from three-point range as a team, ranking them 22nd in the league in this category. Just one player from a season ago who shot higher than the team average from three-point range, minimum of 100 shot attempts, is still on this roster and his name is LeBron James.
While he is one of the greatest players of all-time, LeBron has never really been regarded as being a high-level three-point threat and outside of Matt Ryan, who the team recently signed to utilize their final roster spot, James may be the best three-point shooting threat for Los Angeles.
This is a massive problem and if anything sticks out about the Lakers offensively, other than the fact that they have no consistency outside of their stars, it is that they may very well be the worst perimeter shooting team in the league.
Anthony Davis is not a three-point shooting threat, as he has only made 39 three-pointers for the Lakers since the start of the 2020-21 season, teams are daring Russell Westbrook to shoot from deep because they know he will be lucky to make just one and who do the Lakers really have on their bench that is known to be a reliable three-point shooter?
Kendrick Nunn, Patrick Beverley, Lonnie Walker IV, Juan Toscano-Anderson and Austin Reaves went a combined 4-19 from three-point range against the Warriors on Tuesday night, further backing up this claim that the Lakers just cannot get anything going from deep.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis can only do so much for this team and with them getting little to no production from the outside, the 2022-23 NBA season could end up being a very long one for the Lakers’ offense.
Golden State Has A Ton Of Depth
We all know what Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green can do together on the floor and we saw glimpses of what the future holds for the Warriors during their title run with the breakout performances of Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins.
What is new about this year’s Warriors team is their bench and secondary talents, as Damion Lee, Nemanja Bjelica, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Gary Payton II and Otto Porter Jr. all departed in the offseason.
Donte DiVincenzo joined the team this year along with veteran JaMychal Green and Golden State’s youth is going to be stepping into some much bigger roles. Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, James Wiseman and this year’s first-round pick in Patrick Baldwin Jr. are key names to watch for this season on the Warriors bench and we saw how deep of a team the Golden State Warriors are on Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Not counting rookie Ryan Rollins, who played two minutes at the end of the game when everything had been decided, the Warriors played a total of 11 guys and all of them had an impact.
Nine different players scored at least 5 points for the Warriors on opening night and they received a ton of bench production. Jordan Poole, JaMychal Green, Donte DiVincenzo, James Wiseman and Moses Moody combined for 41 points, 18 rebounds and 4 steals while shooting 43.2 percent from the floor and 35.3 percent from three-point range off-the-bench.
The Warriors are at-least two players deep at every single position and the scary thing about this group is that they are only going to get better as the season progresses, especially Wiseman, Kuminga and Moody.
There is a lot to be excited about if you are a fan of the Warriors after watching them play on Tuesday night, as it looks like this dynasty is in good hands for quite some time, assuming everyone stays healthy.
Nothing Is New About The Lakers
At the end of the day, the most concerning factor after watching the Los Angeles Lakers play on opening night is the fact that nothing has changed over the last several months since they ended the 2021-22 season.
Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front-office replaced almost all of the veteran talents on this roster with younger, more athletic players, but this team’s offense is still stagnant, they only play through LeBron James and Anthony Davis and the Lakers as a whole just do not have a sense of identity to them.
Quite honestly, this team looked like a bunch of skilled players thrown together playing a pick-up basketball game on Tuesday night.
Now, of course there are going to be learning curves with a new team at the beginning of any season and for the Lakers, it will take time for everyone to become accustomed to new head coach Darvin Ham’s philosophy, but the underlying factor with the Lakers is that their “Big 3” of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook is not intimidating or powerful whatsoever.
These three guys do not gel with one another simply because each of their styles of play are so different from one another and in order for any of them to be effective, they need to have the ball in their hands.
Compared to the Warriors where Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and others are deadly without the ball in their hands, the Lakers are so dependent on having their stars run the show and none of these three can play off one another.
They looked slow at times, they looked mentally fatigued and as a collective unit, the Los Angeles Lakers did not resemble a championship contending or even a playoff contending team on Tuesday night.
Again, this is Game 1 out of 82, but Los Angeles has a lot of soul searching and work to do.
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