Post Game Reaction: Warriors Crush the Lakers 136-97

Tonight the defending champion Golden State Warriors demolished the Lakers 136-97 and fans at the game, and on the internet, let them have it.

Beginning early in the third quarter, when Golden State expanded their lead, boos rained down on the court with ferocity.

Even before tip-off, it was a foregone conclusion that the Warriors would come into Anaheim hoping to exact revenge on the Lakers for two reasons: the first being Julius Randle‘s personal vendetta against Draymond Green, the second being the fact that the previous game ended early, resulting in a 15 point Golden State loss.

Reigning MVP, Stephen Curry, made sure of this opening the game on fire eventually finishing with 24 points, 10 assists and 4 steals.

Regardless of the final score, here were a few takeaways from tonight’s game.

Anthony Brown’s Shooting Translates Smoothly to the NBA Level

One positive, and perhaps the only positive, from tonight’s action was that Anthony Brown‘s shooting was finally put on display. Brown finished 5 for 6, 3 of 3 from downtown, with 14 points in 24 minutes of play.

By now it is no secret that Brown was drafted for his ability to shoot the three and defend. Though the defensive aspect of “3 and D” has yet to show up, fans can take solace in the fact that the “3” is actually reliable.

The Second Unit’s Offense Looks Better Than the First’s 

In back to back games, the Lakers second unit has demonstrated their worth. While this could be due in part to the fact that they are playing against the opposition’s second unit, the ball movement is noticeably better with Marcelo Huertas running the point.

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Based on his turnovers, Huertas must have read today’s article about the direct correlation between rookie turnovers and eventual stardom, because he racked up 7 turnovers in just 23 minutes. The Warriors played him to pass the entire game and as a result his production was severely reduced.

Considering that the second unit often features both Nick Young and Lou Williams, the ball movement is surprising.

That said, overall today was an awful showing from both line ups.

Switching on Defense Doesn’t Seem to Be Working

One of the only things the Lakers have been doing consistently is switching, or rather attempting to switch, on almost every screen. Based on the results of their preseason, you can probably guess that this defensive scheme isn’t working.

Lakers defenders regularly get lost on these switches which leads to excessive wide open threes. Curry, Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes showed this nailing a combined 65 percent of their 20 threes attempted.

Though the Lakers aren’t going to face the three-point machine Warriors every night, that type of defense just isn’t going to cut it in the NBA, nor any other league.

Additionally, when the Lakers actually do make the right switch, teams constantly exploit the mismatch in the post. On multiple occasions tonight, plays ended up with Williams or Young guarding Warriors’ bigs deep in the post, resulting in fouls.

Regular season is just around the corner but the Lakers have a ton of work to do before they can be taken seriously again as an NBA franchise. What are some things the Lakers should experiment with?

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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