Ending The Season With A Bang
Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson had their worst combined 3-pt shooting game as teammates pic.twitter.com/1SblRnowg2
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 6, 2016
As mentioned earlier, and reflected in the graphic above, the Lakers and Warriors had a pretty memorable contest last year with L.A. surprisingly blowing out Golden State. Yet, comparing their season’s as a whole is a different story.
The Warriors set a single-season wins record and lost in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, while the Lakers finished with the 2nd worst record of all 32 NBA teams last year. With Coach Walton switching to the Los Angeles side, he hopes to reverse the fortunes of his new team and beat his former team and fellow coaches.
These two teams will play a handful of times before this season finale. But this game will likely invoke a few memories of this past season when both the Warriors and Lakers had historic final regular season games.
While Golden State won their 73rd game of the season and set the single-season wins, Kobe Bryant ended his 20-year NBA career with a 60-point performance, the most ever in a player’s final game.
However, this year may be a little different story. Warriors players have repeatedly stated they won’t be chasing another wins record this year. Instead, they will be focusing all their energy on winning an NBA title after last year’s Finals collapse. This means resting their stars (aka their whole line-up) in a likely meaningless final game as their playoff seed will almost certainly be set.
On the opposite side, I would love to say the Lakers will still be fighting for a playoff spot or even that they already secured their seed. However, that is presumably a little too big of a jump from last year’s performance.
Next: Lakers vs Sacramento Kings Preseason Preview
The franchise would assuredly be happy to get their record back to .500 or better. But hey, a fan can dream right?