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Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Takeaways from blowout loss to Golden State Warriors

By Ronald Agers

LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 21: Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors and Luke Walton of the Los Angeles Lakers seen on court following the game on January 21, 2019 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 21: Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors and Luke Walton of the Los Angeles Lakers seen on court following the game on January 21, 2019 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Los Angeles Lakers
(Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /

After a tough night at home against the Golden State Warriors, here are four takeaways from the loss for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Let’s just take a look back to Christmas Day for a moment! Close your eyes. Family, food, presents and a full day of NBA basketball. The Los Angeles Lakers were on primetime on ABC and ESPN to play the game of the day against the champs! LeBron James had the team going in the right direction. Rajon Rondo had just come back from a broken hand. The young core of Kuzma, Ingram and Ball was getting comfortable in their roles. Sure there were issues with the coaching, but the Lakers were in the middle of the pack in the playoff chase.

The game was great for Lakers fans as the Lakers rolled into the Oracle and destroyed the World Champion Golden State Warriors by 26 points. It wasn’t close and the Lakers looked like conference contenders. This was a total embarrassment and a message to champs and especially Kevin Durant from LeBron about trash talking to alleged “Fanboys” about toxic environments.

No one knew that the entire season would change after this game either.

LeBron James went down with what was said at the time a “groin strain” a day-to-day injury that has gone on until this writing. There still is no timetable to when he will be back.

Rajon Rondo tore a ligament in a finger and had to have surgery and he’s been on the shelf since, Since then the Lakers have been under .500 and have been playing  catch up ever since.

Then the crippling blow happened…the loss of Lonzo Ball with a severe ankle injury for 4-6 weeks against Houston.

The Los Angeles Lakers came into the game short-handed and played like it, getting run out of the Staples Center 130-111 in a game that wasn’t even that close. The Lakers stayed close for most of the opening quarter and were behind only ten points at the half.

Then the champs showed who they were and why.

The Golden State Warriors slapped a 45-point quarter on the Lakers led by Klay Thompson (More on this dude in a moment!) who scored 23 points in the quarter alone. After he put on a show that had the crowd buzzing, he disappeared with the rest of the starting lineup outside of DeMarcus Cousins in the 4th quarter to rest. The game was over at that point with a 110-80 lead.

Normally people familiar with these postgame reports would expect an explosion on the Lakers lack of effort and Luke Walton’s rotation patterns…

Wrong.

If you really thought this bunch was going to beat a motivated, focused, two-time champion who are on a mission to get Boogie Cousins acclimated, there are some nice statues in front of Staples Center that I can sell you for 25,000 dollars. Get them while they last.

Bottom line…the Los Angeles Lakers have to get Rajon Rondo, LeBron James and Lonzo Ball back in the lineup. Period. ASAP!

The only thing that went wrong for the Warriors in this game was the dust up between Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr and Jordan Bell. Think about this, they’re arguing and they are up 25 points.

The only thing of excitement was the argument in the TNT studios at halftime about Klay Thompson’s pecking order among the Warriors best players.

Let’s see where he was in this game…

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