Why the Los Angeles Lakers will dismantle the Golden State Warriors
By Jason Reed
1. The Los Angeles Lakers have the guys to throw at Steph Curry to slow him down
The Los Angeles Lakers are not going to straight-up stop Stephen Curry. To pretend like the Lakers are going to absolutely neutralize him and make him a non-factor is just silly. Curry is going to have a good game in the play-in games and he is going to have a good game every game in the NBA Playoffs.
However, the Lakers have the guys to keep Curry’s good game from turning into a great game. While it has been a headache at times, the Lakers are still one of the best defensive teams in the league and have great perimeter defenders.
Some may look at the numbers while the team was hurt as proof otherwise. But if you recall, the Lakers’ defense was not spectacular in the NBA bubble before the playoffs began. It is more about the guys that they have and not any potential struggles while the team was banged up.
Alex Caruso is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league and is extremely underrated. He is the perfect pesky defender to get under Curry’s skin and follow him around off-ball.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is solid a switcher onto Curry, Wesley Matthews has been very bad offensively but has been solid defensively and Dennis Schroder, although not elite, can hold his own.
Even the Lakers’ last member of the backcourt, Talen Horton-Tucker, is a great defender and he can really utilize his wingspan as a closeout defender on Curry.
The Warriors don’t have many more options to hurt the Lakers and the Lakers’ frontcourt is going to handle that as is. And when it comes to switching, the Lakers have some of the best defensive bigs in the league that won’t be exposed like other teams.
LeBron is great defensively when he wants, Anthony Davis is an All-Defense-caliber player and Andre Drummond is solid as the weak link.