Los Angeles Lakers open season with a loss to the Golden State Warriors

The Los Angeles Lakers underwhelmed during the preseason, losing all of their six games including two to the Golden State Warriors. In front of a nationally televised audience, the Lakers played the Warriors again, but this time for real.

The Los Angeles Lakers continued their season-long slide losing to the Golden State Warriors 121-114 to start their season 0-1. Bottom line… two of the “Big 3” showed up while the other is still trying to figure it out. More on that later.

A special Lake Show Life shout out to Avery Bradley. He basically came off the bench in the preseason to beat the Lakers in the second preseason game. The Warriors waived him and angered Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.

The Lake Show promptly scooped him up and he played great in the fourth quarter. He played good defense to slow down Jordan Poole and knocked down important 3 point shots to keep things close. It’s going to be a shame when he is released when Talen Horton-Tucker and Trevor Ariza comes back.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Man! This LeBron James dude played like a cheat code coming out of the gate!

Get used to this phrase from NBA announcers (Especially Reggie Miller on TNT broadcasts!), “Are you sure this is LeBron’s 19th year in the league?” Sure it’s irritating to listen to every single game the Lakers play, but man is it warranted. He came out smoking in this game knocking down his first six shots on his way to 18 points on 7-10 shooting in the first half. But this sequence here is where he knew things were rolling.

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1450648811840294920

• Play one: LeBron strolls down the court on a mini fast break and pulls up from 27 feet and drops the 3 pointer.
• Play two: The amazing defensive rotation on the back line to block a potential Jordan Poole layup. The great Bill Russell would be impressed as he kept the ball in bounds.

Throughout the game, it was plain to see that the rhythm from the Sacramento game to close out the preseason carried into opening night. Not only did he do want he wanted, but he also got Andrew Wiggins in foul trouble almost immediately. 18 points and 7 rebounds in 17 minutes in the first half is dominant.  LeBron finished with 34 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists. Only one player on the court was more dominant though.

Anthony Davis destroyed the Golden State Warriors frontline early and often!

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had a bright idea that Draymond Green or Kevon Looney could guard AD one on one. UMMMMMMM…no. Draymond Green got in foul trouble early, Looney was ineffective and Juan Toscano-Anderson got a chance. Well…

The Lake Show Life staff was laughing at Steve Kerr wondering how he could be asking for an explanation after that play. His player had no chance along with his bigger counterparts.

Anthony Davis dropped 20 points in the first half on 9-16 shooting with 6 rebounds. He finished with 33 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks.

Stephen Curry and Jordan Poole’s shooting was off most of the night!

In the second preseason loss to Golden State, the Warriors starting backcourt of Stephen Curry and Jordan Poole dominated the Lakers combining for 58 points in only three quarters. The perimeter defense paid more attention to these two in this game. The efficiency wasn’t there from these two like the last game.

• Jordan Poole: Preseason game…28 points. This game 20 points (8-18 shooting!), 2 rebounds and 2 assists.
• Stephen Curry: Preseason game…30 points. This game  21 points (5-21 shooting!), 10 rebounds and  10 assists. First triple-double since 2016.

These two still had more open looks than they should, but they weren’t the product of bad defensive breakdowns.

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Russell Westbrook is struggling to get acclimated to this offense.

Being the third option on any LeBron James team will be a challenge, just ask Chris Bosh, Kevin Love and most recently Kyle Kuzma.

But Russell Westbrook needs to get back to the player that got him invited to the Lakers party. He’s too passive trying to fit into the offense. His rhythm is off and the frustrations will continue to mount if his struggles persist. He finished with only 8 points on 4-13 shooting with a plus/minus of -23.

To Russ’ credit, he wasn’t the only one struggling on the offensive end, it seemed that the two stars were carrying the entire offensive load.

The Los Angeles Lakers depended on LeBron and AD a whole bunch on the offensive end.

Sure the Los Angeles Lakers got away with these two going crazy without a lot of help in this game, but this is a recipe for disaster long term.

It has already been discussed how the top two players were rolling in the first half, but the next highest scorer in the opening half was Carmelo Anthony with 8 points (He finished with 9 points!). The box score was littered with players scoring zero to 6 points.

Free-throw shooting…

9-19 from the line? This is not going to cut it. Even the two stars struggled.

• LeBron: 3-6
• AD: 2-7

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

The center position is a problem for the Los Angeles Lakers!

Anthony Davis had better get used to the concept of playing the center spot. Why? The other centers will be non-factors by the end of the year. Either they don’t rim protect well enough (DeAndre Jordan) or they make bad plays (Yes, this means you Dwight Howard) to justify big minutes. Both of them do not score well at all. Here’s a highlight of Jordan’s points.

He didn’t score again. Dwight Howard continues with his uneven play that will keep his minutes below 15 minutes long term.

The bench scoring…

53-29 in favor of the Warriors. That’s the game folks.