When the Los Angeles Lakers traded for superstar guard Russell Westbrook during the summer, fans envisioned Showtime returning to Staples Center after it took a hiatus last season.
It hasn’t happened yet. LA lost on opening night to the Golden State Warriors, 121-114, after blowing a sizeable third-quarter lead.
Friday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns was even worse, as the Lakers fell behind by as many as 32 points to the team that knocked them out of the first round of last season’s NBA playoffs.
We as Lakers fans are a spoiled bunch, and naturally, we’re feeling restless and frustrated right now.
However, if we separate ourselves from our egos, there is absolutely no reason to panic right now.
Yes, there are definitely reasons to be concerned about the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ defense is deficient right now, and their transition game, which has been expected to be a huge strength for them, has been mostly non-existent.
But it’s extremely early, and the NBA championship isn’t won in October. I also have never heard of an NBA title contender being counted out after just the first two games of the season.
Let’s give it some time before we throw in the towel and give up on our hopes for banner number 18.
There are several reasons why Lakers fans across our nation should be patient and try to be optimistic right now.
5. Russell Westbrook looked much better in his second game than he did on opening night
The University of California, Los Angeles product looked awkward and tentative in the exhibition season, and it continued in the first game of the regular season.
But on Friday against the Suns, Westbrook looked more like himself.
He attacked the basket much more often and had open lanes to do so. He also crashed the boards and found open teammates quite often.
Westbrook only shot 6-of-15 from the field and 3-of-8 from the free-throw line, both of which are pretty poor. But he had 15 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and two steals.
He is one of those uncommon players who can make a big positive impact on a ballgame even when he isn’t shooting well. He can also affect a game and his teammates simply with his intensity and ferocity.
The Lakers as a team showed plenty of emotion and intensity overall despite getting blown out by Phoenix. Trailing by 27 heading into the fourth quarter, they finally started to figure some things out and trimmed the final margin to 10.
Maybe those are things they can build on and will serve them well moving forward.
4. The Los Angeles Lakers are shooting the three well
One of the concerns coming into this season for the Lakers was the 3-point shot. The team has struggled at times in that department over the last couple of seasons, even when it won the NBA championship in 2020.
To that end, general manager Rob Pelinka signed reliable 3-point shooters such as Carmelo Anthony, Kent Bazemore, Malik Monk, Wayne Ellington and Kendrick Nunn.
Surprisingly, the team is doing pretty well with its outside shooting so far.
In their first game against the Warriors, the Lakers made 35.7 percent of their 3-pointers, which is respectable. On Friday against Phoenix, L.A. shot 44.1 percent from downtown, which is red-hot.
Anthony is continuing his outstanding outside shooting from last season, and LeBron James is hitting from the outside very well (more on him later).
This is a very good sign, especially since it has come in spite of some poor overall play on the offensive end.
To be sure, there will be nights where L.A. won’t be able to throw a pea in the ocean from beyond the arc, but that’s true for all teams.
But if the Lakers, in general, continue to stroke the 3-ball like this, it will be a hugely positive asset to build on.
3. LeBron James is playing well
After suffering a severely sprained ankle in late March that pretty much torpedoed his season and the Lakers’ title hopes, LeBron James is looking good to start the 2021-22 campaign.
On opening night he shot 13-of-23 from the field and 5-of-11 from downtown en route to 34 points, despite having to deal with defensive dynamo Draymond Green.
On Friday night, he had 25 points and was hot again from the land of plenty, hitting 5-of-9 3-point attempts.
He is showing no signs of mobility issues in the ankle that the Atlanta Hawks’ Solomon Hill dove into last season.
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Another positive I’m seeing from James is his mid-range game. He’s never been a player who has utilized the pull-up jumper from the mid-range area throughout his storied career.
But so far this season he is taking such shots – and hitting them with regularly.
In recent seasons, James has also added a fadeaway/fallaway jumper from the post that is shades of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Larry Bird, not to mention a thing of beauty. He has been shooting and making it with regularity again to start this campaign.
The man that some (as well as himself) call “King James” is the least of the Lakers’ concerns right now.
2. The Los Angeles Lakers aren’t healthy right now
The Los Angeles Lakers, much like they were last season, are dealing with some key injuries right now.
Kendrick Nunn, a big free-agent signing this summer, suffered a sprained ankle during the preseason and is now out for at least a few weeks due to a bone bruise in his knee.
Talen Horton-Tucker, whom the team is high on, is sidelined because of a sprained ankle.
Trevor Ariza, one of the Lakers’ grizzled vets, who also won a ring with them back in the day, is out for the next two months.
That’s a fair deal to overcome.
Nunn, assuming he comes back and has no residual issues from his bone bruise, should play a key role on this team. He is an efficient scorer both in the paint and from downtown, and many also feel he is a capable defender.
Nunn is also a player who can create and hit his own shot, which will make him a spark plug off the bench. The same goes for Horton-Tucker.
Teams can often overcome one key injury, but multiple injuries will cause a team’s performance to sag no matter how much other guys step up.
1. It was going to take some time anyway
To borrow a phrase from James, many expected that the development of this year’s Lakers wouldn’t be “instant oatmeal.”
The team has many new players, including a new superstar. To complicate matters, the new Big 3 only played in two preseason games together, and Nunn, Horton-Tucker and Ariza didn’t play in those games.
The simple truth is that it takes time to build even a rudimentary level of chemistry. I felt at the end of the exhibition season that this team really needed at least two more preseason games before they were really ready to start the regular season.
There have been past Lakers teams that started the season poorly and still went on to win it all. Just think back two seasons and how they lost on opening night to the Los Angeles Clippers. They looked old and slow that night, and plenty of fans were acting like Chicken Little.
Instead, the team was 24-3 by mid-December.
In fact, several of the famed Showtime teams lost on opening night, only to win the NBA title.
For an encouraging example, look at the 1981-82 Lakers. They lost on opening night to the Houston Rockets, a team that had knocked them out of the first round of the playoffs the year before when they were the defending champs. The Rockets then went on to lose in the NBA Finals. Sounds familiar, right?
That team also lost its second game of the season. Just days later, Magic Johnson complained to the media that head coach Paul Westhead’s slowdown offense was stifling his talent, and he asked to be traded. The next day, Westhead was fired.
(By the way, nonplayerzealot4 on Youtube has posted some rare clips of the press conference where Westhead’s firing was announced. Then-owner Dr. Jerry Buss and the entire organization seemed to be clueless and in turmoil at the time. There’s also tons of other great historical Lakers stuff on his channel.)
A lowly assistant and former player named Pat Riley was promoted to head coach, the team won the world championship that season, and voila, Showtime was born.
Let’s give this year’s Lakers squad some time, OK? We just may be pleasantly surprised with how it turns out.