After a less-than-impressive preseason, opening night is here as the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are coming off winning an impressive title while injuries and poor roster construction left the Lakers out of the playoffs altogether.
This obviously left the teams with two very different offseasons. The Lakers focused on improving their defense and putting younger pieces around Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis, and LeBron while the Warriors simply locked up their championship core and became healthier.
The Warriors are coming into opening night as Western Conference favorites and are expected to beat a Lakers team still lacking a clear identity. While there is no denying the Warriors should be heavy favorites, there are three clear reasons to believe this Lakers team can pull off the opening night upset.
3 reasons why the Lakers could shock the Warriors on opening night:
1. Draymond Green’s preseason punch has repercussions
Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole in practice was shocking to watch even for a player in Draymond who has had his share of regrettable moments. A team leader simply cannot behave in this manner and continue to have the team follow and believe in him. Green isn’t a box score player but an effort player whose tone-setting defense and leadership have helped guide the Warriors to their dynasty.
While he deserves credit for what he accomplished it would be more than fair to point out that he helped chase Kevin Durant away and arguably enabled LeBron James and Cleveland to put together an epic comeback in the 2016 NBA Finals.
Green has a long track record of making very poor decisions and being explosive in his reactions to his teammates, officials, and opposing players. Even with that history, the punch was still shocking to watch and has to have some shockwaves across this roster.
Is it possible the Warriors aren’t going to be the same team early on this season based on Draymond’s actions? It isn’t hard to see the team’s young players in particular taking issue with Green’s leadership style.