The more things change, the more they stay the same. The head coach could be different and the staff got a massive overhaul. However, the results were the same for the purple and gold as they again lost to the Warriors on national television 123-109 on opening night, unable to spoil their ring night the way they wanted Anthony Davis.
After much debate and discussion about Russ and whether he should start or come off the bench, he earned the starting spot, at least for opening night. Darvin Ham fielded a lineup consisting of Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Patrick Beverley, Lonnie Walker IV and Russell Westbrook. They started with a lot of looks for Anthony Davis, and the result was an aggressive AD with 10 points in 9 minutes of play. While Davis was back to being himself, the rest of the Lakers carried their preseason shooting into Game 1, shooting 29 percent from the field in the first. Despite the shooting woes, the Lakers were down just three after the first.
In the second quarter, the depth and brilliance of the Warriors began to show. Ham called several timeouts in an unsuccessful attempt to slow down the Warriors’ potent offense. The Warriors’ bench crowd began to overwhelm the Lakers, with Poole scoring 10, Moody contributing 5 and Wiseman grabbing 4 rebounds. The Lakers’ shooting woes continued, as they went 2-for-20 from deep in the first half.
The Lakers are 2 of 20 (10%) from the 3-point line. Their headlines are 0 of 13.
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) October 19, 2022
Despite struggling to put the ball in the basket, the Lakers only trailed by seven at the start of the second half. Then the Warriors came through. Curry started to heat up from three, Andrew Wiggins forced multiple turnovers and four Warriors were in double digits. The Warriors led by as many as 27 and put the Lakers away for good midway through the third.
The fourth was essentially garbage time for the Lakers, so not much can be learned from this quarter. They are now 0-1 and have lost because they played against defensemen who have built a winning culture and a consistent way of playing the game over the last eight years under Steve Kerr. The Lakers are anything but consistent. They have two key stars, but everything else is new or a disaster. So was this game an indicator of what Laker Nation can expect for the rest of the season or just a bad game against a good team? We’ll start to find out Thursday when the Lakers play the Clippers on TNT at 7:00 p.m. and try to avoid going 0-2 again like they did last season.
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