Welcome in to the full recap of the Lakers' matchup vs. the defending champion Warriors where the Lakers kept it competitive from the 1st quarter to the mid 3rd quarter, then the Warriors started to play like the champions that they are and the Lakers eventually fell to the Warriors 98-116 in Kobe Bryant's final game in the Bay Area, in Oaktown.
Well, it's been a recurring theme in the last two Lakers-Warriors matchups. The Lakers make things interesting early on and then the Warriors just start pulling away in the 3rd quarter or 4th quarter. But in other news, the Bay Area, Oakland, Oracle Arena, says goodbye to Kobe Bryant in his final game here of his illustrious 20-year career. It was especially nice to see some Raider ties in the crowd, particularly Derek Carr and Charles Woodson were in attendance as well as the legendary and one-time Raider, Ronnie Lott were in attendance to pay tribute to Kobe. As both a Raider and Laker fan, I just have absolute chills to see both the "Legends of 24" in the same building on TV. We know C-Wood has officially called it quits and Kobe is soon going to call it quits once this season is over. Just a lot of feels going through from the perspective of a fan posting this blog. But enough of that, let's get through this full recap.
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Jordan Clarkson, 22 points, 10-17 shooting. As I said in the halftime post, Clarkson started off good, hitting five of his first eight shots. Against this good Warriors team tonight, I thought he was patient in letting his shot develop, albeit some of his points benefitted from garbage time when the game was put out of reach. There's not much to say that Clarkson has been the Lakers' constant since coming on in his rookie year last season.
Lou Williams, 21 points, 5-12 shooting. Lou is just too good at drawing contact, that is why he makes up his bad shooting with his near-perfect free throw shooting. He started really slow early on in the game, but he managed to hit his stride somewhere in the 3rd quarter. Sweet Lou finished strong, good enough to be on this positive list.
Julius Randle, 14 points, 9 rebounds. Randle has had an up-and-down season so far, but we have to remind ourselves that he is technically a rookie since he missed all of last season. From a perspective, this was a solid game for Randle, he could've solidified his performance even more if he grabbed one more rebound to record a double-double. Randle has a lot of potential, he just needs to work on taking better care of the ball and developing a jump shot. He took advantage of garbage time and we saw of that potential Randle has yet to unlock to further elevate his game.
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2nd half effort. From all the positives listed and this one negative I can pinpoint, it almost looks like the Lakers won this game. But, it was a competitive game all night long until the Warriors just started to dismantle this Lakers team apart. From the point on in the mid 3rd quarter, the Lakers were giving up a lot of easy points in the paint and the Warriors aside from Curry and Thompson were raining threes all over the Lakers. The Lakers also played a little out of control, committing some turnovers, which didn't help their cause. It was at the moment late in the 3rd quarter that I knew the game was already out of reach for the Lakers.
Conclusion
Overall, not a surprising loss. We thought the Lakers would catch the Warriors off guard since they were coming off back-to-back sets and they just suffered a tough loss against the Nuggets last night. It was all set up for the Lakers to grab an upset victory, but there's a reason the Warriors are the best team in the West and the Lakers are the worst team in the West. But, another chapter is completed in Kobe Bryant's farewell tour. Big kudos to the Warriors fans for showering the Black Mamba with adoration in his final game in the Bay. I've announced this on Friday and I'll announce it again, I will specifically pick out nationally-televised Laker games I can cover. I have an internship that's looming and I don't know what my schedule will look like, so stay tuned for that. I'll see you guys later.
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