Alright welcome in to the full recap of the Lakers' divisional and geographical matchup vs. the Golden State Warriors where the Lakers wrap up their 2nd back-to-back stretch in the young NBA season finding their first win, but couldn't as they couldn't neither Splash brother in their 104-127 defeat at the Oracle.
0-4, rarely do you see the Lakers start off like that. I'll save the frustration comparison with the Raiders and Lakers after. No surprise, the Lakers start off on a sour note on a brutal stretch against three teams in the West that made the playoffs last year and a team in the West that almost snuck in. Back-to-back, I had my skepticism that the Lakers would come out sluggish after a tough loss against the Clippers last night, but they battled until mid 4th quarter and the dynamic, shooting back court duo of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson started turning it on to run away from the Lakers.
The Positives
Kobe Bryant, 28 points, 6 rebounds, 12-28 shooting. It was concerning to see Kobe not delivering in crunch time last night against the Clippers. He had a rough going this game as well, until the 3rd quarter. 36 years old, out of the game for a while and still putting up these ridiculous shots, amazing.
Kobe will have his moments where he gets hot and the Lakers are used to milking that, but once he goes cold, somebody has to pick up the scoring load. He was literally in a 1 on 2 handicap match against the Splash Brothers in that quarter. Whenever Kobe scores, either Thompson or Curry respond. That back court showdown was like straight out of wrestling where the babyface is holding off on his own against a heel tag team and then the tag team DQ themselves and proceed to beat the living heck out of the babyface. Aside from that, fatigue was not a factor and Kobe went off and played a good game.
Jordan Hill, 23 points, 10-14 shooting. J. Hill picked up where he left off last night when he also went for 23 points against Blake Griffin and the Clippers. Obviously he was going up against a big man much bigger than him in Andrew Bogut in the post, but Hill was using his speed, versatility, and jump shot to give Bogut all kinds of problems. Another solid game for Hill. Hopefully he keeps it up and hope he can keep that shooting stroke hot.
Wesley Johnson, 15 points, 6-9 shooting. This is the relationship I have with Wes ever since he became a Laker. He's usually on my negatives list, but when he has games like this scoring-wise, he goes on my positives. This is the struggle that us Laker fans are going to share considering he's so inconsistent to put up solid double figure points. Wes showed us that improved jump shot that he's been working on with Kobe during the offseason. He displayed it in the preseason, but couldn't back it up early on in this young season. Tonight wasn't the case and he provided buckets when needed, especially when the Lakers had the lead.
The Negatives
Jeremy Lin, 6 points, 0-6 shooting. Talk about a bipolar night for Lin. After a decent showing last night, he went cold and he got torched by Steph Curry. Overall, it was just another abysmal performance by Lin on both ends on the floor. He's going to get all these daunting matchups against the best guards in the league. He's gotta step up not only being the floor general, but keeping up with the guards on defense. Curry specifically was having his away against Lin and Lin got burned big time this game.
Carlos Boozer, 9 points, 4-9 shooting. Obviously Boozer wasn't getting the ball a lot hence why he just attempted only 9 field goals. Lakers gotta find a way to get Boozer involve. He's a decent double-figure scorer and they just couldn't find a way to get him involved aside from Hill and Davis.
Conclusion
Here, this game, you can't hit two birds with one stone and apparently the Lakers couldn't decide which bird to hit whether it was Curry or Thompson and they just got torched by that back court. It's going to be a struggle, the West is the toughest conference. Lakers are 0-4, the Raiders are 0-7, it's tough to be a passionate fan here so far into the year that's for sure, but it's next game up. Celebrate a win, rage from an embarrassing beat down or from a close defeat and then move on. Well, this is the fun part whenever the NBA and NFL seasons intersect because of more posts. This weekend kept me busy. No nationally televised Laker game posts until the 14th when the Lakers face the defending champion Spurs, so expect a lot of quick recaps from here on out. Speaking of defending champions, I'll be back tomorrow afternoon as the Raiders take on the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks.
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