Alright, welcome in to the full recap of the Lakers’ third divisional and geographical showdown with the Golden State Warriors where the Lakers’ were up big, but they made it closer than it should’ve been as they pull it out with a 105-115 victory.
All smiles and glee from late in the 1st quarter to mid-4th quarter. The Lakers caught the Warriors riding high from such a tremendous start to the season and they managed to exploit that. They were up 23, all they needed to do was wrap it up, allow a couple of garbage time points and they get the W. However, too much garbage time points the deep Warrior reserves racked up that 4th quarter and that literally almost turned an insurmountable lead to a potential T-Mac-esque 13 points in 33 seconds. Anyway, like I said before it’s a big win for the Lakers, but pretty scary stuff on what has transpired because that Warrior team is deep and that’s evident in the Lakers’ last two meetings with them this season.
The Positives
*There were a lot of positives in this game considering the amount of Laker players in double figures, but I’m just going to pick out what were the actual positives to take away from this game.*
Ed Davis, 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks 7-7 shooting. What a game for Ed Davis. Like I said before, he’s started to pick up double figure numbers in his point total the last few games and all of his points this game came from the paint. True, the Warriors were without Andrew Bogut. I believe that would’ve made a huge difference, but his absence opened up the offense and Ronnie Price and Jeremy Lin played the pick and roll beautifully with Ed Davis and gave him open looks. Some shots, he had to work for, but most of those definitely benefitted from Price and Lin’s penetration.
Ronnie Price, 17 points, 8 assists, 3 steals, 6-10 shooting. “The Price is Right.” He’s not known to put up these kinds of numbers that much, but Price is an example of a journeyman who plays hard regardless of which team he’s playing on. When he picks up the activity on defense, the defense feeds off of that and he was swarming the Warriors’ ball movement all game long that lead to some of those steals. Price also provided much needed buckets. He’s not a solid 3 point shooter, but again that play hard mentality. Price answered the bell with those three threes in the 3rd as Curry was trying to run the Warriors’ offense through him.
Bench mob. Boozer had 18 points, 9 rebounds, Nick Young with 15 points, Lin with 11 points. Obviously Boozer’s energy was there this game, another beneficiary with the stellar pick and roll game Lin and Price ran. When he gets the ball inside and manages to get it going, Boozer is impossible to stop offensively. The bench role has worked out for him greatly this season. Nick Young, another good game, but he got tired down the stretch and most of those misses contributed to the margin being much smaller. Lin may have the meaningless double figure points out of all three off the bench, but a much needed three late from Lin in the 4th as the Warriors kept slimming it down had to go in. Props to Lin for hitting that shot before it gets out of control and he also played a solid all-around game, hitting Boozer and Davis for pick and roll plays.
The Negatives
Too much garbage time points. The Lakers were up 23 at one point, but too much garbage time points decreased the lead in the 4th. We can’t underestimate the fact that this is the deepest Warriors team since who knows when. This is the only negative I can think of because I personally didn’t like that the Lakers managed to drift off and make this close late in the 4th, when it shouldn’t have been that close. They had this in the bag already. Just a small amount of garbage points is enough, but not hitting shots and allowing that much garbage time points is just unacceptable.
Conclusion
Yeah, there is an aura in the media: Lakers won without Kobe, so Kobe is the reason why the Lakers aren’t winning too many games. True, he’s shooting the lights out for this team, but there are many more problems with this current squad than just Kobe Bryant. The Lakers will find that soon enough when they face the tough Chicago Bulls in Chicago on Christmas Day. This team has a tendency to take the next game off after a complete performance like this tonight. Before we glorify that this Laker team is better off without Kobe, we wait until this team puts up this kind of performance on a day-to-day basis. Anyway, I’ll take the win, would’ve been much better if it stayed as a total rout. I just miss those days. I’ll see you guys on Christmas Day.
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