5 Things: Warriors spoil Lakers opener

The balanced and cohesive Golden State Warriors proved to be too large a load for the Lakers as the home team fell to the visitors 121-114. The Warriors are returning the majority of a core that surprised some but came up just short of making the playoffs last season as they lost both of their play-in games and failed to qualify. They looked a lot more like a playoff team last night than we did but, take heart, it’s still early in the season and great things take time and effort. Still, the road to greatness will likely be filled with potholes and landmines so buckle up.

1. The Grind. I’m not talking about the regular season, which is indeed another kind of grind. I’m talking about the length of time a process like this takes to come to fruition. When the Lakers traded for Westbrook they assured themselves of one thing: that the gelling process would be a major aspect of the regular season. Whenever multiple, ball-dominant, All-Star/HOFers are on the same team the question arises and it arises quickly: who will be the lead dog? Generally talent wins out in that debate and it should here, as well. LeBron James is still the best and most complete basketball player on planet Earth, thus, he should and needs to be the lead dog in order for the Lakers to attain their goals. The question raged all summer as to which Laker ought to change their game to accommodate the team best. Frank Vogel answered that question in his post game comments when he labeled Westbrook as both the new guy and the one who had the most to catch up on as well as being the one to fit in. That reads correctly to me, Westbrook is almost beyond elite in the areas in which he excels but where he doesn’t excel he has middling impact. I believe Russ will get there but that it will take some time. The big question being ‘how much?’
2. The Warriors bench kicked our benches butt. Warriors starters 66 points, Lakers 85 points. Dubs bench 55, Lakers bench 29. The legendary Stu Lantz has a pre-game segment called Stu’s Views and he often has a View called ‘No New Stars’. That would have applied to last night’s game as we saw guys like NeManja Bjelica, Damion Lee, and old man Andre Iguodala all score in double-digits. Of the three I felt like Bjelica did the most damage as he often out-fought Davis, Howard or anyone else that tried to grab a rebound when he was nearby. Can’t let guys like that beat you. Injuries have affected the composition and rotation of the Laker bench but the bottom line is when you are called upon you gotta go out and deliver.
3. Playing defense without fouling. We sent the Warriors to the free throw line a staggering 30 times and they made 25 of them. Now, while a point could certainly be made that they made more free throws than we took (19) we didn’t do ourselves many favors by missing 10 of those freebies, with Anthony Davis shooting a disturbing 2-7 from the free throw line. AD needs to be better, he struggled from the line last season, too, but doesn’t have the quick turnaround excuse handy any longer. We won’t get where we want to go shooting 47% from the free throw line. Can we do a better job of getting to the line more? Not really, that kind of thing ebbs and flows throughout the season based on the refs (which weren’t great last night, especially the travelling call on Russ that could be called on any guard in the NBA all game long). Can we do a better job of playing defense without fouling? Absolutely.
4. Hey, that’s Avery Bradley! Dude almost came in and helped swing the win our way with no preseason, no camp, and not much time to even say hello to the new squad. AB was one of the guys I felt like got away to our detriment after the Bubble Banner and I, for one, am happy he is back. Knows our defense, can run an offense and is class A dude. Welcome back, Avery.
5. TIME TO HIT THE PANIC BUTTON!!!!!! Well, not yet, while the same trends that had been disturbing continued from the preseason into last night I did see enough improvement, especially in the first half, that gives me a lot of hope for the future of this team. The things I’m not fond of are seeing Russ and Rondo share the floor. Rondo will dominate the ball and we need Russ to get time with the ball in his hands, some shooters and a screener for him to get comfy. Put Bradley on the floor for those minutes and save Rondo for his best season: the playoffs. Same goes for DeAndre Jordan as a starter. “The Stein newsletter be damned!” says Frank and while I agree that there a small number of compelling reasons to start off with a traditional big man it shouldn’t be DAJ. You’re not doing him any favors playing him only 13 minutes, basketball is a game of rhythm and no player will get into a groove barely playing, better to give those minutes to Dwight or Melo. Malik Monk needs to see the floor more, as well, especially since he’s healthy. Maybe they were easing him back, I didn’t hear that but it seems logical. Regardless, it can’t be all old guys; we need some youth.

All in all, I had this pegged as a loss and there it is. I didn’t like a single thing about our 4th quarter except Avery Bradley. Too many lazy threes when we just needed to score points of any kind (too many threes in general). We started the 4th down 85-83 and came out and missed several threes as the shot clock wound down, another bad carryover from last season where we fiddle seconds away while Rome burns. The turnovers were OK, still a lot of unforced turnovers which is maddening. NBA playoff rematch on Friday, might be a rough start to the season, I need to see Phoenix/Denver tonight before I form an opinion but if you asked me now I’m seeing another loss on Friday while we continue to integrate.

Go Lakers.