Amid skid, Warriors can learn from Lakers — it could be worse
Golden State and Los Angeles are both reeling entering Saturday night's
primetime showdown, but there's no question who has it worse
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 8: Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron
James (6) looks up during a break in the action as his team takes on the
Golden State Warriors in the first quarter of a NBA game at Chase Center
in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021. (Anda Chu/Bay Area
News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 8: Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron
James (6) looks up during a break in the action as his team takes on the
Golden State Warriors in the first quarter of a NBA game at Chase Center
in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021. (Anda Chu/Bay Area
News Group)
By EVAN WEBECK | ewebeck@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: March 4, 2022 at 1:37 p.m. | UPDATED: March 4, 2022 at 1:59 p.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/03/04/amid-skid-warriors-can-learn-from-lakers-it-could-be-worse/

When the NBA and its television partners released the schedule of games
at the start of this season, ratings-obsessed executives had reason to
be excited about Saturday night. Warriors. Lakers. Steph. LeBron. A
viewership bonanza, right?

Well, not quite.

The game is sure to draw eyeballs, but the air has been sucked out of
the late-season showdown that many fans circled when schedules were
released.

The Warriors are hobbled and limping toward the finish line, desperately
clutching to the No. 2 seed.

The Lakers, though?

Oh, the Lakers…

Some oddsmakers, the ones who had the Lakers listed among the preseason
favorites for the Larry O’Brien trophy, are going to make a lot of
money. (The house always wins, after all.) From reports of dysfunction
in the locker room to fans booing the home team, the Lakers’ season has
gone every which way of wrong for them to carry a 27-35 record into
Saturday night’s primetime showdown.

It puts the Warriors’ recent woes — losers of five of their past six
games and seven of their past nine, but still 43-20 and in second place
in the West — into perspective.

Both teams take active losing streaks of at least three games into the
primetime showdown. The only difference? This is the Warriors’ first
time losing three in a row all season, something the Lakes have done six
times — including their current four-game skid.

Remember the hype behind that opening night matchup in what was then
Staples Center? It was billed as a possible Western Conference Finals
preview, but the more far-fetched of the two at the time were the
Warriors, coming off two seasons away from the postseason and facing
half a season without Klay Thompson. It had been only 12 months since
the Lakers won the bubble championship, and LeBron James had recruited
Russell Westbrook to team up with him and Anthony Davis.

The Warriors’ win that night was viewed as a statement. In retrospect,
maybe it said more about the Lakers than the Warriors.

After a blowout loss last month to the Milwaukee Bucks, the defending
champions and a team right alongside the Lakers in those preseason
championship odds, James declared, “It tells me we ain’t on their level.”

A report in The Athletic the next day cited sources inside the locker
room who “understand as well as anyone that the personnel on this
joyless … team simply isn’t working.”

That was the week of the NBA trade deadline, where the Lakers largely
stood pat, unable to find a suitor for Westbrook’s massive contract.
They were four games under .500 and ninth in the Western Conference.
Entering Saturday, they’re still in ninth place but now eight games
below .500, at 27-35.

Back on opening night, Westbrook took 13 shots and scored eight points,
turning the ball over four times, in 35 minutes, and the Long Beach
native’s homecoming has not gotten any better in the ensuing 61 games.
The city that adored him while starring at Leuzinger High and UCLA now
regularly cascades boos upon him, only now the arena is named after
Crypto.com.

Active for all but one game this season, Westbrook’s presence, at least,
if not his play, has been reliable.

The Lakers have only played 21 games this season with LeBron and AD on
the court together. They’ve hardly maximized their opportunities,
either, winning only 11 of those contests. That number won’t go any
higher for a while longer, too, as Davis nurses a foot sprain that has
kept him out since mid-February.

Rock bottom — for now — came this past Sunday, as the Lakers went down
by 32 points in an eventual 123-95 loss to the lowly New Orleans
Pelicans. They were booed off their home court.

Draymond Green called the action by the fans “pathetic,” defending the
team, many of whom he is close with.

“That was about as bratty as something I’ve seen, considering that this
team just won a championship not even a full two years ago,” Green said
on the most recent episode of his podcast. “And now you’re booing? I
thought that was utterly ridiculous, and like I said, I thought it was
very distasteful.”

Fans turned their ire to LeBron, the reported architect of this Lakers
team, after an errant pass flew out of bounds in the Pelicans loss.

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Another report this past month from The Athletic cited sources who
claimed James wields more power within the organization than even Kobe
Bryant. It has been widely reported that James and Davis pushed the team
to pursue Westbrook in lieu of other upgrades.

They let Alex Caruso walk in free agency and replaced him in the
starting lineup most night this season with Avery Bradley, the player
the Warriors cut in favor of Gary Payton II this preseason. Kyle Kuzma,
another defensive stalwart, also sent packing along with role players
Montrezl Harrell and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in exchange for Westbrook.

The Lakers went from the top-rated defensive team in the NBA to
middle-of-the-pack, 16th in the league.

A roster with James’ fingerprints all over it has lost more games than
it has won and traded in championship aspirations for play-in desperation.

See? It can always be worse.

--
Evan Webeck | Reporter
Evan Webeck covers high-school sports on the field and beyond — and a
little bit of everything else — for the Bay Area News Group. A Pacific
Northwest native and graduate of Arizona State, Evan has previously
worked for The Seattle Times, MLB.com and Sports Illustrated.