Los Angeles Lakers Blow Out the Injured Warriors, 126-93

The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Golden State Warriors for the second time during this preseason. The final result was 126-93 for the purple and gold, who was looking pretty dominant on the court of the Staples Center.

Though we need to say that the Warriors played without a two-time MVP Steph Curry, who, although was healthy, received a night off. Instead of him, it was D’Angelo Russell who was the leader of the Dub Nation, and to be honest, that wasn’t so good.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the floor, we had as always fired up LeBron. King James’ motivation once he meets Golden State is enormous, and he showed that this Wednesday. In some 25 minutes on the court, he scored 18 points, shooting 6 of 9 from the field, and had 11 assists with 4 boards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CGolIu5OEo

His assists were fabulous, and that is what the Lakers head coach Frank Vogel had to point out at the press conference.

“His ability to read help is maybe the best ever,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “Wherever the help is coming from, he’s able to just find, identify, and find and deliver the ball right on target time and time again. You saw that tonight with 11 assists.”

Avery Bradley had 18 buckets with only one miss in five three-point attempts. Quinn Cook added 16 with the same shooting numbers as Bradley, while Lakers’ centers also had nice roles.

Dwight Howard posted 13 buckets with 7 boards in 15 minutes, and JaVale McGee 12 and 6 boards in 18 minutes.

Anthony Davis played nearly 29 minutes and was awfully close to delivering a triple-double his first in the Lakers jersey. AD closed the night with 8 points and assists, and 10 rebounds. It seems that his thumb injury is behind him and that until the start of the regular part of the campaign, the Eyebrow is going to reach his full speed.

He explained how Lakers’ offense works and why he has so many assists.

“When you have guys all over the board who can score the basketball, you don’t need to do everything every possession. It feels good to be able to just, you know, fit in.”

On the other side, the Warriors were bad. Steve Kerr was very unhappy with the way his team protected the three-point line and the perimeter in general.

“Perimeter defense was not good,” Kerr said, following the match. “We were getting blown by, getting back cut. First half was really bad.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QG8vIDAlHo

Russell did score 23 points, but he had 4 turnovers and wasn’t good at all defensively. On numerous occasions, D-Lo was the one who was responsible for conceding points. Jordan Poole added 14 points but with shooting 2 of 10 from the field, while Draymond Green added 10 buckets not making a single of his 5 downtown shots.

In general, the Warriors’ long-distance percentage was terrible with just seven hits in 33 attempts. Meanwhile, the purple and gold were 15 of 30, and we can say that they pretty much played the Warriors’ game. Also, the aerial domination of the Lakers was what hurt Kerr’s guys, as the home team posted 46 boards compared to 34 of the guests.

What is the reason for that, are the injures of Kevon Looney and Willie Cauley-Stein, who are absent. Looney strained his hamstring while Cauley-Stein sprained his foot and won’t be back until mid-November according to some prognosis.

These two sides will meet once again this Friday, only in San Francisco, at the new Chase Center. Following that, both teams will play against the Los Angeles Clippers.