Does The Lakers’ Blowout Win Over Warriors Mean Anything?
The Los Angeles Lakers shocked the world by blowing out the record-chasing Golden State Warriors on Sunday, but does the win mean anything?
No, you didn’t read that headline wrong.
The 12-51 Los Angeles Lakers faced off with the 55-5 Golden State Warriors in the Staples Center Sunday and beat them. Scratch that — they absolutely dominated them.
Again, you didn’t read that wrong.
The Lakers played their best ball of the season on the defensive end, holding arguably the most efficient scoring team in NBA history to an abysmal 4-for-30 clip from three and forcing them to commit an abnormal and awful 20 turnovers.
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Stephen Curry–the reigning MVP known for dropping 40- and 50-point games at will–was held to 18, yes, 18 points by an unlikely hero in Brazilian rookie Marcelo Huertas.
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The best guard duo on the floor was wearing purple and gold, as D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson dominated the Splash Brothers (Curry and Klay Thompson) with a combined 46 points while going 7-of-13 from behind the arc. Julius Randle had three fewer rebounds than Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut combined.
Even downtrodden gunslinger Nick Young got into the act, hitting two clutch threes in the fourth on his way to 13 points off of the bench.
What may be most impressive is that they did this with a limited contribution from Kobe Bryant, who only had 12 points in 24 minutes.
It was one of the monumental upsets in NBA history and a great confidence booster for a young Lakers team.
Now — let me tell you what it does not mean.
It doesn’t mean the Lakers are going to parlay the momentum into a ridiculous win streak and an improbable run to the playoffs. It also doesn’t mean the Golden State Warriors will bomb the rest of the season and not repeat as champions.
The Warriors are still the best team in basketball and will more than likely recover from what was their worst game in a while.
However, while the win won’t magically turn the Lakers season around, it does have some far-reaching implications for their future.
These two guys above? Yeah, they’re for real.
Both have been criminally underrated and written off by fans and critics due to the deserved hype surrounding their peers, but they are by no means slouches. They proved that Sunday against what is arguably the best backcourt in basketball, outscoring them by 13 points.
However, most fans don’t know about the duo’s dominance as of late.
The point guard who was labeled a bust after getting off to a slow start is averaging 18.5 points a game since the All-Star break and 22.6 in his last five games, only having one scoring performance of less than 20 points. His backcourt partner has put up 18.1 points a night in that span of time, with 20-point games against playoff teams in the Bulls, Grizzlies, Spurs and Warriors.
Their performance Sunday asserted that they deserve to be mentioned in the conversation of great young duos in the league.
Moreover, the team also unlocked its defensive potential Sunday.
A team that is currently tied for the third-worst scoring defense in the league held a team that averages 115.4 points a game to 95. They were perfect in containing Golden State’s near unstoppable pick and roll offense, infiltrating the passing lanes and capitalizing off of their turnovers.
The Lakers also saw the emergence of what could be a solid backup point guard in Huertas, who posted 10 points and nine assists while leading the bench unit to a 44-point outing on a combined 60.9 field goal percentage.
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All in all, this was a great win for a Lakers team that hasn’t had many of them — not only because of how monumental of an upset it was, but also because it gave fans a glimpse into how good this team could be sooner rather than later.