The Lakers had lost four straight. Before Saturday’s game, Magic Johnson stood on the Crypto.com Arena court saying how he thinks his former team is capable of winning a play-in game — only if Anthony Davis is healthy. Then ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that head coach Frank Vogel is resisting an internal push to bench Russell Westbrook.
But the Lakers ignored the noise and played more desperate basketball against Golden State on Saturday. And behind LeBron James, that’s all they needed.
Both the Warriors and Lakers went small for the entire fourth quarter, and both teams scored at-will. James, Stephen Curry and Carmelo Anthony each earned Mike Breen “bangs.”
But in the end, in a matchup of scuffling should-be contenders, James’ breathtaking 56-point performance proved too much for Golden State (43-21). And now the Warriors are losers of eight of their last 10 games, desperately gasping for air as a Draymond Green-sized weight tied to their ankles drowns them further and further from the surface.
Here are three takeaways from GSW’s lackluster 124-116 loss in Los Angeles.
An exhibit of Steve Kerr’s soap box
For weeks, defensive issues have plagued Golden State. Much of the struggles can be traced back to Draymond Green’s absence, but certainly not all of them.
And Steve Kerr has repeatedly made that clear.
He’s pointed out the defense has been bad at the point of attack, allowing straight line drives to the rim. That players haven’t been connected and have failed to rotate properly. That they’ve allowed too many backdoor cuts and at times bled in transition.
All those issues were on display in the first quarter.
The Lakers didn’t play a traditional center, with LeBron James often their tallest player on the court. That’s the type of team the Warriors should be able to punish inside and beat on the boards, even sans Draymond.
But no. The Warriors’ starting lineup got killed in their opening shift, allowing an 11-0 run and several layups. They lost cutters and failed to keep drivers in front of them.
In the first quarter, the Warriors allowed 32 points. When asked about what he thought of his team’s defense in a sideline interview, Kerr didn’t mince words.
“I didn’t think much of it,” Kerr told Lisa Salters. “It feels like a pickup game right now.”
And it didn’t get much better for the Warriors’ defense from there.
What’s up with Wiggins at the stripe?
Since Feb. 1, Andrew Wiggins is 9-for-23 (39%) from the free throw line. He’s a career 72% free throw shooter who has seemed to completely lose his feel for foul shooting.
In that span, he’s shooting 37% from behind the arc. Players typically don’t shoot as well from 25 feet from the hoop than they do from 15.
The curious case of Wiggins at the free throw line doesn’t have an immediate conclusion. Does he have the yips? Did he change something mechanically? Is there a nefarious, twisted “Space Jam” skill-stealing plot underway?
The fact is, it matters. Wiggins looks more hesitant to drive to the rim because he doesn’t want to take foul shots, and that removes a major aspect of his game from Golden State’s offense. He’s averaging 1.9 free throw attempts per game since February, half his season average of 3.1.
Against the Lakers, Wiggins missed both of his two free throws. And as a team, the Warriors went 9-for-19 at the line as Jordan Poole, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson shot a combined one foul shot. They’re called free for a reason.
Jordan Poole irrational confidence
Poole has been arguably Golden State’s biggest victim of constantly changing roles. He’d recently been sputtering, with 12 and four-point performances in the past week.
But Poole’s 23-point performance against Dallas may have helped him turn the corner. In that game he was decisive and efficient, using only 12 shots to make an impact.
Against Los Angeles, Poole started 3-for-3 from deep. After hitting his first triple, he pulled up on a fast break for another, which he banked in. Then he quickly added another deep one as a trailer in semi-transition.
There was no shot Poole didn’t seem to like. And when he’s on, it feels like whatever he throws up is going in.
In the second quarter, Poole got to the cup and then drilled a step-back 3 — his fourth straight — over Westbrook. He had 16 points in his first 10 minutes on seven shots.
Poole is still finding a balance between looking for his own offense and deferring to teammates — behavior that can ebb and flow based on the personnel on the floor with him. But in short, his job description still reads something like: instant offense.
And in his 23-point (on 14 shots) night, he lived up to the billing. Golden State just needed more stops for it to matter.
