Warriors vs. Lakers: Oh how the tables have turned
By Danny Saeed
In the last 10 to 15 years, professional basketball in California has been dominated by the Los Angeles Lakers.
From 1999 to 2012, the irrelevancy of the Warriors has been delineated by their lackluster 404-646 win-loss record with solely one stand-out accomplishment: defeating the first seed Dallas Mavericks as the eighth seed in the first round of the 06-07 postseason.
On the other side of the spectrum, the Lakers have flourished beautifully throughout that 13-year span, with historic accomplishments peaking out from every angle. First and foremost, their 685-365 win-loss record is far superior; however, that’s not quite the chief distinction between the two. Their five championship triumphs along with seven finals appearances in a 13-year span is simply remarkable, and emphatically dominant.
However, the years of the dynastic Lakers have dissipated like a cloud of smoke in the roaring wind. It’s the 2014-2015 NBA season, and to gently say “the tables have turned” in California would be a benevolent remark. The years of the offensive explosion with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant leading the way have consciously been over. The years of sergeant Bryant leading his troops to back-to-back Finals victories even after the departure of O’Neal — proving O’Neal’s prominent YouTube hit rapping the words “Kobe can’t do it without me” to be an utter hoax — have fiercely vanished.
With the absence of Bryant last season, the Lakers struggled to win 27 games, the second worst record in the ferocious Western Conference. Now, after the heavily anticipated return of the Black Mamba, the Lakers are merely 1-7 to begin the season, and an improvement is ineluctably impractical.
On the other end of California, the Warriors are a prepossessing sight. Despite how the Warriors have performed in the last decade or so, they are nothing less of legitimate contenders right now, the mere opposite of the once prosperous Lakers.
Last season, the Warriors were able to tack on a whopping 51 wins through ruthlessness of the Western Conference. Ironically, just to illustrate the towering expectations, the idea of underachieving loomed throughout the totality of the year. Golden State’s front office made a wise decision to part ways with Mark Jackson after the offense typified strong signs of stagnancy and inefficiency, completely unacceptable considering the exceptional talent of the roster.
Golden State is currently 5-2, transcending relevancy, for some have justifiably chosen the Warriors to come out of the West. Superstar talent finally inhabits Bay Area basketball, long with extraordinary depth, and additionally, even though it’s a fairly dangerous sample size this young into the season, an implementation of an effective offense system under newly acquired coach Steve Kerr. Contrarily, some have justifiably chosen the Lakers to end with the Western Conference’s worst record and finish last in the Pacific Division. The talent on the Lakers roster simply does not have the requisites to compete in a heavy-duty Western Conference, where competitiveness has rose like a thermometer in the burning heat.
The Lakers will inevitably have a miserable season, unless a marquee deal is made to acquire significant talent, while the Warriors will inevitably reach the postseason, at the bare minimum. Hopefully that puts it into perspective a bit. The Warriors are the team to highlight and watch carefully nowadays, and Bay Area fans should be ecstatic for what’s in store for them.