3 Keys to the Golden State Warriors beating the Los Angeles Lakers
By Abhay Bethur
The Golden State Warriors face the Los Angeles Lakers coming off a much-needed All-Star break where they’ve now fully rested, recovered, and ready to start the second half of the season. Their first opponent out of the break is the new-look Los Angeles Lakers, a team that after revamping their roster at the trade deadline, looks like a completely new and improved lineup.
They faced off each other just less than two weeks ago, and the Lakers managed to beat the Warriors in a game where both teams had cold shooting nights. This time around the Lakers are ‘probable’ to add Lebron James to the lineup, while the Warriors will lose Andrew Wiggins who’s been ruled out due to personal reasons.
In a crucial game for both teams to kick off the post All-Star break stretch, here are three keys to the Golden State Warriors beating the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday.
1. Get Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole going
The Warriors are missing two of their best scorers in Wiggins and Stephen Curry. They’re undoubtedly going to need major scoring boosts from their other two most prominent scorers in Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson. The pair are going to be heavily relied on given the lack of offensive firepower elsewhere on the roster.
Getting Thompson and Poole going early is imperative for the Warriors to pull the upset in LA. If they can’t provide the same scoring punch they have been recently, Golden State’s chances of victory are exceptionally low.
2. Defending without fouling
The Warriors’ offense isn’t expected to be elite without Curry and Wiggins, and therefore it’s up to their defense to carry the slack. The defense has been shaky leading up to the All-Star break, ranking 24th in the league over the last five games. It’s a small sample size but put simply, the Warriors have to be better on that end.
They gave the Lakers 26 free throw attempts in their last meeting, with the visitors burying 21. Meanwhile, Golden State had a mere 12 attempts of which they made 11. If the Warriors are going to have any way of cobbling together defensive stops, they can’t give the Lakers easy points at the foul line.
3. Make a concerted effort at generating easy shots
Golden State have become a jump-shooting team this season, often far too comfortable in settling for contested jumpers instead of shots at the rim. While they have a few of the most dangerous and efficient sharpshooters in the league, perimeter shots are not something to rely on for an entire game. They need to do better at finding easier shots, particularly at the rim.
Next. Next six games may come to define the Golden State Warriors season. dark
One thing has always been true; the closer you are to the rim, generally the higher percentage you shoot. In late-game scenarios, when defenses tighten up, shotmaking from defense can often prove unreliable given the variance on these shots. The Warriors will always take threes, it’s embedded into their DNA. But just finding ways to get players like Poole or Jonathan Kuminga going downhill to score at the rim could do wonders for this offense while it stumbles to find consistency.