"I hope LeBron's other business ventures are going well in LA because the basketball venture right now is a mess"- NBA analyst goes off on LA Lakers after rough opening night loss
The LeBron James-led LA Lakers opened their 2022-23 NBA season with a loss as they went down 109-123 against the defending champions, the Golden State Warriors.
LeBron James put up 31 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists. Russell Westbrook rallied behind him with his own 19-point, 11-rebound double-double. Anthony Davis added 27 points, six rebounds and four steals in the loss.
The reigning finals MVP, Stephen Curry, put up a game-high 33 points, with Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson adding 20 and 18 points in the winning effort, respectively.
Colin Cowherd, on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd," criticized the LA Lakers. He said:
"I hope LeBron's other ventures are going well in L.A. because his basketball venture right now is a mess. I'm not sure what he can do about it.
"The Lakers are consumed with the past. The front office is Kobe's agent, friends of, and their current team, I don't get it.
"LeBron's still amazing, but nobody on this roster outside of maybe A.D. is built to play with LeBron.
"LeBron, still, is as good as anybody in the world at feeding the ball to a guy to catch it and shoot it. He's brilliant at it. This roster doesn't have any of those guys."
Between the slander, Cowherd also had a few words of high praise for the Dubs:
"You watch the Warriors. They are a perfectly constructed symphony of basketball shooters, youth, age, wisdom, twitchy defenders. They can play multiple ways. They have a plan A, a plan B, a strong bench, a brilliant coach. "
LeBron James and Anthony Davis put up empty stats as the LA Lakers fall on opening night
While Colin Cowherd might be exaggerating, he's not wrong about one thing -- there are very few on this roster built to play with LeBron James. And that doesn't just mean a lack of shooting.
Last night, the LA Lakers, for the most part, looked bamboozled. Besides the fact that good looks weren't falling, the offense looked all over the place, almost as if no plays were being called on the floor. James and Davis did their best with what they could glean from the defense.
Each of the LA Lakers' 21 turnovers felt like sloppy, unfocused plays. (On this particular turnover, take note of how Austin Reaves sets a flare screen, moves away, and a lack of awareness on AD's end results in a bad pass.)
As for the 10-for-40 shooting, James has admitted to the lack of shooting being a downfall for the Lakers. Yesterday might have just been an off night. Certain players with above-average shooting numbers (Nunn, Beverley) can regress to their respective means in later games.
The lack of synergy and adjustments were, perhaps, the biggest takeaways for the LA Lakers last night.
The Warriors looked no worse than any of us would've expected. Besides being a little too trigger-happy when it came to passes. This, however, is something most Warriors are accustomed to at this point. Therefore, there weren't too many fingers to point.
Their shooting numbers weren't great either, but the sum total of what they produced on the court (second-chance points, offensive rebounding, defense) made up for the poor shooting.