Opening night was an interesting one for the Lakers this year. After so much drama and chaos over the summer, the team entered this season with a whole lot more questions than answers.
And as the Warriors made quick work of the Purple and Gold, all fans could do was watch and wait for the bleeding to stop. By the final buzzer, the game’s 123-109 scoreboard did not seem to fully capture the dominance of Golden State’s performance.
But for ESPN insider Brian Windhorst, it was a moment from LeBron James after the game that caught his eye.
“We’re getting great looks, but it could also be teams giving us great looks,” said James. “To be completely honest, we’re not a team that’s constructed of great shooting. That’s just (what) the truth of the matter is. It’s not like we’re sitting here with a lot of lasers on our team… we’re not sitting here with a bunch of 40+ career three-point shooting guys.”
It was a true moment of honesty from LeBron, who seemed to be suggesting a tweak to his team’s tactics. But in an appearance on ‘NBA Today,’ Brian Windhorst explained why James’ candidly harsh statement is a bad omen for the franchise.
“When LeBron gives a statement and does the ‘shake’ that’s a tell he’s laying it out. You usually see the truth shake in January or February about 7-10 days out from the trade deadline, when he evaluates where his team is. And he’s usually right, by the way. Doesn’t always mean his team can do something. Everything he said is right. You can go back and look, whenever that shake comes… it’s just never good to have the truth shake in October. You don’t want it in October. He compared it to football, he’s like ‘if you don’t have a quarterback who can throw the ball 30 yards downfield, you don’t throw the ball 30 yards downfield, you throw it underneath.’ He even referenced Tom Brady winning with the Buccaneers. And I agree with that. He is right. So why are the Lakers shooting 40 three-pointers a game? They were 26th in the preseason on three-point shooting. They were terrible last night. On balance, they’re not gonna be a good three-point shooting team and they can’t play that way — and LeBron knows it on October 18th.”
.@WindhorstESPN breaks down LeBron's "Truth Shake" and why it's a bad sign for the Lakers 🧐 pic.twitter.com/8ZF6AHVh88
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) October 19, 2022
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell that the Lakers are not a good shooting team. Besides a few notable snipers, the Lakers lack the personnel to use a three-point shooting-heavy game plan.
Yesterday, LeBron tried to tell the world, and warn his team, that they need to change the way they play. We will see how the rest of the squad responds.
