After acquiring Russel Westbrook this past summer, the hype surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers increased ten-fold. With arguably the best roster in the league, many fans were quick to believe that this team is headed back to the Finals.
In their season debut, though, the Lakers did not look like a Finals-bound squad.
Despite over 60 combined points by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Lakers failed to capture a win against the short-handed Warriors.
Experienced fans will know that one bad game isn’t necessarily a reason to panic, but it didn’t stop many from expressing their concern about the Lakeshow.
Surprisingly, Nick Wright was one of them and explained on First Thing’s First why he felt a little concerned after the season debut:
“Russ’ Lakers debut was very concerning and it has very little to do w/ Russell Westbrook. It has to do with how the Lakers are trying to play. I understand that Ellington and Ariza and THT and Nunn were out, I get that. However,
There’s a rule of thumb with LeBron James teams: if he’s the best 3-pt shooter on the court, you’ve done a bad job building around him. And in their starting lineup last night, he was the best starting 3-pt shooter.
James made five three-pointers last night, a rather high volume and percentage for him. Still, he “only” scored 34, which (according to Nick Wright) is a sign that the Lakers are doing things the wrong way:
“LeBron scored more points than anyone in the NBA yesterday. He scored 34. That should’ve been a 45 point game. He hit 12 jump shots. When LeBron’s jumpers are falling, those are 45 point games.
He never got to the rim successfully in the half-court. Why? Well, you have DeAndre Jordan out there, Dwight Howard out there, you have Russ out there, and that to me was the bigger concern.”
"Russ' Lakers debut was very concerning & it has very little to do w/ Russell Westbrook. There's a rule of thumb w/ LeBron James teams: if he's the best 3-pt shooter on the court, you've done a bad job building around him. He was the best starting 3-pt shooter." — @getnickwright pic.twitter.com/H0ZxHI4Luk
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) October 20, 2021
After just one game, the Lakers have plenty of time to get their act together. It should also be noted that several of their more notable shooters were not on the floor last night.
So, there’s a good chance this team is better than what we saw last night.
Still, if it taught us one thing, it’s that it’s going to take some time before the Lakers really hit their stride as a unit.
