Stephen A. Smith is still optimistic about the Los Angeles Lakers season despite their loss to the Golden State Warriors on Opening Night.
While the popular opinion is that the Lakers are not title contenders, Smith believes that the Lakers making the playoffs will be a huge success for the side this season. They failed to make the postseason last year, finishing 33-49 in the regular season after injuries to LeBron James and Anthony Davis dented their campaign.
Speaking on First Take, the 55-year-old looked at the team construction and factored in the absence of sharpshooters. Adding injuries to their big stars, Smith saw a playoff berth as a win.
“The bottom line is, it doesn’t take much if you know the game of basketball and look at the roster you see what we see, there’s no JJ Redick’s on the team. You don’t have anyone that’s a bonafide sharpshooter, a bonafide sniper. You just don’t have it. So for me when you look at it from that standpoint, a huge success would be a playoff berth and a win in the first round because that would be exceeding expectations. The way the roster is presently constructed, they don’t have any shooters.”
The first game may have gone well in terms of individual performances for both James (31 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 assists) and Davis (27 points and 6 rebounds), but the duo did the bulk of the scoring, and the minutes they sat out saw a decline in the points.
Lakers Coach Darvin Ham Felt Russell Westbrook Was ‘Solid’ Against The Warriors
Even as Smith spoke about what would be a silver lining for Los Angeles this season, the chatter was all about the third star in the team, who has been in the headlines almost every other day.
Russell Westbrook didn’t have a bad night as he notched up 19 points with 11 rebounds and 3 assists — an effort that saw some praise coming his way from coach Darvin Ham.
Speaking to reporters post the 103-129 loss to Golden State, Ham felt Westbrook’s performance was noteworthy.
“I thought he was solid,” Ham said of Westbrook’s play against Golden State. “A couple of possessions I wish we could get back. But overall I thought he was solid.”
The Lakers still have glaring issues to deal with, apart from Westbrook’s consistency, which was an issue last year.
The shooting from deep and the turnovers were key in their loss. Should they fix the two and even upgrade the roster with bonafide shooters, then perhaps, Smith’s predictions may come to fruition. The side takes on the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday at home.
