Lakers celebrate, set sights on more
Clippers dampen mood a bit with win, but LeBron & Co. ready for next title quest
LOS ANGELES — For 29 NBA teams, opening night is about the future. For one, the team with the golden embroidered warmups that say “Champions,” it’s about the past.
With their latest trophy sparkling on a golden podium in the center of an empty StaplesCenteronTuesdaynight, theLakers relived their triumphs from a season ago. There were highlights from the bubble, words fromthe league’s commissionerand the belovedteamowner. Frontline medical workers (via video) presented the team’s assistant coacheswith their rings.
Andthen, theLakers’moms, dads, wives, sonsanddaughters surprised theteamwith messages, with some players wiping tears out of the corner of their eyes before slipping on the giant championship rings that awaited them.
The ceremony left them with gold on theirfingers, happiness intheir hearts and, of course, somelead in their legs.
The Lakers earned those rings and that trophyonOctober 12, makingfor the shortest turnaroundbetweenchampionshipand season opener in league history. And the remnants of that are going to be with them for awhile.
The Lakers’ 2020 was certainly worth celebrating, but the present is here and it got here fast, theClippers spoiling theparty with a 116-109 win on the NBA’s opening night.
Before the game, Frank Vogel said he thought opening nightwould be a preview of the season to come, a parade of teams eager to spoil the Lakers’ celebration.
“It’llbeourfirst taste of everyonecoming for us this year. Whenyou’re thechampion, everybody circles you on the schedule,” Vogel said pregame. “They get up for that game and tonightwill be the first example of that.
“It really comes down to, once the ceremony is over, that’s behind us. It’s time to play a basketball game. And we have to be the aggressors.” Theymost certainlyweren’t. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George outscored LeBron James and Anthony Davis 59-40 in a decisive showof force that was ugly early and got slightly more palatable as the gamewore on.
The Lakers fell behind by 22 points as the Clippers entered the season with the turbo button pressed down, taking advantageof a socially distantLakers defenseand a mentality thatwas surely softened by the sentiments of pregame.
James started slowly, Marc Gasol floundered in his debut and open shots rattled out while the Clippers torched the nets.
But the rims don’t stay thatwide forever, and the Lakers defense flashed signs of last year’s willingness to scrap, stopping momentum enough to start to crawl back in the game.
Davis started tocookfromthemid-range, jab-stepping and rising up over defenders simply toosmall to disrupt hispure jumper. And James found the rhythm that eluded him early, flying toward the basket to put pressure on the Clippers defense.
That22-point lead got cutdowntotwoat the half and completely erased at 75 before PaulGeorge tookover, scoringnine straight points in the final two minutes of the third to push the lead back to double digits.
But tired teams, and that can be physically or emotionally, struggle to closecomebacks, and that’s what the Lakers looked like in the fourth quarter. It was as if they wereona treadmill that gradually got faster and steeper, with the Clippers’ lead ticking back up high enough that once James sat midway through the fourth he never took hiswarmups off.
If therewere reasons for optimism, they camefromnewadditionsMontrezlHarrell andDennis Schroder, whodeliveredonthe expectations that came with their acquisitions.
Harrellwas like adouble shot of espresso against his former team, helping bring the Lakers to life in the first half while fighting to thehornin a 17-point, 10-rebounddebut. And Schroder, who got the start at point guard, sniffed anopening night triple-double, scoring 14 to go with 12 rebounds and eight assists.