Is this the year?
Warriors hear footsteps from rising Lakers
Right around this time last year, LeBron James surveyed the preseason landscape and told reporters, “We’ve got a long way to go to get to Golden State.” That sounded about right to anyone analyzing the Los Angeles Lakers’ strange mishmash of a roster.
And it was nothing new. Somehow, over a span dating to the Warriors’ arrival in California in 1962, the two teams have never had a legitimate rivalry. The Dodgers and Giants haven’t known even the slightest gap, going way back to the Brooklyn days, and when the Dodgers visited San Francisco in the season’s final week, retired L.A. great Orel Hershiser told fellow broadcaster Mike Krukow that battling the Giants was “like playing a pickup basketball game against my older brother.”
With the Warriors and Lakers, it always seems more like Russia against Milpitas. It’s been 28 years since they met in the playoffs, and over the seven postseason series they contested prior to that, the Lakers won every time — usually in a rout.
So there they were at Staples Center for Monday night’s exhibition game, two teams in disguise. The Warriors played without Draymond Green and D’Angelo Russell. The Lakers
were missing Anthony Davis and James, who watched in amusement from the bench alongside the injured DeMarcus Cousins, the two of them in matching blue hoodies.
You could barely recognize the teams, let alone where they’re headed, but this season could bring some longawaited change. The Lakers are puffing out their chests over the DavisJames tandem, and the newlook Warriors appear vulnerable for the first time since Steve Kerr became coach. The games are likely to be spirited and contentious when they take the court for real.
The exhibition season tends to become tedious when you’re facing just one opponent (the Lakers every time, save one game against Minnesota), but we learned a few things Wednesday night. Jordan Poole and Marquese Chriss each started the game, with noteworthy results.
Poole is an interesting cat — and we mean that sincerely, as he has a couple of felines at home (strays that he generously adopted) and admittedly gets a kick out of hilarious cat videos. Outside of an occasional look at Instagram, Poole completely stays away from socialmedia interactions with the public, and that’s refreshing for anyone baffled by Kevin Durant’s Twitter obsession. Poole won’t ever be Durant on the court, but he’s perceptive enough to realize it’s a pathetic waste of time to engage getalife grumps hammering out their disparaging critiques.
The Warriors’ first order of backcourt business is to get Curry in flow with Russell, but Kerr has to be intrigued by the CurryPoole connection. The kid clearly would love to be like the legend. He flies around the court without the ball, shoots without hesitation or a conscience, and even takes to chewing on his mouthguard in idle moments.
The numbers weren’t good this night, Poole shooting just 3for14, but there was a telling firsthalf stretch that saw Curry purposefully rewarding Poole for his ball movement, throwing a beautiful setup that found Poole stopping on a dime to hit a feathery 3pointer, then faking his way into closer range to nail a 15footer. There will be nights, we’d imagine, when the two of them shoot the Warriors straight out of trouble.
With Chriss, who signed a nonguaranteed contract after three disappointing NBA seasons, the story line is changing by the minute. At first he was a long shot to make the team. Then he had people wondering whether he might replace Alfonzo McKinnie. Now it seems clear that, with the exception of 3point shooting, Chriss is the superior player in every phase of the game. Sporting Green colleague Connor Letourneau mentioned the possibility of Chriss opening the season as the injuryforced starting center, and come to think of it, why not?
Against the Lakers, a few of Chriss’ plays stood out:
With Curry looking to get open for a midrange shot, Chriss screened defender Alex Caruso while simultaneously finding Curry with a betweenthelegs bounce pass. Two points.
Isolated against Jared Dudley inside, Chriss blew by him and dropped in a nice little 6footer.
When power forward Devontae Cacok went up for what he figured would be a authoritative slam dunk, Chriss rudely rejected it.
Given the ball on the left baseline, Chriss drilled a fallaway jumper over Cacok’s tight defense.
It can’t be overemphasized that those weren’t the real Lakers, but genuine talent has a way of shining through. Chriss certainly wasn’t outplayed by experienced centers Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee, and each of those men had decent games.
All the while, LeBron’s lateinlife weirdness persevered. Distracted and beaten down by the Lakers’ failure late last season, James was known to become a statue on defense, shoot an airball free throw and lazily toss an inbounds pass off the stanchion. Now he’s embroiled in an international scandal after his bizarre and costly admonishment of Houston general manager Daryl Morey.
All of which adds spice, a certain intrigue, to matchups between the Lakers and Warriors. Sometime soon, it might even become a rivalry.
Bruce Jenkins is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: bjenkins@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Bruce_Jenkins1