The NBA’s most consecutive win record at the start of a season was made 67 years ago. Forty-five years later, it was tied and stood unbroken at 15-0 until last Wednesday when the unstoppably unstoppable Golden State Warriors mauled a terribly terrible Los Angeles Lakers for a historic 16-0 start.
There are several things that contribute to a team’s success or demise and we try to consider the three most important factors and apply these to GSW and LAL.
Management – Decisions either make or break the structure and future of a team. The GSW front office has, for quite a while assembled and maintained a selfless, energetic and relatively young group of players who approach each game with the sole purpose of enjoying their time on the hardcourt. During their games, they’re always having fun and proof to that is an average winning margin of almost 17 points. Management did not see anything wrong with their personnel that except for two or three player movements, the Warrior unit is practically intact for the past three seasons. If it ain’t broken, why fix?
The same cannot be said of LAL. Since Jerry Buss died, his children were left to run the franchise. There is a documented sibling rivalry between Jeannie and Jim Buss and it has affected the Lakers. Player transactions are not exactly popular and the huge contract extension given to a stubbornly aging superstar held the team financially hostaged, limiting their options. Consider the Laker roster the past four years. Had they treated Pau Gasol well, he could still be in LA. With the way things are looking, they’re neck-deep in the quicksand of futility.
Coaching – Steve Kerr played under Phil Jackson (4 NBA titles, Chicago Bulls, 1996-1999) and Greg Popovich (1 NBA title, San Antonio Spurs, 2003) and as a point guard, he has absorbed the finer points of the game from two of the best basketball minds on the planet. Combining Jackson and Pop’s philosophy produced a hybrid coaching strategy. Interim head coach Luke Walton likewise played with Jackson, is a 2-time NBA champion in 2009 and 2010 with the Lakers. Walton is letting his team play their game, pace their key players and in general adopt Kerr’s style. We all know the results, 16-0.
Byron Scott is an accomplished player and coach. He won three titles as a player with the Lakers in 1985, 1987 and 1988. He was named as the league’s Coach of the Year in 2008 while with the New Orleans Hornets but entering his second season in Hollywood, it has not translated to wins for LA. His coaching philosophy is defense where his players now are merely passive. The Lakers rank at the bottom three of the league’s worst defensive team. He insists on giving more minutes to a Kobe Bryant that shoots airballs and bricks. Kobe’s single conversion out of fourteen tries is an ugly example of insistence to a fading star’s unproductivity. Scott often only uses an 8-man rotation and refuses to trust #2 pick D’Angelo Russell at crucial stretches of the game, thereby stunting his development and confidence. Russell is struggling compared to the other rookies among top four picks (Karl Anthony Towns, Jahlil Okafor and Kristaps Porzingis). Yes, at 2-12, we also know the result.
Health – The core of GSW has an average age of 26 and the most important thing is they are all healthy because their minutes are well handled. Although Walton has a tendency to extend the older Andre Igoudala’s time on the floor, he has managed to be injury free, likewise Andrew Bogut.
Except for Robert Sacre, the Lakers don’t have serious injury issues but the continued reliance on Kobe has backfired. Three games he sat out either because of exhaustion or a recurring back pain. He should be exhausted, running and jumping for 20 seasons. The current Laker lineup is an improvement from last season but is wanting. It would be wise on Byron Scott’s side to use and experiment on the younger members of the team. Making the playoffs is a good four years away, at least, so it is better to start molding and developing the young talents at his disposal. Tarik Black and Larry Nance, Jr. are potential productive power forwards.
The pressure of breaking the best NBA season start is now over for the Warriors. Tomorrow, they try for win number 17. They are only 13 wins shy of the 33-game run by the 1971-1972 Lakers. If they play to enjoy and have fun, more wins will be coming their way and I will be rooting for Stephen Curry and company to tie or break the record. Like Walton said, “Eventually, we will lose.” If they keep playing this way, it will take them a while to falter.
For clarification purposes, rooting for Curry and GSW to break the ’71-’72 Laker record does not diminish my Laker loyalty. The teams they regularly eat for breakfast are now better than them but no matter how miserably mediocre they may be, I still watch on TV to the bitter end all the butt-kicking LA receives, be it live or replays. And the 34-point losing margin last Wednesday was really bad.