Los Angeles – The Golden State Warriors went to everything … somehow.
The Los Angeles Lakers apparently remain in this mode … a little in a way.
The circumstances presented to the Lakers the opportunity to play the long final game, with an offer that they could not refuse while the Warriors had to bet on Jimmy Butler that in ordinary circumstances, they may have not be.
This explains this eccentric nba season, Its deadline for wild trade And maybe a crazy and winding road around June.
LeBron James expects to be there every year while Stephen Curry seems to be hoped for, without external or passive-aggressive pressure.
It may be because Oklahoma City, Houston and Memphis are seated at the top, teams that do not have an appearance in the conference final with this current nucleus. It is perhaps the age of the parity of the NBA transforming the most sober and most experienced characters into hopeless romantics, believing that a movement can put their teams back into the seat of the conductor of the compression when the sizes sample say the opposite.
Butler had a simple one -way ticket from Miami Dade, without a real destination – but at least he knew he wanted to go out. While Butler raised his new jersey n ° 10 in a small room in the rear corridors of Crypto.com Arena, Luka Dončić was released on the central floor to receive her first reception from the house fans.
It represents hope for the future and the present for both, but in different forms perhaps. The Warriors have always put the line between the present and the future, while the Lakers seemed to move after the move to meet their own disproportionate expectations.
Have they changed role?
A little, because to seize a player of the Dončić caliber cannot be considered a decision for the future, not when he transported two different teams to the playoffs and last year, took the Dallas Mavericks to the final of the NBA.
Butler is not unrelated to deep races, and it will be interesting to see how him and Curry Mesh, with Draymond Green serving as an arms sergeant. He made things quite simple when speaking to the media, believing that the two stars see the game in the same way.
“They still play winning basketball, and they will do everything you need to win,” said Butler. “They won many different ways at the highest level and have done so many times.”
You could say that it was a shock, a blow in the arm – maybe things became outdated or that people were satisfied with the existing banners who hang high inside Chase Center.
“This is all the interest of doing a business is that you need a change of energy,” said Warriors Steve Kerr coach before the match. “And it was obvious that this team needed it.”
Draymond Green admired that the managing director Mike Dunleavy got into play by acquiring Butler – and even if the two were Chicago teammates, he is always something he would be responsible if it goes wrong.
But almost no one seems to think that. The calendar of Butler’s contract is aligned with Green, Kerr and of course, Curry – which means that all are well aware of the implications, time and mortality of basketball.
“Very refreshing,” Green told Yahoo Sports. “That’s all you can ask for. With the experiences we have had, not playing significant basketball is one of the most difficult things in the world. To have the opportunity to do this? We must always build. We must always assemble this and do this work. »»
You could see the movements working on both sides as Thursday’s match took place. James took an excellent start while the Lakers led the Warriors out of the building – a vintage performance and finished for a 40 -year -old child, dropping 42 with 17 rebounds but even he was a little in the section, an expected event given its age.
Curry tried to make his way in a productive game, shaking a disastrous start to mark 37, but it was on 35 shots and 20 of them came from the line of 3 points. The closest warrior in shooting attempts was Buddy Hield with 13 and he is not the idea of a shooting creator.
This is where Dončić and Butler enter, clearly at different levels of offensive productivity, but the decorated champions cannot wear a team for an entire match without really showing their age.
“Being able to use space, severity – if you call it. It is a double -meaning street, ”said Curry. “I will be able to help him, he will be able to help me. He’s a guy you need to worry about. There are unique defenses that try to move away from the ball, he can use it to his advantage. »»
Curry mentioned a shooting creator a few minutes before, and had to remind him that it was a “long time” because he played with another great shooting creator, as in Kevin during – he looks like three lives ago Basketball, the music that these two have made together.
Butler enters a culture established in Golden State, perhaps speaking almost rightly to lose his joy for the game during this famous press conference in Miami. Kerr has referred to the joy that has been built and maintained over the years in the bay region, and Butler made sure to tell everyone that his basketball joy has returned.
Rivating with professionals sharing the same ideas and $ 121 million certainly has a way to bring this emotion and appease the ego. With Dončić, it is not as simple – the shock of being exchanged is always obvious, and it will not disappear quickly.
But playing with James and smiling while James sets him up during the games, the two planning to play each other or at least, keeping a set of additional eyes far from one while the other works, could be a powerful combination.
The Lakers themselves are firmly in the playoff position, closer to the third seeded than the game with their 30-19 record. Thursday’s defeat put the Warriors at 25-26, 11th place in the west but three games from seventh place.
They could still kick for certain collapses, the confusing losses that could bite them at the end.
“We have become more difficult,” Green told Yahoo Sports. “Many matches that we lost earlier this year, with Jimmy here, we would win. I mean a lot of games that we lost this year, we have blown. It also changes.
He said that there was no way that it was too late for them to make up, and they will be a team with which it is necessary to count in the playoffs.
“No. We just have to arrive at the playoffs,” said Green. “We just have to get there. I guarantee you, we get there, no one wants to see us.
