Losing to the Los Angeles Clippers, LeBron James and co. have started their 2022-2023 campaign with a 0-2 record.
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Grabbing a loss in the season opener against the Golden State Warriors, LeBron James and co. entered tonight’s contest in search of a desperate win. Playing against city rivals Los Angeles Clippers in the “Battle of L.A”, we saw a healthy LAC big three of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and John Wall clinch a 103-97 win in their first-ever regular season clash together.
PG13 played 36:11 minutes and finished the bout with 15/10/4 and a box plus-minus of +16. The Klaw, who performed in his first game after missing out on the entire previous season, came off the bench and produced 14 points and 7 rebounds on 50% shooting. And taking on the NBA hardwood after 545 days, Wall scored a team-high 15 points in merely 24:32 minutes of action.
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As for the Lakers, they were miserable. Yes, the trio of LBJ, Anthony Davis, and Lonnie Walker IV were pretty productive, combining for 71 points, and knocking down 25 of the team’s 33 field goals. However, it was the guards who had a pretty horrific night.
“Someone is not doing their job in LA”: Charles Barkley
After putting up 19/11/3 in the previous clash, Russell Westbrook had one of the worst shooting performances of his 14-year career. Scoring merely 2 points that came from the free throw line, Russ shot an abysmal 0-11 from the field and 0-6 from beyond the arc.
Russ tonight:
— 0-11 FG
— 0-6 3P
— His first 0-FG game since 2016@PointsBetUSA pic.twitter.com/RkfkEiUQPB— StatMuse (@statmuse) October 21, 2022
Despite finishing the game with 2 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists in 27:22 minutes, Mr. Triple Double stated that he played “solid”. In a postgame interview, evaluated his performance:
Russ says he played ‘solid’ tonight
(🎥 @LakersDailyCom) pic.twitter.com/V1QyhcWfPx
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) October 21, 2022
Further, the three LAL guards – Westbrook, Kendrick Nunn, and Patrick Beverley – combined for a concerning 4% shooting, going 1-25 from the field and 1-16 from the 3FG.
Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley and Kendrick Nunn shot 1-25 FG COMBINED! 🤮 pic.twitter.com/4h79T1RG3l
— Basketball Forever (@Bballforeverfb) October 21, 2022
As soon as the Clippers-Lakers contest got over, Charles Barkley had some harsh words for the Lakers front office. The TNT analyst pinned the blame on Rob Pelinka and co. for surrounding LeBron with a bunch of “geezers”. Chuck further attacked the organization:
“Last year and this year what they’re putting around LeBron is an embarrassment. Last year they put around all those geezers around him & what they have around him right now, someone is not doing their job in LA.”
“What they’re putting around LeBron is an embarrassment…Somebody is not doing their job in LA. Period.”
– Charles Barkley. 😳
(h/t @_Talkin_NBA)
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) October 21, 2022
“Lakers suck yesterday, they suck again today”: Charles Barkley on LeBron James and co.
Attacking the front office for building an “embarrassing” squad wasn’t the only nasty comment Barkley passed.
The Round Mound of Rebound further trolled the Purple & Gold by saying:
“Lakers suck yesterday, they suck again today.”
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In all honesty, the Hall-Of-Famer isn’t wrong. The Los Angeles Lakers just haven’t been playing good basketball at the moment. Starting 0-2 is not what we expected from the title contenders.
The LA-based franchise will next play the Portland Trail Blazers this coming Sunday and will hope to grab their first win of the 2022-2023 season against Damian Lillard and co.
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