Christmas Day Preview: Lakers vs Warriors

It’s a Christmas Day California matchup between the Lakers and Golden State Warriors. The Lakers will travel to San Francisco following a disappointing loss to the Detroit Pistons in Los Angeles. They struggled with the Pistons physicality in that game, and will be looking to bounce back on the road against their division rivals.

Turnovers

The Lakers hurt themselves a lot in the loss against Detroit. They consistently turned the ball over throughout the game, giving the Pistons easy transition points which were ultimately too much for LA to overcome. They will need to tidy this up. With the Warriors’ acquisition of Dennis Schroder, they can expect physical defense again tonight. Hopefully they have adjusted after the mistakes made against Detroit.

Disciplined Defense

The Warriors motion offense around Steph Curry is still one of the toughest if not the toughest challenge an NBA defense can face. The Laker backcourt needs to be disciplined tonight at not let Curry get going early from long range. Their communication on screens will be key and it will be interesting to see whether JJ Redick chooses to switch screens like he has often done this season or, use a different defensive scheme.

Either way the Lakers need to be locked in defensively, otherwise this Warrior offense will punish them. Can LA get a bounce back win? Tip off is at 5pm PST.