Pre-Season Game 1 Rewind: Lakers Slam Warriors, 118-101

Welcome back, Lakers!  The LA title defense officially got under way tonight with the Lakers’ first pre-season game of the year.  Kobe and company couldn’t have asked for a better match-up to start things out than the sacrificial lambs known as the Golden State Warriors.

The Lakers jumped early and never looked back against Golden State who apparently did nothing in the off-season to shore up their defense.  They did sign veteran big man Mikki Moore to help protect the paint a little better, but I think Shannon Brown quickly proved how ineffective that move will be courtesy of this vicious dunk.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Jordan Farmar probably shouldn’t be investing in any real estate in the immediate Los Angeles area anytime soon.

Anyway, there is no sense in dwelling on a meaningless game too much, but there were a few interesting tidbits that came out of tonight game:

• Andrew Bynum got the start over Lamar Odom.  So much for the concern with him starting on the pine during a recent scrimmage.  His getting the start and playing 30 minutes is a big vote of confidence in his ability and conditioning.  He also had a nice line tonight, scoring 24 points, although I am fairly certain DJ Mbenga could’ve posted 20+ points on the marshmallow soft Golden State interior, but it is still a good sign.  An even better sign was Bynum getting a ridiculous +36 for the night.  Even in a pre-season game against a bad team, that is just crazy and speaks to how much better the Laker defense is with him guarding the rim.
• I wonder what happened to all that talk of Adam Morrison carving out a rotation spot this year?  Ammo played just 8 minutes tonight, four minutes less than Tony Gaffney.  If Phil is serious about finding a way to use Morrison this year, you’d think he would give him some more burn.
• Brown’s dunk aside, Jordan Farmar isn’t going to go down without a fight in the battle for back-up point guard.  He did a good job on defense coming up with three steals and actually distributed the ball, dropping six dimes in 18 minutes of action whereas Brown had just one, albeit not all his minutes were at the point.
• 118 points is great and all, but let’s remember that his was A) just a pre-season game, so the team defense is usually pretty disjointed and B) the opponent was the Warriors who gave up over 112 points per game last season, so 118 is actually a normal night for them.
• One game down and Ron Artest didn’t do anything crazy.  So far, so good.  Just a little less than six years to go now.

Tags: Adam Morrison, Andrew Bynum, Game Rewind, Golden State Warriors, Jordan Farmar, Lamar Odom, Mikki Moore, pre-season, Ron Artest, Shannon Brown, Tony Gaffney