The Los Angeles Lakers, with their experienced roster chock full of future Hall of Fame inductees, are widely considered to be one of, if not the favorite to advance out of the Western Conference playoffs at season's end.
The Warriors also have championship aspirations after two consecutive years without a playoff appearance. Channing Frye, who himself was a teammate of LeBron James when the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals, delivered a bold prediction Friday night that Golden State will end up with a better record than James' veteran-laden Lakers squad.
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"My reasoning behind that is, the Warriors are their team, and they're waiting for Wiseman, they're waiting for Klay Thompson. The Lakers have to reinvent themselves now, they have to figure out who they are and how are going to win. Even though they only lost by 10 tonight, they were really down by 27, 30 points," Frye said on TNT.
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The Warriors have beaten the Lakers and LA Clippers over the first two games of the season, while LeBron and his star-studded squad have stumbled to an 0-2 start.
With just three returning players from last year's team, the Lakers likely will experience some growing pains early on as they work to build chemistry.
Golden State Warriors
That opening night clash will be the last meeting of the calendar year between the Lakers and Warriors. We'll see how quickly the Lakers can get things together, and how long the Warriors can maintain the level of this impressive start.