One way or another, the Lakers will become a part of history on Tuesday.
A loss to Golden State gives the Warriors a perfect 16-0 record and the NBA’s best-ever start to a season. An L.A. win means that the Warriors will remain tied with the 1993-94 Houston Rockets, who began 15-0 en route to the championship.
“I want them to come in and say, ‘This is gonna be a great challenge. Let’s see if we can stand up to it,’” head coach Byron Scott said at Monday’s practice.
Last week, Scott likened the Warriors to the Showtime Lakers teams he was a part of, and the numbers back that up.
Golden State has been a juggernaut in its title defense. The Warriors currently lead the league in scoring (114.3), assists (29.0), field goal percentage (48.4), 3-point percentage (40.9) and made 3’s (12.3).
“They’re doing something great right now,” D’Angelo Russell said. “If you can get in the way of that, that’s the objective.”
After L.A.’s loss to Portland on Sunday, Kobe Bryant gave his take on potentially ending the Warriors’ streak.
“I’ve seen stranger things happen,” Bryant said. “We’ve been playing like s—. We might go up there and we might play like gangbusters up there. You never know.”
Perhaps playing to the Lakers’ favor is that they handed Golden State one of its 15 losses last year, sans Bryant, with a 115-105 win on Dec. 23.
But as the team prepares to travel to Oakland, history isn't on their mind.
“I don’t care,” Julius Randle said. “We’re going out there to play as hard as we can and get better. We’re not focusing on them. We’re focusing on us.”