Rookie coach Luke Walton has found that his strategy and gameplay with the Los Angeles Lekers worked very well to defeat his mentor’ Golden State Warriors. His experience as an assistant coach of Steve Kerr helped him to understand a way to contain the Warriors.
The Lakers 117-97 victory over Golden State Warriors gives Walton a bragging right according to Los Angeles Daily News’ sport columnist Mark Medina in San Bernardino Sun. Before the game, Warriors forward Draymond Green teased Walton about what he would do to the Lakers.
However during the Friday Nov. 4 game in Staples Center, Green was fully neutralized by Julius Randle who posted double-double with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Walton showed his excellent strategy to contain both front court and back court offensive from the Golden State Warriors. The game also ended the thee-point streak for Stephen Curry which has been going historical 157 games.
Los Angeles Lakers continued its crippling defense in the Sunday game against Phoenix Suns, defeating the duo Eric Bledsoe and Devin Booker with 119-108. The Lakers makes sure that every opponent come to Staples Center will have to crawl their way to win. This Tuesday they will play against Dallas Mavericks in Staples Center, and it will be very interesting to see their winning streak at home.
When the Lakers hired him to coach the young team of Lakers in April this year, he understood a huge burden in his shoulder with the Lakers tradition as reported by ESPN. Walton was also the member of the Lakers team that won the back-to-back NBA champions in 2009 and 2010.
"You come into the practice facility and walk the halls, and you see pictures of all-time greats," he said.
Prior to become Lakers head coach, he had two years stint as the assistant coach of Golden State Warriors. He learned many gameplay strategies from Kerr, who had played with two great coaches Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich. Kerr’s small ball movement in the Warriors is an update of Popovich’s game in Spurs, combined with Jackson’s triangle offense in the half court situation.
Walton knows most of the Kerr’s playbook and he learns how to handle them. He was glad the team played the right way as he said in the post-game interview below: