Lakers News: Starting Lineups Announced For Game 1 Of LA-Golden State Semifinals
Your Los Angeles Lakers will open their best-of-seven second round series against the favored Golden State Warriors with a fully healthy rotation, and thus their preferred starting five.
D'Angelo Russell, coming off a big Game 6 performance, will be the team's first point guard. Austin Reaves will serve as LA's starting shooting guard once again. All-Star small forward LeBron James, power forward Jarred Vanderbilt and center Anthony Davis will getting the starting nods on LA's front line.
The Golden State Warriors explored two distinctively different starting lineups during their seven-game first round series against the Sacramento Kings. When power forward Draymond Green was suspended from a pivotal Game 3 in the series with Golden State trailing Sacramento 2-0, head coach Steve Kerr opted to elevate sixth man scorer Jordan Poole to a gig as the team's starting shooting guard, which moved both incumbent shooting guard Klay Thompson and incumbent small forward Andrew Wiggins up a position, to small forward and power forward, respectively. All-Star point guard Stephen Curry and under-appreciated center Kevon Looney remained in their initial positions.
Golden State would go on to win by double digits, 114-97, salvaging their series and season. Even when Green returned for Game 4, the Warriors opted to keep him as a bench option. Golden State proceeded to win the next two contests, leading the series 3-2.
A 118-99 Sacramento Kings victory in Game 6 convinced Kerr to return Green to his rightful place in the team's starting five, leading to a 120-100 Warriors road blowout response.
Now, against a bigger Lakers squad, Golden State could use all the size it can get. Accordingly, it will trot out the initial first five it employed in the first, second and seventh games of the team's first round series: Curry running the point, Thompson at shooting guard, Wiggins at small forward, Green at power forward, and Looney manning the middle.
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