Lakers News: Warriors Big Man Could Be Covert X Factor In Matchup Against Jumbo-Sized LA
Although your Los Angeles Lakers should enjoy a significant size advantage over the Golden State Warriors in terms of their respective front lines, one Warriors role player in particular could prove to be an X factor in this series: 6'9" starting center Kevon Looney.
After being plagued by early career injuries, Looney has found a way to stay healthy of late, appearing in all 164 games of the Warriors' last two regular seasons. During the 2022-23 season, Looney averaged career highs of 7.0 points on 63% shooting, 9.3 rebounds, and 2.5 dimes.
Though he's not exactly churning out highlight reel plays (he only had 64 dunks all year), Looney was a big difference-maker in Golden State's seven-game first round slugfest against their northern California neighbors, the Sacramento Kings. His passing and offensive rebounding specifically helped secure a W for the Warriors, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports.
In the series, he averaged 6.9 points, a whopping 15.1 rebounds (5.3 offensive), 4.3 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.6 blocks in 30.1 minutes per.
"I think Loon is one of the best centers in the league," Golden State head coach Steve Kerr noted, per Poole. "I really do. People don't recognize because he's not dunking and shooting threes and all that stuff. But this guy is a flat-out winner and he's a machine... We wouldn't be here without him."
ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy and Zach Lowe chatted about Looney on a recent episode of Lowe's essential podcast The Lowe Post. Van Gundy noted that Looney's passing, along with that of starting power forward Draymond Green (who himself averaged 8.0 assists in the series), helped unlock a lot of offense for the Warriors.
"I just loved watching the big-to-big passing. The way they do it, those two guys, Looney and Green, spectacular," Van Gundy raved.
"First as you noted on the broadcast, the story of his career was, 'Is he ever going to play?'" Lowe said. "The hip surgeries, the leg stuff. Then he became, 'Oh he's an iron man, he sets screens, he's the classic central casting unsung hero, doesn't show up in the box score. And this year, what I wrote was, 'It's starting to show up in the box score, in the passing and the rebounding.' It's not nothing that a 20 minute-a-game center is getting you three, four five, six assists regularly. And then the rebounds. I've watched those rebounds over and over again. What is he doing? Domas [Domantis] Sabonis is a big strong dude, and Kevon Looney, sometimes without inside position, is just kind of physically bearing down on him with all his weight, and almost pinning Domas to the ground and getting the rebound... 10 offensive rebounds in a Game 7, 21 rebounds [overall]. They obviously don't win the series without Kevon Looney."
Van Gundy concurred.
"He wedged Sabonis underneath the rim with good force," Van Gundy agreed. "And Sabonis was caught in between his face-guard blockout and a traditional blockout, but he couldn't jump, he couldn't get up off of his feet. And that's what the body contact and the wedging does, it eliminates your jumping. So Looney can't jump anyway and Sabonis can't now defensive rebound. To me that's where Looney was great... Basically [the Kings'] perimeter guys did nothing to help the rebounding game, which allowed Looney just to overpower Sabonis and those are backbreaking [types] of sequences."
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