Faces were seen at Staples Center, two of the great franchises in NBA history and, although neither is at its best, there is one that seems to be looking for him while the other keeps walking away from him. The first, the Chicago Bulls, continue with a firm step halfway through the victory of the Eastern leadership, with a project as renewed as it is exciting that is paying off in the first month of competition. The second, the Los Angeles Lakers, continues in its spiral of irrelevance in which some days it wins by inertia and without any brilliance and others, like today, brings out all its shame for the greater glory of the rivals in front of it.
As this last version played tonight, the Bulls leave Los Angeles with a 2-0 in the bag (they came from beating the Clippers) and with unbeatable feelings. There are still five months left of the six of the regular season, but he wants to continue seeing the good start of the Chicago team as an anecdote he has to start putting his imagination into it. Billy Donovan, a fairly confident coach on a day-to-day basis who has missed graduating from the playoffs, is leading this squad in the best possible way. There will be time to see them from April, if they are still competing, but for now the note cannot be other than outstanding. In the absence of regular inclusion in the offensive flow to Nikola Vucevic, perhaps the only small downside so far in an almost perfect gear, the rest of the players are doing what was expected of them. As minimum.
Proof of this is DeMar DeRozan, a native of Los Angeles and whom the Lakers tested this summer. In the end they decided on Russell Westbrook and since life has these things, the guard dedicated his best performance so far this year. 38 points with 65.2% in field goals, in addition to 6 assists. Along with LaVine, until recently the only plug usual of the team, they went to 64 points. At halftime they had already 39 with 7 triples and the Lakers, why wait any longer, they were already fried. The difference was only 9, but the feeling is that they were earning much more. And the sensations materialized in a third quarter for the Angelenos to forget. Another one after the last one against the Wolves. This time they lost it by 12 to go down 21 in the last 12 minutes, reaching a 25-point deficit. To finish the job, Anthony Davis saw his second technique at 2:20 from the end of the third quarter. Well seen that was an anecdote. Had he continued on the track, things would have changed little.
There was actually a party at the Staples for a lot of people related to the Lakers and Los Angeles. The downside is that none of them are there. DeRozan was joined by Lonzo Ball with 27 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists and impressive percentages: 10/13 shooting from the field, 7/10 on 3s. Who has seen him and who sees him will think of the stands of the Los Angeles pavilion. Sometimes it’s all about waiting a bit for things to come along, but patience, like all greats in the game, has never been the Lakers’ greatest virtue. Another who now seem to miss franchise and fans (for the second was never questioned) is Alex Carusso, who was dedicated a video of thanks and a standing ovation. For now they have to settle for applauding their rivals. Their players don’t give them too many reasons for it. In the absence of LeBron James the Lakers have three wins and four losses. And tomorrow they go to Milwaukee. Let Giannis catch them confessed.