Stephen A. REVEALS what spells trouble for the Lakers vs. Warriors 🍿 | First Take

Do the Lakers or the Warriors have the edge in this one? I believe it's the Warriors. I believe it's the Warriors because number one, they have home court advantage and they have the baby face assassin, the greatest shooter God has ever created. And I think the combination of those two things spells trouble for the Los Angeles Lakers. That's not the only thing though, just to set the record straight. You know, did you know that LeBron James against Steph Curry is averaging more points, more rebounds and more assists with a better shooting percentage from the field than Steph Curry. That's actually true. Now Steph Curry obviously shoots better for three-point range, but LeBron James hasn't beaten in all of those numbers, but he doesn't have him beat in titles because Steph has outscored him three to one in their four NBA Finals matchups. And obviously he's got him beat in scoring titles because Steph's got two and LeBron's got one. Here's the deal. When I look at LeBron, I'm thinking about yesterday and I'm watching this game. And as I stated on national television, there were two LeBrons watching the game. One was, damn, this is beautiful. I love this. I'm going up against this brother right here. It's going to be epic. I love the competition. I'm one of the greatest ever. He's one of the greatest ever. Let's get it on. I can't wait. That LeBron. And then there was the other LeBron that was like, damn, I thought I was going to the conference finals and now this brother's standing in my way because I believe they would have beat Sacramento. Lakers would have beat Sacramento because I think LeBron's experience, his brilliance as a basketball savant, I thought he would have exploited the youth of the, of the Sacramento Kings and they would have slowed up pace if he were going against them. You don't get to do that against Dakota State Warriors. And oh, by the way, that dude, Draymond Green, let me tell you something right now. Watch Draymond Green when he's defending Perk, because you alluded to his greatness as a defender the other day. There's a different Draymond Green that's defending legs and Perk when he's off the ball, as opposed to when he has to accept the challenge of manning up and defending somebody straight up, like Anthony Davis looking to score the ball and the offense running through him. And Draymond is defending that guy as opposed to somebody that's not a primary offensive option. Okay. I think that's going to be interesting as well. But in the end, their efficiency, their experience, their perimeter shooting, the coaching. I think that whether against Sacramento, you slow the pace, you good. And you use Anthony Davis sides against the bonus, against the Dakota State Warriors. It's an entirely different animal. It don't matter whether they running or walking. At the end of the day, they got Steph and I would say the Splash Brothers, but I'm mad at Klay Thompson today because of the way he shot yesterday. That was just ridiculous. This is a game seven. You don't shoot one for 10 in the first half. That's blasphemy. That's blasphemy. He made up for it with the four point play. But I'm just saying, you got to make shots. Okay. So I'm mad at him today. I ain't going to bring him up today. I'll celebrate him tomorrow. But they got Steph and that's all it's going to take. Warriors win this series. Lakers last series against the Grizzlies when I came on here. Now I got to come on here and remind you on who the hell they are right now. What you fix your face for? You pick Memphis last series. So what? You pick them. So what? Excuse me. So in a second, in a second, Morant got hurt. I was like, oh well. But I told, but he came back, but I told you anyway that they were going to beat them. That's number one. But number two, let me, let me talk to you about what I've saw between both series when it comes down to the Lakers and Memphis and what I saw the Sacramento and Golden State. First of all, I'm giving the edge to the Los Angeles Lakers because again, defense win championships. And when I look at the Lakers defense, their second and defensive ratings, their number one in defensive rebounding and they number one in blocks. And why I bring up the blocks and the rebounds is because when you look at the Sacramento series, the key and the all song hero in that series was Kavon Looney and the way that he dominated the boards. Well, now all of a sudden you're going against the front line and LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Jared Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimara, who these guys are six, nine and above. So it's not going to be a problem for the Lakers rebounding. It's also not going to be a problem for LeBron James knowing what he has to do against Steph Curry. And why did I say that? Because LeBron James is an extension of Darwin Ham. And what I watched last night was Mike Brown has done a hell of a job. I'm not even shooting a jab at him, but at some point you have to say, Steph got it going. I don't give a damn. I'm going to trap him. I'm going to trap him aggressively until he get the ball out of his hands. The Lakers are going to do that. The Lakers are not going to let Steph just beat them. The Lakers are going to use their brain and their psyche to go and do what they need to do. And by the way, the disrespect that Kavon Looney and Draymond was doing as a bonus, they better not be sagging off in the paint. They better not be giving Anthony Davis 15 footers. And yes, I did praise Draymond Green to wrap it up real quick. I did praise Draymond about his defense and rightfully so. But you know who else I need to praise? Anthony Davis. You was at the game the other night. You seeing how he embracing the center row. You watching how he's anchoring that defense and throwing everything into the second row of the old crypto.com arena. Yeah, he's doing his thing. He's doing his thing and he's doing what we've been wanting him to do for so long. And that's being a dominant force on the defensive end. So when I look at D'Angelo Russell and I look at Austin Reeves, I'm looking at the Lakers and I'm saying they actually got the offensive firepower to go back at them. So I do give the Lakers the edge in this series. And by the way, LeBron is going to destroy Andrew Weeks. So when I tell you that LeBron James actually have the recipe on knowing how to trap him being under Talu. By the way, one of the assistant coaches that's over there under Damon Jones, who was actually on that bitch. You don't think they're going to bring that into the locker room. You don't think that they're smart enough to adjust it to know. It's a reason that Andre Iguodala had those shots. They lost that series. One in three. Andre Iguodala had to make shots. Just relax. I understand they won the series. I'm not talking about that. I'm alluding to the point where legs was saying about the office and the trapping. Follow me here. We're going to a whole nother direction because they'll beat you. If you do that, that's what I'm saying. You can't effectively, you can make any player give the ball up. What I'm saying is they beat you because of that. This is what I'm saying. Last night, what I'm saying is, is that we watched Clay Thompson didn't have it going. Jordan Poole didn't give them nothing. Meaning that that 50 ball that Steph had to drop last night, they needed every bit of it. And so what I'm telling you is, is that if you go against a team that says, hey, I'm going to make somebody else beat us, then they're going to have to rely on Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green to be an offensive threat. All I'm telling you guys is, is that I strongly believe that the Lakers are not going to go in and just let Steph go one-on-one. They will be a fool to do that. That's all I'm saying to this point. Okay. And are we allowed to sit up there and say, Steph, Clay Thompson ain't going to go one for 10 in the first half of another game? Are we allowed to surmise that one of the top five shooters in the history of basketball ain't going to wet the bed like he did in game seven yesterday? Are we allowed to assume that Andrew Wiggins ain't going to look like he's allergic to prosperity for crying out loud, turning over the damn ball at every turn and missing shots that he normally makes? Are we just allowed to surmise that a Jordan Poole, who got a $140 million deal, he got his bag ain't going to look like straight garbage for a game six and a seven? Can we not assume that, guess what, what we saw for a couple of games might not be the case in the upcoming series? How is it that you get to talk about what LeBron James ain't going to allow? I didn't say nothing. I'm saying, I'm saying, how are you? I mean, what you mean? I'm saying, how are you? I wanted to go as long as I could. You turning red. I'm just, I'm fine. Actually, that's not me. I'm perfectly fine. I didn't say you couldn't assume. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. You the one looking upset at everybody for sitting up there and disagreeing with you, like you ready to beat us up. I didn't say nothing. You know good and well, you know good and well. Can you, can you trust D'Angelo Russell? Can you trust him? Are you sure? Are you sure? I'm just, I'm just saying. Did we know he was going to do what he did? He did it. I'm asking the question. He did it. Okay. He did it. One game. He did it. I'm asking. It was a meaningful game. Did you trust him? That's what I asked you. I didn't ask you about the one game. Do you trust him over the course of a seven game series against Steph, Clay, Jordan, Poole, and the crew? Do you trust D'Angelo Russell? I trust Anthony Davis and LeBron James. Oh Lord. All right. All right. Coming up. Kendrick Perkins, he gets my vote. Kendrick Perkins is running for office.