Column: Life after Kobe: Opening night victory marks a hopeful new era for the Lakers
Lakers guard Nick Young and Rockets guard James Harden dive for a loose ball lare in the fourth quarter.
Life after Kobe Bryant began Wednesday for the Lakers, and surprise, surprise: It might not be so bleak after all.
No longer trapped with one foot in the past and a vague vision of their future, the Lakers introduced a young, energetic team that captured the attention and imagination of the Staples Center crowd in the season opener. The first shot of Brandon Ingram’s NBA career — a successful corner three — drew roars. A dunk by Tarik Black triggered cheers. A three-pointer by Lou Williams that brought the Lakers even with the Houston Rockets as the first quarter ended was greeted with eardrum-shattering shouts, a decibel level that carried through the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ entertaining 120-114 victory.
Hope is a powerful force, and finally Lakers fans have been given something substantial to cling to. This team will stumble and there will be games when the patience of rookie Coach Luke Walton will be sternly tested, but the Lakers finally have a path, a plan, and youthful enthusiasm to build on while this team evolves, and on Wednesday they had streamers and smiles to commemorate a victory, too.
The break with Bryant appears to be a clean one: There was no apparent sign of him at Staples Center on Wednesday, and that was appropriate. It’s time for the Lakers to move on, to be all-in for whatever comes next. The fans certainly were.
The break with the Lakers’ bad, old defensive habits wasn’t clean. But their overall performance offered real promise of better and exciting days ahead, feelings that have been missing for a long time.
Watching young players make mistakes will be difficult, Walton acknowledged, but he said he won’t be deterred from continuing what has been a painful rebuilding process.
“The game plan going in is not to let that affect us as a team, as players, as a coaching staff,” he said before the game. “The thing that will be frustrating is if we’re not playing hard.
“There’s going to be nights we’re not making shots, we’re turning the ball over, but as long as we’re trying to do the right thing, then at this stage we should be OK with that. But if we come out and we don’t play hard defense, and we’re not communicating and we’re not pushing the ball on the other end, those are things to get frustrated at.”
Walton entered his first pregame news conference as the Lakers’ coach wearing a shirt imprinted with the slogan, “Our Way Every Day.” His father, Hall of Famer Bill Walton, sat in the back of the room, wearing a Lakers T-shirt and beaming with pride.
Bill Walton graciously deflected attention away from himself and toward his son, whose Lakers coaching debut turned into a joyful family reunion.
“I’m just a very proud, lucky, happy and grateful dad with a tear in my eye,” Bill Walton said, smiling.
Luke Walton is the right coach for this group, a point he reinforced during training camp by making it clear he won’t obsess over the win-loss record and instead will measure progress in terms of players’ development and ability to mesh as a team. On Wednesday he didn’t hesitate to play small ball against the Rockets and to use Ingram at point guard. He’s committed to letting Ingram learn on the job as long as the rookie puts in the work, and that’s how it should be. Ingram, the first sub off the bench, had nine points on four-for-six shooting.
“If Brandon Ingram’s struggling we’re not just going to take him out of the rotation like you might do if you’re on a team that’s trying to win a championship right now,” Walton said.
They’re years away from thinking about titles. But their intensity and resilience Wednesday were good launching points for the season. “It’s one thing to say what we’re going to be about. That’s easy,” Walton said. “We want to be tough, we want to be hard-nosed defenders, and we want to be an unselfish team that moves the ball, plays fast, but until you go out there and prove that that’s who you are, you don’t have an identity.”
That will come in time. “It’s important for us to bring energy. I think effort and competitiveness and just not getting down,” Ingram said before the game as he stood in front of his locker, which Bryant formerly occupied. “Just going at these guys and trying to find a new identity for us.”
New era, new identity. “After every dynasty ends there’s always that rebuild process — maybe not with the Spurs or Patriots but with every other team that’s ever played,” Walton said, drawing laughter. “But as long we we’re giving that type of effort I think the fans will like the way we’re playing.”
Twitter: @helenenothelen
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