Saturday night was a massive game for both the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference standings. The two teams met at Crypto.com Arena in must-win game and it was the Warriors led by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson who came out on top.
Thompson has taken on a different role for the Warriors as of late, becoming a sixth man for the team and is thriving in that position. But he also has a connection to the Lakers via his father Mychal Thompson, who played for the Showtime-era Lakers winning two NBA Championships and still serves as the color commentator for them on the radio.
As such, Thompson has found himself in the building for some extremely important Lakers games in previous years and in his mind, this current crowd just doesn’t quite measure up.
“No offense to the L.A. crowd, but you couldn’t really tell,” Thompson responded when asked if there was extra energy in the building Saturday. “I’ve been here during Finals games when I was 20 years old, I was very lucky to go with my dad in 2010. It didn’t quite feel the same but it was still a very important game and I was very happy with the turnout from our fans, it’s cool to see how many Warriors fans showed up.”
In fairness, even the most important regular season game will struggle to measure up to NBA Finals games in terms of atmosphere and crowd reaction. But Thompson does have a point about the amount of Warriors fans in the building.
The rise of the secondary ticket market has made it much easier for fans of the road team to get in the building. Usually it’s the Lakers who benefit from this when they’re on the road so to have that happen inside the Crypto.com Arena is unfamiliar, but the Warriors have become extremely popular over the past few years.
But make no mistake, the Lakers crowd showed during the playoffs last season that when push comes to shove, they will be out in full force providing one of the best and most intense atmospheres the NBA can offer.
Lakers’ Anthony Davis listed as questionable for Monday game vs. Hawks
The next chance for the Lakers home crowd to show out will be on Monday night when they take on the Atlanta Hawks. But whether or not Anthony Davis will be suiting up for the contest is unclear.
The Lakers listed Davis as questionable for the contest with a left corneal abrasion suffered against the Warriors on Saturday. Davis’ eye wound up swelling shut and he could not see which kept him out for the rest of a huge game and they are undoubtedly hoping he can suit up against Atlanta.
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