As the Los Angeles Lakers head to San Francisco to take on the Golden State Warriors on Monday night, LeBron James and Stephen Curry, stars for their respective teams, are enemies on the court once again.
The two stars who have impacted the game in myriad ways have been long-time foes in many years throughout this decade, especially when it matters most. James encountered Curry and the Warriors in the NBA Finals for four straight seasons from 2015-2018.
The rivalry between the two is well-documented to this point, but during the 2021 All-Star Game, James and Curry made history as it marked the first game the two were teammates in.
James selected Curry to join his team, as the latter has either captained the other All-Star team or was selected by a different captain. Lakers head coach Frank Vogel explained his thoughts when watching the two future Hall of Famers don the same jersey.
“Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool,” Vogel said. “It was one of those things where when I first saw that they were gonna be on the same team together, I had to ask myself if this is probably the first time that they’ve played on an All-Star team together.
“I think that’s just one of the cool things about that game is to be able to play with other elite stars like that. I haven’t talked to Bron about it but it just seemed like the two of them just enjoyed that experience.”
Though James and Curry didn’t garner significant minutes together — James played only 13 minutes total — it provided a one-of-a-kind moment for spectators to see how the duo performs when vying for the same objective together, rather than the norm of attempting to defeat the other.
Curry also talked about the experience of teaming up with James, explaining the moments they had both on the court and off of it.
Vogel not focused on Lakers’ record without Davis
The Lakers commenced their portion of the second-half schedule on a positive note, defeating the Indiana Pacers 105-100 in a comeback win.
Despite that, the squad is heavily undermanned, starting with Anthony Davis, one of the league’s best big men. A calf strain sidelined Davis in February, and he’s set to be reevaluated in a few weeks.
But for now, Vogel isn’t focusing on what the Lakers’ record is while one of his best players is unavailable to contribute.
“I’m looking at it like we’re starting the second half of our season tonight,” Vogel said. “We’re 1-0 during that stretch. No one was happy with how we finished going into the break. … We just got to play through that. Put that stretch behind us. We’re still undermanned right now and we’re going to be for some time.
“We just got to compete and win games. Right now we’re 1-0 in the second half and in a couple nights we’ll try to go 2-0.”
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