The fact that the Golden State Warriors haven't won a game against the Los Angeles Lakers in about four years now isn't the team's main concern this evening, it's that they will once again be without a key starter as Steph Curry will sit once again with his sore right ankle as the Lake Show hosts the W's at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.
The Warriors (2-4) collapsed in the fourth quarter once again against the San Antonio Spurs in their last time out 101-95, seemingly losing the wind in their sails once Curry left with his injury late in the third quater. Coach Jackson will definitely have a tough test dealing with the one-two punch of Andrew Bynum and Kobe Bryant on both ends of the court, and hopefully can keep them in check enough to give one of their scorers a chance to get them a win.
Without Curry, that leaves it up to Monta Ellis, David Lee and the like once again to shoulder the brunt of the offense, though one player that needs to show up is Dorell Wright, who hasn't scored a single point in his last two games. The bench has been rather anemic aside from Kwame Brown and Brandon Rush after starting out with some much electricity, though new addition Nate Robinson may be of help with that.
As for the Lakers (4-4) they've already squeezed two more games out of their schedule than the W's, but are still trying to come together under Mike Brown, falling 107-96 up in Portland on Thursday. It will likely be a heavy dose of Kobe, and Monta from both teams, possibly setting up an good old Western shootout at Staples, though Golden State has lost six straight to the Lakers there. The W's have been a bit of a panacea to other teams woes thus far (see Suns & Spurs games), hopefully that won't be the case this evening.
For more on the Warriors, head over to Golden State of Mind. For the Lakers side of things, check out Silver Screen and Roll.