Barber: Lakers-Warriors rivalry will take time to develop

SAN JOSE - The Warriors-Lakers rivalry remains on hold. But hey, we've been waiting for more than 40 years for the pleasure. What's another few months at this point?

Golden State and Los Angeles played in Las Vegas on Wednesday, but Draymond Green didn't suit up for that one. They played again Friday, here at SAP Center, but LeBron James and Kevin Durant took a powder, and Stephen Curry played just 11 minutes before he felt ill and checked out. Anyway, both of those were preseason tilts, glorified exhibitions meant to evaluate younger talent and limber up older bodies a few days before the start of the 2018-19 regular season.

For now, California's great NBA rivalry remains a hypothesis. A rumor.

Giants-Dodgers is a blood feud that traces back to the Old World of New York City. Sharks-Ducks, which sounds like a mismatch if interpreted literally, has been intense through the years. Even 49ers-Rams was pretty spirited in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and could be again in a few years. But Warriors-Lakers?

The truth is, this has never been a grudge match. The Lakers have been one of the NBA's dominant franchises for decades. The Warriors are the current gold standard. But they've never been ascendant at the same time. In fact, they have rarely been competitive at the same time.

Since 1980, Warriors-Lakers has offered all of the excitement and rancor of, say, Pistons-Suns. Or me fighting the dandelions in my yard. In that 38-year span, these franchises have had winning records in the same season just seven times. They have made the playoffs in the same season just five times, and have faced off in the postseason only twice - rather forgettable Western Conference semifinals (Sleepy Floyd notwithstanding) in 1987 and 1991.

Not once, in that 38-year tumble of time, have the Warriors and Lakers both finished above .600 in a given season. In other words, they have never been elite at the same time, mostly because the Warriors were hardly ever elite until Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the team.

“Yeah, this is probably the first time it's lined up,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said recently. He went to high school in Pacific Palisades and dreamed of being a Laker.

Kerr continued: “I'm sure the Lakers never really looked at it as a rivalry all those years when they were dominating. But this'll be fun. Same division, and obviously both teams have a lot of talent. The atmosphere's gonna be great.”

We can say with certainty that there has never been this much anticipation over Warriors vs. Lakers.

That's what LeBron James will do for a series. He sat on the Lakers bench Friday night, looking comfortable but foreign in his purple Lakers warmups. He was one of the guys, standing to slap hands with teammates at timeouts and good-naturedly (it appeared) riding Draymond Green after the latter's foul in the second quarter.

But James isn't one of the guys. He's The Guy, and his presence has ignited Los Angeles, which has never fully embraced the Clippers and hasn't had been excited about the Lakers since the Kobe-Gasol teams. The Warriors have been the magnetic pole of the NBA for several years now, but you can feel some of the power gravitating south. Warriors Media Day was a little more muted this year, because many of the national basketball writers were in L.A. that day, covering the official introduction of You-Know-Who.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the Warriors will be really good again in 2018-19. They are the favorites to win the NBA title, their fourth in five years if it happens. The Lakers are more of a mystery.

You can't call them a blank slate, because James fills much of the page with his presence.

“LeBron makes everybody better,” Kerr said. “No matter what team he's on, they're gonna be really good.”

But how good? Enough to make the playoffs? Yeah, probably. Enough to get to the West finals and put some pressure on the Warriors? Doubtful. But they have some interesting young players in Kyle Kuzma, Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram, and they are clearing space to attract a big free agent or two next offseason. (Do not mention Kevin Durant right now… Do not mention Kevin Durant night now…) They may be knocking on the door in a couple years.

There were glimpses Friday. Kuzma scored 19 points in 22 minutes, including a couple of aerodynamic slams, and Ball might have snagged a triple double if he had played longer than 23 minutes; as it was, he finished with eight points, seven assists and six rebounds. There were fireworks, too. The Lakers' Michael Beasley was ejected in the third quarter after shoving the ball at Draymond Green and then arguing for too long, and his teammate Lance Stephenson got the heave-ho in the fourth following a minor dust-up with the Warriors' Quinn Cook.

The Lakers are now a cast of fun weirdos assembled around a superstar, and I'm eager to watch their attempt to come together as a team.

“I think everybody is,” Warriors guard Shaun Livingston told me after the game. “It's an intriguing storyline. You know, you got a group of players who have been big names in the league, and obviously LeBron. And I'm still close to Luke. I want him to be successful, and to see how he's gonna piece all of that together. It's intriguing.”

The Lakers came back to win Friday after trailing by as many as 17 points. It was mostly a triumph of bench players, but it left us wanting more.

The Warriors host the Lakers at Oracle Arena on Christmas Day. They play in Los Angeles in January, in Oakland again in February, and at Staples Center again in April. For once, those dates jump off the calendar. For once, California has a basketball rivalry.

“It's gonna be fun,” Livingston said. “You know, the Lakers playing in Staples Center, with all of that tradition. It's a fun challenge. We've kind of, quite frankly, sleepwalked through our L.A. trips, just because the competition hasn't been the same. It's a letdown game, and that's just the human nature behind it. Now it's different.”