The heated debate between two of the league's best teams in history has been incessant as of late, with Shaquille O'Neal taking his Los Angeles Lakers to “easily” beat the Golden State Warriors of the modern era. Warriors guard Stephen Curry vehemently disagreed with Shaq's statement, saying he was “dead wrong” for his take.
As it turns out, the oddsmakers back him up, as the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook's Jeff Sherman told ESPN's Nick Friedell the Curry-led Warriors of today would be 12.5-point favorites over the 2001 Lakers on a neutral court.
O'Neal was plenty confident when prompted with this all-time debate, trying to keep courteous, but unable to help his ego when bringing up the 2001 Lakers, arguably the most potent squad of their three-peat, which spanned from 1999-02.
“I think we'd easily win. Other people might feel different, they (the Warriors) might feel different. But we had one of the best teams of all-time in 2001 when we went 15-1 in the playoffs,” O'Neal told Scott Gleeson of USA TODAY Sports We would've gone 16-0 but A.I. (Hall of famer Allen Iverson) went off on us and stepped over (former Laker) Ty Lue.”
Curry was confident in his team being able to take and beat the Lakers of yesteryear, but gave caution to all-time debates, as the game was played under different rules and basketball has evolved over the years, with the 3-point shot becoming a weapon that can wreck archaic defenses with relative ease.
While Shaq would give a small-ball Warriors team its share of headaches on the block, a trio of Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant would give the Lakers ongoing nightmares due to their prowess from the perimeter.
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