SAN FRANCISCO — Not a great start, post-All-Star break for the Lakers.
The Lakers were already down bad with injuries (including LeBron James sitting out Thursday with an ankle ailment). And after keeping it close for most of the first half, the Warriors ran away from them before halftime. The Lakers never really got a chance as they didn’t get close for the rest of the time. The Dubs took the W, 128-110.
The first quarter was pretty much a duel between Anthony Davis and Stephen Curry. Davis was unstoppable inside while Curry put on a show with his long distance bombs. Warriors led after one, 31-28, as Curry scored 16 points while Davis had 13.
In the second quarter, it was Trayce Jackson-Davis (the son of Indiana Pacers player Dale Davis!) that got hot. He scored 13 points pretty quickly. And then the Warriors broke it open with a few threes from Brandin Podziemski and Curry. Warriors closed it with an Andrew Wiggins tip-in. A 17-6 run made it a 67-56 halftime Dubs lead.
From there, the Lakers never really got close. They traded baskets throughout the third period before the Lakers finally went on a 7-0 run to cut it to 9 points. But the Warriors countered with their own 7-0 run to bring it back to 16.
And in the fourth, the Lakers made back-to-back threes (Max Christie and D’Angelo Russell) to slice the lead down to 10. But Andrew Wiggins scored the next 9 Warriors points by himself. Then Jackson-Davis, Jonathan Kuminga, and Moses Moody dunked all over the Lakers. Darvin Ham waved the white flag and put in his deep bench guys. The Lakers do have a game tomorrow night, after all.
Felt like the Warriors took the Lakers’ soul before halftime. The Dubs seemed to have a counter for every Laker run. Once again, the three-pointers came into play; the Lakers only shot 10 for 35 (.286) while the Warriors went 16 for 41 (.390). The Dubs played much cleaner basketball, too, as they only had one turnover after halftime.
Basically, the Lakers can’t let the game get away from them. We’ve seen them come back from double-digit leads before (including against the same Warriors earlier this season) but it’s always such an uphill climb that usually tires out a team at the end. That run by the Warriors at the end of the first half really took them out.
The Lakers were led by Anthony Davis as he had 27 points and 15 boards. D’Angelo Russell had 18 points and 9 assists but he didn’t make an impact in terms of his shooting (6 for 15). Austin Reaves had a steady 16 points. As for G. State, Curry went for 32 points while Andrew Wiggins had 20 points. Trayce Jackson-Davis was huge with 17 points off the bench. Notably, Klay Thompson went off the bench for the second straight game. He did have a poor shooting game (1 for 9) and only scored three points. But he was sound with his defense and playmaking (5 assists).
L.A. will be going straight home as they take on the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night. Let’s hope they can bounce back right away after this not-so-great showing in San Francisco.
