LOS ANGELES — From the courtside celebrities to the star power in the nationally televised game and tense finish, much of Saturday night’s game felt like a playoff game.
The Warriors and Lakers, projected to play each other in the 9-10 play-in round exactly a month from Saturday’s meeting, lived up to the big-game billing.
Each team appeared to bring their top-level intensity, Warriors coach Steve Kerr trimmed his rotation to a playoff-style nine. The game took on a different tone when Lakers star Anthony Davis suffered a corneal abrasion and didn’t return after the first quarter. And then it turned bizarre at the end, when the shot clock became suddenly fried.
Still, in front of Kim Kardashian, Bad Bunny and Novak Djokovic, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Jonathan Kuminga combined for 80 points for a much-needed The defense might not have been up to postseason par, especially with Davis off the court, but the Warriors (35-31) absorbed a playoff-caliber LeBron James performance (40 points, nine assists, eight rebounds) in the 128-121 win.
The Warriors had this game circled for at least a week: their I-5 rivals in enemy territory, with a chance to surpass them in the standings and take a step toward a coveted tie-breaker. Not to mention an individual matchup of LeBron James and Steph Curry, the two defining stars of their generation.
Kerr reminded the team just how consequential this game is at practice at UCLA on Friday.
“I believe in this team, I believe it can make a really good run, and this is obviously a big game if we’re going to make that run,” Kerr said pregame.
Except for the shot clock issues and replay review stoppages that made the final two minutes last 20 and required the public address announcer to manually announce the clock, the contest felt like more than a regular season game.
Curry didn’t rush his recovery from the ankle sprain that knocked him out the previous three games, but made note of the point in the season the Warriors find themselves in when discussing his imminent return with reporters. He wasn’t going to miss this game.
On the Crypto.com Arena court pregame, Curry went through a full-speed round of warmups. It took him a few tries, but he nailed a halfcourt shot to end the routine, skipping over to assistant coach Anthony Vereen to celebrate. He took a photo with former MLB superstar Albert Pujols and trotted back to the locker room. Curry, and the entire joyous, spectacular package that comes with him, was back.
But it was Curry’s backcourt partner, Thompson, who carried the Warriors as Curry went scoreless in the first quarter. Thompson dropped 18 in his first eight minutes. He hunted shots from the 3-point arc and midrange and worked the two-man game with Trayce Jackson-Davis for an and-1.
Curry’s first bucket came five minutes into the second quarter. By then, James had registered 16 points and six assists on 6-for-6 shooting. At least on the offensive end, he treated the game like it carried some extra weight.
Golden State surged with Davis in the locker room for the entire second quarter due to an apparent eye injury. When Davis was on the court, especially as Draymond Green rested, the Warriors looked way too small to contend with Los Angeles’ front line.
With Davis unavailable, Curry got going with drives and Green found Jonathan Kuminga on consecutive alley-oop lobs — one from halfcourt and another on the short roll — to earn a halftime lead.
Davis’ absence allowed Golden State to play inside-out. To create a Curry four-point play, every Warriors touched the ball. Then he and Kuminga drove for consecutive layups.
Without Davis protecting the rim, Golden State scored 35 points in the third. James prevented them from sustaining a double-digit lead, sensing the Lakers needed him to take over.
The Warriors matched James’ fourth quarter minutes with Kuminga and Curry’s, hoping to mitigate the 20-time All-Star. But consecutive and-1s from James through Kuminga trimmed Golden State’s 10-point lead to six.
Green guarded James slightly more down the stretch, but James still played bully ball, constantly attacking the rim and either finishing or earning free throws. He drilled a step-back 3 in the corner over Curry, which for a moment inched the Lakers within four but later got negated because he was out of bounds. The replay review might’ve been the biggest swing of the game.
In a strange twist, the game ended with the Lakers’ PA announcer manually informing the arena of the dwindling shot clock. By then, a playoff-level game devolved into a bizarre, embarrassing footnote. One that the Warriors finished off.