Lakers Final Score: LA Slays Warriors In Game 6 Blowout, Advances To Conference Finals
On Friday night, your Los Angeles Lakers made quick work of the defending champion Golden State Warriors, en route to a, well, rout in Game 6 of their conference semifinals series. The Warriors seemed out of sorts from the start, as LA's size, devastating defense and effective shotmaking wrapped up the Dubs' season in the second round of the playoffs. The final margin: 122-101.
For the bout, Darvin Ham made one big tweak to his starting five in response to the Warriors' small ball lineup running roughshod over them in a Golden State Game 5 blowout: he demoted power forward Jarred Vanderbilt to the bench, and promoted guard Dennis Schröderr to a starting gig, so he could more effectively pester Golden State All-Star point guard Stephen Curry.
Fueled by LeBron James' best performance of these playoffs (keep in mind, he's playing with a possibly major right foot injury), LA's non-Schröder starters wasted no time in building out a double-digit lead in the opening quarter, which grew to as much as 17 points before a late-frame flurry from Curry shrank the Lakers' margin to 31-26 at the end of the period. Davis was already on the cusp of a double-double at this point, having scored nine points and grabbed 10 boards through the first quarter.
Ham gave his bench a shorter leash than usual in the opening half, no doubt hoping to wrap things up quickly. That said, Vanderbilt, Game 4 hero Lonnie Walker IV, and Rui Hachimura all saw some early run at the top of the second quarter. That frame saw Los Angeles building back its double-digit edge, fueled by the efforts of James and shooting guard Austin Reaves, who capped things off with this 50-foot buzzer beater to end the half, off an Anthony Davis block at the other end.
Turns out the kid's pretty good.
After a lackluster Game 5, Walker made some tough buckets in key moments during Game 6, helping LA extend its lead in the third quarter:
Reaves, meanwhile, was seen as such a scoring threat (and for good reason) during the contest that, at one point, the entire Warriors club collapsed on him during a drive, leaving D'Angelo Russell wide open in the corner:
While Anthony Davis was patrolling the paint and gobbling up rebounds, he deferred a bit on offense in the third period (and throughout the night, really), letting D'Angelo Russell, Reaves and James cook. LA's lead got as big as 19 points, but was cut down to "just" 14 points at the end of the period, 91-77.
The Warriors by this point in the game were pretty out of sorts. Draymond Green, afraid of Davis, did his darnedest to goad Ham on the sidelines and Schröder. Though he failed in his efforts against LA's head coach, he succeeded in irritating Schröder right out of the game. Schröder was assessed two technicals thanks to separate Green-related incidents in the first and third quarters, and after his second tech was immediately ejected from the game. Here's that moment:
Jordan Poole, who had been left for dead in Game 4, showed moderate signs of life at the end of the third period and the top of the fourth, at one point scoring five straight for the Warriors to put them within 11 of LA.
But that's as close as things would get down the home stretch. With a clear dictum to pack the paint at the start of the fourth quarter, the Lakers quickly built up a 20-point edge early in the frame.
The star of the night, as has been the case for most closeout games in an NBA-record 41 playoff series, was LeBron James. The Chosen One scored 30 points (on a very efficient 10-of-14 shooting from the floor and 8-of-11 shooting from the charity stripe), his most in these playoffs, while clearly looking to drive far more than he had at any other point in this Warriors series -- even if the drives were designed for him to dump the ball for some tactical backdoor cuts. He was also just an assist and a rebound shy of a triple double.
Both clubs pulled their starters with 3:45 remaining in regulation and the Warriors completely out of juice. Only Stephen Curry and, uh, Donte DiVincenzo scored in double digits for the game, as Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole's shooting woes lingered and Draymond Green reverted back to his pre-Game 5 self. To be fair, Green was a bit hurt, and ultimately had to sit out the end of the game while icing what was described as a tight right calf. Thompson, once a virtually un-guardable sharpshooter next to Curry, finishing the series overall shooting a dismal 34-of-99 from the field. He finished Game 6 on Friday with just eight points while shooting a dismal 3-of-19 from the field. For his part, Poole also couldn't stop fouling people in this game, getting four whistles for his shenanigans (and zero points) before the end of the contest's first half.
Reaves was the game's second-leading scorer, notching 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor (4-of-5 from long range) and 5-of-5 shooting from the charity stripe. He also passed for six assists. D-Lo submitted a Good D-Lo Game, notching 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the floor and 3-of-4 shooting from the foul line. Walker poured in 13 quick points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field.
Davis, who had been the best player (on either team) in this series, enjoyed yet another dominant game, while only finishing as LA's fourth-leading scorer for the night. AD had 17 points while shooting 5-of-9 from the field, pulled down a whopping 20 rebounds, dished out two dimes, blocked two shots and stole the rock twice. The Brow was an intimidating presence in the post on both ends of the floor, taking advantage of his obvious advantages in either size and/or speed against any Warriors players, scrambling for rebounds, and cleaning up his teammates' misses around the rim.
And so, LA's fairly improbable fairytale run through the West continues. As the lower seed in each of these past two rounds, the team has pulled off upsets against the Memphis Grizzlies and now the Warriors. Can the Lakers do it again, this time against the top-seeded Denver Nuggets, arguably a much better team than Memphis or Golden State? Time will tell.
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