ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Two nights after celebrating Stephen Curry‘s birthday with a dominating victory over the Knicks, the Golden State Warriors (52-13) hosted the Los Angeles Lakers (18-47) tonight in Oakland.
The depleted Lakers were with Kobe Bryant (right rotator cuff surgery), Steve Nash (sciatic pain), Ronnie Price (right elbow surgery), Julius Randle (tibia fracture, right leg), and Nick Young (sore left knee).
The Warriors were without Ognjen Kuzmic (shoulder contusion) and recalled James Michael McAdoo from their D-League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors.
1ST QUARTER: Warriors Lackadaisical To Start
Golden State did not come out with much fire against the possibly tanking Los Angeles Lakers franchise, committing three turnovers early as Jordan Clarkson and Stephen Curry traded a steal and a turnover early on, with Clarkson converting the resulting run-out layup, then Curry committing his second turnover with a bad pass that Wesley Johnson stole and ended with a Clarkson stop-and-pop trey.
Andrew Bogut also chalked up a silly unforced turnover, trying to go behind-the-back to Harrison Barnes, which resulted in a runout finger roll for Johnson, but Draymond Green answered with a three-pointer from up top assisted by Klay Thompson and things were evened up early, 10-10, with 8:35 to go in the quarter.
Both teams fired salvos at each other as Clarkson fumbled the ball to Barnes, who went the length of the court to ram it home with two hands, but Wayne Ellington made a long fading two after a hand-off from Jordan Hill. But later Curry stole a pass by Clarkson and led a 2-on-1 with Green converted an and-one, slapped by Hill on the made layup.
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Draymond’s free throws, re-knotted the game at 17-17.
After an Ellington layup on a nice interior feed by Hill, both teams got a little fancy, but it was Ellington’s trey from the left corner that swished via Hill’s behind-the-back dish, while Bogut’s similar behind-the-back flick to Green was back-ironed from the Warriors’ left corner.
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Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called a timeout with 5:02 to go and the Lakers up, 22-17.
Festus Ezeli and Andre Iguodala checked in for Golden State and Jeremy Lin for Los Angeles. Green managed to steal a pass by Lin, but Lin got back to swat his run-out layup attempt…
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…however, Green would eventually score despite a lot of contact from Hill that wasn’t called for an and-one.
Thompson added a catch-and-shoot triple from the left elbow on a swing pass from Green, then after Carlos Boozer fumbled the ball away to Draymond, Klay added a running banker from the left side.
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A jumper by Hill from the top tied the game again, 26-26, and soon thereafter, Lakers head coach Byron Scott called a timeout.
Shaun Livingston and Festus Ezeli checked in and the tandem got to work quickly, as Livingston knocked the ball away from Los Angeles power forward Ed Davis. Livingston missed the layup as Lin gave chase on the ensuing fastbreak, but Ezeli got the offensive rebound, only to be fouled by Lin. Festus would make both free throws.
Lin blocked another Warriors attempt, this time a Thompson drive, but Livingston got the loose ball, fed Iguodala, who found Ezeli for a jam. But Thompson would miss a three-pointer from the right side too hard off back iron, and the carom helped Jabari Brown led a break that finished with Johnson slamming it home.
Green, who played the entire first frame, then went with a reverse layup as time expired, but it was blocked by Davis. Iguodala got the rebound, but waited too long to take a shot as the buzzer sounded.
Thompson led all scorers with 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting, while Green added 10 points on 4-for-7 field. Ellington led the Lakers with 10 points and Hill and Johnson each had 3 assists. Curry did not score in the quarter, taking just two shots, but he also dished out 4 assists.
2ND QUARTER: His Name Is Wayne And He’s Splashing
David Lee and Justin Holiday started the second period. The bench unit did its job by getting a little separation from the Lakers, as Holiday cleaned up another sloppy trade of steal-and-turnover between Iguodala and Davis, stealing the ball under the Warriors’ rim and handing it to Lee for an easy two.
Ezeli got another putback as he rammed home an Iguodala fade-away from the free throw line that skied high off back iron, Iguodala rebounded a miss by Brown and setup Lee nicely with a long two-handed lob, with Lee shielding off the defender to make the catch and the layup, and Holiday got a catch-and-shoot from the elbow to toilet-bowl in. The Warriors took a 39-31 lead.
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Barnes gave the Warriors a little extra momentum as he swished a triple from the top of the circle after Livingston drove deep into the heart of the Los Angeles defense, taking a 48-39 lead with 6:39 to play in the half. He also added a pretty up-and-under:
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But the rest of the period belonged to Ellington, despite a nice interior bucket that went from Livingston to Iguodala in the corner then back to Livingston under the rim, who put the ball in with two hands, and a nifty spin by Curry guarded by Clarkson, going by the young Lakers point guard for a right-handed shot off the left bank.
Ellington ended the half 6-for-7 from the field, 3-for-3 downtown, getting a stop-and-pop to fall from the deep right area inside the arc, dribbling, stopping, and drilling a trey from the left side to cut the Warriors’ lead to 52-50 with 2:28 to go.
Unforced errors continued to plague the Warriors, as Green couldn’t catch the ball cleanly. Golden State took a slim 58-54 lead into halftime as Bogut got a bunny to drop after Barnes made a nice right-handed drive from the left side, Green grabbed Ellington’s only miss of the night and went coast-to-coast to finish with the left-handed layup.
But Curry missed a stepback, Clarkson made a nice entry pass to Tarik Black, who got deep inside position on Bogut, and Thompson’s fade catch-and-shoot went too hard at the buzzer.
Thompson led all scorers with 14 points, Green added 12, and Barnes 11. Curry had only 2 points on 1-for-4 from the field and just the one miss from downtown to start the game, although he collected 4 assists.
The Warriors were just a combined 3-for-14 from beyond the arc.
Ellington led the Lakers with 15 points on 6-for-8 shooting, 3-for-3 downtown — a very Danny Green-UNC-polished performance.
The loudest cheers from #Roaracle thus far had been from the jumbotron with a “Clinched” promotion for making the playoffs, followed by a “Warriors!” chant shortly thereafter.
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