STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CA — Less than 24 hours after the Golden State Warriors (4-1) destroyed the OKC Thunder, they headed to Southern California to face the Los Angeles Lakers (2-3).
The Warriors were without Damian Jones (pectoral surgery), while Patrick McCaw (sprained left ankle) was listed as doubtful.
The Lakers listed center Timofey Mozgov as doubtful due to an eye contusion, but head coach Luke Walton ruled him ready to go as a starter during pregame interviews.
1st Quarter – Horrific
The Warriors started out cold, hitting just one of their first eleven attempts as the Lakers took an 8-0 lead thanks to two treys by D’Angelo Russell and a long two by Nick Young.
Kevin Durant had some nice lead passes to Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, but neither of them could convert, with Curry muffing his pass into the baseline for a turnover.
Thompson and Julius Randle then traded missed threes, and Steph made a “hesi” move past Randle and looped the ball around the helping Mozgov for an impressive layup off the board.
The Splash Brothers then missed threes, Durant’s triple from the top went in and out, but Russell missed another trey attempt and Thompson made a shoulder fake and a scoop down the right side of the lane with the defense eyeing Curry on his same corner:
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Young missed a step-back three, then Steph blew down the left side and threw his body into Mozgov before he could react, getting the layup:
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Walton called timeout with the Lakers still holding the early lead, 8-6, with 8:01 remaining.
After the timeout, Los Angeles got a few buckets at the rim.
Luol Deng fed Mozgov for a point-blank put-in, Young made his favorite shot, a dribble stop-and-pop from the right baseline, Deng got inside again to Randle for a dunk, and Walton’s misdirection play on Curry running back and forth of defense created a 2-on-1 situation in the paint against Zaza Pachulia, with Deng finding Randle again for a dunk.
Golden State head coach Steve Kerr called timeout and, with 4:56 to play, the Lakers went ahead, 16-10.
Out of the timeout, Steph hit a dribble-and-pop going left-to-right on the left wing, and Jordan Clarkson got himself trapped near halftcourt by Pachulia and Thompson and had to call timeout.
But following that timeout, Curry made a nice hustle play versus Larry Nance, Jr. on what looked to be a held ball situation, but was whistled for his second personal. Durant came back in for Steph.
“KD” had a nice box-out of Mozgov, but when he tried to back in on the post, help came and he threw the ball away, underestimating Brandon Ingram’s length. Ingram fed Clarkson for an emphatic, uncontested jam at the other end.
Kerr called timeout as the Lakers went up, 18-12, with 2:49 to go.
Things went further downhill for Golden State at that point, as Green made a lead pass to iguodala that went about a yard too fast. Draymond motioned to himself to take it easier on the pass, while Ian Clark clapped his hands and offered encouragement, and KD came over and gave Green a big smile and a high-five despite the turnover.
After a hard foul by David West on Ingram, leading to a free throw, Lou Williams tried to draw a shooting foul on Iguodala, but no whistle was blown.
However, Los Angeles remained relentless in the paint and Nance grabbed the shank and put the ball in as if it were a planned alley-oop.
Clark couldn’t get a late-shotclock runner to fall as the Warriors’ offense went stale, and the Warriors forced a late shotclock but West was called for defensive three seconds, and Williams ended up feeding Tarik Black for yet another dunk, giving Los Angeles a 24-12 lead with 41 seconds left..
Klay missed again, short on a looping catch-and-shoot inside the arc, but Clarkson missed, Iguodala corralled the rebound, brought the ball up and buried a triple at the buzzer as Nance retreated too far:
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Here’s an in-arena view:
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The Lakers led 24-15 after the first frame, with the Warriors shooting a pitiful 6-for-21 (28.6%) from the field and 1-for-8 (25.0%) from three-point-land. Golden State also committed 8 turnovers.
2nd Quarter – Can’t Rebound
Black got yet another dunk at the start of the second stanza, assisted by Clarkson, Iguodala lost the ball again in the post, and Nance got a bucket on the left side.
West finally broke the drought with a swish up top delivered by Durant, but Black got a putback of Clarkson’s miss at the rim and Williams drove the right baseline to find Clarkson for a layup after Shaun Livingston hit a stop-and-pop from the right baseline.
Kerr called another timeout as the Lakers vaulted ahead, 32-19, with 9:49 remaining.
However, Black got a score again at the rim, assisted by Nance.
Klay then left a triple short, Steph barely grazed the rim from the left corner, and Thompson straight airballed a three from the right arc, while Clarkson found Nance and the Red Sea parted as Nance went upstairs and posterized West:
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Ingram also drew three free throws on a bad close-out by Livingston, and after Klay’s airball, the Warriors got lucky as Clarkson coughed the ball up to Thompson, eventually resulting in Durant taking two big dribbles into the paint for a lay-in.
The Lakers missed again, and Green brought the ball up to find Livingston down the left side for a two-handed dunk. Walton called timeout as the Warriors pulled to within 39-25 with 7:44 to play.
But out of the timeout, KD got caught between a rock and a hard place, staring at Williams’ dribble drive as Nance snuck past him on the right baseline for — you guessed it — another dunk.
Livingston came back with a feed to Durant at the bucket…
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but after Klay missed from distance again, this time on a fly-by on the right wing, Young found Clarkson from 27 feet, Curry missed a pull-up three with no Warriors rebounding, and Clarkson came back with a runner.
That gave Los Angeles a 46-27 lead and Kerr called another timeout with 6:10 to go.
Out of the timeout, Green posted up twice and got buckets inside, then Klay missed another three, his sixth miss from downtown, but Livingston tapped the offensive rebound to Kevon Looney, who had checked in for Durant earlier, with KD hitting himself softly on the head for the blown assignment earlier on Nance.
Looney got a dunk on the tap by “Sdot”.
Looney got two more buckets as he up-faked inside on a nice laser feed by Curry, then after Randle got up in the air and made a bad pass to Thompson, Looney ran the break and got a layup from Steph again.
That pulled the Warriors back to within a more respectable 50-37 and, after Randle and Klay traded buckets, Draymond threw a touchdown pass to Curry and his reverse lay-in with no Lakers back trimmed the Los Angeles lead to 52-41 with 3:09 to go. Walton called timeout.
Kerr ran a misdirection play to free up Green for a pick on Curry’s man, but Steph missed the open three, then lunged out on Young on a trey attempt from the right wing and got whistled for a hack on what appeared to be a harmless fly-by, although Young airballed.
That was Curry’s third personal, sending him to the bench, and Young canned all the throws.
Durant finally hit a three, but Randle outhustled KD on the other end and got a putback of his own missed offensive rebound, Klay missed at the rim, double-clutching too far underneath, and Young hit a catch-and-shoot triple.
Livingston did what he could to stem the tide, going at Russell for two straight hoops…
Livingston #Feetwork #LALGSWBB pic.twitter.com/q7Z3neKpPr
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) November 5, 2016
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…one of them an “and-one” off the board, but Russell made a nice move on the way back, missed the layup barely, but Randle was there once again for the tip-in.
On the last possession, Thompson drove in and found Iguodala open in rhythm, but this time he missed the three at the buzzer.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @ericrcash)
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