SAN FRANCISCO – With the Warriors looking for the world as a playoff team and the Los Angeles Lakers appearing to have an inside track on a regular playoff spot despite a three-game losing streak, status quo was preserved Saturday night at the Chase Center.
The Lakers took control early and were never threatened, winning 129-101 and improving to 35-24 in the Western Conference. The Warriors, who struggled to score after trailing in the first half, trailed 31-29. The Warriors can only hope for good news about guard Stephen Curry (knee) and center Kristaps Porzingis (illness) in the coming days — otherwise maybe even the playoffs will be too much to ask.
If the Warriors somehow rally and shut out the Lakers, Saturday night’s loss means they are now tied 1-2 with their Southern California rivals in the head-to-head tiebreaker.
“They played a great game,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “They came in locked in, I thought the slow start hurt us because to win right now, we have to be strong and win more things, hit the boards, change things. We fell behind, they were leading the whole game but we couldn’t get back to it.”
The moral of the story? It helps to have a healthy Big Three. In Luka Dončić, LeBron James and Austin Reeves, the Lakers have nothing to turn to that has been too long for the Warriors to deal with.
Dončić, the NBA’s leading scorer with 32.7 points per game, led the Lakers with 26 points on 9-for-17 shooting, including 4-for-9 on 3-point attempts. James had 22 points, 19 of them in the first half, and Reeves had 18. They wouldn’t have had more points if Lakers coach JJ Redick hadn’t emptied the bench in the fourth quarter. Luke Kennard added 16 for the Lakers and Jake LaRavia 15.
“It was definitely our most complete game since the All-Star break,” Redick said.
Los Angeles shot 53.5 percent from the floor (48-for-90) and was 19-for-41 on three-point attempts. The Warriors were 12 of 44 from beyond the three-point line.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a 48-minute game, where we were able to sustain the effort,” said James. “In the beginning, we came with the right idea.”
For the Warriors, forward Gui Santos had 14 points, Gary Payton II and Moses Moody had 12 each. Draymond Green, who missed the last two games with lower back pain, is back in the starting lineup and has seven points, six rebounds and six assists.
Dončić scored three points in the first five minutes of the second half, two different putbacks and another beautiful three-footer above the key, and the Lakers led by 26 points in the third quarter. He hit his fourth 3-pointer and had 22 points with 7:07 left in the quarter.
When Brandin Podziemski hit an airball in the third quarter, the Warriors were down 27 points at 99-72.
“Defensive mindset is the most important thing,” Kerr said. “We’ve got to come out with some pop, some energy. I didn’t feel like we were as engaged defensively as we needed to be.”
The Lakers’ Big Three were too much for the Warriors to handle, trailing 65-47 at halftime and leading by 20 or more for much of the second quarter.
Going into the game, Kerr was hoping to speed things up so he could get better shots while Curry prepared. Instead, it was Dončić and James, who controlled the ball until it was time to shoot and keep the tempo the Lakers loved.
“It’s hard to speed up Luke and LeBron because the game is slow,” said Moody. “That’s how it works.”
And Reeves in the mix again?
“They were dropping a lot of shots,” Moody said. “They were shooting each other. They were locked in, and it’s our job to stop them. But they did a good job tonight.”
James had 20 points in the first half to lead Los Angeles, followed by 13 from Reeves and 10 from Dončić.
Heroes? Senior guard Payton had 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting and was their only player in double figures at halftime. The Warriors were 18 of 45 from the floor overall and 5-for-24 from 3-point range while Los Angeles was 9 of 17.
James had a 3-pointer and a 3-point play early in the second quarter to put the Lakers up 41-20 when Kerr called time with 10:04 left in the half.
The Lakers were out and firing while the fans were still in their seats, leading by 17 points and the Warriors closing within 33-20 at the end of the first quarter.
Los Angeles was 12 of 22 overall and 5-for-9 on 3-point attempts, with Reeves leading the Lakers with 11 points and James with six. Meanwhile, the Warriors were 9-for-26, and rookie De’Andre Melton missed his first five shots. The Warriors were 2-for-13 on three-point attempts in the quarter, with no one making more than four points.
Green started the Warriors with a layup but it was his only basket in the quarter.
THE SURPRISE OF SANTOS
After signing a three-year contract extension worth $15 million, Santos made a polite phone call home to Brazil to talk to his parents.
“They were very happy, sympathetic, you know, because they know how hard it was for me to get here,” said Santos. “I told them that there is something serious that I want to talk about. At first they thought that I got my fiancee pregnant.”
