LOS ANGELES – The Golden State Warriors had scored below 100 points only once in their last 15 games before Saturday night, and were stunned when they were held to 97 points by the Los Angeles Lakers at the Crypto.com Arena.
Anthony Davis, who scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and LeBron James (21 points) did most of the work for the Lakers in a 127-97 home win over the National Basketball Association (NBA) champions.
The victory gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead in their NBA Western Conference semi-final series.
Davis made seven of 10 shots from the floor, 11 of 12 from the free throw line, and had four blocks, three assists and three steals while overwhelming with defensive plays.
“I just wanted to come out and get back to the dominant performance that I do defensively. We wanted to get back to our roots, and defending and guarding,” he said.
“This is a tough team to guard but we know that we can do it and we did it well tonight, holding them to 97 points.”
James, who went the first 13 minutes without shooting, added eight assists and eight rebounds while D’Angelo Russell posted 21 points, all in the first half.
The Warriors had scored 112 and 127 points in Games 1 and 2 but will need to do better in Game 4 on Monday in Los Angeles.
“It’s a battle. Two teams that want it and can score and can give each other a beat down any given night,” Davis added of the series.
“We know they’re going to come out with a lot of firepower Monday trying not to go down 3-1. We’ve got to have the mindset we had tonight.”
James said: “We’re one of the best defensive teams in the league, if not the best.
“For us to reach our potential, we have to defend at a high level. Not one team in this league tests you more in that than Golden State, so we have to be alert for a test on every single possession.”
An 18-4 run to end the first quarter gave the Warriors a 30-23 lead, with James not taking a shot in the first period of a play-off game for the first time in his career.
After falling behind 40-29, the Lakers answered with a 30-8 run in the final 7min 22sec of the second quarter for a 59-48 half-time lead.
“As a group, we weren’t shooting the ball well,” Russell said of their poor start.
“We locked up defensively and got easy ones.”
Los Angeles, who then stretched the lead to as much as 20 points in the third quarter, entered the fourth ahead 86-68 and cruised from there.
Lakers coach Darvin Ham, in his assessment of the game, praised Davis for his defending.
“He sets a tone for us defensively,” he said. “He’s the catalyst. He’s the anchor. His activity, when he is changing shots, blocking shots, it’s amazing. He’s locked in.”
Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 23 points while Andrew Wiggins added 16 and Klay Thompson had 15.
“You can’t get distracted by stuff you can’t control,” Curry said of not dwelling on defeat.
“As much as it’s frustrating, it’s the test that every team has to go through throughout the series, blocking out that stuff as much as we can.
“We obviously know who we are and what we’re capable of, all the things we always say after a loss.”
Thompson, meanwhile, also urged his teammates to bounce back as soon as possible.
“As ugly as this was tonight, we have an opportunity to respond on Monday, so there’s no point in dwelling on it and hanging our head and getting discouraged,” he said.
“We know how to respond. We’ve done it in our existence for 10 years here.” AFP
