Lakers blow out Warriors; Bucks triumph
Lakers blow out Warriors
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – LeBron James scored 19 points and had plenty of time to sit back and enjoy the Los Angeles Lakers' 117-91 NBA victory over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday.
James, playing in his 1,300th regular-season game, added six rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots in just 24 minutes on court.
He sat out all of the fourth quarter along with the rest of the starters from both teams as the Lakers closed out what had become a tough February with a dominant victory despite the continuing absence of star forward Anthony Davis.
The NBA champions, who lost five of their first six with Anthony sidelined, have now won two straight.
''When you lose a megapiece like AD, it's going to take some time both offensively and defensively,'' James said of the adjustments required.
He said careful film study had helped the Lakers tighten up their defense and players had become more comfortable in their roles with Davis sidelined -- an absence that Lakers coach Frank Vogel acknowledged, calling on them to develop a ''little bit of a new identity.''
Six Lakers scored in double figures as they avenged a narrow loss to the Warriors in January. Jam es capped an overwhelming first half with a pull-up threepointer that put the Lakers up 73-44.
Eric Paschall led the Warriors with 18 points off the bench as star Stephen Curry was limited to 16.
The end of the Warriors' threegame winning streak was made more painful with departure of Draymond Green with a sprained le ankle in the second quarter.
The Lakers' win wasn't even the most lopsided of the night. That belonged to the Memphis Grizzlies, who trounced the slumping Houston Rockets 13384.
However, there was plenty of drama in Boston, where forward Jayson Tatum drove for two baskets in the final 15 seconds to lead the Celtics to a 111-110 comefrom-behind victory over the Washington Wizards.
Tatum scored 31 points and the Celtics withstood a 46-point performance from Washington's Bradley Beal to complete their first back-to-back wins since January.