Lakers eliminate Warriors, advance to West
LOS ANGELES The Lakers started the season eight games under .500. Now they are four wins away from the NBA Finals.
Los Angeles took down the defending champion Golden State Warriors 122-101 in Game 6 on Friday to advance to the Western Conference nals. The No. 7-seeded Lakers will go on the road to play the West's top seed, the Denver Nuggets, in Game 1 on Tuesday.
The Lakers started the season 2-10 under rst-year coach Darvin Ham and completely overhauled the roster midway through the year thanks to a urry of trades by vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka. They became just the fourth team in NBA history to be that many games below .500 and reach the conference nals since conferences were instated in the 1970-71 season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"I felt like if we ever had an opportunity to upgrade our roster and put some more balance around myself and [Anthony Davis], I felt like we could make a run," LeBron James said, looking back at Los Angeles' rocky start.
Their run continued Friday with a vintage performance from James.
James had 30 points on 10-for-14 shooting, 9 rebounds and 9 assists as he snapped a personal streak of 18 straight playo games scoring under 30 points.
With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar the man James passed as the league's all-time leading scorer in February sitting in the second row at Crypto.com Arena, James joined Abdul-Jabbar as the only other player age 38 or older to put up at least 30 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a playo game.
"I just wanted to come in and make some plays and be e cient and defend at a high level and help [Davis] rebound," James said. "Help our team make winning plays. And I was able to make a few of them."
As the Lakers have done all postseason, Friday night was a strong performance coming on the heels of a disappointing loss.
The Lakers jumped out to a 27-10 lead with Ham's starting lineup shift
Dennis Schroder replacing Jarred Vanderbilt sparking the o ensive jolt. Davis, who left Game 5 early after taking an inadvertent shot to the side of the head, was locked in from the start, with nine of his 17 points and 10 of his 20 rebounds coming in the opening frame.
But the Warriors, behind reigning Finals MVP Stephen Curry, cut it to ve by the start of the second quarter. Curry scored 12 of his gamehigh 32 points in the opening frame, while his team struggled to nd its rhythm against the Lakers' defense (3-for-14 from 3).
The Lakers doubled the lead to 10 by halftime, 56-46, with Austin Reaves' half-court heave falling through the net to beat the second-quarter buzzer. Reaves would nish with 23 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds -- one of ve Lakers in double gures.
"It felt good," Reaves said of his 54-foot make to end the half. "You don't make many of those, but it did feel good when I shot it."
Los Angeles kept up the pressure to start the third and quickly pushed its cushion to 19 with 7:35 remaining in the quarter -- the Lakers' largest lead yet.
Schroder picked up his second technical foul