Since Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves went down to injury, the Los Angeles Lakers have been hurting for a win. While the Lakers are guaranteed a playoff spot, the team needs something to hang its hat on given the hit to their momentum.
Fortunately for Los Angeles, they got to face off against the Golden State Warriors who entered their matchup extremely shorthanded due to their own injury woes. The NBA was banking on another epic meeting between LeBron James and Stephen Curry, but the latter was unavailable due to knee injury management.
Without Curry, the luster of the game was duller than usual but the Lakers still found ways to make it exciting as they were active on both ends of the floor. The lack of star power was apparent, but Los Angeles’ supporting cast answered the bell after what’s been an emotional week.
After a closer-than-expected first half, the Lakers finally pulled away in the second half to beat the Warriors 119-103 to snap their three-game losing streak.
Any time James takes on Golden State, he seems to find ways to dominate the game thanks to his familiarity with the matchup. Despite being the lone playmaker and scorer on the floor, James overwhelmed a Warriors defense that was ill-equipped to stop him.
With younger, smaller and more inexperienced players guarding him for most of the night, James took advantage of the opportunity to dominate the game offensively. James terrorized the Warriors whenever he was near the basket, but he was also happy to fire the basketball to open teammates.
James essentially won the game by himself at the start of the fourth quarter, dictating each possession to ensure Golden State never climbed back into the game. The King exited the game midway through the final period, finishing with an impressive stat line of 26 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds, two steals and one block.
Right behind James was Deandre Ayton, who had his best game in a while. Following a couple of tough outings, Ayton rebounded well against the Warriors as he played with more focus and attention to detail.
Ayton had 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting to go along with five rebounds.
Another positive was Jake LaRavia having a good shooting night as he has been struggling in recent weeks. In this one though, he had 16 points, seven rebounds, four assists, three steals and one block on 6-of-7 shooting and 4-of-5 from deep.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers don’t get much time to rest as they head back home to take on the Phoenix Suns to complete their back-to-back set on Friday. They’ll then take on the Utah Jazz on Sunday to close out their 2025-26 regular season.
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