Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James’ biggest rival in the back half of his career has been Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. He has faced many different iterations of that team and they all have been great battles, from meeting in the NBA Finals four straight years when he was on the Cleveland Cavaliers to some big matchups as division rivals now on the Lakers.
The newest chapter began on Thursday night with the Lakers hosting the Warriors for the first time since both teams acquired new superstars at the trade deadline in Luka Doncic and Jimmy Butler.
While the Lakers won the first three matchups before the deadline, the Warriors got the better of them this time around with a 123-116 victory at Crypto.com Arena.
After the loss, James discussed what went wrong for the Lakers and what the Warriors did to capitalize.
“Shot-making and offensive rebounding. They were making shots,” James said. “[Brandin] Podziemski had a big-time game. [Jonathan] Kuminga came in and gave them a big boost off the bench. Obviously Steph [Curry] does what Steph does. It was too many second-chance points.”
James also elaborated on what makes the Warriors such a tough defensive team, as the Lakers’ offense had a long dry spell in the first and second quarter that cost them.
“I mean, it’s always a challenge when you play Golden State,” he said. “It’s been like that for over a decade, probably since 2014 when they started to get it going. We know it’s always a challenge against them. We just gotta keep balance all game and just try to figure it out, which we did. Offensively, we were really good, especially in the second half. We had 69 points in the second half. That was not the reason we weren’t able to win.”
The Lakers missed 12 straight shots, which may very well have been the difference in the game as the two teams were otherwise pretty much even the rest of the game. LeBron didn’t necessarily see anything his team did wrong during that stretch though.
“No, we just missed. I mean, sometimes it’s a make-or-miss league. I mean, we was getting some really good looks. We just weren’t able to make at that point in time, and they were able to make, and that’s how I was able to build up that 13-point lead at half.”
The Lakers definitely didn’t play their best game, but it’s clear that the Warriors are now a legit threat in the West after James has gotten the better of them the last few years.
LeBron James not surprised Warriors added Jimmy Butler
LeBron James has had many battles with the Warriors over the years, which is why he wasn’t surprised they acquired Jimmy Butler in order to get back into championship contention after they appeared to be fading.
“I mean, I’ve been a part of them making big acquisitions to change the dynamic of their team before,” James said. “I’ve had to go against them when they added Kevin Durant. So, I mean, Jimmy Butler is great, and he adds a toughness to them. He adds a championship DNA type of guy. But it’s always the same. They always figure it out. They always add somebody to make it dynamic.”
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