The Los Angeles Lakers’ second round series against the defending Golden State Warriors was a great one with two heavyweights exchanging haymakers. The Lakers ultimately closed out the Warriors in six games, advancing to the Western Conference Finals where they will take on the Denver Nuggets.
A big reason the Lakers were able to advance was they got production from their role players with Lonnie Walker IV being a prime example of that.
Walker was out of the Lakers’ rotation completely to finish the regular season and begin the postseason but stayed ready and made the most of it when his number was called.
In a tight Game 4 at Crypto.com Arena, Walker exploded for 15 points in the fourth quarter alone to lead the Lakers to victory to take a 3-1 series lead. A lot of those buckets came with Warriors star Stephen Curry on him as Walker was clearly not afraid of the moment.
Now that the series is over, Walker revealed that Curry gifted him a signed jersey with a hilarious message on it, via Bleacher Report:
"Will never forgive you for Game 4…"
Steph's autographed jersey to Lonnie Walker IV ? pic.twitter.com/UQTEDFTBtt
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 14, 2023
Curry being so gracious and showing love to Walker in the wake of defeat just shows how classy he is as a person. As a 24-year-old guard trying to find his way in the NBA, Game 4 was the highlight of Walker’s young career and now he will remember it forever with a signed jersey from Curry.
In addition to being happy about the Lakers advancing to the Western Conference Finals, Walker also had to be pleased that he doesn’t need to chase Curry around anymore as that was the reason he was inserted into the rotation with the Warriors star torching the Lakers a couple of games in the series.
Caruso calls out fans saying 2020 bubble didn’t count
The Lakers and Nuggets have already punched their tickets to the Conference Finals, and on the East side of the bracket, the Miami Heat have done the same while the Boston Celtics are one win away from doing so.
Those are the four teams that made the Conference Finals in the 2020 Orlando bubble, so former Lakers guard Alex Caruso recently called out fans trying to claim that year didn’t count.
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