After dropping Game 5 on the road, the Los Angeles Lakers had another opportunity to close out the Golden State Warriors on Friday night in Game 6 back at Crypto.com Arena.
The Warriors are the defending champs for a reason, but that didn’t matter in this one as the Lakers cruised to a 120-100 win to close out the series.
The Lakers got off to a quick start with LeBron James going right at Andrew Wiggins, who is dealing with a rib injury, for back-to-back buckets inside.
Darvin Ham made his first starting lineup change of the series, inserting Dennis Schroder for Jarred Vanderbilt, and it worked early as Schroder drilled a triple to give the Lakers an 18-7 lead, forcing a Warriors timeout.
The Lakers’ run continued out of the timeout as the Warriors were ice cold from 3-point range. Meanwhile, Austin Reaves got in on the action from deep to put the Lakers up 27-10 and force another early timeout.
Despite the Warriors’ cold shooting from deep, Stephen Curry did what he could to get his team back in it by completing a three-point play. That really got him going as he then hit a triple, finished another three-point play and then made a pair of free throws to cut the Warriors’ deficit to just 31-26 at the end of the first.
Donte DiVincenzo got going with five quick points early in the second, cutting the Lakers’ lead to just four as it was a game again despite the hot start from L.A.
Reaves helped the Lakers get back settled in, completing a three-point play on Curry and then finding an open James for a triple to get the lead back to double digits. After Reaves beat the halftime buzzer with an incredible halfcourt shot, the Lakers took a 56-46 lead into the locker room.
Reaves picked up where he left off to begin the third, drilling a corner 3 and then Russell followed it up with a wing 3. After James finished back-to-back layups to get the lead back to 17, the Warriors had to take another timeout.
Curry did what he could to keep him team in it with five quick points out of the timeout, although James had a nice response with an alley-oop to Davis. After that though, Schroder and Draymond Green picked up double technicals for jawing at each other with the former being ejected for having two techs.
Before things could get out of hand for the Lakers with Schroder no long available, Lonnie Walker IV drained a big triple to get it back to 18.
The Warriors closed the quarter well though, including Jordan Poole beating the buzzer with a layup to cut the deficit to 91-77 going into the fourth.
Poole began the fourth with a three-point play as the game was certainly still well within reach for Golden State. Rui Hachimura responded with some free throws though, and then James completed a three-point play of his own to make it more comfortable for L.A.
James then took over from there, attacking the paint at will and getting to the free throw line to put the game out of reach with the help of some outstanding Laker defense.
LeBron was masterful on the night, finishing with 30 points, nine rebounds, nine assists, two steals and a block on 10-of-14 shooting.
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