Both teams were without their biggest starts on Saturday night when the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors squared off at Chase Center as LeBron James and Stephen Curry were both dealing with their own respective injuries.
The Lakers did get their new trade acquisitions in the lineup for the first time and it helped make the difference as they came away with a big 109-103 win to improve to 26-31.
It was a sloppy start for both teams and neither scored in the first two minutes until Draymond Green finally hit an open 3-pointer.In his first game back with the Lakers, D’Angelo Russell got the team on the board with a nice drive and layup.
After a 9-3 start for the Warriors, they got lazy defensively, forcing Steve Kerr to call timeout after Troy Brown Jr. dunked to cut it to 9-8.
Austin Reaves, Jarred Vanderbilt and the second unit provided some nice energy to close the quarter with the former taking an elbow to the face and drawing a Flagrant 1 foul on Jonathan Kuminga. Neither team could get going offensively overall though with the Warriors lead 22-21 through one.
Lonnie Walker IV got going early in the second with back-to-back buckets, although the Warriors built their lead to eight after a three-point play by Jordan Poole and 3-pointer by Klay Thompson.
The Lakers responded out of a timeout with Rui Hachimura drilling a 3 and then Dennis Schroder hitting back-to-back from deep to get the deficit back to two. Green then picked up a Flagrant 1 of his own after hitting Hachimura across the face, but the Warriors still went into the halftime locker room leading 53-51.
Schroder continued to attack the bucket defensively to begin the third, helping the Lakers take the lead back. It stayed a one-possession game for a majority of the third quarter.
Vanderbilt and the second unit closed the quarter with a nice burst of energy though with him making a pair of free throws right at the buzzer to give L.A. an 85-79 lead going into the fourth.
After staying quiet for most of the game, Poole heated up with back-to-back 3s early in the final period to tie the game. Similar to Poole, Anthony Davis finally got going for the Lakers with back-to-back buckets.
The Lakers continued to have no answer for Poole though as an and-one put him up to 17 points alone in the first half of the fourth. Russell gave the Lakers a much-needed answer with a midrange jumper and then a three-point play of his own.
That allowed L.A. to begin taking control with the lead building back up to seven in the final minutes. Davis came up with some big defensive plays late, playing center field on Green and protecting the paint in the process.
Golden State got within four with 17 seconds to play, but the Lakers made their free throws to close out the victory.
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