Lakers Snap Skid, Blowout Warriors on Luka's Birthday

Written By Malcolm Xavier of The Lakers Room

Three straight losses has a sour taste in my mouth, with the Lakers being favored in the previous two and the Phoenix Suns loss feeling particulary unacceptable. The Lakers are favored again to beat the Steph Curry less Warriors tonight, a trend that hasn't fared well in the losing streak as Boston, Orlando and Phoenix were all short handed respectively. Vegas has the Lakers as a -3.5 advantage entering the ABC primetime contest. Charles Barkley began with his usual verbal assault against on the now semi boring Disney funded iteration of 'Inside the NBA', new network same old Chuck. He might not be that far off right now though.

Draymond Green and Reaves traded layups to start the game followed by threes from Marcus Smart and LeBron James to give the Lakers a 8-2 lead out of the gate with 9 minutes in the opening quarter. Reaves added a sweet reverse to push the lead to 10-2 causing Steve Kerr to use his first timeout. Out of the timeout the Lakers hit another barrage of threes from LeBron, Luke Kennard and Austin Reaves that put the Lakers up 23-9 before GP II answered with a layup that caused JJ Redick to call his first timeout due to the defensive lapse by Ayton that led to Jaxson Hayes subbing in with LA up a dozen. Austin Reaves scored on his second sweet move to the basket to put the Lakers up 25-11. De'anthony Melton scored on a three along with WIll Richard and Quentin Post with a slam for the Warriors although they only finished the quarter with 20 points most came in the paint. LA close the first up 33-20 after being up as much as 17.

Kennard and LeBron added to the Lakers hot shooting night with two threes to start the 2nd quarter along with a LeBron James and one to start with an 8-0 run and push the Lakers lead to 41-20. Another Kerr timeout with 10 minutes remaining in the first half. The lead stretched to 53-30 after two more LeBron threes and a tough Luka finish down low, LeBron was off to a 4-4 start from deep before checking out with just over five minutesi n the half. Golden State wen on a mini 8-2 run to cut the lead to 17 55-38 on two layups from Brandin Poziemski and GP II followed by two Horford free throws leading to a Lakers timeout with 4:17 remaining in the second quarter. Golden State stretched the run to 13-2 cutting the lead to 57-45 with 2:27 left on a Payton layup. LA responded on an 8-2 run of their own to end the half up 65-47 all 8 points coming from the Lakers 'big 3' to close the half.

Luka powered an 8-0 run to start the second half with two straight threes, capped by a 6 footer from Deandre Ayton off a Lebron find to put LA up 73-47 its biggest lead of the game. Golden State responded with a 7-2 run punctuated by a Santos three pointer to cut it to 75-54 before Luka bomb of a three pointer pushed it back to 78-54. Both teams traded buckets down the stretch of the third with Austin Reaves and Gui Santos catching fire for their respective squads but the Lakers remaining in control pushing the lead back to 26 at 93-67 with 2:19 seconds left in the third quarter when Redick called a timeout after a Nate Williams turnover that was challenged and Golden State won to retain possession. LA closed the quarter up 99-72. after a huge Doncic third quarter.

Luka had 26 points 8 assist and 6 rebounds after 3, LeBron followed closely with 20, 6 and 6.

Luka sat the entire fourth quarter, LeBron played the first few minutes and added one more score. Maxi Kleber scored on two consecutive possessions strong to the rim both on finds by LeBron. The Lakers had the bench emptied by about the 6 mintues mark, a bench full of smiles as they led by 30, up 118-88 with 4:04 remaining in the game and a timeout called merely a formality. Kobe Bufkin and Dalton Knecht were in to see the clock out. When it was all said and done the Lakers won the game in spectacular fashion vs the short handed Warriors and more importantly broke a three gam losing streak. Jarred Vanderbilt put the exclamation point on the win with a thunderous dunk with two minutes to go to put LA up 124-92. Kobe Bufkin added 8 fourth quarter points in 5 minutes of action. Lakers won the game with a final score of 129-101.