Darvin Ham says Anthony Davis “doing really good” after head injury
Immediately after the Lakers’ Game 5 loss to the Warriors, coach Darvin Ham told reporters that Anthony Davis “seems to be doing really good already” after the star forward took an elbow to the head in the fourth quarter.
Kevon Looney hit Davis while they were fighting for position in the paint. Davis immediately grabbed at his face and went to the bench, where he sat with a member of the Lakers medical staff for several minutes before going to the locker room in a wheelchair, according to TNT.
Davis and the Lakers have a quick turnaround for Game 6, which will be Friday at Crypto.com Arena.
Warriors win Game 5 as Anthony Davis leaves with injury late
The Lakers lost Game 5, but the bigger problem might be what happened to Anthony Davis.
With a 3-2 lead in the series after losing 121-106 to the Warriors on Wednesday, the Lakers are holding their breath after Davis was taken to the locker room in a wheelchair as a result of getting elbowed in the head during the fourth quarter. Davis had 23 points, nine rebounds and three assists before the Warriors staved off elimination at Chase Center.
The best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals will return to Crypto.com Arena for Game 6 on Friday when the Lakers will get another chance at ousting the defending champions.
LeBron James had 25 points and nine rebounds.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 27 points and eight assists, while Andrew Wiggins had 25 points. Draymond Green had 20 points and 10 rebounds, his second 20-point game of this postseason.
Andrew Wiggins hits the and-one dagger
Andrew Wiggins hit a shot through contact over LeBron James in the lane and put the Warriors ahead 114-100 after completing the three-point play with 2:44 remaining.
The Lakers have emptied their bench, bringing in Max Christie, Troy Brown Jr., Wenyen Gabriel, Malik Beasley and Shaq Harrison.
Looking ahead to Game 6, TNT reported that Anthony Davis was taken to the locker room in a wheelchair. He left the game after getting elbowed in the head by Kevon Looney while battling for rebounding position.
Five quick points from Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry scored five consecutive points after the Warriors called a timeout and the home team leads 109-95 with 4:27 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Curry hit a mid-range jumper out of the timeout, then made the Warriors’ first second-half three-pointer at the 4:42 mark of the fourth quarter to boost their lead to 14 points.
Lakers cut deficit to single digits
Austin Reaves isn’t going down easily.
Reaves made a long three-pointer to get the Lakers back to within single digits, trailing 104-95 with 5:25 remaining.
Reaves has 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists. He is three for six from three-point range.
The Warriors were raining three-pointers in the first half but have missed 11 straight three-pointers in the second half.
Anthony Davis sidelined in fourth quarter
Anthony Davis left the game with 7:34 remaining in the fourth quarter after getting hit in the face by Kevon Looney. He went to the bench with the Lakers trailing 102-90 with 6:35 remaining.
Davis has 23 points, nine rebounds and three assists, but headed to the locker room during the timeout, according to my colleague Brad Turner.
After Davis left the game, the Lakers turned the ball over on two of their next three possessions. They have 14 turnovers.
Enough time for a Lakers comeback in the fourth?
The Lakers trail 99-86 with 7:54 remaining.
Anthony Davis and LeBron James both have 23 points. James appeared to tweak a foot at the end of the third quarter and while he is still on the court as the Lakers try to avoid a Game 6 with a win, he doesn’t appear to be moving as explosively as normal.
The Warriors led by as many as 18 and are keeping the Lakers at arm’s length with physical defense, especially behind Donte DiVincenzo.
Lakers trail by 11 entering fourth quarter
The Lakers trail 93-82 entering the fourth quarter after capitalizing on a few Stephen Curry-less minutes at the end of the third.
The Lakers went on a 7-2 run with Curry on the bench, led by Lonnie Walker IV.
The Game 4 hero had a layup and two assists during the run. He has four points and four assists.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis both have 21 points. Davis also has nine rebounds and three assists but is without a blocked shot as the Warriors are keeping him on the perimeter defensively, allowing for wide-open drives down the lane.
Warriors push pace and extend lead
LeBron James was at the scorer’s table ready to check in, but the Lakers needed another timeout before he could re-enter the game.
The Warriors are pushing the pace and have pushed their lead to 16 points again, ahead 91-75 with 2:17 remaining in the third quarter.
Warriors maintaining double-digit lead in third quarter
The Warriors lead 87-73 with 4:10 remaining in the third quarter.
Draymond Green is on track for a rare 20-point game with 18 points on six-for-10 shooting. Before he dropped 21 points in the first-round series against Sacramento, Green’s last 20-point game was in 2019.
Green’s scoring looks like a bad sign for the Lakers.
Anthony Davis leads the Lakers with 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists. LeBron James has 19 points.
Andrew Wiggins has 20 points for the Warriors. Stephen Curry has 16 points and eight assists.
Lakers take early timeout in third quarter
That Stephen Curry buzzer-beater had the Warriors flying high into the second half as the home team stretched its lead to 79-61 with 9:10 remaining in the third quarter.
The Lakers were forced to take a timeout after Andrew Wiggins threw down a put-back dunk over Anthony Davis on a missed breakaway layup.
The Lakers already have turned the ball over twice this quarter and both turned into points for the Warriors.
Wiggins leads the Warriors with 18 points while Curry has 14 points, seven assists and three rebounds.
Davis has 18 points, five rebounds and one assist. LeBron James has 17 points and four rebounds, but four turnovers compared to one assist. The Lakers have 10 turnovers to the Warriors’ six.
Lakers need another comeback to eliminate Warriors in Game 5
Entering the second half, the Lakers trail 70-59 and will need a second-half comeback to avoid a Game 6 at home on Friday.
Stephen Curry had 12 points in the first half, including the final three-pointer at the buzzer.
Stephen Curry’s buzzer-beater punctuates first-half Warriors lead
Talk about an early exclamation point.
Stephen Curry knocked down a 30-foot three-pointer as time expired in the first half to put the Warriors ahead 70-59.
The Warriors finished the half on a 16-5 run after Austin Reaves tied the score at 54-54 with 4:37 remaining in the second quarter.
Anthony Davis leads the Lakers with 18 points on eight-for-12 shooting.
Andrew Wiggins leads the Warriors with 16 points while Curry has 13 points, three rebounds and six assists.
The Lakers are shooting 57.5% from the field — better than the Warriors’ 54.2% — but aren’t keeping up with Golden State’s long-range shooting. The Warriors are 11 for 21 from distance.
Warriors on a 10-2 run
The Warriors lead 64-56 after ripping off a 10-2 run with Stephen Curry on the bench.
The Warriors are taking a page out of the Lakers’ playbook by getting to the free-throw line and sparked the run with free throws from Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins each added a three-pointer.
The Warriors are nine-of-18 shooting from three-point range and have made all seven of their free throws. The Lakers, who have dominated the free-throw line in this series, are seven of eight from the stripe and five of 10 from three.
The Lakers have some early foul trouble as Dennis Schroder and D’Angelo Russell each picked up three fouls by the 4:22 mark of the second quarter.
Anthony Davis has two fouls, both of which came on the offensive end against Green. Davis has 15 points and LeBron James leads the Lakers with 17.
Get your track shoes on
After Game 4, LeBron James commended both teams’ defensive efforts in the tense Lakers victory, but Game 5 is shaping up to be a fast-paced shootout.
Both teams are shooting better than 55% from the field as the Warriors lead 50-47 with 6:41 remaining in the second quarter.
The Lakers had made 18 of 31 shots from the field, led by Anthony Davis’ 15 points on seven-of-nine shooting. LeBron James has 14 points.
The Lakers won a key stretch without Davis, outscoring the Warriors by three with the forward on the bench. Two three-pointers from James were critical during that stretch, and when Davis re-entered the game, he joined the shooting party with a three-pointer that gave the Lakers a three-point lead.
But the Warriors ripped off an 8-0 run in 39 seconds, led by two three-point plays from Andrew Wiggins, who has 13 points.
The Warriors are shooting 55.6% from the field.
Lakers stay close after first quarter despite Warriors’ hot shooting
The Warriors have made seven three-pointers but their lead over the Lakers is just 32-28 after the first quarter.
Anthony Davis carried the Lakers with 13 points on six-for-eight shooting. He has two rebounds and one assist. Austin Reaves has five points, five rebounds and two assists, while LeBron James has four points.
The Warriors made seven of 12 three-pointers but turned the ball over five times.
Klay Thompson took the second-most shots of any player in the first quarter, but the Southern California native still is in a scoring slump. He has three points on one-for-seven shooting. He had just nine points on three-for-11 shooting Monday.
Lakers fight back in first quarter
Austin Reaves is carrying the momentum over from his big Game 4 performance as the Lakers are on a 9-2 run in the first quarter.
Reaves banked in a long three-pointer to start the run, outjumped Stephen Curry for an offensive rebound and found an open Anthony Davis for a dunk that forced the Warriors to take a timeout with a 21-16 lead. There’s 4:16 remaining in the quarter.
Davis has nine points on four-for-six shooting. Reaves has three points, three rebounds and one assist.
Warriors off to hot shooting start, take 12-point lead
Facing elimination, the Warriors jumped out to a 17-5 lead with 7:28 remaining in the first quarter.
Anthony Davis has all of the Lakers’ points while Draymond Green leads the Warriors with eight points.
The Warriors are clicking from beyond the arc early with four three-pointers on six attempts. Even Green connected on a three for the first time this series.
Can the Lakers eliminate the Warriors tonight?
Hello again, this is Thuc Nhi Nguyen. I’ll be driving the Game 5 live blog from Los Angeles tonight while my colleagues Dan Woike, Brad Turner and Bill Plaschke are at Chase Center in San Francisco, where the Lakers are trying to close out this Western Conference semifinal series against the Warriors.
The Lakers have a 3-1 lead after Monday’s thrilling home victory thanks to dynamic fourth-quarter scoring from Lonnie Walker IV. Walker has worked his way back into the rotation after getting garbage-time minutes in Game 2’s blowout loss and saved the Lakers with 15 points in the fourth quarter in Game 4.
Same starters for Game 5
Neither team is making a change in its starting lineup for Game 5.
With a chance to advance to the Western Conference finals, the Lakers will stick with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Jarred Vanderbilt.
The Warriors will run back their Game 4 lineup of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton II.
LeBron James voted All-NBA third team
Lakers forward LeBron James earned a spot on the All-NBA third team, becoming the third-oldest player to earn All-NBA honors.
It’s the 19th straight year James has been all-NBA.
James averaged 28.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists in 55 games this season, his 20th in the NBA. He became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer on Feb. 7.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic were voted to the first team. Nikola Jokic, Donovan Mitchell, Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Jayson Tatum were named to the second team.
Oust the defending champions? Lakers must outdefend Warriors
The best defender in these NBA playoffs, Anthony Davis, spread his arms wide as he lowered himself into a squat. In front of him stood Stephen Curry, a player willing to take the toughest shots and plenty capable of making a bunch.
Here, in the final moments of Game 4 on Monday night in Los Angeles, Davis’ feet were quick, his fundamentals sound and his instincts spot on. He didn’t bite when Curry faked and jabbed. He didn’t lunge or lurch.
He defended.
Curry missed. Not once but twice.
The Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors 104-101.
If one of those fakes worked, if one of those shots wiggled its way through the rim, the Lakers could be tied in the Western Conference semifinals ahead of a pivotal Game 5 on Wednesday night in San Francisco.
Lonnie Walker IV goes from forgotten to hero in Game 4 win
He came out of nowhere.
Benchwarmer. Scrub. Forgotten.
He was a starter at the horrible start of the season, then got tossed aside when the Lakers got good.
Afterthought. Irrelevant. Nobody.
Many sad descriptors accompanied Lonnie Walker IV onto the Crypto.com Arena court at the start of the fourth quarter Monday night, but by the time the game ended, the building was shaking with a new and different one.
Hero.
How Austin Reaves shook slump in Lakers’ Game 4 win
With his backpack draped over his shoulder and a bag of food in his right hand, Austin Reaves eased his way to the Lakers’ bus after a crushing loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 2 of the Western Conference playoffs last Thursday night at Chase Center, his thoughts on how his poor play had hurt his team’s cause.
Reaves heard a voice call his name. It was Hall of Fame point guard Gary Payton, who looked the second-year guard in the eyes and offered some words of encouragement.
“Come here, Reaves. I like you,” Payton said. “You got some dawg in you. I like that. I like that you got that dawg.”
Reaves smiled and said, “Thank you.”
Fast forward to Game 4 at Crypto.com Arena on Monday night and Reaves displayed more of that dawg to break out of his shooting funk, finishing with 21 points on seven-for-15 shooting, three for six on three-pointers.
Lakers ‘expect another dogfight’ in trying to win Game 5
The Lakers’ first attempt this season to close out a playoff series on their first try didn’t go so well.
With a chance to wrap up their opening-round series against the Grizzlies in a tidy five games, they went to Memphis and lost by 17, costing themselves a few precious days of rest. “We didn’t play up to our abilities,” LeBron James said.
They apparently learned from that experience, because they came home to Crypto.com Arena and demolished the No. 2-seeded Grizzlies by 40 points two days later to complete a six-game upset that really wasn’t so surprising.
Having earned another chance to close out a series by gritting out a 104-101 victory over defending champion Golden State on Monday, the Lakers must seize the moment and deliver a knockout punch when the series resumes on Wednesday for Game 5 at Chase Center in San Francisco.