With a masterful performance by LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors, the reigning NBA champions, 122-101 this Friday and finished this Western Conference semifinal 4-2 on aggregate.
LeBron James reached 30 points for the first time in these playoffs while Curry had 32 but he was too alone to prevent this resounding elimination of the Warriors, the franchise that has won four of the last eight NBA rings.
The rival in the Western final of the surprising Lakers, who qualified for the playoffs in the playoffs, will be Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets, the first seed in the conference. “They have been first all season and we have a lot of respect for them.“, warned LeBron. “We know what they have, we will take these days off and we will be ready on Tuesday” for the first game.
The Lakers, who had missed a first opportunity to qualify on Wednesday, gave their rival no options this Friday and celebrated the pass with their fans, including a collection of celebrities such as tycoon Elon Musk, actor Jack Nicholson or singer Bud Bunny.
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We had to make it difficult for him. They are the champions, they were not going to make it easy. We had to keep pushing the 48 minutes
“We had to make it difficult for them. They are the champions, they were not going to make it easy. We had to keep pushing for 48 minutes,” said Anthony Davis, once again a force on both sides of the court with 17 points and 20 rebounds.
The victory also meant a small revenge for LeBron James against Stephen Curry, the two players who have marked the last decade in the NBA. As the leader of the Cavaliers, ‘King James’ succumbed in three of the four consecutive Finals played against the Warriors between 2015 and 2018.
On Friday, the forward gave himself the pleasure of dealing his great rivals an unusual defeat in almost a decade. The Warriors of Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green had not lost in a Western tie since Steve Kerr took over as coach in the 2014-15 season. In all, it was a 19-game winning streak in series against Western rivals, which ended on Friday in painful fashion, raising many questions about the future of the dynasty.
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Now it is James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, who is still alive in search of the fifth title of his career at 38 years old. The duel against Jokic’s Nuggets, double winner of the MVP award, will be the Lakers’ first conference final since the title achieved in 2020 in the Disney World (Orlando, Florida) playoffs.
The Los Angeles team, which had been left out of the playoffs last year, turned its depressing trajectory completely upside down this season in the February transfer market, in which it got rid of Russell Westbrook and recruited starting pieces like D’Angelo Russell and Jarred Vanderbilt.
The Wreck of Warriors
After Wednesday’s loss, the Lakers came out determined to avoid returning to San Francisco for a Game 7 at all costs. LeBron James imposed his law from the start and before the end of the first quarter the locals already dominated 27-10.
On the Warriors side, Curry had to multiply in attack due to the lack of support, especially from Klay Thompson, his great squire. The guard, son of former Laker Mychal Thompson and one of the best shooters in history, experienced one of the worst nights of his extraordinary career with 8 points and a 3/19 series from the field.
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Forward Andrew Wiggins, figure of Wednesday’s win, was very subdued (6 points) and Jordan Poole ended his catastrophic playoff run with a tally of 7 points at 3/10.
The Lakers, on the other hand, were flying on the back of their leader LeBron James and guard Austin Reaves (23 points) had the pleasure of signing several luxury plays. After dancing with the ball and taking a basket and a personal foul on Curry, Reaves again imitated the Warriors star with a spectacular 3-pointer from halfcourt at the halftime buzzer that put the Lakers ahead 56-46.
Back from the locker room, Curry found himself too lonely to launch one of his legendary comebacks. The Lakers did not slow down and at the beginning of the last quarter they already dominated by more than 20 points. With four minutes to go, Kerr threw in the towel and retired his starters as the 20,000 fans at Crypto.com Arena celebrated in style as the Lakers qualified.
Their last obstacle to the Finals will be a rival with a hunger for revenge, the Denver Nuggets, whose last three appearances in the West final (1985, 2009 and 2020) ended with losses at the hands of the Lakers.
AFP
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