Thursday night featured a primetime matchup between two teams who dramatically shook up their rosters at the trade deadline. But those moves weren’t on display: Jimmy Butler, while in the house, didn’t suit up for his Golden State Warriors debut, nor did Luka Dončić for his Los Angeles Lakers debut.
And for one night, at least, we saw which team is better absent their new addition, with the Lakers holding on for a 120-112 victory.
The Warriors dug a huge hole, and spent the entire game trying to climb out of it — which, to their credit, they nearly did. Behind a string of turnovers, they fell behind 9-3 and then, following an 11-0 Lakers run, trailed 20-8 halfway through the first quarter. They showed some life as the quarter wore on, but seven turnovers led to nine points for Los Angeles, and a 34-21 Lakers advantage after one.
Then it got ugly fast. A sequence early in the second quarter featured LeBron James draining a three-point shot on three consecutive possessions, while Steph Curry and Draymond Green missed layups. If you got up to get a beer, you came back to find a 47-23 deficit, and then a 50-25 deficit, and then a 59-33 deficit.
Behind some energy from Pat Spencer, the Warriors started to show some life and some heart, but their transition defense was spectacularly awful, and the Lakers feasted on it. In a moment that felt emblematic of the game, the Warriors drew up a nice inbounds play to get Curry a shot at the buzzer, but he missed the open three. The Lakers led 69-49 at the break, with James dropping in 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting (and 5-for-6 from deep), and Curry just 13 points on 5-for-14 shooting (and 1-for-7 from deep).
