Los Angeles – The lakers Started the season eight games under .500. They are now four wins away from the NBA Finals.
Los Angeles brought down the defending champion Golden State Warriors, 122-101, in game 6 to advance to the Western Conference Finals. The No. 7 seeded Lakers will head into the field to play the top seed in the West denver nuggetsin Game 1 on Tuesday.
The Lakers started the season 2–10 under first-year coach Derwin Ham and completely overhauled the roster throughout the year due to a flurry of trades by Vice President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Rob Pelinka. According to Elias Sports Bureau research, they became just the fourth team in league history to finish multiple games below .500 and reach the conference finals since the conference began in the 1970–71 season.
and they arrived on friday with an old performance from there Lebron James,
James had 30 points on 10-for-14 shooting, 9 rebounds and 9 assists as he snapped a personal streak of 18 straight playoff games scoring less than 30 points.
Together Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – James passed as the league’s all-time leading scorer in February – Sitting on the second row at Crypto.com Arena, James joined Abdul-Jabbar as the only other players age 38 or older to have scored at least 30. Score points. , 5 rebounds and 5 assists in the playoff game.
As the Lakers have done all season long, Friday night was a strong showing after a disappointing loss by LA.
Lakers jump out to 27-10 lead with Ham’s early lineup shift dennis schroder In place of Jared Vanderbilt – Aggressive blow spark. Anthony DavisThe man who left Game 5 early after taking an inadvertent shot to the side of the head seemed locked in from the start, with nine of his 17 points and 10 of his 20 rebounds coming in the opening frame.
But the Warriors, behind their current Finals MVP Stephen Curry, reduce it to five by the beginning of the second quarter. Curry scored 12 of his team-high 32 points in the opening frame, while his team struggled to find its rhythm against the Lakers’ defense (3-of-3-for-14).
They doubled their lead to 10 at halftime, 56–46. Austin ReevesHalf-court warm-up falling through the net to beat the second quarter buzzer. Reeves would finish with 23 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds – one of five Lakers in double figures.
LA kept up the pressure to start the third and quickly pushed their lead to 19 with 7:35 remaining in the quarter – the Lakers’ largest lead ever.
schroder Picked up his second technical foul and was ejected after clashing with Draymond Greenopening the door for more play time for game 4 heroes Lonnie Walker IVWho scored 8 of his 13 points in the third.
The Lakers took a 14-point lead in the fourth and the Warriors cut it to 11, before LA went on an 11–0 run to double their lead. Ham emptied his bench in the final minutes as the Laker crowd had a chance to celebrate reaching the 42nd Conference Final in team history.
The Lakers are only the second No. 7 seed to reach the Conference Finals since seeding began in 1984, joining the 1987 Seattle SuperSonics.
The Lakers are now 7-0 at home after this season, counting play-in tournaments. They broke the Warriors’ streak of 28 consecutive playoff series with at least one road win.
This would be James’ 12th Conference Finals appearance. His teams are 10–1 so far, with their only loss cleveland cavaliers in 2009, when they lost Orlando Magic in six games.
And the win gave James the 41st series win of his 20-year career after the season, breaking a tie with Derek Fisher for most.
