Lakers advance to WCF after beating Golden State Warriors Game 6

Lakers fans making their way to Crypto.com Arena

Lakers fans are making their way to the Crypto.com Arena ahead of Game 6 against the Golden State Warriors.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - LeBron James had 30 points, nine rebounds and nine assists and the Los Angeles Lakers eliminated the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors with a 122-101 victory Friday night in Game 6 of the second-round series.

The seventh-seeded Lakers will face Nikola Jokic and the top-seeded Nuggets in the Western Conference finals starting Tuesday night in Denver.

Anthony Davis had 17 points and 20 rebounds for the Lakers, who never trailed in a closeout victory that punctuated their increasingly incredible late-season surge.

Austin Reaves scored 23 points, highlighted by a 54-footer from midcourt at the halftime buzzer for the Lakers. They improved to 7-0 at home since the regular season ended with three wins in seven days over the Warriors. Los Angeles also snapped Golden State’s streak of 28 playoff series with at least one road victory – an NBA-record run encompassing Stephen Curry’s entire career.

Davis said he attributes the Lakers’ late-season roll to "togetherness. We want to shock the world."

James, Davis and the Lakers are the first team since 2014 to eliminate Curry’s Warriors from the playoffs before the NBA Finals. Golden State has played in six of the last eight NBA Finals, missing the playoffs entirely in the other two seasons.

Curry scored 32 points while missing 10 of his 14 3-point attempts for the sixth-seeded Warriors, whose pursuit of their fifth championship in nine seasons ended with three straight road losses and an inept offensive performance by Curry’s teammates in Game 6, including a 3-of-19 effort by Klay Thompson, who missed 10 of his 12 3-point attempts.

The Splash Brothers were far too dry when it mattered against the Lakers: Thompson went 10 for 36 on 3-pointers in the series’ final four games, while Curry was 14 for 49.

Donte DiVincenzo had a playoff-high 16 points for the Warriors, but Curry was their only starter in double figures, with the other four shooting 11 for 38.

The Lakers immediately took charge in the first quarter, survived the Warriors’ few rallies and blew it open in the fourth quarter with a balanced effort led by the 38-year-old James, a four-time NBA champion. The 20-year veteran can still assert his will as forcefully as almost any elite player, and he quarterbacked the Lakers’ offensive effort while Davis played another standout defensive game.

D’Angelo Russell scored 19 points as the Lakers capably survived the third-quarter ejection of Dennis Schröder, the sparkplug guard and primary defender on Curry. Schröder was tossed after receiving his second technical foul of the night from an exchange with Draymond Green, but his absence scarcely seemed to help the Warriors, who couldn’t make their open shots far too often.

The Lakers haven’t lost back-to-back games since March 17, and they’ve lost just once at home since March 26. On a 27-12 roll since bolstering their supporting cast around James and Davis at the trade deadline, Los Angeles is headed to the conference finals for the second time in the superstars’ four-year partnership.

After knocking off the second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in six games in the first round, the Lakers followed that series’ exact win-loss pattern against the champs: Steal Game 1 on the road, and then coolly capitalize on their homecourt advantage to seal the series with three straight wins in front of their frenzied, celebrity-studded crowds.

Schröder had five assists and defended doggedly in his first start of the postseason for the Lakers, but the German points guard was ejected on a curious call after Green pushed the ball into Schröder’s face.

TIP-INS

Warriors: Golden State went a dismal 13-35 on the road this year, including the postseason. ... Curry moved into 11th place on the NBA’s career playoff scoring list, passing Dwyane Wade. ... Andrew Wiggins scored six points while playing with fractured rib cartilage, apparently resulting from a tussle with James in the fourth quarter of Game 5.
Lakers: Schröder took the starting spot of Jarred Vanderbilt, the defensive specialist who hadn’t made a field goal in three straight games. ... James passed Shaquille O’Neal for fourth place on the NBA’s career playoff rebounds list. James has played in a league-record 278 postseason games. ... Jack Nicholson was courtside for the third time in the Lakers’ last four playoff games, joined by his son, Ray. Others in attendance: Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, Bad Bunny, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Michael B. Jordan, Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar, Jack Harlow, Dr. Dre, Woody Harrelson, Tyler the Creator and Trae Young.

SERIES RESULTS

HOW THEY GOT HERE

The Lakers arrived at the 2023 NBA Playoffs as battle tested as any team in the league. New coach Darvin Ham had a nightmare start to his head coaching career as LA started the regular season at a 2-10.

After the team's tumultuous start, the Lakers shipped out former NBA MVP Russell Westbrook in a trade with the Utah Jazz.

Prior to the deadline, all eyes were on LeBron James earlier in the 2023 calendar year as he broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record. As if there weren't enough distractions, both James and 8-time All-Star Anthony Davis missed time during parts of the regular season to recover from their respective injuries.

Yet, in spite of all the distractions and trips to the trainer's room, the Lakers somehow found themselves a spot in the Western Conference side of the playoff bracket after beating the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime in the Play-In tournament.

LA, entering the playoffs as a seventh seed, knocked off the second-seed Memphis Grizzlies in six games in Round 1.