The Los Angeles Lakers managed to remain competitive with the Golden State Warriors but suffered an 117-106 loss in a matchup between two injury-riddled teams. With Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson all sidelined, Kevin Durant led the Warriors with a game-high 26 points.
They started 5-of-6 from the field, with Durant scoring half the points to help Golden State to an early 12-7 lead. The Lakers, as they did on multiple occasions, managed to to cut into their deficit behind a 7-0 run. The Warriors led by three at the end of the quarter but found themselves tied at halftime.
That in some part was due to an alert play by Lonzo Ball, who tipped in a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope miss at the buzzer to pull the Lakers even. True to a their season-long trend, the Warriors got out to a strong start in the second half.
They opened the third quarter on 15-4 spurt, spearheaded by a 12-0 run to jump ahead by 11, which was their largest lead to that point.
A strong finish to the quarter pulled the Lakers to within seven points heading to the fourth. L.A. twice cut their deficit to just five points, but never got any closer over the final 10 minutes.
After missing each of his four shots in the first half, Nick Young found his shooting stroke, which included making two 3-pointers to give the Warriors a 101-90 lead.
Julius Randle had 22 points on an efficient 8-for-10 shooting, to go along with 10 rebounds for his 20th double-double this season. But Randle’s night came to an early end as he fouled out with just over three minutes remaining.
Prior to that, Randle and Isaiah Thomas needed to be separated by teammates during an animated conversation that was held in a timeout. Thomas had 20 points and seven assists in his first start for the team.
Brook Lopez had another strong showing, again doing his damage in the paint, finishing with 20 points and six rebounds. Lonzo Ball endured another rough shooting night but contributed with five rebounds, 11 assists and two steals.
Tyler Ennis led all Lakers bench players with 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting.
