After earning a split in the first two games at Chase Center, the Los Angeles Lakers’ second-round series against the Golden State Warriors shifted to Crypto.com Arena for Game 3.
The Lakers came into the night undefeated at home in the postseason, and that continued as they cruised to a 127-95 victory to take a 2-1 series lead.
D’Angelo Russell got the Lakers off to a quick start with a trio of triples and a layup for an early 11-4 lead. The Warriors eventually got settled in though with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson draining back-to-back 3-pointers to cut their deficit back to one.
Outside of Russell and Anthony Davis, who was able to get to the free throw line early, the Lakers struggled offensively in the first quarter as those two accounted for 21 of the team’s 23 points in the first. Meanwhile, Thompson picked up where he left off in Game 2 as he was hot early to give him team a 30-23 lead going into the second.
Lonnie Walker IV got a rare chance in the Lakers’ rotation and started the scoring in the second with a triple. Russell then made another 3, although Curry responded with one of his own and then Moses Moody hit one to give the Warriors their first double-digit lead at 40-29.
After going scoreless for a quarter and a half though, LeBron James helped the Lakers get back in it by leading an 13-0 run to give his team the lead back.
Russell continued his hot shooting from there, draining a 3 and then scoring in transition to extend the Lakers’ lead to 51-42.
The Warriors didn’t do themselves any favors at the end of the half as they picked up a couple of technicals for disagreeing with calls. Davis then beat the halftime buzzer with a layup to give the Lakers a 59-48 lead going into the locker room.
James drilled a 3 early in the third to give the Lakers their largest lead at 14. After Wiggins had a massive poster dunk on Davis midway through the quarter to cut it to 12 though, Darvin Ham wisely used a timeout.
The Lakers responded with five straight points out of the timeout, although Curry answered with five straight of his own. The Warriors struggled taking care of the ball though with James making some incredible hustle plays. As a result, the Lakers built up an 18-point lead through three quarters at 86-68.
L.A. had the ability to put the game away early with a run to start the fourth quarter, and that’s exactly what they did with a 12-2 run to increase their lead to 26 with Reaves and Dennis Schroder notably drilling 3-pointers, forcing Steve Kerr to call a timeout to get his starters out of the game.
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