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Lakers Final Score: LA Annihilates Golden State At Home In Game 3, Wins 127-97

A thoroughly dominant second half puts Los Angeles up 2-1 in the series.

Alex Kirschenbaum

Lakers Final Score: LA Annihilates Golden State At Home In Game 3, Wins 127-97
Lakers Final Score: LA Annihilates Golden State At Home In Game 3, Wins 127-97 /
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Although I did expect your Los Angeles Lakers to vanquish the visiting Golden State Warriors tonight in their first home game of the two teams' ongoing best-of-seven second round playoff series, I wasn't anticipating a total decimation.

But that's what I got.

Initially, it appeared that Golden State might be able to carry over its superlative jump-shooting Game 2 performance into Game 3 at Crypto.com Arena. The Warriors got off to a 30-23 first quarter lead, capitalizing on a terribly sluggish start from LeBron James, who, for first time in 276 playoff games, did not try to shoot a field goal in the opening frame. D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Davis picked up the slack, with D-Lo kicking off the game on a 9-2 run over Golden State by himself. 

Russell, who's been a bit hot and cold as a scorer in these playoffs thus far, was scorching hot tonight from the jump. He nabbed 13 quick points in the opening period on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor (3-of-4 from deep), chipped in two boards and dished out one dime. 

Davis logged eight first quarter points on 2-of-5 shooting, grabbed three rebounds, passed one assist, stole one ball and blocked one shot. Only one other Laker, Russell's backup Dennis Schröder, made a field goal attempt in the frame.

Not to be outdone, LA native Klay Thompson carried over his hot shooting from Thursday night, nabbing 11 points on 3-of-5 three-point shooting and 2-of-2 foul shooting in the opening frame to pace Golden State:

For Los Angeles, the biggest rotational wrinkle was head coach Darvin Ham's decision to reinsert Lonnie Walker IV into the lineup for added scoring punch. Malik Beasley has been an absolute dud throughout the postseason, and Troy Brown Jr. has been okay on defense but totally passive as a shooter. 

Walker has proven himself to be a bit of a fearless chucker when given some run this season. He's had a rough go of it this year, transitioning from an opening night starting role to being completely out of the regular season rotation by the end of the year, following Rob Pelinka's reconfiguration of the team's wing depth. Walker logged about 20 minutes of meaningful time in this game, plus about four bonus mop-up minutes with the game out of reach.

But I digress.

James finally began to engage on offense four minutes into the second quarter and he, Russell and Davis helped lead LA on a bonkers 30-8 run to close out the opening half, and swing the Lakers from an 11-point deficit to an 11-point advantage at the break. 

The Davis-James two-man game once again emerged as a force to be reckoned with here:

Los Angeles more doubled Golden State's output in the quarter, outscoring the champs 36-18.

James' 10 points led the Lakers in scoring during the frame. He also contributed four assists and four boards. Meanwhile, Davis and Russell contributed another eight points apiece to close out the half. The Lakers led 59-48, going 18-of-40 on their field goals (8-of-19 from deep) and 15-of-21 on their foul shots.

The Warriors were already out of sorts in the first half, racking up fouls and getting chippy with game officials about those fouls, to boot.

In the third quarter, Los Angeles pulled away further, thanks to the fully revved-up two-way play of LeBron James. First, he showed that he can still outrun the young bucks and muck up passing lanes with this steal:

Next, he pulled off a nifty little spin move to shake off first Donte DiVincenzo and then Jordan Poole for a little up-and-under layup -- and instantly followed that up by blocking Warriors All-Star point guard Stephen Curry at the other end.

It was all part of a 15-7 run to close out the final 5:11 of the third quarter and more or less ice the game, putting Los Angeles up 86-68 heading into the contest's last 12 minutes.

The Lakers went on an 11-4 tear through the first 2:49 of the fourth frame, elevating their advantage to 98-72. At this point, Darvin Ham subbed Rui Hachimura in for his 38-year-old superstar (who at one point was icing his neck during a stoppage in play), and James was wrapped for the night.

Darvin Ham made some clever tweaks tonight. Beyond the elevation of Lonnie Walker IV over Troy Brown Jr. in his rotation (Walker scored 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including 2-of-4 shooting from deep, and pulled down four rebounds in 24:24), he also switched up his Stephen Curry coverage, making LA shooting guard Austin Reaves the primary defender on Curry and shifting power forward Jarred Vanderbilt over to Draymond Green duty. Green scored just two points, and found himself in foul trouble throughout the night (he finished with five personals). 

Moving Vanderbilt onto Draymond Green freed up Anthony Davis to be a bit of a rover, while ostensibly defending JaMychal Green (and Kevon Looney a bit, though Looney still seemed to be limited by his illness and came off the bench behind JaMychal for the second straight bout). Ham also made sure to call timeouts whenever the Warriors went on a hint of a run.

Anthony Davis was the star of the night for LA, improving markedly from a modest 11-point, seven-rebound showing in Game 2. For Game 3, the eight-time All-Star out of Kentucky scored 25 points while shooting 7-of-10 from the floor and 11-of-12 from the foul line, pulled down 13 rebounds, blocked four shots, dished out three dimes, and stole three balls. On defense, he aggressively patrolled the paint throughout the game, once again limiting the Warriors' ability to get to the charity stripe. For the game, LA enjoyed a +20 free throw shooting edge (37-17) over Golden State. 

James and Russell each chipped in 21 points, shooting a combined 14-of-24 from the floor (including 7-of-12 from deep). The Lakers somehow made more three-pointers than the Warriors tonight, though Golden State of course attempted more. Golden State finished shooting 13-of-44 from long range, while LA went 15-of-31. Los Angeles also held onto the ball much more effectively than Golden State, turning over the rock just 12 times to the Warriors' 19.

Schröder, who's struggled to string together consistent scoring nights himself, enjoyed another relatively solid night on offense, notching 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field (3-of-6 from three-point land).

The action continues on Monday night in a critical Game 4. Assuming the Lakers can't quite count on the scoring of Davis, who only seems to show up on offense every other night (although he always brings the pain defensively), can James step up to help his squad take an unexpected 3-1 series edge over the favored Dubs? Quite possibly. Fun fact: Los Angeles has yet to drop a home game this postseason.

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

Basketball is Alex's favorite sport, he likes the way they dribble up and down the court.

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