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Lakers Highlights: LA Drops Must-Win Game to Warriors Behind Anthony Davis Injury and Shot-Clock Snafu

This game was anything but normal.

Martand Bhagavatula

Lakers Highlights: LA Drops Must-Win Game to Warriors Behind Anthony Davis Injury and Shot-Clock Snafu
Lakers Highlights: LA Drops Must-Win Game to Warriors Behind Anthony Davis Injury and Shot-Clock Snafu /
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In a must-win game for playoff seeding against the Golden State Warriors, an Anthony Davis injury and collective underperformance from every non-LeBron James Laker sparked an incredibly disappointing 128-121 loss. 

Anthony Davis left with an eye injury early in the game, and as Lakers reporter Mike Trudell wrote, it became a tale of two games after: 

L.A.'s interior defense collapsed, with Golden State, a terrible rim-pressuring team, getting to the basket at will. Stephen Curry and Jonathan Kuminga put up 31 and 23 points respectively, with Klay Thompson adding 26 off the bench. Draymond Green put out a well-rounded 12 rebounds and 13 assists as well, finding cutters around the paint in seemingly every possession in the second half. 

For the Lakers, LeBron James put up an unbelievable 40 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists on 15-23 from the field. Similar to his duels with Stephen Curry in the late 2010s, however, his team failed to show up, with an inefficient game from D'Angelo Russell being about all he got. Austin Reaves struggled and Rui Hachimura didn't get many looks despite an otherwise efficient night, leaving LeBron to do most of the work. 

L.A. is now tied with the Warriors for 9th/10th in the Western Conference, a disaster for their playoff odds. Let's see if they can get it together with a matchup against Atlanta, who has been without superstar guard Trae Young on Monday. 

Here are L.A.'s best plays on the day: 

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Martand Bhagavatula
MARTAND BHAGAVATULA

Martand is currently a student at the University of Southern California, and has prior experience in the NIL space, sports financial advisory, and publishing in sports analytics. As a Lakers, Chargers, and Angels fan, he often finds himself disappointed.

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