SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry was so magnificent in the first three quarters, a scoreless fourth had no bearing on the collapse-prone Warriors.
Curry dropped 32 points before the fourth, helping Golden State build a comfortable enough lead to coast to a 128-110 win over the Lakers. LeBron James, who sat out with an ankle injury, wasn’t available to match Curry’s offensive brilliance to open the second half.
Every game is crucial for the Warriors (28-26), who are currently in 10th place in the West but are openly eyeing the sixth seed for ideal playoff positioning. They have now won nine of their past 11 games, coming together at the right time.
“I think we have a shot to really make some hay in terms of the conference standings,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said pregame.
This game in particular carried more importance than even a typical glamor matchup between the league’s two glossiest West Coast franchises. Given that they’re bunched up at the bottom of the Western Conference playoff picture, their head-to-head matchup could decide a crucial tiebreaker. With the victory, the Warriors can claim the tiebreaker with two more wins in the season series.
Curry started the game shooting like he did in the Steph vs. Sabrina shootout. He drilled four of his first five 3-pointers, opening with 16 points in his first 10 minutes. With Golden State’s downsized starting lineup, they dealt a heavy dosage of Curry-Draymond Green high pick-and-rolls. Austin Reaves had trouble fighting through screens to stick on Curry and even more issues containing him in isolations. After one 3, Curry displayed his patented shimmy while jogging back on defense.
To further set the tone for the final stretch of the season in the first quarter, Curry added a gorgeous behind-the-back, no-look dime to Andrew Wiggins for a transition dunk. But Anthony Davis out-muscled the smaller Warriors, keeping the Lakers within three after the first period.
The question for the Warriors then, as it’s been at various points of the season, was who could emerge as a secondary scorer behind Curry. In a rapid five-minute burst, Trayce Jackson-Davis delivered. The rookie center was a rim-to-rim presence, scoring 13 points — four of which were assisted by Klay Thompson — and hauling in two offensive rebounds as Curry got his scheduled rest.
When he returned, Curry fueled a 17-5 run to end the half, capped by an Andrew Wiggins tip-in bucket at the buzzer. Just before the All-Star break, he set an NBA record with four consecutive games of seven 3-pointers, and he showed no signs of cooling off. At half, Curry registered 25 points on 9-for-12 shooting, including 5-for-7 from 3.
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The Warriors and Lakers played an essentially even third quarter, sending Golden State into the fourth with a solid 16-point edge. But this year, no Warriors lead is safe. In their last two games before the All-Star break, Golden State coughed up a big fourth-quarter lead to the Clippers, then nearly collapsed again in Utah.
Yet without James, the Lakers didn’t have much firepower to mount a comeback. Their fourth quarter featured a lot of Max Christie, Rui Hachimura and Spencer Dinwiddie, none of whom presented much of a scoring threat on Thursday night. On the Warriors’ side, Andrew Wiggins took advantage of size mismatches, coming alive for nine of his 20 points in the fourth.
With five minutes left, Lakers coach Darvin Ham emptied his bench, where James sat in a grey jumpsuit. No matter how many leads Golden State has seen evaporate this year, Los Angeles knew it couldn’t keep up without James.
