LOS ANGELES — The Lakers, according to Draymond Green, sag off the Warriors’ shooters more egregiously than any other opponent in the league, ignoring Green, Gary Payton II, Jonathan Kuminga and any center Steve Kerr puts on the floor in favor of clogging the paint.
“But it’s different when it’s (Anthony Davis) out there,” Green said. “That covers up so many mistakes and they can funnel things to him.”
Davis wasn’t out there on Tuesday night. He missed the game due to a headache and nausea caused by an eye injury similar to what he suffered the last time the Warriors were in Los Angeles.
Those seven quarters, facing a leaky Lakers perimeter defense and ill-fit scheme without Davis back there to protect, have vaulted the Warriors back into pole position for the ninth seed in the West. They won two straight road games in Los Angeles, the second of which came Tuesday night: 134-120, clinching the all-important head-to-head tiebreaker between two teams currently sitting at 35 losses entering the final week.
One statistic decided the game. The Warriors were 26-of-41 from 3, becoming the first team in NBA history to make 25 or more at better than 60 percent accuracy in a game. They went 15-of-22 in a 70-point first half.
“The ball was going in but I didn’t think we were sharp,” Kerr said. “A lot of possessions where we weren’t quite locked in or our passing was off-target. But the ball kept going in. Draymond was 5-for-5 in a half. You don’t see that often. Everyone got going. To shoot 63 percent from 3, that’s crazy.”
Steph Curry went 6-of-6 from deep. Klay Thompson went 5-of-10 en route to a team-high 27 points, continuing his prolonged surge. Andrew Wiggins made 3-of-5. Brandin Podziemski made all three of his. Payton made two.
26 THREES
Here’s every single one of ’em ☔️ pic.twitter.com/VzAsr9Pf67
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 10, 2024
The Lakers kept gift-wrapping open looks and even the Warriors’ shakier shooters kept making them, most notably Green, who made five 3s in a game for the first time since May of 2017. It upped his 3-point percentage for the season to 39.5 percent, creeping ahead of that 2014-15 season (38.8 percent) for the best shooting year of his career.
“I did a lot of shooting (this summer), myself and Travis (Walton),” Green said. “Travis put a lot of things in to work on my base, getting in and out of my shot. Over the years, my shot took a dive. It was in large part because I couldn’t get in and out of my hips. My hips were messed up. It was getting my movement patterns right.”
Like Kerr, some of the players didn’t believe the Warriors played a particularly clean or great game against the Lakers. But that’s irrelevant at this moment. For any chance to move up in the Play-In Tournament, they just need to stack as many wins as possible in this final week and get help elsewhere.
Help came in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night. The Sacramento Kings blew a 20-point lead to the Thunder, finishing off a 1-3 road trip that dropped their record to 45-34, only a game up with three left for both teams. Sacramento has the tiebreaker. The teams split the season series 2-2, but the Kings have clinched a better division record.
So here’s the evolving scenario for the Warriors: They must go 3-0 this week to generate upward movement. They face the Blazers, Pelicans and Jazz. If they win all three, they will finish at least ninth, ahead of the Lakers after they clinched the tiebreaker over them on Tuesday.
To move higher — and into the seven against eight side of the Play-In — they’d need either the Kings to go 1-2 or the Pelicans or Suns to go 0-3 in the final week. The Kings face the Pelicans, Suns and Blazers. The Pelicans face the Kings, Warriors and Lakers. The Suns face the Clippers, Kings and Timberwolves.
“Two cracks at the apple instead of one (to get in the playoffs),” Green said when asked about the motivation to climb into eighth.
The head-to-head matchup between the Kings and Pelicans in Sacramento on Thursday night is the biggest remaining domino. Whichever team loses will become the most vulnerable target for the Warriors to leap.
But there’s the alternate scenario. The 10th spot could still be their most likely landing zone. The Warriors have done plenty well in recent weeks, having gone 8-1 in their last nine and 25-11 in their last 36, bringing them to 44 wins on the season, already matching last season’s total, netting them the sixth seed in a down year for the conference.
But one more loss this week opens the door for the Lakers. They have two games left: at Grizzlies, at Pelicans. If they win both and the Warriors lose one of their final three, the Warriors will drop back into the 10th seed and they will be in Los Angeles again next Wednesday night for an elimination 9-seed against 10-seed game, expecting the Lakers’ defenders to again sag off their shooters.
(Photo of Klay Thompson following through on a 3-point shot against the Lakers: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
