Stephen Curry did all the things he might on Monday night time in Los Angeles.
But in the long run it was Lonnie Walker IV — sure, Lonnie Walker IV — who pushed the Lakers to 1 win away from reaching the Western Conference finals.
The Lakers fended off Curry and the Golden State Warriors 104-101 in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal collection Monday night time. Walker, after sparking an enormous run to convey the Lakers again into it within the fourth quarter, dropped all of his 15 factors within the ultimate interval.
“For him to be as younger as he’s, for him to have that professionalism, to return out and keep prepared when his quantity was referred to as, we do not win this recreation with out Lonnie Walker tonight, that is for positive,” LeBron James mentioned on TNT after the win.
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, left, shoots as Los Angeles Lakers ahead Anthony Davis defends throughout the first half in Game 4 of an NBA Western Conference semifinal Monday, May 8, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
The Warriors held only a 3-point lead at halftime on Monday night time, due to an enormous 14-6 burst to shut the second quarter. Though each groups traded runs for a bit within the third, it was Curry, who completed with 31 factors, and the Warriors who led on the finish of the interval. Curry even whipped out a wild help to Donte DiVincenzo to stifle a Lakers run late within the quarter.
But that lead evaporated virtually immediately to start out the fourth quarter. The Lakers opened the interval on an 11-4 run that was powered largely by Walker that tied issues up immediately. The Lakers then held on and restricted the Warriors to only a Curry layup within the ultimate three minutes of the sport, whereas Walker and James pushed them to the win.
“This is one thing that I’ve been dreaming of my complete life and manifesting it,” Walker mentioned on TNT. “With due diligence and psychological fortitude, I received to have the ability to present what I used to be able to doing.”
Curry and the Warriors received a few attractiveness on the finish, too. Curry had a pair of missed photographs with fewer than 30 seconds left within the recreation that might have put them again up. But Walker hit a pair of free throws after these misses, and Draymond Green turned the ball over to formally hand the Lakers the win.
Story continues
“We only a resilient bunch,” James mentioned on TNT. “They hit us with haymaker after haymaker after haymaker making an attempt to get us to fall. We simply stayed within the battle. It’s a 48-minute recreation, it is a 12-round boxing match, and we stayed in there for 12 rounds, man. We pulled via.”
James led the Lakers with 27 factors and 9 rebounds within the win. Anthony Davis, who dropped 19 factors within the first half, completed with 23 factors and 15 rebounds. Austin Reeves completed with 21 factors. The Lakers outscored the Warriors 27-17 within the ultimate interval.
Curry added 14 assists and 10 rebounds in what was an unimaginable efficiency and simply the third playoff triple-double of his profession. Andrew Wiggins added 17 factors, and Klay Thompson completed with 9 factors on three 3-pointers. The Warriors shot simply 12-of-41 from behind the arc; they went 6-of-17 from the sector within the fourth quarter.
Warriors survive chaotic first half
Just minutes into the sport at Crypto.com Arena, Warriors guard Gary Payton II out of the blue stood up straight on the defensive finish and motioned towards the Warriors’ bench. Something was clearly flawed, but it surely was arduous to inform what. After the Warriors received the cease and pushed the play to the opposite finish, nevertheless, Payton simply walked proper off the court docket and went straight again to the locker room.
His different 4 teammates, nevertheless, had no concept that Payton left. That led to a really unusual Green move to a Lakers assistant coach.
There was hypothesis that Payton really vomited, so watch this video at your individual threat.
Payton made the beginning instead of JaMychal Green. He had averaged slightly greater than 11 minutes per recreation on this collection. To his credit score, Payton returned to the sport just some minutes later as if nothing had occurred. He completed with 15 factors and shot 7-of-9 from the sector.
That wasn’t the one factor Golden State needed to battle within the first half. Midway via the second quarter, Green caught an outlet move and was going up for a layup when James bumped him and despatched him sprawling to the court docket. Green’s head whipped again as he fell, too, and hit the court docket arduous.
That left Green down for fairly a while in clear ache.
After a assessment, officers decided it was only a frequent foul on James and Green stayed within the recreation. He pulled out an unimaginable transfer just some moments later, too, and gave the impression to be tremendous.
Green completed with 8 factors and 10 rebounds.
Game 5 of the collection is about for Wednesday night time on the Chase Center in San Francisco. A win for the Lakers will ship them again to their first Western Conference finals since they gained the title at Walt Disney World in 2020.
