{"id":50066,"date":"2023-05-03T07:00:02","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=50066"},"modified":"2023-05-03T03:54:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T07:54:11","slug":"anthony-davis-lakers-outlast-warriors-game-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/05\/03\/anthony-davis-lakers-outlast-warriors-game-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Davis and the Lakers Outlast the Warriors in Game 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get your popcorn ready. This battle of heavy hitters got off to a rollicking start as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/lakers\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> held on for a narrow 117-112 victory over the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/warriors\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Golden State Warriors<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/09\/26\/top-nba-players-2022-23-17-anthony-davis\/\" target=\"_self\"><b>Anthony Davis<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> starred, scoring 30 points on 11-19 shooting with 23 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 blocks, and his usual <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/04\/29\/nbas-best-defender-anthony-davis\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dominant defense<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How did the Lakers steal home court from the defending champs? And how can Golden State avoid a second straight 0-2 series deficit?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Warriors-Lakers Game 1: Anthony Davis and the Lakers Outlast the Warriors<\/h2>\n<h3><b>Anthony Davis Owns the First Half<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Warriors came out looking nothing like the mediocre, 44-win team they were in the regular season. They jumped out to an early 10-2 advantage with some hot shooting. The Lakers called timeout and gained an offensive rhythm by calling plays to get Davis<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the ball on the move going towards the paint. He exploded with 14 points in the first on 7-8 shooting. The Warriors shot 13-31, and the Lakers shot 12-22. A high-octane first quarter ended with Golden State leading 31-29.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/schrode01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Dennis Schr\u00f6der<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> set the tone in the second with his defense of Curry, who made two threes late in the first. He drew a push-off foul and picked Curry\u2019s pocket for a layup in the first two minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Dennis bucket <br \/>DLo celly \u26a1\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/E2Q6fI7NY6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/E2Q6fI7NY6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Lakers\/status\/1653595178240991232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 3, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greenja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>JaMychal Green<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> got some run after playing 15 total minutes against the Kings and hit two threes of his own. The Lakers were able to find purchase in transition, while <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompkl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Klay Thompson<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> showed why facing his favorite childhood team was a \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/warriors\/article\/klay-thompson-lakers-dream-come-true-17999190.php\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dream come true<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d He finished the half with 18 points on 7-14 shooting with four made threes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anthony Davis\u2019 brilliance and some bullying offense from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/10\/11\/top-nba-players-2022-23-7-lebron-james\/\" target=\"_self\"><b>LeBron James<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> helped the Lakers withstand a flurry from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/poolejo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Jordan Poole<\/b><\/a>. Poole had f<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">our threes in the quarter, one of them a four-point play. Los Angeles led 65-64 at halftime after a late James bucket.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">LeBron responds to end the half \ud83c\udf7f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dGU2nnfEWT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/dGU2nnfEWT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBAonTNT\/status\/1653601257242886146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 3, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>The Lakers Hold on in the Second Half<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Los Angeles began to pull away in the third, led by the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/05\/02\/lakers-vs-warriors-key-role-players-for-the-purple-and-gold\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">key role players<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in their backcourt. Former Warrior <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russeda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reaveau01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Austin Reaves<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> combined for 18 points in the quarter as Curry and Thompson struggled to slow the duo. Russell made hay attacking for midrange pull-ups off the dribble, while Reaves showed off a Curry-esque relocation three.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lakers took an 86-76 lead with 5:23 left after James made his first three of the game. They entered the fourth up 96-88, with Curry on the bench for most of the final five minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Los Angeles continued their onslaught in the face of some Curry threes in the fourth. James and Schr\u00f6der led the Lakers\u2019 offense to a 112-98 lead with 5:58 left, as Davis owned the paint on defense. Golden State responded with a championship mettle as the Lakers started to show exhaustion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Curry continued along undaunted, and Thompson and Poole provided timely offense. The Lakers went scoreless for 4.5 minutes of game time, and a Curry three tied the game with 1:38 left.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Russell displayed resilience by following Curry\u2019s shot (and his own airball from the corner) with a tough paint shot over <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wiggian01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Andrew Wiggins<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. After James split a pair of free throws, Golden State looked poised to send the game to overtime. Then, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greendr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Draymond Green<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> decided to swing the ball to Poole after Curry was doubled rather than wait for him to get open, and\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jordan Poole for the tie \ud83d\ude2c <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/R4sJgNpbCe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/R4sJgNpbCe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ActionNetworkHQ\/status\/1653619028664143872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 3, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two Schr\u00f6der free throws sealed the victory for the Lakers and their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/05\/01\/nba-playoffs-ranking-top-5-duos-round-2\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">star duo<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>How do the Warriors Win Game 2?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, the positive: Golden State gave Curry much more offensive help than in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/05\/01\/warriors-kings-game-7-stephen-currys-splashes-dash-kings-playoff-hopes\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game 7<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> against the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/kings\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sacramento Kings<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Thompson started strong, and Poole had arguably his best game of the playoffs (21 points, 6-11 from three, six assists with no turnovers). The ending was disappointing, but they should gain confidence in being the fresher team in the fourth despite playing Sunday. Los Angeles last played Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, Golden State will continue to enter each game down 6-0. The Warriors shot the fewest free throw attempts per 100 possessions in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/leagues\/NBA_2023.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">regular season<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (19.7), while the Lakers shot the most (26). The Lakers were 25-29 from the free-throw line, while the Warriors were just 5-6. Golden State\u2019s three-point shooting (21-53; the Lakers shot just 6-25) was an advantage in Game 1. The Lakers shot <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nba\/ask\/lakers-three-point-attempts-per-game-since-february-9th\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">36.2% from three on 31.3 attempts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> after the trade deadline, so the Warriors can\u2019t count on such a large disparity in Game 2.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Warriors will need more from Wiggins. He was solid; he played competitive defense on James and finished with 15 points. He was guarded by Russell to start the game, though. Wiggins needs to be more aggressive when he has that matchup. It would be huge for Golden State if he can force James to exert energy by guarding him one-on-one instead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Warriors made their run by ditching the motion offense and running high pick-and-roll with Curry at the helm. Warriors fans have complained about Curry\u2019s pick-and-roll touches since 2015, but Steve Kerr\u2019s system saves wear-and-tear on Curry. Even so, the adjustment in every tough playoff series is \u201cput the ball in Steph Curry\u2019s hands.\u201d Given James\u2019 familiarity with the Warriors\u2019 offense, the time for that adjustment could be just around the corner.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The Last Word<\/b><\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Steve Kerr calls JP&#39;s 3-point attempt with 10 seconds left &quot;a great shot for us.&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dcRzTCgITL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/dcRzTCgITL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBCSWarriors\/status\/1653630668977606656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 3, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Get your popcorn ready. This battle of heavy hitters got off to a rollicking start as the Los Angeles Lakers held on for a narrow 117-112 victory over the Golden State Warriors. Anthony Davis starred, scoring 30 points on 11-19 shooting with 23 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 blocks, and his usual dominant defense.\u00a0 How did [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4175,"featured_media":50067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,25,26],"tags":[4759,240,1909,70,38,48],"class_list":["post-50066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-warriors","category-lakers","tag-2023-nba-playoffs","tag-anthony-davis","tag-jordan-poole","tag-klay-thompson","tag-lebron-james","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Reese Kunz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}