Lakers open six-game road trip with double overtime win over Warriors
Draymond #Draymond
SAN FRANCISCO — It could have been easy to forget – especially with the amount of time he missed to start the season and how long it’s taken him to get back into game shape – but the version of Jarred Vanderbilt who has been playing for the last week is something the Lakers have sorely missed.
Vanderbilt’s quick-twitch is back. His disruption as a defender grows with each game, back to the levels that the Lakers benefited from during their playoff run last season. His finishing at the rim continues to improve and his playmaking responsibilities grow.
Even with the Lakers getting strong performances from their stars in LeBron James (36 point-20 rebound-12 assist triple-double) and Anthony Davis (29 points, 14 rebounds, four blocked shots, three assists), who gutted through a hip injury to close out the game, as well as several other supporting players, the Lakers needed every bit of what Vanderbilt brought in Saturday’s matchup against the Golden State Warriors.
And it was just enough for the Lakers (24-23) to pull off a 145-144 double-overtime victory over the Warriors (19-24) at Chase Center to kick off their six-game trip.
After exchanging big runs during regulation, trading the lead 22 times and being tied 16 times, the game ultimately came down to the team’s biggest stars.
With his team down 143-141 after Austin Reaves (17 points, six assists) split a pair of free throws with the Warriors intentionally fouling, Steph Curry shook free from Vanderbilt after maneuvering around a Draymond Green screen to burry a wide-open 3-pointer from above the 3-point arc to put the Warriors up 144-143 with 4.7 seconds left.
But the Lakers’ biggest star responded, with James getting fouled by Green with 1.2 seconds left on his drive to the rim to get two free throws. James made the pair of shots from the charity stripe to put his team up by one, with Curry missing a 68-foot heave before the buzzer to seal the victory for the Lakers.
“It’s something I’ll be able to talk about with my grandkids, talk about me being able to compete with one of the greatest players to ever play the game,” James said. “So hopefully I can be cool with my grandkids at that point, for sure.”
“This was a hell of a basketball game, a high-level basketball game,” Coach Darvin Ham said. “Two legends going back and forth, two great organizations. It was fun to be a part of. It’s just one of those wins where it just showed our character, our group is really coming together. Just the way they competed, the way they shared, did the little things.
“This was a really, really gutsy win. Everybody participated. We needed one of these. It’s a hell of a shot in the arm for our group.”
James is the first Laker to record a 30/20/10 game since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1976. At 39 years old, he’s also the oldest player in league history to record a 30-20 game.
“When you go out there and you prepare and you give everything that you’ve got all game, you just hope that you can make plays,” said James, whose rebound total was his career high. “And you hope that the plays that you make come in a winning fashion. It’s just a good feeling to be able to win a game like this.”
Vanderbilt finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, five assists and four steals in a career-high 41 minutes. He had a team-best plus/minus of plus-30.
“You could tell, you can see the impact he’s had each and every game, doing all the dirty work, taking the toughest matchups,” Ham said. “He got back healthy. But it was a matter of time before he had to get back into game shape. And he’s there now and the way his relentlessness, his ability, the gauge screens both on and off the ball. The way he gets in the passing lanes, has great hands, deflections, steals.
“He’s been aggressive to the rim, which is another pleasant attribute that he’s been doing here recently. Just loving the depth, just his work ethic, it’s unbelievable. And I’m happy it’s back in full form.”
D’Angelo Russell added 28 points and five assists, including six points in the second overtime after the score was tied at 130 after the first extra period.
After committing back-to-back turnovers late in the second overtime, Russell made a pull-up 3-pointer in transition to put the Lakers ahead 142-141 with 53 seconds remaining – a lead the Lakers held onto until Curry’s aforementioned 3-pointer.
“Turning the ball over, trying to force it or making the wrong pass or whatnot, I was like, ‘I’d rather just shoot it,’” Russell said. “And in that position, I felt like it was a good look and one of the only good looks I got all game.”
Curry finished with a game-high 46 points (and a season-high nine 3-pointers) to go with seven assists, dancing through the paint at one point for a layup with six seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime.
“It’s been a treat to go against one of the greatest to ever play this game,” James said. “For us to continue to push each other at the state of our careers, you don’t take it for granted because you don’t know how many times you’re actually going to get the moment to be on the same floor with such a talent.”
Curry was equally reflective of their latest duel.
“Every year we get to do this, the back-and-forth battles, all the Finals runs, to the playoffs last year, after the horn sounded tonight there was a little laugh of we can’t like imagine a scenario where a game like tonight happens, his year, what, 21, and my year 15,” Curry said. “All the other guys in the league who have been doing it 15-plus years, KD (Kevin Durant), CP (Chris Paul), it’s insane.
“You look forward to the battles, but you also appreciate the mutual respect of what it takes to keep doing what you’re doing at this level because only a few people know how hard it is. I’m happy to be in that group.”
Klay Thompson (24 points), Jonathan Kuminga (22) and Andrew Wiggins (22) also scored at least 20 points for the Warriors, but the Lakers’ edge with free throws (38 of 43 compared to the Warriors’ 11 of 16) gave them the advantage they needed to pull out the win.
“I might comment on the free throws that they shot, but my mom is here right now and I want to be on my best behavior so I’m not going to comment on their 43 free throws to our 16,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I’m not going to comment on Steph shooting three free throws in 43 minutes.”
UP NEXT
The Lakers will continue their trip with a matchup against the Houston Rockets on Monday at 5 p.m. PT.