Warriors’ fourth-quarter rally falls short as Lakers take Game 1
The Western Conference semifinals matchup between the Warriors and
Lakers will resume Thursday for Game 2.
>Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) takes a shot against Los
Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James (6) in the second quarter of Game 1 of the
NBA basketball Western Conference semifinal playoff series at the Chase
Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (Nhat V.
Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
By MADELINE KENNEY | mkenney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: May 2, 2023 at 9:46 p.m. | UPDATED: May 4, 2023 at 2:42 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/05/02/warriors-fourth-quarter-rally-falls-short-as-lakers-take-game-1/

SAN FRANCISCO — LeBron James had to do the heavy lifting in his first 22
playoff games against Stephen Curry and the Warriors. But this time
around, with the Los Angeles Lakers, he has Anthony Davis as his trusty
accomplice.

The Warriors had few answers for Davis Tuesday night in their
series-opening loss at Chase Center.

Davis’ dominance in the paint stifled the Warriors for most of the
Warriors’ 117-112 defeat.

While Golden State scored 14 unanswered points to tie the game with
under two minutes remaining in regulation, the Lakers closed out the
game with a 5-0 run to take Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

“The morale is not low,” Klay Thompson said after the loss. “We know we
let one slip away, but we have an opportunity to watch the film tomorrow
and see how we can attack them better.”

The Lakers were up by 14 points, their largest lead of the game, near
the midway point of the fourth quarter. But the Warriors rallied back,
with Jordan Poole and Curry hitting back-to-back shots from deep to tie
the game at 112 with less than two minutes remaining.

But Golden State never jumped back ahead of the Lakers.

With Los Angeles up by three, Curry snagged the rebound of a missed
3-pointer by LeBron James, but was met with a Lakers double team near
the halfcourt. Curry passed the ball off to Draymond Green, who dished
it to a wide-open Jordan Poole, but his 3-point shot was off the mark.

The Lakers corralled the rebound and effectively ended the game with two
Dennis Schroder free throws with 2.7 seconds left.

“Steph did a great job, he got the ball out of the trap and Jordan was
wide open, and pretty good look. And that’s a shot he can hit,” Kerr
said. “Really happy with that possession… it’s a great shot for us.”

Davis bullied Golden State, finishing the night with 30 points, 23
rebounds, five assists and four blocks.

Kevon Looney was just as aggressive on the glass as he’s been all
postseason, pulling down 23 rebounds, the most by a Warriors player in
the playoffs since Larry Smith had 23 on May 12, 1987 (also against the
Lakers). He also had 10 points and five assists.

Meanwhile, Curry had 27 points, Thompson added 25 and Poole scored 21
off the bench. Each member of that trio made six 3-pointers — the first
time in NBA history that three teammates each hit six 3-pointers in a
game and lost (regular season or playoffs).

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>Golden State Warriors forward Kevon Looney (5) gains a rebound against
the Los Angeles Lakers’ Jarred Vanderbilt (2) in the fourth quarter of
Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals at Chase Center in San
Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

The Lakers packed the paint, making it extremely difficult for the
Warriors to get to the rim. That resulted in the Warriors taking half of
their 106 field-goal attempts from 3-point land. The Warriors made 15
more 3-pointers than the Lakers, shooting 21-for-53 from deep.

But it wasn’t enough.

A glaring discrepancy came from the two team’s free throw attempts.

The Lakers, the best team in the league at getting to the foul line,
attempted nearly five times more free throws than the Warriors, going a
whopping 25-for-29 from the foul line compared to Golden State, who went
5-for-6.

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0-2 deficits

“There were some cheap ones that we kind of gave away, some in
transition that we took, away from the ball,” Draymond Green said.
“We’ll do better.”

The Lakers had three full days off between their first-round win over
the Memphis Grizzlies and the start of this series. Meanwhile, the
Warriors had about 48 hours to prepare for this matchup.

Kerr didn’t think the quick turnaround played a factor in Tuesday’s loss.

“We were the fresher team down the stretch,” he said. “You saw the run
we made… Just couldn’t get over the hump and our guys made an incredible
comeback to tie it and they made a couple plays at the end.”

But the Warriors look at Game 1 as a “feel-out game” of sorts.

“It was obviously a drastic difference between our last series [against
the Sacramento Kings] and their style of play with how the Lakers come
at you, both ends of the floor, their personnel,” Curry said. “We know
we need to clean up some stuff.

“I understand that AD’s presence in the paint… he has length and the way
they are trying to funnel us into the lane, we’ve got to be able to see
the floor a little bit better, but, you know, a long series… It’s the
first of four, and we found some life down the stretch that hopefully we
can capitalize off in Game 2.”

The Western Conference semifinals matchup between the Warriors and
Lakers will resume Thursday for Game 2.

--
Madeline Kenney | Warriors reporter
Madeline Kenney is the Bay Area News Group's Golden State Warriors beat
reporter for The Mercury News and East Bay Times. A Nebraska native, she
is graduate of Loyola University of Chicago. She holds a Bachelor in
Communication degree, with a major in broadcast journalism and minors in
sports management and marketing, and is a friend of Sister Jean, the
103-year-old nun who became famous during the Ramblers’ 2018 run to the
Final Four, Madeline previously worked for the Chicago Sun-Times
covering everything from sports to crime and politics. When she’s not
working, she enjoys trying new restaurants and exploring the great outdoors.