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- LeBron James finished with 26 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds in 32 minutes to lead the Lakers to a 119-103 win over the Golden State Warriors.
- Warriors star Stephen Curry didn’t play because of a knee injury, robbing fans of an opportunity to see what might have been a final James vs. Curry showdown.
- With two games remaining, the Lakers are hoping to beat the Houston Rockets to the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference.
SAN FRANCISCO — Fans from New Zealand and Australia held signs toward the camera proclaiming they traveled thousands of miles to watch Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry play.
On one sign, “play” was crossed out and replaced with a frowning face, after Curry was announced out for the game.
LeBron James instead gave fans a glimpse of another generational star, leading the Lakers to a 119-103 win Thursday night at Chase Center with 26 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.
After missing the Lakers’ previous game, the 21-time All-NBA player returned as the guiding force with the season threatening to go off the rails. The Lakers (51-29) ended a three-game losing streak and kept pace with the Houston Rockets in a tight race for home-court advantage in the Western Conference playoffs.
Their season turned into a nightmare with injuries to stars Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, who should not be rushed back to play in hopes of saving the season.
“We just had a sour taste in our mouths, obviously, for last week,” James said, referencing injuries to stars Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves and the ensuing losses. “... And just none of us wants to continue to lose, and then we hurt for our two main guns. So, just a mindset of just trying to figure out how we can be great as a team, how we can figure out how to play well on the road and try to get a win.”
Trying to avoid their longest losing streak of the season, the Lakers relied on James to steady the ship. After the Lakers gave up a 9-0 run to start the second quarter, he hit a contested three out of a timeout to get them back on track. He fed the ball to Deandre Ayton, keeping the big man engaged for 21 points on nine-for-11 shooting with five rebounds.
Luke Kennard had 14 points and eight assists. The sharpshooting guard has 28 assists in the last three games, adapting as the team’s emergency point guard to compensate for the absence of Doncic, Reaves and Marcus Smart.
“Talking as a group this morning, like this is what we have right now, and we gotta figure it out,” Kennard said. “We’re trying to win games. Worked this hard to get where we are, to be in the position that we’re in right now, and we don’t want to just throw it away.”
It was an emotional week for the Lakers, who lost Doncic and Reaves in a blowout loss in Oklahoma City on April 2 and had to face the NBA’s best team again without their Big Three in Tuesday’s loss to the Thunder, James joining his co-stars on the bench because of a lingering left foot injury. Center Jaxson Hayes also is dealing with a left foot injury and didn’t play Tuesday or Thursday; he was ruled out for Friday’s game against Phoenix and remains day-to-day.
Coach JJ Redick acknowledged the Lakers were not prepared to compete Tuesday against the Thunder. He later recognized that an effort to inject energy into his players by calling early timeouts and subbing out veterans such as Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt didn’t help, especially after a heated exchange with Vanderbilt was caught on camera.
“What I told the team today — I think this is important — is we have had a very disjointed season because of all the injuries and throughout the year, we, collectively, staff, players, we’ve had to figure out the best path forward with whatever group is available,” Redick said. “And that’s no different right now. We have to figure out over these next three games and over next week the best path for this team to play winning basketball.”
Luka Doncic is receiving medical treatment in Europe to repair a strained hamstring with the hope of returning to the Lakers before the playoffs start.
Through the ups and downs, Redick checks in with Reaves and Doncic daily. Doncic, receiving treatment on his injured left hamstring in Spain, is in “relatively good spirits,” Redick said. Doncic is “attacking” his rehab, but being away has taken a toll on his psyche. Reaves, who is out with a grade 2 left oblique strain that is expected to take four to six weeks to heal, has benefited from staying with the team.
“For both of those guys there is, like, a carrot,” Redick said. “If we can get this season extended, they can come back and they can play. Those guys love playing basketball.”
Houston won its eighth straight game Thursday to stay tied with the Lakers for the No. 4 seed and hosts Minnesota on Friday. Both teams play their season finale Sunday — the Lakers hosting Utah and Houston hosting Memphis — and the Lakers have the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The difference between finishing fourth and fifth is home-court advantage in the first round, but James wouldn’t entertain any talk about planning for the playoffs.
“What the future holds, we have no idea,” James said Thursday, “and obviously the past is the past. So what we can focus on is how we continue to get better and better each and every day.”
James gave his teammates a scare in the third quarter when he hurt his right hand on a chase-down block. It appeared swollen as he went to the bench. Kennard also walked away from the play holding his left hand after attempting to slap the ball away from the Warriors’ Pat Spencer. Redick joked that the scene made him turn off his Amazon Prime broadcast microphone for several seconds.
But James returned with three minutes left in the third quarter. He wouldn’t give his team yet another reason to worry.
“His leadership all day long, in the meeting, in the walkthrough this morning, just the way he carried himself,” Redick said, “just he really set the tone for the team.”
Battling a chronic knee injury in the latter stages of the season, Curry watched from the bench. His absence in the Warriors’ last home game of the regular season also put a damper on what could have been another enthralling matchup of two of the NBA’s biggest stars.
Between the artistry of Curry and the physicality of James, they’ve been the faces of the league, Redick said. But with the 41-year-old James not under contract after this season, he and Curry might never compete against each other on an NBA court again.
Redick called the idea “dark.”
“It’s been fun to watch as a fan,” Redick said, “and it’s been fun to be a part of it the last couple years.”
Curry greeted James before the game. Now a sneaker free agent after his high-profile departure from longtime sponsor Under Armour, Curry honored James with a blue-and-yellow version of the LeBron X iD sneakers.
