With Anthony Davis too unwell to play and LeBron James battling the flu, Rui Hachimura couldn’t help but feel like the Los Angeles Lakers were unable to summon their customary post-January form against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night — despite the immensely high stakes of the showdown.
“It was a tough game for us,” said Hachimura, who had 20 points (7-for-21 shooting) and 11 rebounds in the Lakers’ 134-120 loss. “We were trying to figure out whose gonna play or not. We just didn’t have the energy tonight from the start of the game. As a team, just didn’t bring the way that we used to play a couple of games ago. We were rolling. We were playing together. But we didn’t do that tonight.”
The Lakers have dropped two of three contests since returning from their 5-1 road trip.
About two hours before tip-off, Davis was ruled out with headaches/nausea — presumably stemming from the left eye injury that coast him the final three quarters of Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
LeBron, meanwhile, arrived at Crypto.com Arena about an hour before tip. LeBron has been ill since the weekend and had to skip Sunday’s contest.
“Just tried to get as much rest as I could,” LeBron explained. “Stay hydrated as much as I could to give my team as much as I could today. I came in Sunday, for a normal prep day for the Minnesota game, it started to get worse as the minutes went on so I went home and today was pretty much one of the first days that I was able to get out of the room, get out of bed, and feel a little bit of energy.”
LeBron finished with 33 points and 11 assists on 14-of-22 shooting in 36 minutes vs. Golden State.
“They do so much of our team,” said Austin Reaves (22 points, seven rebounds, and six assists). “But I think at the end of the day, Bron showed up and played a heck of a game. Obviously, when you don’t have AD, it’s tough just cause he does so much for us. Think we just gotta be better overall.”
“I thought Bron was phenomenal,” said Darvin Ham. “He came out and gave it his all.”
The shorthanded Lakers still outscored the Warriors in the paint and kept things about even on the glass (42-40). But Golden State’s offensive fluidity proved too vexing for the Lakers without their irreplaceable defensive anchor/backline communicator.
“When AD’s on the court, he’s always behind us, protecting everything,” said Hachimura. “There was nobody really protecting tonight.”
“At the end of the day, we know we’re as good as any team in the league when we’re whole,” said LeBron. “…Having a guy like AD not playing, it’s pretty much impossible to make up what he provides for our ballclub, both offensively and defensively.”
More than anything else, though — including a brutal two-way D’Angelo Russell showing — the Lakers were doomed by the Warriors’ historically relentless outside shooting. The Warriors converted 26-of-41 (63.4%) from deep — the best 3-point shooting performance in NBA history (min. 40 attempts).
“They were blazing hot,” said Ham.
Stephen Curry (6-of-6 from 3) and Klay Thompson (5-of-10) got theirs, but it was the unexpected contributions of Draymond Green (5-of-7), Andrew Wiggins (3-0f-5), and Gary Payton II (2-of-3) that rendered Golden State uncatchable.
“You go in with a gameplan, and they exploit the gameplan, you tip your cap,” said LeBron. “Definitely messed with our gameplan.”
Tuesday’s result essentially cinched Los Angeles’ spot in the No. 9 vs. No. 10 Play-In matchup. The Warriors (44-35) moved within 0.5 games of the Lakers (45-35) for the ninth seed, and have the easier remaining schedule, one extra game, and the tiebreaker. The Sacramento Kings (45-34) lead the Lakers by one loss for the eighth spot and own the tiebreaker.
The Lakers will get two days off before finishing their regular season at the Memphis Grizzlies (Friday) and Pelicans (Sunday).
“It’s a tough loss, for sure,” said Ham. “But we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves. … Yeah, it’s a difficult situation, but it’s not impossible.”
Davis’ availability going forward will be evaluated on Wednesday, per Ham.
