Stephen Curry continued his hot long-range shooting with six 3-pointers and 32 points as the Warriors took advantage of the absence of LeBron James to thrash the visiting Los Angeles Lakers 128-110 on Thursday night in San Francisco.
James sat out with a sore left ankle, which helped stall a Lakers team that had won its last three games before the All-Star break by running up an average of 134 points.
Only the Warriors approached that mark in the second-half opener, with Curry leading the way on 12-for-24 shooting. Rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis gave Golden State a lift off the bench with 17 points.
Andrew Wiggins was second-best to Curry with 20 points for Golden State, which won for the seventh time in its last eight games.
Curry’s six 3-pointers in 13 tries gave him six or more in nine of his last 13 games, not counting the 29 points’ worth of outside-the-arc shots he poured in against Sabrina Ionescu in the All-Star Weekend exhibition in Indianapolis.
Curry had 25 of his 32 points in the first half, during which the Warriors used a 17-5 burst to turn a one-point deficit into a 67-56 halftime lead. Curry contributed seven points to the run, while Brandin Podziemski bombed in a pair of 3-pointers.
The Lakers were never closer than eight in the second half.
Curry also tallied a team-high eight assists and three steals, Podziemski finished with a team-high nine rebounds to complement 10 points, and Draymond Green aided the Golden State cause with eight points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Jackson-Davis’ 17 points came on 8-for-10 shooting in just 15 minutes. Jonathan Kuminga scored 12 points.
Anthony Davis notched a team-high 27 points and a game-high 15 rebounds for the Lakers, who had beaten Golden State in double overtime in another San Francisco meeting last month.
On Thursday, D’Angelo Russell accumulated a game-high nine assists to go with 18 points for the Lakers, while Austin Reaves had 16 points and Taurean Prince 12.
–Field Level Media