Lakers Dismantled By Warriors, 136-115
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Stephen Curry had 30 points and 15 assists, Marreese Speights added 24 points, and the Golden State Warriors cruised past the Los Angeles Lakers 136-115 Sunday night despite 44 points by Kobe Bryant.
Andrew Bogut had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacific Division-leading Warriors, who are off to an 8-2 start under new coach Steve Kerr. Klay Thompson, who had 41 points in a win against the Lakers on Nov. 1, finished with 18 in the rematch. All of Golden State's starters scored in double figures for the second straight game.
Bryant, who sat out the fourth quarter with Los Angeles down by 36 points, was 15 for 34 from the field in 31 minutes -- two nights after he played sick against the Phoenix Suns and missed his first 10 shots before finishing 1 for 14 with nine points.
Jordan Hill had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Lakers, off to a franchise-worst 1-9 start.
Four players scored in double digits in the first half for Golden State en route to a 74-55 lead, including Speights with a team-high 16.
The Warriors opened the game with a 15-6 run and increased the margin to 19 on a 3-pointer by Andre Iguodala with 2:49 left in the first quarter. Bryant was struck in face by Draymond Green while trying to pass the ball with 5:22 left in the half, and lay on the floor for several anxious moments while he was attended to by trainer Gary Vitti.
The Lakers got no closer than 14 after that. Bryant hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 64-50 with 2:04 left in the second quarter, but Curry responded with a driving layup and a 3-pointer 20 seconds apart.
The Warriors have won three consecutive games against the Lakers for the first time since taking six in a row from November 1993 through November 1994. It was the first time they beat the Lakers on the road in consecutive seasons since the 1982-83 and 1983-84 campaigns.
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TIP-INS
Warriors: They led by as many as 38 points on Speights' dunk with 1:13 left in the third quarter. The Warriors' largest margin of victory ever over the Lakers was 39 points on Nov. 11, 1966, in a 132-93 victory at San Francisco. ... Curry is the first player to score at least 20 points in each of the team's first eight games since 1994, when Latrell Sprewell did it in the first nine.
Lakers: Beleaguered coach Byron Scott has been through these kind of starts before. His 2004-05 New Orleans Hornets lost 29 of their first 31 games and finished 18-64. His 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers started out 8-45 and finished 19-63. ... Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor, who ushered the NBA into Los Angeles with Jerry West and Tommy Hawkins, was honored by the club in a halftime ceremony exactly two months after his 80th birthday and was presented with a custom-made diamond-studded ring after a lengthy video montage. Shaquille O'Neal, one of nine players to have his number retired by the Lakers along with Baylor, was on hand for the event. So was West, who is a Warriors executive board member. ... Among the sellout crowd was Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten, who at one time was president and general manager of the Atlanta Hawks -- and to this day remains the NBA's only back-to-back Executive of the Year.
UP NEXT
Warriors: Host Utah on Friday.
Lakers: At Atlanta on Tuesday.
