Warriors eliminated; James, Davis lead Lakers to Game 6 win to advance
LOS ANGELES -- LeBron James scored 30 points, Anthony Davis added 17 points and pulled 20 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers dethroned the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors with a 122-101 elimination Game 6 victory.
Los Angeles, who has yet to lose a home playoff game, advanced to take on the Pacific Division regular season champs Denver Nuggets in the conference finals.
The Lakers victory snapped Golden State's NBA record run of winning a road playoff game in 28 consecutive playoff series. Under head coach Steve Kerr, the Warriors had also gone 8-2 in elimination games.
The loss could mark the end of the Stephen Curry/Draymond Green/Klay Thompson era which resulted in 4 NBA titles in 6 finals appearances. The trio have 98 playoff wins together. Green will be an off-season free agent and Thompson's diminished skills were on full display during 5-of-6 games in the Lakers series.
Curry ended the night with 32 points -- the only starter in double figures. Meanwhile, Thompson hit on just 3-of-19 shots for 8 points and was a negative 33 in the plus-minus rating and Green added 9 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists.
While James and Davis were the headliners, the Lakers wouldn't have won without the play of Austin Reaves, who scored 23 points and took advantage of Thompson's lackluster defense all night.
The Warriors play didn't improve coming out in the second half. They missed some easy shots, including a point-blank layup by Curry with 8:39 remaining in the third. Moments later, Reaves grabbed an offensive rebounded and converted it into a layup to put Lakers up 72-54.
With the Lakers holding a comfortable 76-58 lead with 6:20 remaining in the third, Dennis Schroder was ejected after picking up his second technical foul.
Schroder and Green were fighting for the ball and then continued after the whistle with both given technicals.
An Andrew Wiggins steal led to a Jordan Poole layup at the third quarter buzzer to make it 91-77 heading into the fourth quarter -- an ominous development as the Warriors were 0-27 when trailing on the fourth quarter in the regular season.
The final seconds of the second quarter were a microcosm of the first half.
With the final seconds ticking off the clock, Thompson badly missed a 3-point shot that Donte DiVincenzo rebounded but was blocked at the rim by Davis.
Then Reaves sank a half-court heave just before the halftime buzzer to send the Lakers into the locker room with a 56-46 lead.
With Thompson and Poole no-shows again for the Warriors, it was up to DiVincenzo to provide a spark off the bench to keep Golden State from being blown out.
Thompson was 3-for-13 for 8 points in the first half and Poole was scoreless with four fouls. DiVincenzo, meanwhile, went 4-of-7 for 10 points with 4 rebounds and a steal.
The Lakers attacked from the opening tip rolling to 27-10 lead with 4:40 remaining in the first quarter.
Curry, as he has for much of the series, carried the Warriors. Scoring 8 points in a row at one stretch Curry helped Golden State close out the quarter on a 16-4 run to pull to within 31-26 at the break.
The Warriors star scored 12 points in the half with Kevon Looney pulling down 11 rebounds, 5 of those on the offensive glass. Meanwhile, James had 17, Reaves add 16 points and Davis scored 9 points and had 13 rebounds.
