The Los Angeles Lakers managed to blow out the Golden State Warriors 116-86 on Thursday despite not giving a full 48-minute effort.
Lakers star Anthony Davis said as much during his postgame interview:
“There’s still a lot that we can get better at and that’s a scary thing for teams and good thing for us that we’re not playing our best at all times and we’re still able to get wins,” said Davis, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin.
The Lakers led by a mere two points at halftime, but they turned it on and limited the Warriors to 17 points in both the third and fourth quarters, outscoring them by 28 points in the second half in the process. Los Angeles was playing without LeBron James while Golden State was sans Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green for most of the game, as the latter got himself tossed with 5:45 left in the first half.
Davis noted the Lakers must fill the void of James when he's out:
Article Continues Below“LeBron, when he's out, it's taking away a lot of things that we do, so it's on all of us to make sure we kind of fill those voids, and I think we did that tonight,” said Davis, according to The Associated Press.
Davis didn't have the monster night many expected him to have without James, but the Lakers' bench stepped up as Kyle Kuzma and Dwight Howard provided sound contributions.
James, who is dealing with soreness in his groin, got some rest after missing only two other games this season before this one:
“Watching LeBron, he looks refreshed, he looks recharged. The idea of eight straight Finals in insane when you think about five here and what it's done and how our players have felt this past year and the injuries that have hit,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “I do believe that when all is said and done, by next year's training camp our guys should feel recharged and refreshed and ready to go. Hopefully that's the case. LeBron's also LeBron. He's built differently than most people.”
The Lakers have far and away the best record in the West (45-12) after winning their seventh straight game and winning their first three matchups against the league-worst Warriors.