It was a reality check passed over the mouth.
It was an equalizer hammered into the ribs.
It was exactly what’s printed on those goofy shirts worn by the screaming locals.
It was gold blood.
News Flash! The Golden State Warriors will not go down easily.
News Flash! The Lakers are going to make it really difficult.
The Lakers had a literally golden opportunity to severely damage the defending NBA champion in Thursday’s Western Conference semifinals, squandering a 1-0 lead in the series after facing the heart of, well, a warrior.
It was Game 2 that was on.
It was Golden State who thrashed Anthony Davis, tormented LeBron James, drove past the Lakers like they were standing still, and even won the best-of-seven series in an upbeat Chase Center with 127-100.
“I assume that our team will react,” said Lakers coach Darvin Ham afterwards.
The Lakers had it better. And fast.
The Lakers franchise has won each of its last nine series by a 1-for-1 tie, the longest streak of its kind in NBA history, but that doesn’t feel like a tie.
The next two duels in this best-of-seven clash will take place at the Crypto.com Arena starting Saturday, but it no longer feels like the Lakers will be able to quickly deal with their tired Northern California rivals.
It doesn’t feel like anything more than…a Klay Thompson rainbow three…a falling Stephen Curry three…a crunching Draymond Green rebound…and a wincing, crumbling Davis.
Everything begins with the end of this sentence. A game after he was unstoppable was AD KOd, swarmed into submission, made five baskets with four turnovers, 11 points from 11 shots, which is the Warriors’ best chance of victory of the series.
Throw AD around and push yourself to the next round.
“The Lakers are huge, they’re a huge team,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said afterwards. “We felt like going into the game, we had to bring some size and physicality with us.”
That didn’t happen with the opener. It might not happen again. But it happened Thursday, and the Lakers were demoralized into basically standing around.
The story goes on
Other than James’ 23 points and Rui Hachimura’s 21 with four threes, no other Lakers player really did anything.
“Our stagnation…my eyes saw us settle down a bit,” Ham said. “They did a good job of filling in the paint. Don’t allow us to play downhill.”
Davis said he doesn’t feel overcrowded. He said he didn’t feel like settling down. He said it wasn’t them, it was him.
“I took the same shots as Game 1, I just missed them,” Davis said. “Exactly the same look, didn’t get a shot I didn’t get in Game 1. You just missed them. That’s all.”
Meanwhile, the Warriors, led by Thompson’s 30 points, had six players in double figures while racking up 15 more rebounds, six more points in the paint and five more second-chance points.
While the Lakers were nowhere, the Champions were everything, everywhere, all at once.
“I thought we were just playing basic basketball,” Kerr said, adding, “Our guys played with a lot of power, a lot of aggression but made good decisions within that aggression.”
And proud. Don’t forget pride. The Warriors were clearly too proud to be beaten by AD for a second straight game.
“They’re a championship ball club for a reason,” Ham said. “After Game 1 we fully expected them to come out and throw some haymakers, which they did.”
With a central defense powered by Draymond Green and JaMychal Green, the Warriors made the right adjustments. Now it’s the Lakers’ turn.
“We’re going back to the drawing board,” Ham said.
He better have a ton of chalk.
The one rest day between games doesn’t do James any good. Curry and Thompson’s pace doesn’t favor the Lakers’ defense. And if JaMychal Green can score 15 with a trio of three… yes, pull out the drawing board.
“We cut our work out for ourselves,” Ham said. “But you don’t get to that point in the season if you have it easy. You have to buckle up.”
The Warriors immediately began their push for the biggest Laker, holding Davis to one shot in the first quarter and fewer shots (two) than turnovers (three) at halftime. The Lakers still led by seven at the end of the quarter, but without Davis getting his way, the Lakers eventually lost theirs.
In the second quarter, the Warriors began attacking the basket and Davis with joyful abandon, Thompson threw threes off the rafters, the Lakers staggered and staggered, topping the entire ugly stretch 41-23.
And that was it.
The Warriors continued to blitz after halftime, surpassing the Lakers by 19 points in a third quarter that ended with James sulking, Davis collapsing and someone named Moses Moody dunking down. The Lakers were 30 down after three and the last dozen minutes wouldn’t be necessary.
The game unofficially ended with Ham pulling the starters ahead of the fourth quarter, but the Warriors just had to rub it in.
With 9:43 in the game, Curry threw the salt, tossed down a three while being knocked down by Malik Beasley, Warriors leads by 31, Curry laughs, everyone laughs, all so funny…not.
“You give credit where credit is due,” James said. “They played exceptionally well tonight and we didn’t.”
The Warriors’ variety of weapons was reflected in their public address announcer, whose initial announcement “Hollywood Royalty!” was accompanied by the giant scoreboard showing a disheveled Danny DeVito. But in the second quarter, the still-cool Joe Montana reigned supreme, showcasing a roster of celebrities matched only by the versatility of the city’s basketball team.
Ahead of the game, Kerr all but predicted that loss, saying, “We feel good about our ability to adapt, but also about our ability to react to a game loss and series failure. … This is nothing new for our team. We know what we can do.”
Now the Lakers too.
They have won 25 consecutive streaks in which they won the first game. But these are the warriors. And the fight has only just begun.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.