No one would have said at the start of the season that the Lakers would be close to the NBA’s Western Conference Finals at that point. The LeBron James team crawled across the slopes. They started the season with a streak of 2 wins and 10 losses. They were bottom of the table. Nobody bet a dime on it. This Friday they eliminated the current champions, Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors, the most dominant team in the NBA in the last decade. LeBron’s Lakers are looking for their last dance.
The “Last Dance” is the season of Michael Jordan’s sixth and final title in 1998. There was a sense of the end of an era. Nobody knows how much time LeBron James has left on the court, but at 38 his era is also coming to an end, although games like this Friday make him doubt it: he had 30 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists. He upped his revolver yet again: He became the player with the most winning streaks in the playoffs: 41.
The Lakers already have just two rivals ahead of them on the way to the ring, in what would be the fifth of their career for their star. The first hurdle is the Denver Nuggets. The winner of both games will play in the NBA Finals against the Eastern champion, who emerges from the final between the Miami Heat and the winners of the duel between the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Those Lakers were able to bring Jack Nicholson back to the front row. As in their glory moments, this Friday the stands were packed with the rich and famous: Elon Musk, Lewis Hamilton, Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Bad Bunny… They enjoyed a game in which the Lakers were consistently ahead and seemed to be winning from the start to be safe. The first quarter ended 31-26 for the locals despite a recovery by the Warriors. At halftime it was 56-46 thanks to a basket from midfield and the third quarter ended 91-77. In the middle of the last quarter the difference was 20 points. At the end of the game it was 122-101.
The NBA’s most decorated team has been changed twice over the course of the season. At first it just started working. Center Anthony Davis alternated with LeBron as top scorer and rebounder. James was nearing his historic points record. The team has since improved its win-loss record a bit, escaping the ridicule of last season and the start of this season.
The second change occurred in the last market window with the signing of D’Angelo Russell, the departure of Russell Westbrook and the acquisition of Austin Reaves. With Russell, James and Davis on the field, the Lakers’ record in regular-season games was nine wins and one loss. In the end, they ended up exactly the opposite of where they started, making it to the playoffs almost at the last minute.
It’s a sad goodbye for the Golden State Warriors. They have been hampered this year by injuries and an inability to regularly win away games in San Francisco. But also that his stars, especially Stephen Curry, did not perform at the same level as last year. Curry is incredibly talented and has played memorable games, but his wonders have been fewer this year.
With one of those miracles, 50 points in a seventh playoff game, the Warriors salvaged the tie against the Sacramento Kings from Domantas Sabonis at home. They ended up losing to the Lakers in the series where they had home field advantage. The loss in the first game in San Francisco marked a tie, with the Warriors failing to win any of the three games in Los Angeles. Coach Steve Kerr breaks a historic winning streak in the West Playoffs.
Stephen Curry, devastated by the departure of the Golden State Warriors. Santiago Mejia (AP)
LeBron James and Stephen Curry hugged at the end of the game. Two legends met throughout their careers, each with four champion rings, who respect and admire one another.
a new balance
The Lakers have found a new balance with the arrival of D’Angelo Russell and the signing of Austin Reaves. LeBron James has assumed he doesn’t need to surpass 30 points per game and seems willing to relinquish the lead when needed and reserve himself for key moments. It’s still a miracle. Anthony Davis is in top form. It’s a wall on defense where he’s intimidating with his blocks and his 7’2″ height. He also rebounds in both baskets and dunks more and more often. He’s again the center of 2020, winning the title with James in the bubble season.
Along with James and Davis, both Russell and Reaves accumulate 15 points per game. They assume they aren’t the stars of the team, but their work proves crucial. Reaves, who signed a spectacular basket from his own field this Friday at the end of the second quarter, adding that he will become a reveal player in his second season in the NBA. He’s 24 years old and was unselected in the 2021 draft (he didn’t want to be drafted 42nd by the Detroit Pistons), but he’s earned the respect of his Lakers teammates and the coach’s trust.
Germany’s Dennis Schröder completes the starting XI and Japan’s Rui Hachimura is the sixth man. Others, secondarily, shed their grain of sand. This Friday’s game, in which the Lakers dominated from start to finish, with much more success from the back three than the Warriors, but also powerful inside play, is an example of this new balance.
The Lakers will play Nikola Jokić’s Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals. It’s another exciting duel. The Serbian center is a goalscoring, rebounding and assisting machine who has already set several records in these qualifiers. At his side are Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., the other offensive pillars of the team.
The Denver Nuggets are going into this semi-final as favorites. With a record of 53 wins and 29 losses, they were leaders in the regular season. But they face the Lakers, the historically dominant team in the Western Conference, whose paths have repeatedly crossed paths with the Nuggets at crucial moments. They’ve lost the last three conference finals they’ve played with them: in 2020, 2009 and 1985. (They’ve only played one other time against the missing Seattle Supersonics compared to the ones they lost in 1978).
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