The Los Angeles Lakers were going for their third straight win on Saturday night, hosting the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n
There’s always some extra intrigue when these two teams meet, although that wasn’t necessarily the case in this one as it lacked star power with Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler all out of action. That gave the Lakers a golden opportunity to pick up another win though, and they did by earning a 105-99 victory over Golden State.<\/p>\n
Rui Hachimura, who got the start in Doncic’s place, kicked off the scoring for the Lakers with a triple. After another 3-pointer by Marcus Smart and a dunk by Jaxson Hayes, who started in place of Deandre Ayton after being a late scratch due to knee soreness, the Lakers got themselves out to an early lead.<\/p>\n
Overall though, it was an ugly first quarter for the Lakers as they went ice cold until Luke Kennard drained his first shot from deep in his team debut. At the end of the first, the Warriors held a slim 21-20 lead.<\/p>\n
LeBron James got the Lakers going offensively to begin the second quarter to regain the lead. Still though, both teams were sloppy and couldn’t get much going offensively.<\/p>\n
The Lakers maintained a slim lead for a majority of the second quarter, but Pat Spencer beat the halftime buzzer to give the Warriors a 42-41 lead going into the locker room.<\/p>\n
Draymond Green picked up a technical foul right as the first half ended, so Austin Reaves tied the game with a free throw to begin the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, James came out on fire to start the second half with nine straight points to force a quick Warriors timeout.<\/p>\n
After the Lakers built their lead up to 12 points, the Warriors went on a bit of a run to keep the game from getting out of reach. Hachimura ended the third quarter with a corner triple though, so L.A. took a 79-71 lead into the fourth.<\/p>\n
Hachimura continued that shooting into the final quarter with five straight points, although the Warriors answered with back-to-back triples by Moses Moody and Green.<\/p>\n
With the Lakers clinging to a one-point lead, Kennard hit a big corner triple and then Reaves and Jarred Vanderbilt had layups to give them some breathing room.<\/p>\n
The Lakers took complete control from there, getting the lead back to double digits to eventually close it out.<\/p>\n
What’s next for the Lakers…<\/p>\n
The Lakers have a tough schedule leading up to the All-Star break as they have a back-to-back against the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, before closing out the first half on Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n