The Warriors continue to look like a new team with Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler together.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
In a potential playoff preview between LeBron James and Stephen Curry, it was Brandin Podziemski who tipped the scales. But it’s not like Curry and James were quiet.
With the Western Conference playoff picture rapidly sharpening, the Golden State Warriors went into Crypto.com Arena and notched a 123-116 win behind 65 combined points from Curry and Podziemski. The win gives them sole possession of fifth place in the West.
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It also improves their record to 19-2 with Curry and Jimmy Butler in the lineup.
The game started close but the Warriors built up a double-digit lead in the second quarter and kept it for most of the night. Podziemski scored 22 of their 60 first-half points, with the last three coming on a halfcourt buzzer-beater. It might have brought up some unpleasant memories for Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Curry and James were both doing their thing, sometimes on back-to-back possessions.
That deficit went to as low as five with 4:37 left in the game, but scores on three straight possessions built the lead back up to comfortable for the Warriors. Curry and James continued to do their thing, as did Podziemski and Austin Reaves.
Curry finished with 37 points on 10-of-21 shooting, two days after posting 52 in a huge win over the Memphis Grizzlies. He is now averaging 28.6 points per game since the Butler trade.
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Podziemski had 28 points, one shy of his career high.
As for James, it was a 33-point night with nine assists, while Reaves went off in the second half and finished with 31 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
The result has significant consequences for both teams. The 46-30 Lakers entered Thursday in third place in the West, but have now been overtaken by the 47-30 Denver Nuggets and sit in fourth place. That leaves them only one game ahead of the fifth-place team, the 45-31 Warriors. The Lakers still own the tiebreaker, though, having won their previous three games against Golden State.
Both teams have six games remaining in the regular season. If the playoffs began tomorrow, they would play each other in the first round, a matchup that would make the NBA league office salivate.
