The New Orleans Pelicans wound up being more trouble than expected, but it was a good night for the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoff standings.
With a 124-108 win over a New Orleans team still missing every major contributor, the Lakers moved back into third place in the Western Conference with a 47-30 record. They leapfrogged the 47-31 Denver Nuggets, who were blown out by the Golden State Warriors.
The Lakers shouldn’t have had much trouble with the 21-55 Pelicans with pretty much everyone but Rui Hachimura playing, but it took a while for them to pull away for good. The Pelicans took a lead as large as seven points in the second quarter, and it wasn’t until the fourth quarter the Lakers took a double-digit lead and kept it.
It was a strong enough night for the Lakers that LeBron James had 27 points and finished third on his own team in scoring. Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves each posted 30-point games and a combined 13 assists. Reaves also set a Lakers franchise record with 15 3-pointers in his past two games.
Jose Alvarado, appearing to play through some discomfort, led the Pelicans with 27 points on 10-of-21 shooting
The bigger test for the Lakers will be Sunday, when they go on the road to face the NBA-leading Oklahoma City Thunder.
Elsewhere in the Western Conference, the two teams book-ending the Lakers in the West standings entering Friday played each other. Despite playing on the second half of a back-to-back, the Warriors didn’t have much trouble with the Nuggets.
A day after beating the Lakers 123-116, the Warriors blew out the Nuggets 118-104. There was no 61-point triple-double from Nikola Jokić this time, nor a return from Jamal Murray. Stephen Curry went off for 36 points, while Brandin Podziemski followed up a career night with 26 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
On the other side of Los Angeles, the Dallas Mavericks faced the Clippers while resting Anthony Davis and ran into a buzzsaw. The Clippers led by 13 points at the end of the first quarter, by 23 points at halftime and by as many as 35 points in a 114-91 win.
Western Conference standings after April 4
1. Oklahoma City Thunder, 64-13
2. Houston Rockets, 51-27 (13.5 games back)
3. Los Angeles Lakers 47-30 (17 GB)
4. Denver Nuggets, 47-31 (17.5 GB)
5. Golden State Warriors, 46-31 (18 GB)
T6. Los Angeles Clippers, 45-32 (19 GB)
T6. Memphis Grizzlies, 45-32 (19 GB)
T6. Minnesota Timberwolves, 45-32 (19 GB)
9. Dallas Mavericks, 38-40 (26 GB)
10. Sacramento Kings, 37-40 (27)
SAN FRANCISCO – Following a two-week road trip and playing their second game within 24 hours, the Warriors shook off their early lethargy to summon enough energy to drop their own personal colossus Friday night.
With Stephen Curry leading the way, scoring 36 points, the Warriors came together for a 118-104 victory over Denver, snapping a nine-game regular-season losing streak against the Nuggets.
The Warriors (46-31) outscored Denver 84-60 over the final three quarters, delighting the sellout crowd (18,064) and moving within a half-game of the fourth-place Nuggets (47-31) in the Western Conference.
Golden State remains the Western Conference’s No. 5 seed with the win, one game up on the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Brandin Podziemski finished with 26 points and Jimmy Butler added 19 to support Curry’s game-high total. The Warriors forced 26 Denver turnovers, off which they scored 23 points.
Here are three observations from Golden State’s third consecutive win in a four-game stretch against conference competitors:
The Warriors played in the first quarter in haze, with countless defensive lapses, more dribbling than passing and giving away eight points off turnovers. They looked like a team on the dark side of a back-to-back set after a two-week road trip.
After his teammates pulled it together enough to shave nine points off a 10-point lead while Jokic was on the bench early in the second quarter, Curry took it upon himself to restore his team’s lagging collective pulse.
Returning simultaneously with Jokic, Curry scored 12 of Golden State’s next 14 points – awakening the snoozing sellout crowd – to give the Warriors a 62-58 lead. After trailing by as much as 12 early, they went into intermission up 66-60.
Of Curry’s 19 first-half points, 12 came during his 5:33 stint in the quarter. His flurry, along with a revived defense (Denver scored 16 points in the quarter), put the Warriors in position to succeed.
Draymond vs. Joker
Given the monumental task of trying to keep Jokic from dominating the game, Draymond Green immediately tried to defend his way into the big man’s head.
It worked, initially. Frustrated with Green’s mongoose energy, Jokic aggressively shoved Draymond to the floor and was whistled for an offensive foul within the first three minutes of the game. Green lobbied for a flagrant, but crew chief Josh Tiven held firm.
It was clear Green, knowing the Nuggets follow the lead of the three-time NBA MVP, wanted to maximize his energy on defense. Jokic scored 15 points in the first quarter, 18 over the final three.
Multiple Warriors took turns defending Jokic, with Jonathan Kuminga the most prominent. Jokic totaled 33 points on 13-of-17 shooting from the field, including 4-of-7 from beyond the arc. He added 12 rebounds and nine assists.
Butler’s quiet-storm excellence
This was Butler’s introduction to a Warriors-Nuggets clash, and he fit right in with the physicality and the psychological warfare.
While Curry and Podziemski were splashing pretty jump shots, Butler, who was listed as questionable on the injury report with left forearm strain, committed to the dirty buckets that come amid crowds in the paint or under late-shot-clock pressure.
He was the third scorer the Warriors needed, but he also brought more than points, adding five assists, five steals, three rebounds and his usual late-game composure as Golden State held on down the stretch.
Butler’s 19 points came on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, including 1-of-3 from distance, and 6-of-6 from the foul line. He played 34 minutes and finished a team-high plus-21.
