LeBron James and Anthony Davis dominated the paint at both ends of the court as the L.A. Lakers bludgeoned the Golden State Warriors 122-101 to win game six of their second round series and advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since the Lakers won a championship in the Orlando "bubble" in 2020. James conducted a master class in controlling a game, scoring a game-high 30 points on 10-14 field goal shooting while grabbing nine rebounds and passing for a game-high nine assists. This was LeBron James' 18th 30 point game in a series clincher, one behind Michael Jordan's all-time record and five ahead of both Kobe Bryant and Stephen Curry. James was economical and efficient from beyond the arc (2-3) but--much more significantly--he relentlessly attacked the paint, which was the key factor in this series and has always been the key factor for this team since James and Davis joined forces.
Davis had a game-best +31 plus/minus number, a greater testament to his impact than his boxscore numbers, which were nevertheless quite good: 17 points on 5-9 field goal shooting, a game-high 20 rebounds, two blocked shots, and two steals. The defensive numbers do not capture the reality that every time a Warrior drove to the hoop Davis was a powerful presence in the paint deterring any shot attempts. The rebounding numbers--including 17 defensive rebounds--reflect the reality that after Davis and his teammates forced a miss he completed those possessions by controlling the ball. The great Bill Russell used to say that there is one ball, and that he and his teammates decided what would happen with that ball during the game. Davis is not close to being as great as Russell was, but when Davis plays with that mindset the Lakers are tough to beat.
Early in the game, ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy declared, "It's all about the paint for James." After describing how attacking the paint puts the defense on their heels, draws fouls, and creates scoring opportunities for the rest of the team, Van Gundy added, "And the same thing for Anthony Davis." It really is that simple; this is not about trades or roster construction or "lasers" or making one player a scapegoat for the extended periods when the team's two biggest stars either did not play or did not attack the paint when they played.
This is about two great players playing up to their potential and attacking the paint.
The Warriors struggled to win road games all season long and it was that Warriors team--not the Warriors team that won the 2022 championship--that showed up in L.A. for game six. Their defense--the real key for their four championship teams, despite the media's incessant focus on three point shooting--fell apart, allowing the Lakers to shoot .520 from the field. Meanwhile, with Davis shutting down the paint the Warriors relied on jacking up three pointers, but any offensive team that cannot threaten the paint is not going to get enough good looks to shoot well from beyond the arc; the Warriors shot 13-48 (.271) from three point range. Stephen Curry labored to score a game-high 32 points: he shot just 11-28 from the field, including 4-14 on three pointers. Klay Thompson scored eight points on 3-19 field goal shooting, including 2-12 from beyond the arc. Donte DiVincenzo (16 points) was the only Warrior other than Curry to score in double figures.
It should be noted that without dominant play from Curry and Thompson, Draymond Green's much-lauded impact on the game is undetectable, and you would not even notice him in the game other than when he runs his mouth and gets a technical foul. Green should thank heaven every day that he was blessed with the opportunity to play alongside Curry and Thompson (and Kevin Durant). If Green had spent his career on a less talented team, he would not have been able to lift that team up, and he would likely have few playoff appearances, no All-Star selections, and no All-Defensive Team selections. Green is a very, very good role player who carries himself like he is a big-time star. To be clear, I don't deny that his defense and passing have been important for the Warriors as part of a much larger, well-oiled machine--but my point is that the truly great players can elevate any roster (think of Kobe Bryant making the playoffs twice with Kwame Brown as his center and Smush Parker as his point guard), while the impact of role players is very situational dependent: even in a "bad" game (by his lofty standards), Curry can score over 30 points, make an impact, and force the defense to deal with him, while a player like Green authors the proverbial "triple single" and is just another face in the crowd.
Throughout the playoffs, I have provided updates about the "tremendous trio" that the Lakers acquired in exchange for future Hall of Famer Russell Westbrook. I do this to refute false media narratives about why the Lakers struggled early in this season and about why the Lakers are playing better now. Even though the Lakers entered game six with a 3-2 lead and a chance to close out the series at home, Lakers Coach Darvin Ham inserted Dennis Schroder in the starting lineup in place of Jarred Vanderbilt; typically, the team that is behind makes lineup changes, but Ham understands what I have been saying for a while: Vanderbilt is a "3 and D" player who cannot make three pointers. Vanderbilt played slightly less than four minutes in a game that the Lakers won by 21 points, and Malik Beasley also played slightly less than four minutes; this means that two of the three players who the Lakers acquired in the much discussed and much praised Westbrook trade have now played themselves out of the rotation. The third player acquired in that deal, D'Angelo Russell, scored 19 points on 7-15 field goal shooting; he averaged 14.7 ppg on .456 field goal shooting (including .310 from three point range) during the series, numbers that are in line with his overall 2023 playoff averages. During this year's playoffs, Westbrook--at times the number one option for the L.A. Clippers after both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George suffered injuries that knocked them out of action--averaged 23.6 ppg on .410 field goal shooting (including .357 from three point range) while averaging 7.6 rpg and 7.4 apg (Russell has never had more than seven rebounds in a playoff game, and he has had more than seven assists just five times in 23 career playoff games).
Also, let's not pretend that the Lakers became a juggernaut right after the Westbrook trade; a little over a month ago, the Lakers needed overtime to beat a shorthanded Minnesota team in the Play-In Tournament.
What has changed in the past month? The biggest change is that Davis and James are now playing in every game after missing 26 and 27 regular season games respectively. The second biggest change is that Davis and James are now consistently playing in the paint with force, something that was true sporadically during the regular season (and this was also an issue last season, when Davis and James combined to lead the Lakers straight to the Draft Lottery). The third biggest change is that Austin Reaves and Lonnie Walker IV--both of whom have been with the team all season--have developed into very good rotation players. Reaves is better than any of the players who the Lakers acquired in exchange for Westbrook, while Walker IV saved the day for the Lakers in game four and scored 13 points in 14 minutes in game six.
After watching the Lakers fumble and stumble for the past three years, I was skeptical that Davis and James would ever again consistently play the way that they did during their 2020 championship run in the Orlando "bubble," when they dominated the paint at both ends of the court. Facing an injury-decimated Memphis team and a Golden State team that no longer looks like a powerhouse has benefited the Lakers--but I did not think that the Lakers would win a series against either team, and I was wrong about that.
However, I am not wrong when I analyzed what the Lakers need to do to be successful: the Lakers followed that paint domination blueprint all the way to the Western Conference Finals. It will be very interesting to watch the Lakers battle a Denver Nuggets team that consistently stayed atop the Western Conference all season long.