The Los Angeles Lakers had a golden opportunity to put away the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals and rest up for the next round of the playoffs.
Instead, if they’re going to advance, they will have to do so the hard way.
Los Angeles quickly fell behind, 17-5, but caught up almost as quickly, and it looked like the the game was going to be competitive. But a 16-5 run to end the second quarter gave the Warriors a 70-59 lead at halftime, and the Lakers never really recovered.
They tried to fight back in the fourth quarter, but they ended up merely trading baskets. They settled for too many 3-pointers and failed to string together defensive stops, leading to a 121-106 loss.
To make matters worse, Anthony Davis took a shot to the side of his head in the fourth quarter. He exited the game shortly afterward. He was taken off the court to be evaluated, and he never returned. Chris Haynes of TNT reported that Davis was taken to the locker room in a wheelchair, and now there is a great deal of concern for Game 6 with his status seemingly up in the air.
Just 48 hours after some thought the Lakers were a lock to win the series, the mood surrounding the team has darkened considerably.
Anthony Davis: B/B-plus
Davis put together his third consecutive game with at least 20 points, scoring 23 on 10-of-18 shooting, to go along with nine rebounds in 32 minutes. He was relatively aggressive on the offensive end early, and that aggressiveness helped keep L.A. in the contest until the final moments of the first half.
Defensively, however, Davis didn’t have much of an impact for the first time in a while. The Warriors’ offensive sequences, including their pick-and-roll sets, often left him out on the perimeter and too far from the basket to rotate back into the paint quickly enough. As a result, although they did plenty of damage with their lynchpin — the 3-point shot — they also pummeled the Lakers in the paint, where they continually got easy layups off dribble penetration and offensive rebounds.
As far as his status for Game 6, Haynes tweeted a positive update on him about an hour after the game ended, although nothing is official.
Early diagnosis indicates Anthony Davis appears to have avoided a concussion and is doing much better now, league sources tell @NBAonTNT, @BleacherReport.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) May 11, 2023
Jarred Vanderbilt: D
Vanderbilt simply hasn’t had the same impact defensively lately that he has had since coming to the Lakers. He played 11 minutes, and his only positive contribution on the stat sheet was one rebound. He missed both of his field-goal attempts.
LeBron James: B-plus/A-minus
James had three turnovers in the first 4:32 of the game on some sloppy ball-handling, a bad pass to D’Angelo Russell and a rare five-second violation while attempting to back down Andrew Wiggins. But he settled down afterward and played some pretty solid basketball the rest of the way.
He shot 9-of-17 from the field and put up 25 points, plus nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and one blocked shot. Unlike in Game 4, he was able to get his outside shot to fall — he was a solid 3-of-7 from 3-point range.
Down the stretch, James seemed to come up gimpy on his left leg or foot after possibly stepping on a Warriors player. He remained in the game and didn’t seem to limp afterward, but the mishap may have limited his mobility a bit driving to the basket.
However, he did a fairly good job of attacking in transition throughout the game. It allowed L.A. to score 15 fast-break points, but it wasn’t enough, mainly because it couldn’t get stops and got outrebounded by 12, which led to 18 second-chance points for Golden State.
Even though the Lakers couldn’t really make things competitive at any point of the fourth quarter, head coach Darvin Ham kept James on the court until there was 2:47 left in the fourth quarter. The all-time leading scorer played 39 minutes, and although he didn’t look tired in this game, many will be watching to see if fatigue will be a factor with Game 6 on Friday.
D'Angelo Russell: B
Russell gave the Lakers decent production with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting and 1-of-2 from downtown, but he wasn’t aggressive enough. They will likely need him to take at least 15 shots in order to come out with a win in Game 6, especially if Davis isn’t able to play.
Austin Reaves: B/B-plus
Reaves scored 15 points and hit 3-of-6 from beyond the arc, to go along with seven rebounds and five assists. He has seemingly bounced back after several bad offensive games in a row, and he will need to keep up his improved play of late if L.A. is to win this series.
Dennis Schroder: B-plus
Schroder gave the Lakers some good production right away, hitting two shots in the first quarter and making a nice hustle play by sprinting back in transition to deny Klay Thompson a layup. He ended the game with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting overall and 2-of-5 from 3-point land in 29 minutes.
But he flamed out late, missing all three of his shot attempts in the fourth quarter, as he was one of several Laker players who settled for outside shots instead of driving the ball into the paint.
Rui Hachimura: C
After playing so well in the first three games of the playoffs against the Memphis Grizzlies, Hachimura has been dormant for most of this series. He scored just seven points in 21 minutes in Game 5, and the Lakers need to get back to involving him in their set offense. They need to run more action for him to get him the ball in iso situations at the free-throw line extended rather than have him stand in 3-point territory and wait for the ball to come to him.
Lonnie Walker IV: B-minus
After his heroic Game 4 performance, Walker got 28 minutes of playing time on Wednesday. He shot just 2-of-6 and scored four points while adding four assists, and although he made a sincere effort, he simply didn’t have much of an impact in this contest.
Shaquille Harrison, Malik Beasley, Troy Brown Jr., Max Christie, Wenyen Gabriel: Incomplete
All five players came in for the final 2:47 of the game. Beasley and Brown both scored a basket apiece, with Beasley hitting from 3-point range, Gabriel got one point on a free throw plus three rebounds while Harrison ended up with two assists and one rebound.
