Warriors’ season ends as Lakers win Game 6, knock out defending champs
LOS ANGELES — Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson had their heads down as they walked to the bench for a timeout Friday night.
There was 5:28 left in regulation, but with the Lakers up by 22 points, the end felt inevitable.
Not even Curry could save them this time.
Two minutes later, coach Steve Kerr surrendered. He hugged Andrew Wiggins as the wing, who played through pain (broken rib cartilage) before embracing Draymond Green. With Curry sitting with a towel over his head, Kerr patted the Warriors star on the back.
This season — and perhaps this dynasty — is over, and it came at the hands of LeBron James and his Lakers squad in the Western Conference semifinals.
The Lakers punched the Warriors first and never let up, delivering a 122-101 blow to end Golden State’s season. Perhaps fittingly, too, it happened on the road, where the Warriors struggled all season.
James had a team-high 30 points to help the Lakers clinch the series 4-2 to advance to the Western Conference Finals, where they’ll face the top-seeded Denver Nuggets.
Curry, who had 32 points, was the only Warriors starter to finish with double figure scoring. The only other player to eclipse the 10-point mark was Donte DiVincenzo, who contributed 16 points in what was his best game of the postseason.
The Warriors have lived so long on the 3-point line, but that’s where their season died this time.
Golden State went 13-for-48 from beyond the arc, with Curry and Klay Thompson going a combined 6-for-26 from deep. This was especially a bad game for Thompson, who had eight points on 19 shots.
The Lakers got rolling and never took their foot off the accelerator while the Warriors, playing in their ninth game in 17 days, looked like they ran out of gas.
Los Angeles torched Golden State in the opening few minutes, jumping out to an 18-7 lead. The Lakers would lead by as many as 17 in the first quarter, but Curry helped the Warriors rally back to make it a five-point game at the end of the first quarter.
Even as the Lakers’ lead swelled back to double digits, the Warriors always seemed to have a fighting chance. But the game got out of reach in the fourth.
The Warriors had won 19 of their last playoff series against Western Conference foes. The Lakers effectively ended that streak and snapped Golden State’s league-record run of winning at least one road playoff game in a series at 28.
This one hurt.
The Warriors are now entering an offseason full of questions. Will Bob Myers, the architect of this dynasty, get his contract renewed? Will Draymond Green return for another season?
The dynasty may not be over, as long as Curry is here. But it could look quite different come October.
But for now, they’ll have to face the music that they didn’t have enough this year to go all the way.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.