After an intense back and forth game between Golden State Warriors vs. Los Angeles Lakers in Los Angeles, CA, Wednesday evening, the Lakers squeaked out the win – 100 -103.
This was the last game in the first round of the NBA’s newly invented Play-In Tournament that allows teams ranked 9-10 an opportunity to go head-up with teams ranked 7-8 for their spot in the playoffs
.Steph Curry was getting bodies thrown at him all night, but still gave a warrior’s performance with 37 points on 12/23 shooting and adding 7 rebounds.
Lebron James messed around got a triple-double with 22 points on 7/17 shooting and dished out 10 assist and snatched 11 rebounds.
With this win, the Lakers move on to play the Phoenix Suns, who finished 2nd in the Western Conference this season.
The Warriors on the other hand will have to try to keep their season alive by playing against the Memphis Grizzlies, who eliminated the San Antonio Spurs 100-96 earlier that evening.
The winner of G.S./MEM will earn the 8th seed and meet the #1 seeded Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs.
Lebron hit the game winning shot, about 30-foot 3-pointer over the hand of Steph Curry after being scraped in the face by Draymond Green.
The referees stopped the game to review Green’s foul and possibly upgrade it to a flagrant, but after reviewing it remained a hard foul-regular foul.
After the game James stated, “I put a lot of work in my game. After Draymond finger to the eye, I was literally seeing three rims out there, so I just shot at the middle one. Through grace of the man about I was able to knock it down.”
He continued to say that he was sure that his eye will be soar for a little while, but he will have some time to heal as the Phoenix series will not begin for a few days.“Big time win for us,” stated James, “And I definitely wasn’t leaving the floor, no matter if I had to put a pirate patch on my eye. So, I love this team and I love to compete.”
After defeating a familiar face in Steph Curry, Lebron faces next a man like family in Chris Paul, star point guard for the Suns.
“[We know how great] C.P. is, how great Book is, up and coming surges from Ayton,” commented James. “But it’s the other guys as well that we gotta make sure we key in on because they have been playing extremely well all year.”
This Play-In tournament addition has proved to be another interesting dynamic to start the post-season.
Last Eastern Conference game is tonight, Thursday, March 20 with Indian Pacers vs. Washington Wizards at 8:00PM [ET].
The Golden State Warriors will faceoff with the Memphis Grizzlies Friday night at 9:00 PM [ET].
