Anthony Davis leads the resistance

The Lakers resist. whatThey live? Something like that. At least they do not die, if you understand the nuance. They gasp, row, clench their teeth. There are a thousand ways to say it, so I guess they live, yes. That they had to decide in a morning bitch, rainy day and difficult rival. The Warriors arrived in Los Angeles in tune, it seemed that they were meeting and with Stephen Curry back. Exactly for this game because in the case of these Lakers, God squeezes and chokes. But the fact is that, and also with justice and merit, the Lakers won (113-105). And they resist, they breathe: they live. They are 6-3 since they rebuilt the team before the market closed.. The data does not seem especially good, but at least it is not bad if you take into account that LeBron James has lost six of those nine games. And neither is D’Angelo Russell, whose talent should be essential. Especially without LeBron.

The Lakers they live: now 31-34, touching that slippery play in to which they continue to cling as best they can. They never quite arrive, they never finally fall off because the rivals in the West have insisted that they have infinite lives. Nobody goes a thousand an hour, to put it mildly. The Lakers are not accelerating either, but they are marching. Or something more or less similar. And this game, morning bitch in LA, he made it clear. Something less, by will. They put in much more effort than the Warriors (34-31, their umpteenth skid) who have lost (3-1 and with three straight losses) this season’s direct duel with the Angelenos, clinging to an Anthony Davis who once again showed that if the body holds, his team can climb on his shoulders to escape the shipwreck. Or try it: 39 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, defense everywhere and, at the moment of truth, four points in a row to turn a 103-101 into a 107-101 already at the last minute. Enough.

The Warriors chased without much conviction. without regularity They stayed in San Francisco until the game was heading into the second quarter: 32-12 in eight minutes of excellent level laker but no resistance in front. as soon as curry warmed up a bit and the shots went in, things changed with a naturalness that seemed like a sentence for the locals: 57-57 at the start of the third set. There, when it seemed that the Warriors were going downhill, the Lakers mounted the resistance: 69-61, 84-75… and 101-93, with possession with less than three minutes to go. But Curry and Klay’s percussion, the whole life, led to the aforementioned 103-101. The last scare, the life that was left to spend. The Lakers won.

In addition to Davis, Troy Brown (14 points, 8 rebounds), Jarred Vanderbilt (10+13 and 4 assists) and Austin Reaves played very well who is a rare mix of talent and character (16 points, 8 assists). Dennis Schröder fixed (enough) in the last quarter, with a couple of good reads, a downright bad game. Like Bamba’s (injured) or a Hachimura whose points are sorely missed, the shivering middle distance. The Lakers they won the rebound, the battle of turnovers (9-13) and the scoring in the zone (40-26). Davis explains a lot about all of that. And they scored, after more than two quarters of Way of the Cross, the handful of triples they had to score so as not to go down the drain. And if, they live. For now. Which is not little.

The Warriors, except for a couple of little whiles, they had an ugly morning: shooting below 40% and 18 very gusty triples (18/52) and used as the only argument, almost as an alibi. As if that was going to be enough. Klay Thompson was intermittent (22 points) and Curry almost fixed in the fourth quarter (19 of his 27 points) what was turning out to be a bad day back. Perhaps the Warriors will reach the playoffs with the arguments of that champion in defense of the title that have barely seemed all season, but that is still there. Deep down, but keep going. Whoever wants to believe has plenty of reasons to do so, especially with Curry back. The story says so, basically. But, to justify the shot of optimism, you better skip this game.