The Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson (11) takes a jump shot against the Los Angles Lakers forward Anthony Davis (3) at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Sat Feb 12, 2022 (AP News photo)

Warriors Top Lakers In Epic Victory 117-115

By Barbara Mason

Saturday night the Golden State Warriors (42-15) met the Los Angeles Lakers (26-31) at Chase Center in an effort to avoid their third loss in a row, something that has not happened this season.

Starting for the Warriors tonight will be Wiggins, Curry. Thompson, Looney and Kuminga. The Lakers come into this game with a lot of fire power led by LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis. While nowhere near the bench that the Warriors have, the Lakers do have Talen Horton- Tucker in reserve. The Warriors avoided being defeated a third straight time with a two point win over the Lakers 117-115.

After one quarter the Warriors had a 32-26 lead in a very competitive game. As expected LeBron James dominated the game for his team. The problem for the Lakers was that they had James dominating but Golden State was getting great offense from Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Klay Thompson and Jonathan Kuminga. It was just to much for the Lakers to handle.

The Warriors had a fourteen point lead in the second quarter but the lakers fought back to cut that lead to two points with a single minute left in the half. At halftime the Warrios held a slim lead 65-62.

Curry had 17 points in the half followed by 16 points in 16 minutes for rookie Jonathan Kuminga. In his last game against the Knicks Kuminga had 17 points for the game and at the half in this game with 16 he was a good bet to have his highest scoring performance this season. At one point in the first quarter after a crazy Kuminga shot Juan Toscano-Anderson shouted out to him “Your a bad dud”. This team just loves their rookie.

As expected James had a nice first half with 18 points followed by Westbrook with 10 points.

A hotly contested third quarter saw the Lakers take the lead after the Warriors led by as much as fifteen with under two minutes left 88-87. As the quarter came to an end the lead by the Warriors remained slim 95-94 and going into the fourth quarter this was anyone’s game.

One of the craziest 12 minutes of basketball got underway in the fourth quarter as Thompson recorded his first 30 plus points since his return. With 46 ticks left on the clock Curry gave the Warriors a three-point lead in an absolute barn burner 117-114. It came down to 7.3 seconds and the ball in the hands of the Lakers. There was one last chance for the Lakers as LeBron was fouled by Curry outside.

He missed the first free throw and that was the game. “The grit was exceptional tonight” said former Warrior Adonal Foyle after the game. Especially since Golden State did not score in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter.

The Warriors had five players with double digits. Thompson had the high score for both teams with 33 points. Curry finished with 24 points and Jordan Poole had 11 points off the bench.

The Warriors go back on the road for their Monday night match-up with the Clippers. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 PM PT.