Stephen Curry had 31 points, six assists and four rebounds, and the Golden State Warriors erased an early 25-point deficit and then ran away from Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers for a 112-95 win on Friday night in San Francisco in an NBA Cup game. The win came one week after the Lakers had beaten Golden State in the teams’ season opener in Los Angeles, and this time the result went the other way by 17 points.
Doncic had 37 points, seven rebounds and five assists, but the Lakers could not make it back-to-back blowouts against Golden State. Los Angeles had won the season opener last week in Los Angeles, and the second meeting between the teams started in much the same way before the game turned.
Lakers race ahead in the first quarter
Doncic had 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting with five 3-pointers, five assists and a pair of steals through the first quarter as the Lakers raced ahead 38-15. The opening period gave Los Angeles a 23-point lead at the end of the quarter, and the deficit for Golden State had reached 25 points at one early stage.
The Lakers also turned Golden State’s mistakes into points in the opening period. Los Angeles capitalized on 17 Golden State turnovers for 25 points across the game, and 10 of those turnovers came in the first quarter, when the Lakers were at their sharpest.
Warriors level the game by halftime
The Warriors then outscored the Lakers by the same 38-15 score in the second quarter. That made Golden State the first team in the shot clock era, including the playoffs, to trail by 23 or more points at the end of the first quarter and be tied or better at halftime. The second quarter wiped out the whole of the Lakers’ early advantage in 12 minutes of play.
Curry led the recovery, and the home team kept its shape after a first quarter in which little had gone right. The Warriors had trailed by 25 points early in the game, and by halftime the score was level after a second quarter that matched the Lakers’ first quarter point for point in reverse.
Warriors pull away after the break
Curry hit a 3-pointer over Doncic at the 6:22 mark of the third quarter, only for the Lakers star to knock one down from deep moments later on the other end. Doncic was whistled for a technical foul with 21.8 seconds left in the third quarter, with fans chanting and booing at him, and teammate Matisse Thybulle received a technical foul in the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Curry passed Dominique Wilkins, who scored 26,668 points, for 18th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. The milestone came during a final period in which Golden State moved clear of Los Angeles and turned a game it had trailed by 25 points into a 17-point win.
Brandin Podziemski added 21 points, six assists and five rebounds for the Warriors, while De’Anthony Melton scored 16 points off the bench and fellow reserve Georges Niang scored 11. The bench scoring gave the Warriors a second source of points behind Curry, and the home team had enough scoring across the roster to keep Los Angeles at arm’s length in the second half.
The Warriors had lost the season opener last week in Los Angeles, and Friday night’s win evened the early season meetings between the teams at one win each. Golden State took the second meeting by 17 points after losing the first, and the win came in an NBA Cup game in front of the home crowd in San Francisco.
The result was also the largest margin of victory in the shot clock era for a team that trailed by 20 or more points at the end of the first quarter. The previous best came on March 4, 1976, when the Warriors trailed the Chicago Bulls 41-18 after one quarter and won by 14 points at 124-110. Golden State beat that mark on Friday night by winning by 17 points after trailing by 23 points at the end of the first quarter.