Rob Issa, FISM News
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Anthony Davis gave LeBron James the help he needed against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
Dennis Schröder and D’Angelo Russell each added 19 for Los Angeles, which had entered the playoffs as the No. 7 seed after winning a play-in game, as the Lakers won Game One 117-112.
“We’ve been playing playoff basketball for about 2 1/2 months now just to punch our clock to be able to play right now in the postseason,” James said. “We were very resilient tonight. … We know how great they are on their home floor, so to withstand that, it’s another good step for our ballclub.”
James and Curry resumed their playoff rivalry after meeting four straight years in the NBA Finals when James played for Cleveland. James, the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, previously beat Curry, the NBA’s all-time 3-point champion, once.
James didn’t have a superstar teammate like Davis during his time with the Cavaliers. Davis also had five assists and four blocked shots in the opener.
“I thought AD had a great game. Obviously, he dominated and he got blocked four shots and altered some others,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “That’s what this team has been doing now for the last few months. They have been one of the best defensive teams in the league for a reason and he’s a huge part of that.”
Curry scored 27 points, Klay Thompson added 25, and Kevon Looney grabbed a career-high 23 rebounds. Curry had scored 50 to lead Golden State in a Game 7 win at Sacramento on Sunday.
The Warriors attempted a playoff-record 53 3-pointers, making 21.
“With (Anthony) Davis in the paint, you’re not going to get anything easy at the rim,” Kerr said. “So you still have to try to attack. You can’t just play around the three-point line the whole game. But a big part of our offense is trying to get the ball into the paint, move it out, and our guys did a pretty good job of that.
“They were trying to take away our threes the whole game, the top blocking, and really putting pressure on our perimeter guys, and I thought our guys did a really good job of finding openings and getting each other some good shots.”
Game 2 is Thursday night.
KNICKS EVEN SERIES WITH HEAT
In New York, Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, Julius Randle had 25 and the Knicks beat the Miami Heat 111-105 to even their Eastern Conference series at 1-1.
Jimmy Butler didn’t play for Miami because of an ankle injury.
“I kind of had to find a way to be mentally tough,” Brunson said about playing with his own ankle injury. “Go out there and do it.”
Randle returned from a sprained left ankle that forced him to miss Game 1 and added 12 rebounds and eight assists. RJ Barrett scored 24 points and Josh Hart finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists for the fifth-seed Knicks.
“I thought Julius gutted it out, played tough. I thought Jalen was fantastic,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “RJ big, big start to the game for us, so we had a number of guys step up to get it done.”
Caleb Martin scored 22 points starting for Butler and Gabe Vincent had 21.
The Heat had a six-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.
“Obviously we feel a certain way right now that we weren’t able to find a way to get this win, but we’ll get over it and we’ll get ready for Saturday,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
The eighth-seed Heat need a healthy Butler, who is averaging 35.5 points in the postseason. He had 98 in the final two games against the Bucks. The teams have a few days off until the series resumes in Miami on Game 3 on Saturday night so Butler has an opportunity to return to action.