Fans from New Zealand and Australia held signs toward the camera proclaiming they had traveled thousands of miles to watch Warriors star Stephen Curry play.
On one sign, “play” was crossed out and replaced with a frowning face.
LeBron James instead gave fans a glimpse at a generational star, leading the Lakers to a 119-103 win over the Warriors on Thursday with 26 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.
After missing the Lakers’ last game, the 21-time All-NBA player returned as the guiding force amid a season threatening to fall off the rails. The Lakers (51-29) ended a three-game losing streak and kept pace with the Houston Rockets in a tight race for home-court advantage in the Western Conference.
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“We just had a sour taste in our mouths, obviously, for last week,” James said, referencing injuries to stars Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves and the recent skid. “... And just none of us wants to continue to lose, and then we hurt for our two main guns. So, just a mindset of just trying to figure out how we can be great as a team, how we can figure out how to play well on the road and try to get a win.”
Trying to avoid their longest losing streak of the season, the Lakers relied on James to steady the ship. After the Lakers gave up a 9-0 run to start the second quarter, he hit a contested three out of a timeout to get them back on track. He fed the ball to Deandre Ayton, keeping the big man engaged for 21 points on nine-of-11 shooting with five rebounds.
Luke Kennard had 14 points and eight assists. The sharp-shooting guard has 28 assists in the last three games, adapting into the team’s emergency point guard to compensate for the loss of Doncic and Reaves.
“Talking as a group this morning like this is what we have right now, and we gotta figure it out,” Kennard said. “We're trying to win games. Worked this hard to get where we are, to be in the position that we're in right now, and we don't want to just throw it away.”
Losing James to a lingering left foot injury before Tuesday’s loss to the Thunder added to an emotional week for the Lakers. They lost Doncic and Reaves in a blowout loss in Oklahoma City on April 2 and had to face the NBA's best team without their Big 3. Jaxson Hayes also didn't play Tuesday and remains day-to-day after missing Thursday’s game as well.
Lakers coach JJ Redick admitted the Lakers were not prepared to compete Tuesday. He later recognized that an effort to inject some energy into his players by calling early timeouts and subbing out veterans such as Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt didn’t help, especially after a heated exchange with Vanderbilt was caught on camera.
“What I told the team today — I think this is important — is we have had a very disjointed season because of all the injuries and throughout the year, we — collectively, staff, players — we've had to figure out the best path forward with whatever group is available,” Redick said. “And that's no different right now. We have to figure out over these next three games and over next week, the best path for this team to play winning basketball.”
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Through the emotional ups-and-downs, Redick checks in with Reaves and Doncic daily. Doncic, receiving treatment on his injured left hamstring in Spain, is in “relatively — relatively good spirits,” Redick said. Doncic is “attacking” his rehab, Redick said, but being away from the team has taken a toll on his psyche. Reaves, who is out with a Grade 2 left oblique strain that is expected to take four to six weeks to heal, has benefited from staying with the team.
“I think for both of those guys, there is, like, a carrot,” Redick said. “If we can get this season extended, they can come back and they can play. Those guys love playing basketball.”
Houston won its eighth straight game Thursday to stay tied with the Lakers for the No. 4 seed. Both teams have two games remaining, and the Lakers have the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The difference between finishing fourth and fifth is home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, but James wouldn’t entertain any talk about planning for the playoffs.
“What the future holds, we have no idea,” James said, “and obviously the past is the past. So what we can focus on is how we continue to get better and better each and every day.”
James gave his teammates a scare in the third quarter when he hurt his right hand on a chase-down block. It appeared swollen as he went to the bench. Kennard also walked away from the play holding his left hand after attempting to slap the ball away from the Warriors’ Pat Spencer. Redick joked that the scene made him turn off his Amazon Prime broadcast microphone for several seconds.
But James returned with three minutes left in the third quarter. He wouldn’t give his team yet another reason to worry.
“His leadership all day long, in the meeting, in the walkthrough this morning, just the way he carried himself,” Redick said, “just he really set the tone for the team.”
Battling a chronic knee injury in the latter stages of the season, Curry watched from the bench. His absence in the Warriors’ last home game of the season also put a damper on what could have been another enthralling matchup of two of the NBA's biggest stars.
Between the artistry of Curry and the physicality of James, they’ve been faces of the league, Redick said. But with the 41-year-old James not under contract after this season, the generational stars may never compete against each other on an NBA court again.
Redick called the idea “dark.”
“It's been fun to watch as a fan,” Redick said of the rivalry between Curry and James, “and it's been fun to be a part of it the last couple years.”
Curry greeted James before the game. Now a sneaker free agent after his high-profile departure from longtime sponsor Under Armour, Curry honored his contemporary with a blue and yellow version of the LeBron X iD sneakers.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
