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Listen, there are losses you see coming, and then there are losses that still somehow feel like catching a stray. The Golden State Warriors fell 129-101 to the Los Angeles Lakers Friday night, and honestly? The box score is doing them a favor by not including the vibe. IT WAS DEPRESSING.
Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Kristaps Porzingis all missed the game. And without that super trio, Golden State sent a crew of guys who were genuinely trying out there and got reminded, rather loudly, that trying only gets you so far against a team built different.
Oh, and it just happened to be Luka Doncic’s birthday. Cool timing, Warriors.
Luka turned in a 26-point, 8-assist, 6-rebound gift-wrapped performance and looked like a man who specifically requested a Warriors beatdown on his birthday cake. 4-of-9 from three, efficient when it mattered, and just different enough from the Luka we’ve seen lately to make it sting a little extra. Happy birthday, big fella. The Dubs paid for the party.
The Warriors starters were a collective nightmare. Draymond Green went -30 in 24 minutes. That’s not a plus/minus for the future Hall-of-Famer, that’s a hostage situation. De’Anthony Melton shot 3-of-12 from the field Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody combined to go 8-of-23 in an effort that showed they definitely have growing to do. The bench tried (Gary Payton II had a sneaky 12 points, Malevy Leons showed some life ) but this was a waves-on-a-sinking-ship situation.
The Lakers? 53% from the field, 46% from three, 47 rebounds. LeBron James cooked for 22 in 28 minutes and didn’t even break a sweat. Austin Reaves tossed in 18 like it was a pick-up game in his driveway.
And look, no one’s blaming the guys who suited up. They competed with the wrong tools for the job. You can’t ask a backup band to headline Madison Square Garden and then wonder why the crowd left early. This is the Warriors’ reality right now: impossibly gutsy when the moment calls for it, impossibly limited when the moment calls for stars. Curry changes every single calculation on both ends. Without him, the math just doesn’t work.
Lakers fans absolutely loved this one. Good for them. The Dubs will need their guys back before this gets darker.