LeBron James dominates, leads Lakers past Warriors; advance to Western Conference Finals

LeBron James and the Lakers sat at 2-10, in 13th place in the Western Conference with only a 0.3 percent chance of making the playoffs, well 6 months and 1 day after The Los Angeles Lakers have emphatically eliminated the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors to reach the Western Conference finals.

You could say that the Lakers mid season transformation was due to Rob Pelinka pulling the trigger on the 3 team trade, but The Laker's revolution all falls to LeBron James and Anthony Davis who have revolutionized this Laker squad offensively and most importantly defensively. The duo of Davis and James recently won a ring 3 years ago, and now they aim to win their second together which would be LeBron's 5th ring and Davis' 2nd.

LeBron scored 30 points, had 9 rebounds and 9 assists as The Los Angeles Lakers ended the Golden State Warriors' reign with a 122-101 victory in Game 6 of the second-round western conference playoff series. LeBron rolled back the years and put in a vintage playoff performance to send The Warriors packing.

“It was great to be able to play one of our most efficient games, one of our best games of the series, and it started because of the defensive matchup we had,” James said in regards to his performance. “We defended at a high level, and when we do that, we can be extremely good. I thought we were locked in for as close to 48 minutes as possible tonight.”

AD added 17 points and 20 rebounds as once again his mere presence in the paint guided LA to the Game 6 victory, and Austin Reaves as well contributed to the win scoring 23 with a flashy 54 foot half-court half-time buzzer beater, Reaves added 6 assists and 5 rebounds, helping Los Angeles pull away and sink The Warriors once and for all.

"It's special to get that win to beat a team that's so established and so good," Reaves said in the postgame press conference. “I think the seeding things are just numbers. When you have guys like Bron and AD who have won championships, you always feel like you have a chance, especially with the roster that we have, the talent that we have.”

The Lakers now focus on The Denver Nuggets after sending the defending champs packing, they look ahead to Nikola Jokic the two-time MVP and leader of the top seeded Denver Nuggets who just defeated Phoenix in 6 games, and are look very threatening in the western conference.

Game 1 of the rematch of the conference finals in the 2020 NBA bubble, that LA won in five games is on Tuesday, live on ESPN at 8:30 P.M.

In their route of the defending champion Golden State Warriors, The Lakers improved to 7-0 at home in the playoffs, and also snapped The Warriors 29-0 record in playoff series under Head Coach Steve Kerr and during Steph's whole entire career.

Darvin Ham spoke on his team post-game, “It’s been a challenging year, to say the least, but we kept powering through,” first-year head coach Darvin Ham said regarding his squads performances. “Our vibes stayed positive, and finally our new pieces came together.”

The Los Angeles Lakers are the first team to defeat Golden State in the playoffs in the western conference since the 2014 postseason when Golden State lost to The Clippers in the first round,

Steve Kerr spoke about the lost after the game, “The better team won, and I can't fault our players for the effort,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. “Because these guys are such competitors, it's going to hurt. But that's why we play: To compete against the best and see what we've got. Didn't quite have enough, but it wasn't for a lack of heart or effort.”

The Warriors leader, Stephen Curry dropped 32 points and missed 10 of his 14 3 point attempts, and Steph's 32 was met with almost nothing from his teammates, especially Klay Thompson who after swearing he'd show out for the Laker crowd would shoot 3-of-19 from the field and shot 10- 12 from 3-point range.

Curry spoke on the team's shooting, “We didn’t have a changeup pitch to throw, which led to the result,” Curry said of the Warriors' poor shooting. The Warriors had chances to equal the Laker's intensity, they had good looks in the first quarter but couldn't hit a shot to save their lives. The Splash Brothers were all dried up in the series against LA, Klay Thompson went 10 for 36 on 3-pointers in the series’ final four games, while the Curry, the former finals MVP was 14 for 49.

Stephen Curry might have been the only starter who actually showed up, but Donte DiVincenzo helped a good bit to keep it somewhat close with adding 16 points off the bench.

Draymond Green spoke on the performance after the game, “Definitely disappointing” Green said. “It’s been a long time since we finished in May, just trying to process the feelings. In the end, they were the better team.”

The Lakers came out firing and showed everyone in attendance and watching that they were not playing around, survived the Warriors’ runs throughout the game and blew it right out of the water in the fourth quarter with a barrage led by the great LeBron James, who produced his first 30-point playoff game since the 2020 NBA Finals. James had scored 30 points, had 9 rebounds and 9 assists in the win.

LeBron showed once again that even after 20 years of experience in the NBA he can get any shot he wants at will, he quarterbacked the Lakers in Game 6 with help from AD and D'Angelo Russell who had 19 points in addition the 2 main pieces for LA carrying the majority of the load.

The Los Angeles Lakers who started 2-10 and sat at 13th in the western conference are headed to the conference finals. Led by LeBron and AD, Los Angeles will look to keep the ship moving forward when the meet Nikola Jokic and The Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals, The Nuggets have been flying high pretty much all year but this Laker squad got hot at the perfect time of the year and has looked like a whole different team in the playoffs, we are certainly in for a great series between Denver and Los Angeles with stars like LeBron James, and Anthony Davis going up against Nikola Jokic, and Jamal Murray certainly putting on their best performances at the best time of the year.

The Western Conference Finals will begin on Tuesday at 8:30 P.M., Live on ESPN.