The Los Angeles Lakers started the regular season with a record of 10:2, without a clear rotation and it seemed that another season of LeBron James’ Lakers was on the way to failure. But then the team came together, made a trade that brought them four players instead of Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley and looked the best in the West since the All-Star break. Tonight (between Friday and Saturday), LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Darwin Hamm and the gang from the City of Angels became the first Western team to beat the Golden State Warriors since 2014 with a 101:122 home win and a 2:4 series victory on the way to the Western Conference Finals against the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers are the fourth team in the last 50 years to reach the regional finals after being less than 50% successful after 12 games. They are also the team that has reached the regional finals the most in NBA history, where they have a record of 19 wins and only four losses. And what about LeBron? He has not lost a regional final since 2009 and has an unimaginable record of 1:10.
LeBron, who rose to fourth place in the amount of rebounds of all time in the playoffs and became the player who won the most series in the league (41) said at the end: “We knew they would be very aggressive. It’s going to be a big series against Denver, they’ve been in first place in the West all year and we respect them a lot. We are on target. Let’s rest a bit, we know what they bring with them.”
Davis He was a little more excited and said: “We want to amaze the world. Why are we so hot? our togetherness We have motivation and desire to win. We have to get there knowing that they finished in first place, we have to respect them. Me and Baron want to win another title, we want to do the job and get it.”
And what can we say about the champion, who became the fourth in a row not to advance to the regional finals after winning the title. Steve Kerr, the coach of the Warriors, was eliminated from the Western Conference playoffs for the first time ever in his coaching career, when as a player his balance rose to five eliminations on the western side of the USA – once losing to the Phoenix Suns, four times to the Lakers. In addition, the streak of games in which the Warriors recorded an away victory in the series came to an end after 28 series.
Klay Thompson, known as one who historically makes it to Game 6, was held to eight points on 3/19 from the field, as he and Steph Curry combined for 6/26 from three. cold He spoke about them at the end of the game: “They and Draymond Green still have a lot to give. They are still players at the highest level and I feel that this is still a team with championship potential. This is not the end of the road for us.”
And there was also another team that qualified for the regional finals. The Miami Heat became the second ever to qualify as the eighth seed for the Eastern Conference Finals with a 92:96 home victory over the New York Knicks, who did so in 1999. This is the third qualification since 2020 for the group from Florida to the Eastern Conference finals, when the previous two times they met the Boston Celtics, who will play tomorrow (Sunday, 10:30 p.m.) in game number 7 against Philadelphia ’76. In the West, the Lakers and Nuggets also met in the 2020 Western Conference Finals, so if the Celtics qualify, we’ll get a replay of the regional finals series from the bubble.
