Lakers show ice in their veins in win over Warriors

No LeBron James, no problem for the new-look Lakers, who took care of business against the Stephen Curry-less Warriors, 109-103, on the road.

It was a back-and-forth affair, with Jordan Poole scoring 17 in the fourth to keep Golden State in the game, but the final-frame defensive heroics of Anthony Davis helped the Lakers beat the champs on the road.

Overall, the new additions were a positive for L.A. Jared Vanderbilt nearly had a double-double with 12 points and 8 rebounds in his 17 minutes of play off the bench. Malik Beasley caught the Lakers’ shooting curse going 0-6 from three, but it was D-Lo who fit into the Lakers' starting lineup like a glove, shooting 50% from the field and scoring 15 points in his return.

Dennis Schröder was the player of the game, scoring 26 points to lead all scorers. With him and D-Lo playing so well, we will likely see Darvin Ham starting these two together again against Portland (sorry, Laker Nation).

With this road victory, the Lakers ended their three-game losing streak and improved to 26-31 overall.

But while the Lakers may have come out victorious, things weren’t smooth to start. With so many new additions and their best player absent, it was tough for L.A. to get going offensively. They shot 34.8% from the field in the opening quarter.

One player who has been struggling as of late is Davis. Since coming back from injury, his offense has been absent, and tonight in The Bay it was mostly more of the same.

He went scoreless in the first and started out 0-6 from the field before ending the night with just 13 points on 5-14 shooting. Is it rust? Is he not 100%? We can speculate all we want, but if AD isn’t AD, how far the Lakers can go becomes much more limiting. Being the great player he is he found ways to help win with his rebounding and defense but the Lakers need All-Star AD to maximize their potential.

The good thing for the Lakers is the Warriors were having just as much trouble offensively in the opening half. They were missing open shots and kept flagrant fouling the Lakers, with Jonathan Kuminga accidentally elbowing Austin Reaves and Draymond Green hacking Rui Hachimura at the basket.

In classic Draymond fashion, he rebutted to the refs to let them play physically.

Coach Darvin Ham certainly let Schröder play. He was electric in the first half, leading the team with 13 points and thanks to his offensive outburst, L.A. trailed by just two points entering the second half.

Close game, third quarter; what will the Lakers do this time?

They attacked the paint and won the quarter, ending the third with a six-point advantage. Rui and Vanderbilt were key to the third-quarter turnaround, Vandy had eight of his 12 points in the third, and Rui added four of his own, including an emphatic dunk on a Russell assist early in the quarter that helped change the momentum in L.A.’s favor.

In the fourth Poole decided he was the best player on the floor and went nuclear, scoring the Warriors' first sixteen points in the period himself.

The Lakers responded to the Poole party with a coalition of the willing, with a variety of players scoring clutch baskets. AD finally scored on the inside and Rui hit a clutch three midway through the quarter to give the Lakers a five-point advantage.

Davis continued his spectacular fourth-quarter performance with a key block against Klay Thompson to maintain the Lakers' lead. Of course, Dennis missed back-to-back free throws to ice the game and Golden State had one more chance to get back in it, but Poole got called for an offensive foul. That sealed Golden State’s fate, and secured the Lakers' win.

Key Takeaways

It wasn’t always pretty, and without the King, it’s hard to take away much of significance, but the second D-Lo era started well with a win against the defending champs. Seeing how these new additions look with Bron will help establish this team’s ceiling.

Tonight’s win may have been a ray of sunshine in a season as dark and gloomy as San Franciso itself, but the Lakers will have to make the celebration quick as they have to head to the Pacific Northwest and face the Portland Trailblazers on Monday.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.