Remarkably, no single Golden State lineup has appeared in all four games of this series, per NBA.com. You probably remember how that series ended.)Ĭurry spent the first half of Game 4 tearing apart the Lakers on pick-and-rolls targeting Anthony Davis - who began the game guarding Gary Payton II, the latest winner of Golden State's starting five roulette. (That 2016 game ended with Curry tossing his mouthpiece into the Cleveland crowd and getting ejected. What a wonderful callback to LeBron's iconic, sneering block on Curry in the Cleveland Cavaliers' romp over the Warriors in Game 6 of the 2016 Finals - perhaps less explosive and a little gentler, the two all-timers now either in or entering the graybeard phases of their careers. So much of the past and present collided on this possession:

Over and over, for various tactical reasons linked to the endgame lineups each team chose, they found themselves matched up against each other again on both ends: Curry testing LeBron's defense on switches, LeBron (with Lonnie Walker IV as his improbable tag-team partner) hunting down Curry on the pick-and-roll like old times. This grimy, defense first, sometimes strange series between Western Conference titans appeared to approach that point down the stretch of the Los Angeles Lakers Game 4 win over the Golden State Warriors - and, fittingly, that endgame involved a prolonged reunion between the intergalactic superstars who have circled each other on the biggest stages for a decade: Stephen Curry and LeBron James.

NBA, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State WarriorsĮvery good playoff series reaches a strategic endgame. Lowe: How the Warriors can salvage their season - and what the Lakers can do to end it You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser

Salvage to the bones