The defending champions officially have their backs against the wall in the Western Conference Semifinals when the Golden State Warriors host the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night.
In a dramatic turn of events, the Lakers took control of game four in the fourth quarter behind the unexpected play from Lonnie Walker IV.
His scoring off the bench in the fourth quarter was the most in a playoff game for the Lakers since Kobe Bryant came off the bench in 1997.
This is also the first time in LeBron James’ career where he has at least a two-game lead over Steph Curry in a playoff series.
The series has been a rough go for the Warriors, and the drop off from Klay Thompson and Draymond Green has been felt in a significant way.
Ahead of the action on Wednesday, the Warriors still draw the home favorite over the Lakers at -6.5 as they look to try and stay alive.
A dominant and balanced attack from the Lakers
There were a number of positives about the Lakers win in game four, including another strong performance for Anthony Davis.
While no one could seem to get any scoring done, Davis was able to take over the first half and keep them close the whole time.
This opened the door in the second half for Austin Reaves, James, and Walker IV to do what they ended up doing.
Not only that, the Lakers as a team shot a staggering 20/20 from the free throw line. Getting and drawing contact has been one of the strengths of the Lakers this season, but shooting 100% is out of this world.
The defending champs are on the ropes
Despite getting another stellar performance from Steph Curry in game four, the Warriors could not finish the job on the road, which has been a big story for most of the season.
The road record of Golden State has been a problem. It looked like they shook it in round one after winning game seven on the road against Sacramento, but it is obvious that Thompson, Jordan Poole, and other role players struggled away from home.
Now they are one game away from elimination, but that doesn’t mean they are dead yet. Any team with the pedigree of the Warriors can never be counted out of a series.
A couple of hot shooting games from Curry and Thompson could turn this series around in a heartbeat.
Lakers at Warriors Betting Prediction
From the jump, this was a star-studded series that was going to be entertaining until the final buzzer sounded.
For it to have a chance to end abruptly in five games is shocking, to say the least, and there is no way any experts would have predicted the Warriors would be down three games to one.
When desperate, the Warriors have performed in big spots, and they certainly won’t be fazed in a game like this. Take them to win on their home court as the favorites to extend the series at -6.5.
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