Klay Thompson scored 27 points and Stephen Curry added 23 as the sharp-shooting Golden State Warriors inched closer to the host Los Angeles Lakers in the battle for play-in tournament seeding with a 134-120 victory on Tuesday.
Golden State made a season-high 26 3-pointers (on 41 attempts), one made triple short of the franchise record, and won the season series with three wins in four games.
Curry was 6-for-6 from distance and Draymond Green went 5-for-7 as the Warriors delivered the best 3-point shooting percentage in a game in NBA history (63.4 percent) with a minimum of 40 long-range attempts, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Andrew Wiggins scored 17 points and Green added 15 to go along with 10 assists as the Warriors (44-35) won for the eighth time in their past nine games.
LeBron James scored 33 points and dished out 11 assists and Austin Reaves had 22 points for the Lakers (45-35), who lost consecutive games for just the second time since the start of February. It was Los Angeles’ final home game of the regular season.
The Lakers were playing without Anthony Davis, who took a blow to the side of the head in Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves and still was experiencing nausea with a headache on Tuesday.
Rui Hachimura supplied 20 points and 11 rebounds and D’Angelo Russell scored 14 points for the Lakers, who had won nine of 10 games before dropping the last two, both at home.
The ninth-seeded Lakers are now just a half-game ahead of the No. 10 Warriors. The No. 9 and 10 seeds face off in the play-in tournament, with that winner set to go up against the loser of the 7-8 game for the final Western Conference playoff spot.
After an efficient first quarter where they went 7-for-10 from 3-point range, the Warriors took a 38-29 lead. After making eight more 3-pointers in the second quarter, the Warriors had a 71-60 lead at halftime.
The Warriors made 15 of their 22 attempts from 3-point range in the first half (68.2 percent).
The Lakers were within nine points at 109-100 with 9:25 remaining in the game before the Warriors got a 3-pointer from Curry and a floater inside by Jonathan Kuminga for a 114-100 lead with 8:16 left, and the Lakers never threatened from there.
–Field Level Media
