LeBron James recorded the 98th triple-double of his career as the Los Angeles Lakers eased to a 128-97 win over the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco.
Montrezl Harrell backed up James’ fourth triple-double of the season by scoring 27 points off the bench on 11-of-14 shooting as the Lakers clinched the season series with Golden State.
Stephen Curry scored 27 points with four 3-pointers and became the Warriors’ franchise assists leader a day after his 33rd birthday and in his 12th NBA season.
The team that won the last six series between the division rivals went on to reach the NBA Finals, winning four.
James had 22 points and is fifth on the NBA’s all-time list for triple-doubles.
Curry scored 27 points to lead the Warriors, who were coming off an impressive home win over the Utah Jazz a day earlier but suffered their fifth loss in six games.
“We’ve got to get sick of just getting blown out because that’s embarrassing,” Curry said. “We have to have some pride about how we’re playing. You can lose games, that’s going to happen. But not like that.”
With a long list of injuries, the Lakers got another scare when Harrell briefly went down with 7:11 left in the first half. He took an elbow to the face from Warriors rookie center James Wiseman after his goaltend as he attempted to block a shot and had his elbows high. After a replay review to determine if it was “a hostile act,” Wiseman received a technical foul, not a flagrant.
The Lakers (26-13) are narrowly behind the Phoenix Suns near the top of the Pacific division while the Warriors are 20-20 and the Jazz have the NBA’s best record of 28-10.
The in-form Suns improved to 26-12 with Devin Booker scoring 27 points as Phoenix rolled to a 122-99 victory over the visiting Memphis Grizzlies.
Elsewhere, Giannis Antetokounmpo recorded his third consecutive triple-double as the Milwaukee Bucks held off a second-half surge to win 133-122 at the Washington Wizards.
The NBA’s two-time reigning Most Valuable Player, who was also MVP in the All-Star Game on 7 March, finished with 31 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists as the Bucks improved to 25-14.
