Los Angeles Lakers: 3 stars in NBA play-in win over Warriors

The Los Angeles Lakers are the defending NBA champions, the preseason favorites and the only franchise to legitimately claim two top-10 players in the league. Yet extended absences from those two stars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, doomed them to a seventh-place finish in the Western Conference. Last year’s champs would have to win a play-in game just to make the playoff field.

Even more daunting was that the play-in game would be against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. James and the Lakers may have won the title last year, but the five years before that Curry and company were in the NBA Finals, winning three titles of their own. No player was hotter down than the stretch than Curry, who won the scoring title and rocketed the Warriors into the play-in tournament.

The two teams met Wednesday night in a showdown of the league’s biggest stars. The winner would secure a spot in the playoff bracket, while the loser would have to play again on Friday night to try and survive and make it in.

The Los Angeles Lakers won the play-in game 103-100 over the Golden State Warriors

Although the Lakers were the favorite coming in, they got off to a rough start and were down 13 points at halftime. They came roaring back and won a close game, moving on to face the Phoenix Suns while forcing the Warriors into a do-or-die game on Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Which players on the Lakers stepped up to carry the team? It’s no surprise that two of those players were the team’s superstars, but we will start with a player who has been on the fringes of the rotation in recent months but stepped up in a big way Wednesday night.