SACRAMENTO – The NBA playoffs tour of California continues for the Warriors, but they won’t be taking the bus to the next stop.
They’re going to Hollywood, which is farther away from Sacramento and nothing like the state capital.
Having advanced to the Western Conference semifinals on Sunday after besting the Kings in a grueling seven-game series, the Warriors now face the Los Angeles Lakers. That means confronting old nemesis LeBron James, former teammate D’Angelo Russell and a mystique that has survived the decades.
Game 1 is scheduled for Tuesday, with a 7 p.m. tipoff at Chase Center.
“It’s special,” said Klay Thompson, whose family moved to LA when he was a teenager. “We’ve played LeBron in the Finals four times. He’s obviously, one of the greatest to ever play and Anthony Davis is right there; we played AD in the playoffs, too. Watching that last series against Memphis it looks like they’re jelling. Their guys, besides those two, know their roles.
“It’s going to be a huge challenge for us, but we’re all excited to play the Lakers. It’s a legendary franchise. Warriors and Lakers, it’s been a long time since they’ve seen each other in the playoffs.”
The last time the Warriors and Lakers met in the postseason was 1991, when the Run-TMC squad – led by Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin – lost in the conference semifinals to a team led by Magic Johnson (in his final season as a player), James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Byron Scott.
Golden State Warriors
Klay was a year old, as was Draymond Green. Stephen Curry was three years old. Thanks largely to their contributions, the Lakers are one of only two franchises with more NBA championships than Golden State. Boston and LA each have 17, followed by the Warriors with seven.
The history of Warriors-Lakers in the postseason is unkind, with the Warriors winning one of five series and sitting on an 11-24 record. After winning the first series, in 1967, Golden State lost each of the next six.
So, there is some catching up to do. And how better to generate motivation than having LeBron on the other side and the knowledge that the Lakers, after a poor first 50 games, were among the league's best over the final two months, winning 17 of their last 24 regular-season games before beating Minnesota in the play-in tournament to clinch the No. 7 seed.
LA reset its roster in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, first adding forward Rui Hachimura and then, two weeks later, shedding Russell Westbrook in a deal that brought in return guard D’Angelo Russell, forward Jarred Vanderbilt and wing Malik Beasley.
Each acquisition played a role in ousting the favored Memphis Grizzlies in six games in the first round.
“They’re playing with confidence,” Green said. “(Starting shooting guard) Austin Reaves is playing with a ton of confidence. He’s playing great basketball. Rui Hachimura is playing with a ton of confidence. AD is AD, LeBron is LeBron. D-Lo has got it going the last couple games in the last series. They have a (solid) bench.
“It’s going to be a tough series. But that’s what you expect moving forward in the playoffs.”
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The Warriors faced the Lakers three times since the trade deadline and lost all three games by an average of nine points.
Unlike the Kings, who are built around a high-speed offense, the Lakers play a more deliberate offense and pin their hopes on their defense. LA’s 102.8 defensive rating is second among the 16 playoff teams, and first among those in the Western Conference.
“They’re totally different than the Kings,” Curry said. “They present a lot of different challenges. We know Bron really well. We’ve played them a couple times since the trades, and they look extremely different. They’re playing good basketball.
“It’s weird, a 6-vs-7 seed series, and we get homecourt advantage. We’ve got to take advantage of that. But they’re big. We’ve got to have everybody locked on our preparation over the next 48 hours.”
The Battle of Cali, this time for the entire state, is on the calendar. The postseason history is irrelevant because it’s ancient, but there is enough familiarity to create a natural element of drama.