NBA Game Notes (May 6, 2023)

Here are the NBA game notes for games that were played on May 6, 2023.

Lakers Rout Warriors

The Los Angeles Lakers outscored the Golden State Warriors by a combined 63-38 in the second and third quarters in a 127-97 rout of the defending champions. The Lakers lead this Western Conference semifinal series 2-1, with Game 4 in Los Angeles on Monday.

Lakers center Anthony Davis was a force, scoring a game-high 25 points on just 10 shots from the field. Davis made seven of those attempts and also hit 11 of his 12 free throws. Davis added game highs of 13 rebounds, four blocks, and three steals.

As noted above, Davis was the game’s outright leader in points, rebounds, steals, and blocks. The last player to achieve this feat in a playoff game was Kevin Garnett on May 10, 2012.

Davis has blocked 37 shots in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, more than double that of the next-closest player (Al Horford, 18). Davis has recorded at least three blocks in eight of his nine games this postseason. The last player to produce at least eight such games through his first nine games of a postseason was Elden Campbell in 1995.

Teammate LeBron James produced 21 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists, shooting 6-11 from the field and 7-8 from the free throw line. He did not commit a turnover or a personal foul.

It’s the 192nd time James has recorded at least 20 points, five rebounds, and five assists in a playoff game, a whopping 109 more such games than the next-closest player in NBA history (Larry Bird, 83).

The Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell scored 21 points and dished out five assists in 29 minutes played. Russell shot 8-13 from the field, including 5-8 from 3-point range.

The Warriors’ Stephen Curry scored a team-high 23 points in the loss, shooting 9-21 from the field with four 3-pointers made. Curry joined Michael Jordan (1998) as the only players in NBA history age 35 years or older to open a postseason with 10 straight 20-point games.

Including the regular season, Curry has made multiple 3-pointers in 67 consecutive games, the longest such streak in NBA history by 12 games. In fact, Curry owns the four longest such streaks in league history:

• 67 — Stephen Curry (June 16, 2022–May 6, 2023)

• 55 — Curry (April 5–Dec. 23, 2015)

• 53 — Curry (Dec. 1, 2018–April 2, 2019)

• 47 — Curry (May 4, 2017–Jan. 27, 2018)

• 40 — Paul George (Nov. 30, 2018–March 5, 2019)

After making 21 3-pointers in each of the first two games of the series, the Warriors hit just 13 of their 44 long-range attempts in Game 3. Overall they shot 36-91 from the floor (39.6%) and committed 19 turnovers which led to 27 Laker points.