Warriors beat Lakers for season finale, Thompson scores 33

SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors ended their final regular season home game with a 128-112 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Klay Thompson scored 33 points and had six 3-pointers in the first half.

“I thought it was Klay’s best game,” said head coach Steve Kerr. “Just in terms of shot selection. I really like where Klay is at now, he looks more comfortable and more relaxed.”

Thompson went 6-for-10 from the arc and had 31 points to end the third period. He scored 15 points in the second quarter to give Golden State a 65-62 lead to end the half. The Lakers dominated the first half by going to the free-throw line and hitting 3s. They had 38 attempts from the line for the night.

“I was taking great shots within the flow of the offense,” Thompson said. “I forced maybe one or two bad shots but I did a great job tonight.”

Thanks to Thompson’s explosive offense the Warriors had a 91-84 lead to end the third. Jordan Poole scored 10 points in the fourth before he finished with 19 for the night along with  a career-high 11 assists. Prior to tonight, Poole’s previous high was 10 assists on March 25, 2022 at Atalanta.

“It felt really good putting my teammates in really easy situations to score the ball,” said Poole said.

“Jordan has been amazing,” Kerr said. “He’s had a fantastic season. He’s done anything we’ve asked him to do.”

Poole has been outstanding this entire season, he’s started in place of both Thompson and Stephen Curry who were out with injuries. He’s improved his game on every level and he continues to get better. Poole will participate in his first playoff run in the upcoming weeks.

The Warriors faced their biggest hurdle by sending LA to the line in the first half and allowed open shots. Once they started having better ball movement int he second half, they had 39 assists, their best in the month of April thus far. Wiggins finished with 19 points, Draymond Green added 10 points and the bench combined for 45 points on the night.

“We didn’t execute to start the game,” explained Kerr. “We turned it over fouling, they got to the line 20 times in the first half. But I liked the effort in the second half. The bench was fantastic!”

Golden State has 51 wins with two games remaining in the regular season. The Warriors have 50 wins for the seventh time in the last nine seasons. Golden State looks forward to their first playoff appearance in 2 years. Despite the number of injuries this season, the team had an incredible year to place 3rd in the Western Conference standings.

Notes

For the seventh consecutive 82-game NBA season, the Warriors have sold out each of the teams 41 regular season home games. The current sellout streak stands at 418 games overall.

“The first couple of years at Chase we were in the midst of the pandemic,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “And for most of one season we had no fans and part of the other reason, we just opened up the building and everybody was injured and had the worst record in the league.

We didn’t give our fans anything to cheer about, so this is the first time it’s really come together and it’s been fun to establish that fact. I think it’s one of the keys to having a really good season in the NBA is controlling your home court and we’ve been able to do that.”

Golden States next upcoming games will be April 9th at San Antonio and April 10th at New Orleans to conclude the regular season. 

The next home game will be the start of the 2022 NBA playoffs and single game tickets are now on sale for the first round online at warriors.com

Photo by Warriors/Twitter

Malaika Bobino

Malaika Bobino, an Oakland, California native, is a Bay Area sports journalism powerhouse and influencer. With nearly two decades of experience at both the Oakland Post and the Huffington Post, she is always on the front lines of the iconic Bay Area sports scene. Bobino covered the Oakland A’s postseason trips, all three of the San Francisco Giants World Series, was present for all three Golden State Warriors three NBA Championships and covered the 49ers last two Super Bowl appearances

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