Lakers Led the Warriors by 25, Then Lost by 17

Stephen Curry scored 31 in Golden State's 112-95 NBA Cup win, and a 38-15 second quarter wiped out the Lakers' early cushion.

The Lakers were up 25 on the Golden State Warriors early in the second quarter Friday night, and they lost by 17. The final in San Francisco was 112-95, according to TheSportsDB.

The Lakers host the Toronto Raptors on Sunday at 6 p.m. PT, Silver Screen and Roll reported. Stephen Curry led Golden State with 31 points in the NBA Cup game. The Associated Press, in a recap carried by TSN, reported that no team trailing by 20 or more after one quarter had ever won by this much in the shot-clock era.

The old mark belonged to the Warriors too. On March 4, 1976, they were down 41-18 to the Chicago Bulls after a quarter and won by 14. Friday's group beat that by three, and almost all the damage came in one 12-minute stretch.

The start couldn't have gone better for Los Angeles. Luka Doncic scored 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting in the first quarter alone, with five 3-pointers, AP reported, and the Lakers led 38-15 after one. Reaves went to the line right after the break and pushed it to 25 with both shots.

Then Golden State won the second quarter 38-15, the same score flipped. Silver Screen and Roll noted that the run came during Doncic's usual second-quarter rest, and that Golden State reserve De'Anthony Melton got seven fast points early in the period before the Warriors closed the half on a 16-2 run to tie it. A tie at the half after facing a first-quarter hole of 23 or more had never happened in the shot-clock era, postseason games counted, according to AP.

Those minutes belonged to the second unit, and the second unit didn't show up. The Lakers' bench scored seven points all night on 3-of-16 shooting, Silver Screen and Roll reported. Two Warriors reserves, Melton with 16 and Georges Niang with 11, had 27 between them, AP reported.

The Lakers did punch back. They went up by nine early in the third before a 12-4 Warriors run tied it again. Curry hit a 3 over Doncic midway through the quarter, and Doncic answered with one of his own. With 21.8 seconds left in the third, as the crowd booed and chanted at him, Doncic drew a technical. Matisse Thybulle got one in the fourth.

The ball kept leaving Los Angeles' hands. The Lakers turned it over 22 times, and Golden State scored 27 points off those mistakes, Silver Screen and Roll reported. Reaves had 21 points but eight of the turnovers. The Lakers did score 25 points off 17 Warriors giveaways, 10 of them in the first quarter, AP reported. That's how the Lakers built the lead in the first place.

Golden State led by five after three, and Brandin Podziemski, who finished with 21, helped push the lead to double digits. Curry passed Dominique Wilkins for 18th on the NBA's career scoring list somewhere in that fourth quarter. The Lakers were down 15 with 6:16 left and cleared the bench with 1:21 to go.

Doncic still got his 37, to go with seven boards and five assists. Take away the first quarter and that's 16 over the last three.

Last week in Los Angeles, the Lakers ran these same Warriors off the floor in the season opener. For one quarter Friday, they were doing it again.

Source: silverscreenandroll.com, retrieved October 31, 2026. Other sources: tsn.ca.