3 things the Lakers can’t allow to happen vs. Warriors

1. Steph Curry going off

Even if the Lakers cut Wiggins off and put their size advantage to good use, one player in a Warriors uniform could still submit the type of performance that would render all of those mini-victories meaningless. That player, of course, is Steph Curry, the NBA’s leading scorer at 32.0 points per game and an absolutely impossible individual cover.

Despite taking a career-high 12.7 attempts per game from downtown this year, Curry still hit 42.1 percent of them, helping him become the oldest player to lead the league in scoring since Michael Jordan. He’s also chipping in 5.8 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game for good measure, all while being opponents’ main defensive focus on a nightly basis. As his recent 46-9-7 outing against the Grizzlies to secure eighth place showed, Curry is just as dangerous in a high-stakes game as anyone, which is what makes this rematch with LeBron so fun.

It won’t be fun for the Lakers if Curry is the best player on the court, however. Los Angeles has as good a chance as anyone of stopping him, and Dennis Schroder actually did a good job on this front during their regular-season meetings this year. But Schroder also missed the last two weeks due to COVID-19 protocols and Steph Curry is Steph Curry, so there are no guarantees aside from this: If the Lakers find a way to bottle Curry up for 48 minutes, they’ll be advancing to face the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.