One great quarter was all it took.
On a night plagued by turnovers and a certain lack of crispiness, the Lakers exploded in the third quarter to put away the Warriors in San Francisco.
Playing without LeBron James (groin), the offense took a little longer than usual to get going.
Anthony Davis and Avery Bradley did most of the damage in the first quarter, with the second unit taking over in the rest of what essentially was an even half.
What happened after intermission was a whole other story.
The Lakers made 16-of-23 shots and dropped a 40-piece on a short-handed Golden State team that had lost Andrew Wiggins right before tipoff and Draymond Green in the second quarter due to a pair of early technical fouls.
Everyone got their pound of flesh in a balanced effort.
Rajon Rondo did some dishin’. AD and JaVale McGee fought down low and dominated in the paint. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Avery Bradley displayed more of their latest hot shooting.
And Kyle Kuzma, well…he went on #KuzControl.
The Flintstone was allowed to handle the rock and generate offense, and he did it in bunches, including this hammer dunk over Juan Toscano-Anderson and Ky Bowman that brought the bench to its feet:
The final period was a mere formality, yet one in which Frank Vogel’s squad held the home team to under 90 points.
It might have not been the prettiest performance of the year, but the Lakers reached the 45-win plateau for 2019-20 thanks to their seventh straight victory, and extended their road winning streak against Western Conference foes to 18.