The Golden State Warriors made the trip down the coast to face the Lakers in Los Angeles on Tuesday night in a key battle in the Western Conference Play-In race. The winner of the game would take control of their own destiny for the 9-seed and get to host a win-or-go-home Play-In game next week, while the loser would need help to avoid having to pick up a pair of road wins to reach the playoffs.
As they are always a threat to do, the Warriors came out red-hot from the three-point line, hitting 15-of-22 from beyond the arc in the first half on their way to taking a 71-60 lead. While that’s not completely out of the ordinary for a team with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, what made the performance truly wild was it was Draymond Green, of all people, leading the charge. Green was a perfect 5-for-5 from three in the first half, lighting up the Lakers as they (understandably) left him open over and over again, but he continued to make them pay.
On his fifth three of the half, Kevin Harlan lost it on the call, declaring Green a “flamethrower” before noting he never thought those words would ever come out of his mouth.
That got a good laugh from Reggie Miller (and most everyone watching at home), and Harlan is right to be flabbergasted by the performance. While Green is having his second-best three-point shooting season of his career, hitting 37.7 percent from deep this year, that’s on 2.3 attempts per game and his most makes in a whole game coming into the night was four (also in Crypto.com Arena, but against the Clippers). On the whole, he had 15 games all season with more than one made three, with 13 of those being games with two makes. Hitting five is truly out of character, but when you’re hot you’re hot and Green was indeed a flamethrower in the first half in L.A.