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Festus Ezeli rose up for a dunk and was blocked by the rim. Andre Iguodala had a two-on-one fastbreak and somehow turned it over when he passed to a nonexistent random third man trailer. Stephen Curry threw one into the stands because. Justin Holiday stepped out of bounds while catching a pass. Marreese Speights was blocked by Ronnie Price. Or Nick Young. Or Byron Scott. Harrison Barnes decided to shoot a layup with his left hand while wide open on the right side. Ronnie Price hit threes. Carlos Boozer and Robert Sacre dominated the glass. Jeremy Lin hit bank jumpers at the buzzer. I am deathly certain that the Lakers would lose this game with Kobe Bryant on the floor.
The "game" was high comedy all the way around. The Golden State Warriors suffered their second letdown game of the season - after their close winner against the Orlando Magic. That's the thing about letdown games, though, there's no way of knowing when they're going to happen. When a team is playing as well as the Warriors, moving the ball to perfection against the Sacramento Kings, you just don't expect them to reach back into the time machine and run isolation sets and turn the ball over with reckless abandon against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Kobe-less Lakers, for that matter, which is a hilarious story for another time (check out the Lakers postgame comments all season for all the fun).
Games like this happen are extra trolley by the Basketball Gods. You have to respect the outright taunting. Where's the fun in breaking a streak against the Orlando Magic, with which the Warriors and their fans exhibit any emotion towards? Two losses on the back end of a back-to-back against the Phoenix Suns and Memphis Grizzlies are absolutely acceptable. Against the San Antonio Spurs? Duh. So of course the first real loss of the season comes against the Los Angeles Lakers, without 15% shooting head snake Kobe Bryant, with Ronnie Price canning threes like he's somehow Stephen Curry. Of course the Lakers were the first team to shoot over 50% from the field against the Warriors. Meanwhile, 808s and Heartbreaks just came on iTunes shuffle as I open up this page so Peak Troll goes to my laptop as well as the Basketball Gods.
This game pretty much peaked when Speights "AHHH"d as he flopped in rebound position and Carlos Boozer gathered the board and scored a layup with no one around him while yelping his usual "AYYYEEE!" Only thing funnier would be if Andris Biedrins somehow found his way onto the Lakers roster and nailed a free throw to clinch a win.
Well done, everyone.
Leftover Observations:
The Dubs stay in Los Angeles to play against the Clippers on Christmas.