Warriors suffer another blowout loss to Lakers

So much for finding consistency.

After playing one of their best games of the season against the Utah Jazz on Sunday, the Golden State Warriors led an egg in their 128-97 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Stephen Curry led the way once again with 27 points. Montrezl Harrell had 27 points while LeBron James had a triple-double with 27 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds to lead the Lakers to their second blowout win over the Dubs in 2.5 weeks.

The Lakers got 71 points from their reserves, compared to the 38 points the Dubs’ bench scored.

L..A. has beaten Golden State handily in their last two meetings and gave up a 20-point lead in their first matchup of the season. The Lakers were missing Anthony Davis and Marc Gasol but still controlled the paint, outscoring the Warriors 68-40.

The Dubs looked sluggish after a decent first quarter. They were playing the second half of a back-to-back, and they looked especially slow on the defensive end, allowing L.A. to shoot 62.8 percent from the field.

Curry was dominant in the first quarter, scoring 15 points in the opening frame. The two teams went back-and-forth throughout, but the Lakers held a 29-26 lead going into the second.

The second unit couldn’t carry over its momentum from Sunday’s game against the Jazz. After the Dubs tied it up at 29-29, L.A. took advantage of the young bench players and went on a 15-5 run to open up a 44-34 lead.

Unfortunately, the Lakers continued to maintain control of the game once Curry and Draymond Green returned midway through the quarter. Golden State’s defense couldn’t handle L.A.’s bullying tactics in the paint. Harrell had 19 points in the first half as the Lakers shot a ridiculous 68.6 percent from the field, outscoring the Dubs 36-18 in the paint over the first two quarters and took a 65-50 lead into the break.

The break didn’t do the Warriors any good. The Lakers continued to bully the Dubs at will in the third and completely shut down any Warrior not named Curry. The rest of the Golden State players were a combined 16-of-43 through three quarters as L.A. took a 93-73 lead into the fourth.

The Warriors are 20-20 after 40 games and sit just outside the Western Conference’s top-eight. The good news is that the schedule will begin to ease up, with five of their next seven games coming against teams seeded ninth or lower in their respective conferences.