The Golden State Warriors entered the second half of the season in a funny place. On the one hand, they had been one of the best teams in the NBA over the last month, having won eight of their last 10 games. On the other hand, they’d been squandering fourth-quarter leads with alarming regularity. Depending on your point of view, they were either turning a corner, or just finding new ways to display their fatal flaws.
In the first game out of the break, they were granted an exciting opponent: the Los Angeles Lakers, who sit directly ahead of the Dubs in the standings.