After the Lakers took a 3-1 lead at home, the series shifted back to San Francisco for Game 5 tonight. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers made quite a splash while getting in for Game 5. They were confident about wrapping the series up, but Stephen Curry and co. were ready for a fight.
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Stephen Curry made it his job to get his teammates engaged as Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green both showed up with 20-point nights. They took an 11-point half-time lead and didn’t let go of the same. The game ended with the Dubs winning 121-106 and forcing a Game 6.
After the game, LeBron James spoke to the media and addressed the ‘flopping’ comments Steve Kerr made ahead of Game 5.
LeBron James responds to Steve Kerr’s flopping comments
After practice yesterday, Steve Kerr spoke to the media, where he expressed his issues with flopping, especially by the Lakers. He said,
“Like I said, you give them credit, but you lament the fact that, as a league, we’re going to reward that type of play with — the game and the series and all that stuff’s at stake, you would hope that officials would recognize when a guy just takes a dive.”
“You give them credit, but you lament the fact that as a league we’re going to reward that type of play …”
The Free Throw disparity stands with Kerr’s logic. The Lakers have attempted 118 FTs this series, compared to the Warriors’ 66. Between Games 3 and 4 alone, the Lakers shot 57 FTs compared to the Warriors’ 29.
First, Darvin Ham responded to the same comments tonight. He said,
“We don’t teach flopping. We teach our players to play downhill and attack the paint and be forceful.”
“We don’t teach flopping. We teach our players to play downhill and attack the paint and be forceful.”- Lakers head coach Darvin Ham
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 11, 2023
After the game, LeBron Janes doubled down on the same. He said,
“We don’t work on flopping… We’re just not a team that goes out there looking for flopping opportunities. That’s just not us. It’s actually never been any team that I’ve played on in my 20 years where we have been a flopping team.”
Raahib Singh is an NBA Journalist and Content Strategist at The SportsRush. A Computer Science Engineer by qualification, Raahib's passion for sports drew him towards TSR. He started playing basketball at 14 and has been following the NBA since 2013. His entry into the basketball world perfectly coincided with Stephen Curry putting the league on notice. Having followed the league for a long time, he decided to use his knowledge to become a sportswriter with The SportsRush in 2020. Raahib loves to put up some shots in his spare time, watch Cricket, Formula 1, and/or read a nice thriller.
