SAN FRANCISCO — For one quarter of this Warriors vs Lakers clash on Friday night, the Golden State Warriors looked finished. The Los Angeles Lakers were running them off their own floor at Chase Center, Luka Doncic was putting on a personal highlight reel, and the scoreboard read 38-15 after twelve minutes.
Then the Warriors did something no NBA team had ever done.
Golden State outscored Los Angeles 38-15 in the second quarter — a perfect mirror image of the first — to tie the game 53-53 at halftime, then pulled away for a 112-95 win in NBA Cup group play. The Warriors are the first team in the shot-clock era, dating back to the 1954-55 season, to trail by at least 23 points after the first quarter and be tied by halftime.
It was revenge, served cold, for a Warriors team still smarting from its season-opening loss to these same Lakers in the first Warriors vs Lakers meeting of the season.
Warriors vs Lakers: A First-Quarter Nightmare
The opening quarter was the Luka Doncic show. The Lakers star poured in 21 points in the first period alone, carving up Golden State’s defense with the casual brilliance that has defined his career. Every Warrior defensive scheme seemed to end the same way: Doncic rising up, ball dropping through the net.
At 38-15, the Chase Center crowd had gone quiet, and the Lakers looked every bit the contender many expected them to be. Golden State, meanwhile, looked like a team sleepwalking through a back-to-back.
What happened next will be talked about for years.
Warriors vs Lakers: The Historic Second Quarter
Whatever was said in the Warriors’ huddle between quarters should be bottled and sold. Golden State came out for the second period transformed — flying around on defense, pushing the pace, and raining threes.
The 38-15 quarter was the exact inverse of the first, and when the halftime horn sounded with the score knotted at 53-53, history had been made. In more than seventy years of shot-clock basketball, no team had ever dug out of a 23-point first-quarter hole to reach halftime level.
Momentum, that most mysterious force in sports, had fully changed sides.
Warriors vs Lakers: Curry Drops Doncic in the Third
The second half belonged to Stephen Curry. The longtime franchise star put up 31 points on 11-for-23 shooting, including a blistering 8-for-14 from three-point range. He added 4 rebounds, 6 assists, a steal and a block in 31 minutes — doing, as the saying goes, a little bit of everything.
The play of the night — maybe an early candidate for play of the year — came in the third quarter. Curry isolated against Doncic, hit him with a filthy step-back that sent the Lakers star tumbling to the floor, and rained a three-pointer over him. Chase Center erupted.
To Doncic’s credit, he answered right back, quieting the crowd with a three of his own on the next possession. The competitive fire between the two stars was unmistakable all night. There had been chatter all week about Doncic’s rematch with Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg after their dust-up in the season opener, and the edge carried over — words were exchanged, juices were flowing.
Doncic finished with 37 points, but on this night, it wasn’t enough.
What the Warriors vs Lakers Comeback Means
The victory was Golden State’s third straight, pulling the Warriors back to .500 and injecting real belief into a team that looked lost just two weeks ago. For the Lakers, the loss dropped them to 4-2 — still a strong start, but a reminder that no lead is safe against a Curry-led team with momentum.
NBA Cup group play adds extra spice to every Warriors vs Lakers game, and Friday’s classic showed why the tournament is winning over skeptics. Every group-stage result feeds into the knockout rounds, so a win like this carries weight beyond the standings — it is the kind of victory that can define a team’s Cup run.
A 23-point comeback, a historic statistical quirk, a superstar duel, and a signature Curry moment — all in one October night of Warriors vs Lakers basketball. The Warriors and Lakers meet again down the road. If Friday was any indication, circle the date.
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Source: USA Today