Top Takeaways from Steph Curry, Warriors vs. LeBron James, Lakers

These were not the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors teams the NBA expected to put in the national spotlight.

The Warriors were in the midst of a prolonged skid as Draymond Green continues to sit out with a back injury, while the biggest noise the Lakers have made all season is a series of repeated clangs off a backboard.

That didn't stop them from putting on a show Saturday night.

LeBron James set his Los Angeles career-high with 56 points and 10 rebounds, leading the Lakers to a torrid fourth-quarter comeback in a 124-116 win over the Warriors.

James became the fourth player age-37 or older to score 50 in a game, joining Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Jamal Crawford. The Lakers entered the game with four straight losses and seven in their last eight, leading to speculation of a Russell Westbrook benching heading into the contest.

"Our guys were following me off the floor tonight going into the locker room, and they asked me, 'How does it feel to score 56?'" James told reporters after the game. "I said, 'Right now, I don't give a damn about the 56. I'm just happy we got a win.' That's just literally the first thing that came to my mind."

Stephen Curry dropped a team-high 30 for the Warriors, who have now dropped four straight of their own. Golden State, which led by as many as 12 points in the second half, has now dropped behind the Memphis Grizzlies for second place in the Western Conference. 

At age 37, Michael Jordan was somewhere on a golf course with a drink in one hand and a $500 cigar hanging out of the corner of his mouth.

Larry Bird? Probably somewhere fishing on a pontoon boat.

Kobe Bryant? Literally limping to the finish line of his career.

Of the all-time greats, only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar matches LeBron's longevity—and even he had the benefit of being 7'2" with the most unblockable shot in NBA history.

Old-timers will scream about the advances of modern medicine, and that's fair to a certain extent. Hyperbaric chambers weren't exactly all the rage when Bird was on his hands and knees slapping concrete down in his mother's driveway. 

But that discounts the once-in-a-lifetime supernova we're seeing every night LeBron steps on the floor for this hapless Lakers team. 

Bryant had all the advances of modern medicine and still broke down. Dwyane Wade was a sixth man oiling up his rusted-out knee joints with WD-40 before every game. Carmelo Anthony's a spot-up shooting turnstile. Russell Westbrook was drafted five years after James and is a shell of himself. 

LeBron? He's the first player in NBA history to score 50 points in a game both before his 21st birthday and after his 35th birthday. 

This is not normal.

But the most spectacular thing about James—the most underrated aspect of this performance and his continued greatness as a whole—is the fact it feels completely normal.

LeBron entered his age-37 season expected to lead his team to a championship. Only the Brooklyn Nets had better championship odds. The fear of this version of LeBron—one that is absolutely on the decline but still one of the game's best half-dozen players—ran so deep the Lakers, a team that didn't make it out of Round 1 a year ago, had better odds at winning than the actual defending NBA champions. 

The Lakers have been an abject failure of those expectations. Westbrook is a miscast mess with shaken confidence. Anthony Davis has been riddled with injuries and the worst long-range shooter in basketball when he's been on the floor. The surrounding pieces, brought in to help shoulder the load when the three stars couldn't, have gone bust.

Perhaps James' greatest failure was the hubris of GM LeBron thinking Player LeBron could make this roster work. 

Player LeBron? That man has been LeBron every step of the way. His 29.4 points per game are his highest since 2009-10—the final year of his first Cleveland stint. He's doing it on an efficient 52.2 percent clip, his highest shooting percentage as a Laker, while shooting his best free-throw percentage in a decade and playing solid (albeit inconsistent) defense. This is also the first time since 2009-10 that James has averaged at least one block per game.

As James was pouring in the points Saturday night, there was no feeling we were seeing the last iconic moment from an all-time great like Kobe's 60-point finale or MJ dropping 51 wearing a Wizards uniform. There was simply the feeling that this is what LeBron does. That there will be another incredible moment 48 hours later when the Lakers travel to San Antonio. And maybe another national TV spectacle next weekend in Phoenix. Because that's what we've all been conditioned to believe for nearly 20 years now. 

This is not normal. 

When the Warriors were in the midst of their miserable 2019-20 season without Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, Draymond Green became the national butt of the joke. Charles Barkley called him out for his "triple-single" averages, and Warriors fans wondered if Green's falling out with Kevin Durant was the main culprit in KD bolting for Brooklyn.

It didn't help that Green looked completely disinterested on both ends of the floor, missing his first All-Defensive team since 2013-14 and shooting a miserable 38.9 percent from the floor.

A more locked-in Green returned to All-Defensive form last season and was on pace for his best season in a half-decade this season before missing the last two months with a back injury.

While it's undoubtedly hurt the Warriors' title hopes, their play without Green should quiet all doubters of his value once and for all. Golden State is 15-15 in the 30 games Green has missed this season and 28-6 with him on the floor. That's a 67-win pace with Green in the lineup—and without Thompson, who returned the Jan. 9 game against Cleveland that saw Green play only one minute before exiting.

Green could never be confused with being the Warriors' best player, but he's been the fulcrum that takes them from being a solid team to a juggernaut every year since their first title run.

"When Draymond is out there, it just makes everyone's job easier," Andre Iguodala told Kendra Andrews of ESPN. "Draymond, he's all over the floor. Defensively guarding 1 through 5, getting charges, blocking shots, every steal, everything."

The strain without Green on the defensive end is obvious to even his most ardent detractors. He has a Defensive Player of the Year trophy and six All-Defensive team selections to his name; these things are quantifiable.

But it may be Green's absence on offense where the Warriors have seen their greatest impact. Golden State is a solid-but-unspectacular 12th in defensive efficiency since Green went out of the lineup. During the same timeframe, the Warriors cratered all the way to 15th on the offensive end.

Before Green's injury, the Warriors were blitzing the league with an NBA-best defensive rating and an offense that had Curry playing at an MVP level without Thompson in the lineup.

It's no coincidence the most prolonged shooting slump of Curry's career has come with Green on the mend. The Warriors have foisted an incredible offensive load on the two-time MVP, handing him both his own and Green's roles on the offense and surrounding him with players who struggle to create for others.

"Understand that, especially without Draymond for this extended stretch, our offense is a little different," Curry said. "There is a lot more responsibility in terms of playmaking, being on the ball and handling that attention."

In essence: Draymond is the key that unlocks the Warriors' entire potential. The team is hopeful he'll be back in the lineup sooner than later, but if he comes back at a diminished state, Golden State's ceiling goes from title contender to lucky to get out of the first round.