Lakers-Warriors Rare Playoff: No Waiting Another 32 Years For Next One - It's Thursday

Why did they wait so long to do this again?

Located just a day's drive from one another, the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors - seven NBA titles between them since 2009 - staged their first playoff game since May 14, 1991, Tuesday night in San Francisco.

The Lakers held off a furious 14-0 run by the defending champion Warriors over the final minutes to survive, 117-112 at the Chase Center.

"Man, no lead is safe with them obviously," said Lakers' center Anthony Davis, who dominated the game with 30 points, 23 rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots. "As we saw, they can get hot at any moment."

Anthony Davis Dominated Golden State

So can Davis. He had 23 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks in the first half as the Lakers led 65-64.

Anthony Davis became first Laker since Shaquille O'Neal in 2001 to score 30 or more with 20 or more rebounds in the playoffs in Lakers' win at Golden State Tuesday in Western Conference semi opener. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Davis became the first Lakers' player since Shaquille O'Neal to score 30 or more with 20 rebounds or more in a playoff game since the Lakers beat Philly in the NBA Finals opener in 2001. Los Angeles went on to win its second of three straight titles with Shaq and Kobe Bryant. Davis is only the fifth Laker to do that in 60 years - O'Neal (10), Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain (five) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (two).

The Lakers led 112-98 with 4:16 left before Stephen Curry sparked the 14-0 comeback. He hit a 3-pointer with 1:37 to go for the 112-112 tie, but the Warriors never took over the lead.

Curry led Golden State with 27 points with 6-of-13 shooting from 3-point range.

Golden State became the first NBA Playoff team in history to have three players hit six 3-pointers and lose. Jordan Poole also hit six and finished with 21 off the bench. The third Warrior with a half dozen 3-pointers was Klay Thompson, who had 25.

Lakers-Warriors Meet In Playoffs For 1st Time Since Magic

Thompson is the connection to the last Lakers-Golden State playoff series. His father is Mychal Thompson, who was on the Lakers' 1990-91 team that beat the Warriors four games to one in the Western Conference semifinals that season. The Lakers won the series with a 124-119 victory in overtime at the Forum in Los Angeles on a 20-foot jumper by James Worthy with 38 seconds left.

Magic Johnson scored 28 with 14 rebounds and 12 assists six months before his AIDS announcement that rocked the world. Worthy finished with 25, 10 rebounds and five assists. Sam Perkins scored 19 with 15 rebounds. Tim Hardaway led Golden State with 27, while Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin each had 26.

The Lakers advanced to the NBA Finals, but lost to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who won the first of their six championships from 1991-98.

"We know what this team can do," Davis said of Golden State. "We didn't do anything. We haven't done anything."

Los Angeles has to win three more against a team that trailed Sacramento 2-0 and 3-2 in the previous round, but won. The next game will be Thursday at Golden State (9 p.m., ESPN).

Philadelphia plays at Boston Wednesday night (8 p.m., TNT) in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Philadelphia won 119-115 on Monday to take a 1-0 lead.

The No. 7 seed Lakers did steal one on the road from the No. 6 seed Warriors. LeBron James added 22 points and 11 rebounds for Los Angeles.

"It's a confidence booster for us," Davis said. "We know we can win in this building. We can beat this team."

Lakers Appeared Stuck Late In The Game

And Golden State knows it can make a run against the usually slower Lakers.

"The Lakers look like they're playing in mud at this point," TNT analyst Stan Van Gundy said during the Warriors' 14-0 run.

"I thought we were the fresher team down the stretch," Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. "You saw the run we made. The last four minutes, we were the team with more energy. So, just couldn't get over the hump, but our guys made an incredible comeback."

Bring on the rest.

"The first game of the series is a feel-out game," Kerr said.

"It was a hell of a game one," Davis said. "There's no preparing for them, man. They don't really have any steady sets that they go to. Just a lot of randomness, continuous chaos, and they make it work. They don't stop moving. It's going to be a great series."