Lakers at Warriors - 1987 Western Conference Semifinals - G4

Game 4 Western Conference Semifinals

Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

Oakland, CA

May 10, 1987

L.A. Lakers at Golden State Warriors

The Lakers led the series 3-0 and were looking to close out and advance to the next round. The Lakers won the first game by 9, the second game by 15, and the third game by 25. They were the top seed in the West and finished the regular season with a record of 65-17. They defeated the Denver Nuggets 3 games to none to advance to this round. The Lakers made it all the way to the NBA Finals 5 of the previous 7 years and won the title 3 of those times. Lakers head coach Pat Riley was in his 6th season in that position and 9th season overall with the team.

The Warriors were the 3rd seed in the West and finished the regular season 42-40. Two of those wins were against the Lakers but they also lost 4 games against the Lakers during the regular season. They defeated the Utah Jazz 3 games to 2 to advance to semifinals. The Warriors were in the playoffs for the first time since 1977. The Warriors head coach was George Karl. This was his first season coaching the Warriors and third season as an NBA head coach. It was also his first winning season as a head coach.

The Warriors came out strong in the first quarter. They exchanged a couple baskets with the Lakers but then they went on a run and pushed the score to 11-4 in their favor. The Lakers quickly came back with a run of their own and scored a dozen unanswered points. The Lakers owned the rest of the quarter which ended with them ahead 34-27.

The Warriors hung in there in the second quarter but didn't get any closer than 5 points. The Lakers pushed the lead up to 11 points on more than one occasion. The Warriors were down by 8 at the half with the score 65-57. The leading scorers in the game, at the half, were Byron Scott for the Lakers and Joe Barry Carroll for the Warriors. Both scored 15 points in the first half. 

The Lakers held on to the lead throughout the third quarter. The Warriors closed to within 6 points a few times but were unable to get any closer than that. The Lakers biggest lead in the third was 12 until the very end of the quarter. The score at at the end of the quarter was 102-88.

The Warriors opened the 4th quarter strong. Sleepy Floyd did most of the scoring as the Warriors went on a 13-2 run and pulled to within 3. Floyd continued to score and with some help from some of his teammates they took the lead and held on to it. The Lakers did not give up but the shots kept dropping for the Warriors. The Lakers got to within 2 with a couple minutes to go but that was as close as they got. The final score was 121-129.

Floyd finished with 51 points, 29 of those points were scored in the 4th quarter and 39 in the second half. Both of those were NBA playoff records which still stand to this day. The Lakers won the next game and closed out the series. They would go on to beat Seattle in the Western Conference Finals and win the NBA championship over the Boston Celtics. This game against the Warriors was their only loss in the playoffs prior to the NBA Finals.

The quality of the picture and the sound of the recording that I watched was good. There was a short stretch in the 2nd quarter when the picture got a bit fuzzy. The recording included most but not every single play of the game. It seemed like there was some footage trimmed as they approached or came out of commercial breaks.

This was a good game to watch but it didn't really get exciting until the 4th quarter. The announcers spent a little too much time telling stories. I wish they had focused more on the game at hand. It also would have helped if they had shown the score and the time on the screen a little more frequently than they did.