NBA = American professional basketball player Rui Hachimura's Lakers defeated last season's champion Warriors 6-122 in Game 101 of the conference semifinals of the playoffs to advance to the conference finals with a 4-2 record. Hachimura scored nine points and blocked two points to contribute to the victory both offensively and defensively.
The Lakers, who are 3-2 in the Western Conference semifinals, returned to their home home city of Los Angeles on the 12th for Game 6.
Hachimura came on in the middle of the first quarter and was scoreless in the first half, but after scoring his first goal with a free throw in the fourth quarter, he scored with a dunk from the break and a shot under the goal to take the lead to nine points.
Defensively, Hachimura recorded two blocks to prevent opponents from taking shots, and Hachimura scored nine points, two blocks and three rebounds in 1 minutes and 4 seconds of play.
The Lakers took a big lead early in the game and beat the Warriors 9-2 to improve their head-to-head record to 16-11 and advance to the Conference Finals.
Hachimura is the first Japan player to reach the Conference Finals.
In the Conference Finals, which begin on June 9, the Lakers will face the Nuggets, who are in first place in the regular season, with Game 2 coming back to their home stadium, Denver.
Hachimura: "I'm growing a lot."
After the match, Hachimura said, "I thought it wouldn't be easy against last season's champions, but I'm glad we won.
On reaching the Conference Finals for the first time as a Japan player, he said, "I was on a different team on the East Coast two or three months ago and now I can't believe I'm going to the Conference Finals with a team from the West Coast. Since coming to the Lakers, I have been able to expand my strengths even more, and I think I have grown a lot."