Lakers eliminate Warriors in 6 games, advance to West finals

LOS ANGELES — The Lakers started the season eight games under .500. Now they’re four wins away from the NBA Finals.

Los Angeles took down the defending champion Golden State Warriors, 122-101, in Game 6 to advance to the Western Conference finals. The No. 7-seeded Lakers will go on the road to play the West’s top seed, the Denver Nuggets, in Game 1 on Tuesday.

The Lakers started the season 2-10 under first-year coach Darvin Ham and completely overhauled the roster midway through the year thanks to a flurry of trades by vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka. They became just the fourth team in league history to be that many games below .500 and reach the conference finals since conferences were instated in the 1970-71 season, according to Elias Sports Bureau research.

“I felt like if we ever had an opportunity to upgrade our roster and put some more balance around myself and (Anthony Davis), I felt like we could make a run,” LeBron James said, looking back at L.A.’s rocky start.

Their run continued Friday with a vintage performance from James.

James had 30 points on 10-for-14 shooting, 9 rebounds and 9 assists as he snapped a personal streak of 18 straight playoff games scoring under 30 points.

With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — the man James passed as the league’s all-time leading scorer in February — sitting in the second row at Crypto.com Arena, James joined Abdul-Jabbar as the only other player aged 38 or older to put up at least 30 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a playoff game.

“I just wanted to come in and make some plays and be efficient and defend at a high level and help (Davis) rebound,” James said. “Help our team make winning plays. And I was able to make a few of…