After a dominant first half, the Lakers’ backups couldn’t keep up with the Warriors’ deep bench as Golden State pulled away for a 129-125 victory. Neither LeBron James nor Anthony Davis played after halftime.
After missing Wednesday’s game, James came back and played the first half tonight, finishing with 12 points, 5 assists, and 2 rebounds in 24 minutes. Davis came back onto the court and scored 13 points while going 1-2 from deep; head coach Darvin Ham would want to see his star big shoot six threes each game, so it’s encouraging that Davis has made half of his tries.
The Lakers are 2-2 in preseason play heading into Sunday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks and the debut of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.
The Lakers started the same five players (Kevin Love, Brandon Ingram, Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell, and Taurean Prince) they did the last time Davis and James played. Each starter on this team scored in the first minutes as they battled it out with the Warriors.
The Lakers ran on an 11-0 run after bringing in Rui Hachimura, Max Christie, and Christian Wood. With a big like Wood sliding to the basket, this team possessed the ideal balance of inside and outside play thanks to the exceptional 3-point shooting of its members. At the end of the first quarter, L.A. had a 60% 3-point clip on nine attempts, a total that had never been seen from a Lakers squad in recent memory.
All game long, Steph Curry was Steph Curry, scoring 12 points on 4-6 shooting, but the Lakers answered every Golden State scoring explosion with their own. Los Angeles entered halftime with a 70-63 advantage because to contributions from nine different players, three of whom scored in double figures.
James’s night was done at that point, but the rest of the Lakers’ starters played in the third. After a slow start (10-3 for Golden State), the Warriors quickly found their groove, and the game ended in a 73-73 tie after Davis was punished for a technical foul for showing his displeasure at a missed call.
Shortly after, Prince scored three straight threes and a running jumper to help the Lakers retake the lead. Prince has made a strong argument to be the Lakers’ fifth starter after a disappointing debut.
With Davis out of the game and the third quarter winding down, both sides turned to their reserves and future G-Leaguers, which led to a scoring explosion and a brief lead change for the Warriors, who went on an 11-0 run to end the quarter. But the score remained tied at 100 thanks to a strong finish by Christian Wood in the paint in the third quarter.
Young Lakers fought hard in the fourth quarter, with D’Moi Hodge draining a crucial three, Colin Castleton blocking a couple of shots, and Maxwell Lewis tossing a beautiful lob that Alex Fudge slammed home, but there wasn’t much to take away for the future.
The bad news is that it wasn’t enough. Winning on a last-second tip-in by Trayce Jackson-Davis and two made free throws, the Warriors almost escaped with the victory. Hodge’s missed three-pointer was the Lakers’ last chance to win the game, and it proved to be their undoing.
