The Los Angeles Lakers returned to the court for some more preseason action on Tuesday night, taking on the Golden State Warriors in Las Vegas. It marked the Lakers’ first game in T-Mobile Arena since they won the inaugural NBA Cup there last December.
Even though this was only a preseason game, it’s always fun to watch LeBron James and Stephen Curry square off on a basketball court. They are back to being enemies after teaming up to win gold for USA Basketball at the Olympics this past summer, and in this one, it was Curry and the Warriors who came out on top with a 111-97 win over the Lakers.
The Lakers got off to a hot start with Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura both connecting from deep to take a 10-3 lead. Curry helped get his team settled in though with a triple of his own and the Warriors regained the lead midway through the quarter.
Anthony Davis got going offensively in the last few minutes of the first quarter with 11 points, but the Warriors were hot from 3 and led 31-28 going into the second.
The Warriors stayed hot to begin the second quarter and stretched their lead to eight before Reaves ended the run with a triple.
Davis continued his first half dominance when he returned to the game, and after going down by 10, the Lakers closed the half strong to cut their deficit to 55-51. Curry beat the buzzer with a long triple, however, giving the Warriors a 58-51 halftime lead.
After a quiet first half, D’Angelo Russell began the third quarter with back-to-back triples. Outside of him and Davis though, the Lakers continued to struggle on the offensive end.
The stars from the Lakers were out around the midway point of the third, giving the young guys some more opportunities in the preseason. With the Warriors beating the third quarter buzzer with another triple though, they took their biggest lead of the night into the fourth at 83-70.
Curry came back in the game to begin the fourth and immediately led a 5-0 run to stretch the lead to 18. With the game effectively out of reach, JJ Redick let Jalen Hood-Schifino, Bronny James and the rest of the Summer League squad finish out the fourth quarter.
While Dalton Knecht struggled from the field when playing with the regular rotation players, he made a few to close out the game, providing a positive for the Lakers in a blowout loss to fall to 1-3 in the preseason.
What’s next for Lakers
The Lakers will close out the preseason with a rare road back-to-back, taking on the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night and then the Warriors once again on Friday. Meanwhile, Opening Night is just a week away as the Lakers will host the Minnesota Timberwolves next Tuesday.
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