The Los Angeles Lakers got their first win of the preseason after defeating the Golden State Warriors 126-116 in Los Angeles. The game served as the official presentation of the team at their Crypto.com Arena and was the first joy for J.J. Redick’s team after two defeats against the Phoenix Suns and the Warriors. The Suns will be the next test for the Lakers this coming Wednesday morning and the Warriors will be the first opponent of the Los Angeles team in the regular season.
The game was also attended by a large group of international media, including MARCA, invited by Amazon Prime Video for the launch of its inaugural season broadcasting the NBA to the world. That will be on Tuesday, and the appetizer was the game at the Crypto.com Arena attended by LeBron James and Luka Doncic… but as spectators.
Neither of them played and both were on the Los Angeles bench. LeBron, as we know, will miss the preseason and for the first time the start of the regular season due to a sciatica problem. He will be dosed in the first few months.
Doncic will play soon
Doncic will play soon, in fact Redick said that he would play two of the four exhibition games that the Lakers had. He said this before the game against the Warriors, so there are only three left. In the case of the Slovenian, it is a matter of controlling his return to play after more than a month with his national team for the EuroBasket. There are no physical problems, just caution, as Luka is training normally. “I don’t feel obliged to do more because of LeBron’s absence,” Doncic said after his team’s last practice. “I don’t see it that way, I always do my best for the team to win.”
In the game against the Warriors, there were also absentees among the San Francisco team. Neither Stephen Curry nor Jimmy Butler were there and, in the absence of the stars, others played well. Such as Austin Reaves, who scored 21 points, or Rai Hachimura and Dalton Knecht, who scored 16 for the Lakers, or Brandin Podziemski, who scored 23 points for the Warriors.
The game was a straightforward affair. The Lakers were the better team in the first half and built a 21-point lead that was reduced to 17 at halftime, 63-46. The Warriors, with both teams’ substitutes on the court, reacted to make it 95-91 before the Lakers ended up sealing the win shortly before the end to achieve their first victory of the preseason.
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