The shorthanded Los Angeles Lakers had the advantage over the Golden State Warriors for a brief moment during the two teams’ preseason finale Friday night. For all of 115 seconds to open the game.
After that, the sharpshooting Warriors wrestled away permanent control of their encounter. Golden State got off to a dominant 66-40 first half start, compounding the beatdown with a robust 66-34 second half, to finish with a whopping 58-point edge, 132-74.
Even the usually enthused Stu Lantz was ready to pack it in after the third quarter, given that the contest was a lopsided blowout and ultimately a meaningless exhibition.
There was more to the Lakers’ lopsided loss than the numbers initially suggest, however. That’s because head coach JJ Redick sat his top 10 players. All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis; starters Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell, and Rui Hachimura; and bench pieces Gabe Vincent, Max Christie and Dalton Knecht all rested.
Backup big men Jarred Vanderbilt and Christian Wood continue to recuperate from offseason surgeries. Golden State head coach Steve Kerr, however, started all of his healthy vets, outside of All-NBA point guard Stephen Curry. A massive talent deficit yielded the epic blowout.
To start, Redick brought in LeBron’s son, No. 55 draft pick Bronny James, in the stead of his old man as a 6-foot-2 small forward. Veteran Cam Reddish started up a position at power forward, Jaxson Hayes manned the paint as the club’s starting five, second-year point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino did very little as the team’s starting point guard, and Exhibit 10 signing Quincy Olivari starred at shooting guard.
You’d think the Warriors would have dominated primarily with their 3-point marksmanship, and that was part of the problem, but hardly the only issue. In that department, the Warriors went 13-of-36 (36.1 percent) from beyond the arc, while the Lakers shot 7-of-29 (24.1 percent).
Golden State also dominated Los Angeles in points in the paint, 68-36, while the Lakers coughed up the ball to the tune of a whopping 28 turnovers (the Warriors had 13). Olivari and Bronny James looked particularly rough in this respect. At one point in the fourth quarter, Olivari almost stole the ball from a fellow Laker.
The story of the night, from a long-term perspective, was Bronny James’ excitingly prolific night. The 6-foot-2 point guard had his first double-digit scoring night of the preseason, scoring 17 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field (1-of-5 from beyond the arc) and 2-of-2 form the foul line. He chipped in four rebounds, three steals, a block and an assist — though he posted a brutal -37 plus-minus. Among the Lakers, however, that was actually the fourth-best such metric of the night.
Bronny’s output around the rim was especially encouraging.
Olivari, however, had the bigger night. In a game-high 39:01, he scored 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field (5-of-9 from beyond the arc) and 1-of-1 shooting from the charity stripe. He also pulled down seven rebounds and passed for two assists. Yes, he chipped in a team-most seven turnovers, too, just one worse than Hood-Schifino’s similarly abysmal six. But nobody’s perfect, and Olivari’s scoring ability is at least intriguing.
How the Lakers opt to proceed with Olivari going forward remains to be seen, though it’s still most likely he’ll be waived and signed to the South Bay Lakers on an affiliate deal.
It’s also possible the Lakers will decide to waive a current two-way player and promote Olivari, as he’s been significantly more impressive than Colin Castleton (who struggled to score in the paint despite being 7-foot-1) or Armel Traore (who made 0 percent of his 1.3 triple tries a night).
