Steph Curry can remind us on Sunday that preseason results don’t matter, but there’s still hope to negotiate a deal. The Golden State Warriors, however, were expected to easily beat the Los Angeles Lakers team who were playing without their core trio, Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, and Walker Kessler.
They did business and dealing. It was Nellie’s night at the Chase Center on Tuesday night, and the Dubs’ late big coach was perfectly fine, but getting and running and scoring, scoring and some more scoring paid off.
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Golden State’s starting five of Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Yaxel Lendeborg, Gui Santos, and Draymond Green put on an absolute show on offense. They jumped out to an 11-2 lead in the first two minutes, and at the 6:55 mark Curry made the first of two four-point plays to give the Dubs a 27-13 advantage.
27 points in just over five minutes? Yep, Nellie would certainly have been proud of that performance.
In all, the Warriors poured in 45 points in the first quarter against a lackluster Los Angeles squad, and then added 36 more in the second quarter, locking up an 81-53 advantage at halftime. It was reminiscent of the score from Run TMC Warriors or Team We Believe. Appropriate tax.
Not surprisingly, since it was just the second preseason game of the year, the Warriors pulled Curry and Green at the half, but those two only needed a partial game to make an impression. Curry scored more points (16) than minutes played (14), while shooting 4-for-7 from the field and 3-for-6 from deep, dishing out five assists with no turnovers, and finishing with a game-high +26. Like Green, he only took one shot (for three, which he did), but he played a very active defense, dished out eight assists and was +25 in just 15 minutes.
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Steve Kerr also made a midnight call to Podziemski, who continues to be one of the stars of the camp. The lefty shot 7-for-11 from the field en route to 16 points in just 19 minutes.
Stool was never in danger of giving up the lead in the middle, but he certainly didn’t read where he left off in the first place. After scoring 81 points at the half, the second unit had only 15 points in the third quarter. But because of a strong defense, the Jets, who had only 22 in the fourth quarter, never got close.
Lendeborg has been the star outside of the Curry/Green/Podz trio as he continues to impress as a rookie. Like Podziemski, Lendeborg shot 7-for-11 from the field and finished with 17 points and nine rebounds. He certainly looks likely to earn a starting spot coming up on opening night in two weeks.
While the second half wasn’t quite the high-flying display it was, the Warriors still managed to separate themselves from the Jets, thanks to a late 22-4 run. And with that, the buzzer sounded on a festive night with the Dubs winning 124-98, moving their preseason record to 1-1.
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Golden State has a rare back-to-back preseason as they travel to Oregon to face the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm PT. You can expect Curry and Green to rest rather than play on consecutive days.