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What we learned when Wiggins rejoined the Warriors in their preseason win over the Lakers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Warriors’ perfect preseason continued Tuesday night in Las Vegas, as they beat the Los Angeles Lakers 111-97 to improve to 5-0.
The teams will meet again Friday night at the Chase Center to conclude the exhibition schedule.
Andrew Wiggins shook off some rust in his preseason debut with the Warriors, scoring 11 points in 21 minutes, and that added another wrinkle to the questions about what Golden State’s opening night starting lineup will be.
Steph Curry scored 16 points on just 6 of 18 shooting and 3 of 11 from 3-point range, but he also had five rebounds, six assists and two steals, giving Sin City fans plenty of reasons to get out of their seats. .
The Warriors’ preseason three-point barrage also continued, as they hit 45 long-range shots but only made 14. However, they outrebounded the Lakers 55-50, scoring 12 more points in the paint (52-40). and they won. better advantage off turnovers (20 Golden State points to 12 Los Angeles turnovers, compared to 11 of 14).
Brandin Podziemski did not play due to a broken nose he suffered in Golden State’s previous game, and De’Anthony Melton was ruled out due to back tightness Tuesday morning.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ win over the Lakers at T-Mobile Arena.
Wiggs is back
Before the preseason began, Warriors coach Steve Kerr praised the kind of way Wiggins appeared and publicly praised him for being the team’s second scoring option. Then a disease Wiggins sat out entire training camp and the first four preseason games until this contest in Las Vegas.
Immediately inserted into Golden State’s starting lineup, Wiggins’ first shot attempt was a botched floater that fell short. On his next scoring opportunity, he took advantage of an open lane and porous defense by Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell, who fouled Wiggins on his way to the basket. He made both free throws, which represented his only two points in the first quarter, as well as the first half.
Wiggins sat out the final seven minutes of the first quarter and returned at the start of the second. He made just one shot in the second quarter, missing a three-point attempt, and also missed two shots in the first minute of the third quarter, before an uncontested dunk gave him his first score.
While Wiggins started slow offensively, shooting 3-for-9, he was 5-for-5 at the free throw line and, more importantly, had several strong defensive stretches.
Changing the starters…again
The trickle-down effect of Wiggins’ return was another new starting lineup.
The Warriors have now played five preseason games and have used five different starters. This one also had Wiggins in a different position than usual.
Instead of his typical small forward role, Wiggins moved to shooting guard, joining Curry in the backcourt. They were joined by Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. That group was never on the court together last season.
If Kuminga does indeed transition to more than three, it’s certainly possible that these five players will spend time together, whether they’re starters or not.
The space looks more like the mid-1990s than 2024, but that’s not taking into account the shooting improvements Kuminga has shown, and fingers crossed that last season was an outlier of poor shooting for Wiggins. Essentially, the group surrounds Curry with more length, athleticism and defense.
When Kerr made his first substitution, bringing in Buddy Hield for Wiggins, the Warriors trailed 16-14 at the 6:10 mark. The group did not share the court again until the start of the second half, when Golden State led 58-51. The score then was 67-59 in favor of the Warriors when Hield came on for Wiggins.
Overall, the starting five of Curry-Wiggins-Kuminga-Green-TJD played 11 minutes and 8 seconds together and scored a -1.
moody mania
Wiggins’ return was guaranteed to be the main plot of the game. Kerr changing his headlines once again was another easy topic of discussion.
He will let his game speak for him, but somehow Moses Moody keeps finding ways to deserve more recognition.
Moody, for three quarters, was a plus-20. His final plus/minus was a plus-17 in 19 minutes, second only to Kyle Anderson’s plus-22 in 17 minutes.
The longer the preseason goes on, the more evident it is that Moody should receive rotation minutes. He has earned them. For his fifth act of the preseason, he came off the bench and efficiently scored a team-high 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting and 5-of-7 from deep, with five rebounds and two assists.
Moody is now shooting 44.8 percent from behind the 3-point line this preseason.
Kerr’s decisions won’t be easy with such a deep rotation. However, his decision on Moody should be easy if the guard continues to play like this.
