NBA Preseason Wrap-Up: Warriors Rally in Vegas, Kawhi's Toronto Return and Haliburton's OKC Night

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2026

Preseason scores are supposed to be forgettable. Tuesday night refused to cooperate. Five games produced a homecoming seven years in the making in Toronto, an emotional return to the scene of a career-altering injury in Oklahoma City, a 20-point comeback in Las Vegas, and two wire-to-wire statements from young teams who look tired of waiting their turn. With the regular season opening next week, this was the night the dress rehearsals started to feel real. Here is everything that mattered, game by game.

Toronto 148, New York 98. Start with the loudest building of the night. Kawhi Leonard played his first game for the Toronto Raptors since 2019, and Scotiabank Arena treated a preseason Tuesday like a playoff reunion. As Sportsnet reported, Leonard scored a team-high 21 points in just 17 minutes, all before halftime, making six of 12 shots and four of eight three-pointers while adding five rebounds and two steals. He did not play in the second half, and Toronto did not need him to: Scottie Barnes scored 19 points on eight-of-10 shooting with six rebounds and four assists, rookie Collin Murray-Boyles matched him with 19 points and nine rebounds on a perfect seven-for-seven night, and RJ Barrett added 17. The Raptors led 42-22 after one quarter and 86-47 at halftime, shot 57 percent as a team, and improved to 2-1. The context matters, of course: New York rested its entire starting five — Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns — on the second night of a back-to-back, starting a bench unit led by Mohamed Diawara, who scored 13 points. The Knicks are 0-4 in the preseason and, as the New York Post noted, coach Mike Brown was evaluating process over scoreboard. Still, a 50-point margin is a 50-point margin, and for Toronto the night was never really about the opponent. It was about seeing Leonard in a Raptors uniform again, moving well on a minutes limit, and looking — in one half of basketball — like the player who once carried this city to a title.

Oklahoma City 114, Indiana 112, overtime. The best basketball of the night came at Paycom Center, and it came with history attached. Tyrese Haliburton returned to the floor where he tore his Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, and for one half he was simply the best player in the game. According to The Indianapolis Star, Haliburton scored 24 points in 18 minutes, all in the first half, shooting nine-for-14 overall and four-for-six from three, after sitting out Indiana's previous game with an ankle injury. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle praised how undaunted his guard looked, saying afterward that Haliburton had simply been himself. Indiana led 61-59 at halftime despite missing Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, T.J. McConnell and Jarace Walker, and got a double-double from Ivica Zubac — 13 points, 13 rebounds and five assists — plus 12 points from Kelly Oubre Jr. and 11 from Jay Huff. But Oklahoma City's depth told late. Jared McCain led the Thunder with 20 points off the bench, draining six three-pointers in 19 minutes, while Jalen Williams scored 16 points and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 15 points and six assists. Regulation ended tied at 100, and in overtime the game was decided by a name few expected: Zhaire Smith scored seven points in the extra period, including the go-ahead pull-up jumper with 45 seconds left, as The Oklahoman reported. It was Oklahoma City's first win of the preseason (1-3) — and it came with a scare, as rookie guard Otega Oweh left the overtime period needing help off the floor after appearing to hurt his right foot. The Thunder finish their preseason Thursday at Houston.

Golden State 101, Los Angeles Lakers 89. In Las Vegas, the nightcap flipped on its head. The Lakers, playing without Luka Doncic, rode a brilliant first half from Austin Reaves — 28 points on the night, 23 of them before halftime, on 10-of-18 shooting with seven assists — to a 63-50 halftime lead that grew to 70-50 early in the third quarter. Then the Warriors woke up. As NBC Sports Bay Area reported, Golden State held Los Angeles to 13 points in the third quarter and 13 more in the fourth, outscoring the Lakers 51-26 after halftime to win going away and improve to 3-2. Brandin Podziemski and rookie Yaxel Lendeborg led the Warriors with 17 points apiece; Lendeborg added five rebounds and four assists, briefly exited after tweaking his left ankle in the third quarter, and returned with no lingering concern for opening night. Stephen Curry had a quiet 11 points on three-of-nine shooting in 23 minutes, Charles Bassey grabbed 12 rebounds with three blocks, and De'Anthony Melton piled up six steals. The decisive number, though, was turnovers: the Lakers committed 29 of them — seven by Reaves alone — against just eight for Golden State, a 21-giveaway gap that no amount of first-half shot-making could survive. Walker Kessler (11 points, nine rebounds in 16 minutes) and Sandro Mamukelashvili (10 points, seven rebounds) were the only real support Reaves got. For a Vegas crowd that came to see stars, the lesson was an old one: in this rivalry, the Warriors' second gear is still a real thing.

Orlando 132, Cleveland 116. If Toronto's night was about a returning star, Orlando's was about a young core announcing its timing. The Magic led the Cavaliers from start to finish at the Kia Center — a sharp reversal of Sunday, when Cleveland beat them 119-105 — behind 24 points and eight rebounds from Paolo Banchero, who made 10 of 13 shots, and 20 points with eight assists from Franz Wagner. As USA Today's Rookie Wire reported, Orlando shot 51.5 percent, won the paint 64-54, dominated the glass 54-38 and handed out 34 assists. Tristan da Silva scored 18 points, Goga Bitadze added 14, and the night carried one more welcome sight: Jalen Suggs, who missed the first two preseason games through illness, made his debut with nine points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal in just under 13 first-half minutes, finishing plus-18. Cleveland, closing its preseason, got 15 points and eight assists from Donovan Mitchell, 14 points and five rebounds from Evan Mobley and 13 points from James Harden on an inefficient shooting night — and its brightest moment from the deep bench, where Meleek Thomas scored 16 points, 14 of them in the fourth quarter. The Magic improve to 2-1 and close their preseason Friday at home against Miami; the Cavaliers head into the regular season knowing their finale was, charitably, one to file away.

Portland 110, Sacramento 98. The late game out west was the night's most lopsided beneath a respectable final score. Portland never trailed at Golden 1 Center, led by as many as 35 points, and won its third straight preseason game behind Deni Avdija, who directed the offense all night: 26 points on nine-of-13 shooting, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocks in 25 minutes, per Eurohoops. Damian Lillard added 14 points and four assists, Ja Morant came off the bench for 14 points and six assists, and Jrue Holiday and Toumani Camara scored 11 apiece as Portland's crowded, fascinating backcourt rotation kept humming — head coach Micah Nori is still rotating his starting guards, and on Tuesday it was Lillard and Scoot Henderson (nine points) who opened the game. Sacramento's side of the box score requires an asterisk the size of the inactive list: Zach LaVine, Domantas Sabonis, Malik Monk and five others sat out, leaving Keegan Murray as the only projected starter. Murray scored 10 points in 19 minutes in his second appearance since an ankle issue slowed his camp, Emanuel Sharp added 12, and Precious Achiuwa posted a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double before leaving early with a right ankle injury — a worry for a Kings frontcourt already missing Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell. The Kings, 0-4, shot just 33 percent and now have a week to get whole before their regular-season opener. For more from around the league, browse the Previously sports section, catch up in the newsroom, and see what else is on tonight in live TV.

The takeaway. One week out from opening night, Tuesday's five games sorted themselves into a tidy preview of the season's storylines. Toronto gets to dream again, because Leonard changes the geometry of everything around Barnes and Barrett — if his minutes ramp holds. Oklahoma City and Indiana reminded everyone that their Finals history is not finished, only paused, and Haliburton's fearless half in that building was the night's most meaningful 18 minutes regardless of the final score. Orlando looked like a team whose best players are entering their primes together, Portland looked deeper than expected, and Golden State looked like Golden State: patient, connected, and perfectly capable of turning a 20-point hole into a 12-point win in 24 minutes. The Lakers and Kings, meanwhile, were reminded that health and ball security are not preseason footnotes — with Doncic out, Los Angeles had one creator and 29 turnovers; with eight players out, Sacramento barely had a rotation at all. None of it counts yet. Starting next week, all of it does.