Warriors Rally From 20 Down to Beat Lakers 101-89 in Las Vegas Preseason

LAS VEGAS

For one half on Tuesday night, the Lakers' annual preseason trip to the desert looked like a showcase. For the second half, it looked like a warning. The Golden State Warriors held Los Angeles to 13 points in the third quarter and 13 more in the fourth, storming back from 20 points down to beat the Lakers 101-89 at T-Mobile Arena in a preseason meeting that flipped completely at halftime.

The Lakers led 63-50 at the break behind a brilliant first half from Austin Reaves, and at one point in the second quarter the margin reached 20. None of it survived the third quarter. Golden State opened the second half with the defensive intensity Los Angeles could not match, forced turnovers in bunches and turned a comfortable Lakers night into the Warriors' second preseason win over Los Angeles this month.

Reaves Cooked Early, Then the Well Ran Dry

Reaves was the best player on the floor for the first 24 minutes. He scored 11 points in the game's first nine minutes, had 23 by halftime and finished with a game-high 28 points on 10-of-18 shooting, including four 3-pointers, with seven assists and four rebounds in 25 minutes. With Doncic resting, the ball ran through Reaves, and for a half he carved up a Warriors defense that is being reshaped under assistant Frank Vogel's direction.

The other side of that coin showed up in the turnover column. Reaves gave the ball away seven times, and ball security was the Lakers' recurring problem all night. Possession after possession in the second half ended in a deflection, a steal or a rushed shot against a set defense, and a Lakers offense that scored 63 points before halftime managed barely a third of that afterward. Preseason or not, that split — dominance with the starters flowing, collapse once the game sped up — is the thing the Lakers' staff will circle on the film.

Kessler's Debut Was the Lakers' Bright Spot

If there was a lasting positive for Los Angeles, it wore No. 11. Walker Kessler, the Lakers' biggest offseason acquisition, played his first preseason game after missing the opening three with a finger injury, and his first half was close to ideal. The 7-foot center started, scored his first points on a cut fed by Reaves, blocked a shot from behind, set the hard screens the Lakers bought him to set and finished with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, nine rebounds, a block and a steal in 16 minutes — all of it before halftime, with a team-best plus-15.

Kessler's night was done at the break by design, which is standard preseason management for a player working back in. Head coach JJ Redick praised the debut afterward, pointing to the rim protection and the way Kessler ran the floor, and Kessler himself admitted he had been nervous before his first action in purple and gold after a long layoff that included shoulder surgery during his time in Utah. On the one night the Lakers' new starting center and their backcourt centerpiece shared the floor, the fit looked obvious: Reaves probing, Kessler screening and finishing, and a defense bending toward both.

Golden State's Depth Flipped the Game

The Warriors did not need a vintage Stephen Curry night to win this one. Curry scored 11 points in about 23 minutes, hitting three 3-pointers, and watched much of the comeback from a lineup built on depth. Podziemski and Lendeborg shared the team scoring lead with 17 points each, Charles Bassey controlled the middle with eight points, 12 rebounds and three blocks, and Golden State's bench and defensive pressure steadily dismantled the Lakers' second-half execution.

The numbers underline how strange the win was. The Warriors shot just 39.3 percent from the field and 28 percent from three, and were outscored in the paint 46-34. They won anyway because they owned the possession game in the second half — piling up steals, winning the free-throw battle and holding Los Angeles to the two lowest-scoring quarters the Lakers have produced this preseason. A 3-2 preseason record will not mean much in a week, but the identity Golden State is advertising — defense first, waves of long, disruptive wings behind Curry — traveled to Las Vegas intact.

Doncic Rests, and the Real Test Waits Friday

Doncic's absence was planned, not medical. Redick confirmed the star guard was simply getting the night off after sitting out healthy, while Ziaire Williams, Collin Sexton, Cameron Carr and Adou Thiero also missed the game with minor issues. That context matters for the result: the Lakers' second-half collapse came with a short-handed rotation and heavy minutes for the end of the bench, and Redick said afterward that rhythm, not chemistry, is his concern as the roster gets healthy.

That framing will get its examination Friday, when the Lakers close the preseason against Denver at home — the closest thing to a dress rehearsal this schedule offers. For a night in Las Vegas, though, the story was simpler. The Lakers' starters built a 20-point lead, the Warriors' defense took it all back, and T-Mobile Arena got the most honest preseason game of the fall: one half of what Los Angeles hopes to be, and one half of everything it still has to fix.

For the preview of Tuesday's matchup, see our earlier report: Warriors-Lakers Las Vegas preseason preview. More from a busy night in the league: Golden Knights beat Predators 5-2 and Oilers beat Kings 4-1 behind McDavid.