LOS ANGELES — The Warriors’ 126-93 preseason loss to the Lakers Wednesday at Staples Center showcased both a Warriors’ weakness and a Lakers’ strength.
With Stephen Curry taking a scheduled game off, the Warriors struggled to create offense for long stretches. Defensively, they didn’t have an answer for the Lakers’ size, especially when guarding the two-man game between forwards LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The Warriors started D’Angelo Russell, Jacob Evans, Alfonzo McKinnie, Draymond Green and Marquese Chriss and played with a piecemeal rotation while the Lakers had nearly all of their rotation players available.
Performance of the game: D’Angelo Russell, but after the first quarter
D’Angelo Russell got off to a slow start, but finished with 23 points in 27 minutes in Curry’s absence.