T-MOBILE ARENA, LAS VEGAS, NV — The Golden State Warriors (3-1) had their fifth preseason game held in Vegas against the Los Angeles Lakers (2-3).
The Warriors rested Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala. Damian Jones (pectoral surgery) and Elliot Williams (knee surgery) remained out with injuries.
The Lakers rested Lou Williams.
1st Quarter – JV vs Varsity
The Warriors started out blisteringly hot, with Klay Thompson feeding a bounce pass to Stephen Curry on the opening offensive possession for an easy layup.
Thompson added a three, Curry got an in-and-out dribble to fend off D’Angelo Russell for a righty scoop, and even Zaza Pachulia got into the action, putting a back a missed jumper by Klay.
The Lakers crowd yelled, “Westbrook!” every time Kevin Durant touched the ball, but Golden State looked like it was on a mission to spank the junior varsity young Lakers.
Even after Russell struck back with a catch-and-fire three over Steph, Klay got a look from the right corner from Durant and splashed it, then made a one-footed jumper over Timofey Mozgov, and KD followed suit with a dribble-and-pop of his own.
Russell couldn’t answer this time, going short on a jumper over Steph, and Thompson ended up with the ball on the right side in transition, the Lakers on their heels, and used a couple “hesi” moves to go past the defender and in for a reverse layup finished with nice English with the left hand.
Just like that, the Warriors held an 18-7 lead, coming out of the gate shooting 7-for-9.
Mozgov ended the mini-Lakers-drought with a jumper late in the shotclock, but Klay came right back, absorbing contact against Jordan Clarkson for a pop-and-fade.
Later, Thompson missed a three, but remained in the frontcourt to pressure off-ball and forced a bad pass into the sideline from Clarkson on a defensive rebound.
Russell missed another three over Curry, the Warriors got on the move with Steph rebounding with an overhead pass…
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…and a feed to Looney which eventually resulted in a three from the left corner by Klay.
Los Angeles head coach Luke Walton burned his first timeout with 5:49 remaining, with Golden State up, 23-9, shooting 10-for-14 from the field.
Out of the timeout, Shaun Livingston checked in for Durant, Russell lost the ball trying to split a double-team, stolen by Curry, and Looney once again got involved, getting the ball back to Zaza, while Thompson angled outward for another three from the left corner, delivered by Pachulia.
The game slowed down quite a bit after that, with both teams spending time at the free throw line.
Anderson Varejao got the early Zaza backup call, checking in with under four minutes to play. Patrick McCaw also subbed in at the same time as Durant.
McCaw showed poise again, with the Lakers’ defense moving side to side, then expecting him to pass when he had the ball back in the middle. He calmly entered the paint, rose, waited for contact, got affected with a short airball, but the referee didn’t let Los Angeles get away with the slap, calling the shooting foul.
KD hit two threes, the first on a high pick by Varejao, the second on a late scramble where Klay and Livingston were stuck on the perimeter, Durant supplying a short crossover to nail the deep trey with the shot clock expiring…
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…with a little vintage Curry walk-away with the ball still in the air.
But Brandon Ingram answered on both occasions, hitting treys from the left side with his gunslinger release.
Varejao got another pick to free up a shooter and this time it was Thompson with 23 seconds to go, and the Warriors eventually took a 40-25 lead at the first break.
2nd Quarter – Tic-Tac-Toe
Durant started the second stanza with a long two, then later put his arms straight up on defense as Ingram barreled in and swatted the layup:
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Not long after that, Durant pulled up in transition from the deep left wing and banked it home, giving a Michael Jordan-like shrug in the process.
Larry Nance, Jr. got an impressive two-hand alley-oop slam, then Thompson turned the ball over and Marcelo Huertas attacked the rim and got swatted by McCaw.
After a timeout, Livingston went right baseline and fed Looney for a dunk…
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…Klay got another bucket after Nick Young threw the ball away to Varejao, and Pachulia added a shovel-shot after upfaking Russell.
Curry received a swing pass and drove in for a banker, and-one…
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…then went double behind-the-back on a crossover, shed Russell with a high Looney pick and buried a triple:
#StephGonnaSteph🔥 pic.twitter.com/WhHDu2KxgU
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) October 16, 2016
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The Lakers got to the line, but Steph got the rebound and hurled a touchdown pass to Thompson for a short jumper, and with 4:30 left, the Warriors’ lead was 61-36.
Julius Randle tried to use his strength to power past Durant, but KD did well to simply retreat, and that led to Thompson leaving a drop pass for a looping Curry for three more with the catch-and-shoot from the left arc.
Curry played tic-tac-toe with McCaw to get Zaza a dunk…
Nice drive and dish from the rook to the vet. 🏀 pic.twitter.com/NROqEkc77k
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) October 16, 2016
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…Durant fed Klay for a one-footed fade, and Russell lost the ball to McCaw, who took a couple massive Euro-steps for the scoop, forcing Walton to call another timeout as Golden State’s lead swelled to 70-40 with 2:43 remaining.
Green celebrated off the bench with an exaggerated mimicking of the rookie’s move.
The quarter ended without much fanfare, except for a hard foul by Mozgov on McCaw as the Warriors made some beautiful passes from Klay to KD to a no-look bouncer to Pachulia, who gave it up to the cutting McCaw.
McCaw also got fouled on the leg as Randle closed out at the wrong angle, and his three straight free throws with one second to play gave the Warriors a commanding 74-47 lead at halftime.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @ msniecyyy)
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