What we learned as Wiggins rejoins Warriors in preseason win over 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 play each other again Friday night at Chase Center to wrap up the exhibition schedule.
Andrew Wiggins knocked off some rust in his Warriors preseason debut, 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 the fans in Sin City many reasons to get out of their seats.
The Warriors’ preseason 3-point barrage continued, too, as they put up 45 long-distance shots but made just 14. However, they outrebounded the Lakers 55-50, had 12 more points in the paint (52-40) and took better advantage of turnovers (20 Golden State points off 12 LA turnovers, compared to 11 off 14).
Brandin Podziemski didn’t play because of a broken nose that he sustained in Golden State’s previous game, and De’Anthony Melton was ruled out because of his back tightening up 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 raved about the kind of shape Wiggins showed up in and publicly lauded him to be the team’s No. 2 scoring option. Then an illness sidelined Wiggins for all of training camp and the first four preseason games until this contest in Vegas.
Immediately inserted into Golden State’s starting lineup, Wiggins’ first shot attempt was a missed floater that fell short. In his next scoring opportunity, he took advantage of an open lane and some porous defense by Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell, who fouled Wiggins on his way to the basket. He drained both free-throw attempts, which represented his only two points in the first quarter, as well as the first half.
Wiggins sat the final seven minutes of the first quarter and returned at the start of the second. He only took one shot in the second quarter, missing a 3-point attempt, and he also missed two shots within the first minute of the third quarter, before an uncontested dunk gave him his first make.
While Wiggins started slow offensively, with 3-of-9 shooting, he was 5 of 5 at the free-throw line and, more importantly, had several strong defensive stretches.
Switching up the starters … again
The trickle-down effect of Wiggins’ return was yet another new starting lineup.
The Warriors now have played five preseason games and used five different starting fives. This one had Wiggins at a different position than usual, too.
Instead of his typical role at small forward, Wiggins moved down to shooting guard, joining Curry in the backcourt. They were joined by Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. That group never was on the court together last season.
If Kuminga really will transition into more of a three, it’s certainly possible these five players will see time together — whether they’re all starting or not.
The spacing feels more like the mid-1990s than 2024, but that’s not taking into account the shooting improvements that Kuminga has shown, and crossing your fingers 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 Buddy Hield in for Wiggins, the Warriors trailed 16-14 at the 6:10 mark. The group didn’t share the court together again until the start of the second half, when Golden State led 58-51. The score then was 67-59 in the Warriors’ favor when Hield entered for Wiggins.
Overall, the Curry-Wiggins-Kuminga-Green-TJD starting five played 11 minutes and 8 seconds together, and were a minus-1.
Moody Mania
Wiggins’ return was guaranteed to be the game’s top storyline. Kerr switching up his starters yet again was another easy topic of discussion.
He’ll let his play do all the talking for him, but somehow Moses Moody keeps finding ways to deserve more recognition.
Moody, through three quarters, was a plus-20. His final plus/minus was a plus-17 in 19 minutes, second to only Kyle Anderson’s plus-22 in 17 minutes.
The longer the preseason plays on, the more obvious it is that Moody must 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 now is shooting 44.8 percent behind the 3-point line this preseason.
Kerr’s decisions won’t be easy with such a deep rotation. His decision on Moody should be an easy one, though, if the guard keeps playing like this.
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