What we learned when Wiggins joined the Warriors in the preseason win over the 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 face off again Friday night at Chase Center to close out the exhibition schedule.
Andrew Wiggins shook off some rust in his Warriors preseason debut, scoring 11 points in 21 minutes, which added another wrinkle to questions about what the starting lineup will be on opening night. Golden State.
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 Sin City fans plenty of reasons to get up out of their seats . .
The Warriors’ preseason 3-point barrage also continued, as they made 45 shots from long range but only made 14. However, they overwhelmed the Lakers 55-50, scoring 12 more points in the paint (52-40) and took better advantage of turnovers (20 points for Golden State on 12 turnovers in Los Angeles, compared to 11 out of 14).
Brandin Podziemski did not play due to a broken nose suffered in Golden State’s previous game, and De’Anthony Melton was ruled out with a back strain Tuesday morning.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ win over the Lakers at T-Mobile Arena.
Wiggs is back
Before the start of the preseason, Warriors coach Steve Kerr was full of praise for the kind of shape Wiggins appeared in and publicly praised him for being the team’s No. 2 scoring option. Then an illness Wiggins sidelined for entire training camp and the first four preparatory games until this competition in Vegas.
Immediately inserted into Golden State’s starting lineup, Wiggins’ first shot attempt was a missed floater that fell short. On his next scoring opportunity, he took advantage of an open lane and porous defense from Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell, who fouled Wiggins as he drove to the basket. He drained both free throw attempts, which accounted for his only two points in the first quarter, as well as the first half.
Wiggins sat out the final seven minutes of the first quarter and returned early in the second. He took just one shot in the second quarter, missing a 3-point attempt, and he also missed two shots in the first minute of the third quarter, before an uncontested dunk gave him his first goal.
While Wiggins started slowly offensively, making 3 of 9 shots, he was 5 of 5 from the free throw line and, more importantly, had several solid defensive runs.
Change starters…again
The trickle-down effect of Wiggins’ return was a new starting lineup.
The Warriors have now played five preseason games and used five different starting fives. This one also had Wiggins at a different position than usual.
Instead of his typical small forward role, Wiggins moved to shooting guard, joining Curry in the backcourt. They were joined by Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. This group was never on the field together last season.
If Kuminga actually moves to a three-man lineup, it’s certainly possible that all five of those players will spend time together — whether they’re all starters or not.
The spacing looks more like the mid-1990s than 2024, but that doesn’t take into account the shooting improvements Kuminga showed, and fingers crossed last season was an exception when it came to bad shooting for Wiggins . Essentially, the group surrounds Curry with added length, athleticism, and defense.
When Kerr made his first substitution, bringing in Buddy Hield for Wiggins, the Warriors trailed 16-14 at 6:10. The group didn’t share the court again until the start of the second half, when Golden State led 58-51. The score was then 67-59 in favor of the Warriors when Hield entered for Wiggins.
Overall, the starting five Curry-Wiggins-Kuminga-Green-TJD played 11 minutes and 8 seconds together and were minus-1.
Moody mania
Wiggins’ return was definitely the game’s marquee storyline. Kerr changing his starters yet again was another easy talking point.
He’ll let his play speak for him, but one way or another Moses Moody continues to find ways deserve more recognition.
Moody, at three-quarter time, was plus-20. His last plus/minus was plus-17 in 19 minutes, just behind Kyle Anderson’s plus-22 in 17 minutes.
The longer the preseason goes on, the more it becomes clear that Moody must receive rotation minutes. He deserved 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 is now shooting 44.8 percent from behind the 3-point line this preseason.
Kerr’s decisions won’t be easy with such a deep rotation. His decision regarding Moody should be easy though if the goaltender continues to play like this.
