What we learned when Wiggins rejoins Warriors in preseason win over Lakers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
BOX SCORE
The Warriors’ perfect preseason continued Tuesday night in Las Vegas, where they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 111-97 to improve to 5-0.
The teams will play each other again on Friday evening at Chase Center to complete the practice schedule.
Andrew Wiggins overcame some rust in his Warriors preseason debut, scoring 11 points in 21 minutes, adding another wrinkle to questions about what Golden State’s opening 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 fans in Sin City plenty of reasons to get out of their seats . .
The Warriors’ preseason three-point barrage continued as well, as they took 45 long shots but only made 14. However, they defeated the Lakers 55-50, had 12 more points in the paint (52-40) and took better turnover advantage (20 Golden State points from 12 LA turnovers, compared to 11 from 14).
Brandin Podziemski did not play because of a broken nose he suffered in Golden State’s previous game, and De’Anthony Melton was ruled out Tuesday morning because of a strained back.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ win over the Lakers at T-Mobile Arena.
Wiggs is back
Before the preseason started, Warriors coach Steve Kerr was delighted with the kind of form Wiggins was appearing in and publicly praised him as the team’s second scoring option. Then an illness sidelined Wiggins for the entirety of training camp and the first four preseason games until this game in Vegas.
Wiggins’ first shot attempt was immediately included in Golden State’s starting lineup and 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 on his way to the basket. He drained both the free throw attempts, which represented his only two points in the first quarter, and the first half.
Wiggins was stuffed for the final seven minutes of the first quarter and returned at the start of the second. He took just one shot in the second quarter and missed a three-point attempt, and he also missed two shots within the first minute of the third quarter before an uncontested dunk gave him his first goal.
While Wiggins started slow offensively, shooting 3-of-9, he was 5-of-5 at the free-throw line and, more importantly, had several strong defensive plays.
Switching the starters… again
The trickle-down effect of Wiggins’ return was yet another new starting lineup.
The Warriors have now played five preseason games and used five different starting fives. Wiggins also had this in a different position than normal.
Instead of his typical role at small forward, Wiggins moved up to shooting guard and joined Curry in the backcourt. They were joined by Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. That group was never on the field together last season.
If Kuminga really does transition to more of a three, it’s certainly possible that these five players will see time together – whether they all start or not.
The gap looks more like the mid-90s than 2024, but that doesn’t take into account the shooting improvements Kuminga has shown, and cross your fingers that last season was a blip of poor shooting for Wiggins. Essentially, the group surrounds Curry with more length, athleticism and defense.
When Kerr made his first substitution, bringing on Buddy Hield for Wiggins, the Warriors trailed 16-14 after 6:10. It wasn’t until the start of the second half that the group shared the court together again, when Golden State led 58-51. The score was then 67-59 in favor of the Warriors when Hield crossed for Wiggins.
In total, the starting Curry-Wiggins-Kuminga-Green-TJD five played together for 11 minutes and 8 seconds, and were a minus-1.
Moody mania
Wiggins’ return was guaranteed to be the best storyline of the game. Kerr re-enabled his starters and was another easy topic of discussion.
He lets his play speak for itself, but somehow Moses Moody continues to find ways to earn more recognition.
Moody was plus-20 for three quarters. His final plus/minus was a plus-17 in 19 minutes, behind only Kyle Anderson’s plus-22 in 17 minutes.
The longer the preseason goes on, the clearer it becomes that Moody should get rotation minutes. He 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 is now shooting 44.8 percent from behind the three-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 continues to play like this.
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