On opening night, Luka Doncic, Walker Kessler pairing works beautifully

LOS ANGELES — It worked as envisioned from the opening tip.

Luka Doncic drove the lane, drew three defenders, and Walker Kessler slid behind all of it to the rim and finished an alley-oop.

There was a lot of that all night — Kessler finished with 10 dunks in his Lakers debut, the most dunks in the first game of the season by a Laker since Shaquille O'Neal in 2003. It was just one game — against a shorthanded Golden State frontline — but this was exactly what Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick — not to mention Lakers nation — had dreamed it would look like when they paid a high price to get the big man out of Utah, then paid another high price with a new $130 million contract for the center.

Kessler finished the night 12-of-12 from the floor for 24 points, and his shot chart says it all.

Kessler understood the assignment.

"Just the way he saw, you know, when I was driving, he stepped up. When I was doubled, he played in the pocket," Luka Doncic said postgame.

What was Kessler seeing to step up into the right place?

"It's not what I saw, it's what Luka and [Austin Reaves] and all the other guys saw, throwing me the ball..." Kessler said. "I wish I could tell you I did something crazy, but I think just being in the right spots and being vertical and just trying to dunk everything — that's really the biggest thing, is having the attitude and mentality to try to dunk everything."

These are Doncic's Lakers now — everything ran through him on offense — and he looked comfortable leading the Lakers to a 127-105 win (that wasn't that close). Doncic finished with 28 points on 7-of-18 shooting, with eight rebounds and seven assists. The Warriors started with rookie Yaxel Lendeborg on Doncic, and to his credit, he did a respectable job (Doncic shot 1-of-5 in the matchup, according to NBA.com stats), did not back down, and was in Doncic's face and talking trash. That was his rookie mistake. You don't want to light a fire under Doncic, or this kind of thing happens.

The Warriors stayed close for a quarter, mostly because Stephen Curry had 16 first-quarter points and was getting free on backcuts. Eventually Curry had to rest, the Lakers tightened their defense, and this shorthanded Warriors roster — no Jimmy Butler, no Moses Moody, no Kristaps Porzingis, no Brandin Podziemski — is going to struggle if Curry isn't lighting it up.

It's just the first of 82, and the Warriors aren't the stiffest test, but the Lakers like what they saw.

This is the Doncic and Kessler pairing the Lakers need.