LAS VEGAS - At halftime in Sin City on Tuesday, a man in a dapper suit stood at midcourt and made a playing card spin in the palm of his hand like a tiny ceiling fan. With a wave of his hand, a final flourish came, and this most-certainly-real card evaporated into tiny shreds of confetti. Magic, perhaps.
It was nothing, ultimately, compared to the spell Austin Reaves wove on the Golden State Warriors for a first half of preseason ball.
Warriors 101, Lakers 89
| FG | FT | Reb | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOLDEN STATE | Min | M-A | M-A | O-T | A | PF | PTS |
| Lendeborg | 25:37 | 5-11 | 6-9 | 2-5 | 4 | 3 | 17 |
| Santos | 23:45 | 2-6 | 4-4 | 3-5 | 3 | 1 | 10 |
| Bassey | 26:59 | 3-5 | 2-2 | 5-12 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| Curry | 22:36 | 3-9 | 2-2 | 0-2 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| Podziemski | 26:02 | 6-12 | 2-5 | 1-5 | 2 | 0 | 17 |
| Melton | 20:41 | 3-6 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 3 | 5 | 8 |
| Niang | 18:56 | 0-5 | 1-2 | 0-2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Payton II | 16:52 | 3-7 | 0-2 | 1-4 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| B.Williams | 15:13 | 2-8 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Richard | 14:52 | 3-5 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| Ike | 11:39 | 2-3 | 2-2 | 2-3 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Leons | 6:38 | 0-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Cryer | 5:05 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Terry | 5:05 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Totals | 240:00 | 33-84 | 21-31 | 15-40 | 24 | 24 | 101 |
Percentages: FG .393, FT .677.
3-Point Goals: 14-50, .280 (Richard 3-4, Curry 3-7, Podziemski 3-7, Santos 2-6, Melton 1-3, Lendeborg 1-4, B.Williams 1-5, Cryer 0-1, Terry 0-1, Leons 0-3, Payton II 0-4, Niang 0-5).
Team Rebounds: 13. Team Turnovers: None.
Blocked Shots: 4 (Bassey 3, Santos).
Turnovers: 20 (Bassey 5, Curry 3, Niang 3, Santos 3, B.Williams, Ike, Lendeborg, Melton, Podziemski, Richard).
Steals: 20 (Melton 7, Lendeborg 2, Payton II 2, Richard 2, B.Williams, Curry, Ike, Leons, Niang, Podziemski, Terry).
Technical Fouls: None.
| FG | FT | Reb | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L.A. LAKERS | Min | M-A | M-A | O-T | A | PF | PTS |
| LaRavia | 25:47 | 1-4 | 1-2 | 1-3 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Thybulle | 21:25 | 2-7 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Kessler | 15:55 | 4-6 | 3-4 | 2-9 | 1 | 2 | 11 |
| Grimes | 26:23 | 4-7 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 6 | 1 | 9 |
| Reaves | 25:19 | 10-18 | 4-4 | 0-4 | 7 | 4 | 28 |
| Mamukelashvili | 20:43 | 4-7 | 0-0 | 0-7 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Kaluma | 17:18 | 0-7 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Manon | 16:06 | 2-2 | 1-1 | 0-1 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Hardy | 15:17 | 3-9 | 3-3 | 0-2 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
| Looney | 13:10 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-5 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| James | 10:52 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Castro | 9:40 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Okereke | 7:37 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Knecht | 6:06 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vanderbilt | 4:41 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Swider | 3:41 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Totals | 240:00 | 33-76 | 14-17 | 8-45 | 22 | 26 | 89 |
Percentages: FG .434, FT .824.
3-Point Goals: 9-34, .265 (Reaves 4-7, Mamukelashvili 2-3, LaRavia 1-2, Grimes 1-4, Hardy 1-6, James 0-1, Knecht 0-2, Thybulle 0-4, Kaluma 0-5).
Team Rebounds: 9. Team Turnovers: 1.
Blocked Shots: 6 (Castro, Grimes, Hardy, Kessler, Looney, Okereke).
Turnovers: 29 (Reaves 7, James 4, Manon 4, Grimes 3, Hardy 3, Kaluma 2, Knecht 2, Castro, Kessler, Looney, Mamukelashvili).
Steals: 8 (Grimes, Hardy, James, Kaluma, Kessler, LaRavia, Manon, Thybulle).
Technical Fouls: Reaves, 6:43 second.
| Golden State | 29 | 21 | 22 | 29 | - | 101 |
| L.A. Lakers | 29 | 34 | 13 | 13 | - | 89 |
A: 7,471 (18,000).
For 24 minutes, lineups cycled, and coverages shifted, and Reaves' primary defender walled up, and bigs ran to him on switches. Nothing worked. Mincemeat, for the 28-year-old Lakers guard. Reaves spun a snatch-back on Charles Bassey, and yanked a crossover past Will Richard, and turned rookie Yaxel Lendeborg into a turnstile. By the end of the first half, Reaves had 25 points, and the Warriors had utterly no answers - in what may stand as a roster-building issue larger than game-plan struggles.
Golden State's reserves clamped Los Angeles after the break, holding the Lakers to 26 second-half points in a 101-89 win. Reaves, though, took a seat for much of the second half, and the Warriors still find themselves needing a better point-of-attack plan against shifty scoring guards.
This was a brewing recipe for disaster, for the couple of quarters in Vegas that resembled true regular-season basketball. The Lakers rested Luka Doncic, removing what would've been the nexus of Golden State's defensive game-plan; the Warriors, though, rested their best defender in the 36-year-old Draymond Green. No particular reason, head coach Steve Kerr clarified. Green was just experienced, Kerr said with a smile pregame (he meant, well, old).
Veteran Al Horford, too, didn't make the trip to Vegas on Tuesday. That left Kerr with a long look at Bassey and long first-half stretches of Lendeborg-at-the-5, with both tasked to track Reaves on pick-and-rolls while banging with 7-foot-2 center Walker Kessler.
This, predictably, went spotty.
Bassey, to his credit, shone in the second half, flashing advanced defensive instincts on a couple help-side blocks and grabbing a pair of offensive rebounds to set up a key fourth-quarter 3-pointer from Brandin Podziemski. Lendeborg went at Kessler's chest on multiple drives, and finished with 17 points in a hard-charging performance.
The Warriors couldn't stop Kessler in an 11-point, nine-rebound first half, though, and Lendeborg in particular looked often caught between worlds when deciding to switch to Reaves or stay with the roll-man in pick-and-roll situations.
The Warriors avoided a second-half scare with Lendeborg, who stepped on Los Angeles center Kevon Looney's foot on a third-quarter drive and appeared to twist his ankle. Lendeborg slapped the hardwood and bunny-hopped away in obvious pain, as Golden State quickly fouled to get Lendeborg out of the game and sent him back to the locker room. Minutes later, though, the rookie returned, with no signs of ill wear.
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There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Warriors beat Lakers, but show defensive weaknesses with Draymond Green resting.