The Golden State Warriors got demolished in their season opener, losing 127-105 to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.
Luka Doncic led all scorers with 28. Stephen Curry had a team-high 23 points, but he didn't have a field goal made after the first quarter.
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday's game.
Warriors Have Dire Need for Center
Walker Kessler is an above-average starting center with great size at 7'2". He will have his fair share of efficient games, and no one will bat an eye.
But allowing him to go 12-of-12 from the floor with 10 (!) dunks is alarming.
The Warriors have the crushing combination of point-of-attack issues on defense and no center size to defend lobs.
If Kristaps Porzingis (7'2") were active, at least those lobs would be much tougher to complete. But Porzingis is out indefinitely with a health issue, and it doesn't seem likely that he's coming back any time soon.
The one player who makes the most sense to target is Myles Turner. The Bucks are in a long-term rebuild, so they have no need for Turner, who will almost assuredly get traded this season.
Sam Amick and Nick Friedell reported that the Warriors have contacted the Bucks about Porzingis trade frameworks, of which the Bucks have no interest.
But surely the Bucks have a price in first-round draft capital that the Bucks would have to accept.
If not Turner, there are other options. I mentioned Isaiah Stewart and Nic Claxton among possible Warriors trade targets here.
Though both would help, they don't have the size to defend lobs to Kessler. Stewart is just 6'8", while Claxton is 6'11" but not the caliber of rim protector that Turner is.
The bottom line is the center rotation of Green (6'6"), Al Horford (6'8") and Charles Bassey (6'9"), Yaxel Lendeborg (6'9") and Graham Ike (6'10") will have issues defending the paint.
The Warriors need to trade Porzingis for some center help.
Lendeborg's Debut Had More Good Than Bad
Lendeborg will make headlines for poking the bear, as his barking at Doncic seemingly motivated the six-time All-Star to go off for 23 points in the first half.
Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned there, though some will say the fact that he was willing to challenge Doncic like that at all is a good sign.
But the focus here is more on the results of his play.
Lendeborg got caught fouling Doncic in the act of shooting twice, and the Warriors rookie had some late rotations as an off-ball defender.
But on the bright side, he did force Doncic into a couple of tough shots, and he also perfectly defended a lob as a weak-side defender, leading to a Warriors steal.
Offensively, Lendeborg had 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting with three rebounds, two assists and no turnovers.
He took the right shots and didn't really force anything.
It's a good start for the 24-year-old.
Turnovers Killed the Dubs in the 2nd and 3rd Quarters
The Warriors had 15 turnovers in the game, which isn't a horrible number for them.
But when it rained, it poured on the turnover front.
In the second quarter, the Warriors had five turnovers that led to nine Lakers points. In the third quarter, the Dubs had nine turnovers that led to 14 Lakers points.
You can't give a good team 23 points off turnovers over two quarters and stay in the game.
The third quarter was when it truly fell apart.
Green had three turnovers, and Curry had two while essentially committing a third by throwing a pass to Gary Payton II that he had to save from going out of bounds.
The bottom line is when Curry and Green are on the court, they need to create efficient offense that isn't super risky.
There simply isn't enough margin of error for the two veterans to turn it over as often as they have in the past.
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