For the first time since Game 4 of last season’s Western Conference finals, the Los Angeles Lakers took the court at Crypto.com Arena. This time, it was a preseason contest against the Golden State Warriors on Friday evening.
They looked sharp offensively in the first half. They put up 70 points by halftime and led by seven points at intermission behind some hot shooting. They continued to shoot reasonably well in the second half, but they started to cool. On the other end, they were unable to stop Golden State.
Yet again, head coach Darvin Ham went with his rookies in the fourth quarter. While they played hard, their results were scattered, and L.A. was outscored 29-25 in the final frame, leading to a 129-125 loss.
Although there are things that need to be cleaned up, there were also some bright spots from this contest.