LAS VEGAS – A three-quarters full T-Mobile Arena rarely produced more sound than a soft murmur during much of the Warriors’ 101-89 victory over the Lakers on the Las Vegas Strip on Tuesday night.
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But even the disinterested throng who watched the turnovers-filled preseason slog roused themselves enough to produce a cheer whenever Steph Curry fired up a shot.
Curry played 23 minutes, the most of the preseason, and scored 11 points on 3 of 9 shooting as he continued his modified ramp-up to a regular season workload. Warriors coach Steve Kerr had previously spoken about the team’s desire to manage Curry’s preseason minutes and practice time in an attempt to preserve the star for the regular season.
Curry had not played into the second half in any of his previous three preseason appearances.
Lakers star Luka Doncic sat out for rest purposes.
Yaxel Lendeborg scored 17 and had 5 rebounds and four assists. He also suffered an injury scare with 5:28 left in the third quarter. On a drive to the rim, he appeared to roll his left ankle.
Lendeborg went back to the locker room for four minutes with team medical staff, and then returned to close out the third quarter.
Brandin Podziemski scored 17 on 6 of 12 shooting, while Gui Santos put up 10 points and five rebounds and Will Richard scored nine. The Warriors had 20 turnovers.
The Warriors will conclude their preseason slate with a home game against the Trail Blazers at Chase Center on Friday.
Center struggles
Draymond Green went through a multi-hour workout during morning shootaround, and then was a healthy scratch for the Lakers game. “Experienced,” was what coach Steve Kerr quipped when asked for an injury designation.
With backup center Al Horford remaining back in San Francisco for his own rest purposes, the Warriors inserted Charles Bassey into the starting lineup. He beat the buzzer late in the first quarter with a push shot over a contest, but also had his hands full with Lakers center Walker Kessler, who had 11 points and nine rebounds in 16 minutes.
Bassey finished with eight points, 12 rebounds and three blocks.
Graham Ike also earned minutes at the five, as did Georges Niang and even Lendeborg.
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Lendeborg had thrived offensively against the Lakers and Sacramento in previous preseason games, but those were teams without a real five. Against the 7-foot-2 Kessler, Lendeborg looked lost, slow and dazed on contests and rotations.
That inattentiveness bled onto the other side of the ball. He travelled on what should’ve been a routine catch off a screen.
No matter who stood as the last line of defense, the results were not promising for the Warriors. Horford and Green are both long in the tooth, but their experience was sorely missed in Las Vegas.
Latest on Porzingis
Kerr said that Kristaps Porzingis met with the team’s medical staff at Chase Center on Tuesday afternoon, but had no further update on the center who has been absent for two weeks.
General manager Mike Dunleavy announced during media day that Porzingis was dealing with an undisclosed health issue. He did not attend training camp with the team in Hawaii and is not believed to have been around the facility during preseason until Tuesday.
Does Las Vegas really care?
If Tuesday had been Las Vegas’ audition for being a viable NBA market and a worthy recipient of an expansion team, the city would have failed to land the role.
T-Mobile Center’s upper deck was completely curtained off despite both cities being within driving distance, or a quick direct flight, from Las Vegas. Curry went through his vaunted pregame warmup routine with zero distractions.
Why was that?
The gates did not open until 50 minutes before tipoff, and Curry concluded his routine a few minutes prior. Even after the teams went through their pregame warmups, swaths of empty seats existed throughout the lower bowl.
Outside of Curry shots, the crowd did not become a factor until the middle of the fourth quarter, when 3-pointers from Podziemski and Santos turned what was supposed to be a pro-Lakers crowd into Nevada’s T-Mobile Arena.
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