Golden State trailed by 34 going into the fourth quarter in Los Angeles before the Lakers finished it off, 127-105. Afterward, Stephen Curry called the night a wake-up call for his team. That treats the loss as a lesson the players needed.
The evidence points somewhere else. It showed the front office what the roster looks like without its centers, and it showed them on a night the front office was already trying to fix that.
Curry Had Reason to Sound the Alarm
There is a real case that this loss was about more than missing bodies. “We only had really eight minutes, probably, of good basketball,” Curry said. “Just got beat pretty much in every area of the game.”
In The Press Democrat, Dieter Kurtenbach went further. He called the Warriors tactically behind, shockingly inflexible, and argued they were outworked for everything after the first quarter.
The first quarter supports him. Curry poured in 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the first 12 minutes, and Golden State scored 33 points in the period while still trailing by one at the buzzer.
After that, Curry was held to three points after halftime before sitting out the fourth quarter. If the Warriors’ best quarter still lost to Luka Dončić’s team, the defense has a problem that no single player explains.
The record backs that up too. Last season the Warriors went 37-45, their first losing season since 2019-20. A team coming off that year has no slack for a flat opener.
The Missing Centers Explain the Blowout
The case for an effort problem runs into what happened in the paint. With Kristaps Porziņģis out indefinitely and backup center Charles Bassey also missing with right patellar tendinopathy, the Warriors had no answer for Walker Kessler.
The Lakers’ new center went 12 of 12 from the field and became the first Lakers player to record 10 dunks in a game since Shaquille O’Neal. Better effort does not change that result. The Warriors were missing their top two centers.
Al Horford, the next option, missed all three of his three-point attempts against a younger frontline. The rookie Yaxel Lendeborg finished with 12 points in 28 minutes, and a rookie carrying that load in the opener tells you how thin the rotation was.
None of this was hidden before tipoff. Golden State announced on Oct. 14 that Porziņģis would “remain out indefinitely” because of the same health-related matter that kept him out of camp.
On the day of the game, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Warriors have begun exploring trade routes for him. The team declined to comment on trade talk and said it was not anticipating Porziņģis being around the team in the immediate future. Jimmy Butler III is not close either, having had right ACL surgery with no return date announced.
The Front Office Already Knew
This was a wake-up call, but for the front office, and the front office had already gotten the message. The loss didn’t show anything new about the players’ effort. It showed what the roster sheet already said, against the opponent best built to expose it.
Kurtenbach’s complaint about tactics is fair, but even good tactics would not have protected the rim against Kessler. Steve Kerr’s postgame session spent more time on officiating than on the frontcourt, which is its own kind of answer.
The trade market makes this harder. Porziņģis will make $20 million this season and holds a $20 million player option for 2027-28, though only $3 million is guaranteed. Sam Amick of The Athletic reported that the Milwaukee Bucks were contacted and showed no interest.
That means the real roster fix depends on a partner willing to take on salary from a player who may not play — which is why Golden State is shopping a contract rather than a center.
One game is one game, and the lineup Golden State put out Wednesday is not the one it plans to rely on. The thing that would actually test the effort theory is Bassey’s return. If the Warriors get a center back and still watch one opponent dunk 10 times, Curry’s diagnosis is the right one.
Until then, the opener mostly showed that Golden State needs another center, which it already knew.
Sources: Shams Charania of ESPN, Dieter Kurtenbach of The Press Democrat, Sam Amick of The Athletic
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