What we learned as Wiggins returns to the Warriors and wins against the Lakers in the preseason

What we learned as Wiggins returns to Warriors in preseason win over Lakers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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The Warriors' perfect preseason continued Tuesday night in Las Vegas as they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 111-97 to improve to 5-0.

The teams will compete again Friday night at Chase Center to complete the exhibition schedule.

Andrew Wiggins shed some rust in his preseason debut with the Warriors, scoring 11 points in 21 minutes, which only heightened questions about what Golden State's Opening Night starting lineup will look like.

Steph Curry scored 16 points on just 6 of 18 shooting and 3 of 11 from 3-point range, but he also had five rebounds, six assists and two steals, giving fans in Sin City plenty of reasons to get out of their seats .

The Warriors' preseason 3-point barrage continued as well, as they made 45 shots from distance but only managed 14. However, they outshot the Lakers 55-50, had 12 more points (52-40) and got the ball Better turnover advantage (20 Golden State points on 12 LA turnovers compared to 11 on 14).

Brandin Podziemski was unable to play because of a broken nose he suffered in Golden State's last game, and De'Anthony Melton was out Tuesday morning with a back complaint.

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors' win over the Lakers at T-Mobile Arena.

Wiggs is back

Before preseason began, Warriors coach Steve Kerr raved about the form Wiggins was in, publicly praising him as the team's second-leading scorer. Then Wiggins had to sit out the entire training camp and the first four preseason games leading up to this competition in Vegas due to an illness.

Wiggins was immediately inserted into Golden State's starting lineup and his first shot attempt was a missed floater that fell short. On his next scoring opportunity, he took advantage of an open lane and a porous defense from Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell, who fouled Wiggins on the way to the basket. He knocked down both free throw attempts, which were his only two points in the first quarter and first half.

Wiggins sat the final seven minutes of the first quarter and returned at the start of the second quarter. He took just one shot and missed a 3-point attempt in the second quarter, and he also missed two shots in the first minute of the third quarter before an uncontested dunk gave him his first attempt.

While Wiggins started slowly on offense, making 3 of 9 shots, he was 5 of 5 at the free throw line and, more importantly, had several strong defensive stretches.

Shift the starter…again

The trickle-down effect of Wiggins' return was another new starting lineup.

The Warriors have now played five preseason games and used five different starting fives. Again, Wiggins was in a different position than usual.

Instead of his typical role as a small forward, Wiggins switched to shooting guard and joined Curry in the backcourt. They were joined by Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. This group was never on the field together last season.

If Kuminga does indeed move into the three-man group, it is certainly possible that these five players will see some time together – regardless of whether they are all in the starting eleven or not.

The gap is more reminiscent of the mid-1990s than 2024, but that doesn't take into account the shooting improvements Kuminga has shown and fingers crossed that last season was a blip for poor shooting for Wiggins. Essentially, the group surrounds Curry with more length, athleticism and defense.

When Kerr made his first substitution, substituting Buddy Hield for Wiggins, the Warriors trailed 16-14 with 6:10 to play. It wasn't until the start of the second half, when Golden State led 58:51, that the group shared the court again. The score was then 67-59 in favor of the Warriors when Hield subbed in for Wiggins.

In total, the starting five of Curry-Wiggins-Kuminga-Green-TJD played together for 11 minutes and 8 seconds and were minus-1.

Moody mania

Wiggins' return was guaranteed to be the most important storyline of the game. Kerr changing his starters again was another easy topic of discussion.

He'll let his piece speak for itself, but somehow Moses Moody keeps finding ways to deserve more credit.

Moody had a plus-20 through three quarters. His final plus-minus was a plus-17 in 19 minutes, besting only Kyle Anderson's plus-22 in 17 minutes.

The longer the preseason goes on, the more obvious it becomes that Moody needs to get rotation minutes. He deserves it. In his fifth appearance of the preseason, he came off the bench and efficiently scored a team-high 21 points on 7 of 13 shooting and 5 of 7 from distance as well as five rebounds and two assists.

Moody is now shooting 44.8 percent from behind the 3-point line this preseason.

Kerr's decisions won't be easy with such a strong rotation. However, his decision for Moody should be easy if the guard continues to play like this.

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