The untidy detail in Golden State’s comfortable victory was sitting right there in the box score: 24 turnovers. The Warriors beat the Los Angeles Lakers 124-98 at Chase Center on Tuesday night, building a 28-point halftime lead before the game settled into exhibition traffic.
The second preseason outing left a less comfortable question behind the margin: who will organize possessions when the primary creators leave the floor?
Golden State’s opening stretch was efficient enough to make the final margin feel inevitable. The Warriors scored 45 points in the first quarter and 36 more in the second, shooting 51% overall and making 15 of 35 3-point attempts for the game.
Stephen Curry scored 16 points in 14 minutes, Brandin Podziemski added 16 on 7-of-11 shooting, and Yaxel Lendeborg scored 17 while grabbing nine rebounds in 21 minutes.
Draymond Green supplied the connective tissue. He scored only three points, but his eight assists in 15 minutes helped turn good movement into a quick lead. Curry had five assists without a turnover, and the starting group created enough clean offense that the Lakers never led and never changed the game’s basic direction.
Then came the less tidy portion. Golden State scored 15 points in the third quarter while Los Angeles scored 22. The Lakers never made the deficit interesting, but a second-half slowdown matters in preseason because those minutes are where reserve ballhandlers are asked to organize possessions without Curry or Green providing the structure.
Brandon Williams was the clearest example. He scored 10 points on 3-of-6 shooting in 18 minutes, a respectable offensive line until the five turnovers are added.
That is a difficult trade for a backup guard: a few made shots can lift an exhibition score, while five lost possessions can become a much more consequential problem when the opponent is capable of converting mistakes into a game-changing run.
The sloppiness spread beyond Williams. De’Anthony Melton had two turnovers in 18 minutes, LJ Cryer had two in nine, and Gary Payton II had two in 16. Golden State finished with 23 player turnovers and one team turnover. The distinction matters because the team total was 24, while the Lakers finished with 22 player turnovers plus three team turnovers, or 25 overall.
Los Angeles offered little grounds for pretending this was a normal regular-season test. Jaden Hardy also had five turnovers in 19 minutes, while Quentin Grimes, Bronny James and Dalton Knecht each had three. The Lakers played without Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, Collin Sexton, Ziaire Williams, Arthur Kaluma, Walker Kessler and Matisse Thybulle.
