October 22, 2026 at 6:08 AM UTC

Postgame Report

Lakers open the season with a 127-105 rout of short-handed Warriors

By How we produce articles

On opening night at Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles beat a thin Golden State team by 22 points.

The Lakers began the 2026-27 season the way they would have drawn it up, beating the Warriors 127-105 on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena. The margin was 22 points, and it was a comfortable night for the home team from start to finish. Opening night brings new rosters and untested rotations, and Los Angeles looked far more settled than the team across from it.

Golden State arrived already thin and had no way to fix that. Kristaps Porzingis was out to start the season, and the Warriors also ruled out Charles Bassey, which left Steve Kerr with very little size to work with. Against a Lakers team that rebuilt around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves over the summer, that shortage mattered.

The night also marked the NBA debut of rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, the Warriors' most visible addition of the offseason. His first assignment was a hard one. His plan, as he described it before the game, centered on slowing Doncic, and the Lakers' margin shows how difficult that was for Golden State as a whole. Doncic is the player the Lakers now build everything around.

The market had expected a Lakers win. Los Angeles closed as a 5.5-point favorite, and the 22-point margin covered that easily. The combined 232 points stayed under the 234.5 total. Bassey was listed as questionable with knee tendinitis going into the day and was then ruled out. That cost the Warriors a big man who had produced well in the G League and in per-36 numbers last season, and they had little else to turn to up front.

Sources

All game reports