Three studs from Lakers' preseason win over Warriors on Sunday

The Los Angeles Lakers got their first win of the 2025-26 preseason in three tries when they downed the Golden State Warriors 126-116 on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena. They were without LeBron James and Luka Doncic once again, but the rest of the team did a much better job on both ends of the floor than they did in their first two contests last weekend.

Los Angeles shot 53.8% from the field and hit 12 of its 27 3-point attempts while dishing out a solid 28 assists. While its defense wasn't clean (the Warriors shot 52.2% overall), it did hold Golden State to just 46 points in the first half.

In particular, three players stood out on Sunday for the Lakers.

Austin Reaves

Reaves had an efficient 20 points in 21 minutes in his first preseason game before sitting out last Sunday's contest. This Sunday, he looked sharp once again.

He had 21 points on 7-of-10 overall shooting and three assists in 23 minutes, although he did commit five of the Lakers' 22 turnovers. In the third quarter, he appeared to tweak his ankle and knee and sat out the rest of the game.

Deandre Ayton

It looks like Ayton's stated desire to be an impact player on the defensive end is pretty sincere. Against the Warriors, the seven-footer was active defensively, both in the paint and on the perimeter, and he came up with two steals and one block in 26 minutes.

He did his usual thing offensively by going 6-of-8 from the field and scoring 14 points, largely on mid-range jumpers, and he also grabbed eight rebounds and even dealt out five assists. Ayton is on his way to drastically changing the complexion of this team compared to the second half of last season, when it had to go with Jaxson Hayes at the starting center spot.

Rui Hachimura

Hachimura is one man who will need to step up offensively with LeBron James expected to miss at least three weeks of action due to sciatica. On Sunday, he made six of his 10 shot attempts and went 3-of-4 from 3-point range to score 16 points in 27 minutes.

He did a fairly good job of mixing up his shot variety. Look for the Lakers to go to him a little more in iso situations as long as James is unable to play, especially once the regular season starts.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Three studs from Lakers' preseason win over Warriors on Sunday