Curry Is Ready — But Warriors' Injury Crisis Gives Luka's New Lakers an Opening
GOATIFYThe best news Golden State could have received before opening night was simple: Stephen Curry is expected to play against the Los Angeles Lakers. The 38-year-old guard hurt his right ankle during a weekend team practice, a worrying sight for a franchise already short of healthy starters. Coach Steve Kerr subsequently indicated that Curry was ready, but that reassurance answers only one of the Warriors' questions before Wednesday's game.
Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody are recovering from knee injuries, Kristaps Porzingis is unavailable because of a health issue, and Brandin Podziemski has also been ruled out with back soreness. Golden State's rotation will therefore look different even with its defining player on the floor. Across the court, Luka Dončić is preparing to lead a Lakers team with nine new faces and no LeBron James. Los Angeles has its own growing pains, yet its new center, Walker Kessler, could make the Warriors' shortage of size especially costly.
That makes this more than a familiar California matchup. It is a first examination of two very different rebuilds: Golden State trying to stretch a veteran championship core without several pieces, and Los Angeles trying to construct a coherent identity around Dončić after an era-defining departure.
Draymond Green at center is now a necessity, not just a tactical wrinkle
Golden State's most important positional question is no longer whether small-ball lineups can work in short bursts. With Porzingis unavailable, Green is likely to spend meaningful time at center. That changes the defensive job of every player around him. Green can organize coverages, communicate switches and make the early read that keeps a broken possession alive. What he cannot do alone is replace every rebound, contest and vertical presence supplied by a conventional big man.
The Warriors have used Green as a center for years, often to great effect when speed and decision-making mattered more than sheer height. But there is a difference between deploying that lineup as a change of pace and asking it to survive extended stretches because alternatives are missing. At 36, Green remains the team's defensive brain and a vital offensive connector. His ability to deliver quick handoffs, find cutters and initiate transition can reduce Curry's creation burden. The price is physical: repeated battles against larger centers could affect his availability and energy over the course of the season.
Al Horford offers another experienced option, though the 40-year-old's minutes require management. Charles Bassey adds a more traditional frame, but his own preseason knee trouble complicates the picture. Butler and Moody are not expected back until January, leaving the perimeter defense and rebounding support thinner as well. Podziemski's opening-night absence is especially awkward because he played all 82 games last season and was coming off a productive preseason.
The practical answer may be to vary lineups aggressively rather than pretend there is one permanent replacement. Green can anchor the most connected units; Horford can stabilize specific matchups; younger forwards can supply legs and defensive activity. The test against Los Angeles is whether those pieces can collectively protect the paint while still getting back out to shooters. If Golden State has to overhelp on every drive, Curry's return will not solve the defensive problem.
Yaxel Lendeborg could be the piece that makes the Warriors' smaller units viable
The most intriguing part of Kerr's early-season thinking is the role he has described for rookie Yaxel Lendeborg. Golden State did not acquire another veteran star to solve its frontcourt problem. Instead, it has a 6-foot-9 newcomer whose mobility and size could allow Green to play center without leaving the other four positions undersized. Gui Santos offers a similar route to a longer lineup, even if neither player can simply replicate Porzingis.
Lendeborg's appeal is less about a single highlight than the range of tasks he might cover. A forward who can run the floor, contest on the perimeter, rebound outside his immediate area and make the next pass gives Curry and Green more flexibility. The Warriors do not need their rookie to be the primary scorer. They need him to prevent opponents from turning every lineup adjustment into a mismatch hunt. If he can do that consistently, Golden State can preserve the passing and spacing advantages of its smaller groups without surrendering the glass.
The preseason supplied reasons for optimism, not proof. In the October 16 finale against Portland, Lendeborg scored 17 points and contributed five assists in a 128–118 win. Green added the sort of all-court organizing that makes these combinations interesting. Those numbers matter as indicators of how the pieces might fit, but preseason defenses and regular-season scouting are different tests. The Lakers will have had time to identify where a rookie hesitates, and Dončić is particularly adept at finding the defender who is a step late.
There is also a workload question. With Curry's knee limiting him to 43 games last season and an ankle scare arriving before the new campaign, Golden State cannot build every possession around a superstar rescue act. A more balanced offense needs forwards who make decisions quickly enough to keep the ball moving. Lendeborg's opportunity is therefore unusually large: he is not being asked to carry the franchise, but he may be asked to make its preferred style physically sustainable. That is a demanding opening assignment for any first-year player.
Luka Dončić's Lakers are beginning their first season without LeBron James
For Los Angeles, the opening-night storyline begins with a name that is no longer on the roster. LeBron James left for Philadelphia, ending a Lakers chapter that shaped the team's identity for years. The responsibility for establishing a new one falls squarely on Dončić, with Austin Reaves alongside him and a dramatically revised supporting cast. Nine new players mean a substantial change in personnel, roles and habits, even if the team still has championship ambitions.
Dončić gives Los Angeles a clear offensive starting point. He can control pace, manufacture an advantage from a screen and deliver passes that force a defense to rotate twice before a shot. The uncertainty lies in what happens when those first actions are contained. Can the new teammates recognize the same openings at the same time? Can they cut decisively when their defender watches the ball? Can they make a quick second-side decision rather than resetting the possession and allowing Golden State to get organized?
Reaves has acknowledged that the roster needs repetitions together, an understandable admission after an inconsistent preseason. Those growing pains do not necessarily mean the offense will be ineffective in October. They mean the Lakers may have stretches when their talent creates a good shot despite imperfect execution, followed by possessions when a missed timing cue produces a turnover or a contested jumper. Redick's job is to establish dependable principles without demanding that every new player already knows every read.
The Warriors are a useful early opponent because Green's defense punishes predictable movement. He will try to make Dončić see crowded passing lanes and bait secondary ball handlers into uncomfortable decisions. Conversely, Dončić can use his size and patience to punish mismatches if Golden State switches too freely. The result could depend less on the star guards' individual scoring totals than on which team better coordinates the next three players after the first screen. This is where the Lakers' roster turnover meets Golden State's long-established chemistry.
Walker Kessler and the rebounding battle may decide the first big test
Los Angeles did not bring in Walker Kessler merely to add another name to the roster. The center offers a clearer way to protect the rim, secure possessions and give Dončić a large target around the basket. Against a Warriors team considering Green-at-center lineups, those traits become an immediate tactical lever. Kessler can make the Lakers bigger without requiring Dončić to abandon his preferred pick-and-roll rhythm.
There is a catch: size on paper has not yet translated into consistent rebounding. Los Angeles averaged just 39.4 rebounds per game during the preseason, near the bottom of the league. A center can block a shot and still leave the defense vulnerable if teammates fail to locate the weak-side rebounder. That makes Kessler's impact partly a collective test. The Lakers must finish defensive possessions, not simply force difficult first attempts. Newcomers Sandro Mamukelashvili and Ziaire Williams add different combinations of shooting, mobility and defensive reach, but those pieces need time to work together.
For Golden State, the counter is movement. Green can pull a traditional big away from the rim through handoffs and screening angles; Curry's shooting threat demands attention well beyond the three-point line. If the Warriors can make Kessler defend repeated actions in space, the size advantage may become less comfortable. If Los Angeles can keep him near the basket and still contest Curry, the Warriors could struggle to score efficiently inside and to recover missed shots at the other end.
There is no reason to declare a winner before the ball goes up. Curry is expected to play, but Golden State's missing personnel narrows its margin for error. Dončić has the most obvious opportunity to attack those gaps, but the Lakers' nine-player integration project is still at an early stage. Watch the defensive rebounds after a Warriors miss, the number of easy baskets created by Dončić-Kessler actions, and how often Green is forced to guard a bigger body without help. Those details will reveal far more about both teams than an opening-night headline alone.
Golden State enters Wednesday with the relief of having Curry available and the discomfort of knowing his return cannot repair an entire injury list. Green's versatility, Lendeborg's potential and the Warriors' familiarity with one another give them credible ways to compete, but the thin frontcourt leaves them exposed to a well-executed interior attack.
The Lakers have a different problem. Dončić, Reaves and Kessler offer an obvious offensive framework, yet nine new players must still learn how to convert individual talent into coordinated basketball. A strong opening performance would be encouraging; a ragged one would not automatically invalidate the project. The meaningful questions are whether Los Angeles can control the glass and whether Golden State can keep its defense intact while protecting Curry's workload. This first meeting is not a verdict on the season. It is an unusually revealing test of how two famous teams intend to play next.
