Warriors beat Lakers 119-109 as Jimmy Butler leads season opener

Jimmy Butler III scored 31 points and Stephen Curry played supportively with 23 points and the Golden State Warriors opened their season with this 119-109 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers without LeBron James on Tuesday night.

In the second half, Golden State dominated early to launch an 18-4 scoring run that opened the game up. Jonathan Kuminga had 17 points and nine rebounds and Buddy Hield had 17 points on the bench. The Warriors were on fire with their deep shots as they made 17 out of 40 (42.5) three-pointers. Kuminga made four out of six outside the arc, and Hield made five out of 10.

In the meantime, Luka Doncic, the Lakers newcomer who was traded off of Dallas, had to carry the screen in his first game with the new team and had a 43-points, 12-rebound, nine-assist night. He had the support of Austin Reaves who scored 26 points and nine assists but this was not enough to win the battle of offensive rhythm of the Warriors.

The absence of sciatica left Los Angeles short of leadership as LeBron James was the first player in his 23 years in the NBA to miss the season opener. In his Laker debut, deandre Ayton scored 10 points as the team was also ineffective in penetrating with the three-point shots, only hitting 25 per cent of the three-point shots (8 of 32) and also missing 11 of 28 free throws.

The Warriors, in their turn, utilized almost all of their opportunities at the line, hitting 26 out of 29, Butler being flawless on 16.

Golden State was leading 55-54 during the first half, and in the next quarter, they ran a fire. Kuminga had 13 points in the quarter with the Warriors having an 90-79 lead going into the fourth. Lakers attempted to come back at the end, reducing the gap to 105-99 when a 9-0 run started with the three-pointer of Rui Hachimura.

But Draymond Green, who had completed with eight points, nine assists, and seven rebounds, made a clutch three, and Butler layed up reversely to give the lead back to the double digits. Curry then closed out the deal with a dagger three-pointer and only 51 seconds remaining.

Doncic scored more than anybody with 22 points in the first half, but Butler scored 17 before the break when keeping Golden State in the lead. The crisp shooting and calmness of the warriors during the final stretch was too much to take in by the new-formed Lakers as they will need time to get their entire rhythm when LeBron returns.

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