Ahead of the Warriors’ regular-season opener in Los Angeles, everyone is wondering what is going on with Stephen Curry. The former 2-time MVP appeared to have injured his knee in one of the last Warriors preseason scrimmages, going straight to the locker room. For an already injury-depleted Golden State team, this is not the news you want to hear ahead of one of the biggest games of the year. Later on, head coach Steve Kerr addressed the incident and said it’s actually Curry’s ankle, but even if that is true, he still won’t be at 100% against the Lakers on Tuesday. Right now the injury report has Curry and Podziemski listed as day-to-day, while Porzingis, Moses Moody and Jimmy Butler are ruled out.
Meanwhile, the Lakers’ injury situation is in far better shape coming into the new year. Luka Doncic and company went on a team-building trip to Slovenia over the summer in hopes of building team chemistry, and by the looks of it, they’ve done exactly that. The keys to the offense are now entirely in Doncic’s hands, and many people are saying this could be Luka’s best year in the purple and gold. He just loves playing against the Warriors – the last 10 meetings have seen him average 32.5 points, 8.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game on over 50% efficiency from the field. Austin Reaves is also expected to show off after getting his mega contract extension in the summer, after he averaged a career-best 23.3 ppg last season.
I am actually surprised the line is at only 5.5 points here in favor of the Lakers. We still don’t know if Curry will even play, but even if he does the injury situation in Golden State just isn’t looking good right now. LA’s addition of Walker Kessler gives them a boost on the inside defensively, and they’ll look to run every opportunity they have against this aging Warriors roster. I’ll take the Lakers with confidence in their first game of the new season.
Warriors vs Lakers prediction: Lakers -6.5 (-108) available at time of publishing. Playable up to -8.5.
