Brandon Ingram leads Lakers to 123-113 win over Warriors

The Los Angeles Lakers got the best of the Golden State Warriors 123-113 in what was the first of their two scheduled meetings in the preseason. With a win on Wednesday, the Lakers move to 2-3 in the preseason.

While Lonzo Ball, who made his preseason debut, was all the talk going into the game, it was Brandon Ingram that shined for the Lakers yet again.

In 25 minutes on Wednesday, Ingram put up 26 points, 15 of which came from the charity stripe. Ingram showed a knack for getting to the free throw line last season, but it didn’t show up in the box score because he made just 68 percent of his free throw attempts. Against the Warriors, Ingram made 15 of his 17 free throws.

Ingram’s ability to knock down free throws this season could be the difference between him averaging 16 points per game, which is what he averaged last season, to him averaging 20 points per game. This marked Ingram’s second 20-plus point game outing of the preseason.

The Lakers also got some nice production from a man named LeBron James, who cruised to 15 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in just over 17 minutes on the floor. James watched the second half of the game from the sideline, as he has done for the entirety of the preseason, but he made sure to leave his mark on the game before the end of the first half.

James has played in all but one of the Lakers’ five preseason games. With the regular season opener just eight days away, it wouldn’t be surprising to see head coach Luke Walton rest his superstar player one more time before games start to count.

Last, but certainly not least, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope looked more like the player that Lakers fans grew to like in the second half of the regular season last year. In 23 minutes out on the floor, KCP put up 20 points and made 50 percent of his 3-point attempts (3-of-6). Prior to Wednesday night’s contest, Caldwell-Pope was shooting a lowly 14.3 percent from behind the arc.

His sudden uptick in efficiency could be a direct result of the ball moving more with all of James, Rajon Rondo and Lonzo Ball back in the rotation, but he also just looked a lot more comfortable than he has in the first four games.

All in all, it was an encouraging outing for the young Lakers, albeit in a preseason game where the Warriors were missing a few key players, namely Draymond Green.

The Lakers will travel to San Jose to take on the Golden State Warriors for their final preseason contest on Friday. The meeting will also be the final time the Lakers see the Warriors until Christmas Day.

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