*On the second night of a back-to-back in their preseason finale, the Lakers were with Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura, LeBron James, D’Angelo Russell, Gabe Vincent, Austin Reaves, Max Christie and Dalton Knecht… and played as a team without eight of its top nine players, losing handily to the Warriors, 132-74.

Quincy Olivari finished with 22 points, five rebounds and two assists. Bronny James Jr. threw 17 points and four bounces back with his best performance of the preseason. Jaxson Hayes had seven points.

Los Angeles started well offensively, as their entire starting five was out for the game. They quickly opened up a four-point lead. The Warriors responded by taking a six-point lead thanks to the efforts of Jonathan Kuminga and Andrew Wiggins.

Golden State took full advantage of the Lakers resting their most important players. The Warriors went 13-0 and the young Lakers struggled. At the end of the first, LA trailed by 18.

The battle in Los Angeles continued into the second, trailing by 23. The Warriors took full advantage of the fact that LA did not have AD’s presence defensively and were up to 28 points in the paint.

The rest of the half was a showcase for each young Laker to show what they can do. Olivari took full advantage of the extra playing time, scoring from behind the arc and getting a pair of layups. Bronny took action by connecting on a 3-pointer and converting a floater. At halftime, LA trailed significantly with only 40 points scored and 66 conceded.

Bronny’s confident shooting continued well into the second half. He was the second player on the team after Olivari to score in double figures. Reddish, struggling to shoot, finally knocked down a three.

The rest of the match went exactly as expected, with the young boys trying to take advantage of the valuable minutes they had to end the pre-season. Unfortunately there were no real positives, minus Olivari and Bronny.

Key Takeaways:

Whether the Lakers decide to open a spot for Olivari or he finds a spot on another team, he has proven to be worthy of a permanent contract. He has played excellently with every opportunity he has been given during preseason.

Bronny made shots that he had missed quite a bit since Summer League. His self-confidence was at a high level.

The first game of the new season is Tuesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves at 7:00 PM PT.

You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.