On Opening Night for the 2025-26 NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Golden State Warriors in their home-opener at Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers were without LeBron James due to a sciatica issue he suffered during the preseason, meaning that the load for scoring would be placed upon Luka Dončić, who made his season debut in having a more healthy body after some good conditioning in the offseason and playing for his native Slovenia national basketball team in a European basketball tournament. This was also the night where a few new players in the rotation made their debuts for the Lakers. Center DeAndre Ayton, small forward Marcus Smart and forward Jake LaRavia were the big free agent acquisitions for the Purple & Gold in the 2025 offseason. All of them were healthy and active for this game, which also featured Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes in the rotation as well. Both the Lakers and Warriors shared the same fate in the 2025 Western Conference playoffs in getting defeated in five games by the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Lakers were simply outsized and Golden State lost two of their biggest players in Jimmy Butler and Stephen Curry to injuries. Both made little changes to their rosters and coaching staffs, with some modest rookie draft picks and some free agent moves. The only big free agent acquisition for the Warriors in the offseason was Al Horford, who came over after spending a lot of years playing for the Boston Celtics and winning a ring with them in 2024.

This game was also a special game as it was part of an opening night doubleheader on NBC, which has the NBA back on its air for the first time in over 20 years. The first game back on the airwaves of the Peacock channel was the Houston Rockets taking on the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, who won in double overtime. Due to the length of the game, the Warriors-Lakers game had to start on NBC’s streaming platform exclusively, and it is ironically called Peacock. The game started with a strong first quarter from Luka, who had 10 points along with a couple of assists and rebounds. But the Lakers were sloppy with some turnovers and the Dubs took advantage with some points off of them. J.J Redick also challenged a foul call on Marcus Smart(who did not have a good first half) in thinking that the foul would be reversed and be deemed flagrant on Butler, who kicked his leg out and hit Smart in his private area. But the call was upheld and the Lakers lost their ability to challenge for the rest of the game. Holding an eight-point lead at the end of the first quarter, Golden State had a solid start to the second quarter but the Lakers kept pace with them. After being on the bench, Luka came back onto the court and made a couple of three-pointers to put the Lakers closer. The Purple & Gold nearly held the lead at halftime if not for a late foul and a couple of made free throws by Butler. Down by one point, they certainly had a chance to take control in the second half. Instead, the opposite happened and the Warriors took command.

A strong start to the second half had Golden State go on an 23-7 run with big baskets being made by players such as forward Jonathan Kuminga and Butler. Missed shots and turnovers plagued the Lakers in the third quarter, but eventually they got back on track with seven straight points. The Warriors had built a comfortable enough lead in the third quarter to be up by double-digits going into the fourth quarter. A massive 35-point quarter was huge in determining the result of this game. No matter how hard the Lakers pushed back, Golden State kept adding on and Steve Kerr called timeouts whenever he felt his team was losing its grip on the lead. A massive three-pointer by Steph Curry sealed off the game as the Lakers lost by a final score of 119-109. This California rivalry has gotten a bit more tight with the acquisition of Butler at the trade deadline last season and the Warriors have had a better record in the regular season than the Lakers have had since they acquired Luka Doncic. So, this wasn’t a surprising result, especially with no LeBron in the lineup.

Doncic had 43 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists for a near triple-double on opening night, but it was not enough to garner a victory. He also struggled shooting from three-point range as he shot 2 for 10 when behind the arc. The only other Lakers in double figures were Austin Reaves were 26 points and DeAndre Ayton with 10 points. The Purple & Gold shot 8-32 from three-point range and also had 11 missed free throws. In a game when you are trying to keep up, missed shots from the charity strip are not helpful. Meanwhile, the Warriors shot nearly 50 percent from the floor, made 17 three-balls and only missed three free throws. A bit more of a winning formula on their side. Butler led the way in scoring for the Dubs with 31 points that was buoyed with a perfect 16-16 mark from the foul line. Curry had a good season opening performance in spite of missed shots, being perfect on his free throws as well. So, the top two players on the opposing side went a combined 24-24 from the free throw line. That’s a winning formula, along with some good contributions from role players such as Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield, who had 17 points each and a combined 9 made three-pointers between the two. Draymond Green got a technical foul to start his season in style, but he played well defensively and snagged 7 rebounds and had 9 dimes.

The Lakers will look to bounce back in hosting the Timberwolves in a Friday night game on Amazon Prime Video for their first ever game on that platform. Meanwhile, the Warriors will host the Denver Nuggets in their home opener at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The next time these two teams are scheduled to play each other won’t be until Feb 7, 2026 in a Saturday Primetime game in Los Angeles on the eve of Super Bowl 60 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. They will also play each other twice at the Chase Center in the later parts of the regular season, although they could face off in an NBA Cup knockout round game. Stay tuned for that, as the first NBA Cup tournament game for the Lakers in Group Play in Group B on the Western Conference side will be a Friday night game on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies. This NBA season has just gotten started and the Los Angeles Lakers are hoping to have a good consistent stretch where they can build up to be one of the better teams in the West once again.