Despite playing shorthanded on Friday, the Los Angeles Lakers were able to close out the preseason with an impressive 119-105 victory over the Golden State Warriors.
Among those that didn’t suit up in the win included LeBron James and Rajon Rondo, who were both given the night off in preparation of Thursday’s regular season opener against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Josh Hart and Brandon Ingram were also held out of action as a precaution, with the trio dealing with respective minor injuries.
With five players ruled out, the Lakers’ depth was further challenged with the ejections of Michael Beasley and Lance Stephenson. The former was sent to the locker room in the third quarter after pushing the ball into Warriors forward Draymond Green’s chest.
Beasley admitted afterward that he appeared overly aggressive with his actions toward Green, whom he referred to as one of his best friends, via Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times:
“Looking back on it, it looked, I looked pretty aggressive, especially I guess with my MO,” Beasley said. “Draymond is one of my really good friends.”
Beasley garnered two technical fouls during his exchange with Green, which warranted an automatic ejection per NBA rules.
Beasley and Green were jawing back and forth with each other for most of the game, so the referees evidently didn’t want their scuffle escalating to something more serious.
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