New-Look Lakers Beat Golden State, Despite LeBron James Sitting Out With an Injury

LeBron James is banged up, but the Lakers don't have time to tread water in his absence. They have to win games no matter who is in uniform.

So with James on the sidelines, the Lakers debuted their new guys (most of them, at least, since Mo Bamba is suspended for one more game, still) against Golden State in San Francisco. And no question, having three quality rotation players (Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, D'Angelo Russell) available was a big deal. The Lakers were led by Dennis Schröder with 26 points, but got 15 from Russell, 12 from Vanderbilt, and even Beasley (who missed all six of his 3-point attempts) showed what his presence could do, because he forces people to pay attention to him either as a shooter or a rim attacker.

The Lakers played well defensively, despite integrating new players. Anthony Davis still seems off and was ugly offensively Saturday night (5-19 from the floor) but he did lift his intensity in the fourth quarter, and had two massive blocks down the stretch to keep Golden State's attack at bay.

All in all, you could see the potential of what the Lakers look like now. Half court sets looked cleaner with Russell than Russell Westbrook, the scoring in the backcourt has been lifted, and Vanderbilt's presence in the frontcourt will be a big help. The Lakers have two more games before the All-Star break, both against teams they're chasing. LeBron isn't expected to play on Monday in Portland, and could miss Wednesday's tilt vs. New Orleans, too.

Doesn't matter, the Lakers need to find ways to win those games. Saturday they showed they can.

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

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