The Los Angeles Lakers opened their preseason finale with Matisse Thybulle in the starting five instead of Quentin Grimes, then changed course almost immediately when the group failed to move the game their way. JJ Redick’s first lineup choice was supposed to set a defensive tone. Instead, it was replaced after a slow start against the Denver Nuggets.
That is why the Lakers Vs Golden State Warriors conversation has already been pulled into a bigger question about how the Lakers want to begin games. The answer mattered in real time because Denver guarded Luka Doncic 94 feet, doubled him whenever he caught the ball in the halfcourt and helped off Thybulle and Ziaire Williams. The Lakers were down 17-8 after five minutes, and the early offense never found a clean rhythm while the defense was being ignored.
Redick made a change after the opening stretch, and the Lakers got going once Quentin Grimes and Sandro Mamukelashvili came off the bench. The original five briefly returned for 105 seconds in the second quarter, but the numbers only hardened the point: the starting group finished the half minus-nine in seven minutes of action. For a team trying to decide whether to lean into defense at the start of games, the evidence was blunt. The lineup with Thybulle offered length, but it also gave Denver a place to hide and a lane to crowd Doncic.
That tradeoff is not theoretical. Thybulle has shot 41.1 percent from 3-point range over the last two seasons, yet the matchup still invited Denver to live with the risk and load up on the ball. The Lakers need Grimes’ offense to punish that choice, and the game showed how quickly the pressure arrives when opponents decide one starter can be helped off. Doncic finished with five first-half turnovers and did not return after halftime after playing 19 minutes, which turned the preseason finale into a clean look at the cost of a lineup that starts with defense but can be bent out of shape before it settles in.
Redick now has a direct film answer, not a theory. The next decision is whether Thybulle keeps that starting job or whether Grimes is back in the opening five the next time the Lakers try to build around Doncic from the jump.
