Lakers, without LeBron James and Anthony Davis, drop preseason opener

PALM DESERT — With their two stars sidelined for rest, the Lakers opened preseason with a 124-107 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night at Acrisure Arena.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis sat out the first exhibition, with new coach JJ Redick citing their gold-medal run with Team USA at the Paris Olympics over the summer and their workload during training camp as the reason for them not playing.

“There was a lot of good stuff that we did,” Redick said, mentioning the Lakers losing the possession battle as a standout from Friday. “I told our guys before the game, ‘Three things I’m going to judge you on, how I’m going to measure this game are our organization, our talk and our level of competition.’ And I thought the third one, we had that at a really high level. The other two, we gotta get better.”

The star duo not matching up created more opportunities for other players on the roster.

Austin Reaves and first-round pick Dalton Knecht led the Lakers with 16 points apiece, with Reaves also recording seven assists, five rebounds and three steals. Knecht shot 7 of 11 from the field and 2 of 5 on 3-pointers.

“His ability to play consecutive possessions and compete was really good,” Redick said of Knecht. “Sometimes the game can speed up for him a little bit and that reflects itself in some turnovers. But he knows who he is as a player. And I thought he did a really good job of being aggressive and taking the shots that we want him to take.”

Max Christie, who started in place of James, had 11 points and six rebounds. He showcased his athleticism with a pair of blocked shots at the rim against Timberwolves players driving to the basket.

“Well [Redick’s] asked me to be kind of that dog on defense, pick up fullcourt,” Christie said. “I tried to do a little bit of that. There’s a comfort level that I’m going to get a little bit more comfortable with. I haven’t really done that a lot in my career. Throughout the season there is going to be a lot of guys that can handle it and move with the ball really fast. So I got to get more comfortable with that, but that’s something he’s asked me to do and I definitely am fully bought in.”

D’Angelo Russell (14 points, three assists) and Gabe Vincent (11 points) also scored in double figures.

Bronny James, LeBron’s son who the Lakers drafted in the second round, finished with two points and three blocked shots.

“As a coaching staff, before the game, as we were kind of going over our rotation matrix, we were talking about Bronny,” Redick said. “He’s had some really good days in August and September. He’s had three really good days this week. We’re really happy with his progress. He can do some things defensively at his size that are really unique and I think can turn into a really disruptive defend. That manifested itself.

“On the offensive end, he’s still figuring out who he is. That’s our job as a player development program just to build him in. But truthfully, he’s so easy to coach. He’s got a great soul. And just a great energy about him. I like being around him. I’m rooting for him. He’s a good player that we’re happy to have in our program.”

With Jarred Vanderbilt (feet surgery) and Christian Wood (left knee surgery) sidelined in addition to James and Davis, the Lakers cycled through a variety of small-ball lineups.

Friday was Redick’s first action as a head coach after not coaching the Lakers during summer league.

“The anxiety that people may assume I’m having is around how my team is going to perform,” Redick said pregame. “We’ve mentioned the word preparation. And once you’ve invested a lot in preparation, you kind of have to just accept that. And then it becomes, you know, I want to see how my team does against another team. That’s where any sort of anxiety comes.

“I have, and I’ve talked to some of the guys, I’ve given myself some grace in terms of some of the nuanced stuff. I’m not gonna be perfect. That’s OK. The preparation and attempting to get buy-in from our guys, that’s been my focus and will continue to be my focus throughout preseason.”

Anthony Edwards, who was also on Team USA, and Julius Randle, whom the Timberwolves acquired on Wednesday in a trade that sent longtime franchise cornerstone Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks, didn’t play for Minnesota.

All of the Timberwolves’ starters played 10 or fewer minutes.

Rob Dillingham (21 points), the No. 8 pick in the draft, Josh Minott (22 points, eight rebounds and three steals) and Luka Garza (20 points, nine rebounds) led Minnesota off the bench.

The Lakers will return to Acrisure Arena on Sunday for another exhibition against the Phoenix Suns.