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Warriors-Lakers Injury Report: Both Teams Could Be Without a Starter

Fear not, NBA fans. Yaxel Lendeborg and Luka Doncic are not on the injury report

Steve Kerr | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Golden State Warriors will likely be without Gui Santos against the Lakers on Friday at Chase Center.

Santos, who missed Wednesday's game against the Timberwolves, is doubtful with knee tendinitis.

Santos is the only Warrior on the injury report aside from the three players with long-term injuries/health issues in Jimmy Butler, Moses Moody and Kristaps Porzingis.

Ziaire Williams, who has started in all four of his Lakers appearances, is questionable with foot/heel injury management.

Rookie guard Cameron Carr and second-year forward Adou Thiero are out.

Luka vs. Yaxel, Part 2

Yaxel Lendeborg callng out Luka Doncic in the season opener has given this game more juice than an Oct. 30 matchup normally would have.

In case you missed it, after a lot of jawing back and forth that included Lendeborg getting a technical foul, Lendeborg had this to say about Doncic after the game.

"Being in there firsthand, just watching all of the whining and complaining, I lost all respect for him."

Doncic is one of a handful of players who is capable of dropping 40 points in just about any game if he's motivated to score more than pass.

So what's most intriguing about Friday's game is how scoring-minded Doncic is and whether Lendeborg and his teammates can do anything to stop it.

Lakers Have Key Personnel Advantages Warriors Must Overcome

The Lakers can exploit two of the Warriors' biggest disadvantages.

The first is that they don't have great on-ball defenders, giving Doncic and Austin Reaves opportunities to drive, which often leads to layups or wide-open threes.

The second is that Walker Kessler, at 7'2" with decent athleticism for his size, is one of the toughest centers for the undersized Dubs front line to handle.

In the Lakers' 127-105 season-opening win, we saw what it will look like if the Warriors don't overcome these personnel issues.

Doncic had 28 points and seven assists. Reaves had 23 points and six assists. Kessler had 26 points on 12-of-12 shooting with 10 dunks.

The Warriors (2-3) have looked better over the last two games. They bothered Nikola Jokic enough to limit him to 19 points on 8-of-18 shooting, and then they completely suffocated Rudy Gobert into a one-point performance on 0-of-4 shooting.

Though it's promising that the Warriors shut down Gobert, the Lakers (4-1) are a different animal offensively than the Timberwolves.

Overall, the Lakers rank second in offensive rating, per Cleaning the Glass. Meanwhile, the Warrriors are 26th in defensive rating.

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