Lakers reveal potential starting lineup with surprising twist in preseason finale

The Lakers unveiled on Friday night what could be their starting lineup when the regular season starts next week.

And the first unit featured a surprising twist. 

The Lakers started Matisse Thybulle and Ziaire Williams alongside Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler against the Nuggets for their preseason finale at Crypto.com Arena. 

Doncic, Reaves and Kessler – the Lakers’ “Big 3” and three-highest paid players – were already known to be confirmed starters before Friday. 

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Williams, who returned to the lineup after missing the previous three exhibitions, was also expected to start.

Thybulle’s inclusion over Quentin Grimes was the surprise, though coach JJ Redick made it clear Grimes will start games for the Lakers during the regular season. 

Grimes started in all four of the Lakers’ previous preseason games. He averaged 12.3 points on 53.3% shooting (41.2% on 3-pointers) in those exhibitions.

But Redick decided to go in a different direction, mentioning wanting to have lineup balance and Grimes operating as a ball-handler off of the bench in light of Collin Sexton being sidelined because of right lower leg injury.

“I’m still open to both,” Redick responded when asked about Grimes’ role as a starter vs. coming off of the bench. “You’re looking for balance in lineups and you’re looking for players that complement and fit each other. He’s gonna start a lot of games for us, that’s just the reality of it. I don’t know who our base starting group is yet, but we’re look at this.”

“Quentin is also gonna maybe have some looks as a ball handler. That’s another reason we wanted to give this a look.” 

The lineup of Doncic, Reaves, Thybulle, Williams and Kessler could start when the Lakers host the Warriors on Wednesday, but Redick left the door open.

“I know that there’s a chance Quentin is gonna have an opportunity to start,” Redick said.

“This [lineup] was the original plan we were gonna have for the Sacramento game with Collin out.  And we’ll see, we just wanna get a look on that [on Friday] and we’ll see. But nothing definitive for next week [against the Warriors].”

Thybulle, who signed a veteran’s minimum contract with the Lakers in July, is entering his eighth NBA season after building a reputation as a 3-and-D wing.

He played in just 45 regular season games with the Trail Blazers from 2024-26 because of a variety of injuries.

Redick said the plan was for Thybulle, who’s averaged 17.6 minutes per game over the last two seasons, to play 25 minutes on Friday and then see how his body responds to the workload.

“There certainly is a capacity that you need to have to play 30-plus minutes,” Redick said. “So it’s physically just something we’re gonna have to manage all season. But I feel like we have a great plan in place and Matisse has, I talked to him [on Thursday], he has a lot of confidence in the plan and a lot of confidence in our training staff.”