On November 5, the Golden State Warriors lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, ending a five-game winning streak that got them off to a good start in the first few weeks of the NBA season. And then they had to wait until last Sunday – eight days after Christmas – to win consecutive games again.
That winning streak has now extended to four games, following a 129-118 win over the Washington Wizards on Friday, in a game that wasn't as close as the not-quite-close score would suggest. To say the Warriors are back in contention would be an overreaction to a good, if not great, home game against one of the worst teams in the league. But they're clearly starting to figure things out, despite (or perhaps even because of) the absences of Draymond Green and Gary Payton II (and, in this game, Andrew Wiggins).
So let's rate the players. I'm trying to do this quickly for an obvious reason: it's Friday evening, during the holidays! As always, the grades are based on my expectations for each player, with the grade “B” representing the average performance of that particular player.
Note: True Shooting Percentage (TS) is a scoring efficiency metric that takes three-pointers and free throws into account. Heading into Friday's games, the league average TS was 57.9%.
Jonathan Kuminga
27 minutes, 22 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 9-for-11 shooting, 1-for-2 three-pointers, 3-for-3 free throws, 89.3% TS , +9
Rotation has been a hot topic in Warriorsland all year, and that won't change. Because one thing is completely clear: Jonathan Kuminga has to stay in the starting line-up.
Kuminga has replaced the suspended Green, not the struggling Wiggins, meaning he should be in the starting lineup for the foreseeable future and won't be pushed out if Wiggins returns to his old ways. But once Green returns, Steve Kerr will have a decision to make.
Draymond cannot be removed from the starting lineup if available. Given Kuminga's passable three-point shooting and Green's dramatically improved shooting, can Kerr get away with playing both of them as well as Looney? Will the Dubs go small and play without a real center? Will Looney be dropped from the starting lineup in favor of Dario Sarić?
I don't know what the answer is. All I know is that Kuminga's combination of energy, athleticism and skill cannot be removed from this lineup. In his last seven games, he is averaging 16.6 points per game while shooting 36 of 57 from the field. He has been a presence in both defense and on the perimeter and has only had one turnover in each of the last six games.
His minutes are crucial to his development and whether he can be an important player in the years to come. More importantly, they are crucial to winning games.
Grade: A
Kevon Looney
11 minutes, 5 points, 5 rebounds, 2 fouls, 2-on-3 shooting, 1-on-1 free throws, 72.7% TS, +1
Looney is still nominally the starting center, but right now you could argue he's the third-line center. This really isn't an indictment on him so much as it is on the players around him… Golden State's core looks noticeably older this year, and their veterans have struggled, and as such are the floor stretchers from Šarić and the hyper athleticism of Trayce Jackson-Davis was far more important than the slow and steady progress under the basket that Looney provides.
However, something tells me he will still play a big role in some games this year.
Grade B-
Steph Curry
27 minutes, 30 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 9-for-18 shooting, 8-for-13 three-pointers, 4-for-5 free throws, 74.3% TS, -1
Two exciting curry notes.
First, he didn't play at all in the fourth quarter. If the Warriors want to achieve their goal, they need more of it. You can say that all that matters is winning, but how you win means a lot. When the Warriors have had their deepest playoff runs, it has been with stars who have had a break from telling jokes during blowouts rather than fighting to get every last W.
Secondly, it had a negative plus/minus. This is not an attack on Curry. It's a reminder of what makes this Warriors team so good compared to previous iterations: winning the non-Steph minutes. It was the fifth time this year that the Warriors won a game in which Curry had a negative plus/minus; Last year there were only three such games in total.
Curry also played incredibly well, which seems important to note.
Grade: A
Post-game bonus: Led the team in scoring.
Klay Thompson
27 minutes, 20 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 turnovers, 8-for-17 shooting, 4-for-10 three-pointers, 58.8% TS, +7
The Warriors are playing better primarily because their young players have made progress and because they have finally gotten some control over the turnover problem.
But don't look past Klay. Does he play like premier All-Star Klay? No. But does he play like a certified weapon who is an above-average starter in the league? Yes.
Thompson has scored at least 20 points in all five games since being benched after a brutal battle against the Phoenix Suns. During that time, he averaged 25.2 points per game and shot 27-for-56 (48.2%) on three-pointers.
This is an important reason for the Dubs' current success.
Grade: B+
Brandin Podziemski
29 minutes, 10 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 3-for-9 shooting, 2-for-5 three-pointers, 2-for-2 free throws, 50.6% TS , +16
Friday changed suddenly for young Podz. He started the day questionably due to the back injury he sustained on Tuesday. While I would be happy to see Wiggins recapture his All-Star magic, I admit that a small part of me was sad that Podziemski would cede his recently won starting spot to Wiggins and never get it back.
And then, in quite a turnaround, Podziemski proved healthy enough to play, while Wiggins picked up an illness and didn't play.
It wasn't the most dynamic game we've ever seen from Podziemski, but he continued an extremely encouraging trend: the team simply plays well when he's on the pitch, and he shockingly seems to avoid all the pitfalls of young players, the inexperienced ones Make talent so hard to play for when you're trying to win games.
I saw this game with my father. He doesn't follow the team closely and this was the first Warriors game he saw this year. At the start of the game, he pointed at Podziemski and asked, “Is this guy young? He looks young,” he noted the energy shown.
The rebounding is still a bit staggering, especially since the pre-draft reports all suggested he would have a hard time maintaining his athleticism at this level. He is just a few games away from finishing third on the Warriors in total rebounds.
Stunning.
Grade: B+
Dario Sarić
20 minutes, 13 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 foul, 5-for-11 shooting, 1-for-4 three-pointers, 2-for-2 free throws, 54.7% TS, +17
Is it too early to worry about how the hell the Warriors will replace Šarić's performance next season when he inevitably parlays his dynamic 2023-24 year into a well-deserved massive raise?
Grade: B+
Usman Garuba
2 minutes, 0 points, 1 assist, 0-on-1 shooting, 0.0% TS, -4
This season will take some getting used to for Garuba. The third-year center, who was the No. 23 pick in 2021, played 75 games for the Houston Rockets last year; But this was his season debut in his first year with the Dubs, and it came at the wrong time.
He has a two-way contract and will receive valuable development time in the G League. He has plenty of tools, so don't rule out him becoming a good player for the Warriors one day. But probably not a day this season.
Grade: Incomplete
Trayce Jackson Davis
25 minutes, 10 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 5-for-7 shooting, 71.4% TS, +10
For the third straight game, TJD – the No. 57 pick in the draft a few months ago – was the best center for the Dubs. I expected him to be about as NBA-ready as a second-round pick can be, but even that is pretty shocking.
In the last three contests, he posted 34 points and 36 rebounds while shooting 16 of 23 from the field. Perhaps most impressively, he recorded just four turnovers and seven fouls in 72 minutes in those three games. Like Podziemski, he not only leaves a positive impression in the game, but almost completely avoids a negative one.
He gives the Dubs a threat of praise. He's learning to use his great defensive instincts without fouling. He is a fascinating combination of length, agility and energy.
It's not hard to imagine a world where he's not only the Warriors' starting player, but also plays more than 30 minutes a night. Soon.
Grade: A+
Post-game bonus: Led the team in rebounds.
Gui Santos
6 minutes, 7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 foul, 2-for-3 shooting, 1-for-2 three-pointers, 2-for-2 free throws, 90.2% TS, -12
I'm not sure how much you can get out of a handful of garbage minutes. Still, Santos looked very impressive in those minutes: he's so fluid on the pitch, and I'm not just saying that because of his hair. It cuts and moves gracefully and, more importantly, to the right place. He seems to be always moving, but it is a functional movement.
The Warriors gave themselves a lot of flexibility by padding Santos' contract with non-guaranteed money, but it looks like they want to keep him.
Grade: Very encouraging, incomplete
Chris Paul
25 minutes, 4 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 2-for-7 shooting, 0-for-3 three-pointers, 0-for-1 free throws, 26.9% TS , +27
Let me take you back to my point that the Warriors have now won two more games than they did all of last season, even though Curry has a negative plus/minus.
The main reason is Paul. The secondary reason is also Paul. I think the third reason is also Paul. That's why it's called CP3.
Basketball-Reference hasn't updated its stats to include Friday's games, but using Paul's stats after that win, which are included in league stats through Thursday, shows something amazing:
Paul has the seventh-most assists in the entire NBA. He has the 130th most turnovers.
The Warriors need this. Desperately.
Grade: B+
Post-game bonus: Led the team in assists and plus/minus.
Cory Joseph
14 minutes, 0 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 0-for-3 shooting, 0-for-1 three-pointers, 0.0% TS, -7
A pretty surprising run of minutes for CoJo, as neither Curry nor Paul had to deal with injuries or foul trouble. He held his own, I guess. But uh… unfortunately it didn't look particularly good.
Grade: C-
Jerome Robinson
2 minutes, 0 points, -4
Robinson was playing in just his second game since joining the Warriors, but it was enough for us to learn that he reads Plato on team flights, so that's a fun fact.
Grade: Incomplete
Moses Moody
19 minutes, 5 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 1-for-4 shooting, 0-for-3 three-pointers, 3-for-4 free throws, 43.4% TS, +8
Moody hasn't been playing particularly well lately. But he still does his best when he's on the road. He was much more aggressive this year, which earned him many more free throws and looks at the rim on offense and initiating attacks on defense.
Grade: C
Lester Quiñones
6 minutes, 3 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 1-for-3 shooting, 1-for-2 three-pointers, 50.0% TS, -12
It's always fun to see Q out there, especially considering how highly the Warriors coaches and players seem to value him. He had the best chance you can have in a bad season, making a three-pointer that ended Washington's brief hopes of getting back in the game.
Grade: A very entertaining, incomplete book
Post-game bonus: Tie for worst plus/minus on the team
Inactive on Friday: Draymond Green, Gary Payton II, Andrew Wiggins
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